11 replies to this topic

[Monolith]

Well, we all know that mobs appear in Red text when we confront them.

Obviously, mobs are the enemies. I was thinking, in a way to bypass looking at a monster 100s of times to see if its mort, simply change their text from Green when they're healthy, Yellow when they're slightly, Orange when they're moderately, or Red when you're mortally wounded. Just a thought. Discuss.

[Autek]

Interesting idea.

[Gaddy]

The only problem there is friendly Mobs. The current system does not really specify between NPCs and Monsters.
Also, how would player titles work?

Either way, it's an interesting and good idea. I would not hold my breath for coding though.

[Crane]

It is an interesting idea to have some kind of graphical representation of their health, but it does limit a few things if care is not taken. For example, as Gaddy stated, monsters and NPCs aren't differentiated, only that monsters and NPCs that appear green are not allowed to attack or cast spells, which is why the Priest appears red, and doors and the Storage Cabinet appear Green. Also, some monsters deliberately hide their health status to make the player uncertain of how well they're doing, or for reasons of illusion, e.g. Lieutenant Burton always appears in a healthy condition, and he simply runs off when you do enough damage to him, even though internally, you actually kill the monster.

Giving them a small health bar might make it too easy to kill-steal or know how well you're doing. If it is approved, I would suggest having their name and icon flash a red background when they hit mortally wounded, as long as it can be turned off for some monsters. As for players, I'm not so sure.

[Monolith]

Well I was wanting it only to apply to monsters, not players. You're right though, not holding my breath for coding. It has some ideas that I feel could be tweaked to where it worked in the helpful way intended. If not, thats okay too.

[Tyler]

I like the idea of portraying the health of a mob in some way. I think the way I am about to suggest could be something to be worked and implemented. It is almost like a health bar, but based on the status, not the hp directly. It could even read off of the status somehow, so as to always appear healthy for Lieutenant Burton and similar mobs. As well, a stat could be introduced to certain mobs to turn this off or something.



Obviously this can be worked with. For stacks of mobs, it would show the status of the "top" mob. Oh, and hopefully this was self-explanatory, but in that image, if the Black Bear were to be hit to slightly, the green box would go away, etc.

[Careface]

Fully, 100% approve of the coloured bars idea. I don't see how it could unbalance the game in any way (as really all it is is a lookover without having to lookover.. saves maybe 1second, and would remove the 'need' to constantly right click to look a boss over)

[Apocalypto]

Idea was good, but tylers is bad ass... should be added one of these days..

[Sausage]

Is this really a priority?

[Abstract]

I would, for some reason, have to agree with Sausage.

This is a neat idea, but there are more important things that need to be implimented before this.

- Jase

[Stig]

I'll consider keeping a note of this idea, but cosmetic improvements tend to be low priority (called "Level 5" or "Enhancements") over more pressing matters like balancing issues or an exploit.

Also, as Crane said, some monsters are designed around the fact that you don't know their true HP, and it being displayed visually would spoil the illusion and otherwise prompt players to cast their damage-buffing spells when only one bar of health remains. The Bile Worm is probably the most (in)famous example, and then there's the Injured Eagle and other monsters that don't actually die when you defeat them. It would need to be controlled whether to show it or not, or even how it's shown.

[Careface]

I'll consider keeping a note of this idea, but cosmetic improvements tend to be low priority (called "Level 5" or "Enhancements") over more pressing matters like balancing issues or an exploit.

Also, as Crane said, some monsters are designed around the fact that you don't know their true HP, and it being displayed visually would spoil the illusion and otherwise prompt players to cast their damage-buffing spells when only one bar of health remains. The Bile Worm is probably the most (in)famous example, and then there's the Injured Eagle and other monsters that don't actually die when you defeat them. It would need to be controlled whether to show it or not, or even how it's shown.

Fair enough, but realistically I don't see how it would remotely affect those bosses. The bar would simply constantly remain green or 4/4, exactly the same as the lookover (as that's what the bars are based off, if I'm understanding it correctly)

Cosmetic, yeah, but makes things much more RPG-feeling, and would dramatically help. Furthermore, the other reason making it so you don't have to lookover constantly is for latency reasons. I'm assuming most people here (even from US) will play NM with 150-200ms ping, and that's fantastic. Double that, and that's a "perfect" condition scenario for me given I live on (literally) the other side of the world to the server, and assuming 0 lag at all on ISP's/server's/whatever's end. 400ms just sitting in NM, goes upto 550-ish for bosses.

With the mass scrollage of crap at bosses, only way to even tell how much hp it has is to get lucky with when you look over and no one's hitting the boss, or just to do it, /scroll, then scroll a page or two and see.

The latter is the only reason I want this in the game lol. The RPG element is the "meh, why bother?" part since this is a MUD, not really an RPG (per se)