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Better damage indicators? |
Lrd_Hunter
Grand Admiral
Joined: August 16, 2006
Posts: 245
|  Posted: 2011-10-15 08:47
sound sound cool lol be nice to be killing someone and all of a shudden you here a helm person saying hey dummy your loseing hull RUNNN
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Demigan
Vice Admiral
Joined: September 12, 2011
Posts: 88
| Posted: 2011-10-15 09:56
Having a sound, or having some on-screen indicators of hull would be all right as far as I'm concerned. When you are plotting a course, trying to fire and try to keep a good overview at the same time, I tend to be zoomed out. That makes shield and armour almost invisible on the screen, and you need to use the indicators on the bottom to check.
It's not always apparent which armour belongs to which side at a glance, nor do the shields, especially if you are attacked from multiple sides. When a UTGO or luth ship alpha's on you, there's so much fireworks around you that you simply cannot see your shield/armour status on screen, especially if you prefer being zoomed out for an overview.
If you select an enemy, it's immidiately apparent what his status is at the bottom right. The only thing you can't see is what arc is exactly damaged. You don't have that for yourself. The worst case is the Border cruiser, where you have so many shields on different places in your inventory that you just can't make out at a glance which is where.
Maybe it's a suggestion to add something for both around your ship, and your inventory:
For your inventory, you could have a specific layout for all items. At the top all your shields and armour are displayed in a specific order, always the same for any ship. For instance: First frontal shield/armour, then the right, then the back, then the left, with your weapon systems below that and last the special subsystems like mining beams, build drones and electronic warfare. That way, no matter what ship you choose, it's always the same layout. Although some ships will have more frontal armour in a row then others. This would make shooting a glance at your inventory much more easy to check your status, especially during the critical times when you need to know your status and at the same time plot an escape route and fight back.
For around your ship, I think that your own shield and armour could be lighted up more, so they are visible even if you zoom out a lot. Adding a hull indicator can help too, especially when a big ship is giving you a fireworks-show up close. Having an alarm sound go off when your hull is taking damage, and/or a more urgent alarm when it is low, also helps when you are in for instance the planetary screen, when all you see is the sides flashing red while you are unaware if an enemy ship is simply 4000 GU away, or currently attacking you.
The indicators as seen in the first pictures seem a bit off for DS though, and while I'm sure they are completely clear after using them a bit, I think that a system as DS already uses with arcs is adequate. Adding a big fat green ring instead of an arc for hull, that changes colour as you take damage, is more likely an option.
Yours sincerely,
Demigan.
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Flux Capacitor
Marshal
Joined: July 30, 2010
Posts: 305
From: the place
| Posted: 2011-10-15 15:05
did u know, that if u look at the bottom left of your screen, ur hull status is showed?
Wow man, that is superawesome. so, now we can know at all times what the hull status is. I guess this is what they call a hull status indicator...
And wtf is this? i notice a couple of green icons above my hull status, they seem to indicate what my armor status is. It goes from 0%-100%.
woooo man, the crazy #~$?#$~# I just found out! There's this circle around ur ship, divided in 4 parts, each cover a side of your ship. Now it seems that once it gets dmged, it changes color. Awesomness 2000! Y2K PPj 2 the K.
So, next to the indicators on bottom left that show hull and armor status, next to the ring around ur ship that shows armor status, next to the 3 types off hull condition to show hull status, we need more info on our ship armor and hull status?
I suggest a big white textballoon above each ship. In this text balloon we got a samuel l jackson ai version talking to us. Its like: "attack them now sucker! They are weak". And when u get damaged it says "Run fool, ruuun. Aint no way u can hurt these sons 'o bitches"
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Kenny_Naboo
Marshal
Pitch Black
Joined: January 11, 2010
Posts: 3823
From: LobsterTown
| Posted: 2011-10-15 22:12
Quote:
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On 2011-10-13 17:46, Gejaheline wrote:
Eye-darting? Personally, I don't find I need to know my hull HP at all times. When my ship is on fire, that's usually time to leave unless I know I can win the current engagement beforehand.
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Strangely, I find myself agreeing with Catwoman.
All I need to know about shield/armor status are in the rings.
And if i'm burning or farting blue, then it's time to bug out.
Too many indicators will simply clutter things up. KISS is a good rule-of-thumb here. DS is working well in that aspect currently.
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Tellaris
Grand Admiral
Galactic Navy
Joined: April 30, 2002
Posts: 830
From: Land of Chocolate
| Posted: 2011-10-16 01:18
I'd bet that'd be tmwvlb.
Its not hard to keep track of whats going on, DS does a good job in this respect. Also, it takes all 1/10th of a second to glance at your hull and realize exactly how damaged you are. I have never had a problem with this personally. Generally, I never have the chance to jump out anyway (its on cooldown while I'm busily getting myself focused to death)
A low hull sound, while a good idea in theory, gets EXTREMELY irritating, especially if you can't get reps reasonably quickly. I've dealt with them before, always found myself just turning it off.
[ This Message was edited by: Tellaris on 2011-10-16 01:20 ]
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Fluttershy
Fleet Admiral
Joined: September 24, 2011
Posts: 778
From: Fluttershy
| Posted: 2011-10-16 08:46
How about this -
Shield and armor status shown around the screen border as colored bars?
Hull damage indicated by yellow to red glowing on the edges of the screen.
This way, regardless of being zoomed out and looking straight ahead, you can clearly see your overall damage status.
surely this would annoy some people and be considered clutter, so could be an option in the settings.
[ This Message was edited by: Fluttershy on 2011-10-16 15:52 ]
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