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[azmodean]

Need a little more info than "I don't like it" to have any chance of addressing your problem.  Rephrasing to "it's shit", or "it's a mess", or posting a screenshot doesn't change the fact that all you're saying is you don't like it.

Immediate condition of the player is pretty much the LAST thing I would remove from the HUD*.  It could probably stand to not take up so much space though.

RE: hordes, they're still a prototype at this point, I'm working on a static hordes implementation, but I'm taking a big hit of life right now so dev time is limited.  When I do have time it's usually consumed by merging and bugfixing.

*By the way, if you don't want to see any of that stuff, you can disable the sidebar entirely.

[Sean Mirrsen]

It might just be me, but I think it would be annoying as hell to have to go through my character screen when I want to know how badly injured I am. In fights it is essential you know how bad a hit hurt you, more-so with long drawn out ones where you may skim over a message.

Its not just you.

Well it works in DF, donnit?

For a game where the primary notion is survival rather than combat, Cataclysm devotes way too much screen space to the player's many healthbars. It's pretty much a given that any hit you sustain is bad, and you should not just wade into the enemy ranks, counting digits off your healthbar to see when you have had enough and should retreat. Having health in the character page would promote the notion of combat as a secondary thing in the game, and it really shouldn't be an issue to check your health before going in to fight. During the fight, you don't exactly have potions to instantly bring your health back up, so your best course of action regardless of current health is quickly defeating the enemy, preferably from at range. At least, that's what I think it should be. *shrug*

[Farce]

I think knowing how close to dead you are without having to jump into a complete other menu sorta benefits the game, and am pretty opposed to such.

I had a bit of an issue with the sidebar, as well.  It's a little hard to read because everything is so crammed together - there isn't really any empty space separating anything, so it's harder to look at and glean useful information at a glance.  You know, same deal with giant blocks of text.

If I were to fiddle with it, I'd move the stats and SAFE to the left one space, (that is, keep one space empty from the window border), and insert an empty line between the minimap/healthbar bit and the line with location, weather and stuff.  I'd also maybe put another line between the directional 'monsters sighted' thing and the thing below, explaining what each letter actually is.  Perhaps also organize said monster-name-thing into two columns or something, too - it gets REALLY cluttered when there are lots of different monsters around.  I'm not sure how bad that would affect space real estate, though.

[Sean Mirrsen]

Not a complete other menu, just the character page.

How often do you really need to check your own health? I find myself looking at it just because it's there, all green, huge, and attention-grabbing, in a game ostensibly not about fighting everything you see.

You could save a lot of screen space if you reduced it all to just one "health" readout, totaling your general near-deathness into one bar, or even better just one color-coded descriptor, with details on per-part health totals available on the character screen.

[scrdest]

Not a complete other menu, just the character page.

How often do you really need to check your own health? I find myself looking at it just because it's there, all green, huge, and attention-grabbing, in a game ostensibly not about fighting everything you see.

You could save a lot of screen space if you reduced it all to just one "health" readout, totaling your general near-deathness into one bar, or even better just one color-coded descriptor, with details on per-part health totals available on the character screen.

That would work if not for the fact that full damage to a limb renders it useless for a looooooong while.

In fact, I'd rather keep the health bars and clip some of the older messages, if anything.

[alway]

Better yet, make it dynamic and just show body part health when it isn't at 100%.

[scrdest]

Better yet, make it dynamic and just show body part health when it isn't at 100%.

But then you need to reserve spots for all bodyparts, or end up with UI moving back and forth looking horrible(/er).

[Sean Mirrsen]

Arms and legs are non-critical parts. You would be firmly in the yellow, at at most half "total health" if you have lost a limb or two but your head and torso are intact. The "total health" would tell you how close you are to dying, and limb damage doesn't bring you much closer to dying.

Say, it might be like this. The four non-essential limbs you have, can account for 60% of your healthbar. As long as your head and torso are intact, no amount of damage to limbs will bring you to less than 40%, or "badly hurt" orange status. However the head and torso, each, account for the entirety of that healthbar - any health you have is divided by the percentage of health left in your head, and your torso.

For example. You have a badly hurt arm, a badly bruised torso, and a slight hit to the head. 50% arm damage puts your health at 93%. 40% torso damage puts the total at 55%. 10% head damage further reduces it to around 50% - so the sum total of your injuries ends up displayed as "battered", somewhere in the yellow. That estimate will drop quickly as either of the vital bodyparts takes damage, so it'd be easy to track how close you are to dying. Limb damage, if it is that important, can be delegated to special status - a two-letter marker in yellow or red on the status panel (in place of the stats, for instance - what use are they to the player anyway?) to indicate if a given limb has taken significant damage.

[Vherid]

Does anyone know if there is any way that enemies are factioned or sided. Say I have red enemies and blue enemies. Is it possible to have both of them come after you, but also fight each other? I think there's a way for them to fight everything, but do they fight their own type then?

[Fniff]

Sadly, enemy infighting isn't in yet. Occasionally an enemy might step into the same space as an enemy and attack the other one, maybe even killing it, but they won't pursue each other. So it's possible to have a horde of robots, zombies, triffids, fungus zombies, giant insects, and nether creatures chasing you, all of whom are focused entirely on you.

[Vherid]

Sadly, enemy infighting isn't in yet. Occasionally an enemy might step into the same space as an enemy and attack the other one, maybe even killing it, but they won't pursue each other. So it's possible to have a horde of robots, zombies, triffids, fungus zombies, giant insects, and nether creatures chasing you, all of whom are focused entirely on you.

What a shame, I have an interesting idea for a mod, but I guess until that's possible it won't really hit full potential.

[KA101]

Arms and legs are non-critical parts. You would be firmly in the yellow, at at most half "total health" if you have lost a limb or two but your head and torso are intact. The "total health" would tell you how close you are to dying, and limb damage doesn't bring you much closer to dying.

Say, it might be like this. The four non-essential limbs you have, can account for 60% of your healthbar. As long as your head and torso are intact, no amount of damage to limbs will bring you to less than 40%, or "badly hurt" orange status. However the head and torso, each, account for the entirety of that healthbar - any health you have is divided by the percentage of health left in your head, and your torso.

For example. You have a badly hurt arm, a badly bruised torso, and a slight hit to the head. 50% arm damage puts your health at 93%. 40% torso damage puts the total at 55%. 10% head damage further reduces it to around 50% - so the sum total of your injuries ends up displayed as "battered", somewhere in the yellow. That estimate will drop quickly as either of the vital bodyparts takes damage, so it'd be easy to track how close you are to dying. Limb damage, if it is that important, can be delegated to special status - a two-letter marker in yellow or red on the status panel (in place of the stats, for instance - what use are they to the player anyway?) to indicate if a given limb has taken significant damage.

I'm quite content to say that one limb offline is a Serious Problem.  Frankly, if anything goes into the yellow, I like to know about that NOW.

Without functioning arms or legs, you're incapable of moving at any appreciable speed, and shouldn't be able to wield a weapon.  = You gonna die if anything attacks.

IMO the health bars can stay.

[kilakan]

Just cause the wiki didn't have anything on it, what can recharging stations for vehicals actually recharge?

[Greiger]

Any battery powered object with the rechargable battery mod.  Turn on the recharger and place the item in the recharging station and it will drain battery to recharge the item.

[azmodean]

The health display is less a means of precisely monitoring your current health and more an indicator to let you know when you're taking non-trivial amounts of damage*.  As KA101 pointed out, you need to know immediately if limb health is impaired.  The same applies to the stats, they aren't displayed so you can check what they are or even do something about them immediately, but so you know when they're in an abnormal state.

Could probably trim a few lines or rows off the health display by making it a meter that shows when you're taking damage instead of absolute damage, but I'm not sure how worthwhile that is.

*The message buffer doesn't cover this, it's all too easy to miss important messages.