Too much text?

[Ingolifs]

Sometimes i feel that there is too much text present during a battle, and some of the things that are documented do not really need to be there.

For example, shoot someone in the head with a crossbow and you get:



Head Shot!
delivered 58 damage to target
shot difficulty: 3.4
speed bonus: +18%
Vaegir Horseman killed by Claidh-heamh Mor
You have improved your crossbow skill to 78

Most of which is pretty superfluous, i'd say.

It seems in some games currently, there is a move towards realism and showing less and less of the game's mechanics in number form. People use ironsights instead of 2d crosshairs, you can't see your kills while still alive, etc.

In fact, in Valandil, the hl2 mediaeval mod, there isn't a HUD at all. You will be able to judge your character's health by how much red throbbing and blurring is on the screen, how much he's wheezing, and how often he vomits up blood. I think that's brilliant.

All i'm doing here is questioning the need for some of the information you see on screen.

 

[Ilex]

btw. some of those can removed from the options. Like the difficult of your shot. So I remember. Correct me if I was wrong for I was too lazy to check.

 

[Talroth]

Maybe an option to turn on/off some messages? I happen to like the battles as they are now, and really enjoy seeing the headshot message comming up 6 times when I'm facing 6 river pirates.

Something I might ask for is some little set of Icons somewhere that show how many of your men you have left/dead/down. Again, something to have an option to turn on/off.

Depending on how it was coded, none of it should be overly hard to do. (Then again, I've usually found those to be the harder things to do, ones I tell myself are easy before starting. Simple checkers with no AI in Java? no problem. Multiplayer tic-tac-toe over web in Java? Sounds hard. Never did get around to finishing the checkers, but got the Tic-tac-toe working in no time. Well, mostly working....)

 

[Vaerraent]

HL2 medieval mod?!?!!?!? OH-GODS-WHY-DIDN'T-ANYBODY-TELL-ME-ABOUT-THIS!?!?!?

-runs off to google and bookmarks the site, signs up on the forums, etc-

Phew... well.. after that, heh.

I think that it'd be cool if you could toggle between numeric health, healthbar and wounds that actually appear on your character. Dunno if that's possible with the engine used, though.

 

[JohnathanStrange]

I like the idea.

On the other hand, if we were truly engaged in the battle we would have a sense of how the battle was going: we'd see in the corner of our eye one of our knights fall, or one of theirs take a javelin in the side. Since we're only virtual participants, I think it's cool that we still can get that info from the text.

However the option of turning the text off OR of an alternate method of showing your remaining health is a cool idea.

People use ironsights instead of 2d crosshairs, you can't see your kills while still alive, etc.

I don't know what you mean by not being able to see your kills while still alive!

Your avatar is freaking me out.

 

[Ingolifs]

Some mods i've played (like action half-life) hid your personal score till the end of the round, in an efford to cut down on people who were kill/death whoring.

Things such as Levelling up, killing a person and gaining a point in weapon proficiency should be posted i think, but it isn't necessary to see the speed bonus you got, nor even how much damage you did.

My ava: When i first found it, i couldn't stop staring at it.

It's the Mandelbrot set. An infinitely complicated shape that arises from a very simple iterated sequence. Google 'mandelbrot' and 'fractal' to find other examples.

 

[Duncan Frost]

i have NEVER got a speed bonus come up, whats that about?
please dont flame me if im being dumb

Edit:spelling

 

[JohnathanStrange]

You will Duncan, you will.