HUD fracture

Renegade.

<div class="IPBDescription">more incentive to be a weld monkey</div>As a marine, sometimes the impact of low armour just isn't tangible enough. Drop a couple meds and we're back in the fray right? Even at the reduced cost of 10 res, the welder never saw it's glory days (like back when it was portable siege).

<!--sizeo:3--><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo-->HUD Fracture<!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec-->
The idea behind HUD fracture is to make it even more apparent to the player the effects of low armour (you'd think being skulk food would be enough) by visually altering the HUD and slightly reducing it in functionality. This would include common effects such as flicker, scan lines, blips or glitches in the HUD; outright malfunction is another option, but may impact gameplay. Basically anything that gives an urgent sense of "I am in need of repair", rather than the currently where we call for a weld, but only half care/expect it to happen.

I'm not entirely sure what I think of this idea, just putting it out there.

pSyk0mAn

Sounds like a good idea to me.

It shouldn't impact gameplay and shouldn't really be annoying though, but just a help for newer players and a nice visual addition.
At least if armor-welding is still as important as in ns1; you never know with all that dumbing down going on (Oh, yes, I did! )

Btw: What's with the welder cost of 10 res? Play more ns1 dude :p

Draco_2k

That's a very elegant solution, actually.

Half-Life and indeed most Source games do it to great effect - visually and noticeably alter the hud to represent danger, etc. - doing that by actually damaging/downgrading it sounds very thematic to NS universe.

Ink

Not for light armor since its so much easier to loose, id say this for the heavy exo. It would be a great idea and would get people to weld them fast because there so valuable.

Align

The HUD is a holographic strip now, isn't it? So not cracks.
But some sort of immediately noticeable visual feedback sounds great.

Bacillus

<!--quoteo(post=1749424:date=Jan 27 2010, 01:59 PM:name=Align)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Align @ Jan 27 2010, 01:59 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1749424"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->The HUD is a holographic strip now, isn't it? So not cracks.
But some sort of immediately noticeable visual feedback sounds great.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
How about something similar as the HL HEV-suit with it's life preserving features? I'm not too excited about flickering HUD or sound messages, but some military hardware styled warning lights and process information with small font would be cool. Something like "Armor malfunction!" with a small red dot on the bottom of your screen.

Temphage

<!--quoteo(post=1749434:date=Jan 27 2010, 03:18 PM:name=Bacillus)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Bacillus @ Jan 27 2010, 03:18 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1749434"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->How about something similar as the HL HEV-suit with it's life preserving features? I'm not too excited about flickering HUD or sound messages, but some military hardware styled warning lights and process information with small font would be cool. Something like "Armor malfunction!" with a small red dot on the bottom of your screen.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
If you wanted it military hardware stylized you'd have to give it a retarded acronym, it would break randomly for no reason, and cost $600k to repair each time.

PSA

now we just have to hope that that commander/players actually listen to people when they're sitting there spamming "weld me!"

schkorpio

only thing is that it might get annoying if not done subtetly enough, but if it is too subtle then it will not get noticed and we are back to square one! :)


what about if the armour is low it flashes? its simple and grabs your attention

Renegade.

<!--quoteo(post=1749434:date=Jan 27 2010, 10:18 AM:name=Bacillus)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Bacillus @ Jan 27 2010, 10:18 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1749434"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->How about something similar as the HL HEV-suit with it's life preserving features? I'm not too excited about flickering HUD or sound messages, but some military hardware styled warning lights and process information with small font would be cool. Something like "Armor malfunction!" with a small red dot on the bottom of your screen.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Something like this, perhaps red/blinking outline around some fonts, throw in the word "critical" or "malfunction", etc.

Also, by "flicker" I meant not just on/off, but that typical "hologram" effect you see where it experiences moments of infidelity:
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tf-1xeE3zzE" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tf-1xeE3zzE</a>

Here you can see the effect is more than just flicker - there's a bit of waviness, scanlines, blips, etc; especially towards the end where the transmission cuts out. By varying the degree to which these visual infidelities manifest it can show how close a system is to malfunction.

BigText

This actually seems like a pretty good idea. People tend not to pay attention to how much armor they have, and since welding will play a bigger part in NS2, having occasional HUD flashes/flickers/waviness/warning lights would work. As long as it was kept to a minimum; the reason a lot of games have big HUD warnings is because they have regenerating health, so HUD effects work to let the player know to "GET THE HELL BEHIND COVER AND WAIT FOR BLOOD TO FALL OFF YOUR FACE."

But I think smaller flickers and disturbances would work, especially when knocked away/disrupted by an Onos. And the armor counter blinking or turning red when it was low would work.

MuYeah

Cool idea that would be good in-game.

Bacillus

<!--quoteo(post=1749510:date=Jan 28 2010, 12:02 AM:name=R_e_n_e_g_a_d_e)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (R_e_n_e_g_a_d_e @ Jan 28 2010, 12:02 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1749510"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Something like this, perhaps red/blinking outline around some fonts, throw in the word "critical" or "malfunction", etc.

Also, by "flicker" I meant not just on/off, but that typical "hologram" effect you see where it experiences moments of infidelity:
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tf-1xeE3zzE" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tf-1xeE3zzE</a>

Here you can see the effect is more than just flicker - there's a bit of waviness, scanlines, blips, etc; especially towards the end where the transmission cuts out. By varying the degree to which these visual infidelities manifest it can show how close a system is to malfunction.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Yeah, I guess it's fine with proper implementation. In general I'd like to avoid those as they tend to interfere the information flow a bit, which isn't purposeful here. If it can be done without being annoying, distracting or making the HUD difficult to read, it's all good.

Jiriki

Left 4 Dead has good notes for people who need help, same kind of hilight wouldn't be bad for NS either. Even then, I'd like to have a (damageless) "secondary attack" for weapons to punch your teammates when they are not welding. :/

TrC

I think knife in the back and skulk biting gorge took my attention when I was noobing especially with ff on.

schkorpio

<!--quoteo(post=1749772:date=Jan 30 2010, 11:14 AM:name=Jiriki)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Jiriki @ Jan 30 2010, 11:14 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1749772"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Left 4 Dead has good notes for people who need help, same kind of hilight wouldn't be bad for NS either.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
yeah but all of that stuff completely breaks the atmosphere - it would have to be done in a sci theme some how

Renegade.

Yeah I remember that didn't work so well in NS...
cl_autohelp 1
"do-ding!"
"do-DING!"
"DO-DING!"
"DO-DO-DO-DO-DING!!!"
cl_autohelp 0