Ammo and HP ring on rines
Kalabalana
Join Date: 2003-11-14 Member: 22859Members
Join Date: 2003-11-14 Member: 22859Members
Comments
For once we agree on something.
Ammo count and a clearer Weapon layout indicator would be nice. From the comms perspective the marines are a little too small for me to see what weapon they are wielding at first glance, requires a bit of squinting sometimes.
Ammo count and a clearer Weapon layout indicator would be nice. From the comms perspective the marines are a little too small for me to see what weapon they are wielding at first glance, requires a bit of squinting sometimes.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
HP rings are currently displayed on individually selected marines. I would prefer these rings always be apparent along with maybe an armor and ammo ring as well. Maybe Green for health, blue for armor, and white/gray for ammo.\
Or maybe make all rings visible by holding down the left alt key (or toggling), to reduce the screen footprint when you don't need to see that info.
This can all be done with a single "ring" with just color wheels inside. As long as the colours conflict with each other it will have the same footprint as the current implementation, but with more information. Or it can divvy up the ring space to have a section for armor, a section for hp, and an outside full size ring for ammo.
The possibilities are there, if you can imagine them.
Though, I would settle for fixing the bug that shows the same health/armor ring of the first marine selected for all of the marines selected.
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Or perhaps only show the ring with the comm mouse cursor is nearby or over the marine(s), it could be like a fading in effect - that might be getting too fancy.
Perhaps the ring doesn't need to be so wide, but more around the feet of the marine.
That way it won't look silly when they all bunch up.
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How about we only show the relevant ring data when not at 100%? Should reduce clutter, and focus the commander's attention to those who need it.
so, anything additional? I assume there should be an option in the menu "always show health rings"
maybe we could also add a "request icon" if the marine requested ammo / health / orders etc. next to his health ring
an icon of the weapon he / she is carrying, as well as equipment. i think other than field players, comms should / can have their view filled with additional information instead of keeping it minimal
so, anything additional? I assume there should be an option in the menu "always show health rings"<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Don't bother with the option for now, it's unlikely that any commander will want it off any more than the rest of his HUD, and it can always be added later.
so, anything additional? I assume there should be an option in the menu "always show health rings"
maybe we could also add a "request icon" if the marine requested ammo / health / orders etc. next to his health ring<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
An idea: The corresponding ring data on that person flashes. So if he requests a medpack, his health ring data flashes.
Also maybe drops become "sticky" to the person who requests/needs them. Drop them close and the person who needs it gets it.
As for the weapon a soldier is using, maybe we can now use a button to flash that data, maybe left alt, and an icon appears next to the person of the equipment/weapon(s) they are using.
this feature would be a nice assistance for new commanders, or for people who have a bad "medpack aim" or don't want to smash their buttons to create medpack carpets.
the normal "drop" functionality would still be required as preemptive supply
this feature would be a nice assistance for new commanders, or for people who have a bad "medpack aim" or don't want to smash their buttons to create medpack carpets.
the normal "drop" functionality would still be required as preemptive supply<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I'm not sure about this, I think if you chucked in an 'instant heal' then marines could be basically invincible. I do however, like the idea of being able to supply directly to squads (when they get properly implemented), so it puts medpacks in the middle of squads, and you can still carpet-pack.
But you're the Lua genius, I'll let you handle it :P
I think medpack carpets are worse (for the aliens) than "direct heals". and you could heal up entire squads more easy, which is little bit stressful at the moment
edit: and uwe anyway doesn't want the comms main task to be supplying the marines with medpacks. one thing to keep sure: make the "supply" button always consume res, even if players are on full HP / ammo. otherwise you simply select all marines and spam the supply button (which would be a quite powerful feature :D )
That'd be my implementation for hp/armor/ammo rings
top: hp, left: armor, right: primary weapon (icon current weapon), bottom: secondary weapon (pistol).
the colors ARE sucky, I am not a cg artist so live with it.
<a href="http://oi56.tinypic.com/9k8fev.jpg" target="_blank">here</a> is the direct link so you can look at the small, black icons in the center
Basic ring outline:
<img src="http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s188/Kalabalana/SoldierStatusnormal.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
In green we have your HP (20HP blocks), and in blue we have your armor (blocks are Armor tech+1, representing each upgrade and your natural armor). In orange is your secondary ammo, purple your primary.
Health changes color as you drop down:
<img src="http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s188/Kalabalana/SoldierStatusH2.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /><img src="http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s188/Kalabalana/SoldierStatusH3.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /><img src="http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s188/Kalabalana/SoldierStatusH4.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
Also again, armor starts with a single block to represent your starting armor, and gets a new block of value equivalent to the armor upgrade it represents:
<img src="http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s188/Kalabalana/SoldierStatusA0.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /><img src="http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s188/Kalabalana/SoldierStatusA1.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /><img src="http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s188/Kalabalana/SoldierStatusA2.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /><img src="http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s188/Kalabalana/SoldierStatusnormal.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
Also, I have a special lower bar for the grenade launcher as it's ammo setup is unique:
<img src="http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s188/Kalabalana/SoldierStatusGL.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
Notice the gl bar, with 1 bar for each grenade that person is carrying.
too much info at ones. Look at StarCraft 2: ONE bar at the top of a unit, combined with color from green to red (health) then pink is usually energy, and ok, protos have aswell blue for shields. but for standard units you have 1 bar.
you dont need to see the armor % of any marine as comm. you cannot repair it, why show it?
primary and secondary ammo: why show both? if you supply the marine with ammo, he will get the ammo for the weapon he currently has active. so you only need to show the ammo of the active weapon. that leaves you with 2 bars (or circles), which is much compacter and less confusing (health and ammo).
the alien comm might have some option to boost the energy of some units (as counterpart for ammo packs?) and also maybe heal?, so you would also see only 2 bars there as well: health + energy.
So I could see taking out the secondary ammo bar, but everything else needs to stay.
<img src="http://img1.UploadScreenshot.com/images/main/8/22323545017.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
Maybe with ammo on the outside instead, who knows...
Obviously extremely rough concept. I wanted to limit the number of circles but I didn't want to clutter the halo with too many values on one circle.
Ammo accounts for both primary and secondary ammo but NOT pistol ammo.
What you think about using the health bar (as it is, a full circle) but make the armor be an additional grey circle around it, and it thickness represents how much armor is left. It would look more intuitive, since the armor is protecting the marine / alien, so make the armor display a circle around the health bar seems logical to me
oh, and for ammo: you could also display an icon of the weapon currently active above the marines head, next to it a vertical bar indicating the ammo.
Yeah, a little rectangular meter below the rines would work, so would a horseshoe shape around the rine, only using visible space.