Mythruna

I just got bored.. so I went ahead and made 2 different designs, one is classic, one is kinda gorish?

Left: The Classic,

Right-Top: Regular heath,
Right-Bottom: Poisoned health bar.
(http://i.imgur.com/zIW7S.png)

It roughly took me 5-10 minutes  :-\

Mythruna will have (currently designed) fatique, health, and energy.  I will try not to display these very often, probably only when they are changing.  I'm not even sure I will use health bars for it.  I like HUDs to be as unobtrusive as possible.

Health is a hard one in general because I doubt the bar itself will be as concerning to people as which limb they are about to lose.  I have a few ideas for this but nothing I'm 100% happy with.

You know what you are 100% doing for mythruna (just about) I am just bored xD

I am an artist, I just kinda want to help w/ development..
OH! I can go try to learn groovy, home alone w/ my brother ;)

Do you still think alpha is 6 months away?

It's always 6 months away... until it's 5 months away.  It was 6 months away last month and it's still 6 months away this month. ;)

(http://www.myfacewhen.net/uploads/1727-i-know-that-feel.png)

And, if you don't like intrusive HUD's, how about using sounds?

like,

100% health = no sound
75% health = play a sound of a bone snapping
50% health = play a loop of coughing and wheezing, and insert random grunts and whines
25% health = over the whimpering, add a rushing heartbeat sound
0% health = i don't knopw how to say "requiem" in english, so i'll just post a vid of one, see if you get my concept.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi8vJ_lMxQI (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi8vJ_lMxQI)

Some sort of sad music.

oh god having bones snapping constantly as you walk along sounds like a amazing idea *pukes*

What about a lighting/color change. The further towards death the less color in the world. Until all is black and white, thats when you find yourself in spirit world

Sound will definitely come into it but some people turn off their sound.  When you are tired you will hear yourself panting, etc..  When you are very injured you will hear your heartbeat.  When your legs are wounded you will walk/run slower.  When your sword arm is injured it will become sluggish, etc..  But people still like indicators and I think something will fade in and out on the screen as it changes.  Since I have orbs on the bottom of the screen for left and right, I will probably use those to signify taking damage to your hands/arms... like they will flash red when you take weapon damage, blue with magic damage, white when you were struck but blocked it without damage to yourself (weapon may have been damaged or not).

And if you lose a limb (if I get that working) then the orb will go away.

I think I can keep left/right damage indicated in this way and have it be more useful than a bar... but I will have to play with things when the game systems are actually working.  As it is, I have at least two different designs for how health+energy+fatigue will actually work in code.  And health already means something weird here since it's really just "life force" and not necessarily directly "how damaged am I?"  You could be missing all of your limbs and be in 100% health, for example, if the bleeding has stopped and your wounds have otherwise healed.  The game wouldn't be very fun at that point, but you'd be healthy. :)  (Note: presuming limbs can be lost there will be a way to grow them back or reattach them.)

Yeah, I want to think about it.  My original designs all had "red tinged screen", color fading, etc... but those things have been done to death (pun intended) by now so I want to mull it over a while.  Maybe something more original pops into my head.

Material world -> spirit world will be a more serious transition... like entering a portal after you are a detached ghost.

Hheeehehe, leaving ectoplasm stuck in other people's houses sounds like fun

when at 25% health, how about a slight colored red tint on the screen or around the edges? and death=SPLAT!

Or, how about you plug your brain into the computer and let the pain help you guess. :D Just like the Matrix.

Didn't I already say "red tinged screen" just two posts up?  And why I try to think of different things?

These are well known and well used (over used?) effects.

Lose a limb? so will that work kinda like fallout (limbs crippled, can be healed) or will it be more permanent? And i it is more permanent, will there be a way to magically regenerate limbs? And lastly, after losing a limb, what are the chance of prosthetics ala full metal alchemist or doom? :P I'd love to have a steampunk arm... A reptilian cyberdemon! xD

From the previous post on the subject: "(Note: presuming limbs can be lost there will be a way to grow them back or reattach them.)"

A magic steampunk arm would be pretty neat, though.  I hadn't really thought of that.  It would probably take lots more life-force energy than a regular arm to run and/or have some other limitations.  Otherwise, everyone would be hacking off limbs. :)

Oops heh... Missed that sorry.  :-[

I guess a steampunk arm could be either very expensive and difficult to acquire or have tradeoffs on dexterity (giving you a disadvantage on specific crafting types... maybe advantages on smithing? hammer-arm haha?)

I've always dreamed of having a mechanical arm...

so you might have it so all your limbs can be attacked/unusable? when i think of that i always think of fallout... which was very fn so something must have been right

Yes.. I want the "Cyborg" perk in Mythruna, and Steampunk appendages would look way too cool. But they have to be really expensive and/or require high maintenance, so it doesn't get overpowered.

most definitely. I'd think you would be weak to lightning and water, very weak, and you permanently lose some life force, making it definitely not worth chopping your own limbs off. on that note, it should be hard to lose a limb period.

I the game lets you lose a limb at all then it will be easy to do just by doing something dumb.  If you walk in bare-armed and weaponless into a sword fight and don't run away then I think you are in trouble.  If you try to block a broadsword stroke with your bare forearm then I don't think you get to keep it. :)

If you have ever played an rpg before (or walk into this game with any common sense), i don't think that will happen. Its all about keepin on your toes  ;)

Exactly.  If nothing else, you get reminded that common sense is necessary and roll another character. :)

I'd rather lose an arm than have a broadsword stuck in my head. :)

+1

... I guess i didn't think of it that way. but what if you lost your arm AND had a sword stuck in your head?

I think if the dude that wields the sword can cut your arm and get it all the way thru, you should better run? lol

Exactly.  Bringing skin to a knife fight doesn't sound fun anyway.

You would be beyond caring.


Re: health-indicating colors.
I think you should only use this to indicate fainting or something like that. The screen (except for the HUD) is what the character is seeing. So if your arm is bleeding, you wouldn't see red. You might start to see black or gray, though.

i love games where the simple fact that they have a knife and you dont actually means danger. games like this that dont have any "oh sh** i'd better run" moments arent nearly as fun.
And thats why i loved thief deadly shadows :)

Yeah, but you have to balance the fact that in real life you'd have much more situational awareness.  You'd be able to see more... and if you took a swipe to your sword-arm you would know it without even looking.

But I will keep HUD elements minimal because I think they are distracting.  So far, I have the orbs that show you what you are holding in your hand and I will use them for as much as I can. 

There are lots of other options for other things.  Head wounds can cause direct changes to display (red tint, blurred vision, etc.)

Hits to the legs can show up on the left/right orbs somehow... and anyway you will notice your movement gets weird after a while anyway.  Body hits will physically move your whole body some amount... so I may not have to indicate those other than the overall health bar.

A lot will have to be figured out in play testing.

yay play testing!

If you want a health bar can be how you say "temporary" or have an option for display? don't have to answer your choice :D

Yes please.

I love how TES: Skyrim maintained a minimal interface, it wasn't...in my face. It was there when I wanted it and gone when I didn't. It was easily accessed through a central location and central button, Tab (PC).

I think having a minimal interface is important for immersion. Imagine walking around in real life with an HP bar, a mini-map, a directional attack display, a mana bar (if you're cool like me), stamina, and a bunch of other random crap on the screen. Maybe that's the way of the future. If it is, shoot me now...in the face.

In Skyrim when you are low on stamina, you can hear yourself panting as if you're out of breath, an audio representation of your status. It's not intrusive or overly obnoxious. A sound is played when you are out of mana that is subtle but each time you cast a spell it fails. You can see this represented visually and you know without looking at the mana bar you're f*'d and need to get the heck outa there. Or if you're an epic (light armor) battle mage which modded the game files like me, you just pull out your pwn sword and go to work.

If your HP is low the screen dims slightly but not so much you can't compensate and the corners turn red to signify blood loss. These are all references that are in my face yet discrete at the same time without me having to stare at some bars on the screen. I like the bars and I'm friendly with them, we hang out. But we're not intimate, you know. They have to know their place. That place is at the bottom of my screen in the corner out of sight unless I'm willing to take a peek down there. That sounded...came out wrong.

I'm at my perfect buzz right now... Sight is slightly blurry. Yeah, time for bed. Time to giggle about useless unfunny stuff, because I can.

P.S. - While this may be a PITA (pain in the arsification process) - it is certainly possible to have different levels of HUD visibility or 'in your faceness'. Even two settings is better than one but admittedly this would require a bit more work and design consideration.

HUD 1: IN YOUR FACE B..EEEEEEEE
HUD 2: Sup, down here if ya need me.

P.P.S. - This trance music is trancy....a lot. ASOT 571 anyone? - Ignore the picture of the half naked photoshopped lady (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31Oiz0LNck0&feature=g-vrec). <- HA! I bet you clicked it anyway. Enjoy. :)

That music is cool :D.... and also, mages totally pwn!...

Cheers for Wall of Sparks and Lightning Bolts :D.... also the Master level lightning storm works like a charm against dragons :D