Spiral Knights - A very simple yet so extremely helpful feature needs to be implemented; Boss HP Bars. Who agrees?

A very simple yet so extremely helpful feature needs to be implemented; Boss HP Bars. Who agrees?

17 replies [Last post]

Thu, 11/03/2011 - 03:14

Watermelon-Soda

I don't really care whether the a big long bar on a side of the client or a bar on top of the boss's head, I'm sure a lot of people will appreciate a HP bar.

And possibly with numbers (like "400/3245 HP" or just "400/3245") for more accurate indication. Or possibly a HP bar for each boss phase as well, with an indication of what phase number it is above the HP bar. (like "Phase 3/5" or just "3/5" in a different color or font from HP)

Who agrees with my suggestions?

Edit: When I said a HP bar for each phase... for example, Vanaduke will start out with xxxx/xxxx HP, and right above it will be "Phase 1/5", and when his HP reaches 0, he will get another HP bar saying xxxx/xxxx HP and right above it will say "Phase 2/5" etc

Thu, 11/03/2011 - 05:38

Axellon

VERY YES

I totally agree with this suggestion. knowing how much health bosses have left would help a TON! In fact, allow me to relate an anecdote:

I was fighting JK (my first time!) w/ a group a couple of days ago., and we got wiped and ALMOST gave up (we were dying left and right and convinced that we were accomplishing nothing). Someone got back up, hit him ONCE, and he died.

So, if it wasn't for that one plucky person willing to risk some energy, we would have lost out on a boss win. Boss health bars would make it much easier to tell when to keep fighting and when to give up, and they would make boss battles feel less futile.

+as many as I can give.

PS: actually, thinking about the "making boss battles feel less hopeless" aspect of adding health bars... Maybe Snarby shouldn't have one. After all, he IS supposed to be scary.

Thu, 11/03/2011 - 05:48

Wingideon

I agree

We really need it, so just like in battlefield heroes (another diferent game) forums i'm going to say: /sign (In the forums of that game (battlefield heroes) when someone likes a sugestion says this)

Thu, 11/03/2011 - 07:37

Khamsin

I would like to see

I would like to see percentage HP bars. I don't think we need actual numbers though.

Thu, 11/03/2011 - 09:01

Effrul

This has come up repeatedly

This has come up repeatedly and I'm totally against it; they're unnecessary visual clutter and remove an important element of tension and pattern recognition from boss fights.

Thu, 11/03/2011 - 09:15

Master-Of

Watermelon-Soda, I agree, but

Watermelon-Soda, I agree, but I don't think it's super important.
Alternatively, it would be nice, if bosses would show their health differently, but somehow fine grained. For example, the Roarmulus Twins look broken, after you hit them in the face for a while. I think, all bosses could have a more and more broken look that represents their health.
I sometimes play a real time strategy game, where damaged units become darker with every damage they take and they start smoking more and more until they finally explode. So you can have other visual feedback, just like in real life. Real lifeforms don't have damage bars, but you can still see how healthy they are to some degree. I think health bars are just a compensation for the fact that many computer games can't display health in a more natural fashion.

Thu, 11/03/2011 - 09:17

Kentard

Not a bar, but...

While I do wish to know when a boss dies, I'm not too much for the idea of a health bar (which is often repeated in too many games).
@Effrul: I don't see how the health bar interferes with pattern recognition, but I do agree with the visual clutter.

Perhaps we can have visual indicators when a boss is weakening? Like the Roarmulus twins, the boss will appear visibly more damaged as they move to they next phase. Perhaps for RJ, for instance, we can see chunks of jelly chewed off as it gets progressively more damaged, or for Snarby, its eyes can start closing one by one?

Thu, 11/03/2011 - 09:27

Effrul

I suppose "pattern

I suppose "pattern recognition" was the wrong term to use; what I mean is that the current boss mechanics encourage players to pay attention to boss behaviour as they take more damage. When the JK starts freaking out, you know you've got it on the ropes. Vanaduke has a number of discrete phases with attack and defensive actions that ramp up in severity as he takes damage. They indicate that you're doing serious harm, but they're imprecise enough to keep players on their toes; you can't relax, thinking "OK, that biggun's only got 10HP left, this ones in the bag," you have to keep your guard up, because you know they're hurting but you don't know how badly. Am I making sense here?

Thu, 11/03/2011 - 09:40

Khamsin

Except that Darkfire

Except that Darkfire Vanaduke's HP pool is large enough that he needs some intermediate changes between each of his phases. Instead of having to program a bunch more different animations for Duke or changing the fight, they could easily just slap an HP bar over his head or at the bottom of the screen. Sure, if you're just mauling the fight you don't really need to know, but when you're learning the fight and his mask phase lasts 8-10 minutes, you start asking yourself "Is his mask healing every time it lights back up? I don't see any numbers but this is taking a while". It isn't a matter of relaxing, it is a matter of "This is taking forever and is annoying", if anything you let your guard down because you're getting bored, whereas if you knew the end was near you'd put in more effort. Also, it would get more people to burn CE revs if they knew they could actually push for the kill instead of giving up because they don't know how far along they are.

Thu, 11/03/2011 - 10:42

Martinsen

I second that ^

Thu, 11/03/2011 - 11:20

#10

Beans

Definitely for HP

Definitely for HP bars.

Without them, there's very little sense of progression when you're fighting a boss.

As far as HP bars detracting from the "mood", I think that's hardly the case. Firstly, this game's no Monster Hunter. Secondly, the lack of progression makes boss deaths seem downright random sometimes.

Ah, those moments when your party members CE revive halfway across the room, only for you to whack the boss one more time and kill it before they even reach it.. Heh.

Thu, 11/03/2011 - 12:32

#11

Orangeo

I semi-agree.

An actual hp bar might be TOO helpful though. Listing out the phases is definitely a bit much too. Prehaps just a way to tell how damaged they are, like how the roarmulus twins detiriorate. That would be quite helpful on vannaduke phase five.

Thu, 11/03/2011 - 14:10

#12

Algol-Sixty

Instead of wasting

Instead of wasting developers' time reviewing yet another thread, please do a simple search to see if your idea has already been hashed to death and if you *really* have something new to contribute.

A quick forum search of "health bar" turned up;

Boss Health Bars
Health Bars?
Health Bar for Bosses
Boss health bar (yeah, someone named their new thread the same as the first on)
Boss health bars... (really, people aren't even creative with new thread titles)
Monster Health Bar??
Enemy Health bars

And that list was from just the first two pages of the search results.

OOO has a tradition of not liking numbers. They feel it causes players to obsess with the wrong things instead of having fun. My gut feel is that OOO much more likely to remove the damage numbers that you currently see before they add health bars to monsters.

Before wasting any more of your energy, find those discussions about why OOO has this tradition, and find some evidence that OOO has changed their minds.

Thu, 11/03/2011 - 14:56

#13

Spaghetiman

agree with khamsin, don't

agree with khamsin, don't show numbers just a bar. also in the options be able to turn it off for those who (for some reason) don't want it

~Spag

Thu, 11/03/2011 - 15:19

#14

Jcolor

Yes! Jcolor agrees with Watermelon-Soda

teh subject says it all :D

Thu, 11/03/2011 - 16:28

#15

Orangeo

"Instead of wasting

"Instead of wasting developers' time reviewing yet another thread, please do a simple search to see if your idea has already been hashed to death and if you *really* have something new to contribute."
Good call.

Thu, 11/03/2011 - 21:07

#16

Master-Of

I am not sure about it, but

I am not sure about it, but it appears to me not developers are checking on the threads directly, but there are support people in between devs and users.

Thu, 11/03/2011 - 21:36

#17

Khamsin

Well algol, things have

Well algol, things have changed since a number of those posts. On one hand, the JK fight was changed to reflect the players progress in defeating him, but on the other, now we have Darkfire Vanaduke, and that fight can drag on to the point where you start questioning whether you're making progress at all. An HP bar would help in that respect. You don't need actual HP values since those fluctuate with the number of players, but a bar would definitely be helpful.

So no, I don't think people shouldn't post. It is still an issue that hasn't been resolved and ought to be examined again. I'm hopeful that with this wave of smaller "improvements" coming in November, one of them is HP bars.

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A very simple yet so extremely helpful feature needs to be implemented; Boss HP Bars. Who agrees?