Why not something like "20-25 Normal Damage" instead of some bars?
Then again, it might have something to do with that not being accurate at different depths.
EDIT: To clarify, I'm talking about weapons. They have bars as stats but they deal damage in numbers.
It is simpler. Monsters show damage in numbers so you can see how effective your weapon is.
The biggest problem is that there's no size differentiation between bars that fall out of your player character. It'd be a lot simpler to have one contiguous precise bar with markers taking the place of vita-bars to measure your health from.
Oh, I misunderstood.
LOL PLAYING WITH NUMBERS ON.
I play the proper way, so I wouldn't understand.
Your weapon deals damage based on many factors. A number would just be unsuitable. Among other things level depth / star rating and damage type / monster resistance influence the damage your weapon deals. So it's not possible to say a certain weapon "deals 25 normal damage". Maybe it does against a jelly on floor 1. But not against that same jelly on a deeper floor and not against a gremlin.
They can easily give a scaling number representation.
Unlike the bars, which don't actually mean anything and are quite prone to contradicting themselves, numbers are real information.
I'd like to think the devs' target audience for this game was high enough that the expected demographic could actually do first grade mathematics. I want to know exactly how much better or worse an item is, not have the game itself giving me an uneducated guess.
Also, the bars make comparing items more difficult, especially when you're looking at something you're planning to craft.
@Hazel
Assuming that First grade math governs the game shows one of two things.
1. You have a vapid misunderstanding of the mechanics that determine what damage we do on what floor.
2. You're simply trying to act superior and put people down who are actually trying to learn the mechanics.
@People who actually care
The reason the game uses bars is because of the complex damage equations present in the game, bars are much more effective for showing the relative relationships between weapons of similar star values, if you ever have a question about a certain weapon, check the wiki located at that big button at the top of the page.
why cant we live with the bars!? i live with them, and the dmg thing is how the game works. Someone said that if we did the dmg we do on last floor on first floor, it would be a cakewalk (also, we would get bored VERY quickly). I like the bars thing (though my freind had over 10 bars base hp and had a 10 bar canister. yet, the limit is always 20). We can live with it. just remember something:
2 star kills faster than 0 star
4 star kills faster than 2 star
5 star kills faster than the rest combined(though....screw it, yeah it does better).
@J_A_S: That 20 bars of HP you see on your friend's health meter isn't his maximum, rather it's the maximum that your HUD displays for your allies. It's fully possible to have more than 20. Hell, I've more than once had more than 40 in the Preview.
@Everyone Else: I personally like the bars better, rather than HP numbers. It's easier and faster to tell what attack does what amount of damage to you so you don't have to calculate it in your head, wasting time and concentration which could be used to... I don't know, SURVIVE?
The only thing that kind've irks me about the HP system is the inability to see the HP of enemies, but that might be breaking the game in some ways. So I'm satisfied with what we have.
I like the health bars! Don't get rid of them!
"@Hazel
Assuming that First grade math governs the game shows one of two things.
1. You have a vapid misunderstanding of the mechanics that determine what damage we do on what floor.
2. You're simply trying to act superior and put people down who are actually trying to learn the mechanics."
I think you should re-read my post or something, because you seem to've gotten the opposite of its intended purpose. I am in favor of displaying numbers, and opposed to giving us colorful pictures that mean nothing. The first grade math bit is in reference to doing your own decision-making using numbers, instead of bars, which is what you would be doing if we had numbers, instead of bars.
It's cool that you went all overreact-and-insult-y on me without actually understanding what I was saying, though.
No it isn't.
Our health isn't shown in numbers, why should the damage we take be?
I think this system is a lot easier to understand.