Spiral Knights - Show Attack Damage. In for a penny, in for a pound.

Show Attack Damage. In for a penny, in for a pound.

13 replies [Last post]

Sun, 04/10/2011 - 11:31

TheOnly_Rew

Legacy Username

So I'm playing with Show Attack Damage on right now... And I'm not terribly happy with that choice of mine. It's helping me to see when and how I'm hitting them baddies (using a cutter, so seeing the halved number does well for telling me when I've gotten the secondary hit off, and that it only does half as much as the first), and it's letting me see how my one weapon compares to my others. But that's really all it does.
How much damage do mobs take when a box explodes next to them? Wait - those eight MechaKnights chasing me around are all shocking and killing each other? Is that damage keyed off their sparks, or their sword swings? And are they taking more damage than those Silkwings are healing? What about that really sick looking gun my party member is using? It sounds like it packs a punch, but is it actually better than my Cyrotech?
At the moment, all of these questions can only be answered by trial and error, test and see. *Which Is Fine*. Repeated for emphasis, I feel that that's an okay, even good way of doing things. It seems to me to be in line with what we are all looking for in this game -- smooth, fluid gameplay, uninterrupted by that damn 'My numbers are bigger!' trip.
But then why is there even a Show Attack Damage option? If you're not going in for the pound, why are you wasting my time with the penny?

I'd really like to see this option either be expanded to show all the damage monsters take from any source, or be rid of entirely. Perhaps replaced with a less-accurate visual system akin to the player's half-bars falling out of our heads? I feel like that would be more UI work than either adding more numbers, or getting rid of them entirely, so nuts to it. But anyway.

Thoughts?

Sun, 04/10/2011 - 11:37

iandawson0

Legacy Username

"I'd really like to see this

"I'd really like to see this option either be expanded to show all the damage monsters take from any source, or be rid of entirely."

Uh, seriously, you can turn it off so you can personally be rid of it entirely.

Sun, 04/10/2011 - 11:55

TheOnly_Rew

Legacy Username

It tempts me, though....

It tempts me, though.... Calling in the night, like a gentle siren...
"Numbers, Rew.....
You can see the numbers....

~~numbers~~..."

Makes it hard to fall asleep, sometimes. ¬_¬

Sun, 04/10/2011 - 12:30

Negimasonic

Well considering explosions

Well considering explosions are one off and shock attacks are not often enough, you can be sure that they aren't taking more damage than a wing could heal. Now I WOULD like to see this sort of damage but its ok to go without it, seems like anything involving outside influence isn't shown in this game (that includes party member attacks) just so you can focus on your own.

And no to removing it altogether...we worked hard to get that feature back >.> They took it out at one point. I played without it and thought I was ok, but then I saw I was dealing 9 damage with a gun compared to 20 with a sword. Anyway its an option for a reason >.>

Sun, 04/10/2011 - 12:31

akragster

Legacy Username

Health Bars

Having enemy health bars would help. Not something intrusive, maybe just that that light that glows when you hover your mouse over an enemy gets duller/smaller as they lose health.

Sun, 04/10/2011 - 19:43

erogath

Legacy Username

Can't say during an arena

Can't say during an arena there's time to mouse over or be clog my screen with 20 health bars. But an opt-in for seeing outside damage sources would be nice.

I definitely wouldn't force it though, again en mass that would just clog up the screen with numbers as well as flashes.

Sun, 04/10/2011 - 19:51

Runegrace

Legacy Username

Showing all damage with 4

Showing all damage with 4 players in an arena would be madness. As a rule, I think there should never be more numbers than monsters onscreen when there's more than a dozen monsters already.

Show Damage: Off, your own, and "own + environmental" would be nice. I mostly just want to know if shoving enemies into explosions is worthwhile damage. Or damage. Some traps and monster attacks will hit other monsters, some will not, and I'd like to know the difference between the two.

Sun, 04/10/2011 - 23:17

Franpa

Legacy Username

@TheOnly_Rew It already has

@TheOnly_Rew

It already has visualizations for displaying how much damage you do if you turn off Show Damage. The flashing/pulsing effects when you attack stuff is what it is. Also it showed damage by default, then they replaced it with the flashy effects (near the end of the Preview Access period) and tons of people complained so they re-added the functionality and pretty much everyone stopped complaining about it on the forums. So based on that it would seem the majority of players are fine with the current implementation, heck if there were more numbers popping up everywhere you'd have to colour code them with one colour for environment damage, another for a party members attacks, another for enemy splash damage affecting enemies and another showing what damage you are doing, otherwise it would just be tons of white numbers and be confusing/annoying as heck and even then it would be annoying/confusing as heck.

People just want to see what damage they themselves do. You can easily ask if your interested.

Sun, 04/10/2011 - 23:34

Zedoshi

Legacy Username

Tiny tiny optional health

Tiny tiny optional health bars would be pretty nice too.....Especially for bosses and constructs. Trojans...anything with higher hp.

Mon, 04/11/2011 - 07:20

adrian783

Legacy Username

i don't really care for

i don't really care for seeing too much damage information. this is an action mmo, and i think it is fine where it is. ever played monster hunter?

Mon, 04/11/2011 - 10:01

#10

TheOnly_Rew

Legacy Username

Interesting.

Interesting. I didn't get myself into the preview (which was a silly thing to do. I love watching games go through beta periods...), so I missed out on the debate the first time through. Had I know this feature had already been debated a fair bit, I wouldn't have bothered to start another thread about it. Are there devs active in the forums? I'd love to hear about the process and design choices of that made these visualizations what they are.

Thanks for the replies, guys!

Mon, 04/11/2011 - 10:41

#11

Negimasonic

http://forums.spiralknights.c

http://forums.spiralknights.com/en/node/1837

Mon, 04/11/2011 - 12:51

#12

Jalok

I would like to see a health

I would like to see a health bar hovering over bosses...that is all I have to say. 0_0

Mon, 04/11/2011 - 12:56

#13

Crawdaunt

Legacy Username

Trust me, you don't want the

Trust me, you don't want the feature removed. It's always been in the game but they removed it for a period of time, and there was an immediate outcry to bring it back. Environmental damage might be a cool thing but my guess is that you wouldn't notice that number a lot of the time,and a health bar is a big no-no, I'd say. And about seeing the damage of your party... IMO, the less this MMO becomes about out-damaging your teammates the better.

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Show Attack Damage. In for a penny, in for a pound.