Bit Kid

I was wondering if you could add some sort of visual indication that you are almost dead? You do get that one-time sound indication, but I was wondering if you could add some red border somewhere or something similar. I keep dying because I am not paying attention and my sound is off

Interesting idea. I wonder if it would be possible to use the "stroke" effect from the shrines as a visual indicator.

For example:

Purple - Protection Shrine
Blue - Learning (xp)? Shrine
Yellow - Gold Drop Rate(loot)? Shrine

and if
Green = Poisoned
then
Red - Near death?

Or flashing in between red and prismatic (same color used for critical attacks)

If red is already in use for bleed then I'm not sure. Perhaps a prismatic effect or something? Some sort of visual indicator would be an interesting feature to toggle on/off though. Or even to just have on all the time. I don't think this would be a bother to long time players but it is a task none the less.

I know! It can beep constantly like Zelda! *ducks for cover* Seriously though, good question.. I thought when I designed the newer UI with the draining heart that it would be more noticeable when it flashes that you are low on health. I think the element just turned out too small for that though. I will give it some more thought!

I was going to say repeat the "low health noise" every hit that happens during low health; but that wouldn't solve the issue of having audio off.. interested to see what the final solution could be here. Maybe making the screen flash subtly during low-health hits, and be able to toggle the flashing off in settings?

I've played a game that does this, the flash is super subtle, like a low opacity overlay, but very clear that it's happening. Can't recall which game though.

Yea its always tricky because you don't want to be intrusive to the experience with things like these. Perhaps a small flashing symbol near your health could work, it just has to be big enough to get your attention but not distract from the gameplay.

If a sound were added, I'd rather it be a heartbeat, since that's still intuitive but much less annoying (it's been done in other games).

Personally I'd prefer a continuous glowing red pulse emanating from the character (heartbeat rhythm), but that's just me. I like indicators that are easily identified at a glance and where I'm already looking. If you want something a bit less HUD-like, you could slightly change the character art so he's bleeding, bruised, maybe standing at a slightly lurch, walking with a limp, whatever. You know, generally people who are beaten nearly to death don't carry themselves the same as they would normally (well, outside of video games and movies). That would probably take a bit more work to implement, though.

No matter what the health bar is doing, I'm not going to notice it unless I intentionally look up there, which isn't happening if anything else is. You could have a glowing, dancing clown that explodes repeatedly up there, and I wouldn't notice it if I'm in combat.

Ya the problem with putting an indicator at the health bar, is that if I am looking up there then I know how much health I have anyways. I was thinking something cool like a subtle red tint to the whole screen. Like Daltyn is having trouble seeing through all the blood and fatigue. That way instead of interfering with the experience, it's part of it!

Lailoken wrote:Ya the problem with putting an indicator at the health bar, is that if I am looking up there then I know how much health I have anyways. I was thinking something cool like a subtle red tint to the whole screen. Like Daltyn is having trouble seeing through all the blood and fatigue. That way instead of interfering with the experience, it's part of it!

That would be pretty cool. Pixellated blood overlay on the edges of the HUD. Sort of like what FP shooter games do with blood splatting on the screen..