Loose the 'Life status bars' on monsters!

[roboth]

In Diablo you really was frightned sometimes. That unfortuantly was not the case in Diablo II fot the most part. One of the things that might add to the true Diablo experince is NOT having the 'Life status bars' obove the heads of monsters. :yes:

[TopHatCat64]

Disagree.

The lifebars are crucial in determining how much damage you're inflicting on monsters. It's especially important for oddball characters who aren't doing 10k damage or against bosses.

Not knowing how much hp a monster has left isn't scary, it's simply frustrating.

[roboth]

Disagree.

The lifebars are crucial in determining how much damage you're inflicting on monsters. It's especially important for oddball characters who aren't doing 10k damage or against bosses.

Not knowing how much hp a monster has left isn't scary, it's simply frustrating.

In FPS you don´t have them and if you play Diablo you will see what I mean.

[TopHatCat64]

Uh yea, but the Diablo franchise isn't a FPS nor will it ever be. How is that relevant?

And yes, I've played the original Diablo to death. Why do you think they added health bars in D2? It's the same reason they made the alt button display all items. People were clamoring for it in the original and Blizzard listened and added it.

[The Italian Oak]

Uh yea, but the Diablo franchise isn't a FPS nor will it ever be. How is that relevant?


I totally agree, what does FPS have ANYTHING to go with Diablo?

[roboth]

I totally agree, what does FPS have ANYTHING to go with Diablo?

Of course it´s not about FPS. That was just an example. I am trying to figuring out what Diablo II lacked that Diablo had in terms of density and such. And as I said what made you really causious in Diablo was not exactly knowing the condition of the monster. Espesially the Unique ones. Perhaps they can impliment a system that shows on the monsters and not in bars and in a way you can´t be absolutely sure of the condition of the monster you are fighting.

[TopHatCat64]

And as I said what made you really causious in Diablo was not exactly knowing the condition of the monster. Espesially the Unique ones.

Ok, now that's two different things we're talking about then. I'm assuming by conditions you mean the enchantments on the uniques like Extra Strong or Lightning Enchanted?

Yes, I definitely think that would be interesting, especially if they had really different enchantments that you never saw on any other unique like the charging unique goat or super-fast unique acid spitter in D1.

[Thyiad]

Personally I'd like to see them out of the centre of the screen. Stick 'em back up top where the were and not in my way when I'm whacking stuff. The bars are too long to be centre screen.

[Kaeros]

I guarantee you that this will be a feature that can be toggled on/off in the Interface menu. Along with the "Block!" text, the critical hit damage text, and whether or not item names are automatically revealed when you're close to them.

There just isn't any chance whatsoever that these features wouldn't be optional.

That said, I really like their inclusion.

[5zigen]

I think it would be cool to remove the bars too, for everyone.

Like the OP I Think it added to the tension in D1 more than people realize. In d2 you know when everything is going to die more or less, in D2 there was some sense of fear that maybe the enemy wasn't going to die.

I like the addition of the numbers (to keep track of how much damage you're doing) as an optional thing,

but like the OP I think it detracts from the mood of the game to have the life bar of enemies on everything you attack.

[The Italian Oak]

Personally I'd like to see them out of the centre of the screen. Stick 'em back up top where the were and not in my way when I'm whacking stuff. The bars are too long to be centre screen.


Now that is an idea.


and on the other post, I would have to agree, when you go in and hit a boss and half his life goes away, you're just like ehh

[roboth]

I think it would be cool to remove the bars too, for everyone.

Like the OP I Think it added to the tension in D1 more than people realize. In d2 you know when everything is going to die more or less, in D2 there was some sense of fear that maybe the enemy wasn't going to die.

I like the addition of the numbers (to keep track of how much damage you're doing) as an optional thing,

but like the OP I think it detracts from the mood of the game to have the life bar of enemies on everything you attack.

I totally agree :)

[Vulcon]

Looking at the wizard demo, you have got you wish!:thumbup:

[Gamekk]

like the charging unique goat or super-fast unique acid spitter in D1.

He's actually harder then Diablo lol

[In the name of Zod]

In Diablo you really was frightned sometimes. That unfortuantly was not the case in Diablo II fot the most part.
<rant>I've always put that down to the crappy fantasy music put into D2 over the awesome dark and creepy compositions done for the original. I always turn the music off by default these days playing D2 period, it sucks and it aways did! </rant>

Btw, I like the life bars. More feedback is good feedback generally speaking.

[teh_Thrasher]

"In d2 you know when everything is going to die more or less, in D2 there was some sense of fear that maybe the enemy wasn't going to die. "

lol! ITS NEVER GOING TO DIE AHHH RUN! lol (btw i think u meant D1)

the life bar is great. not seeing their life is FTL and the new dmg indicator is verynice too! love seeing how much dmg u are really inflicting.

[MooCQ]

In a real life situation, by eyesight or ear, you can sense when someone is fatigued or wounded. While boxing, you can see the juice empty from your adversary. This is exactly what that health bar represents. Since graphics are as of yet incapable of showing such detailed animation (a hardware limitation?) that bar is very necessary to represent, the "realism."

More examples; sock me once = lip bursts, sock me twice = knock my tooth out, sock me thrice = black eye, bloodied face, broken nose, smashed cheek, keep going = KNOCK OUT!

Vs.

Sock me once = nothing?, sock me twice = nothing??, sock me thrice = nothing???, ????, ?????; (note the confusion) :confused: ker-plunk, guess it's a 1 hit K.O.

This is exactly why that bar is realistic as a representation! No bar = No Sense, in game and in the ring, might as well fight with your eyes closed!

[Kennoth]

In a real life situation, by eyesight or ear, you can sense when someone is fatigued or wounded. While boxing, you can see the juice empty from your adversary. This is exactly what that health bar represents. Since graphics are as of yet incapable of showing such detailed animation (a hardware limitation?) that bar is very necessary to represent, the "realism."

More examples; sock me once = lip bursts, sock me twice = knock my tooth out, sock me thrice = black eye, bloodied face, broken nose, smashed cheek, keep going = KNOCK OUT!

Vs.

Sock me once = nothing?, sock me twice = nothing??, sock me thrice = nothing???, ????, ?????; (note the confusion) :confused: ker-plunk, guess it's a 1 hit K.O.

This is exactly why that bar is realistic as a representation! No bar = No Sense, in game and in the ring, might as well fight with your eyes closed!

Exactly. I know we all have our own opinions, but removing the life bars is like saying 'removing the bosses out of the game because they're too strong'.
Yes, I played d1, and trust me, life bars make your life easier.

I can only agree about 'd1 scarier then d2' part. And I can tell two reasons:
First- More spooky music
Second- Shrines with criptic messages with mostly no visible effects. (not all of course). I WANT THOSE SHRINES BACK

[GoldenBird]

I disagree.

I don't feel like battling a monster for an hour because I don't know that I'm barely doing damage to it. Then you never know if you had put one more hit into it you would have killed it, or if it would have taken 5 more hours.

[lionheart]

I prefer to have the knowledge of what amount of damage im making. Just hitting and hitting without knowing if u are even doing any decent damage is annoying

[Arkardo]

There should at least be any indication about the monsters condition (a hurt monster would tend to flee, bleeds, hunches over, etc.) and/or how much damage you're dealing (how the hit recovery looks, amount of blood lost, some other kind of indicator for how well you struck considering your min/max damage, etc.)

My $0,02.

[Gigashadow]

I like the life bars where they are simply because I am staring at the MONSTER when I'm attacking him, and looking at the top of the screen is annoying and even dangerous sometimes.

Speaking of indicators, we already have numbers on critical hits.

But no fleeing monsters, please, that's very annoying.

[Apocalypse]

Personally I'd like to see them out of the centre of the screen. Stick 'em back up top where the were and not in my way when I'm whacking stuff. The bars are too long to be centre screen.


fully agree, looks much better at the top

[Bad Ash]

I like the life bars, but think there should be an option to toggle them on and off. just too mix things up if you get bored, add onto that replayability baby!

[sh25]

I think they shud get rid of the bars but still show the condition of the monster.

Like if he's getting close to dying he can get slower and do less damage. Maybe even one of his limbs cud fall off lol.

Idk if any of you have played the game command and conquer but that how it works on there. Its not a rpg but I think the same concept would work great on diablo.

[teh_Thrasher]

DO NOT remove them. just give the people that dont want them the ability to turn them off in the options screen

[Vadoff]

Personally I'd like to see them out of the centre of the screen. Stick 'em back up top where the were and not in my way when I'm whacking stuff. The bars are too long to be centre screen.

I'd prefer having this option as well, just like how it was in d2.

[sectoid]

One good answer to this problem is to only show health bars and other info after you killed X monsters of that type. That's somewhat common and I think it's better than having no health bars or always having them.

For bosses, they could show the health bar but not the status modifiers until you landed Y hits or stayed at the same screen of the monster for Z time. Maybe they could also be displayed after they became obvious, for both normal monsters and bosses (example: if the monster has a % chance of chain lightning when hit, it would show only after you triggered it for the 1st time).

Obviously it would be awesome to see in-model modifications in real time, like bruises, dismemberments that do not kill, enemy/hero becoming slower (although this one would hurt the fast pace of the game) and such, but I don't think we'll see this type of thing in D3.

I also agree that D1's music was more scary and added more to the setting overall, but I didn't dislike D2's.
edit: forgot to mention that D1's narrator was also great!

[Romak]

Okay, here is what I think.

I'll start with the good things; the boss health bars. With the tradition of the top screen health bars, the boss bar is doing well. Since it doesn't float above the boss, it will always appear in the same place regardless of the size of the boss (The Siege Beast's "above head" area is barely visable). Also, it doesn't disappear if you dont keep your cursor on the boss - In D3 we are going to have alot of tactical actions, like preforming a leap to a more strategic location. Actions that does not include targeting the boss, so having his bar visable all the time is handy. Very good

The problem starts with the little creeps.

Current System:
Click - Example Image (http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u263/fex_dominate/D3B-V-1.jpg)
This is what Blizzard came up with for D3... floating bars. For this, I have both good and bad points of view.
Good: Since it appears very close to the creature you're targeting, you don't have to move your eyes away from the battle, where the action takes place. you're eyes are always in the center of the screen both for the visual hacking&slashing and checking your enemies health, keeping you 100% in the heat of battle
Bad: It's bad for the visual aspect. The health bars block and hide a large area of the battle, so while it's doing the job, keeping your eyes on the fight, it also takes away from the visual interest and makes it feel like you're fighting a pack of health bars and not monsters.

Diablo 2 System:
Click - Photoshoped Example Image (http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u263/fex_dominate/D3B-V-3.jpg)
The old fashion D2 system. The goods and bads of this system are exactly the opposite of those of the new D3 system.
Good: Doesn't 'hide' the battle and is placed in a location that is usually dead and unimportamt anyway.
Bad: Takes you're attention away from the heat of battle. You're eyes are doing all the way from the center of the screen to the top just to check when are you going to kill the creep.

My Idea for the New System:
Click - Photoshoped Example Image (http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u263/fex_dominate/D3B-V-2.jpg)
Okay, here we basically got the origianl D3 system. Then, I took the health bar, made it half as wide, half as high and 50% transparent. So now it doesn't really block your way with it's intense red ^^ It's harder to see now, but I really think this could work.


I saw that some people think there shouldn't be any health bars at all... for that I have to say that it's really going to be frustrating. (also you can't really compare that to FPS, although I really liked Bioshock's health bars :)).

I can say that it will be impossible to play the game without health bars. Also, health bars serve as indication of the selection of the monster. It's easier to know if you target a monster when a bar pops up when you do.... it sounds weird, but trust me. In Titan Quest, things like 'graves' which you need to click don't have anything pop up when you target them so you can never know if you clicked them. Indicator is a must, so if there is one... why not make it show your enemies' health?

[In the name of Zod]

DO NOT remove them. just give the people that dont want them the ability to turn them off in the options screen

Yep go the toggle. After all its not a game changing issue if you allow it so why not. Petition me up!

[delosombres]

My Idea for the New System:
Click - Photoshoped Example Image (http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u263/fex_dominate/D3B-V-2.jpg)
Okay, here we basically got the origianl D3 system. Then, I took the health bar, made it half as wide, half as high and 50% transparent. So now it doesn't really block your way with it's intense red ^^ It's harder to see now, but I really think this could work.

No, it couldn't. When you will have 20 enemies on the screen plus spell/skill effects plus red/violet-like background...

[KillaMike]

Yep go the toggle. After all its not a game changing issue if you allow it so why not. Petition me up!

could agree more:yes: