| Author |
Better damage indicators? |
Fluttershy
Fleet Admiral
Joined: September 24, 2011
Posts: 778
From: Fluttershy
|  Posted: 2011-10-11 20:21
A few years ago I made a tactical space game that worked very similarly to DS
One of the first problems I noticed when making the game was having a good indicator that showed damage at a glance without having to squint at numerical values.
First image shows some damage with the shielding up (does not repair)
Second ship has shields lowered and repairing rapidly. repair progress is shown by how close the two ends meet, and turns blue when 100%.
Hull is the dashed center line, it turns purple when you're within an inch of your life.
I hope this gives you some ideas for making damage a bit more obvious, I found purple and dark blue to be a good 'oh ^%$@' 0% color
If you want to try this game to see how it works, I have it on mediafire here, but It only shows up correctly on 1920x1080 resolution, and I couldn't figure out how to make it self adjust to different monitors (trust me, I tried >_<)
I wish I hadn't lost the source files, I'll have to make it all over again...
http://www.mediafire.com/file/dah3ccl03usuphz/StarQuest_Battle_Simulator_1.0001.exe
Press F1 for game info and controls
[ This Message was edited by: Fluttershy on 2011-10-11 20:28 ]
_________________
|
Pantheon
Marshal
Palestar
Joined: May 29, 2001
Posts: 1789
| Posted: 2011-10-11 21:02
Uh, we have this already.
Number of rings (or lack thereof) indicates how much damage an armor or shield facing has taken.
Hull is in the bottom left.
_________________
|
Fluttershy
Fleet Admiral
Joined: September 24, 2011
Posts: 778
From: Fluttershy
| Posted: 2011-10-11 21:09
Alright, but there's a few improvements that could be made;
-Hull damage being shown within the armor and shield rings.
-A different color for when armor has hit 0% (red is still good for 20-10%)
_________________
|
Blackjack [DBL]
Grand Admiral
Faster than Light
Joined: February 25, 2011
Posts: 344
From: The land of venomous reptiles.
| Posted: 2011-10-11 22:52
Im finding this idea intresting. For instance shield at 10% and shield at 0% are both purple right now.
_________________
Names I used: Da Bes Loser, Perseverance, Loyalty.
|
Fatal Afro Man *NCO*
Marshal
Fatal Squadron
Joined: September 09, 2006
Posts: 201
| Posted: 2011-10-12 03:29
hull indicators: There's holes on my ship = owe Ive taken some damage
There's sparks coming out of my engines = i should start plotting my e jump
BIG blue flames and atmosphere leaking = JUMP JUMP NOW OR EXPLODE
Personally i find these pretty good at a glance indicators of how my hull is doing lol
_________________
[Signature size too large, please resize. (600x200x100kb)
|
Ravendark
Marshal
Sanity Assassins
Joined: July 01, 2010
Posts: 443
| Posted: 2011-10-12 04:18
that is if your connection is clear and no lag happens... like you all ok, nex moment you have leaks, breaks, cracks, snaps, bladderblasts coming our of your ship and boom before you even reach shift from shift + j
_________________
|
Flux Capacitor
Marshal
Joined: July 30, 2010
Posts: 305
From: the place
| Posted: 2011-10-12 04:48
if u want to know the exact armor/hull status u click on urself. For a first glance an indicator needs to be easy. Looking at ur indicators i think they chaotic. imagine in mid battle u want to know what ship is most dmged...
green yellow red, no smoking hull, smoking hull, about to explode is very clear indicator for at a first glance. for a specific number u can click that opponent...
Making the indicators super duber chaotic like urs dont help i think
BTW: workaround for screen resolution in some cases is just by setting fixed resolution and then set full screen after game started will compensate for any resolution someone has. just it may look funny when 800x600 is put into 1380x680 (ish, dont know exact values)
[ This Message was edited by: The Flying Dutchman on 2011-10-12 04:51 ]
_________________
my signature is awesome
|
Thernhoghas
Grand Admiral
Exathra Alliance Fleet
Joined: September 18, 2010
Posts: 243
From: somewhere in Germany
| Posted: 2011-10-12 04:56
I think your damage indicators wouldn't work that good with DS, but in a similar singleplayer game they would.
Chaotic? I don't see why they're chaotic, but yes that dashed center line would be a little irritating in DS
_________________
It is not the beard on the outside that matters. It's the beard on the inside.
|
NoBoDx
Grand Admiral
Joined: October 14, 2003
Posts: 784
From: Germany / NRW
| Posted: 2011-10-12 05:11
Quote:
|
On 2011-10-12 03:29, Fatal Afro Man *TO* wrote:
hull indicators: There's holes on my ship = owe Ive taken some damage
There's sparks coming out of my engines = i should start plotting my e jump
BIG blue flames and atmosphere leaking = JUMP JUMP NOW OR EXPLODE
Personally i find these pretty good at a glance indicators of how my hull is doing lol
|
|
real men dont jump 
->
http://darkspace.net/index.htm?module=forums.php&page=/viewtopic.php?topic=51376&forum=36&23
_________________
The only good 'ooman is a dead 'ooman. An' da only fing better than a dead 'ooman'z a dyin' 'ooman who tell you where ter find 'is mates.
|
Gejaheline
Fleet Admiral
Galactic Navy
Joined: March 19, 2005
Posts: 1127
From: UGTO MUNIN HQ, Mars
| Posted: 2011-10-12 07:44
I think the only improvement I would make to the current ring indicators is having rings vanish when they're not effectively providing any protection (so, say, at less than 1% since regeneration means they almost always have SOME HP) and maybe - MAYBE - some indicator of hull status, although personally I've never had trouble with losing track of my hull's status.
_________________
[Darkspace Moderator] [Galactic Navy Fleet Officer]
|
jimjimjaroo
Grand Admiral
Joined: March 06, 2009
Posts: 308
From: Michigan, USA
| Posted: 2011-10-12 17:28
Quote:
|
On 2011-10-12 07:44, Gejaheline wrote:
I think the only improvement I would make to the current ring indicators is having rings vanish when they're not effectively providing any protection (so, say, at less than 1% since regeneration means they almost always have SOME HP) and maybe - MAYBE - some indicator of hull status, although personally I've never had trouble with losing track of my hull's status.
|
|
the ring indicators vanishing sounds like a good idea, lets make it where they stay vanished until an armor/shield ring reaches 10%.
_________________
|
Fluttershy
Fleet Admiral
Joined: September 24, 2011
Posts: 778
From: Fluttershy
| Posted: 2011-10-13 07:32
You know, if you did add more (optional?) indicators in the center around your ship, it would mean a lot less eye-darting.
key word 'optional'. If you didn't want a supposedly confusing dashed line around all ships representing their hull status more precisely than a bunch of flickering scabs, then you could turn it off and nothing would change.
I do like the idea of a 1% or less indicator to blanking out, though maybe a contrasting out of theme color would be better?
[ This Message was edited by: Fluttershy on 2011-10-13 07:43 ]
_________________
|
Gejaheline
Fleet Admiral
Galactic Navy
Joined: March 19, 2005
Posts: 1127
From: UGTO MUNIN HQ, Mars
| Posted: 2011-10-13 17:46
Quote:
|
On 2011-10-13 07:32, Fluttershy wrote:
You know, if you did add more (optional?) indicators in the center around your ship, it would mean a lot less eye-darting.
I do like the idea of a 1% or less indicator to blanking out, though maybe a contrasting out of theme color would be better?
|
|
1: Eye-darting? Personally, I don't find I need to know my hull HP at all times. When my ship is on fire, that's usually time to leave unless I know I can win the current engagement beforehand.
2: There aren't really any contrasting, out-of-theme colours left. Red-green is taken up by armour, whitish-blue to dark blue/purple is taken up by shields. I don't see why you'd need a specific colour for "you are taking hull damage" since black is fairly obvious unless you absolutely need to know where the edge of someone's hitbox is, which I find doesn't happen often. After all, ships that have no armour simply have no rings at all.
_________________
[Darkspace Moderator] [Galactic Navy Fleet Officer]
|
CM7
Midshipman
Faster than Light
Joined: October 15, 2009
Posts: 1812
| Posted: 2011-10-13 17:59
i have no trouble either...
but how about a sound to indicate massive hull damage, shield/armor failure? Low ammo/low energy?
_________________
Defiance and Opposition, a tribute to teamwork. I will remember always
339,144
|
Fluttershy
Fleet Admiral
Joined: September 24, 2011
Posts: 778
From: Fluttershy
| Posted: 2011-10-13 23:19
That's a good idea.
As for what colors to use, how's this?
Note the caps on the end for both 99+% and 1-%
_________________
|
English
Deutsch
Nederlands
)
