There should always be a health status onscreen but I don’t see why there has to be graphic bars. RPG-like rational meters (###/###) would be more precise and would help shrink the HUD.
Numbers are harder to compare at a glance compared to bars though. Especially when you get damage/hp values in the millions.
Then put the numbers inside the life bar.
You could certainly save on real estate by going from a long bar to like a circle or something (in the corner, where character portraits often are?). As long as you’ve got a visual element that can fill up/empty I think you’re okay.
Eh, if you make numbers dynamic, like change the color from green to yellow to red as health drops, that’s about as approximate as bars tend to be at a glance.
I just like the precise data on screen without being too intrusive. I don’t remember if those arcade spectator monitors for VF and Tekken had realtime data for every match.
I hope it’s not Chris’ blood…
I think it’s a stupid idea, it’s not new it’s been done, it failed
There’s a reason why it’s always used as a cheat or whatever only, because nobody ever used it
Health bars are here to stay, frankly i fucking love them, which brings me to this
Top tier health bars, alpha 2, alpha 1, kof 99, xmen cota, vf4 evo, tekken 4, tekken 3, tekken tag, ST
Low tier, kof2000, kof2001, kof2002, kof2003, guilty gear
I like my health bars how like like my women, big chunky, preferably yellow
And fuck spectators, this is a participation thing, not a spectator thing.
TTT2 in training you can switch to numbers, not really a fan of numbers, what’s more satisfing?
Landing a ch deathfist seeing that blue bar vanish followed by the actual damage done, seeing that yellow damage run down or seeing 8000 POINT! appear on the screen?
I know what i prefer, and the vast majority of us do, it aint that sonic blast man arcade shit
Let’s report this to Wesker
Man, its interesting seeing how people hate innovation and experimentation. That said, then it should just be for a new game that has typical fighting game mechanics, but the unknown life amount when youre hit should be the big factor in shaping your strategy and style.
Its like, why not try it? Yes current strategies people have for playing these games pretty much go out the window, but there will be new strategies made. It could breath new life into old games. Super Turbo is a crazy fun fast game, I dont see why this wouldnt make it fresh and add new depth to the game. Like wise for other older games, maybe some old game that was fun but didnt have a large audience like say Last Blade 1 and 2 wouldnt benefit from this, that was a fun game with 2 life bars for you in a fight.
If you’re talking about innovation, I will say this.
I certainly can’t speak for everyone, but I don’t think they hate innovation. Looking at this change (hidden life bars) in a vacuum, though, with all the knowledge we have about fighting games to this point in history just leads people to believe that it won’t work. Period.
NOW
I think what this ACTUALLY means is that people think this won’t work without massive innovations in other areas of play. Not only would this idea be fighting against a negative perception (as you’ve read already), you’re fighting against the natural tendency for conservation when players are unaware of their resources as well as an inability for players to properly calculate risk/reward scenarios for themselves.
Basically, you have to shift a lot of conventional fighting game philosophy with the hidden life bars idea to make it even get off the ground. By itself, this change will be mostly negatively received on top of being a hindrance to gameplay.
go butterfly filet your penis then since you’re up for innovation\experimentation.
Whats that, it sounds stupid?! its interesting to see that you hate innovation\experimentation lol
people don’t hate innovation\experimentation that makes sense. As stated above, it to is innovation\experimentation however forethought can tell you its a bad idea. You don’t actually have to butterfly filet your penis to know its a shit idea right?
Fighters having something like this IS a bad idea to the point where you don’t need to actually do it to know any better. There have been games in the past to use this method and they didn’t last very long like the bushido blade series.
Most likely, the direction for this would be COD style regenerating health where, if you can chain something long enough, you can knock someone out. If not, then the fight goes to the scorecard. Of course, this means alot of current fighting game strategies and approaches go right out the window and alot of stuff will need to be rethought or outright removed (forget about any sort of meaningful combat at a distance).
I’m hating it already.
Only cowards play COD, at least scrubs who play fighting games casually are into fighting someone mono e mono, and not just camp out and make people get angry and scream racial slurs. Fighting games are just too complicated for them, they just want to press one button to fire something.
Hiding life bar would completely scare away those kinds of people.
This is starting to sound a bit troll-ish. Regardless, we don’t need life-bars in real life because the competitors KNOW when they’re on their last legs, there is no contextual clue that could ever translate the same way that feeling does into fighting games with any form of clarity aside from a life bar. You can add ‘battle damage’ but then you would just be putting the life bar elsewhere.
If you remove all contextual clues you remove any awareness aside from counting hits. You would make the spectators even more lost, and the competitors just annoyed NOT stressed.
If you’re promoting random one hit knock outs that is just dumb, if you want to cheer for pure luck go watch two people play roulette and cheer for the one you think will lose less money. (Or watch Marvel /ah-cha-cha-cha-cha).
And hiding life bars is probably the biggest casual grab there is “Oh look its so realistic!” even though most fighting games are as far away from ‘real’ as you can be, including Deadliest Warrior.
Saying that having no way of checking your health levels innovates how you play fighting games is like saying that putting a paper bag over your head innovates how you see the world.
Maizono’s.
As someone who’s been camping since Doom, I disagree with the sentiment expressed here.
C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER!
“Imagine ST…but with no lifebars!” is a pretty lazy attempt at innovation. This just isn’t a feature when judged on its own that is nearly as exciting to other people as it is to you.
There’s only a small number of people that’s actually interested in watching fighting game tournaments for the actual competition. Most others are around to troll or waiting for some drama to latch on, so doing something drastic like not showing the lifebars isn’t going to reel in more spectators all of a sudden while having major implications on what happens in the match itself, along with removing the tension that you’re looking to covet since everybody will be clueless on what’s happening.
If you make a game that has more popularity than what SF4 has now, or make it so watching a stream is alot more accessible than what it is now (in game broadcasting for example), then we’ll see more spectators.
I would actually watch MMA if the fighters had lifebars shown onscreen.