Damage Popups

[Eschaton]

Just how important are they?

I'm thinking that they would not be in my project because they'd make the screen a bit too busy.  Either that, or having an option to turn them off if I am able.

 

[Alexander Amnell]

As long as there is a way to know sort of how the battle is going I don't think pop-ups matter, if they're in the way get rid of them, if not then keep them. As long as there is some indication, like an hp bar. Kind of an either-or situation because without one or the other you don't even know if you are doing anything, but both seem unnecessary.

 

[Eschaton]

That's what I meant.  I'd rather use an HP bar, myself.  Bouncing numbers clutter the screen.

 

[Zoltor]

Well there technically doesn't need to be literally popups, but there needs to be something telling you how much actual damage you are doing, not just some enemy life bar, which has no numbers.

 

[Alexander Amnell]

Why do you have to have numbers?

 

[MagicMagor]

Because it is easier to compare the damage of two different actions if the actual numbers are given.

If action A does 80 damage and action B does 100 damage, i should contiue using action B (assuming cost are the same or not important) but if all i have is an enemy HP-bar and the enemy has a lot of hp, like a boss, i may be unable to identify which of them did more damage.

It is obviously possible to have a game without damage pop-ups, especially if the screen becomes to cluttered with them, but there are reasons why they may be a good idea.

 

[Eschaton]

You'd still see it on the HP bar, though.

 

[Alexander Amnell]

   I don't know, I feel that the major differences in damage could be dealt with without needing to instantly recognize which attack does more damage (also if the difference is so small that you can't tell a difference on the hp bar then it's probably a moot point). Unless the game does something unpredictable with damage like making fire strong against water or slashing weapons deal higher damage to chainmail (stupid examples, but I can't really think of better ones) then I feel knowing how much damage you are taking on an arithmetical level is unneeded and can at times even break immersion.

 

[Aner-Dyfan]

I like damage popups in more action games where manoeuvring is important, for example borderlands where they also indicate critical hits and elemental effects. Though it is a preference and not a vital feature, in fact no health indication at all can make for some interesting challenge to a game, as it means planning enemy deaths is a lot harder to do, and you can end up wasting resources killing weakened enemies.

 

[Zoltor]

I like damage popups in more action games where manoeuvring is important, for example borderlands where they also indicate critical hits and elemental effects. Though it is a preference and not a vital feature, in fact no health indication at all can make for some interesting challenge to a game, as it means planning enemy deaths is a lot harder to do, and you can end up wasting resources killing weakened enemies.

Yea super imposed, as fake as you can get challenge.

That's poor game design if that's the kind of things you do to add challenge to a game. 

There is no reason why people shouldn't beable to know what damage they are doing. Also knowing the damage one is doing, allows for the development of strategy during battles, which is always a good thing.

 

[Shaz]

I like bouncing numbers cluttering the screen - makes the battle feel like there's actually more going on. However, I don't have a fancy animated battle system where there are people running all over the place and animations playing everywhere all the time. If your battle screen is already busy, I can see how it would just become more clutter. So it depends on what's already going on.


Also, if MHP is quite high, it can be difficult to see changes in the HP bars. And does a half-full HP bar mean they have 1000/2000 HP left? or 5/10 HP? Big difference, and important to know (for your actors, at least).

 

[Zoltor]

I like bouncing numbers cluttering the screen - makes the battle feel like there's actually more going on. However, I don't have a fancy animated battle system where there are people running all over the place and animations playing everywhere all the time. If your battle screen is already busy, I can see how it would just become more clutter. So it depends on what's already going on.

Also, if MHP is quite high, it can be difficult to see changes in the HP bars. And does a half-full HP bar mean they have 1000/2000 HP left? or 5/10 HP? Big difference, and important to know (for your actors, at least).

Yea I hate the modern trend of having a million, and one animations going on in the battle screen as well(not to mention the animations them selves make turns/battles take a lot longer for no good reason).

Seriously, as long as there is a flash/shash, so you can tell something actually happened, that's all the animation there needs to be(we don't need damn sprites dancing around the screen for like 30+ seconds tyvm sigh)

Also yea, exactly.

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

You'd still see it on the HP bar, though.

It might not be clear though in some cases...


like what if your HP is let's say 1,000,000


and your HP bar let's say is 500 pixels wide... that means that each pixel will hold 2000 HP


Doing that, if 1 skill deals 2000 damage, the other deals 2500 damage, it might not be easily recognizable that the 2nd skill dealt more damage...

 

[Aner-Dyfan]

If you have a million health, does 500 really matter though?

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

It depends... but that 500 will still be a good boost...


4 turns of 2500 is equal to 5 turns of 2000... so that's 1 turn less... and each turn can mean a lot... it can even decide if you win or lose...


for a boss with 1M HP, 2000 damage will mean 500 turns... 2500 damage will mean 400 turns ONLY... that's a 100 turns less...


Also, that is assuming an HP bar that is almost as wide as the normal window... if the HP bar becomes smaller, it becomes more useful to have the numbers pop up... or at least, show the actual HP value in the bar...

 

[Shaz]

Yeah, it does. Because it tells you whether your attack is doing ANY damage. If the bar doesn't change, how do you know you're not doing 0 damage? How do you know that the enemy isn't immune to all physical attacks and needs magic to be defeated? You need SOME indication of how much damage you're doing, so you can decide whether to stick with the current approach or change your strategy.

 

[Eschaton]

Yeah, it does. Because it tells you whether your attack is doing ANY damage. If the bar doesn't change, how do you know you're not doing 0 damage? How do you know that the enemy isn't immune to all physical attacks and needs magic to be defeated? You need SOME indication of how much damage you're doing, so you can decide whether to stick with the current approach or change your strategy.

That would happen if the HP is absurdly high and skills are balanced in a way that they could possibly do zero or barely any damage at all.

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

or your HP bar is insanely small for the HP value...

 

[Cozzer]

Depends on the game, but there's only I problem I can think of: the player would have no way to know if he's dealing little damage because the weapon he's using is ineffective or because the enemy has a billion HP.

So, if you remove damage popups, you need to give the player some other kind of feedback about how effective his attacks are being (just different sounds could be OK, as long as the player has a way to know what they mean).

If this is not a factor in your game, I believe HP bars could be enough.

 

[West Mains]

Toasts are important for a lot of feedback revolving around anything that applies in battle that isn't directly related to changing a health bar.