Visible HP bar.

[radajin]

So I've been thinking about this for a while, and was wondering.


Should i implement a visible HP bar into my game. there might some different specifications as to when or how it shows up but i'm wondering if i should have one at all.


Do people like visible hp bars? Like breath of fire 3 for example, after you kill an enemy once you can see his hp bar each time you fight that monster. this always leaves bosses a mystery but for trash mobs you get to see the bar. 


Or is the final fantasy approach better where the bars are always hidden unless you "scan" the enemy and even then you only get the number and not a bar.


What do you all think? hp bar or not to hp bar that is the question.

 

[chungsie]

what is your vision of the game you intend to implement or not in?

 

[radajin]

well i was thinking more from a player stand point. how do people feel when they see an hp bar, i don't care wither its in or not its what my players want lol.

 

[chungsie]

for action rpgs, they are nice, but for turn based, I think the ability to "scan" or some equivalent is fine.

 

[Azurecyan]

I don't really mind it as long as it doesn't crowd the screen too much. If it's small and I'm able to determine how much HP they have, then it's fine. I think if you're going for HP bars, a scan ability is fine for that instance. You can probably go the route where their HP bar is shown only when you are inflicting damage; that way it doesn't crowd the screen.

 

[radajin]

My biggest thing is i'm looking at the old school rpg's I used to play and grew up on and most of them didn't have HP bars you just kept whacking something until it died. But thens theres games that i grew up on also that after x amount of the type of enemy has been killed or have at least killed it once it had an hp bar appear and i really liked that also. So i'm curious as to which would be better overall for my players.


I do like the scan idea also i like the idea of it flashing when you hit them those are cool concepts. But i guess what i'm getting at is, Are HP bars something a lot of people generally like? or should i leave it more mysterious like the old school FF games.


I personally like both so its hard to say.

 

[chungsie]

you could also go another route. somewhere in this forum or the vxace dedicated one, there is a bestiary script with tutorial on how to write it. basically once you've encountered an enemy, it displays information about them. you can taper the amount of info it provides based on the number of them you have killed. I think something like that can be useful, the player could check on the stats of a known enemy when entering a map with known enemy type.

 

[sabao]

If you're to do it, do it like Breath of Fire III. Part of the challenge of battles in classic JRPGs was tension. Unless you used a Scan skill or had an item that would let you see how much health your opponent had left, you wouldn't really know how much longer the battle would go on. Given the uncertainty, you'd have to be careful about how you manage your limited resources: HP, MP and items. Sometimes, the approach works.


...Sometimes, it becomes a game of stockpiling potions. If you're leaning less toward battles of attrition, you could just have them there one way or another. Just make sure they don't make the screen look too cluttered. The benefit of knowing how much health an opponent has is that at least players know what they're getting into, and can be a little more deliberate in planning how to fight. When a boss is down to around 10% of their health bar, for example, perhaps a skill that knocks off 15% is excessive for the MP it expends. Maybe the player can reset the game right now and save himself time and grief knowing the boss is still at 70% and he's burned all his MP and items.

 

[Wavelength]

I'm surprised that the majority of responses so far have not gone this way, but YES I think you should include HP bars!  It allows for more sense of strategy and also allows the player to more firmly construct a "story" from the battle, in their mind.  It's a lot more satisfying than repeatedly banging on an enemy and hoping they die each time without having any idea how close or far from death they are.  


Don't require a "scan" on the enemy.  If you really want to favor suspense over strategy and story in your battles, then only show the HP bar after the party has defeated at least one of that type of enemy (several HP bar scripts have an option for this).  Or, alternatively (if you have a lot of time/money to invest in art), you could have several sprites for each enemy which show them in progressively more wounded states, so the player can visually see how close they are to defeating an enemy without having something so obvious as an HP bar.

 

[stupid enough to like FF13]

In most games, I'm going to very quickly get a feel for how many times my heroes have to punch random jerks in the face before they die with or without the HP meter. The HP meter thus ends up being helpful for all of...two, three battles before I get to "Josef will bring them down to a sliver of health and then Maria and Hope can plink them". So I don't really care if there is or isn't an HP meter.

 

[radajin]

In most games, I'm going to very quickly get a feel for how many times my heroes have to punch random jerks in the face before they die with or without the HP meter. The HP meter thus ends up being helpful for all of...two, three battles before I get to "Josef will bring them down to a sliver of health and then Maria and Hope can plink them". So I don't really care if there is or isn't an HP meter.

I generally do the same thing, it is nice when you see that instead of a sliver of life, you see that first hit kill them lol.