Should health bars show exact numbers or only the bar?

Do you think other players/monsters/npcs health numbers should be hidden or should we see the health bar plus the exact health number of enemies?

I personally like when we only got the health bar, and no numbers, what do you think?

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bloodprophet

Just the bar.
Keep people guessing on how powerful is the enemy.

Tyranthraxus

Toogle-able

RocketFarmer

I would suggest no health bar, no damage indicators, no mana bar for players, monsters and NPCs, but people would cry. You could use other visual cues to reflect feedback on these things, but again people would cry.

George_Black

No HP indicator. Just nameplate.

Are you willing to attack a player fighting a mob?
Do you want to risk landing the killing blow and gain corruption?

For PvE, mob/boss HP bar should show numbers and/or %.
Why not?

Dygz

I don't necessarily care if it's numbers as long as it's reasonably clear what's happening.

ThexBlackxKnight

I like being proficient in skill use with percentages but it not too big of a deal to me not seeing numbers.

RocketFarmer

Not proposing animated gore, but that can be used as a visual feedback mechanism. Each creature could have its own animations based on the degree of remaining health. Would also provide a lot more variety to the game than a health bar. And the a screen full of health bars sort of sucks.

Just as the player UI showing visual indicators by less visibility, signs of blood at the corners and even audible cues like louder and faster heartbeat. Other cues might be loss of responsiveness in the player controls which would represent the physically weakened condition of the character or loss of mental faculty by slower casting times or slower cool downs. Want to really mess with the player, randomly reassign their hot keys to force greater mental processing time for the player.

raylegh

I'm used to seeing numbers, but I must admit that if there are a lot of people it's a mess and not very immersive.

Just watching the names/family names and guild names can feel uncomfortable for me so if there is a bar it's even worse. In AoC I prefer uncertainty.

Yuyukoyay

If they leave the numbers off of the HP bar then it would leave for players to be forced into the avenues of play that are just more fun. I don't believe a lot of people enjoy looking at exact hp values in preparation to use a move over having the ability to see when it is ready in a more convenient way.

It could also take some of that unease from players who suck DPS Meter cock. If numbers are less of a thing in the game in general and it only showed them when you wanted to improve your build. Then it could take some focus off of forcing the Meta early and actually allow people to use at least 40 of the 64 classes.

I generally do min max every build I've ever done, but what makes me feel like I have to do it are those giant numbers popping up distracting me every fight. If those weren't there and I felt like the build is working properly then I could focus more on the animations and how cool the game actually looks.

I don't really need numbers on the resources to tell how far away they are. I don't think it's possible to heal on a single or double digit integer accurately when you are looking at like 24 or more people anyway. Which is the only good argument against it I believe.

I think it's more fun watching the bar go down faster than to see the actual numbers involved.

Vhaeyne

Not for players that are not in your party.

It takes the bluffing out of open world PvP.

If you think the corruption system does not do enough to protect PvE players or Carebears then you should not want HP numbers to seen on health bars.

It is the first thing I look at when deciding If I want you shit.

Dygz

RocketFarmer

Oh, can the rogues have an option to make their health bar appear like they are barely alive so they can spring an ambush on one of these resource opportunists?

Percimes

Personal preference. No number, no percentage, no bar at all for players and common mobs.

Exception for players in your group and raid. Another exception for mobs with unusually large amount of HP, like bosses. For these cases I would show the info if you have them targeted (except for party members which should always be visible for the members).

Shadder

I think people should be able to choose whatever they want, whether that is number-based, percent-based, or nothing at all.

akabear

Percimes wrote: »

Personal preference. No number, no percentage, no bar at all for players and common mobs.

Exception for players in your group and raid. Another exception for mobs with unusually large amount of HP, like bosses. For these cases I would show the info if you have them targeted (except for party members which should always be visible for the members).

Totally agree.

With no founding on the idea, I have believed that the health bars came about at a time to achieve a purpose and compensate for what designers might have done should the graphis / technology be sufficent. That time has well passed but unfortunately players have got used to having bars (along with many other things) and so therefore lean towards the familiar.

The bar can become the focus, instead of the player or mob.

For immersion, I would much prefer less clutter on the screen, minimal supplementary information and any damage to players / mobs to be indicated by tells on the character themselves rather than some arbitrary bar above the head.

Dygz

I mean... we are lacking so many other senses that would be engaged in a real battle that we need some visual cues to help us evaluate the health of our opponents.
It's also why we really need a map and mini-map rather than just a compass to navigate.

Might be time for some new ways to represent health, sure.

Tacualeon

There 0 reason not to show the exact numbers.
Why would you assume not showing is the default go-mode?
Is like asking, should car have wheels?
%hp for bosses encounter, yes; %hp for pvp, silly.

Exact number, or to toogle-able for people that don't know better or have some niche % health scaling skills.

bloodprophet

Because it is. This is the intent they showed off years ago and I hope they stay this way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rysKB09T5Q

Trax

Definitely should not be able to see the health of people out of party/guild/alliance. It’s important gank protection.

Saedu

Allow the player to choose if the want to see values, percent, both, or neither.

I'd also have an option to show healthbars with nameplates as well

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