Health and wellness

Let's talk player health. Should Doom 3 use the tried-and-true percentage health system made popular by Wolf3D? Or is it time for a new health standard?

Should the player be allowed to boost far above the 100 (or whatever) limit? Should the boosted health remain boosted, or slowly drain? Should the player be allowed to raise their max health limit (a la Quake 2's Adrenaline)? What's the best way to display health: a digital counter, life bars, Predator-esque alien numerals? Should a low health have any negative effect on the Doomguy's performance?

I would prefer the old % method. If they put the method of "You get shot in the legs then you walk slowly" would slow down the great action pace of the game. Doom has to be fast and furious, not 100% realistic. The marine should boost to more than his 100% so it keeps the original doom health method.

Maybe if they had time they should implement both kinds, a % and a more realistic way...actually that would take too much time....

I like the old % way...easy to keep track of and stuff...but it would be good to have like a more realistic thing (get shot in the leg, lose some health and walk/run slower and you have to get a health kit and remove the bullet). Another thing I would like to see implemented is a pain meter...like the run meter thing that was talked about only for health...like if you get shot in the leg and try to run, it will cause you pain and you lose more health.

That would be kewl.

Why numbers? Can you really tell the difference between the pain in 64% and 65% ? Just a couple of states, marked by colors or something will do just fine.

I like the Max Payne health system, where your either healthy, wounded or dead. Armor can make all the difference and i hope id uses an armor system rather than a health system. No armor means instant death when any monster or bullet attacks you. The more armor you get, the longer you survive.

Heh personally, I think either way will do, maybe an option to change the way the HUD looks, if this was the case, I'd go for the half-life hud, which fades out a bit, when nothing happens for a while, and urban terrors hud, there's a little drawing of a guy, where you get hit is marked as red on the little drawing, and stamina is marked as a curved bar around the bottom of the picture, and the more injuries you have the less stamina you have too. but it's a good system.

Originally posted by Darkstalker
I would prefer the old % method. If they put the method of "You get shot in the legs then you walk slowly" would slow down the great action pace of the game.

Absolutely.

I played this game Lethal Tender long long ago, and it has a "feature" where certain parts of your body would get damaged, i.e. your arm could get shot up and you'd lose any attack ability, or you'd get your left leg shot up and walking forward would also turn you right, etc.

It was damn annoying because if you wanted to play the game like normal, the most health you could stand to lose was about 25%, and any game with only 25% health available at all times is absolutely no fun at all.

I'm for the percentage system, although I wouldn't mind if it was done in a way that locational damage varies, i.e. getting shot in the upper body does more damage than taking the same shot in the lower body, or something to that extent.

How fun is it to be shoot in the leg and run slower? And be chased by a Cyber Demon or 5-6 barons of hell!

The percentage system. It gives the best indication on how badly you're wounded imho.
And I think health should be boosted to up to 200% like the original, but it should slowly drop back down to 100% (but not as quickly as the Quake games), Armour should be a maximum of 200% like the original but it should not drop down to 100% like the health.
I don't think the player should be allowed to raise his/her health limit like in Quake 2 - it's a definite Quake 2 thing imho and I prefer to have a health limit which is easy to remember (In Q2 I tended to lose track of my health limit, so that when the limit was at, say, 108, and I ran over a medkit while at 106, I wasted a whole 23 healthpoints just to gain 2 health points, grrr).

And I agree with a lot of you in respect to disadvantages from being hit certain spots - that'll just slow down the action and make the game annoying.
I used to think of weight slowing down the player, but realized later that that would only make the game unfun.

I would like to see diferent kinds of HUDs, where you can choose, % system, color system, number system... and my favorite:

THE DOOMGUY`S FACE

It was cool to see the headache face (around 75%) or the "strucked by a truck" face (Like at 5%)

Originally posted by dsm
The percentage system. It gives the best indication on how badly you're wounded imho.

But do you really want that? Do you wanna walk down a corridor, find a medkit and go like "ok I'm 78% and this one restores 25% so I'm gonna wait a little longer". That mechanic way of thinking, while related to Doom, is completely off-the-mood.

the doomguy's face

i'd like to see it made a return too.

the percentage system is fine for me.it's quite easy to understand.

Originally posted by Zaldron

But do you really want that? Do you wanna walk down a corridor, find a medkit and go like "ok I'm 78% and this one restores 25% so I'm gonna wait a little longer". That mechanic way of thinking, while related to Doom, is completely off-the-mood.

Doesn't feel off the mood in the old dooms. I glance at my health and pick it up if I'm not at 90 or so. Percentage system all the way.

Uhmm, off-the-mood for what Doom3 is going to be based in what we gathered so far...

The keyword here is "movies", I think. What looks cheesy or stupid in a movie has the same effect on an engine like this. If the "walk speed in a movie looks ridiculous" example provided by Carmack is valid, I think we can make the same assumption for everything else.

If I don't know exactly how much health I need to get back to 100% then I'd find the game annoying - and I don't care as much as you do about "hints" that I'm playing a game. A good FPS has elements I'm used to plus lots of new things - like the percentage system I'm used to and new things in shape of, well new, realistic movement feel and other cool things that add to the realism.

I don't want Doom 3 to be more realistic than any other FPS when it comes to health, 'cause chances are that I'd find it more annoying. What I want is what seems like more realistic combat, more realistic weapon effects, more realistic death sequences etc.

Oh, and the face: It should definitely be there imo - I don't care if it screams: THIS IS A GAME!!! The face looked cool imo, and I find that the HDD (HUD) in most modern FPS games look dull and boring compared to Doom's because there's no face.
I dunno about the rest of you, but the face peeking left and right in Doom actually enhanced the feel of the game to me - gave it a "there-could-be-a-monster-around-that-corner" feel to it, not to mention that the blood on the face enhanced the feel of being in trouble imho(Oh shit, I'm at 5%! If I'm hit one more time I'm dead).

So, obviously my opinion is way different than yours Zaldron, because I want a different realism.

dsm's post

well said,
completely agreed.

when monsters attack from sides,the doom guy face turn to the direction where the attack came from.when he get new gun,he smilehis eye keep watchag and show that he always be alerted ..his bleeding face is really scary.that's why the doomguy face is such a unique feature.the quake guy's face is not as good as doomguy(except the glowing yellow-eyed god mode)

Originally posted by Zaldron
Why numbers? Can you really tell the difference between the pain in 64% and 65% ? Just a couple of states, marked by colors or something will do just fine.

I said a pain meter...but now that I think of it the way you describe it is good.

No armor means instant death when any monster or bullet attacks you.

You would be dead in about 3 seconds on nightmare mode...well maybe not 3 seconds but you get the idea.

Bah, the face in your status bar is too much wasted space. And I don't know how people used this thing to realize what direction did the attack come. I mean for one side you have sound positioning clues and besides shifting your view to the status bar when someone's attacking you is a bit inproductive.

But whatever, you'll see what I mean the next time id releases more media.