Guys you are so dumb! The glorious Astarties send the droves of Guard forward to waste the enemy ammo. They get a cover save perguardsman in front of them.
If they're allied and the Guard are behind the Marines, yes they get a cover save.
You humi's Just gettin to figuring this one out? Da boyz ave been usin grots to soak shots for yearz! It helps ya get close enough to da humies fer yer boys to bring out da choppas! Den it's time for WAAAAAAAAGH!
By some odd coincidence I've read three random articles today by PHDs, PHD students, and PHD candidates that have had odd technical flaws they really shouldn't have.
Sim City comes out tomorrow. Calling it now - biggest gaming disappointment of the century.
Every detailed description of the demo builds has been extremely encouraging.
I don't trust EA not to fuck it up... First of all, we know it's gonna have the always-online DRM bullshit, which EA is claiming as a benefit for its "social features" and cloud backup. Second, we've only just started seeing EA's love affair with microtransactions.
The red bar and red sploch are the grenade throw power indicator and damage indicator respectively. They'll go away when not in use.
Do you think the throw power is really necessary? Also would it better for the damage indicator to come in through the edges of all sides as opposed to taking up only one of them?
The damage indicator is directional, so you know where you are being shot from. As for grenade throw power, it's based directly off the way it works in Blood, to which this game is a spiritual successor. I guess we could let players time it intuitively...
EDIT: On second thought, I recall often taking my eyes off the enemy to look at the bar when I was playing Blood, so perhaps it would be best to make it intuitive.
Also, regarding that mockup, what does the 100 and green bar in the middle represent? And is the score on the top right corner going to be in the main game? If so, I think put it in a panel or at least change the font so it matches the other stuff better. Although I can understand why you wouldn't want the drippy red font in that color - may be tough to decipher in the heat of the moment.
The 100 is your kill count; important, because it's basically one of the high score mechanisms, and how high the number is determines how well armed and numerous your enemies are, how killy the bosses are, etc. The green bar is your progress to the next player level; leveling up lets you increase one of your stats and grab a perk after you finish clearing the room. It's a rogue-like, after all.
The reason there is both score and kills is because kills determine how powerful your enemies are, and score, which is pushed up with combos and stuff, determines the player level. It's an unstable equilibrium thing; a player who is conservative, baiting enemies one by one, will have their kill count rise faster than their score, and thus their level, meaning the enemies will be comparatively more deadly relative to themselves. This rewards skillful play and risk-taking by empowering the character for doing so.
It also means that there is a sort of ultimate metric of player skill in highest score relative to kill count. So people might aim to do runs where they focus on raw kills, and another where they focus on raw score, while a length run would naturally end up being a balance.
And yeah, the score stuff is a different font because reading words in the other font is less than awesome.
A revision:
Coloured numbers are your ammo counts. Grenade bar is gone.
Why not make icons for the stuff in the top right corner? An exploding head for faceshot, an armless stick figure for decapitation, a skeleton with flesh melting off for the acid...
Also, I was under the impression the tiny, kernel-like bullets in the bottom right corner represented ammo and the hand signal was an explosion for grenades. Was I incorrect? If I was correct, make that shit more metal anyway!
Yeah, you are. But you can carry four weapons at a time (Technically 5, with the melee weapon. You got scatterguns/boltguns, automatic/gattlings, launchers, and sprayers/beamers.) The four little numbers show those ammo slots, so you know how much of everything you have.
I agree that should look more solid though. In the final version, the UI will actually be a model that will react to lighting in the environment, with the symbols for health, ammo etc chiseled in with normal maps.
I'd suggest making the HUD elements slightly transparent, and possibly varying the font/color on the health, armor, etc indicators to make it easier to pick them out from the corner of your eye.
If the hit indicator doesn't change in intensity based on how much damage you're taking, I'd reduce it's intensity a bit so it doesn't obscure that bit of the screen quite as much.
Just wanted to say thanks to Scott for mentioning the Amazon Rewards card on a podcast a long while ago. I really enjoy getting $20+ free every month for more Amazon stuff.
Yeah, you are. But you can carry four weapons at a time (Technically 5, with the melee weapon. You got scatterguns/boltguns, automatic/gattlings, launchers, and sprayers/beamers.) The four little numbers show those ammo slots, so you know how much of everything you have.
I agree that should look more solid though. In the final version, the UI will actually be a model that will react to lighting in the environment, with the symbols for health, ammo etc chiseled in with normal maps.
I like the pictogram idea a lot, thanks for that!
I'm just laughing at the idea of dropping your melee weapon, and then your arms just fall off with an audible pop.
Just wanted to say thanks to Scott for mentioning the Amazon Rewards card on a podcast a long while ago. I really enjoy getting $20+ free every month for more Amazon stuff.
I've really been considering this the last month or so. I already spend a lot of my monies on Amazon. My only reservation is that it's a Chase card and I don't bank with Chase and a lot of the reviews mention poor billing practices, like sending out the bills late enough to be received after the due date. Not sure how accurate these claims are but they're all I have to go off of.
I'm just laughing at the idea of dropping your melee weapon, and then your arms just fall off with an audible pop.
Oh my god we need to have a melee weapon which is presented as a "pacifist" weapon that "disarms" enemies, and when you point it at somebody a dove flies out and blows up their arms, and only their arms.
Just wanted to say thanks to Scott for mentioning the Amazon Rewards card on a podcast a long while ago. I really enjoy getting $20+ free every month for more Amazon stuff.
I've really been considering this the last month or so. I already spend a lot of my monies on Amazon. My only reservation is that it's a Chase card and I don't bank with Chase and a lot of the reviews mention poor billing practices, like sending out the bills late enough to be received after the due date. Not sure how accurate these claims are but they're all I have to go off of.
I don't know anything about that either. I've used Chase's online banking from day one, and it works very well. I just get all statements by email and use auto-pay to pay off the balance every month.
Comments
The red bar and red sploch are the grenade throw power indicator and damage indicator respectively. They'll go away when not in use.
EDIT: On second thought, I recall often taking my eyes off the enemy to look at the bar when I was playing Blood, so perhaps it would be best to make it intuitive.
The reason there is both score and kills is because kills determine how powerful your enemies are, and score, which is pushed up with combos and stuff, determines the player level. It's an unstable equilibrium thing; a player who is conservative, baiting enemies one by one, will have their kill count rise faster than their score, and thus their level, meaning the enemies will be comparatively more deadly relative to themselves. This rewards skillful play and risk-taking by empowering the character for doing so.
It also means that there is a sort of ultimate metric of player skill in highest score relative to kill count. So people might aim to do runs where they focus on raw kills, and another where they focus on raw score, while a length run would naturally end up being a balance.
And yeah, the score stuff is a different font because reading words in the other font is less than awesome.
A revision:
Coloured numbers are your ammo counts. Grenade bar is gone.
Also, I was under the impression the tiny, kernel-like bullets in the bottom right corner represented ammo and the hand signal was an explosion for grenades. Was I incorrect? If I was correct, make that shit more metal anyway!
Also, the mechanics sound awesome.
I agree that should look more solid though. In the final version, the UI will actually be a model that will react to lighting in the environment, with the symbols for health, ammo etc chiseled in with normal maps.
I like the pictogram idea a lot, thanks for that!
If the hit indicator doesn't change in intensity based on how much damage you're taking, I'd reduce it's intensity a bit so it doesn't obscure that bit of the screen quite as much.