Revive-able Player Animations & HUD Icons

(ImageOmega) #1

Just a couple quick thoughts after playing some games.

It seems to me that the difference between a player who can be revived and who is gibbed is not clear enough. I think having an animation for someone who is able to be revived is necessary.

Today I watched a medic literally stand over my body (able to be revived), shoot someone, then run away. Actually, he threw a med pack on my body too… He was probably a horrible medic, but, come on?

HUD/Objective Icons

I know this was the “first pass” with the new HUD/Objective Icons, but oh wow do they need some work.

First off, who’s idea was it to make the HUD icon for ammo/health packs and grenades the same? Did someone in the office want to troll the Alpha community? I can see it now, he’s sitting back sitting at his desk, talking to Charlie and all of a sudden lets out, “Hey Charlie, you know what would be hilarious? If we made the HUD icon for health packs the same as grenades…”

I do like the “revive” icon over teammates (which you would think would be clear enough for medics…). Any chance we can get those icons to scale even smaller when across the map? Currently, when it’s across the map, it still looks like it’s just a medium distance away. Can we get these style icons for health and ammo packs? I’d actually like to see this as a toggle feature; toggle showing health/ammo pack icons always. Like being able to always show the item names over dropped items in Diablo.

Speaking of toggles: How about a toggle for nameplates instead of a push-to-show? I’d want to always see my teammates health and names especially as a medic. Also, I think that enemy nameplates should pop up quicker when your crosshair is just in the vicinity of their name.

Finally, regarding Objective Icons, walking into White Chapel’s grey chapel is like a flashbang! Those little yellow diamonds are EVERYWHERE! I mean, I think there are 5 of them when you walk in. One to let you know you reached the jackpot, and 4 others to let you know which giant floating canisters you should be taking. Is it really necessary to have giant yellow diamonds on the floating canisters? I think a yellow top/highlight would suffice. However, when you are not looking at the milk jugs then maybe a yellow canister should pop up. Just thoughts… I do like the timer circle going on around the mini Washington Monuments. Thought it all seems a bit confusing right now. Plus, the flashbang diamonds blind you from being able to see the enemy who are standing in the middle of that extra medium-sized chapel.

This is the same issue I have with the yellow diamond on the EV. It blinds you and covers the enemy. It’s just obtrusive and annoying. What about a little tag above the EV saying…EV? Like a speech bubble?

That’s all for now… quick thoughts always turn into a novel with me.

(Evil-Doer) #2

+1 for the entire post

(Volcano) #3

your post makes my lady parts tingle Image +2

(rookie1) #4

Take 2 pills and call me tomorrow :smiley: wasnt me btw i dont do that

Joke apart you right

(Wezelkrozum) #5

+1 for the “I’m almost dead. Revive me!”-animation. It’s so hard to see who’s and who isn’t dead yet. Spamming the hud with brighter icons will only make it annoying again. Please try to make as many hints as possible with the environment in stead of the hud.

(chippy) #6

I’d still love to see Nails suggestion with crime scene chalk outlines. I really think they would fit in well with the DB artstyle and story. Or maybe some sort of bodybag in the same white/yellow as the “contaminated” areas spread across the map?

Body = revivable
Chalk outline / Bodybag / Something else = gibbed

An addition to that could be having the chalk outline fade away quite rapidly after a player is gibbed and waiting for a respawn. This could also serve as a hint towards when the next spawn wave is coming. The darker the outline, the closer is the next spawn wave.

(ImageOmega) #7

Yes, this is the idea! Besides just revive-able animations (also good for enemies to know if they should be gibbing) this same rule should apply to objectives and maps. If there is a part of the map that should have attention drawn to it, why not do it with design and textures instead of giant icons sticking out like Hello Kitty band-aids on Geoffrey Zakarian’s fingers (kudos to you if you got that).

An example of well implemented design would have to go to the Playstation 3 game, “The Last of Us”. Whenever they wanted to throw a bone your way of which area you should go to next or what obstacle you should be trying to climb they did so with the color yellow. But, it was subtle (kind of) like a yellow caution tape blowing in the wind or a yellow metal ledge letting you know you should be climbing it like King Kong on the Empire State Building.

The data cores having a bright yellow stripe across them (do they already? – can’t remember) or a yellow top would be a good way to draw attention. That also means texture artists would have to be careful with what other yellow items are strewn across maps. The control panels for cover could be colored in yellow metal with yellow wiring or pipes over them instead of big icons covering them. I do believe it makes sense to keep the text telling you what it does though.

What else could use some yellow? How about that EV that is enclosed in a bright yellow diamond?

(Protekt1) #8

Did they add some kinda color change to dead corpses? I think I only am just noticing this, if true.

(chippy) #9

A while back I think, grey when gibbed. Barely noticeable though.

(Protekt1) #10

Yeah, only noticeable up close. I only noticed it cause I was doing 1v1s.

(Volcano) #11

i think the easiest way to overcome the confusion between downed or gibbed players is to have a animation for the downed player ( similar to the sit up hand reach from ET) as for the gibbed player a simple roll over face to floor and colour loss.

even the smaller things such as the players weapon being moved away from the dead players hands is an indication
where as the downed player can have the weapon across his body. its the small things you notice on the fly

(Protekt1) #12

[QUOTE=Volcano;456684]i think the easiest way to overcome the confusion between downed or gibbed players is to have a animation for the downed player ( similar to the sit up hand reach from ET) as for the gibbed player a simple roll over face to floor and colour loss.

even the smaller things such as the players weapon being moved away from the dead players hands is an indication
where as the downed player can have the weapon across his body. its the small things you notice on the fly[/QUOTE]

Guns don’t drop in Dirty Bomb, they rapidly decompose with the body! Side effect of the toxins I suppose.

(Hundopercent) #13

As always +1

(RasteRayzeR) #14

two ideas :

  • have chalk outline for dead and gibbed guys (like the police)
  • animation if not gibbed
(INF3RN0) #15

I’m pretty sure they will be making most of those changes next patch. The one thing I’d like to see if we can’t get a clear incap anim is maybe have the bodies pulse visibly on the ground or a blinking icon. Anything to make it very obvious for a medic. The same thing should apply to the FOPS as well when people vsay for ammo. Plus some means of seeing peoples HP/Ammo as Med/FOPS in a way that isn’t too overwhelming would help as well.

(Kendle) #16

The main thing I want out of that lot (besides agreeing with all those suggestions) is the return of player name / health / ammo status above team-mates, I want to know who needs packs the most, which is currently virtually impossible to tell. I don’t actually find it hard to distinguish between in-capped and gibbed, but a better indication would be nice. Hopefully the next patch will include lots of HUD improvements.

(Mustang) #17

This thread tickled my jugular.

Regarding HUD icons players names (at least, but maybe all icons) could do with a contrasting colour outline, they’re too hard to read right now.

(..hauser..) #18

Regarding the ‘revive me!’ animation, we do agree it would help a lot. Problem being, now we have ragdolls (which previous games did not), we cannot guarantee what pose they will land in and hence what animation to play on them. We have a few solutions we are looking at but it might not come in for a little while.

(Volcano) #19

couldn’t you prevent the ragdolls from playing until the player is dead that way rag dolls from insta gib nades still happen, such as css ragdolls. on the ragdolls subject they are currently client side aren’t they which is why some people are trying to revive someone 5foot from where the person is because of the randomness of ragdolls

(..hauser..) #20

The main reason for going the way of the ragdoll was to inject some variety into the way that players fell when shot (or exploded as grenades don’t insta gib). If your ragdoll does unfortunately happen to land in a different place on the medics screen, it shouldn’t matter as that is the location they can revive you at.