Health Bar

Thoughts on a health bar? Squinting to see the line on my ship is not as appealing as it used to be. Just a little bar, maybe right under the energy bar, that shows amount of health per ship.

Do this.

[Skybax]

Yes.

it took me a long time to figure out there was a health bar on my ship

I was just fine with remembering how many hits I took.

I was just fine with remembering how many hits I took.

To be clear, I'm perfectly content with keeping this in the game. But I think an additional energy bar in your HUD would be really appreciated by new users, and vets like me who want to work more on health conservation.

It sounds simple enough to add. I'm thinking would there be an improved one for enemy ships and on the commander map too? It seems a bit frivolous for your own ship, is all.

[watusimoto]

How about a health bar under each ship, beneath the name?

Taz - Health of ships on commander's map, at least for your teammates, is a great idea. If I was in the "repair spirit," I could look at the commander's map and see which of my teammates needed health. Or I could check the status of a teammate with the flag to see how they were doing. Watusimoto's health bar suggestion would fit nicely here I imagine.

However, I don't think that a health bar underneath a ship on regular map would do much good, given that the problem stemming from having to squint to see the health bar would still exist, if only slightly alleviated. I think a larger bar in the HUD for regular map view would be more visual and accessible.

[Quartz]

How about a health bar under each ship, beneath the name?

Doesn't that seem a bit redundant?

[raptor]

I think adding things external to the ship will add noise to the look of the game. We attempted to do this with 'rank' markings for 019, but it was too noisy.

I'm not quite sure what to do about it, though.

[sam686]

The instant action version of ZAP have a health bar on the bottom left corner, at the same size, colored red/orange/yellow, just above the energy bar.

It can be added if some of you want it, maybe with an option to turn off the big health bar.

Right. I was personally imaging a really thin health bar, no more than half the thickness of the energy bar. This might reduce any clutter an extra bar brings.