Party Health Bars on the Side

Battleborn Battleborn General Discussion
#52

For me I think the main thing that team health bars on-screen would do is change the way people play the game based on the reasons outlined by Rado and Elaura. Ever-present health bars have a tendency to lead to prioritising heals based on respective values, and tend to work against situational heals (e.g. do you heal the teammate at 20% health who is running away from the front line, or the guy at 50% who is about to be focussed by two enemies? If your eyes are locked on the health bars, you might not even know what is happening until it’s too late)

The counterpoint to this argument is that they could be toggled on and off based on player preference, and I think that’s fine. What bothers me is that in a PVP setting team health bars actually help non-support characters just as much as supports. If the team has an obvious on-screen alert that their healer is under attack this will work against the opposition as it will make isolating and killing a healer that much harder. It is still possible, of course, but the change would put some players at a disadvantage.

TL;DR: I say add them for PVE but let people switch them off, but consider carefully what it could mean in a PVP setting

2 Likes
#53

I’ve played support/healer in any game I get my hands on and I’m shocked it was removed from this game after I saw the UI in the pre-alpha demonstration video. Do you know how awkward it is to heal someone now having to spin your character 360 degrees just to check everyones health and then having to re-lock on your healing target?

Good thing I don’t stream. Everyone watching would need barf bags.

1 Like
#54

I have to agree with that! A bird’s eye view of BB is the only way I could watch it and not get sick. Fortunately, playing doesn’t make me nauseous, but it does give me that “WTF just happened?!?” feeling a lot. :smiley:

1 Like
#55

Yeah, third-person mode would make it more bearable. Reference Battlefront and Division camera positions.

2 Likes
#56

RE: @Rado’s point, totally!

4 Likes
#57

That would help soooo much for melee.

#58

any update regarding this? @scottv

#59

awesome if this is legit

#60

Sorry, but you must be some kind of masochist to like that. The screen not ONLY gets so cluttered with all types of special effects all the time, but you also have to deal with the erratic movements of your team-mates, camera shaking, disorienting CCs and your own erratic turning so you can use your built-in X-ray vision to see where everyone is and how their health bar is doing across eight layers of wall. The health bars would work the same as the rest of the fixed UI in the screen: an anchor to give you information that is ALWAYS available there (assuming you don’t turn it off, I mean).

It’s not fun; it’s confusing. It doesn’t let people do their intended role effectively. Plus, even if you DID have the health bars ‘cluttering’ your UI, this isn’t an MMO: you will STILL need to turn around and see where the heck they are. As long as it’s an option nobody will be harmed by this and anyone accusing you of not paying attention to the health bars will be as silly as the people who accuse you of not healing effectively because they were eight rooms away.

#61

Alrighty. My POV still holds for me. Your opinion is fair and likely shared by a general majority (guessing), but I think its the wrong approach for Battleborn, both in feel and aesthetics. The reasonin’ for all of that, as well as what I feel would be a better idea, is in my other posts.

Talk to you again in 2 months? :slight_smile:

#62

#Facepalm

#63

Spinning around like an idiot every 10 seconds because you’re support and your team is spread out is … a pain. And jarring. And … not my fault, but the only thing I can do is run back to spawn so everyone’s in front, or keep on keepin’ on with my twirly twirly. Capture and Meltdown have much different team dynamics than Incursion. Its not always a 5-man cleanup.

I vote for toggle-able health bars. No need to be able to target through that interface or F1 -> F5 — this isn’t WoW. I’d just rather have the info than do the twirly twirly dance!

#64

Hey, didn’tt Borderlands have health bars of your ally on screen?
Oh, wait. Yeah it did.
Just let me know I gotta go and save that ally’s butt a bit easier than having to spin like an idiot in real life trying to catch a fly.
It wouldn’t be considered a buff if it’s a universal thing.
That’s when it is called quality of life.
Even non-support characters get a use out of it.
Itd be great for pugs who are terrible at paying attention to each other learn. It’ll teach them to start paying attention more.
They still also have to watch what’s going on in front of them AND follow the map to wherever their ally is.

3 Likes
#65

Now that I read more of the thread, I think it’s important to make a distinction here. Although I’m in favor of health bars, you’re right - I’m only in favor of health bars over the current system of nothing, which leaves me the choices of either spinning around scanning for healthbars constantly or letting people die.

If there were better visual queues, I would prefer that. I’ve played the healer in MMOs - staring at red bars for long periods of time gets super boring. If I knew that I’d be alerted some way when I needed to heal someone whose health bar wasn’t already on my screen, I’d have no problem with that. I just hate the twirly dance. Continually trying to locate health bars is nearly as boring as watching them in an MMO.

The best fix is something that allows us to play the game naturally the most amount of time without missing a dying teammate.

You’re not always going to be able to get to a teammate in time, nor will you always want to leave your current position, but if you’re the healer, you need to have the info to make that decision, and I don’t think that detracts from the inherent difficulty / skill / attention budget of being a support class. You still need to pay attention - you just wouldn’t have to spin around like an idiot or ignore remote teammates as is currently the tradeoff.

1 Like
#66

Boom
+1

#67

FYI I’m usually looking at the mini map more than the regular view to compensate for the lack of peripheral view in first person.

Maybe add ticks to the mini map when allies are below half health?

3 Likes
#68

I definitely would like to see them, but then I main support characters.

How I would see this implemented would be dependent on position, so if their in your field of view then no representation beyond the norm.

However if they pass out of the field of view, to the left or right, then they are represented on that side of the screen, giving you a directional view of the character and their status.

This is a team game after all, let me keep tabs on my team easily.

3 Likes
#69

It’s something the team has started on as I’ve seen them in development, but currently isn’t a top priority for the next patch. Trust me I want them badly too, but there is more to their implementation besides displaying their widgets. I believe we’ll see them eventually, but I don’t have an ETA at the moment.

8 Likes
#70

Ah, you have given me some hope good sir! Listed health bars (or even changes to the existing health bars to make them more visible) would be a huge quality of life improvement for me (I like to garner popularity by playing a healer!).

I know you guys have a long todo list but I’m so, so glad it’s on there.

1 Like
#71

You are not suppose to heal/support every member as a healer/support. Your first priority is the tank or the player performing the best. Once that player is ok then the other team members can get helped. Players should know to port to base and get back into the battle field whenever their health drops

1 Like