Feedback:User/Leonim/Effect feedback and character readability

Effect feedback and character readability
User	Leonim
Categories	Mechanics Player interaction

Some forewords and guidelines (later edit)

Actually I was not really satisfied with this suggestion of mine, it felt naively nostalgic and trying too much to be exhaustive, rather than practical. So I'm providing this update with summarizing guidelines and to-the-point suggestions. A complment ot this proposal that you can read in details in the chapter further below.

Redundant player feedback and character readability (initial thoughts)

When the game will be able to clearly convey what effect(s) there is around at any time, then players will be able to get real options about what to do about it... so, I'll discuss a little around those points : more readability, better visual clues in more than one way. Also lets be sure to make a difference between player's and character's perspectives.

See the table below for the actual suggestions.

GW2 feeling

Most conditions currently have feedback on the interface or animations (and that's what we are talking about, right?). From top of my mind and bad memory, some effects clearly noticeable in GW2 videos : slowed leg limping (crippled), chains around the body (immobilized), dimmed audio (stun), colored screen outlines (dazed), being in flame (burning), fast speed trail (quickness)...

A lot of people complains about messy battle of effects in any battle involving more than a few : readability is not there.

Some GW1 reminder

What I wonder is why the relatively good and long-experienced feedback system from the original game is not there anymore : check the Master of Conditions' area in Isle of the Nameless for one or this very wiki articles about conditions) for visual clues.

There were circles of conditions spinning around your character's torso, waist, legs and head where harmful or disabling conditions where shown. In the accompanying interface, the health bar would be impacted, by colors and shape, and the more health degeneration the more degenerative arrows shown.

What is important to me is that there were multiple redundant signals to catch, as players, about effects on our character AND other characters around (party, allies and enemies). If my attention would be on my skillbar; I would be notified, on the center of screen, same; on the party status, I would also get the info. You get the idea.

Realism and immersion... to a point

Improving the ways a player experiences what her character goes through (conditions but also boons, and effects in general) is a good idea, but not when it impede fun and gameplay. As for a realistic example, I wouldn't want to see my game unresponsive for a full 3 seconds because the character got stunned for such a long time (compare that to a simple 1s-length lag spike for instance and you should see what I mean). Immersive ok, realistic I don't think so, stylistised definitely.

Drawing a new picture

For me, you have to envision every effect on a unique target, not each on its own, and check if they are still readable at every feedback level, or overrides correctly : stronger effects taking precedence, opposite effects combining, close targets not messing with each other, etc.

The proposal is not perfect and some stuff is already in game (was or will be when you'll read this), not to your liking or utterly incomplete (you'll see some ?!? comments below). But that's what a suggestion is all about, trying to reach a better end by pointing some ways. :)

Effect	Short description	Stacks	Feedback clues
Condition damage			Health monitor separate from status monitor : icons from this category are at fixed corner positions around the health bubble.
			Visuals	Flying numbers	Health monitor	Health bubble	Others
Bleeding	Inflicts one packet of condition-damage per second.	Intensity	Blood-colored mist circling around the shoulders.	Gushing red high from jugular level	Number of packets on top of the icon (upper right)	Color : Anemia (GW1) or diseased (GW1) when also poisoned	World greying out (not characters) scaling with upper and aggravating intensity.
Burning	Inflicts one packet of condition-damage per second.	Duration	Engulfed in flames from legs to torso (thus toned down).	Sparkling orange-red from the upper torso	Icon (lower right)	Flames cooking the base	None
Confusion	Inflicts one packet of condition-damage each time a foe uses skill.	Intensity	Purple butterflies circling around the head, more along intensity level.	Ascending purple-red around the head	Number of packets on top of the icon (upper left)	Scrambled health value	Screen outline in purple
Poison	Inflicts one packet of condition-damage per second. Reduces outgoing heals by 33%.	Duration	Chemical-waste greenish shroud surrounding the stomach (lower torso).	Oozing red from the shroud	Icon (lower left)	Color : Poison (GW2) or diseased (GW1) when also bleeding	Tiny icon in the upper-left corner of ready skills which provide any healing effects (traited included).
Support			Icons for those effects appear in the traditional status monitor (above the health bubble).
			Visuals			Others
Aegis	Blocks the next hit.	Duration	Spiritual (blue) shield on the off-hand arm.			None
Distortion	Evades attacks.	Duration?	Phasing in and out, blurry appearance.			None
Fury	Increases your critical chance by 20%.	Duration	Mystical (golden) wings in the back, red glowing eyes.			Roaring sound
Might	Increases attack power.	Intensity	Mystical (golden) chevrons along the main-hand arm. From wrist to shoulder, cycling with cracking light depending on intensity reached.			None
Protection	Reduces damage taken by 33%.	Duration	Mystical (golden) force shield around the body (torus-shaped).			Golden outline for health bubble.
Regeneration and the like	Heals one packet of health per second.	Duration	Pulsing blue-green aura outlining the body.			Hovering mending green numbers at leg-level.
Retaliation	Inflicts one packet of condition-damage each time you get hit.	Duration	Jolting spark each time triggered.			None
Stability	Immunizes against movement-impairing effects (but not interrupts).	Duration?	Legs encased in mystical (golden) light, or floating disc if you don't have some.			?!? : "Stability should be as immediately recognizable as Stealth (pun intended), tough shell to crack."
Stealth	Grants invisibility.	Duration?	Translucid except body outline.			None
Control			The equipment status monitor near the Dodge button includes death penalty and armor states, lets add icons for currently equipped weapons as well. Unless otherwise stated, effects goes into the classic status monitor.
			Visuals	Skills, Dodge & Endurance			Others
Blindness	Causes the next hit to miss instead.	Duration	Swarm of black dots in front of the eyes.	?!? : "Except another tiny icon on any damaging skill, there is not much place for any global skill-related status, chilled, weakness or confusion have the same problem."			?!? : "Black screen of death is a bit extreme... but what else? Tunnel vision maybe but currently suggested with stun."
Chilled	66% movement-speed reduction & 66% slower skill recharge while active.	Duration	Slow motion movement, legs encased in ice.	Tiny icon in the upper-left corner of recharging skills, timer text in frozen blue.			Frozen effect (same as norn tutorial)
Crippled	50% movement-speed reduction.	Duration	Slowed movement, limping leg animation.	None			None
Immobilized	Immobilizes and prevents dodge.	Duration	Mystical chains around torso.	Dodge button replaced by the (unclickable) immobilized icon, no endurance bar.			None
Swiftness and speed enhancements	Increases movement speed by 33%.	Duration	Faster movement, speed trail.	One upward arrow per 10% speed enhancement (leftside of dodge).			None
Vigor	Increases endurance regeneration by 100%.	Duration	Evade with acrobatic or shadow-stepping animations.	Dodge and endurance boosted in orange (boon color), normal if weakened.			None
Vulnerability	Reduces defense by a definite amount.	Intensity	?!? : "If every being had an armor, fading or phasing the pieces would be a possibility."	Number of packets on top of icon (placed near armor repair state)			None
Weakness	50% of attacks are glancing and endurance regeneration is reduced by 50%.	Duration	White shroud circling at knee level.	Dodge and endurance dimmed to white, normal if envigored.			?!? : "A way to globally convey that attacks may be less powerful for a while."
Interrupt			Uses a head-hovering symbol (short animation then fixed loop?) to universally indicate an interrupted character. Dodge button replaced and endurance bar removed when movement-impaired.
			Visuals	Symbol	Skills & Dodge		Screen
Daze	Interrupts and prevents from using skills.	No	White bubbles originating from the head.	Spiral	Skills on recharge		Dimmed perceived sound and music (not voice).
Fear	Interrupts and forces to run directly away from the caster.	No	Fleeing panic movement.	Frightening skull	Skills on recharge and dodge button replaced by fear icon.		Banshee or boo sound
Knockdown	Interrupts, immobilizes and prevents from using skills. Knocked down foes fall to the ground.	No	Knocked down animation.	Crush	Skills on recharge and dodge button replaced by knockdown icon.		Dropping sound and slow downward shake of the screen.
Launch	Interrupts and tosses into the air.	No	Unvoluntary bump.	Tornado	Dodge button replaced by launch icon.		Boing sound and slow upward shake of the screen.
Pull	Interrupts and pulls towards the caster.	No	Unvoluntary shadow-step.	Grapple	None		Screen shake
Push	Interrupts and pushes away from the caster.	No	Knockback movement.	Finger flick	None		Screen shake
Stun	Interrupts, immobilizes, and prevents from using skills.	No	Deactivated robot pose.	Flash bang	Skills on recharge and dodge button replaced by stun icon.		Near-mute perceived sound and music (not voice), mild tunnel vision.

Anatomy of a skill icon

The skill icon is a bearer f many an information :

• unlock as an horizontal reveal (left to right),
• icon,
• hovering tooltip,
• recharge timer (when activated in the options menu) right in the center,
• recharge/disable radar-like effect,
• skill slot's number (bottom center) as targeting range indicator,
• number of remaining uses.

Which poses the question o fwhat should an effect icon should convey on top of icon and intensity... Should we have effect timers as well, when we can barely (or not even) make the difference between bleeding, burning and crippled icons for instance. Only blind stands out with its white symbol, but if every condition would be red and white, would they not ressemble boons too much? It is another topic (others suggestion have been made by the way), but an important one.

Stand down as an alternate option

Player should have the option to disable visual effects on the characters by swapping to a relatively simpler model where only the icons of the applied effects circle around characters. With so many animations raging on with ground-level area of effects, visual clues for characters can only be safely positionned on the waist and above :

• hovering : interrupt
• head : condition damage
• torso : control
• waist : others

Thanks for reading. --  Leonim _{[talk·contribs]} 01:34, 13 April 2012 (UTC)

Another pass, more practical (later edit)

Indeed, effects should be viewable both in the game world (characters, terrain) and on the interface (screen, skillbar). Status of important others should always be monitorable in the party window and via the new focused target monitor (indifferently ally or enemy).

• Effects affecting :
  • ...skill activation and recharge should modify the border/outlines of the screen and get a distinct sound notification : knockdown, stun, daze, chill, quickness, etc.
  • ...the next hit(s) should modifiy the skillbar's aura (the golden outline denoting being in combat, or at least the left part of it, in a way similar to Justice) : blindness, weakness, fury, justice, poison-coating, etc.
  • ...mobility and evasion should modify the endurance section : immobilize, cripple, chill, vigor, swiftness, stability, distortion, etc.
  • ...tanking (blocking, defense, armor, toughness) should modify the defense brackets (see proposal below) : vulnerability, aegis, protection, stealth, invulnerability, etc.
  • ...health should be comprehensely visible on the health bubble : regeneration, heal-over-time, bleeding, poison, burning, etc.
  • ...healing should stamp the corresponding skills with a recognizable icon : poison namely.
  • Finally, many steady effects only need to appear in the status monitors : might, retaliation, etc.

In this perspective, the skillbar should be slighty modified. Getting larger in the center to accommodate one sectionned bar on each side of the health bubble : (O). Those crescent-shaped brackets will be forming a shield around the bubble and providing quick information on armor and defense.

Armor sections

To check armor's state at-a-glance, the leftmost curved bracket is divided in six bars, sections representing each the state of the corresponding armor piece : paint-filled in orange if damaged or empty for broken or absent pieces. The default color brush used to fill each section depends on the armor type (and traditional related material as seen in the dye system) : metal/heavy, leather/medium and jute/light.

If vertical visibility is a concern, sections for shoulders and gloves can be double-parked on the outer side of the torso : it has the advantage to provide a conceptual silhouette, mixing form and purpose. Another solution might be to make the whole thing looks less like adrenaline and more like initiative.

In any case, with the six pieces visible, as well as the damage progression, this system would replace the current damaged armor indicator that stop to offer any interest past the first time a piece is damaged.

Defense meter

The rightmost bracket is for the defense meter (the sum of armor and toughness), crescent shaped and takes three fourths of the bubble's height. Ranging from none to 150% (the maximum as far as I know), it is filled at two thirds when defense is at 100%, one third when at 50%. The bar is positioned so that the 100% marker is found at the same level as the middle of the health bubble.

The bar gets depleted with each stack of vulnerability or similar effect currently applied, while any defense-enhancement is competing for the opposite. As an option, under a fixed threshold, it may blink slowly, but more rapidly the deepest it goes.

When under invulnerability, the health bubble is silvery/white (or glowing blue/white, but text in dark anyway), while the defense meter is filled to te brim and follow the same color scheme. In other cases, like proection, stealth or even retaliation, the filling color and shape of the bar can be modified to convey the meaning.

Some personal reminders

No harmful effect should hide most other clues at any time. Hence burning's pyrotechnics should be towned down in heights, from mid-thigh to mid-torso, arms included : 3/8 to half of the character's model for the highest flames is way enough to notice without cluttering everything else on anyone's screen.

Interrupts should get a visible symbol above the interrupted character in addition to other clues.

Any skill modification (Power from Might for instance) should be updated in the skill descriptions. Trait-related effects and their modifications should be viewable in the tooltips of the impacted skills and/or mechanics (with a different text color).

As always, thanks for reading and see you later for more. --  Leonim _{[talk·contribs]} 21:49, 22 April 2012 (UTC)

See also

There were quite other interesting suggestions about conditions, effects and the like. Which I read, seldom commented and inspired myself from, here are some that particularly caught my attention :

• Feedback:User/B_Pendragon/Options_while_suffering_conditions
• Feedback:User/Sahana/Blind_side_effects
• To be completed at a later date...

Return to the suggestion portal.