Soviet Travolta on 26/10/2008 at 18:15
Quote Posted by EvaUnit02
What is MG3?
I guess Chuck is meaning Metal Gear Solid 3, where you can access a screen to heal specific wounds with specific tools at any moment.
june gloom on 26/10/2008 at 21:14
Technically MG3 is the original MGS. ;)
catbarf on 26/10/2008 at 21:32
Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth did something similar where you would suffer location damage, and the type of damage determined the medical equipment necessary. If you have suture equipment but break your leg from falling, you're SOL. And healing takes time, so you can't do it in a firefight.
ercles on 26/10/2008 at 23:56
Quote Posted by CCCToad
And resistance.
It maintains health packs as a game mechanic, but also prevents you from getting into the sitaution where you have so little health left after a checkpoint that the game is unwinnable without restarting the level.
Didn't you slowly auto heal in that one?
gunsmoke on 27/10/2008 at 02:32
Several of the games mentioned also make use of one awesome mechanic.... bleeding and having to bandage it separate from a health pack.
Keeper_Andrus on 27/10/2008 at 04:34
Quote:
The health system I liked best so far was the one in Chronicles of Riddick, which is the middle ground between the health bar and shrugging off damage after a few seconds. The health bar is divided into segments, and health only regenerates within segments where there's still a bit of health left. Allows you to shrug off minor injuries, but not major wounds.
This is a great mechanic, and exactly the one Far Cry 2 uses. But in Far Cry 2 if your health is under 1/5 you also have to first do something to stabilize yourself (bringing you to 2/5 health) then you can use a medkit.
The ridiculous part is that stabilizing yourself usually means digging a bullet out, or sticking your finger in your arm to push a bullet out the other side, which in almost every case would probably cause you to bleed to death. Nonetheless, the mechanic is cool, and so are the animations (if a bit F***ing disgusting, they make me cringe).
NamelessPlayer on 28/10/2008 at 17:46
Quote Posted by Volitions Advocate
Pariah and Escape from Butcher Bay.
You had X number of health Blocks. Once you got hurt enough a health block would disappear. But if you dont sustain enough damage to make the health block disappear it regenerates.
So if you start with 5. you get hurt enough that 2 1/2 of them are gone. the 3rd one will regenerate but the 2 that were used up do not come back. Unless you find a health station or a healing tool.
That one made playing fun.
I'm also a bit fond of this system.
However, I most prefer damage systems that take locational damage into account, and have different consequences depending on which parts of your body are injured. Everyone here has probably played Deus Ex at some point, which does just that.
Also, in games where your character is wearing some sort of powered armor, it would be nice if said armor also had a bunch of subsystems that could be individually damaged along with your health. Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri implemented that, but I can't think of a single game released before or after with that sort of feature.
I could elaborate even more on my ideal damage system, but I'll spare you all the resulting wall of text.
Matthew on 28/10/2008 at 17:57
Yeah, the only examples I can think of are flight or other sims (e.g. TIE Fighter).
Jason Moyer on 28/10/2008 at 19:17
I like the OFP/Arma realistic-ish damage, where everything's location based, whatever math the engine is doing to calculate your health isn't thrown in your face, and you get bandaged up by medics.
I kinda wish someone would do a NOLF-type game with an Arma-like health system...I guess a spy-comedy-sneaker with Thief-like vulnerability and OFP/Arma style ballistics.
MSX on 28/10/2008 at 23:36
I don't really hate the mechanic. I hate that everyone uses it.
I enjoyed the pressure of having 3 health and taking on a German death squad or whatever. It made me change how I play when I have low health. It encouraged creativity within the game system, ergo 'neo gamers' are not creative. Or game designers just love that that don't have to balance their maps for players that may have low health. I see the appeal myself. From a design standpoint anyway.
I'd prefer a more complicated system. I suppose shadowrun would be a fairly well known system that has health blocks and stun damage. They also effect your stats the greater your damaged. It's not that realistic, but I feel its a much more healthy balance than the player being super recharge man. The people that need that should just use cheat codes.
