HUD indicators - feedback

[kubas246 4]

I don't visit this forum a lot, that's why when I saw @PeterNespesny thread about status indicator (and fact that's thread is closed) I decided to write this. Ok, so I would like to give my thoughts on it. Firstly I would like to say I completely agree with reason behind current status indicators. Peter wrote:

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While our approach to status indicators in DayZ is definitely not the standard in the industry, I believe it adds a lot to the DayZ experience by making it feel more natural and lifelike. Showing the exact state, even as a bar, percentage or a color coding for the entire spectrum (0-100%), is something which can be somehow counterproductive. With such information at your disposal players will end in the loop focused on maxing everything out.

To focus on the core experience, players should be focused on playing the game instead of checking if their blood level is at 69% or 73%.

I agree. Player shouldn't know exact state of their character. Just as IRL I don't know if I'm 70% hungry or 60%, but I will certainly know when I'm getting hungry. They should focus on experience and not on number. However I completely don't agree with current implementation of this system. It's cluttering screen, distracting and usually provides no meaningful information at all.

So let's start with arrows. Do constantly displayed down arrow on hydration and energy gives player any important information? No, it's obvious that it's decreasing if we don't eat/drink. Can user do anything about it? No, once he's not eating arrows will show. Then is there any reason for them to exist at all? No, they are not giving any useful information, yet they clutter screen. My idea? Get rid of arrows completely. My brain is not telling me constantly "Hey, I know you just ate but you are getting hungrier with every second now. No, no, you are not hungry, but getting hungrier"

Ok, we got rid of pesky arrows so set's go to icons now. Is there a reason for icon to be constantly displayed? Do to they provide any important information on their own? No and no. So what do we do with icon if it's not showing ANYTHING important? Hide it. There's no reason to inform user that everything is normal. That's not important. We don't have "You are not bleeding" icon because it's pointless. It gives no important information, but "Bleeding" icon/indicator is complete opposite of that. My brain is not telling me constantly "Hey, you are not hungry, everything is ok".

So now, we got rid of arrows, icons are no longer constantly displayed. What do we do now? How do we inform player that he is hungry?! Easy. Color coded icons. If character energy is at "safe"/normal level or above it then don't display icon. But if is energy is getting below certain level, then display yellow icon. You know, little reminder that he will need to eat something, but not necessary right now. Then orange, a lower level of energy, probably eat if you have some food or better start searching for food if you don't have it. Then red icon, that's bad, right? You see red and you know it's bad. Energy is low, you should eat ASAP. Finally slowly blinking red icon, critical status, character is starving, eat NOW. Pretty easy and realistic because you do feel IRL that you are a little hungry, hungry, very hungry and starving (simplification, but you get it, right?)

You see? You get ALL needed information simply from colors, that way you can get information faster, HUD is not cluttered with icons and arrows that give you no useful information, but only distract you and cause "information overload". Now we have one final thing to fix. Icons itself. Above I especially said "energy", "energy level". But in fact is more like "hungriness". When you get out of energy your character doesn't fall asleep but starts to starve. So why current icon is "lightning"? Is someone new to game really going to understand that it means he need to eat? Like you see a "lightning" icon and how are you supposed to know your character is hungry? Especially when it's not next to hydration. They are not close so HUD suggest they are not somehow connected. So icon needs to be changed. You should know what icon represents by looking at it. It should be simple. Next this is to group icons. If something is similar/connected then show it next to each other. Hydration icon next to "hungriness" icon.

Similarly this system could be adapted for every other icon (hiding when there's nothing to show, color coding and blinking). Temperature icon? When it's ok hide it. Getting too warm? Yellow, then orange, red and when overheating blinking red. Maybe even icon could stay red and there would be flame or sun icon blinking on it? Getting cold? Light blue, blue, dark blue, purple. Maybe with snowflake blinking on it. Makes sense, right?

After that we all left with simple, easy to understand HUD that's not cluttering screen and informs user when he needs to be informed about something instead of displaying unimportant and irrelevant informations all the time. Also if you think that new players should be informed about connections between actions (being cold depletes you energy quicker, sprinting depletes your hydration quicker etc, eating cucumber gives you water and energy, but actually more water) then consider implementing context based tutorial that would display for some time simple pop-up message that shows when player sees something for first time and gives basic info on it. If yellow hydration icon is implemented then hive him quick info what it is, what that means and what is connected to it. Few simple sentences. Alternatively there could be "novice hud" mod with all those arrows, but it would have to be limited somehow to prevent abuse (give server admins option to force it on/off, add default setting like it's only displayed for first X hours of playing DayZ, etc.)

Edited December 4, 2018 by kubas246