Health/Shield/Jetpack Mechanics from GDC Videos

[Malorn]

The armor/shield thread got me thinking and I went back to look at the GDC videos for how the armor/shield system actually worked. I focused on the HUD elements in the lower-right, where health, ammo, shield, and jetpack are shown. If you look at the original 4-part videos you can see the lower right HUD better than the consolidated 40-minute unified video.

Here are my observations, which I have documented in the following image album:
http://imgur.com/a/NChQG#0

All the images have comments describing what I am writing in this post. Browsing the album is probably the easiest way but I'll summarize the information here.

Observations



1) 20 health bars, and 20 Shield bars

• 20 is also a factor of 100, so I am going to go out on a limb and say that the values are 100 health & 100 shield, represented by bars that account for 5 health/shield each.
• The damage rate taken by Higby in the video appeared consistent through both health and shield, so it appears that a given player's overall effective hit points is 50% health, and 50% shield.

2) Damage goes entirely to shield before health

• At no point in taking damage did health go down before shields went down.
• This is clearly seen during times when Higby takes fall damage, both from using the jetpack and when bailing from his aircraft.
• After shields are depleted then it goes into health with a "Warning" over shield until it starts regenerating.

3) Shield Regen delay was 5 seconds after not taking damage

• After 5 seconds of not taking damage, shield regen kicks in.
• I observed this by watching the timer count in the video from the time Higby took damage and when his shield started regenerating again.

4) Shield Regen was 4 bars every 1 second

• This equates to 20% shield regenerated every second
• Total time from having stopped taking damage to full shield regen is 10 seconds (5 for it to kick in, 5 for it to fully regenerate)
• Note that there are shield sidegrades that could change this.

5) Health Damage was Permanent

• I did not see throughout the entire video a point where the health regenerated even a single bar on its own.
• It might have been extremely slow (if it was on a 100-point scale and each bar is 5 points then it could have regenerated a few points and not have been noticed)
• Medics are thus presumed required for repairing damage past 50%

6) The player shimmers blue when the shield kicks in.

• This is observed clearly here in this screenshot

7) The Jetpack has 13 energy bars and regenerated 1 per second

• The jetpack indicator is above the ammo.
• It is not all-or-nothing, you can use only part of the jetpack energy or use short hops as opposed to using it all at once. Seems to operate similarly to the VS jumpjets from PS1.

8) The Jetpack starts at 0 energy after a respawn.
Everytime Higby respawned at the galaxy his jetpack started at 0 energy and built up.


This does not explain the role of "armor" in the game, in terms of light assault vs heavy assault vs infiltrator at least. I assume that much like vehicle armor, class armor offers passive mitigation. For example, an infiltrator might take 12 damage per shot from a cycler, while a light assault only takes 10 and a heavy assault takes 8. There is no need to repair armor in this model it's just the heavier infantry simply take less damage overall.


TL;DR: Look at pictures and read the comments -> http://imgur.com/a/NChQG#0

[Skitrel]

I noted on jetpack, the implementation we see in the video seems to have it firing off to an arbitrary height and then dropping down. Due to the many bars I presume that ACTUAL implementation will in fact be more like Halo Reach, where you can fire some of it and be very precise with how high you want to be, hover with sustained bursts to cover long gaps and so on.

That to me sounds much better, and I'm pleased to see the bars. Firing up to an arbitrary height and then falling to where you actually want to be isn't as fun.

[RNFB]

Love the visual shield glow, especially the empire specific coloring, though I think I would prefer purple over teal for my VS shields... "customaizayshun?"

The bars are too small, I hope I can scale them to be bigger and more obnoxious so I can easily see them when I'm focused on shooting stuff, and I would also like actual numbers displayed.

[Conq]

Nice collection.

Health not regenerating on it's own concerns me a little. Primarily because I don't know how self healing works for Medics. I don't want Medic to become more of an assault class than Heavy Assault.

[Malorn]

Originally Posted by RNFB

Love the visual shield glow

The bars are too small, I hope I can scale them to be bigger and more obnoxious so I can easily see them when I'm focused on shooting stuff, and I would also like actual numbers displayed.

That was among my strongest feedback when I went about this exercise and I absolutley agree. I'm working on a separate thread on the interface usability now.

[RNFB]

Another thing I would like to see, is the shield glow burst with each tic of regeneration to provide more visual cues of when your shield is full, rather than just when it breaks/starts, that way you wouldn't need to look at the bar in the first place

[NCLynx]

Awesome info. Should have looked at this stuff myself but too lazy I guess.

[Malorn]

Other random tidbit - the Vanguard's max speed appears to be 36 Kph. Higby's tank never exceeded that speed.

I think it safe to assume the Vanguard is the slowest tank, however. Prowler is the fastest and I don't see the mag being slower than the Vannie, but it is possible that the VS are slowest. Speed and maneuverability are orthogonal concepts.

[Bags]

I think you can change the engine though.

[Malorn]

Yes, from the nanite vehicles webcast, every vehicle has a "Performance" upgrade slot for things like acceleration/torque, speed, maneuverability, etc.

[Sirisian]

Originally Posted by Skitrel

I noted on jetpack, the implementation we see in the video seems to have it firing off to an arbitrary height and then dropping down. Due to the many bars I presume that ACTUAL implementation will in fact be more like Halo Reach, where you can fire some of it and be very precise with how high you want to be, hover with sustained bursts to cover long gaps and so on.

That to me sounds much better, and I'm pleased to see the bars. Firing up to an arbitrary height and then falling to where you actually want to be isn't as fun.

One of the designers (@PurrfectStorm) was in the IRC channel earlier today. She was talking about how they were currently tweaking the jetpack and making changes to it. Might try sending her some tweets if you want more info. She's one of the people in charge of testing that feature.

[Skitrel]

Additional image for the thread. This is the hacking going on symbol, which slowly changes colour around the circle band outlining it. You can see this around 1:36 onwards of the 4th GDC video. It only takes about 10-20 seconds, but Higby mentioned that the hacking in the demo isn't finalised in the slightest and was merely for demo purposes.

[Snipefrag]

Good analysis, these changes could be seen as slightly devaluing medic.. but i think its a needed change, since everyone isnt going to be able to heal like in PS1 it makes sense to have that 50% buffer before you start taking actual damage. At least this way you can manage your health, pull back as soon as you start eating into shields and regen without having to go over to your medic mate everytime to get a fixup. You should only really need your medic mate when pushing forward, hopefully this will promote using covering fire as a strategy to push into facilities.

[Malorn]

Originally Posted by Snipefrag

Good analysis, these changes could be seen as slightly devaluing medic.. but i think its a needed change, since everyone isnt going to be able to heal like in PS1 it makes sense to have that 50% buffer before you start taking actual damage. At least this way you can manage your health, pull back as soon as you start eating into shields and regen without having to go over to your medic mate everytime to get a fixup. You should only really need your medic mate when pushing forward, hopefully this will promote using covering fire as a strategy to push into facilities.

Also, they shouldn't over-burden medics either. With this system light damage doesn't require a medic, and even severe damage will regenerate 50% of your health, so a medic doesn't need to be constantly running around healing people and can do other things like reviving or contributing to the offense a bit.

As someone who likes the medic class I'm glad I won't be relegated to heal-bitch duty and will only need to worry about healing the more serious wounds. Medics are clearly useful to heal that permanent damage and keep the squad fighting in top shape, but I think their greater value is in reviving others. Plenty of value in that without being overly reliant on medics or without overwhelming them. Things like heal grenades will also make that easier, giving them more opportunity to contribute to the killing part of battle instead of just healing/reviving.

[sylphaen]

Good post !

I was too lazy to look heavily into the mechanics.