7 réponses à ce sujet

[javierabegazo]

Alright, seeing as how ME3 is in production, I would like to start a discussion on HUD Elements, and what we'd like to see in Mass Effect 3.

What is a HUD?

In video gaming, the HUD (heads-up display) is the method by which information is visually relayed to the player as part of a game's user interface. It takes its name from the head-up displays used in modern aircraft.
The HUD is frequently used to simultaneously display several pieces
of information including the main character's health, items, and an
indication of game progression (such as score or level).   -HUD (video gaming) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia  

Now lets take a good look at the HUD's from ME1 and ME2.

• Mass Effect 1's HUD

• Mass Effect 2's HUD

Now if we look at the differences, there have been a lot of changes between the two. Life meters were removed in favor of the blinking icons, and Shep's the blue horizontal bar. Ammo read outs are still the same, and enemy life bars would pop up when aiming at them, but in a different way with ME2.

During prelaunch of ME2, A certain screenshot was released, one that really got me excited, because I thought it was the direction BioWare was taking ME2's hud.

• It is this one:
• 

Now especially with games like Dead Space 2 out that have paved the way for entirely in-game HUD's, I really hope Mass Effect 3 can incorporate some of the elements that can make for a more immersive experience. Lets take a look at

• Dead Space 2's HUD

Now seeing as how Shepard will have part of his back, if not near all of it covered up with Heavy Weapons and two primary weapons, I think there are other possibilities, like putting the Life guage on his shoulder, or perhaps his helmet.


Obviously I think Mass Effect 3 will have to compromise and cannot totally take advatage of Dead Space 2's gorgeous HUD free system because it still is a squad shooter, so we'll need some info for our squadmates.


Well, what do you think guys/gals/inbetween's?


[list][*]What are your ideas/comments/hopes/concerns? [*]What are the pro's and cons concerning HUD free games? [*]What do you wish ME3 to be?
[/list
[*]



Any BW Dev input would be appreciated, especially from Brenon Holmes or Christina Norman

Modifié par javierabegazo, 21 mars 2011 - 04:46 .

[Brenon Holmes]

javierabegazo wrote...

Alright, seeing as how ME3 is in production, I would like to start a discussion on HUD Elements, and what we'd like to see in Mass Effect 3.

<snip>

Now seeing as how Shepard will have part of his back, if not near all of it covered up with Heavy Weapons and two primary weapons, I think there are other possibilities, like putting the Life guage on his shoulder, or perhaps his helmet.

Obviously I think Mass Effect 3 will have to compromise and cannot totally take advatage of Dead Space 2's gorgeous HUD free system because it still is a squad shooter, so we'll need some info for our squadmates.

We actually had the exact same thought during ME2 development and did a few prototypes of a health and shield indicator in world on Shepard's armour. The end result was not as great as we'd hoped...

It was ok when Shepard was out of cover, like in the image you linked. The issues started to crop up once you popped into cover, with the way that the camera was positioned and with Shepard's orientation changing we had to do some fairly crazy stuff to get the health indicator to display in a reasonable position. Even then it ended up being rather confusing to reference when you were in the middle of a fight. I think if we'd simplified our health system so we only had one meter or bar it might have been easier to represent it on the armour (like on Isaac's back in DS).

All that said, we're still really interested in trying to move information into the world. That's one of the things that I love about Dead Space; the interface... it feels really immersive. I just want to touch the hell out of those buttons :happy:. So we are still investigating ways of putting some of our HUD elements into the environment... we'll see what we end up with.

I'd be interested to hear what you guys think might be interesting though... even beyond simple health and shield indicators.

Modifié par Brenon Holmes, 26 mars 2011 - 12:54 .

[Brenon Holmes]

Bluko wrote...

My biggest gripe with ME2 was the removal of the Radar (except when paused). Umm why? Most people like having a little radar to know where enemies are at.

That was largely a performance consideration (sadly), the radar in ME2 was very expensive. While the game was paused it was easier to bear the cost.

Frankly I always figured the HUD I saw in game was what Shepard would see if they were wearing a helmet with a visor.

That's how I usually think about it when I'm playing ME. :happy:

Gill Kaiser wrote...
The only thing I hope they change is the horrificly ugly red tendrils that appear when you're low on health.  

This is also something we're actively iterating on.

Thanks for the feedback guys (feel free to keep the ideas coming, but I'm bowing out for a while... need to get put my head down, music up and work on a few important things for a thing).

Modifié par Brenon Holmes, 26 mars 2011 - 03:03 .

[Brenon Holmes]

davidshooter wrote...

<snip>

Also, make different enemies visually identifiable so we don't need their title or species written above them in words.  Anything that removes words and bars from above enemies would be a real step forward in my opinion. 

This is something I wanted to touch on, (not totally related to HUD improvements)... as it's something I'm pretty passionate about (and it's sort of my job these days :happy:).

At the start of ME3 we put together a ME2 silhouette chart... some interesting stuff came out of that. Basically, it's very difficult to make out which enemy is which base purely on a lineup... some stand out a bit more (like Vorcha, Geth, Collectors, and the Oculus (dur, beach ball!)), but for the most part it's difficult to tell who's who...

Even if you were able to easily recognise a given enemy, what are they going to do in a fight? What sort of strategy should you be using when engaging them? Sooo... one of the things we're trying for ME3 is to make it a lot easier to identify the various types of enemies. Silhouette of the character is a huge component of that, and our character art/animator guys have done a pretty awesome job. I'm pretty excited for when we get to start showing off some of the really cool creatures we've been working on. :happy:

[Brenon Holmes]

Razagon wrote...

Maybe they all look the same but different colours. No seriously I think I could recognise a Reaper if I saw one in a fight.

I don't know... Sovereign was kind of hard to pick out of a lineup... 

[Brenon Holmes]

Epic777 wrote...

How did you not notice a big shotgun wielding krogan?

But does he have a shotgun, or a rifle? What kind of powers does he have? Is he going to charge you or hang back? How is he going to fight you? That's the only kind of thing I meant to imply with my comment on silhouette. Obviously some others are easy to identify, but I didn't think the point required an exhaustive list. :happy:

Modifié par Brenon Holmes, 27 mars 2011 - 04:17 .

[Brenon Holmes]

Terror_K wrote...

It all depends. I just think that if they're going to have enemies that are largely the same for the most part aside from perhaps which weapon they use they shouldn't look obviously different "just 'cause" if you get me? There should be a real-world reason as to why they'd be different, and not just a difference purely for gameplay reasons alone. A krogan silhouette shouldn't be massively different just because one uses a shottie and the other uses an assault rifle, because that doesn't really make sense from a realistic standpoint. And I already kind of think ME2 put style over substance a little too much as it was sometimes and would desperately like to see this toned back down for ME3. A Blue Suns merc should always be in a Blue Suns blue set of armour for instance no matter what his/her speciality is, and shouldn't just have a different style because they're of a different class.

There should also be other ways to tell if somebody is a particular style of enemy aside from just plain looks. Movement should be one indicator: the way an enemy moves should perhaps suggest how they're going to act and thus what they are. A krogan who charges towards you is more likely to be a shotgun one for instance than the one still holding back and strafing towards cover that's a little further back. They both have the same basic look and silhouette, but from how they've acted the player can go "krogan A is a shotgun, krogan B is an AR"

Man, need a thumbs up smiley emoticon.

This is well said, and I think is closer to a lot of the stuff we're trying to do. If someone's going to look different, it's because their gameplay is different (or should be), and there is an actual reason for them to look different. This should also be supported by their AI behaviours and general "feel". 

I'd really like to go into specifics, but I don't think it's really appropriate just yet.

Modifié par Brenon Holmes, 27 mars 2011 - 04:31 .

[Brenon Holmes]

Terror_K wrote...

Go on, Brenon. You know you want to throw us all a bone. We're all starving for some ME3 info.
You don't want to upset the puppy, do you? :innocent:

Oh wow... but... I like my thumbs. Preston would totally take my thumbs... and I need them to type... otherwise there'd be no spaces in my posts...