So what would happen if you replaced the common health bar in a FP game? Let's say in the top left corner you have a health bar. Now i'm wondering if any bgame has implemented a Food bar and/or an Energy bar. The Food bar is like your character's survival health and your energy is like your battle health. See now would you agree that this would be a good add-on replacing the health bar? I was also thinking about a popularity bar, except i was thinking of all of these things along the line of a mercenary game. So instead of popularity you can have Prisoners or possibly "Innocents". And this will get you more known in a mercenary society. I just thought that these would be a interesting idea to put into a game.

It has been done before. Shadowrun for the Sega Genesis included two combat damage bars. One for bashing wounds and one for piercing wounds.

I personally like it. The more the merrier. Well, up to about 3 or 4 [lol]

What about eliminating the bars entirely?

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Original post by Professor420 What about eliminating the bars entirely?

The Getaway

No HUD whatsoever.

I think Oblivion had no healthbar.

If your damaged you may hear your heart bumping louder and everything gets a red touch.


I usually like better looking healthbars which fit into the GUI, like Diablo did it. A bubble full of red water. Its the same but it does not look that boring...

Yeah i agree with you Trina because in Diablo it wasn't like random health bar at the top of the screen.

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Original post by Timus The Getaway No HUD whatsoever.

I meant more than eliminating the HUD or UI. I meant eliminating the entire concept of HP and health bar. In Getaway, and CoD2, etc., there is still a 'health bar,' but its just in a different form of expression. The screen turns red, the character is panting, etc. How about a system like Assassin's Creed, where if the character is hit he dies... his 'health bar' has been replaced by a dodge chance, and as you get more fatigued your chance of getting hit goes up? I've designed a similar system for the game I'm working on, where the type of weapon, type of armour, condition, fatigue, and strength all combine into a hit/kill or hit/resisted situation. You can't take the math or statistics out of the 'health' issue, but I think a fresh concept of 'health' is desperately needed, not just swapping it out for a red bubble or changing the name.

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Original post by Professor420 Quote: Original post by Timus The Getaway No HUD whatsoever. I meant more than eliminating the HUD or UI. I meant eliminating the entire concept of HP and health bar. In Getaway, and CoD2, etc., there is still a 'health bar,' but its just in a different form of expression. The screen turns red, the character is panting, etc. How about a system like Assassin's Creed, where if the character is hit he dies... his 'health bar' has been replaced by a dodge chance, and as you get more fatigued your chance of getting hit goes up? I've designed a similar system for the game I'm working on, where the type of weapon, type of armour, condition, fatigue, and strength all combine into a hit/kill or hit/resisted situation. You can't take the math or statistics out of the 'health' issue, but I think a fresh concept of 'health' is desperately needed, not just swapping it out for a red bubble or changing the name.

well, you still need some way of deciding "Character dead? Y/N?" or you don't have much of a game.

However, things that would work nicely is to have several healthbars. You don't die because someone had poked you 10000 times with a tack on your foot, but you're not going to be walking easily. Use a system that works differently. Rather than subtracting a number from a pool, you 'add' effects as you take damage. Bullet to the foot? You're not going to be running fast. 8pounder shot to the knee? You are crawling on the floor, slowly bleeding out.

Keep a blood level, measure blood loss rate for wounds and slowly subtract that from your character's blood supply. As it gets low they're going to get a little loopy and weaker. They're going to really suck at attacking, and likely die if they are gushing blood for too long.

MGS3 has a hunger bar. Tho they still uses a hp bar, you will perform better if you're full.

Haunting Grounds doesnt have a health bar, you have some invisible panic bar and stamina bar instead. You can only die from receiving :
-1 hit kill, like a fatal stab from a glass shard.
-when you are panic to the max, you character will fall down and unable to move, receiving any damage in this stage kills you.

Ico doesnt have a hp bar either. You game over by either :
-falling from high ground
-the one you're supposed to protect is kidnapped and you're unable to save her immediately.
-Petrified by the queen in the final battle. (1 hit kill)

Are these what you meant by no hp bar?

Now that gfx are so advanced, health bars could be replaced by a nice graphic representation.

"Oh, look at that bleeding hole, that can't be good..."

or the classic

"Hum, I seem to be missing a piece of my ear. Touché."