Enemy Indicators

Cooper Holt · Sep 4, 2013

(I don't believe this has been discussed before, so I made a thread for it.)

When you're fighting an enemy, will the name/type of enemy be displayed somewhere on the screen?
(e.g. above the enemy, at the top of the screen, etc.)
This could also include a mechanic of whether or not the character (or player) knows what it is, based on if they've ever heard about it or seen it before.
Thoughts?

Parco · Sep 5, 2013

i think it would be funnier to play if it didnt display any name. would aslo be fun if they had no specific names in the game and npc named them differently, in one area they might call the big monsters for ogres, other places they might be called trolls.
the mechanic for a character to not know what something is might be an interesting idea. maybe add a inspect option, if the character never seen/heard one before it will pop up "i have never seen anything like this before" or something, if he have heard if it before he can go like "this must be a cave troll, fits the description the villagers gave me". what about also making it possible naming it yourself, that could be quite interesting when talking to other npcs.

fluffydino2000 · Sep 5, 2013

Yeah, I think it would be interesting to just let the player perceive their own name based off what they know about the lore. If the lore lacked global consensus it could make for some interesting conversations as you say. I think we need to know more about the AI and dialogue before we know if it would actually add anything though.

I guess a similar question would be do any nouns get autonamed and can you name them yourself?

The only problem with this would be that your character has lived inthis world for some time, one assumes, so it may not make sense that some names aren't known.

Parco · Sep 5, 2013

fluffydino2000 said:
The only problem with this would be that your character has lived inthis world for some time, one assumes, so it may not make sense that some names aren't known.

true, didnt think of that

ZaratanCho · Sep 5, 2013

Well maybe you will see the more common/known ones, but when something weird emerges it will be "?" Unknown. ;D You are exploring underground and suddenly something jumps out from the shadows and you have no idea what it is, would be a little concerned. ;D There should be an option maybe to turn off indicators or UI elements, the less UI there is the better.

nox · Sep 6, 2013

ZaratanCho said:
There should be an option maybe to turn off indicators or UI elements, the less UI there is the better.

With Sui I tend to agree with this, from the videos I've seen I don't think there has to be a name tag on stuff. Just give the info in the lore, if it is needed. I don't need text to know that it's a skeleton, or a wolf, and if I see a deamon it would be scarier to not know what the hell it is.

Tom · Sep 6, 2013

I don't think a name would be necessary. It would be very good to find out the names of things in some alternate way from fighting them. I'm thinking of Dark Souls here, where items and dialogue offer the names of creatures.

666jet · Sep 7, 2013

I think name tags for NPC's that have introduced them self's to you, I also think it would be good for NPC's in different villages to name them differently would be cool

ZaratanCho · Sep 7, 2013

Yup, and you can show and hide name tags with a button for example.

cosmo bozo · Sep 7, 2013

I don't really want to see any unnecessary UI elements... if there is going to be something like this it should come up momentarily with a keypress (like how dragon age has a key to highlight useable stuff)
or an option to show the name of something when the mouse cursor moves over it..

666jet · Sep 7, 2013

cosmo bozo said:
I don't really want to see any unnecessary UI elements... if there is going to be something like this it should come up momentarily with a keypress (like how dragon age has a key to highlight useable stuff)
or an option to show the name of something when the mouse cursor moves over it..

I think you've hit the nail on the head maybe mouse over when your not in combat mode to show NPC's that have introduced them self's to you

ZaratanCho · Sep 7, 2013

Exactly what I said, meant. I was thinking about a mouseover but who knows, out of combat should be good. ;D

Fawz · Sep 7, 2013

I'd like it if there was no passive indicator for all things around you. I'd much rather have it so you have to make an observational choice to look at something to get more indicators about it.

fluffydino2000 · Sep 7, 2013

I just remembered, in dev video 3, Madoc says that whilst out of combat, clicking on something "inspects" it. So I'd imagine that most HUD will be on demand if you know what I mean. I'm imagining that it brings up some kind of window with the inventory image of the item and the name you know it as with a description. Hopefully you'll be able to do a similar thing with enemies, people and places et cetera. I like the idea of logbooks with info about everything in games but the implementation is always so poor. Interestingly, the Xbox version of minecraft did a good job with this. You just hit a button an it brought up info about whatever you were looking at.

Edit: Just to clarify, only info that to would know would be in these descriptions, so only famous people and places would have info before you start learning stuff in conversations and books and finding stuff out yourself.

Komuflage · Sep 20, 2013

Guild wars 1 had a good system, were if u pressed and hold ALT, NPC names were shown, as well as some interactive objects. Also clicking/holding mouse over a npc would show his name. And honestly the system worked great.

Now I realise this is exactly what Cosmo bozo is suggesting, just giving an example of a game with this system.

Fawz · Sep 21, 2013

A lot of Isometric games use that system (ie: Diablo and PoE) and although it's very functional I always felt that it ended up ruining the experience.

In the end you want to know everything that is around you, and having a hotkey you press to highlight items is really useful for that. The problem is with how much it ruins the immersion and removes the need to pay attention to details. You end up with it always on and have words all over the screen, or press it every 5 seconds to make sure you didn't miss anything. It's a small feature, but it goes a long way in changing how a game is played.

I really hope that a key to highlight all items nearby isn't implemented and that instead the game is designed around you having to consciously look at something specific to get more information about it as opposed to having the game give you everything at the press of a button.

Komuflage · Sep 22, 2013

Fawz said:
A lot of Isometric games use that system (ie: Diablo and PoE) and although it's very functional I always felt that it ended up ruining the experience.

In the end you want to know everything that is around you, and having a hotkey you press to highlight items is really useful for that. The problem is with how much it ruins the immersion and removes the need to pay attention to details. You end up with it always on and have words all over the screen, or press it every 5 seconds to make sure you didn't miss anything. It's a small feature, but it goes a long way in changing how a game is played.

I really hope that a key to highlight all items nearby isn't implemented and that instead the game is designed around you having to consciously look at something specific to get more information about it as opposed to having the game give you everything at the press of a button.

But there is no need for it to highlight objects. Only NPC names.
You could also make it so that it only shows the name of npcs that you've talked to.

fluffydino2000 · Sep 22, 2013

This is something similar to the discussion about traps a while ago. Madoc said that they consider some kind of perception skill, but then they decided that they'd rather have players look for stuff on their own. I'd imagine this applies to objects but Komuflage makes a good point separating items and people/enemies.