Hm, I was under the impression that providing this kind of information of enemy players was a no-go for BHVR... And now it's in? Oh and yes, if you don't use it, you put yourself into disadvantage, so you have to use it to stay competitive.
Why is this suddenly being discussed now? This isn't new with today's hotfix, it's been in since last week's patch.
The fact is that you WILL use the health information in your targeting order and thats not information that you should have.
If you shot someone in the leg in real life I'm pretty sure you would have the information that they are, in fact, injured.
I am personally a massive fan of the health bars. They don't make the game 'easier' or more 'casual' or less 'competitive'. They change the dynamic of the game. You play differently when you know how much health your opponent has, rather than having to guess. If I know my opponent is on 10% hp I will push through suppressing fire and run past approaching melee specialists to finish that bastard off, now I can make that decision informed rather than from a gut feeling. I feel that this is especially important based on the sheer amount of hit detection issues, lag and bugs that the game faces. There is no way to estimate how much damage you have done, as you don't know if your opponent has actually been hit, has iframed the incoming fire, has lagged out and taken no damage, you just don't know. With health bars - you do know. Your tactical choices change from guesses to exactly that - Choices. The health bars do not simplify game play, they increase the flow of information going to every player, and using this information we can inform our decisions in each situation, rather than work off rough estimates and inaccurate assumptions. The health bars allow us to take individual fights and larger battles based on facts, rather than feelings, and while I see the argument that they negatively impact immersion, I really do not feel that a competitive team based shooter, even one set in the 40k Universe, will ever provide a great deal of immersion. The game is already 3rd person, has a great deal of UI elements and sacrifices the potency of many elements like weapons and vehicles for balance. There is no reason why these health bars should not be able to be turned off, if people deeply object to them, but that should be on a personal basis, as I feel that this addition only takes the game in the right direction, away from the absurdity of a game based on either lore or tabletop, as many people seem to demand, and towards a game with the features and design choices to be competitive and greatly supporting of team play.
And we had these discussions back in 2013, 2014, 2015 and the overwhelming sentiment from a vast majority of the community was a resounding NO. Most of us were under the impression Brent and company were on board and behind that sentiment, thus the reason we haven't seen health bars the entirety of Alpha, for launch, up until last week. Why all of the sudden we're seeing a change is absolutely mind boggling. I feel it cheapens the overall experience, dumbs down game play, and it totally destroys immersion.
I like them, no surprise. Everyone has a HUD, enemies would look battleworn after being hit, this isn't information that couldn't be gleaned in real life. And seeing as real life is often one hit kills which so many players oppose, it's not like we're pushing a sim shooter here. And yeah, it's giving a lot of very clear feedback to players about whether they are connecting or not, dispelling some of the lag confusion. Solid win there.
So cater to non 40K fans, cater to an easy-cheesy mode of game play, copy cat the various "dime a dozen" shooter elements of game play that are out there, and piss off the very player base(40k) fans that will be here paying the bills 6 months from now, 2 years from now, 5 years from now.
Whats the triangle with a skull inside symbol denoting? I saw it for the first time last night over an enemy player.
