Enable Health Bars For Support Roles

[Ildrid Ildhjertet.2489]

@Incarne.4927 said:That's actually a really cool idea! I could imagine implementing some kind of in game emoji system that pops up over the player's head indicating different things similar to what you said, and it would be great for a social aspect too.

Lol I was quoting teamspeak voicechat :p But I agree with you, having the player character shoutout when they were in trouble so others could see their chatbubble would be cool, if it was together with a healthbar. The PC already do talk when they're in trouble, but without the textboxes. "I'm close to dying!" comes to mind.

[Drew.1865]

Would love this feature!

[starlinvf.1358]

@Henry.5713 said:Going to quote myself from the old forums:

_I remember reading a developer statement at some point. Something along the lines of healthbars not fitting the minimalistic UI style they are aiming for.Sounds pretty outdated nowadays with dedicated healers and their need to place a big number of ground targeted healing skills.

Either way, following options would be nice if we are ever going to see proper health bars outside non-compliant 3rd party tools. The latter two seem even more unlikely considering how we are yet to see proper customization options for any part of the UI.

DisabledEnabled for:– Party– Squad– Allies closest to you% TransperancySize_

UI juggling is really whats outdated. This was less of an issue in the 90s, because visual quality was pretty limited and our HIDs were less elaborate... so the UI itself became our main method of interacting with the game. This was also a time when the whole concept of panning up and down was a novel idea; thus screen space was designed around a more static, 2D method of thinking.

As the pacing of a game increases, the need to monitor UI becomes more of hindrance then a help. It draws attention away from active visual cues from the battle, which in turn forces those cues to become louder in order to get your attention. If you take a step back and look at the state of GW2's screen space...... you'll notice that the majority of its effort is put into making the skill bar useful with only peripheral vision. The minimalist UI design and reduced number of interactive elements are the drivers to accomplish that goal.... however, as the game started integrated more mechanics that required external cuing, the UI in turn started becoming more central to finding information about things that used to be more obvious in animations. This is actually a huge step backwards in terms of UI design, as the game's combat style demands the player to keep a constant eye on the state of play field. To look away for even a second, is often enough to miss a sign of an incoming attack. Raids are prime example of this, because it goes out of its way to force players to make split second decisions in reaction to its mechanics.

The Devs have begun relying on the UI too much to get this information across; and its high time that they reevaluate the VFX standards to return it back to being our main source of information input. Toning down skill effects aside (which is currently the single biggest thing in need of retooling), everything from condition/boon effects to VFX culling and animation sets need to have more clarity of distinctive, easy to read cues. Once thats done, this frees up the screen information enough to work on a real solution to the "health bar problem"...... making it easier to read the state of a target or ally on visual state alone. People have always bitched about the very bland (aka non-fllashy) armor and weapons designs, but the reason for those subdued design choices was originally done to make reading a character state easier for PvP. Not enough people seem to grasp how significant the originally PvP centered focus was for most GW2's biggest innovations in visual design approach. But with PvE having such a massive divergence in both Combat/Encounter design, and a huge drive for cosmetics to appease the masses, this key philosophy to visual design got pushed to the side.... and now this misalignment is the result of small, compounding changes that occurred over the life of the game.

As big as this might sound, its still only scratching the surface of factors that lead to our current situation.... but its not insurmountable. And I say that because there is no big sweeping change that can be mode to resolve the bulk of the issues, but more along the lines of reigning in VFX, Animation, Art production, UI Design, Gameplay design, and Engineering, pushing them to take steps toward a specific direction to prioritize visual cues based on situational significance, and driving it toward a more "human intuitive" design model, as opposed to a "game intuitive" design model commonly associated circa 90s UI design of WoW/EQ style games.

[Incarne.4927]

While I agree with most of the things you said like toning down effects in order to see what's actually going on, I still think health bars would be a good addition to the game.

[LastFantasy.8435]

Awesome Idea! so smart and hawt ;)

[Incarne.4927]

Still no health bars. :s

[Offair.2563]

I recently started to raid with friends and guildies and rolled a heal druid. Quite fun to play but as others said, its a pain to look on raid ui to see who needs healing, and then find the ones in the messy fights.

+1 to healthbars for me.

[Wandering Mist.2973]

You can tell that this game was never really designed for coordinated group content and it's really hurting the people wanting to optimize group gameplay. If Anet really intends for people to engage with instanced group content then they need to take a serious look at their UI, or just open up for UI mods and let the community do it themselves.

[Jaffawer.4932]

Let me resurect this post. HP bars are really needed. +1

[Mork.9532]

I totally agree. Since 5 years ago or so, when I created my first healer (which I still have to this day) I battle against the UI to see my allies' HP.

Trying to be a healer is a pain in the grass*: When in a party, you have to keep an eye on the top left of your screen to control the HP of your allies, then quickly locate them on the battle field if they need healing. And if you need to heal allies that aren't in your party, that's worst, you keep moving your mouse over the head of every and each character in order to force the display of the HP...

That's a joke and it has been years that every healer ask A.Net for some improvment on that topic, and the only response we got was something about the fact it wouldn't fit with the current UI's style.I mean, seriously? They fail doing some pratical way to watch over allies' HP and their only response so far have been "Sorry guys, we want to keep it beautifull"? That drives me mad to have to install some third party software, never knowing if it's ok or not, if it will be baned or not.

That wouldn't be to hard to put it as a simple choice in the options:

• Show no health bars
• Show party members' health bars
• Show all allies' health bars

Just implement it already A.Net! It's been years now! Do it! Don't let our dreams be dreams!

* my healer is a Sylvari... Yeah, the joke is lame, but that way I don't curse.

[thesilverdragoon.3078]

I thought there was a patch that added health bars a while ago. I never did anything to try it out, did it leave?

[Mork.9532]

In the today update:"Always Show Party Health Bars has been added as an option.Always Show Squad Health Bars has been added as an option."

Holly molly! Now that's a step in the good direction. Never though I'd be alive to see this. Now, just another step: allow to see the haleth bar of any ally (PC and NPC).

[Mork.9532]

@thesilverdragoon.3078 said:I thought there was a patch that added health bars a while ago. I never did anything to try it out, did it leave?

Well, it exist if you're in a squad: you can see the squad health bar above the head of the other members. But that was all until today.

[Jaffawer.4932]

Yey, Health bars guyyys!

[Plok.5873]

Best part of today's update (imho). Time to buy some gems.

[Incarne.4927]

I'm glad that they decided to listen to our cries, I don't actively play the game anymore (because of game design reasons) but I'm glad that this now exists in the game for us support players. Have fun healing :D