Visual effects on low health

[Stormrider]

Have you ever considered the idea of having some full screen visual feedback on low levels of life. I mean, it usually happens that you don't even notice that your helth is quite low until you take a look at the health indicator. Since this game doesn't (and shouldn't) use handicaps on low health such as slowdown, I think it could be interesting to have a mutator that we could configure so that, for instance, we had blackened or redish vision when our health goes below a certain number (for instance 30%). We could also set it up for fluctuating or pulsating vision, and even gradual loss of vision (to black or red) from a certain number to 0. What do you think? I'd really like to try this and realize whether it would add fun and inmersion to the game or not. I've tried something like this in Counter Strike. When you are very low on health, your vision is like a blinking fade to black, and you can hear your character breath and the hearbeats.

[Bi()ha2arD]

well, imo its pretty unfair. it gives the low health player a real disatvantage and stops him from getting a possible comeback.

[FrontAXL]

In a realsim type mod it would be great, not so sure about UT3 itself. I think it would be more of a hindrance then it would help.

[Shadow Dancer]

I've always found this kind of thing annoying as all hell. And actually not as realistic as it may seem.
It would seem to me that when you're close to death, your senses would be on high alert, extra sensative to any potential threats.
True you get tunnel-vision, but it only makes you focus more on what's important, and block out what's not.

The closest I've come to such a situation is A: being in a car accident: beyond the slowed perception of time which we can't really do, I actually seemed to get a clearer perception of what was going on than I would had it been a normal situation. B: Getting hypothermia on a bakcpacking trip up a mountain in Wyoming. All I could focus on was what would get me out, and those things became extra clear to me, whereas other things faded away.

So, if you're going to do some view-altering mod for near-death players, what I'd advise is to grey-scale unimportant elements and highlight important elements, like enemies, health, projectiles, damaging terrain... Also, fade out background ambient sound and music, and amp up enemy footsteps and weapons fire.

It would be more fun, more fair, and more true to the psycological situation.

[Stormrider]

Actually my idea was not to add this as a handicap for players on low health but rather as a warning. Another way to achieve this would be a blinking glowing in the numbers indicating health, something that can draw the player's attention for a second, just to be aware of that he is in danger and must look for health items.

[Bi()ha2arD]

if you play this game for some time, you'll learn to be aware of your health situation. you'll automatically look at your health bar every now and then (after killing someone for example) and run for health if you are low.

[Fudo Myo-o]

in Warlord's mutator pack, there is a mut like this, desaturates screen for a few seconds upon taking damage.. sorry but can't find link.

[Xyx]

Hampering injured people even further by reducing their perception has the makings of a "slippery slope" mechanism that is usually detrimental to gameplay, but I do think the sounds of breathing and heartbeat add to the immersion and sense of urgency. Perhaps, with the proper tweaks, a happy middle road could be found that provides maximum immersion at minimal cost.

what I'd advise is to grey-scale unimportant elements and highlight important elements, like enemies, health, projectiles, damaging terrain...

That sounds pretty cool, but I don't think stuff can be selectively greyscaled. Greyscaling is a post-processing thing, and post-processing affects the view as a whole and does not care what the pixels it is altering represent.

If anything, the desaturation that is built into most maps could be reduced, leading to brighter colors and thus quicker visual identification of health pickups and enemies... but that is the exact opposite of greyscaling. Maybe some highlights/midtones/shadows/brightness/contrast/hue shifting tricks could turn something up.

Also, fade out background ambient sound and music, and amp up enemy footsteps and weapons fire.

I doubt sound can be selectively amped up, but the music can probably be either muffled or simply turned down.

[Bi()ha2arD]

in utcomp you can disable your own footsteps so i guess its possible to modify this.

[FakeTruth]

You know, we already got this in our invasion mutator, some people on the forum don't like it, but we have heard no complain at all on our servers.

UT3 Invasion:
http://utforums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?t=663380

it kinda looks like this:


And there's also a video demonstrating different things of Invasion, which also includes the blurry health warning:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzaO8A7ISJM

Might be good to know that our project Invasion is OPEN SOURCE! So anybody can come in and look at how we created a blurry health warning effect.

To see the code, goto our code page:
http://code.google.com/p/rbttinvasion/

The actual class that does the effect can be found here:
http://code.google.com/p/rbttinvasio...Interaction.uc

[Malachor]

And perhaps the people who play on your server like it, while the people who don't like it, don't play on your server.
They may not complain, they may just stop playing instead.
I for one would not play a game that does that.

[Stormrider]

Faketruth, that's pretty interesting. I'm downloading it now and testing when I arrive home. Is there any way I could use these effects and nothing more. I mean I just want to keep my playing my deathmatch with bots, but just adding the effects of your mutator. Sorry but I have no idea about coding or compiling.

[FakeTruth]

And perhaps the people who play on your server like it, while the people who don't like it, don't play on your server.
They may not complain, they may just stop playing instead.
I for one would not play a game that does that.

But have you tried it yet? If you haven't you can have no opinion about it, really.

Faketruth, that's pretty interesting. I'm downloading it now and testing when I arrive home. Is there any way I could use these effects and nothing more. I mean I just want to keep my playing my deathmatch with bots, but just adding the effects of your mutator. Sorry but I have no idea about coding or compiling.

When I find the interest in doing so, I might make a seperate mutator out of this.. but I'm not sure, also because I'm working hard on invasion..

I think it's better if there's someone else willing to do this, the code's already there, so it's not much work left

[Shadow Dancer]

That sounds pretty cool, but I don't think stuff can be selectively greyscaled. Greyscaling is a post-processing thing, and post-processing affects the view as a whole and does not care what the pixels it is altering represent.

If anything, the desaturation that is built into most maps could be reduced, leading to brighter colors and thus quicker visual identification of health pickups and enemies... but that is the exact opposite of greyscaling. Maybe some highlights/midtones/shadows/brightness/contrast/hue shifting tricks could turn something up.

Something like the Feral sense in Wolvie, but I don't know if we as modders have the ability to create something like that...

I doubt sound can be selectively amped up, but the music can probably be either muffled or simply turned down.

Well, ambient sound is a separate slider in the auido tab, so it's got to be considered separate somehow...

[Malachor]

But have you tried it yet? If you haven't you can have no opinion about it, really.

I disagree that I can't have an opinion. Just because I feel that I only need to see a screenshot of something, doesn't mean that my opinion isn't as valid as anyone else's.
But it is my opinion, not anyone else's.
And what you do with your mod is your choice, as my decision not to play it is my choice.