I did some searching and couldn't find anything that really addressed this so I will now. If there are other threads I am sorry. My issue is the health bars do not really scale with the zoom level, and are the same size regardless of unit/building. Below you will see comparisons I've made with Supcom. The way it works in Supcom is MUCH better, and I realize the current implementation in PA is probably still first pass (since I don't think this has been iterated at all) but it seems like a relatively minor thing that would give the game much more readability. Here you can see how in supcom the health bars fit the unit and are not universal. I will step through stages of zoom: max zoom without strat icons min zoom with strat icons min zoom with strat icons and no health bars (in supcom) Here is an example I'm sure we've all seen in PA With no scaling or outright disappearance of the health bars the UI becomes so cluttered with giant green health bars you can hardly see anything else. Another thing scaled and appropriately sized health bars gives you is the ability see units in trees. Despite the units being all but invisible in the trees you can still spot them by their health bars at max zoom without strat icons. This is true in PA as well, but the health bars are still large and unscaled. Given that units currently clump tightly instead of seeing strat icons or the units themselves you see 50% green bars. Also just a nitpick, why are the PA health bars trapezoidal? Seems like they could just be simple rectangles.
By the picture it seems you have health bars Always on. There is an option in the up section of settings to have them on only when they have less than 100% health. I believe cntrl h hides toggles these bars but I may be wrong.
They could use little smaller. Little. A big post for that suggestion, but it definitely argues they could be smaller. And they could. A little. Also, with a bit of modding, you could technically change them yourself.
I realize that they could be always off, but then it would be next to impossible to see units that are hidden amongst trees. Can you see the 3 dox in this picture (not counting the two next to the factory) ?
I think the example above, you are expected to be using the strategic view to find units. Although it does feel like there is still a "no mans land" where you can zoom out just a little too far before strategic icons appear, making it harder to differentiate things... P.S. yes I like idea of scaled health bars, but I also agree that health bars appearing when <100% health does me fine right now.
+1 to this. Also nitpicking....but with eg: 5 players each with 200 units (a guess) that's a lot of trapezoids. It may make an improvement to change them to rectangles.
For some reason this never really caught my attention, but now you point it out, it's messy as hell +1 to this
No slight to Uber, but this my personal opinion... Being different for the sake of being different isn't a good reason. Don't change what isn't broken. TA did this perfectly fine. KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KISS_principle While it may not be very "stylistic", a "Stylistic" HP bar isn't what a player cares to see mid-game. Take a look: Simple. Clean. Not obtrusive. If it ain't broke, why fix it?
Guys, don't get confused. Not seeing your units in the trees isn't a Health Bar issue. It's poor game aesthetics. It's exactly the same as Metal Spots not being highlighted. It's a choice of the game's Color Palette. This isn't a First Person Shooter like CoD. Unless I'm mistaken, this game isn't designed to have the player actively searching for hard-to-see units. That just isn't the intended interaction with this game. Units should "pop" and stand out from the backdrop. Like this: I think this is another result of the camera/lighting effect that have yet to take place. I suggest we keep "not seeing units in trees" on our radar, but let's got rage about it quiet yet?
Sure, but then what's the point of the units even having models then? Scaling health bars solves the problem of clutter, and it lets you see units that would otherwise be hidden in foliage.
If you want to see your units, but they are hidden by trees, something is wrong, yes. But it's not the health bars.
