Grim Dawn Grim Misadventures #16 and #17
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Category: News ArchiveHits: 1568
We also hear and understand the strong opinions some of you have expressed over health bars vs. globes. It is a tricky issue because there are both development limitations and gameplay reasons for us not having them at this point. In terms of gameplay, we felt that the stacked health and energy bar are the most efficient way to quickly see both resources at once, near the center of the action and provide the most accurate visual representation of how much health / energy you have left. The globes, by contrast, become a little harder to accurately gauge toward the tops and bottoms. There are also already complaints by some that the HUD protrudes too far into the play-space and globes would only cause it to protrude further.
So, while some may prefer the aesthetic of globes, our feeling is that health bars serve gameplay and fit our setting best. We humbly request that you give the current iteration a try. Alpha is right around the corner after all.
Beyond the gameplay considerations, it would actually be a fair amount of work to convert the HUD and add the functionality for globes. Some have criticized that our past HUD updates have just been (re-skinning) or moving around existing UI elements. These criticisms are entirely accurate because that is what we have been doing and that's exactly what we said we were doing. From the start, we've said that we're operating on limited resources and need to carefully target where we invest our efforts. Adding globes to our HUD would be a more significant change than the layout revisions and rework of art that we've undertaken so far. It isn't a huge task but it would take time away from other improvements or features we could be working on. We question whether it is worth that time to make an aesthetic change that just seems different but, at least to us, not necessarily better. It is definitely not something we can slip in for alpha but, once you have had the chance to play with our current HUD and provide feedback, we can see if there is a large demand for change.
I think it is also important to consider that different people want to see different things. If there isn't a major demand to redo the HUD, we could always try to build in the functionality for globes so that it could be added in later as an option or done as a mod.
