Project Reality Forums

killonsight95 wrote:just put the bar in untill one of the people that don't like make the models in the middle?

it isn't possible on the BF2 engine to have different wreck models for different damage states...

Tim270 wrote:Mares well remove the bleed effects and vehicle smoke/damage states then

Anyone got any apples left? Or oranges for that matter?

I am also of the opinion that cleaner HUD or less HUD is just better, and that any kind of progress bar is pretty much the opposite direction from where PR is right now. I think its a good idea to know how far along you are with building your deployable, but some kind of implicit indicator would be preferred imo (a la the bleed out and the Black and White effect, or the smoke stages of the vehicles and caches)

You ask whats the difference and I say its one of atmosphere and immersion. A progress bar is an obviously gamey artificial mechanic. I see an explicit indicator ie a loading bar and I am immediately brought out of the experience and reminded I am playing a game (whether its about dirt or not Rudd ). Whereas an implicit indicator (the smoke stages, the bleed out effects) maintain my immersion within the experience, perhaps even increase it.

I realise an implicit indicator is potentially more work, but hey, that's my 2 cents

You could give it 5 states maybe.

1st - (0%) Dirt + Some empty sandbags.
2nd - (25%) Sandbags fully build.
3rd - (50%) Camo net going up.
4th - (75%) Camo net fully up.
5th - (100%) Radio is in place and starts making noises

Something like that would work but I think it's more work for a small gain since you can just build it till it's done and you can no longer dig. If you can dig it, it means it's not fully up, and if you can't it's either hostile or 100% up.

The time indication is not necessary in my opinion, maybe because I'm used to what's in the game right now but if you are building a FOB, you want to make sure it's in a safe place and you can take your time to dig it up. No stress involved although I can understand that irl you would be able to estimate the time left to build something but I can imagine the work that needs to be done creating new damage states..

SeanRamey wrote:I was thinking one time "it would be kinda nice to be able to see what the current progress is of the FOB I'm building". So I think that there should be some kinda bar like there is for repairing vehicles in vBF2, only for when you have a shovel and your building a FOB. It wouldn't do much for gameplay but it shouldn't be hard to make either because vBF2 already does it. But yeah... just thought it would be nice, but not important.

Not realistic.. ??:

I am against this idea. The only time building a FOB takes so long that a progress bar would even be valuable is when it is being built by one or two guys. Any more than that, and it is done so quickly that a progress bar is irrelevant.

I think that there are other more pressing issues for the PR Devs to address, such as giving Insurgent factions a wrench, and overhauling the Combat Engineer class.

DenvH wrote:You could give it 5 states maybe.

1st - (0%) Dirt + Some empty sandbags.
2nd - (25%) Sandbags fully build.
3rd - (50%) Camo net going up.
4th - (75%) Camo net fully up.
5th - (100%) Radio is in place and starts making noises

[R-DEV]Rhino wrote:it isn't possible on the BF2 engine to have different wreck models for different damage states...

Unless your talking about damage state effects, which is very different and what your suggesting there isn't really possible to do via an effect. It is in a way, but wouldn't be very good way of doing it as if you stopped building for a bit at say 50%, then the sandbags may disappear even thou its still at 50% since you can't have a very long TTL on an effect.

It needn't necessarily be a visual indicator, it could be audio. Or a combination of both. Something like:

Getting there 33% = Base model > "Complete" model
Almost finished 66% = Sporadic construction sounds (Hammers, saws, something like that)
Finshed 100% = Radio sound

Web_cole wrote:Almost finished 66% = Sporadic construction sounds (Hammers, saws, something like that)

That would sound SO funny...

goguapsy wrote:That would sound SO funny...

Well it doesn't have to be that. My point was that up until now people have only been thinking about visual cues, when audio cues are (presumably, hopefully?) possible.

goguapsy wrote:That would sound SO funny...

i was just thinking of the sound buildings under construction do in wc3 human race. dunno why.
doesnt seem to fit in pr imo.

Put a loading bar.
Everyone in the world speaks a different language. Do we really want to put in text for every single language that the PR player may end up speaking? Or do we want them to learn the handful of languages that may be coded in so they can know how far their Fob has been dug? Honestly, this hud element will be visible for no more than 130 seconds. It really doesn't matter in terms of gameplay. All we're doing here is making sure that this magical pile of dirt doesn't blow up in your face or 45 second after you walk away from it.

Web_cole wrote:Well it doesn't have to be that. My point was that up until now people have only been thinking about visual cues, when audio cues are (presumably, hopefully?) possible.

Yeah I know what you mean.

But then we gotta think, what kind of FOB does the PR FOB represent? If it's exactly the one in-game, shoveling is really all you need.

I'd like to see a few more models for 1/4 built, almost finished, etc.


So instead of just having Not built and Built, have the progress visual. For example, a sandbag wall half built, 3/4 built, etc. A tow emplacement's Bipod setup, then the tow on top, then the few sandbags around it, etc.

Dev1200 wrote:I'd like to see a few more models for 1/4 built, almost finished, etc.


So instead of just having Not built and Built, have the progress visual. For example, a sandbag wall half built, 3/4 built, etc. A tow emplacement's Bipod setup, then the tow on top, then the few sandbags around it, etc.

I dunno how many times I need to say this..

[R-DEV]Rhino wrote:it isn't possible on the BF2 engine to have different wreck models for different damage states...

rhino couldn't you change the smoke to lets say a static object lets say sandbags. Insted of smoke just have some sandbags in a pile? it won't be a different model because it'd be classed as an animation? and just do it that way.
By this i am not suggesting differant models rather i'am suggesting different looking "smoke" that isn't smoke but is in fact sandbags or another type of thing? so an FOB will always just be dirt but will grow with animations? or it'll be the same as now but it'll only pop up once it's 100% built?

[R-DEV]Rhino wrote:The only way I can really see of giving a decent and some what realistic "visual indicators" showing the repair progress would be though damage state effects.

Basically I'm sure you all know how vehicles have smoke and fire effect on them when they are low HP. Well in the same way we can add an effect onto the firebase that is played when it reaches a % of HP. This effect can simply be some dust, a 3D object even like a sandbag being placed and other things, including sounds being played at HP percentages with the effects (or even just a sound on there own).

The problem with this thou is that these effects would not only take a lot of time to make and implement but to make them look good would be a really tough job.


As such, I don't believe that this would be worth the effort to make.

You can't do it "as an animation", but you can kinda do that as an effect, as I said in my first reply to this topic quoted above

A pile of sandbags on the other hand isn't a bad idea for one of the damage state effects but you can't really have the sandbags build up as such very well, the pile would have to be separate from the main structure as in a pile of sandbags that had been filled and where waiting to be placed or something.

You would think a loading bar wouldn't look out of place as soldiers have a similar sort of bar floating above their heads when they need ammo and health, but I think on a static it will look kinda out of place (for me anyway) as you want to accept it as a piece of scenery on the map. I think sound indicators as a minimum but that animation thing sounds ideal, although I respect that it would take a lot of work

Or:

under 25% lots of smoke/dust

under 50% a bit of smoke/dust

under 75% radio noise isn't there

Dunno it that'd be codable though, kind of like vehicle damage cues, whitesmoke, black smoke and fire.

Plus if the FOB has been attacked you'll have an idea how damaged it is without a unrealistic VBF style health bar.

the current smoke/dust effect is a repair effect, not a damage state effect. If we added a smoke/dust effect as a damage state effect, that effect would constantly be there when its HP was at the correct % for that damage state effect, like you have fire on a tank when its low hp.

ie, what your suggesting would mean the FOB would still be popping out loads of dust under 25% HP, even if no one was building it.