Fire Stack Info on HUD

[shadowsteel]

Now that fire has once again become somewhat of a threat, I want to suggest something for the Engineers that might make it slightly easier to deal with.

Show how many stacks of fire a component has on the HUD.

When things start bursting into flames, all the HUD component icons start flashing the flame icon to signal that something is burning. But it doesn't say how many stacks are on each component.

Now that you can't just repair and spray, you need to make a choice between repairing or spraying.

It would be helpful to know which part is most at risk and needs immediate attention and which ones can wait. Instead of rushing to the balloon, finding it has 1 stack, putting it out and running to the now destroyed engines.

[Gambrill]

+1 would love to see that. it wouldn't look too messy on the hud but would provide a hell of a lot easier time for an engie.

[N-Sunderland]

It's already shown in spectator mode, so they could just reuse that.

[Plasmarobo]

An interesting visual way to do it (if they didn't just want to re-use the spec mode way) would be a color gradient.
Have the flame icon get darker the larger the stack is.

Probably more useful to just do it the way it is.

[Surette]

Would certainly make my job easier as an engineer, but one thing to consider is that Muse made it this way purposefully; if you don't know which components have a higher fire stack, it makes fire more chaotic. It might be the intent that all you see is a fire icon everywhere, rather than knowing exactly how much fire is on each component.

[shadowsteel]

They might have made it that way initially and it might have been good when fire was what it used to be. But the dynamics of fire and putting fires out have changed a lot.

Another thing is that it seems Muse is trying to get a more realistic arc in the game (e.g. screen shake) and technically fire stacks mean how big the fire is which you should be able see.

[naufrago]

I gauge how much fire something has based on how quickly its hp is falling. There's not much difference between 1 stack and 2, but a pretty big difference between 1 and 5, or 5 and 10. It's not perfect, but it's usually sufficient. EDIT: For reference, I believe 1 stack of fire drains 8hp/s, and each additional stack drains 2hp/s. So a 5 stack will drain a component's hp twice as fast as a 1 stack.

Also, it helps to be aware of what weapons are hitting you, and where. If you know how much a component has been hit with a particular weapon, it helps you guess how many stacks of fire are on it.

[Moo]

Maybe rather than a HUD change, a "physical" change would work. The more stacks on the component, the bigger/more noticeable the fire effect is. Wouldn't help for when you can't see the component in question, but better than nothing, and realistic too.

[dasfoxx]

That is already technically there though. The more fire stacks a component has the more red it is. It's not very noticeable with lower stacks, but on the higher end it is. Take into account that metal doesn't general glow red hot with a small amount of heat, which this game demonstrates with a few stacks, but does when the temperature is greatly intensified (more stacks, more heat). That part of the system is fine and makes it more realistic. It would be a bit ridiculous to have everything glowing red hot and melting all the time. It would be quite wonderful to have the fire stacks shown on the HUD though ^^

~foxx

[Moo]

Isn't the red effect only on guns that are disabled by fire? And an on/off rather than a gradual change?

[dasfoxx]

It does only start appearing once it is disabled, but it gradual gets more bright red. I'm fairly sure about that.

[-Muse- Cullen]

Interesting idea... I'll push this on.