Today’s post looks at the prototype design being tested for the player’s vital-signs and associated monitors.

Background

Many First-Person-Shooters (FPS) use a health bar to represent the player’s overall health status. It helps create a sense of vulnerability and danger to the protagonist. It may regenerate automatically and can often be restored using a medic-pack, adrenaline-shot or similar in-game pickup.

“create a sense of vulnerability and danger to the protagonist”

Sometimes the health bar is supplemented with a stamina bar to administer game mechanics like endurance when running, attacking or sustaining damage. As stated on the giantbomb.com wiki

“It's a more malleable concept of power or endurance… as a way to limit players ability to do repeated actions”

This design experiments and expands on these ideas by introducing five vital-signs to represent the protagonist’s overall health status.

Vital-Signs

Prototype vital signs in the current design:

Heart Rate: The player’s heart rate in beats-per-minute

The player’s heart rate in beats-per-minute Blood Pressure : The player’s blood pressure %

: The player’s blood pressure % Oxygen Level : The player’s blood oxygenation level %

: The player’s blood oxygenation level % Glucose Level : The player’s energy level %

: The player’s energy level % Temperature: The player’s core temp. in deg. celsius

Health and stamina bars are often used in FPS games because they’re easy to comprehend, which is important during busy gameplay sequences. So although vital-signs facilitate different gameplay mechanics, it’s still important to provide a simple mechanism to represent the protagonist’s current health status.

The Health Status

The health value

is derived from the vital signs to summarise the player’s current health status. So at any moment the player can check their health and gain an immediate overview of their current situation. It uses a percentage value (where 100 indicates perfect health), and fluctuates with the vital signs.

The player can analyse their vital sign monitors to determine their detailed health status and act accordingly.

“…electronic ESS sensors and monitors are fallible”

The vital signs are monitored by the ESS and displayed on the HUD. These electronic ESS sensors and monitors are fallible, introducing measurement errors and sustaining damage.

Upgrading player and ESS attributes

The player can improve accuracy, durability and weight parameters of the ESS components by expending XP points. XP is earned by completing in-game tasks.

The ESS sensors and monitors can be upgraded to increase their energy-efficiency and hence reduce their energy usage. The player will mine/collect energy in the game.

Simulating the vital-signs

So the player can check the summarised health value to get immediate feedback on their current health status. But it’s derived from the vital-signs. So how are these vital-signs determined?

Each vital-sign has an equilibrium state for each player action. So for example, the player’s heart rate may tend toward 80bpm when at rest, but increase as the player performs actions like running, jumping or climbing. The blood pressure stays around 60% when at rest, but will drop significantly if the player sustains damage (simulating a blood-loss event).

“…health level fluctuates with the vital-signs.”

The aggregated health level fluctuates with the vital-signs. So as the player’s heart rate increases, or blood pressure drops, or glucose level depletes, or core body temperature changes, the player’s health will deteriorate.

If the player’s health drops significantly, they may experience blackouts, dizziness or even death.

Until next time,

Carmine.

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