Small and practical weapon stats UI change

[Ketog 1032]

For a while now , new players have been quite confused with the stats shown in APB's weapon descriptions , not being reflective towards what they actually do ,

So the change that im proposing is instead of using that system:


Replace those bars with actual numbers that are tied to the weapon's damage :


Note that this is using STAR stats taken from apbvault.net used as an exemple .

I replaced the "Rate of fire" with "Fire interval" wich in my opinion much more reflective of how a weapon will behave , and the Mobillity section with a Percentage , as an exemple Star doesn't affect your mobility , while a weapon such as Medusa would slightly reduce your speed (80%)  , and a weapon like Heavy HVR heavely slows you down (50%).

This change would not only make it easier for people to know precisely how a weapon will behave but also save some work from the devs as the values shown would be directly tied to the weapon's damage variables , so no manual changes would be needed when doing balancing .
 

Edited September 16, 2018 by Ketog
bunch of small typos

[Latsha 71]

19 minutes ago, Ketog said:

Replace those bars with actual numbers that are tied to the weapon's damage :

that will be really useful for newcomers in order not to get confused when a gun behaves differently than on the bar stats, which are just completely useless

[mtz 496]

I absolutely agree. Though perhaps it should also be made clear to newcomers that total player health is 1000 HP, so they can extrapolate how much damage can a weapon output in one shot.

That being said, it would probably work best with a health display on the HUD. Personally I have no issue with the lack of an exact healthbar on the HUD (I kind of like [or have become adjusted to] the current system where you have to estimate your HP based on impairment of your vision and hearing), but I can see why some people would like to see one in the game.

[Latsha 71]

2 hours ago, MartinPL said:

I absolutely agree. Though perhaps it should also be made clear to newcomers that total player health is 1000 HP, so they can extrapolate how much damage can a weapon output in one shot.

I feel like this should be disclosed in the tutorial which, to be honest, should be probably more specific when it comes to playing that game, things like "sprint for 50m" or "open a door" just won't cut it

[vsb 6174]

for fucks sake yes, the lack of any concrete weapon stats ingame has been a huge issue for years 

[Nitronik 348]

On 9/16/2018 at 9:38 AM, MartinPL said:

I absolutely agree. Though perhaps it should also be made clear to newcomers that total player health is 1000 HP, so they can extrapolate how much damage can a weapon output in one shot.

That being said, it would probably work best with a health display on the HUD. Personally I have no issue with the lack of an exact healthbar on the HUD (I kind of like [or have become adjusted to] the current system where you have to estimate your HP based on impairment of your vision and hearing), but I can see why some people would like to see one in the game.

ARMAS has gun damage as a percentage (which basically means they're moving a decimal point to the left) so that could also work

In the example above the STAR would be 17,5% instead of 175

It would also work nicely with Kevlar seeing as that's a 10 / 20 / 30% increase - making your health 110 / 120 / 130%


  Edited September 18, 2018 by Nitronik

[mtz 496]

1 hour ago, Nitronik said:

ARMAS has gun damage as a percentage (which basically means they're moving a decimal point to the left) so that could also work

In the example above the STAR would be 17,5% instead of 175

It would also work nicely with Kevlar seeing as that's a 10 / 20 / 30% increase - making your health 110 / 120 / 130%

I like the idea, but it would need - at the very least - a disclaimer that damage values do not account for Kevlar health increase. After all, 17.5% of 1300 is not the same as 17.5% of 1000.

[Ketog 1032]

7 hours ago, MartinPL said:

8 hours ago, Nitronik said:

ARMAS has gun damage as a percentage (which basically means they're moving a decimal point to the left) so that could also work

In the example above the STAR would be 17,5% instead of 175

It would also work nicely with Kevlar seeing as that's a 10 / 20 / 30% increase - making your health 110 / 120 / 130%

I like the idea, but it would need - at the very least - a disclaimer that damage values do not account for Kevlar health increase. After all, 17.5% of 1300 is not the same as 17.5% of 1000.

i don't think that's very practical tbh

why ? because it ties the weapon's damage to the health value , while showing plain numbers doesn't . Edited September 18, 2018 by Ketog

[Dopefish 248]

I think this would be a great change to newcomers and veterans alike. Highly approve of this.

[thesamscout24 14]

This would be a very nice and worthwhile change to the current bar system.

[BlatMan 717]

Yes. Those bars are useless. They're not accurate, and even if they were, it would be difficult to tell the difference between 495 and 500 (OBIR damage).

[Guest]

.

Edited November 6, 2018 by Guest

[Defibyoulater 22]

On 9/21/2018 at 1:21 PM, MrsHappyPenguin said:

Yes. Those bars are useless. They're not accurate, and even if they were, it would be difficult to tell the difference between 495 and 500 (OBIR damage).

Oh no, I've actually based my life on them. I went into the woods, cut down a tree and made a bible-grade book out of it. Then on each page drew with feather and ink all the bars of the weapon stats.
For days I sat in a concrete room, surrounded by candles and wine, looking and studying trying to understand the bars. 

The bars had become my prison. They entrapped my mind, and I became warped. Everything, every object in IRL became a series of bars. I had become weaved with the weapon stats. Slowly, I fell into darkness never to return.

Yes, this post is essentially useless, but let my death be a motivating factor and a remembrance that the bars/stats need to be accurately portrayed on the weapon description. 

[Nitronik 348]

On 10/6/2018 at 9:54 AM, Defibyoulater said:

Oh no, I've actually based my life on them. I went into the woods, cut down a tree and made a bible-grade book out of it. Then on each page drew with feather and ink all the bars of the weapon stats.
For days I sat in a concrete room, surrounded by candles and wine, looking and studying trying to understand the bars. 

The bars had become my prison. They entrapped my mind, and I became warped. Everything, every object in IRL became a series of bars. I had become weaved with the weapon stats. Slowly, I fell into darkness never to return.

Yes, this post is essentially useless, but let my death be a motivating factor and a remembrance that the bars/stats need to be accurately portrayed on the weapon description. 

A great argument not only as to why not only we need this change, but also about how weapon stats bars are actively harming APB:Reloaded

[Genobee 143]

I do believe this has been known for many years. I recall the developers themselves stating that the bars do not display anywhere near correct values. Nor have they ever really.

 

Going to bet that this is something they can't remedy all that easily until the new engine is ready. That the UI elements for it are hooked into the most absurd things possible. Making it a living nightmare to even attempt fixing it now. Certainly wouldn't be the first time some legacy RTW spaghetti code caused them trouble.