Post by GrilledCheeseMojito on 2022-03-29 22:12:34
Mobs show their level relative to you, to some extent, by the color of their name, and then their 'expected party size' somewhat by the SIZE of their name (this seemed to be happening in Alpha-1 but also turned out to perhaps be a bug? Bring it back! lol) or some symbol.
It's definitely more interesting to not know the exact level, but the 'slight pink, red, deep red' seen in Alpha-1 was working really well for me personally. Obviously being an FFXI player I'll also take some nice detailed stat-check messages. If unfamiliar, an example.
"The Goblin Enchanter seems Incredibly Tough, it seems to have High Defense."
For me, I find that these were the most effective parts of the indicator shown in Alpha-1. Displaying the actual enemy level, whether on the name or on the life bar, breaks immersion and does not actually provide more information than the name color system. Ultimately what you care about as a player is "is this a threat?", and for intended boss monsters especially the number can often be misleading. Seeing a sea of deep red names when you enter an area is a quick and visceral way of knowing you're going to have a hard time there!
I'm "hardcore" enough to want there to be no indicator whatsoever of what a boss/raid/etc. monster is beyond their name or appearance being unique amongst mobs; heck, it's pretty fun when an enemy that appears to be a normal mob turns out to be a terrifying boss to me. But I understand that for the general audience, that sort of approach can be somewhat cruel. My suggestion would be to have no indicator for whatever you consider to be a regular mob, and have a unique icon show up either on the enemy itself or on the nameplate when you click to target them, maybe a skull or similar, which would denote that this is an especially strong enemy and you should be careful. My preference here would be to have it only show up when targeting the opponent outright in the nameplate at the top, and that you would only have one icon to indicate "danger", but I would be willing to accept further categories for raid/unique enemy/etc. if those appear, so long as regular mobs don't get an icon of their own. The color system should also not apply to these monsters (or always show up as a particular color) in order to further differentiate them from regular mobs. It helps to add to the feeling of finding something unique and interesting when you do face something like that.
I would also like some general "check" function on the enemy that would tell you if it's particularly defensive or evasive. I think any additional information beyond that is best left for players to find out and document on their own, but it's fairly realistic as a quick status check that if you see something like the bears in Alpha-1 that hm, maybe they have fairly high defense due to how big they are.
I think it's very easy for an MMO to slip into UI hell with lots of elements that detract from immersion, and Ashes thus far has done a fairly good job at keeping that contained. I would like enemy indicators to convey only information that would make sense to your character in this world, and therefore the UI should both minimize its footprint and focus on properties that would be reasonable to grasp for that world's inhabitants.