What do hit points represent?

[Kavonde]

Hit points are the amount of damage you can take before suffering a critical existance failure from a death of 1000 cuts.
Just go on to tvtropes.com to figure out what both of those are, but BE WARNED!!! you may not make it back here for several hours.

You know what's sad? I knew both right away.

Gorram TVTropes.

Its not meant to be realistic its meant to tell you how long you have until you die.

I wasn't saying anything about realism, just we can look at hit points different ways (some of which might be more realistic, though, so...yeah).

Ack! Anyway, enough of this, got to go buy StarCraft 2 now. kthxbbye.

EDIT: Never mind, Blizzard's online payment site broke already. Typical.

 

[Lawyer105]

Some RPG's tend to use 'Health' and 'Stamina'.

Health being actual, physical health, and will be quite limited e.g. an average gun does say 4-16 damage, and health is around 10-20. While not perfectly realistic, it means you can survive 2/3 bullets if they hit you in the leg/arm, but will be one-shot killed if you get shot in the head/chest. Even if you aren't one-shotted by the bullet, you'd start taking penalties to your actions as health-damage builds up.

Stamina would represent all the accumulated cuts, scrapes, bruises and 'narrow misses' that are the daily bread of you average, fun-loving hero. In-game, at high level you could have say 100 stamina. So you could easily absorb a bunch of bullets from the enemy cannon fodder because even when they 'hit', you're still diving behind cover, dodging at the last second or whatever, and only getting a 'scrape'.

When Stamina runs out, however... watch out. Even the biggest hero can be worn down by sufficient volumes of cannon-fodder. If you don't have the stamina to absorb the damage, it goes straight to health.

=========================================================================================

In other games, you have a similarly limited amount of health, but have the ability to 'absorb' damage instead of having 'Stamina'. This represents things like wearing a bullet proof vest allowing you to ignore small amounts of damage from a .22, and still reducing but not eliminating damage from an assault rifle.

 

[Kavonde]

Well level scaling can work to but you do not take the things you killed 20 levels ago and make them 25 levels higher, I perfered it when games brought out a newer version of X or Y with a mix of the old........scaling what you got up to your level is boring IMO.
Also it would be neat if they did more with it like make every other critical hit from a lesser level creature do 3 or 5 times as much damage to keep things fresh other than just keeping them in your shadow.

Also the way wow dose level scaling is how most other games do it IE the game tries to stay ahead of you and you are kept as a drone always doing menial tasks, I wish MMOs would use more customization let me pick my skills the rate(1% to 1000%) at witch I gain EXP,money and what not because skills and abilities have a min lvl req you can easily keep things balanced for PVP and what not while allow alot more customization.
/mandatory MMO rant
LOL

Hrm, I think I gave ya the wrong idea here. The monsters in WoW don't scale with your characters, but the challenge does. You're never an elite one-man killing machine, unless you ditch the story to go rampage through a lowbie dungeon.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

Hit points are the amount of damage you can take before suffering a critical existance failure from a death of 1000 cuts.
Just go on to tvtropes.com to figure out what both of those are, but BE WARNED!!! you may not make it back here for several hours.

You know what's sad? I knew both right away.

Gorram TVTropes.

Its not meant to be realistic its meant to tell you how long you have until you die.

I wasn't saying anything about realism, just we can look at hit points different ways (some of which might be more realistic, though, so...yeah).

Ack! Anyway, enough of this, got to go buy StarCraft 2 now. kthxbbye.

EDIT: Never mind, Blizzard's online payment site broke already. Typical.

Ya I like running the train of thought, "How dose HP work,give a fictional world discipsion"

For me its a mix of physical and mental energy or stamina you run out of it you are toast!

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

Well level scaling can work to but you do not take the things you killed 20 levels ago and make them 25 levels higher, I perfered it when games brought out a newer version of X or Y with a mix of the old........scaling what you got up to your level is boring IMO.
Also it would be neat if they did more with it like make every other critical hit from a lesser level creature do 3 or 5 times as much damage to keep things fresh other than just keeping them in your shadow.

Also the way wow dose level scaling is how most other games do it IE the game tries to stay ahead of you and you are kept as a drone always doing menial tasks, I wish MMOs would use more customization let me pick my skills the rate(1% to 1000%) at witch I gain EXP,money and what not because skills and abilities have a min lvl req you can easily keep things balanced for PVP and what not while allow alot more customization.
/mandatory MMO rant
LOL

Hrm, I think I gave ya the wrong idea here. The monsters in WoW don't scale with your characters, but the challenge does. You're never an elite one-man killing machine, unless you ditch the story to go rampage through a lowbie dungeon.

I get a "The elder scrolls rant" when scaling is mentioned LOL

I have to many thought's in my head ><

 

[Solemn Soup]

Thats a unique theory, but i thik it applies more to movies than it does games, but there may be some games out there that go along your principles.

 

[Kavonde]

Thats a unique theory, but i thik it applies more to movies than it does games, but there may be some games out there that go along your principles.

Oh, I know, but my point is actually that I think that developers should start applying this sort of thinking into their own games. Makes more sense than two people exchanging lightsaber flesh wounds until one of 'em dies.

 

[tehroc]

Hit points should be regarded as more abstract then health, it combines several concepts such as fatigue and morale. The best way I see it handled in a DND sense, its vitality or fatigue until you get into your constitution score, you actually taking hits once you get below con.

 

[SD-Fiend]

I think it is just how fatigued you are like in pokemon mystery dungeon you can talk to the pokemon partner you have at full health they say positive things like let's find lots of gummis! *your name here* but at half they take notice they are getting weaker when in peril they say they can't go on and need healing fast you can heal them at any time or you can keep walking and they will regain health eventually if K'od they will teleport out of the dungeon and will be back at home waiting for you

 

[Red Alastor]

Actually the star wars d20 pen and paper rpg had a neat idea. Your actuall health was just 10 to 20 points (your stamina). Your hitpoints were, like stated in this thread, more like your "luck running out". Critical strikes would bypass hitpoints and go directly to your stamina, so a lucky shot could be a one hit kill, even against high level players.

 

[Uber Waddles]

Hit Points, the way I see it, are equivilent to pain tolerance before shock sets in.

In a real life fight, you can only take so many hits before something in your body says "Oh bugger me" and you have to stop. It might be getting knocked out, it might be an intense pain, whatever. In Video Games, were not fighting with our fists (most of the time), but instead are using Swords or Bullets. In that case, hit points represent how much pain your body can endure until, well, death.

In games, Hit Points serve as a mechanic. A game would get boring if the Stelwart hero could never die: that would rip all of the challenge out of the game. Its a mechanic to ensure difficulty, sparking interest in the consumer.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

Hit Points, the way I see it, are equivilent to pain tolerance before shock sets in.

In a real life fight, you can only take so many hits before something in your body says "Oh bugger me" and you have to stop. It might be getting knocked out, it might be an intense pain, whatever. In Video Games, were not fighting with our fists (most of the time), but instead are using Swords or Bullets. In that case, hit points represent how much pain your body can endure until, well, death.

In games, Hit Points serve as a mechanic. A game would get boring if the Stelwart hero could never die: that would rip all of the challenge out of the game. Its a mechanic to ensure difficulty, sparking interest in the consumer.

Pretty much what I think when you run out of mental/physical energy/stamina shock sets in and you are done without aid.

What happens when death is used to reset or restart the battle counting the items you used?
Mmm thats dose not sound so bad.....dose not work for action games(bioshock) then again I am ranting again >>

 

[Solemn Soup]

Thats a unique theory, but i thik it applies more to movies than it does games, but there may be some games out there that go along your principles.

Oh, I know, but my point is actually that I think that developers should start applying this sort of thinking into their own games. Makes more sense than two people exchanging lightsaber flesh wounds until one of 'em dies.

I agree after awhile " two people exchanging lightsaber flesh wounds until one of 'em dies" would get pretty old so the hit points also meaning some sort of luck base as well would be a good improvement in games, and make the game more challenging.

 

[Solemn Soup]

Thats a unique theory, but i thik it applies more to movies than it does games, but there may be some games out there that go along your principles.

Oh, I know, but my point is actually that I think that developers should start applying this sort of thinking into their own games. Makes more sense than two people exchanging lightsaber flesh wounds until one of 'em dies.

I agree after awhile " two people exchanging lightsaber flesh wounds until one of 'em dies" would get pretty old so the hit points also meaning some sort of luck base as well would be a good improvement in games, and make the game more challenging.

Wait a minute ... those words aren't mine!

I think you quoted the wrong person. It happens sometimes.

Oops sorry I'm new to this

 

[Solemn Soup]

Thats a unique theory, but i thik it applies more to movies than it does games, but there may be some games out there that go along your principles.

Oh, I know, but my point is actually that I think that developers should start applying this sort of thinking into their own games. Makes more sense than two people exchanging lightsaber flesh wounds until one of 'em dies.

Bushido Blade was a fighting game that included many insta-kills - even against a full health bar. It was quite fun to crouch down and carve out someones belly for a quick death.

I've never played that game, sounds kinda bloody.
I agree after awhile " two people exchanging lightsaber flesh wounds until one of 'em dies" would get pretty old so the hit points also meaning some sort of luck base as well would be a good improvement in games, and make the game more challenging.
-there i think i fixed it-

 

[AcacianLeaves]

ONE Flaw... Take certain martial arts movies, where TONS of blows have landed one one another, ni your terms, there would be alot of critical hits being landed, and the whole idea behind a critial hit is that it's usually pretty rare

True, but still, you could abstract hit points here more as "technique" or "exhaustion" or what have you rather than straight damage threshold.

EDIT: Also, and this is for everyone, I'm really talking more about how RPGs portray damage than action games and shooters. That's a different can of worms.

You're thinking, and I like that.

I've always thought hit points were a direct representation of how much blood you can lose until you die. Most of this probably stems from Diablo, where that idea is supported by the 'bloody' health bar. Not to mention that most games represent health as a red bar, series of red emblems (hearts!), or a red pool. When you 'heal', you regain some lost blood or seal a wound that had been bleeding.

I do have to say though, this is a really weird thing to think this much about.

 

[Wintermoot]

the amount of blood in your body or how tired / hungry you are