whats more realistic?

[HotFezz8]

What do you think is more realistic: health bars or regenerating health? and why if you care to explain

one hit kill is realistic. other than that - ITS A GAME!

 

[psivamp]

I've always figured that "0hp" doesn't have to mean dead, it just means "out of the fight" so, broken arm could be 0hp. Therefore, regenerating health makes health a level of "pain" really, you get a flesh wound, it hurts but quickly you get over it. Adrenaline and all. Shots to the head and such would be your instakills.

And that reminds me off DnD. 0 HP was incapacitated. -10 HP was dead. You had to roll every round for 10 rounds to try and stabilize if no one helped you. And, naturally, if the party was all incap'd you would all get finished off by whatever incap'd you.

 

[psivamp]

What do you think is more realistic: health bars or regenerating health? and why if you care to explain

one hit kill is realistic. other than that - ITS A GAME!

And, on the other hand, people have taken entire clips and lived because none of the rounds hit anything immediately life-threatening. I don't want to play a multiplayer game with realistic damage modeling -- that would be ass-balls. But I could play a single player game with it as long as the AI was sophisticated enough to not cheat and know my location all the time.

 

[Nazz3]

Health bars are more realistic.

 

[Xavisam]

The best solution for me (ironically enough) was a ,kinda ,hybrid of both in Farcry 2. Where you had 5 health bars which would regenerate if not completely depleted, which meant everytime you lost a health bar 1/5 of your totall heatlh capacity was lost until you used a stimpack.

this is rather hard to admit because I found farcry 2 rubbish, but i though the health system was at least innovative.

The game was terrible, but the health system was interesting -- someone else pointed out Riddick which is similar, except that in Farcry 2 your last health bar would bleed out if you didn't sit down for a second and bandage yourself/dig a bullet out with a Leatherman.

yeah haha that was pretty funny: healing yourself by pulling out one of the many bullet in you , or slapping out the fire on your spontaneously combustible arm.

 

[Queltherio]

Neither is realistic unless the health bar is like a shield or something and to restore it you have to repair it.

 

[DanielDeFig]

Health bars are the lesser of two evils, but regenerating health makes for more fun gameplay.

Physics simulation of flesh and bone would be most realistic, throw in a magical (or SciFi) reason for self-healing, and we have the best game eva!

 

[Crazycat690]

well IMO health bars are the far more realistic option, because simply for the fact that a person, can't take infinite amount of bullets without aid, with health regen, you can.

I mean this should actually be a quite obvious answer, with health bars, you need aid to get more health, with health regen, you magically get healed by hiding a few seconds. Which one of those sounds more unrealistic to you?

I mean, sure the health bar iself isn't the most realistic, but don't we all kind of have a hypothetical life bar? How much damage we can take before death? Only way to recharge it is getting some sort of aid? ...Like I dunno, a health kit?

 

[Still Life]

What do you think is more realistic: health bars or regenerating health? and why if you care to explain

EDIT: Can we establish that neither are very realistic ? , that was a error on my part.
But please continue this is a enthralling forum if I may say so.

Have you ever tried Arma II? It is about as realistic as you're going to get in the industry at the moment. Very intense if you can get into it.

 

[manythings]

I think pursuing the REAL experience is retarded as a concept. I play games for fake, I go outside for real.

 

[Booze Zombie]

I would say the closest I'd like to get to "real" is having a health bar and regenerating it via first-aid, etc.

It leaves you vulnerable, it makes sense and you can also seeing it working, not just wait for some unseen force to finish healing you.

 

[Dexiro]

Realistically you aren't going to be healed instantly by a health pack, but it's more realistic than regenerating to perfect health out of nowhere in just a few seconds.

Health bars are the lesser of two evils, but regenerating health makes for more fun gameplay.

I'd argue that regenerating is different gameplay, but not necessarily more fun. I've had good and bad experiences with both. You could say that regenerating health makes a game more accessible however.

We're just discussing opinions here of course :3

 

[maninahat]

I loved Max Payne's tendency to resort to pain killers instead of proper medical attention. That guy must be so full of pills, he rattles whilst he walks.

 

[maninahat]

Realistically you aren't going to be healed instantly by a health pack, but it's more realistic than regenerating to perfect health out of nowhere in just a few seconds.

Health bars are the lesser of two evils, but regenerating health makes for more fun gameplay.

I'd argue that regenerating is different gameplay, but not necessarily more fun. I've had good and bad experiences with both. You could say that regenerating health makes a game more accessible however.

We're just discussing opinions here of course :3

Regenerating health is slightly more dynamic in action heavy games (you can stay near the fight, only having to get cover for a moment). Medi-kits are suited more to protracted, scavenger based styles of gameplay.

 

[DanielDeFig]

Realistically you aren't going to be healed instantly by a health pack, but it's more realistic than regenerating to perfect health out of nowhere in just a few seconds.

Health bars are the lesser of two evils, but regenerating health makes for more fun gameplay.

I'd argue that regenerating is different gameplay, but not necessarily more fun. I've had good and bad experiences with both. You could say that regenerating health makes a game more accessible however.

We're just discussing opinions here of course :3

No, i suppose you're right. A better way for me to word it would be: Regenerating health makes for more forgiving gameplay.
Ever played COD2 on insane difficulty? The fact that you can regenerate health means that each time you are struck by a bullet, you get a second chance to hide and recover. But considering that if you get hit by a second bullet while still regenerating causes death, i wouldn't call it easier than the health bar option (fun is relative. some ppl derive fun from plying insane difficulty, others from repeatedly winning).

 

[V8 Ninja]

If we're getting technical, than regenerating health is much more realistic (as in people actually regenerate skin cells and become healthier through time). However, if immediate help is the primary focus, than the health bar and health kits are much more realistic.

 

[tomvw]

For me, Far Cry 2 strikes a nice balance between realism and fun. If your health almost completely depletes you're forced to preform some battlefield first-aid, like prying out a bullet or putting out a burning piece of clothing.
If you want a bit more realism, SWAT 4 basically cripples you if you get shot in the leg, or messes up your aim if you get hit in the arm. And you don't regenerate, so you're forced to complete the level slowly limping around. It's quite frustrating if you get hit early on.

 

[Xavisam]

well IMO health bars are the far more realistic option, because simply for the fact that a person, can't take infinite amount of bullets without aid, with health regen, you can.

I mean this should actually be a quite obvious answer, with health bars, you need aid to get more health, with health regen, you magically get healed by hiding a few seconds. Which one of those sounds more unrealistic to you?

I mean, sure the health bar iself isn't the most realistic, but don't we all kind of have a hypothetical life bar? How much damage we can take before death? Only way to recharge it is getting some sort of aid? ...Like I dunno, a health kit?

Well the way I was seeing it was, that health renegeration represents a natural pain tolerance in the adrenaline of battle, while I understand that it not exactactly a good indicator of health or damage taken it would probably help you ignore the pain and continue fighting unhindered.

thats my understanding of what games with health regeneration are trying to achieve anyway, i could be wrong though.

 

[DracoSuave]

Getting shot and getting taken out of the fight, dead or not, is more realistic than either health bars OR regenerating health.

That's not fun, however, which is why if you want to discuss this kind of game properly, you should probably persue 'immersion' over 'realism.'

 

[danvonnewman]

A game a friend of mine and I wish someone would come out with is a game that would delete your character permanently if you did too many stupid things

Hardcore Diablo2 did this nicely but trading your excess to a banker made leveling up quite easy.

L4D2 does quite a good job how you can use stims to keep you going until you find aid while becoming slower and slower, or in RL like a jab of morphine until a medic patches you up and stops the bleeding.