health bar accuracy

[Thrakkar]

We have almost 2014 and the mob health bars move in 4% steps. That's poor...
Especially if you're doing a big mob with 25k-100k health, you have to inflict 1k-4k damage until that dreaded bar changes.
Current HP and max HP are already known by the client, so calculating the exact percentage (or if you want to be really cool and accurate to the tenth of a percentage) should be no problem.

 

[kongomongo]

You're wrong. The client only receives health info as x/25 points.

This seems to be concealed on purpose.

 

[Thrakkar]

You're wrong. The client only receives health info as x/25 points.

This seems to be concealed on purpose.

Hmm, ok, didn't know that.
Concealment? What for?
On purpose? Most probably.
I'd rather believe, that is a technical limitation because back in 1998 people didn't have broadband and played over 28k modems and internet wasn't as evolved as it is today in terms of traffic throughput. Hence my argument, that we already have almost 2014.

 

[petemage]

I'm no long term vet, but i heard bosses also didn't have 100k HP back in the days In theory changing the 25 to a full 100 should be no big deal, but who knows how much of today's theories were common sense back in 1998. I fear its just not as easy as it would be on more modern games.

 

[Tazar]

I think it is also a factor of lag... having your client continuously update the health info from the server adds to the download/upload stream. It may not sound like much - but in a EM Event on Atlantic with 60 + players spamming and casting - and 30 or so greater dragons flapping and fighting - it can make a difference.

 

[Thrakkar]

I think it is also a factor of lag... having your client continuously update the health info from the server adds to the download/upload stream. It may not sound like much - but in a EM Event on Atlantic with 60 + players spamming and casting - and 30 or so greater dragons flapping and fighting - it can make a difference.

But don't we already see everything in the client in real-time?
Every move of every player/mob.
Every attack of every player/mob.
Every cast of every player/mob.

If 60+ players cast a spell, I see 60 toons casting on my screen. At least that's the impresion I have.

So sending the real value instead of a rounded value to 1/25th doesn't sound like a big deal to me.

 

[Tazar]

Player actions, yes - but other items - no. This includes things that update on a cycle like the health-bars. The Governor's elections don't end exactly at midnight because they are on a timer cycle. Once an hour it checks to see if the "election end-time" has passed and if it has then the election ends. There are many other examples of this.

Also - there are items that you see on your screen as "real-time" that are "real-time" client-side but not necessarily "server-side" which leads to the old "rubber-banding" issues.