Aggro or Active Combat visual indicator

[raevol]

Hey- so now that we have combat, I wanted to bring up the one feature that I am dieing to see in OpenMW. I actually emailed Nico about this specifically years ago when I first found this project.

In Morrowind, when you are playing and something "aggros" on your, or goes hostile and enters combat, the only indication of this that you have, unless you are looking at the thing, is that the music changes. And looking at the thing can be a rare thing, especially with Cliff Racers stuck behind trees and rats stuck behind barrels in dark corners etc...

And I tend to like to shut the music off in my games and listen to my own music. Which removes this one indicator that a cliff racer is chasing me all the way across the ashlands.

So what I am asking for is a tiny GUI indicator that pops up when something is aggroed on you. Something like rendering a little exclamation point above the compass... something small and non-intrusive and just useful for me and my musical ears. Maybe like the crosshairs could change shape or color or something.

Any thoughts?

[lysol]

Speaking of cliff racers, why not remove them totally?

Anyway, I fully agree on this.

[Zini]

Feels kinda wrong (as does the combat music, to be honest). If you do not notice an attacker, then you shouldn't be aware of its existence. Both the combat music and visual indicators may be useful, but are also gimmicky and certainly not helpful for improving immersion.

I could imagine this as a post-1.0 feature though that is not available by default but can be used by modders.
One modder may just add a setting that lets you switch notifications on/off. Another modder might instead add a skill "Situational awareness" that gives you a chance to notice an attacker based on the skill level and the general sneakiness of the attacker.

[Chris]

Feels kinda wrong (as does the combat music, to be honest). If you do not notice an attacker, then you shouldn't be aware of its existence. Both the combat music and visual indicators may be useful, but are also gimmicky and certainly not helpful for improving immersion.

On the immersion angle, I'd imagine you'd have far more awareness in "reality" if something was after you... in particular they'd make much more sound than the game has them make, unless they were explicitly trying to be stealthy. You'd also have things like scent, tracks, insect/prey behavior, etc, to tell if something was nearby.

[Zini]

Of course. That is actually one of the things I don't like about playing in 1st person mode and TES games in particular. You have no information about what is happening outside your field of view, even though in reality you would at least get some data.

However playing a sound track or flashing an icon the moment an enemy sees the player is a very blunt approach for solving this problem. IMHO that harms immersion more than not giving any hints at all.
At least I don't want to hardcode it into the game/remove it from being hardcoded (in regards to playing music) and allow more inventive modders to come up with better solutions.

[TorbenC]

For me personally, this and how the music changes are both unimmersive.

But regardless of my personal preferences, I think that this should fall into the realm of mods. Meaning I guess a sub-suggestion for post 1.0 would be to allow modders to add gui elements.

Edit: I'll start reading whole threads before replying instead of just the OP.

[Tarius]

Of course. That is actually one of the things I don't like about playing in 1st person mode and TES games in particular. You have no information about what is happening outside your field of view, even though in reality you would at least get some data.

However playing a sound track or flashing an icon the moment an enemy sees the player is a very blunt approach for solving this problem. IMHO that harms immersion more than not giving any hints at all.
At least I don't want to hardcode it into the game/remove it from being hardcoded (in regards to playing music) and allow more inventive modders to come up with better solutions.

Well it all has to do with sound and lighting. Put in kickass shadows and better sound system/sounds and you will have as good.