Heads-up-display

How is the HUD going to work?
Is it gonna be like a helmet with a visor that has a display and when you take it off you won't have any.
It could be like Dead Space too, where the HUD is incorporated in the arms, neck and weapons you use, and only comes up when you need it. Maybe there ain't gonna be any HUD and you have to keep track of ammo and health yourself.

I would personly prefer the Dead Space take-on, Where the the ship AI would be able to give you information on essentially everything its connected to, like your land- and space vehicle and weapons.
Maybe the radio or a kinda remote control over your vehicles inc. The mining droid could be included in a holographic display in your left arm or something.

But thats just my take on it.

If its going to be third person, I like the Dead Space take on it. Otherwise I like the first person concept that Nuclear Dawn uses. The ammo readout is hologram from the gun or whatever you're using. The HUD, other than that, is part of a visor so the whole thing shakes when you run (which I like because I love immersion in games). Something could be redone to make it simpler and add to that immersion though.

Health could actually be somewhat like the ammo read out. And actually the mini map or other utilities could follow the same format. It'd just be another readout from like a left armband. You could scroll through different menus through there (like Fallout? Not quite sure since I never played it). Health would be the constant, and different utilities/utility menus could be cycled through. Other in-depth menus, like options, quit, and the like, would draw full focus to the readout and take up the entire screen. The only problem that I see is that the left arm readout could become quite cluttered. Especially with maps.

Thats excactly what i meant. Like the Dead Space armband thing, but in first person.
I think that it could be really cool, if the ammo hologram display is integrated into the weapon as a physical thing. Not just some wierd display you for no reason have on your retina.

About the map thing, it could be so that you have the armband and when you hold down z or something it would show the map. Then it wouldn't matter if it propped up the screen, 'cause it would only be a thing that you momentarily looked at, then closed again.
I think it could be really cool if the armband or glove thingy would be your main console when away from your ship. So it would basicly contain everything digital you need when away, fx map, inventory, etc. except for the ammo-counter that would be integrated in your weapon.

The whole armband display could actually just be triggered by z or any other key, so then you could navigate through it with the mouse.
In my mind that would work quite well. You wouldn't need any retina hud, 'cause you only need two things in a HUD really, your life and ammo. Health in the arm, ammo in the gun. If you need anything further, like detailed health informatin, or a map. Then you would just hold down z, look at whatever you wanna look at, and then release z.
That could work... Right?

I really like the idea of an armband style menu like this one:



I found it really helped with immersion as fallout 3 was in many ways similar to this project. If an armband style like the pipboy 3000 was chosen I think a similar minimalistic hud like the one that accompanied the pipboy would make a lot of sense as well only showing essential info like health and maybe some survival related items (hunger bar, water levels, etc.) similar to in this photo:



maybe it could even include a compass similar to the one in the bottom left instead of a minimap just for showing directions to destinations and forcing you to bring up you arm to view an actual map of the area. Another idea I had regarding the armband hud was that managing things with your armband such as skills, inventory, checking the map, or even trying to quit would leave you vulnerable. If the game were to persist while you were dealing with inventory management or other menu based options I think it would add a lot to the survival feel of the game.

(The pictures aren't working right but I can't post links because I am new member, sorry about that)

If anyone was watching the Ubisoft conference today on twitch, I REAAALLLY like the HUD used for The Division. Especially the voice comm feature.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_j9uKBmUEk

Watching this again makes me all warm inside :3

I just watched the gameplay video for The Division like 5 times. And the hud in that game looks absolutely amazing. If you could transfer that to first person in some way, that would be fantastic.
Vexxtal, i really like the minimalist style that Fallout had (unfortunaly i never played it) but i think it needs alterations to make it more pretty.

1upking, that is a really great idea, I think that if we combined The Divsion's menus with fallout's easy health and ammo HUD, we would end up with a good end product.

Also on another note, welcome to the forums Vexxtal (cool name and profile pic btw), I haven't seen you around so I assume you are new, glad to have you on board.

Thanks Overwatch, I recently found this on steam greenlight and I started looking into it immediately. I'm excited to watch this project through development.

Also, I agree with you completely on the combination of the two, maybe using the idea of the 3d projections in menus that are attached to the wrist in a similar way to division while sticking to the minimalistic style HUD the rest of the time

Yes, that way you can navigate through menus without having to take your eyes of the surroundings.

Was reading through all these ideas guys really really good stuff, going to talk these over with the guys see what they think. Its great to have a community of people as passionate for this project as we are !

Thanks for actually taking the time to respond and think about our ideas, its a nice fresh change on regular devs who view themselves as infallible kings. It's fun to pop in here once in a while and answer some questions and give my take on some ideas.

Yeah, I really liked the point about the game not pausing while your accessing menu's. It would be nice to figure out something 3D that perhaps even your team-mates can see!? That would really add to the co-op. You can share/show whats in your inventory, display your map and ping locations for all to see or discuss strategies etc.

Good work guys,

Cool

Maybe have like a projection item display what's in your inventory, vital status, or something else on a wall, on the ground, or on anything that can hold an image.

Something like this:


You could keep what you have a secret, but if you'd want to show them something all you would do is take an object like that and use it.

very inventive!