Way to see enemy health

[MrRoivas]

One minor nitpicky thing that's been really bothering me is lacking a way of seeing how much health enemies have left. Before it was always just right click on target.

 

Am I missing something, or is there no way to find this out? That would be a real bummer, I find that information useful.

[Randomizer]

You can see the percentage that is left by looking at the red health bar beneath a monster. It gets really irritating when it gets down to a sliver and it still won't die.

[MrRoivas]

I know you can see the percentage, but all the Geneforge games and Avernums since the 4th one have allowed you to see the exact number. Its annoying no longer having that way of knowing enemy strength.

[Micawber]

Apparently, that was only ever on Windows. Jeff seems to have removed that advantage now. But, to put in context, we never knew the exact health in A1-A3 and we survived all right.

[Marak]

While in some ways I miss being able to right-click foes and see that they have 22/138 health (or whatever), I think this move is a good one... knowing your opponent's health to the number is A) pretty immersion-breaking and gives you pretty massive advantage in virtually every battle throughout the game, since you know which of your attacks will do JUST enough damage to down your foe... instead of trying to keep track of how much damage zapped off how many pixels of the bar and taking your best guess.

 

It also adds tension to Bosses and sort-of-boss end-of-quest monsters: Ack, I'm out of healing and this thing only has a tiny sliver of health left, will this next attack be enough to kill it before it starts picking off my wounded party members!?

 

That's my take on it anyhow.

[MrRoivas]

It gets rid of any way of knowing whether an area or enemy is too tough for you other than trying and getting your butt kicked. In a Geneforge game, I could right click the Golem and see that it has over a thousand health, as compared to a 200 health one I fought in another area. Thus I could deduce that it would be too tough for now.

 

In Avadon now, there is no such ability to evaluate.

[Dikiyoba]

Maybe, but it shouldn't take more than a round or two of getting your butt kicked to figure out that you should go back to a previous save and wait to take on an enemy or area later.

 

Dikiyoba.

[Marak]

Once again, immersion. How would your party know if a monster was too tough for them unless they engaged it in combat? I like that Jeff is trying to cut down on the meta-gaming a bit, gives the game that constant feeling of "oh crap, I better be careful, I don't know what might pop up and kill me".

 

On the downside, F3 and F4 take a lot of that right back away again.

[Necris Omega]

Eh, my preference is to have more insight into an enemy than less. You're supposed to be an elite enforcer of the world's greatest alliance - being able to gauge an enemy's strength seems like it would be covered in the earlier chapters of your training.

 

While having to guess how much more abuse an enemy can take might add to the pressure of a fight, or the mystique of the enemy, for me it's just plain annoying, especially when fights turn into an Austin Powers routine where I end up demanding "WHY WON'T YOU DIE!?" more than once.