Current Events > Regenerating out of combat/when not taking damage vs health packs/heal abilities

(+) Yeah! (+)

what say you CE

do you prefer starting each combat fresh or do you prefer having to scrounge up health between combats?

---

Why not both?

*cheers*

---

I forgot the other obvious option: regen outside of combat but heals in combat

---

I liked how Halo did it, with a shield that refills, and an additional health bar.

---

Regen up to like 25%, heals for rest

---

malenz posted...

I liked how Halo did it, with a shield that refills, and an additional health bar.

that's true. I forgot about that

---

Depends on the game

I mean look at mass effect, Shields regen but health needs pickups. Shield is tailored to class and equipment

Look at half life, no regen

Then lots of games do a small amount of Regen but need pick ups to go back to full health

All systems work it just comes down to game design
---

for me I've gotten lazy over the years and prefer regen. but having to get health packs/heal spells/etc can be fun depending on the type of game. I wanna say I lean like 80% towards regen tho

---

It depends on the game.

Generally I prefer heals. The modern Wolfenstein and Doom games have shown me that I prefer it to hiding in cover for regen.

Edit: However, those games also have some safeguards to ensure you aren't totally fucked if you're low on health and used all the health packs around already. That's why I used to prefer regen.

---

I have wonderful memories of advancing through portions of Medal of Honor 2 at a snail's pace because I was down to a sliver of health, hoping to get to the next health pack before a bullet from a nazi's mp40 so much as glanced me.

---

Jabodie posted...

Edit: However, those games also have some safeguards to ensure you aren't totally fucked if you're low on health and used all the health packs around already. That's why I used to prefer regen.

I played Doom 2016 when It came out, but cannot remember for the life of me what those were.

---

glory kills gave you health, didn't they? I forgot

---

Yup, the combo health pack/regen is the best. The first game I played that had that was Resistance Fall of Man. I really wish they'd remake that for the PS4.

---

ThyCorndog posted...

glory kills gave you health, didn't they? I forgot

Yup, iirc.

---

Depends on the game, but usually I prefer auto regen so I can stay focused on the combat and not fumbling in my inventory for healing items.

Black Ops 4's stim shot healing mechanic was really interesting as a nice change of pace, but I wouldn't want the whole CoD franchise to go that direction.
---

mustachedmystic posted...

I played Doom 2016 when It came out, but cannot remember for the life of me what those were.

Glory Kills give you health and chainsaw kills give you ammo. Designed to keep you in combat, instead of slowing things down to hide and regen.

I believe glory kills also give more health if you are at a critical health range (but I'm not 100% sure this is the case).

---

Ok, I thought Jabodie was implying there was something else besides the glory kill health,

---

I think in a generic game, regen leads to better gameplay because then the firefights tend to have more thought and design behind them, whereas some old health pack shooters were just like "Eh, maybe if we just have a bunch of enemies throughout the map, each one will do 1% damage and the player will lose".

If you want to go for a survival/rationing/etc. type gameplay though, that's a tool in your toolbox.

---

I'm a little ways into Witcher 3, and I absolutely despised not getting any health regen outside of combat and having to meditate every other time to heal up.

Then I got the Gourmet skill (health regen for 20 mins after drinking/eating food) and have never looked back.

---

I like Max Payne taking pain killers. It goes with the story, so I like health packs when it goes with the universe that the game is set in.

ThyCorndog posted...

I forgot the other obvious option: regen outside of combat but heals in combat

I tend to like that most-- you've still got to pay attention during combat but there's less annoying grind management afterwards.

one argument against having both regen and heals like in witcher is that usually you can just fuck off and go regen somewhere before coming back to try combat again a few seconds later

I don't mind tho cause I like regen lol

---

Jabodie posted...

I believe glory kills also give more health if you are at a critical health range (but I'm not 100% sure this is the case).

It is. In general, enemies will also start to drop a few health pickups regardless of how they die if you're low on health. Source: I'm playing through it atm and am bad at it.

I prefer the health pack design for FPS games but it's because I prefer games like Half Life and Doom to something like CoD. Health packs (and ammo and all that) help encourage exploration and more open-ended level design.

---

Depends strongly on the type and pace of the game.

Generally fast paced games like CoD are better with healing over time, something slow like a battle royale is generally better with medkits.

---