RED stress indicator (and other thoughts)

[IntheDark]

Since the last update the stress indicator is no longer a subtle gray cloud, but a RED one.
And yes, in capitals because it is excessive and completely out of tune with the esthetic of the game.
I will be honest, I think one thing is to create tension and quite another is to force empty signals like the red indicator or the strident music every time something happens (every few minutes) even if we had not noticed.

I really like this game, in fact I've been following it since it started its Kickstarter campaign.
I think it has the potential to become one of the references, one of those that are not forgotten. But I hope it doesn't become increasingly simple and obvious just because some users find it difficult.
Any opinion of the community is valuable, but also the original vision that the developers had.


Those are my thoughts, what are yours?

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I absolutely hate the red indicator. The black indicator was great because you were never totally confident about your sanity when you were in the dark. I think they just needed to add some motion to the brain (as in, it elevates slowly when your sanity is getting worse, and the drops slowly while your sanity is improving) so you know whether where you're standing is improving your sanity or not.

They've made a couple asthetic changes (replacing creepy imagery with gameplay cues) in the latest patch that I disagree with, but I get that they're trying to appease a large audience and you can't please everyone.

I just think they have to create different modes, one for the let'splayers and novices, and one for the gamers who dont want their hands held. I spent 10 minutes in the treehouse trying to figure out what to do and it was amazing, because when ♥♥♥♥ actually started going down that treehouse had already become familiar and safe.

[REPresenh]

In a perfect game, i would like to have no indicators at all. Just like real life...when i enter a haunted house, they ain't nothing that tell me i am in dangerous. Other than sound and lights...there shouldn't be anything on display that tells me anything. This is a haunted game and visually and audibly, they should be the ONLY cues that help me foresee that's coming.

On the other hands, the inventory system and interaction should be as simple as real life. There should a virtual hand that reach out and touch door knob before you can open a door or close it and ability to open slow and quickly. There should be a virtual hand that reach out and pick up objects and the same virtual hand should be able to hold a lighter and candle and virtual hand that reach out and light the candle. That's how real life work and it should be in the game if they want to make it realistic.

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While I doubt they have the time and resources to subsitute out the inventory system interface, I actually really like the idea of a mode with no insanity level indicator (i.e. with the sanity mechanic, but no visual indicators).

(Although I really do like the look of the little brain, it just looks so much better with a black background.)

[BlueAura]

I very much disagree, I never found managing my sanity to be a big issue because I planned accordingly by plastering my eyes at the bottom left of the screen to watch it. Now that it's in red I can focus more on the enviornment rather than a hud element and can respond accordingly when necessary.

The devs have improved the game and it will do nothing but help users that are unfamilar with this kind of a mechanic. Now when you die it's not because you can't find an icon that's the same color as the thing you're trying to avoid, it's because you neglected to acknowledge it's importance.

[Smoosher]

I can see both sides here and can kind of agree on both, maybe it needs to be red rather than RED?

Before sanity was there, wasnt overly noticed (If you have your gamma right its barely seen at times) now with the huge REDness of it I tend to panic and use light/pills to drag it back up when i could probably do without.

Maybe half it down abit, make it less RED more ReD?

[TheJuicyMoose]

Just give me the option to play without it in a future update please and thank you.

[262ef2376df]

Perhaps, use rapid breathing cues and more paranormal events to indicate low sanity.

[skrubbbles]

For me I think it would be fun to have the option to play without the sanity mechanic.

When I'm in the game, I like to role play. I seriously pretend that I am not just sitting at my desk- I am IN that house and I am LOST in that world.

The sanity meter is just a constant reminder that I am in fact playing a game, and if I want to "win the game" I'd better manage my sanity. I understand that we need the sanity to drop to experience the paranormal events and the entire game is based around this mechanic.

I just think I'd have a lot of fun with a freestyle mode.

[therealdanhill]

Originally posted by Buy Visage:

While I doubt they have the time and resources to subsitute out the inventory system interface, I actually really like the idea of a mode with no insanity level indicator (i.e. with the sanity mechanic, but no visual indicators).

(Although I really do like the look of the little brain, it just looks so much better with a black background.)

I very much hope they do because if they go to launch with inventory the way it is they will get skewered, it is clumsy and unintuitive

They did right by patching the sanity meter to be easier to see, it was impossible to see it in the dark. Another option would maybe be keep it the way it is now but instead of the whole thing being red just highlight the outline of it, white for fine, green for okay, yellow, orange, red.

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Originally posted by therealdanhill:

Originally posted by Buy Visage:

While I doubt they have the time and resources to subsitute out the inventory system interface, I actually really like the idea of a mode with no insanity level indicator (i.e. with the sanity mechanic, but no visual indicators).

(Although I really do like the look of the little brain, it just looks so much better with a black background.)

I very much hope they do because if they go to launch with inventory the way it is they will get skewered, it is clumsy and unintuitive

They did right by patching the sanity meter to be easier to see, it was impossible to see it in the dark. Another option would maybe be keep it the way it is now but instead of the whole thing being red just highlight the outline of it, white for fine, green for okay, yellow, orange, red.

I guess I disagree, I like the inventory the way it is, I just would like it to be blue instead of green.
And I think the red sanity meter was a horrible decision. I liked that it was impossible to see, that added uncertainty, which was horrifying.
But I think the best compromise would be them adding a mode where there's no visual indicator and only the audio cues.

[Nokzen]

Originally posted by The God has spoken:

Perhaps, use rapid breathing cues and more paranormal events to indicate low sanity.

^ dat

[IntheDark]

Originally posted by The God has spoken:

Perhaps, use rapid breathing cues and more paranormal events to indicate low sanity.

That would work, more or less something similar to Amnesia: DD.

[Choppytehbear]

While I don't own the game (yet, not really a fan of Early Access), I have watched gameplay. I think a good color would be either 1f0000, 280000, or 310505. It has a nice balance between visibility and immersion.

[SERVER SHUTTING DOWN]

Originally posted by The God has spoken:

Perhaps, use rapid breathing cues and more paranormal events to indicate low sanity.

Personally I hate when games use rapid breathing, it breaks me out of the immersion because *I'm* not breathing heavily. I think the audio cues they already have are enough, I think they could get rid of the visual indicator (perhaps for a harder difficulty) and just have the existing audio cues.