The problem is that
most of the time, it\'s clutter. Every once in a while, it\'s nice to \"sense\" the strength of the people around me. (which, btw, should be a skill...) And, sometimes I\'d like to be told how much damage I\'m doing, or how often I miss, simply to gauge my own strength. It\'s just that the only way to turn it on/off is to go into the options. Ideally, the best solution would be to replace it with a less obtrusive reporting method.
Alternatives are popup damage numbers and/or a hovering health bar, for all NPCs within range. Though, the immersion arguments have convinced me that neither would be that great of an idea.
Here\'s my idea:
- Remove target info from infowindow, and move it to a \"sense\" window. This new window would contain all info you\'re sensing, with detail levels determined by your skill at doing so. It would take some practice to accurately gauge how much damage you\'re doing, not to mention someone else.
- The sense window will have (in order of increasing skill required):
a. Target info
b. Combat info about target
c. Combat info within range (including kill reports)
d. Magic info within range
e. Skill use info within range
- Ranges would each be determined by the sensing skill(s).
- The player could choose to \"focus\" their abilities, and use mana to temporarily extend their range(s) using a skill.
- If these ranges get long, the messages border on spam. So, we\'d also need an option to manually restrict the range(s).