Boards›Dev Corner

Preseason Healthbar Update

RiotCrabDust·10/24/2017, 7:12:26 PM·1 votes·290,926 views

Hey folks, as part of preseason, we’re updating League’s healthbars and I want to give you some conte- Wait! You don’t have to relearn anything and you’re getting some new toys.

Y Tho? The purpose of the health bar is to give players the information they need to make tactical decisions—who they can kill, who they should run from, etc. With this update, we’re adding more tools to help teams coordinate attacks and play around important timing windows (please stop hitting the Rammus when Defensive Ball Curl is up).

A general rule is that the more impactful a mechanic, the more visually notable it should be. League has a few massively impactful mechanics that are basically invisible: shreds, defensive buffs, auras, and more. Others like extra life would benefit from standardization and clearer visibility.

In order to create more interesting tactical choices for players around these systems, we need to communicate them better than they are on Live. The difficulty of League of Legends should stem from making the right decisions, not battling the interface.

This is just the beginning—we plan on following up with an additional batch of features including heal over time, damage over time, and more.

Visually, we’re all used to what’s on Live, but there’s a big disconnect between what we as players know is a big moment and what gets displayed. We want to start bridging that gap beginning with new supporting animations on events like burst damage and tower destruction.

Show Me What You Got Champ Burst https://i.imgur.com/p1ErowC.gif

Old Version for Comparison https://i.imgur.com/gZw5KgB.gif

Heals https://i.imgur.com/ipfNDzT.gif

Moment of Death - Structures https://i.imgur.com/rCDQYJv.gif

Invulnerable https://i.imgur.com/iG4pKTV.png

Defense Up and Armor Shred https://i.imgur.com/K8qR4Ei.png

Extra Life / Unkillable https://i.imgur.com/toF4uaR.png

Themed ammo https://i.imgur.com/RAs6cnt.png

Non-champ bars https://i.imgur.com/r8lMjog.png

https://i.imgur.com/eFBIDqr.png

Sacred Minotaurs Rest easy, we are going to great lengths to ensure that we don’t mess with actions where you’ve built up lots of muscle memory and mastery around, such as last hitting or objective takes. In the new system, lane minion healthbars are identical to live and objective healthbars (red, blue, dragon, etc) are the same width. Colors are generally similar as well.

How much health a player has should **ALWAYS **be instantly readable and we are intentionally not showing some of the bigger moments on your own healthbar just to play it safe.

A note about noise: The health bar is not the buff bar. We value an uncluttered game space as much as you do - for example, many of us play with names off. Additions to this space are mainly high impact and low uptime.

Your feedback is important, especially in a few key areas:

  • Does last hitting feel the same? What about jungle takes?
  • Do these identifiers show up responsively enough and clearly enough to understand and react to?
  • In what situations do you most notice the changes?
  • Thoughts on additional moments to amp up through animation?

444 Comments

Yordle Xayah10/24/2017, 7:55:08 PM325 votes

Please... this thing:

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/lt1Ltv4Rhr8/hqdefault.jpg

When?

Penns10/24/2017, 7:18:07 PM114 votes

Only my first impression but the unkillable looks pretty hard to see imo. Right now, the whole thing becomes golden.

KAYWEN10/24/2017, 7:56:21 PM49 votes

Change cursor pls*[slayer-jinx-catface]*

Dominion is Dead10/24/2017, 7:21:35 PM35 votes

The unkillable one is definitely worse than what we have now, it has to be waaaaay more noticeable

Tormentula10/24/2017, 7:24:57 PM25 votes

I really don't like unkillable/extra life. It looks very hard to see and in that image, if I didn't know what kindred's ult did, I wouldn't have guessed those players were unkillable, hell if you showed me that image without context I'd guess balance work on kindred's ult first.

The themed ammo I'm iffy on as well. I get you want to be fancier with the health bars, but something about these isn't as settling on the eyes as the original ammo bar, IMHO.

I really don't want to bash this because its a nice modernization, but I feel somethings are still very WIP. What we really needed was time put into showing %health considering a lot of champions are relaying on thresholds (lately to mind: urgot ult, eve ult, kindred e, etc).

bellyflopp10/24/2017, 8:42:17 PM24 votes

I'm sure you guys know this, but I felt it had to be stated that you guys should be ** EXTREMELY** careful with this change. When I started playing MOBAs 5+ years ago the sole reason I chose League over other games was its clarity. The main point I cited was that the health bar was extremely clear, having little to no clutter, and I could easily distinguish what was going on with my teammates, opponents, and my own healthbars, almost instantly. Based on the "champion burst" clip I have a few concerns.

For me, it seems that the duration of the "damage dealt" animation is too long. Not sure how it feels in game, but my initial impression is that for a second I may think I have more health than I do. Which I know some people will say "Oh you're just a bad player if you can't realize that", but in game, this subtle difference could feel like a drastic change. (I may be wrong but I think the current animation for "damage dealt" is more of an immediate decay, where the one proposed in the update is a flash, then really quick decay, which may be the reason for how I feel)

This is just my initial opinion and I'm sure in the end whatever update is made will be for the better, just wanted to give you a warning. Keep up the great work!

Adelvina10/25/2017, 3:29:41 AM22 votes

These look great, but can we please please please get more colorblind options for the health bar? Tritanopia ect. [sg-soraka]

Whulfmon10/24/2017, 7:25:13 PM13 votes

any work being done for death recap?

Leonde10/24/2017, 7:24:00 PM12 votes

With the introduction of things like Urgot's ult, Eve's ult, and now some of the new runes that all have % health thresholds, could there be a way to display % health on the HUD? I think it's much more preferable for players to know exactly when a certain effect is going to take place, rather than inferring/guessing; especially since work to the HUD is already currently being done.

Jarnoob10/24/2017, 7:39:18 PM11 votes

The themed ammo looks pretty bad in my opinion.. I love it how it is right now, because you try to make everything so modern, and the themed ammo looks like the first attempt you ever made..

Morning Raven10/24/2017, 7:26:07 PM10 votes

So if you guys are doing all of this, would you mind taking the time to make the health bars 4k compatible please?

warpenguin55510/24/2017, 7:25:30 PM10 votes

I really don't like the health bars for champions. It looks too bloated. The animations look nice though

Beanok10/24/2017, 7:59:55 PM9 votes

Could the animation of the death bar be themed red/blue to help indicate which team killed the dragon/baron? Right now it can be hard to tell which team won the smite fight in the skirmish that tends to occur immediately after. It's especially important in the case of Elder, where that affects whether you want to be fighting RIGHT NOW.

Gusty Janna10/24/2017, 7:23:25 PM9 votes

The unkillable health bar NEEDS to be clearer - it is very difficult to see, unlike on live now where it's clear as crystal.

Chembaron Yamada10/24/2017, 7:25:08 PM8 votes

Love the moment of death animation, actually all of them are looking awesome. Can you maybe give more examples for the individual ammo? Will Jhin look the same? Did you add ammo where there are none currently (for example: people were asking for an indicator for Caitlyn's passive)?

Hey Man Am Korg10/24/2017, 7:22:55 PM8 votes

More things to get used to ;-; [sg-janna]

HI IM MAHESH10/24/2017, 9:13:06 PM6 votes

Please let us manually adjust the size of the Health bars. It sucks to play with tiny healthbars on 4k displays.

Kumatora11/4/2017, 2:57:11 PM4 votes

What about the little mark on the healthbar that shows your bounty? https://imgur.com/YgVhZLv

tendo62510/24/2017, 8:11:19 PM4 votes

Will there be something for poison or DoTs to show how much health it'd take after it ends or something?

Filtrax10/26/2017, 8:15:57 PM3 votes

It would be amazing if you guys added a DoT / heal over time visual representation on the health bar similar to what HotS has (a portion of a healthbar that is darker green/darker red shows where the health will end up after a healing effect ends, while a yellowish portion of your healthbar represents the amount of health that will be lost from a DoT effect). I noticed that when playing Cassiopeia I often wasn't sure whether my Q hit an enemy before the first poison tick. This change would definetly make DoT abilities feel more impactful and fun to use as well as improving their clarity. http://i.imgur.com/3HwRwwm.png

[On a side note, hots also has a very well made death recap.I wouldn't mind having a similar one in League ;) https://bnetcmsus-a.akamaihd.net/cms/content_folder_media/0BPWOJK6Q8KX1488331916200.png

ModThe Djinn10/24/2017, 7:38:11 PM3 votes

A few thoughts:

  • Is the bar size bigger, or is that just the new graphics playing havoc with me?
  • Do the Unkillable/Revive/Invincible effects stack? I hope so, so I know that that invincible guy will also be unkillable when the Kindred ult wears off.
  • Has readability for high-health tanks increased? Can you show us healthbars of, say, a 2000 health champion next to a 4000 health champion?
  • I'm concerned unique themed ammo might get hard to read in a fight, since it's not a unique part of the health bar and is a new graphic to recognize. Thoughts on giving everyone a Jhin-style system of some kind that's actually part of the bar, or a slightly more visible way to showcase those in a busy fight?
  • Is there a planned particle for defensive steroids or retaliation effects?
Suo10/24/2017, 10:56:24 PM1 votes

Can you just make baron and dragon health bars stationary? It's super annoying to have them bounce up and down especially around smite range. (I know you can see it in the top left but then I have to stare at the corner of my screen and not what is happening in the pit.)