Health Class: HP and Damage Meters

[gentlesaint]

Who: Rhys and his class.
What: Health class!
Where: Stadium
When: Thursday, April 3rd

[[More often than not, this class meets up in the classroom. However, this time around it was posted that they were to assemble in the stadium instead.

Once there, you will notice a buffet table set up off to the side, decked with a smorgasbord of scrumptious food. What is this, a party? Rhys stands in front of bleachers with a rolling blackboard next to him for explanation purposes.

After attendance is taken and everyone has settled down, Rhys begins his lesson.]]

Good afternoon, class! I hope your day is going well. For this unit, I'm going to explain 'hit points', an abstract concept commonly abbreviated to 'HP'. Standards for how this is measured out may be converted differently across worlds and circumstances, but it helps to envision it like a gauge that can be filled up or depleted. Like this!



At full health, this life bar is maxed out. When you take damage, it gets depleted. Let's say I'm in the middle of a chaotic battle and got dealt a heavy blow by an axe-wielding bandit with huge muscles. Ouch!

[[HE ERASES THE HP DOWN TO A MEASLY MEASURE. Now it looks like this.]]



That really smarted. I'm glad I survived, though. He must have been at a pretty high level... As you can see, I have a remaining bit of health left. That means I can keep fighting. Even though I'm dangerously low on health, I can always regain HP.

[[He restores his HP with the power of chalk.]]



Out in the midst of a battle or a fight where resting up is not an option, this can be accomplished in several ways. Usually it comes from either items that restore health or from magic, either cast by yourself or by an external force, like an ally. Unfortunately, my physical defenses aren't the best, so if the bandit was at an even higher level than he was, it's very likely that I could have been wiped out.



So now my HP has reached zero. I can't fight any more! This could mean that I'm either knocked out or, in some cases, had my life extinguished. But we don't have to worry about the latter in this controlled environment! At this point, regular healing items like food items or potions won't have any effect, and only more powerful items can resurrect you.

However, in Smash-style fights, life bars aren't used. Instead, damage meters are used. All fighters start out at 0% damage, and when they get hit, the damage value increases. When the damage gets racked up higher and higher, the easier it is to get knocked around. It makes you more vulnerable in general, but I won't go into the gritty details. Does anyone have any questions so far?

Comments

ATTENDANCE

[gentlesaint]

[[ Show me who's here! ]]

[forgetbeam]

[PRESENT, ON TIME, WELL BEHAVED, ALL THAT GOOD STUFF. Maybe a little clearly skeptical about items that can resurrect you when your HP reaches zero because

come on

that's just silly

BUT HE'S HERE.]

[luckedout]

[ Here! Naegi was totally on time. Just not, you know, early.

And for some reason, he's drawing hearts on his notes instead of a life bar. ]

Re: ATTENDANCE

[flamejock]

::JJJJJOCK is here::

[mohawk_tomahawk]

[Here, in the back. This would be, um, interesting; he supposed. All of these alien weird concepts were getting to be a bit over his head but he'll watch.]

Re: ATTENDANCE

[punchtheflute]

Sonny is here. Hiiii Rhyyyyys.

[andthefungoeson]

[Leon was probably one of the tardy students with the face of "why am I even in this class, why am I even coming to class" and countless more complaints practically written on his face.

He's also not sitting properly.]

Re: ATTENDANCE

[will_be_god]

[Cyrus is here, partially out of his own curiosity, partially out of...well, you know]

QUESTIONS

[gentlesaint]

Does anyone have any questions so far?

Re: QUESTIONS

[punchtheflute]

I have a question!

Re: QUESTIONS

[gentlesaint]

Let's see if I can answer it!

Re: QUESTIONS

[punchtheflute]

Can I please have that cake?

[He's pointing at the buffet table, Rhys. He's trying so hard to pay attention but that cake is just calling to him.

Sonny.... Sooooonyyyyy~~~~ I am a beautiful cake Sonny....]

Re: QUESTIONS

[gentlesaint]

Ummmm... You're going to have to wait a little. We need to get to the activity first. Sorry, I know it must be calling your name. But I believe in your staying power!

Re: QUESTIONS

[will_be_god]

[Cyrus raised his hand though he wasn't sure if a teacher observer would be called on]

Re: QUESTIONS

[gentlesaint]

[Student or teacher, it didn't matter. Rhys saw the hand and called out to it.]

Yes?

Re: QUESTIONS

[will_be_god]

You have presented this gauge as a visualization of stamina. How, then, is it estimated? What guidelines are used to establish these readings?

Re: QUESTIONS

[gentlesaint]

It's supposed to represent how much physical injury a fighter can sustain before they're no longer able to fight, and it's calculated based on a variety of individual factors and situational factors. Like stats. Another thing that might be taken into consideration when HP is lost is the power of the attack used. So... if someone with low attack power used a weak attack on someone with high defenses, it wouldn't hurt very much. And if we were to visualize it on an HP bar, it's most likely that only a sliver would be taken away.

The way the stadium is able to measure it so accurately is beyond my comprehension, but I do understand the concept behind how it's measured. Does that make sense?

A DEMONSTRATION

[gentlesaint]

Now I'm going to show you HP in action. May I have two volunteers step up, please? Those of you who don't mind inflicting a bit of damage on each other. Don't worry, I'm on standby!

[forgetbeam]

I volunteer!

[He knows what this means. He knows getting to beat up guys like him is probably like Christmas come early to some people. But he also needs to be the guy to volunteer for all his classes and to be an all around keener, SO.

He is here.

Where the hell did he get that shinai, did he just bring it right from his dorm, who even knows.]

[flamejock]

::Jock raises his hand and waves it in the air.::

OH ME! ME! PICK ME! I CAN DO IT!

::He's... he's pulling his too-tight black t-shirt off now because it seems like a good idea.::

[forgetbeam]

[Aww look how enthusiastic Jock is. The most worthy kind of opponent.]

Ha ha ha! I see, so we're to go all out, are we?

[He should probably. Remove his jacket and shirt too. IF HE RUINS ANOTHER UNIFORM HE IS GOING TO HAVE A CONNIPTION.

Here he goes. Between him and Jock there are now too many abs on the dance floor.]

AFTER THE DEMONSTRATION

[gentlesaint]

Okay, I'm going to ask you to get into groups of two, please! Every group will be programmed into one of the big screens up at the tops of the stands over there. You'll be able to see your HP meters in action every time you take a blow. Please don't be ruthless!

I bet you're wondering what all those food tables are for. In fact, I bet some of you were paying more attention to them than you were to me! Haha! If you start to notice your health going down, there's plenty of food over there to restore your health! We can all thank Nancy for his help in preparing most of it.

[But did Nancy make any super spicy curry? Who knows...]

It's amazing that something as commonplace as food can restore your health. I don't know how you can manage to eat it all so fast, though. I wonder if there's some kind of trick to it?

You'll also find various other items besides food. Try them out! See what they do. Okay, class! Have fun!

[punchtheflute]

"OK! Can someone please be my partner and hit me so that I can eat some cake?" Sonny asked of his classmates.

[luckedout]

"Does someone have to punch you before you can eat the cake?" Naegi looked between him and the food table, feeling unsure about how this is supposed to work.

[punchtheflute]

"Yeah!" Sonny replied. "We hit each other so our HP goes down and then we can eat!" Sonny said. "So, you punch me first, then I'll punch you, and then we can go stuff our faces!" Sonny why do you sound so happy about getting beaten up? That's not normal you know.

He extended a hand to the other student.

"I'm Sonny Moe! It's nice to meet you!"