Barricade HP Indicator for Dummies

[RKBBQ]

So not everybody's a structural engineer, but I'm assuming the average person can still tell the difference between a stack of A-frames and makeshift breastworks. So the fact that to a character without structural engineering, a 1HP barricade and a 500HP barricade look and act functionally similar seems a bit odd. Especially since you can run around throwing up 10HP barricades everywhere and functionally stumping any opposing characters without structural engineering who wouldn't bother to try to break through on the off-chance that someone was cade-trolling. (This, of course, has the flip-side issue of your allies not being alerted that the barricades are made of paper if they happen to have spare AP and are nearby. The ability of any passerby to assist in building barricades being a central part of the tactic IRL should have some bearing on their role in-game!)

This is also a bit weird that we can't see barricade HP (without a child skill, no less!) when we consider the following precedents:
-No skill was necessary to see HP for wards and fortifications in B4 (and, I'm assuming earlier breaths as well)
-No skill is necessary to get a general gauge of characters' HP due to the graphical interface

Especially given NC's UD heritage, I'd recommend barricade strength to be mentioned in the description pane text as Loosely (1-49), Lightly (50-99), Quite Strongly (100-149), Very Strongly (150-249), Heavily (250-349) and Extremely Heavily (350-500) Barricaded. The numbers, of course, are subject to whatever changes work best.

(As a completely separate idea, a complete barricade overhaul that allows some level of passage up until VSB, while everything above requires flying, even against same alignment could be fun. Just to crib further from UD.)

[Goliath]

Pretty please

[SignedName]

+1. A visual representation on the map would also be quite useful- maybe fewer, spaced out dashes to show weaker barricades?

[Nayru]

think originally in 3.5/early 4 nobody could see ward hp and it was changed so there was a difference between one-tapping it and outright setting it down to little to no hp from defenders' pov but ye

[Repth]

This is something that should be considered when we take a second look at barricades.

[Kandarin]

So not everybody's a structural engineer, but I'm assuming the average person can still tell the difference between a stack of A-frames and makeshift breastworks. So the fact that to a character without structural engineering, a 1HP barricade and a 500HP barricade look and act functionally similar seems a bit odd. Especially since you can run around throwing up 10HP barricades everywhere and functionally stumping any opposing characters without structural engineering who wouldn't bother to try to break through on the off-chance that someone was cade-trolling. (This, of course, has the flip-side issue of your allies not being alerted that the barricades are made of paper if they happen to have spare AP and are nearby. The ability of any passerby to assist in building barricades being a central part of the tactic IRL should have some bearing on their role in-game!)

This is also a bit weird that we can't see barricade HP (without a child skill, no less!) when we consider the following precedents:
-No skill was necessary to see HP for wards and fortifications in B4 (and, I'm assuming earlier breaths as well)
-No skill is necessary to get a general gauge of characters' HP due to the graphical interface

Especially given NC's UD heritage, I'd recommend barricade strength to be mentioned in the description pane text as Loosely (1-49), Lightly (50-99), Quite Strongly (100-149), Very Strongly (150-249), Heavily (250-349) and Extremely Heavily (350-500) Barricaded. The numbers, of course, are subject to whatever changes work best.

(As a completely separate idea, a complete barricade overhaul that allows some level of passage up until VSB, while everything above requires flying, even against same alignment could be fun. Just to crib further from UD.)

Implemented for the next patch for the following reason:

No skill was necessary to see wards in B4 - but not in prior breaths. The change was done because we investigated new player behavior and found that a distressingly common action for players new to the game was to find a stronghold and blow all their starting AP trying to bash in, not realizing that the ward was 1000 HP deep. So wards were made 100% visible to clue players in that this was futile.

Did it make narrative sense that you'd magically see a health bar on a magic shield around a magic fortress? No.

Was it necessary for the clarity of what is often a frustratingly opaque game? Yes.

For the same reason, as of the next patch barricade strengths will always be visible to anyone who might be hindered by them, without the Structural Engineering skill. These will be hard numbers, not vague descriptions. Vague lore descriptions are good for endgame stuff - war outcome in a neighborhood, Overlord claim strength, that sort of thing. They're not so good for entry-level concepts.