What so bad about health regenaration?

[Vaecrius]

I'd like to see more games use the gimmick that your health regenerates when you kill enemies, so the incentive is to go balls-to-the-wall instead of hiding behind a pillar all day.

Oh hell yes to actually rewarding good gameplay decisions. I remember the Black Box saving my life quite a few times...

One problem I see though is that this a major positive-feedback mechanism - do it just a tiny bit too much, and after a few more rebalancing cycles you're either looking at a very easy singleplayer campaign or (whether single or multi) a very difficult game that has a hard time attracting new players while possibly struggling to please a hardcore base that keeps demanding harder stuff.

That said... what's people's thoughts about scores? Those let you have game-spanning consequences without making it possible to screw someone over in a way that makes them unable to complete despite significant improvement over the course of the game.

[RV-007]

Scores are good too. Different types of scores can be used for a intermission recycle center. Players can then buy/sell ammo and armor with these scores. Enemies will increment their stats (e.g. speed, health, healing, revivals, and other capabilities) with each purchase. It's like them saying, "You buying stocks, I buy too!"

[Rangaisia]

Half the fun in Borderlands came from figuring out just how horribly broken you could build your character. My personal favorite is the Heavy Gunner build for Soldier, where it's entirely possible to get your machine guns carrying about 110% more ammo and firing at double the speed once you've killed someone.

It's even more ridiculous if you have the Chopper, as the magazine capacity will actually exceed the maximum ammo limit. Unfortunately, the Chopper is entirely impractical due to the fact it will instantly empty its entire magazine upon firing.

That's one of the bad things about Borderlands, by the way. With so many novelty weapons and even more weapons that are just plain crappy, finding an actually useful weapon can become very difficult.

[Apothem]

Cover-based shooters are a different thing, I guess -- I really like Gears of War because its overall formula works, as the entire engine is geared toward ducking behind stuff and firing from cover. It sucks in most FPS's, though, since you have to play a half-assed version of this without the proper tools to do so.

Controls have a lot to do with this. Rainbow Six Vegas 1&2 are prime examples of how a cover-based system implemented into the controls makes it WAY more enjoyable than if it's just run and gun. RainbowSix is one of the few games I know of that actually accomplishes this well.

[Graf Zahl]

Wait a minute - people are still playing those abominations that are called shooters these days...???

[Gez]

They wouldn't sell so well if people weren't playing them.

[Phobus]

I just like having the boxes sitting on a shelf over my PC.

[Demolisher]

I just like having the boxes sitting on a shelf over my PC.

I thought I was the only one!

[Boreas249]

It's ridiculous ("Whoops, got me leg blown off by an RPG! Gonna go hide in this corner 'till it grows back") and promotes bad tactics (think about it - in games without health regen you really had to be mindful of what you're doing, can't go running and gunning when you're low on health, having to face hordes of enemies and health kits and the like are few and far between. With health regen, you can go rambo, and when someone clips you good enough, all you need to do is go hide from all the baddies until your little boo-boos heal up magically and go right back to running and lighting everything up.)

Today's FPS's oughtta stop that health regeneration nonsense, for some it's ok, but others... man up and find a medkit.

[Blue Shadow]

It's ridiculous ("Whoops, got me leg blown off by an RPG! Gonna go hide in this corner 'till it grows back")...

IMO, it's not any more ridiculous than picking up or using health packs to completely heal your bullet wounds in an instant.

Then again, these are just video games. They're not supposed to make much sense.

[RV-007]

Since this is like defining the right circumstances for health regeneration, maybe a class or item can work.

For classes, the health regeneration can be slow, but the pain factor can be twice the normal number. It's even possible to only allow regeneration while in combat. Maybe health regeneration eats up armor.

For items, regeneration can cost ammo (cell) or armor. It could also start poisoning (-200 total) the player once it stops healing the player. Maybe the item is blind to whom it heals. When it heals, it also heals all the dead monsters in the level/radius.

[Minigunner]

I think people tend to overlook a form of regeneration that makes the most sense:
Recovering from lack of oxygen, whether it be from noxious gases or water. To simply put it, what's needed to be done is to store the amount of health taken from water/smoke/oxygen-depriving substance, then regenerate that damage over around 5-10 seconds.

[DecemberMan]

Health regeneration is the spawn of Satan, obviously.

[Project Dark Fox]

I think people tend to overlook a form of regeneration that makes the most sense:
Recovering from lack of oxygen, whether it be from noxious gases or water. To simply put it, what's needed to be done is to store the amount of health taken from water/smoke/oxygen-depriving substance, then regenerate that damage over around 5-10 seconds.

I've only ever seen this in Half-Life.

[Woolie Wool]

As opposed to having to trudge around for ten minutes in areas I've already cleared, trying to find health items?

Pretty much the reason why my gaming philosophy tends to favor unlimited inventories. Pickup items when you see them, instead of saving them for later and then having to backtrace. If you're carrying three dozen medikits, you won't need to wait behind a crate until you've regenerated enough.

Quake II used that philosophy with powerups, the result was that bosses offered no challenge at all because you could just activate a Quad Damage and kill them in ten seconds.