Don't Display Health To Others

At times I've thought of different suggestions for complex ways to change this or have conditional states to display various information, but after some thought I believe now that there is really no time in any context when players must have access this information about others for gameplay to function, it is basically handwaved health bars that there are now other ways to infer this information when it is needed.

So I think this state information (what is seen on ht/health, or below descriptions) should only be displayed to a character's own player and hidden to everyone else. There is no realistic reason someone layered in battle armour and covered by a poncho could be instantly inferred to be in critical condition and ripe for the taking, for example, or seen to be wanting for a fix, or seen to be injured when no part of their body can be seen at all, and other areas where health state is part of roleplaying, injuries themselves on @nakeds can be used in place.

Clearly this had absolutely no unintended long-term consequences!

I understand that want and mentality within the context of an RP-lite game whose players are coming majorly from D&D-style hack-and-slash MUDs where making difficulty checks is part of gameplay and progression, but my view would be the fundamental paradigms of RPI games have moved so far past those days that those vestigial elements can be tossed.

Seeing player current/total HP in basically any context has no basis for realism that matches how much the rest of the game works. Players can infer how much damage their enemies have taken, and how close they might be to winning, but there is no real cause to just give this information to players except that it's easier and more convenient, in my view.

"Hey chum, you don't look so good. You sure you should be up dancing, and trying to pick out a joy?"

But I think if we got some portable tool to check how 'healthy' someone is by doing some quick test on the fly, this could be a good idea(There is already some way to check in a clinic setting, but sometimes folks want to get treated fast).

Wounds should remain the same, they don't show when covered to others and can give you a glimpse how in bad state someone is without doing any particular test.

And medical staffers not knowing if someone health is improving or not, might become an issue during medical treatment, but sure those things could be mended.

It could potentially be more abstracted than it is now, but if someone is half dead, I think it would be apparent even under a poncho. Labored breathing, wobbly gait, and fresh wounds should be apparent to anyone with a pair of eyes, especially since there is no other way to note whether damage to clothing is fresh or old than to assume based on the health condition of the wearer.

Also I may be wrong but I'm pretty sure you do actually get to see the condition of vehicles down to individual parts.

Absolutely no part of medical gameplay requires seeing, or knowing HP of another player, medical attention can already be given to characters in ten layers of coverings, regardless of whether injuries are visible or not, their ht display has nothing to do with it.

Players do not wish to avoid no-selling, or need tools to give them incredible intuition into the physical condition of everyone to play doctors, they want to avoid fights they might be at a disadvantage in and small-world targets and threats through gameplay information that defies realism. This is why it was implemented and exactly why it should now be removed because the game caters too much to avoiding dangers and providing the tools to do so.

Though I also think it is dumb that you don't need to uncover wounds to have them treated. That also feels very gamey to me, though that's a different issue entirely and probably should have its own thread.

I also am a bit worried people would just NOT roleplay injuries, because some people don't like to appear weak and play like it's a PVP game and not an RP game, which ends up in some people self-inserting too much because they hate appearing weak IRL. (While I personally think appearing weak in RP makes it better. You can still RP someone who is proud, but avoiding to RP injuries because YOU are proud is just BS.)

I came to Sindome from HL2RP which was mainly roleplay, I usually didn't even partake in combat to begin with, just to clarify my perspective.

This much makes sense to me because, by analogy, when an unskilled character looks at a vehicle part they can only see if it's 'probably ok' or 'destroyed', so that same paradigm would be consistent with health states ie. you can't see whether someone is in excellent or above excellent condition to know their max HP, or intuit whether they may have injuries or conditions or not without them actually being visible, but it may be logically to see if a character is at the very edge of death.

My preference is still not showing health status at all, but I see the logic and consistency there and ultimately the important thing is that the game is consistent, in my opinion.

Visual enhancement: Show current HP, stamina status, injuries, afflictions, the works.

Low medical check: Show injuries if undisguised.

Medium medical check: Show injuries and current HP if undisguised.

High medical check: Show injuries and current HP and max HP regardless of disguise state.

Bio tech check: Show PDS level and attack state.

Low chemical check: Show afflictions and addiction or withdrawal states if undisguised.

Mid chemical check: Show afflictions and addiction or withdrawal states regardless of disguise state.

Forensics check: Show injuries, afflictions and and addiction or withdrawal states.

High forensics check: Show injuries, afflictions and and addiction or withdrawal states, and stamina state.

Gating it behind perception just gates the information behind stat points and reduces the new player experience, which, is where this information is usually most handy. We want Sindome to be life like in many cases, but it's still a game. And providing reliable system level information that isn't left up to the player is an important check/balance.