At all times, there is the health bar, the hunger bar, the
armor bar and the experience bar.
The health bar tells the player how close he/she is to
death. Feedback on damage is indicated both with reductions to the hearts
displayed in the health bar as well as a sharp sound effect when the player
takes damage. The only exception to this sound effect playing seems to be if
the player takes explosive damage, in which case an explosion sound is clearly
heard. The health bar will begin to shake when the player’s health reaches a
critical level. If the player’s hunger bar is at full capacity, the player’s
health will regenerate, causing it to flash as the hearts refill. The same
happens if the player’s health is replenished by a potion or some other method.
The armor bar is an indication of how well armored the
player is. When equipped, armor will take damage in place of the player. If
armor has too much stress inflicted upon it, it will break. This, however, will
not result in harming the player, though the armor bar does deplete depending
on how much stress the player’s armor has taken. The kind of armor and the
amount equipped also affect how much the armor bar fills.
The hunger bar is a recent addition and factors into health.
This bar is made up of tiny drumstick icons that diminish over time. The bar
and icons appear to flash when it depletes. Unlike the health bar, the hunger
bar only seems to be dependant on time in when it depletes. It’s more difficult
to notice until it empties all of the way, which causes the player to loose
health. When a player looses health due to starving, the damage sound effect
plays. The hunger bar does begin to move around much like the health bar when
it gets low.
The experience bar is an indication of how many experience
orbs the player has collected. The bar will gradually fill a green color and
will empty when it gets full. When this happens, however, the numeric value
above the bar will increase in number. This tells the player how many
experience points they have to later spend on enchantment.
Just bellow the health, hunger and experience readouts is an
inventory bar. Items equipped to the player’s hand will be hi-lighted by a
white box. Items that are in stacks will have their number listed bellow,
unless they’re singular in which case there will be no value shown. Mousing
over an object displays a tool tip balloon with the object’s name. Tools wear
out over time, so they have an indicator bar bellow their icons as to how much
more stress they can take. As the tool takes more stress, not only does the
smaller bar beneath it decrease in size, but the color of the bar shifts from
green to a more muddy color, finally to a red. When a tool is depleted,
particle effects play and a break sound effect is heard.
Player ailments or effects are shown in two places. First,
they are indicated in the inventory screen with a specific icon just to the
left of the screen. When moused-over, they display the name for the ailment or
effect. Each ailment/effect also lists the time of effect directly below it.
Second, they are indicated to the player through particle effects that will
swirl in front of the player’s view and around their in game avatar.
The inventory screen is pulled up by pressing the “I” key.
The player can see everything he is carrying along with a display of his avatar
wearing any armor they might have equipped or carrying any tools they might
have equipped. The armor slots are to the left of the character, in line with
the parts of the body the armor equips to. Opposite the character portrait is a
crafting window with four slots. This allows the player to craft simple items.
If the combination in the window matches an actual item, an indication of the
item to be crafted will appear, allowing the player to click on it to create
it.
Crafting items or chests will have their own specific layout
as well, but will only appear when clicked. Chests have a readout similar to
the player’s inventory. The size of the chest determines the available spaces
for item storage. Crafting tables have a window that has a larger crafting box
than what the player has in the inventory screen, allowing the player to make
more complex items. The readout is the same, with an item appearing in the
craft box if the combination corresponds with a recipe. Ovens/furnaces have
three boxes; one for the item to be cooked, one for the fuel and one for the
result. There is a flame icon in between the item to be cooked and the fuel
which will light up if both boxes are filled with a cook-able item and proper
fuel respectively. The icon diminishes over time, demonstrating how much of the
fuel has been used as well as how quick certain fuel burns (for example, with
wood as fuel, the icon will diminish quicker than with coal as fuel).
Enchanting tables have a slot to place the tool and a read-out to the right of
the window indicating how many experience points an enchantment requires. The
larger the number, the better the enchantment. For whatever reason, the readout
does not indicate the given enchantment in a readable language, instead using
decorative runes so that the player doesn’t know what enchantment they’re
getting. If a tool is enchanted, it will glow and give the name of its
enchantment in the tool tip when moused-over.
Each and every one of the game windows is very reminiscent
of old-school video games. The font and textures are lo-res (much like the rest
of the game) and also emit a primitive vibe, befitting of the mostly lo-tech
and fantasy atmosphere of the game.
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