Request: Better indicator for Stunned state

I generally like attacks that check poise as part of the combat systems, but I think how the state of stun is communicated to the player could be improved a lot. That is to say, it’s not really communicated at all.

An example:

A monster hits me with a move that puts me in stun. There is no obvious indication that my character is now in stun and so I try to move and maybe roll away after getting hit. I notice that my character is not taking actions, so I start spamming for dodge, but it’s too late and I get hit by the follow up attack.

This is quite frustrating and I feel like I’m being cheated by the game in these situations.

To be very clear it is not that I feel ‘stun’ is bad, rather that I feel that the state is not being well communicated to the player. My recommendation is to add an audio queue of some kind in addition to maybe a viewport border effect to indicate, ‘You have been stunned!’ Trying to see the PC’s animation in a stunned state is not adequate.

I do think there is an argument to be made that learning what attacks stun your character and which ones don’t is part of learning the scenarios, but I’m unconvinced that is a net good for the game.

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I agree with the viewport border idea, similar to how when you’re low on health in shooters they tinge the edges of your screen with red/blood, the edges of our screen could be clouded or blurred

i am not a huge fan of “screen” effects, but i can agree with a sound effect or maybe give us some sort of indication on the tiny “wheel thing” where we see stamina and HP next to our character.

there could really just be some sound effect

They could also add a visual effect above the character, maybe just the word: Stunned, in bold. This way you quickly know what is happening.

Or maybe an icon above the character with an explanation in the tutorial or something so players know what it means.

I don’t think they want too many immersion breaking elements on-screen though unless it’s optional. The only bars that appear are health, stamina, enemy health after all everything else is an option

yes, but i would love the option for a status bar, for enemies too, not only the players character. like fire build up, plague etc. on bosses/enemies. yes we have a poise bar, but then there is no icon or whatever. it would be enough to show a little symbol next to your HP like for plague (once it has built up), plus having a sound effect once the stun is triggered.

i don’t know, make it two little stars below the players HP bar or whatever. just nothing that clutters the screen too much.

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I mean in other games when people get stunned, it appears a white light that circling around above the head. That would be enough in my opinion.

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Puma

It’s true that there should be a status indicator. Sometimes, when the character falls from a high place and luckily survives, they just stand there dazed for a while. I know that the character should be in a stunned state during this time, but there is no visual feedback to convey this—no animation or special effect to indicate what’s happening.

Thinking about this some more ~

I think given how the rest of the UI is setup, and the general aesthetic of the game, I would pitch the following:

• By default, there is no UI indicator either on the UI layer itself or on the character.
• By default, upon getting stunned, a short tone plays that is consistent across all stuns that quickly fades. Think of a brief brass bell ring at a constant pitch for about 1 second.
• As an option, you can can turn on a setting that briefly lights the edge of the viewport with a bright white splash and quickly fades to away.

I think this would be enough to indicate the status without invading the viewport at all by default, and an option exists to provide a visual for those that may want it for some reason. I think this would also integrate nicely with what’s actually happening: you are literally getting your ‘bell rung’ as it were when getting stunned. It’s doing double duty of being a clear indicator of state while also being a thematic add to the effect in game.