Health Bars difficult to see with red-background

[Spookydodger]

It's been said before, but with the recent posts on cleric party list problems, I figured this could stand with some reiteration:

When health bars are over a background that is largely red/orange, such as while standing in a firewall, or in a chamber like the Fernia chamber in the Prison of the Planes, it is very hard to see the health conditions of party members.

This could probably be rectified with an alternating background color immediately behind, and a pixel or two larger, than the red health-bar. It should provide enough contrast to detect differences in the health bar with the colors of a flaming background.

[KristovK]

I don't personally have this issue but I can see how it can be rather annoying. Might I suggest you play with your color settings for the monitor/video card? Common cause in this situation is that your color settings are 'off' from the norms used by the devs on the machines they code/test on. Could be the color settings for your monitor and/or your video card, play around with them and see if you can't find something that works better...might even make the game look better since it seems the colors are off from what is the 'norm'.

[Mad_Bombardier]

I agree that it's a problem. think the problem comes from empty UIs being translucent. You can see the same thing on empty hotbars. They have a dark reddish-brown translucent background, but you can see through them. All they'd need to do is change the background on Health Bars from translucent to opaque, so that we'd always see black for empty bars.

[negative]

I thought there already was a greyish translucent background to the party health bars. Maybe I'm seeing things again though, wouldn't be the first time.

I have never had any problems myself anywhere, including the Fernia room, watching to see if I need to LOH or wand wipe someone. That doesn't mean it couldn't use improving, just that I seem to remember a darker background being in game already.

[PurdueDave]

I've never had a whole room be problematic but when I'm standing in the middle of a firewall, for example, they can be pretty tough to make out.

[wraith87]

The only times I have had problems is when it's completely black in certain places actually. Can't really tell how far down the health bar happens to be, though I can usually guesstimate pretty close.

[Zenako]

Ah, thats just one of the excuses we could make about missing the health status of the party. Happened in Taming the Flames a lot too....a whole quest like the Fernia room. I would actually turn to weird angles at times to make sure I got a good handle on party health. When in doubt, Cast Mass Cure Serious Wounds, it tends to cover most circumstances....