Main mechanic too bland

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#1

I’ve been making a shooter game with the main mechanic being that some abilities cost health to use, those abilities being more powerful than costless abilities
but so far, it’s too bland, you press a button and your health bar drops while your character do some sick move, for a main mechanic this seems to empty, but i cant think of any effect or anything among these lines to make it more interesting or easier to understand to newcomers

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#2

I’m going off of no video examples so take this with a grain of salt

I think a problem with that mechanic is that players wouldn’t want to lose their precious health for an attack. You need a way to make players want to use it while still being a risky move. For example, you could add items that heal you around the map, so players can heal up while they’re not actively fighting someone.

but so far, it’s too bland, you press a button and your health bar drops while your character do some sick move, for a main mechanic this seems to empty

I don’t think it’s bland at all. It adds a high risk high reward that a lot of shooters don’t have. I think your problem lies with the execution, not the idea. You could find a way to make it more engaging towards players instead of a simple button on your screen.

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#3

I have a video, it’s from days ago but the health reduction part is basically the same, but still don’t have the cost indicator

#4

I don’t think there’s enough content yet to determine if the mechanic is boring. I guess you’ll just have to see when there’s gameplay implemented. Still, I think the idea is really cool, It just has to be executed well.

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#5

mostly what I see as too bland is the fact that there isn’t really anything making it more apparent rather than a dropping healthbar, but yea, I guess I should come back to it when I get more gameplay ready

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#6

i guess like a blood vignette and sound muffle when you use them?
some blur too that fades out ig?

#7

I think it’d be neat if you were also able to heal health by dealing damage; that way, players would have an incentive to use their abilities, since otherwise they’d just waste their extra HP, and it would also incentivize an aggressive, high-risk, high-reward playstyle where you need to play aggressively to either heal or deal more damage.

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#8

thats the plan! i will code it after i remake my ability gui

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