Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
1.
Armor bar
2.
Health bar
3.
Experience bar
4.
Oxygen bar
5.
Hunger bar
6.
Inventory quick access
FIGURE 3.1
The HUD provides key status indications. Health is all important, but low
hunger also leads to low health, so keep a close eye on both.
EachsectionoftheHUDprovidesakeynuggetofinformationaboutthehealthorstatusof
your avatar:
Armor bar
—The armor bar appears when you've equipped your avatar with any
type of armor and shows the current damage absorption level. Each armor icon
represents an 8% reduction in the damage you'll take, so a 10/10 suit of armor re-
duces the damage you take by 80%, whereas a 1/10 suit absorbs only 8%. Armor
becomes less effective the more damage it absorbs, although the rate at which it
deteriorates also depends on its material—leather being the weakest and diamond
the strongest.
Health bar
—You have up to 20 points of health available, represented by the 10
hearts shown. Each heart disappears in two ticks. Health and hunger have a com-
plicated relationship. You can read more below starting at “
Hunger Management
.
”
Experience bar
—The experience bar increases the more you mine, smelt, cook,
kill, and fish. Your current level is shown in the middle of the bar. When it's full,
you move to the next experience level. Experience isn't generally important until
you start enchanting and giving additional powers to items such as swords (see
Chapter 10
,
“
Enchantments, Anvils, and Brewing
”
). Unlike other role-playing
games, experience in Minecraft is more like a currency that you spend on enchant-
ments, so it waxes and wanes. But all experience gained counts toward the final
score shown on the screen when you die. Killing a mob drops experience orbs that
either fly directly toward you or float to the ground waiting for you to collect them,
and you can also gain experience by smelting certain items in the furnace and car-
rying out other activities such as finding rare ores. Dying causes a substantial drop
in your current experience level.
Oxygen bar
—The oxygen bar appears whenever you go underwater and it quickly
starts to drop. You can probably hold your own breath for longer! As soon as your
oxygen level hits zero, your health starts taking a two-point hit every second, but it
resurfaces for just an instant if you hold down the jump key until you've reached
