Ammo Counters.

"Why are you reloading? You have 50 bullets left." "Coz what I'm about to do requires a hundred."

Wake up! It is a new Ahoy video!

“I know what you're thinking. Did he fire six shots or only five? Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement, I've kinda lost track myself.” -Clint “No ammo counter” Eastwood

About the discussion on audible ammo counters (the characters speaking aloud), I always like what Half Life Alyx did. There's a conventional ammo counter on your left hand for reserve ammo, and the guns have an indicator on them (pips for the pistol, number for the shotgun and a ring that empties for the machine gun) for current ammo, but the interesting thing is that as you pull out ammo to reload Alyx will say out loud "three left", "only two left", "last one", and if you reach for ammo that isn't there she says in a desparate tone "I'm out!". That was a good way of letting the player know stuff with minimal UI, which is important in VR.

16:38 To be fair, the ammo counter in cyberpunk is technically diegetic. It's a function of your hand cyberware and eye implants.

ahoy video drop as soon as my air fryer finishes cooking, heaven is a place on earth

One of my favorite ammo counters is the the bar in Half-Life 2 next to the crosshair. You can always see how much ammo you have left without moving your eyes to the corner of the screen. And as a bonus, on the other side of the crosshair you can see your current health. Amazingly practical game design.

WE ARE SO BACK

Never thought I'd make something that would appear in an Ahoy! video. Been a fan for years. Thanks!

7:58 "As with Quake, and with most of the clones that followed in its wake." Bars

10:19 Oh how unfortunate it is to watch them though….

Prey 2017 does the "ammo counter on gun" approach, but it has a nice trick where if you are struck by an electrical attack, your ammo counter is disabled for a brief time. Rarely matters in actual gameplay, but it's a nice touch of consistency.

Splatoon has my favorite example of a mix of diagetic and non-numerical ammo counters. Every weapon uses an amount of ink from an ink tank strapped to the player character's back, and only when you're submerged in ink is when an on screen UI element shows you where you are and how much ink you have. What's more is that the sub-weapons (usually throwables like grenades) also use ink, and the amount used is indicated by a line on the ink tank on the UI and on the model - there's even a little red light on the top of the tank that lights up if you have enough ink. Even though the design of the ink tank has changed between games, these elements have been consistent throughout.

I'm surprised there wasn't a section talking about games with bullet/magazine counters, where a reload doesn't always give you a fresh mag. There's quite a few games that do this and there's no general consensus on how this information should be displayed. Some games try to simplify it by simply having your used mag dumbed all together, meaning you lose the unused bullets, while other games give you pictograms of each individual magazine in your possession and how full or empty each one is.

"Examining the unexamined is the key to innovation" Such a good quote

My personal Favorite ammo counters are in an indie shooter called Sulfur, the ammo counter shows each bullet and its location in how ever each weapon holds them, and they can get extremely goofy.

The new Needler from Halo Campaign Evolved is especially dumb in my opinion. They essentially slapped an OBNOXIOUS looking ammo counter on to a weapon where you can visually see your remaining needles sticking out the top! The ammo counter was always there, why add another? It’s peak solving a problem that never existed.

Cryostasis had a fantastic ammo display, all of the guns in that game had their magazines modeled and animated to reflect your remaining ammo; the PPSH was most notably fun because you couldn't just count all the remaining bullets in it but had to gauge by how full the drum was at a glance, remaining ammo in your inventory was also displayed with remaining magazines/clip bags you picked up, a part of me wishes more games went the length to actually model and animate ammo counters like that since they are visually fun while keeping the player informed /just enough/ without outright blurting a number.

"Survival horror doesn't need a reload dialogue." The Evil Within: "OUT OF AMMO?!"

18:36 If you use mods or software to zoom-out the game to check the player model, it's actually a floating chest with just one arm holding a gun 💀