In games where vehicular combat is key they always make the vehicles waaaay to strong in my opinion. Simply because, yes, they give the whole thing a 'heath bar' instead of putting some hit box with 'cause and effect' elements. The most you have with hit boxes is how much damage each one reduces and nothing more then that.
Worse they then make it so you have to whittle the thing down with enough explosives to demolish a building! All because they have made vehicular combat such a vital component that you need them not just to get from A to B but because you are so squishy without them you do all that running just to die when stray bullet taps you in the toe from across the map.
And on that matter: Why not do the same thing for the human body! Sure we are squishy to the point a bullet can kill us, but the chance of that happening even on the battle field is quite low. Take a look at the statistics, thanks to modern combat armour and the likes more people come back wounded from being shot, or exploded, then dead.
So why not add a system where your body also takes realistic damage. Instead of 1 shot 1 kill anywhere, like most 'realistic' games have, you can take different rates of blood loss depending on the size of the hole and the location of it. Then even a wound that will prove lethal will give you a few seconds after being shot to at least panic and spray rounds in the enemies general direction.
I even have a not so patented three tier health system that allows the illusion of realistic health based around system shock, blood loss and structure damage.
Non-lethal damage, like a round that gets caught by a vest, causes system shock and nothing much more. It doesn't cause any lasting damage but the pain slows you down and makes it difficult to shoot straight, like being drunk. Enough could even put you flat on your arse till someone drags you to cover and gives you a minute or so to get you to your unstable feet.
Blood loss is a simple 1-100 number, disguised as a high and low blood pressure reading that drops as you bleed out. You can still function, in the seconds or minutes depending the round type and area hit, you have left to kiss your arse goodbye. Most of the time your going to panic and spray bullets around while you try to take cover and apply pressure to the wound till a medic can stop you from spilling red gunk all over the place.
Structure damage represents vital organs and load bearing structures like muscles in the arms and legs. Damage to this just causes an instant effect, from drowning on your own blood to being unable to hold the gun as steady as you could without the muscles aching like all hell from being torn up by shrapnel. A head shot still can drop you faster then anything else, a second before everything goes black, and having your heart ripped from your chest will be a very bad day indeed.
Lots of ideas that stem from that too but this isn't the time and the place.
Still, yes! In regards of changes to the health of vehicles, and even people, I don't see why we are using old and outdated methods. Realistic cause and effects can not be that difficult to program in, surely?
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Added: A interesting book I was reading, and still am now and then when I am bored, was on sniper training. The author wrote a few good chapters on how a single bullet can reduce the efficacy of modern day tanks and other armoured vehicles. With proper hit boxes in place one could, in theory, reduce the combat effectiveness of a tank to the point the tank crew will have to expose themselves to be of any efficient use at all. Even with nothing more then small arms fire!
I would very much like to see that. Cause as much as people complain about a realistic game having you left cowering while a tank rolls pass.... they already do that! If your not equipped to deal with a tank, many games of which you can't carry enough anti-tank explosives on hand to deal with it single handed, then your left cowering completely.
If you could take out vital targeting systems with a bullet it would at least give you the chance to escape from the tank even if you don't have anything that could disable or destroy it.
PS: for the person complaining a realistic tank would be hard to control. We are not talking about having to operate every leaver manually here, the interface will still be simplified. After all we can just assume your 'character' knows how to handle a tank even if you do not. You will be surprised to find out that tanks are quite manoeuvrable! For all their weight they are quite agile and current games don't' do them any justice as they now stand.
