https://trello.com/c/yFZxCa2M/150-alien-heavy-damage-effects
Card owner: Remi
Description:"Help rookies know when to retreat by making very obvious heavy damage effects. We could tweak the trigger point (maybe immediately after losing armor, or when hitting 600hp as onos). It could also be intelligent, and take into account the speed at which you are taking damage and not just your current health (so it would tell you to run faster vs 6 marines than 3). Sound effect, more intense shader, etc."

Remi: "kLowHealthWarning = 0.35 currently. I think this is long after aliens need to retreat, typically. Not sure if we should just change this threshold or have a secondary effect."

As it says above, it is meant to clearly warn players about when to get out, This is why I ask all of you to give health/armor values for each lifeform for when YOU would get out as fast as possible. You can think of scenarios like " two marines with lmgs and i'm on 20 armor as fade" or something.

(Change threshold, no secondary effect)
Lerk -> when armor is gone
Fade -> on 200 HP
Onos -> when armor is gone
Obviously depending heavily on the number of marines nearby. But since this is designed for pubs you'll usually receive a high amount of burst damage when marines are nearby, at least as onos. For the fade you'll be focused less and it's always safe to leave on 200HP. In my opinion, anything lower than that is not even worth the health warning because you can just get blasted by a sg or 2lmgs. For the lerk it's hard to tell, but considering that it only has like 140HP total it should leave when losing all its armor, else you'll lose all da pub lerks.

BauerJankins says

Lerk -> when armor is gone
For the lerk it's hard to tell, but considering that it only has like 140HP total it should leave when losing all its armor, else you'll lose all da pub lerks.

As a lerk player. I'm agreeing with this, but the warning should come to an effect at a still safe I-need-to-get-the-fuck-out-here zone. Like at 10-ish armor remaining imo.

Also "Sound effect, more intense shader, etc." please god no. I would rather not have a "sound (insert airhorn.mp3)" or "flashy shaders" to tell me when i'm about to die a horrible and painful death.

Malware says

Also "Sound effect, more intense shader, etc." please god no. I would rather not have a "sound (insert airhorn.mp3)" or "flashy shaders" to tell me when i'm about to die a horrible and painful death.

There recently was a discusion, that the devs don't want everything new to be as a toggle. There are some good arguments for that and I agree.

This one seems to aim at newer players especially, although, depending on how it is implemented it might help veterans as well. From that point of view making it a toggle would make sense.

On the other side one could also argue, that the OP becomes an actual game mechanic: a hurt lifeform *is* hurt - limited sight, impaired hearing etc... That ties in with balancing, though. Hurt lifeforms, which are by definition low already, might die easier, if the player receives less info. In that case a toggle would make no sense obviously. One would also have to think about doing something similar for the marines then - just for consistency.

I personally think implementing it as a game mechanic would be quite interesting. As it gives hooks and loops to tie in other mechanics (bring the painkillers :P ). Obviously it requires more work and care, though.

It would be cool if you could decide at which point that warning would come in. Some players like it fast, some like it once they are very close to dying. Not sure how it would be implemented though. Lifeform specific total life set in the same way sensitivity can be set?

I would like this to be sound cue, one distinguishable "ding", like you have hit sounds. Setup-able by players from 0.0-1.0 of total HP with defaults stated by bauer. It would be clear and crisp and had no affect on your senses afterwards, like obfuscating shaders and impaired hearing. pls not more of those.

+1 Ixian