Can we see the health of a ship hull in Arena Commander?
TL;DRNo numeric hull health is shown; damage appears as regions of the targeted ship discoloring on the HUD, which they consider better for immersion.
Not as a numeric representation. It's more when you have a ship targeted and you start to see the different regions of the ship discolor off of either the stock green or stock blue outline of your HUD. That's how that damage is being represented. It's not just a health bar that you see chipping down.
I think it's better that way, for immersion's sake. It's not like you'd get into a fighter plane, you're in Top Gun, you're chasing down the MiGs, and you can see how many hit points they have left.
That was this specific thing that Chris was famous for in the original Wing Commander. Before Wing Commander 1, that was exactly how it worked. It was like, oh, the enemy's at 5%, 2%, 1%, and then instead he came up with, oh, you see the damage on the ship, and you have your VDU that shows colors. That's classic Chris Roberts immersion.