Comment 18 for bug 794407

In this case, HJD, I see things somewhat differently:
A visibility toggle for soldier skill levels and health bar would be an advantage in any case, and so far independent of any displaying solutions that we might hopefully come up in addition.
From an aesthetical standpoint, those floating badges over the heads of soldiers are just an alien element in the picture, and don't belong there in the first place.
Seen this way, _they_ were the "workaround" for having no better way to display the info.

All the same, they are very useful, and, indeed indispensable.
Whatever might be done in the graphics department, there will be no way to find a "real world" reprensentation for the full information. At best we will see some ranking, which summerizes the skills. This is a hell of a lot of work for the graphics crew, and will take a lot of time.

As for the health bar, I could not even in theory come up with such a "real world" solution.
If we want that info, we'll have to accept it floating over the heads.
All the more it would be nice to have it switchable.
We should accept that there are people out there, that play WL for the pleasure of seeing their planning "materialize" and trying to find an even better one. It's like being the queen of an ant hive.
For them all those "above heads" info is disturbing and only relevant in a final battle.

So, in my view, for the skills, the proper solution must be to try something visible in the "real WL world", like differences in uniform, helmets and armour as diversified as our blender artist can manage to achieve.
The players who want more details about individual soldiers, will have to accept the OHD (over head display).
The heath bar must remain, and I cannot see any reason to change it, other than make it invisible, if the player wants this..