So in Diablo, you've got two globes that indicate your health and mana levels, and a bar that shows your stamina. It's great. You don't care how much health/mana/stamina you have, all you know is that you have a lot, a little, or somewhere in between. You can determine this just by glancing at it.
So here's where the problem is. Nexuiz just has a number. You have to think before you know how much health you have left, and even then, it's not 100% clear.
Here's my solution to this problem (ignore the crappy font
). The backgrounds of the health and armor numbers would have a meter. When the bar is full, it shows that you have the greatest health/armor possible without having it rot. Excess health/armor would be indicated by a blue color. For ammunition, there is no set maximum. So, when you have 15/20 or less of the current ammunition, the background will turn orange, alerting the player to the low ammo levels.
The colors can be made darker/more opaque so it's not as distracting to the player, but that's just a mockup. Something that could be done is make the bars horizontal instead of vertical, so there is more space to show the percentage, and thereby making it easier to know the health/armor levels. Lastly, the armor could be repositioned to the right, health to the left, and ammunition in the middle. This would avoid confusion, because the health/armor bars would have the same shape, and thus act the same. The ammo bar would act different since it has a different shape.
