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Full Version: Some ideas to change up medic gameplay
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Often when I am playing medic, I find myself sitting around waiting for someone to get shot while sitting back so i don't die in the case that somebody is hurt. I love playing medic, but sometimes it is boring when people aren't getting shot lol. I was trying to think of ways to mix up medic gameplay to make it more interesting and I have a couple ideas I wanted to share and get feedback on. The goal behind these is to make this support role more engaging and have more to do rather than sit around waiting for someone to get seriously injured.

1. Most injuries requiring medic attention results in an immediate death with no unconscious state anyways, thus the medic doesn't get much to do. So how about a lesser medic role? Similar to ammo bearer, this person would carry extra bandages of different types, splints, morphine etc to treat lesser wounds that don't require a medic so the rest of the team can save their medical supplies for moments they are split off and alone. This would work best with units having less medical supplies to start out with. If an injury requires serious attention such as losing a large amount of blood and unconscious, the lesser medic role can stabilize them and their team leader can call over the platoon medic for treatment. This role would have more to do with the amount of smaller injuries that occur throughout a mission compared to a life saving medic.

2. Giving medics long range radios. Not to transmit on, but listen on. Alpha says they have a man unconscious at x house and requires a medic. In order for the medic to get the message, it must go from team short range, to long range, back to short range (varying depending on team compositions). If the medics had a long range radio they could get to x house quicker because there would be less steps of communication to get that information to the medic. The medic would also be more easily accessible to team leaders and may result in the medic being utilized more often for injuries that might not require a medic but would help to have them there. Radio discipline is important here. Even if the medic is not being used much more with this method, the medic has more information coming through their ears and can respond to situations that may need medical attention that was not called for, or even just listen over radio and have more to think about during the dry moments of waiting for something to do.

I do understand that some mission designs result in more action for the medic such as building clearing. These are more ideas to mix up the fundamentals and make it more fun.

Another alternative is to make our ace medical system more painful but not deadly so medics are needed more often.
I appreciate that you care about the medic role and so do I. It's near and dear to my heart. I don't have the same experience that you talk about here in your first point and I think you are over thinking things a bit. Lately when I have been medic I've always had lots to do, applying splints, transfusing blood etc. The biggest problem that I see is that people are way to quick to treat themselves even if the medic is right next to them. I have even seen regular rifle men stop fighting in order to treat a fellow soldier instead of calling for medic. This happens often.
With regards to giving the medic a LR that's a hard NO from me. I don't think it is necessary and it WILL lead to problems.
I also think the medic has, when played correctly, lots of things to do... and by "played correctly" I mean that all players remember there is a medic.

What I mean is that people should not go about bandaging themselves immediately (or, as McGregor said, the guy next to them) if a medic is available. Put on a tourniquet an wait for the medic to work on you. Also, a medic should at all time be aware of where everyone of his team is, to make sure no one goes down without it being noticed. Often enough, we had instances where someone went unconscious (or un-alive) and no  one noticed. I remember dying in a mission once, and the only reason someone noticed 20 minutes (!) later was that I was the AT guy and a tank came up on the battlefield.

In Burning Tides yesterday, I was the team's medic, and I made it my job to look after everyone, and even though we only had one wounded, I think that I did a good job as medic, constantly looking to see that we're all still up and such.

In essence:
  • if you are wounded or someone close to you went down, call the medic
  • as the medic, make sure your team is well off
  • if your team doesn't have a medic, call one in from another team
I also think an LR is not necessary for a medic. If some team needs a medic, they should radio that on the LR, and the team leader of the team with the medic will dispatch one. Otherwise, you will get into the situation that someone on the LR calls for a medic, and all the medics run off towards the caller, instead of doing some coordination and sending just one medic
Following up on Varanon’s point. Given that the medic should be the one to keep track of the squad’s well being, and given that he usually stays back, when I’m the medic I’m taking upon myself the role of staying last in the formation, doing head counts and calling “last man” when we are moving out. It might sound negligible but it’s really not. It helps keeping the squad’s integrity and formation, and when I lead it REALLY helps me when I have a medic that take that role upon himself. The leader has his eyes at the front and it’s essential to help him know that his team is intact and following. The medic is in a perfect position to provide that.
So last night I had a thought about this, and I got up this morning and tested it. And I think I have an idea how to make the medic more critical. 

Essentially, now all the medic can really do that anyone else can't is blood and Epi pens. Which is alright, but not ideal. However, there are 3 options that could change this:
Limping
Fractures
Clear Trauma after bandage

If we switch Limping to "Limp on open or bandaged wound", Fractures to "Splints heal but cannot sprint" and turn off "Clear Trauma After Bandage", then a non-medic can stop you from dying, but they can't heal you upto 100%. What that requires is a Personal Aid Kit or a Surgical Kit, which then fully heal the person. The Personal Aid Kits can be set to medic only and given in Medkit breakdowns.

There is one downside to this, PAKs also top the person up with blood, though it requires that all the medical treatments are done (not bleeding, no unsplinted broken bones, patient is conscious), which means that saline/blood would be limited to unconscious people. Which does have the benefit of meaning the medic has less weight to carry (PAKs only weigh about 450g). Also, you can set PAKs to be consumable if you want to limit how much use a medic is.
Sounds great to me. Reminds me a bit of our Pre-ACE days, when non-medics could FAK themselves but you’d need a medic’s attention to fully heal, I liked that.
So to fully heal all that will require a single action by the medic? If so, how is it called?
Variable Wrote:Sounds great to me. Reminds me a bit of our Pre-ACE days, when non-medics could FAK themselves but you’d need a medic’s attention to fully heal, I liked that.
So to fully heal all that will require a single action by the medic? If so, how is it called?

The fully heal is an end stage action also called through the ACE interaction menus. You still need to bandage, splint and make sure they're conscious to heal them fully so it doesn't take away from that aspect of the system. But without using the PAK it means someone with a broken leg can't sprint, and also bandaged wounds reduce the overall remaining health of the player.
Is the PAK consumable?
I have to say, I agree with MJ's proposal. We should give it a test run and see how we fare.
Also, we might consider splitting FAKs into more tourniquets and field dressings, and less proper bandages. That way, the primary thing for a wounded soldier to do is use a tourniquet instead of immediately bandaging
Variable Wrote:Is the PAK consumable?
If you set it to be.
I also think it is a good idea to rethink the ACE medical settings.

There is one more thing that was not mentioned: reopening wounds under advanced bandages. That requires stitching by someone who is allowed to use the surgical kit. When we use stitching the medic should be allowed to stitch himself. I would advice against consumption after use.
Verstanden Wrote:I also think it is a good idea to rethink the ACE medical settings.

There is one more thing that was not mentioned: reopening wounds under advanced bandages. That requires stitching by someone who is allowed to use the surgical kit. When we use stitching the medic should be allowed to stitch himself. I would advice against consumption after use.

I think reopening wounds and stitching is a step too far really, we want to make it so that the medic has a distinct and meaningful role, but not make it a chore.
I think it really falls into the same category.

Having to limb after applying a bandage (I guess not every wound will make you limb), not being able to sprint after applying a splint (not every wound will induce a fracture) and dying faster when bandages do not clear the trauma to 0. (if trauma reaches value X you die) won't be great either. The reopening of wounds means you will have to rebandage sometimes (not every wound will reopen) but you can move and fight until someone stitches you.

All of the options add workload to the medic (which we want, right?) and annoyance to the player. I think we should keep an open mind for all of them.

If you want something similar to the 1 click full vanilla healing I guess heal the trauma with the PAK. But like MJ said Patient has to be stable and awake.
(04-27-2020, 12:31 PM)Varanon Wrote: [ -> ]Also, we might consider splitting FAKs into more tourniquets and field dressings, and less proper bandages. That way, the primary thing for a wounded soldier to do is use a tourniquet instead of immediately bandaging


I like this as well. More reason to rely on medics.
What is currently the ACE difference between a field dressing and a bandage? I thought it’s just the size of wounds they can stop bleeding of.
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