Medic feedback

[Lone Penguin 15]

Hello,

 

First I would like to know if Bohemia also reads feedback here or only on the feedback tracker ? I find that the tracker is good for bugs and quick requests, but the forum allows more people to join the discussion when a larger topic about the gameplay is brought up.

 

Anyway, here is a bullet list of what I think should be improved for the medic mechanics :

 

- Conflict : The field hospital should be constructible at the start of the game on the main base. Currently you need to be a sergeant, so a lot of players are forced to spawn ambulances only to rob them of all their medical items.

- Conflict : The medic role isn't enough specialized. What I mean is everyone can heal themselves, rendering the role of medic not very useful. I saw in the field manual that there is a note about specializations, so maybe this is already a feature for the future ?

- In general : Players wake up from their unconscious state 95 percent of the time without being treated. Again this makes the role of a medic not very useful. Maybe this is because we can't drag bodies yet ? I hope it will be possible in the future. I think a downed player shouldn't be able to heal himself alone because of the shock and the pain, if the wound is somewhat severe.

 

- In general : Maybe establish some medical items that can only be used by a medic (that would require to add classes in the game, which are not present at the moment).

- What I like : When taking a shot to the throat you don't die instantly, but the wound is so severe than you bleed out in 10 seconds anyway, I find this detail really nice. Also the fact that when you take a shot to the foot for example, taking more shots to the same foot doesn't deal anymore damage. I support this kind of detail.

- In general : Maybe for life threatening wounds, only if the player is brought back at a field hospital or put in an ambulance he would be allowed to be treated. This would render the use of an ambulance and medic useful (the medic would be the only one able to treat soldiers at the field hospita/ambulance). Maybe this would be impractical in PvP where players aren't organized, which brings me to the following point.

- In general : Maybe establish two levels of medical systems, like in Arma 3 for the flight models. A basic one and an advanced one. The basic one would be more appropriate for quick conflict game mode where players want to get in the heat of the battle quickly, fast respawns, no real medic use, etc. And an advanced one where wounds are permanent, like limping in Arma 3, unless treated in an ambulance or a field hospital, and where players can't heal themselves if unconscious/under shock.

 

- In general : Maybe bandages shouldn't always stop the bleeding entirely. Only if a soldier climbs aboard a medic vehicle he would be allowed to be entirely stabilized. The player after bandaging himself would still have a lot of time to live but there would be this feeling of urgency, you know you don't bleed out fast but if a medic doesn't come for you know you will die. This would bring for very interesting gameplay where a team would shout for help on the radio, and call for a medic fast.

 

- Conflict : Maybe the conflict game mode, or a new one will bring some kind of AI roleplay ? For example civilians in towns. If some are injured, treating them or getting them back to safety would earn your faction some sort of points. Maybe shooting at ambulances would be considered a war crime and the player would lose a rank if he destroys it (like with a teamkill).

- Conflict : I never used a saline bag or a tourniquet once in 50 hours of conflict gameplay since the update. I think something should be reworked here in order to make theses item more useful, or to force players to need them. Again on a public server players don't really care about their lives so you end up dying much more often. I'm guilty of that reckless behavior too, but when everyone is playing Rambo to the objectives, I do the same. Maybe this is the reason. This is why I hope the medical system will receive advanced mechanics that will be more useful for PvE maybe.

 

- In general : In another post I talked about healing allies being clunky. I understand now why it's done that way and not with an interface. It is in fact more immersive, more analog style, a thing that I really like about Arma Reforger. I found that with a bit of practice you get used to it. I still think it needs some rework though, don't really know how but, I trust you will find a way.

In general, I think being shot should be more punitive (if not deadly). But having to deal with the debuff of wounds would probably encourage players to respawn instead of continuing to fight. This is why I think there should be two levels of medical systems, a casual one, and a hardcore one where players would be forced to really think twice before running in a firefight or peak out of their cover when suppressed. That way everyone would be able to choose the server on which they want to play.

 

Well that's all that is on the top of my head, I'll come back and edit the post if I think of something else. Thanks for everything Bohemia, courage.