Health/armor and healing/repairing

[FIREk]

Since Matt and Smed seem to suggest taking inspiration from Battlefield 2 and Bad Company 2, I can't help but wonder how health and armor will work in PS2.


H E A L T H

Will we see passive "thumb sucking" health regeneration (also known as "BLOODY SCREEN! SO REAL!";))? If so, will the Medic's role essentially be limited to reviving and dropping medkits like in BFBC2?

Health points seem to be a thing of the past, not to mention slowing the game down and punishing non-medics for fighting (so what if you just killed 8 NC/VS in a row? now you're left with 4 HP until you find a medic).

I think Matt did mention medkits, which might suggest health points, but passive regeneration doesn't necessarily rule these out.

If we do get health points again, how will Medics heal? Hopefully the patient won't have to be perfectly still this time. I wouldn't like to see TF2/Global Agenda-like healing beams in PS2, though, for aesthetic reasons... :)


A R M O R

Will armor have hitpoints again? In PS1, even if you were an ubersoldier with Adv Med and Engy, having to stop and repair slowed the gameplay a lot. In PS2 you would be gimped after taking a few hits, until you found an Engineer.

What if there's no armor hitpoints and different classes will simply have a different damage threshold? This would speed up the game, but limit the Engineer's usefulness indoors a lot. This could however, be offset by making the Engineer the AV (and anti-MAX by extension) class of choice.

With no armor hitpoints, wouldn't MAXes be buffed to high heaven (which may not be a bad thing)? Their biggest weak point now is being very dependent on engineers. If they had unlimited armor (and therefore resilience) all the time, they would be unstoppable if they were accompanied with a Medic to revive them.


What are your thoughts on this? Do you prefer the modern passive regenerations? Do you want armor to become damaged, necessitating repair? Is it for any rational reason, or just because you're used to it in PlanetSide 1? ;)

[LostSoul]

My actual guess would be they'll be incorporating (not sure if that the right word) the armour value into the health this time around and make "armour" unique to vehicle (maybe maxes too).

[IceyCold]

I put old school health points and non degrading armor.

Armor:

The armor is pretty simple; having the armor simply reduce the incoming damage instead of it's own bar makes it much easier to understand for newer players coming in (one less bar to manage) and simplifies medics and their roles (in Planetside 1 to be an effective medic you needed both medical and engineering, this got tedious tbh).

Just makes it easier to understand and get into for the new guys, and offers really the same effect as it did in the first game minus the hassle of managing two health pools.

Health:

I know a lot of recent games have gotten into this "HUR HUR I HIDE FOR 5 SECONDS AND HEAL TEH BULLETS!" trend but I actually don't like that at all. Really if you get hit you are wounded, and you should stay that way until you get medical aid either from yourself or a medic.

For a game like Planetside 2, where we are stressing teamwork so much, it just seems silly to not have an actual health bar and a health pool in favor of a slow self heal system.

[Death2All]

I hope it resembles the same system we had in PS1 Heath/Armor/Stamina points. This is a really old school concept though and I'm not sure how many people are willing to go for that, but still.

Higby joked about the bloody screen so there's a good chance it won't be in PS2. I'm sure most people are against it. It's boring and cliche now adays.

[Robert089]

I like the idea of armour that doesn't degrade. Perhaps to make MAXes balanced they should act more like in door vehicles than infantry and still have armour that can be damaged and repaired, although they would have a harder time getting reps if they need a full sized glue gun.

[Sovereign]

I'd prefer old school with bf3 inspired nuances.

Wouldn't be surprised if they more or less transfer the overlay from bf3 and incorporate it into the HUD for this game. :)

[Sifer2]

Regenerating health is stupid. It's over used an makes almost every FPS these days feel like i'm playing the same damn game. Since the method of victory essentially boils down to shoot someone, hide behind rock a bit, repeat.

The lower TTK already threatens to make Medics not that useful in this game. Having regeneration on top of that and they might as well not have them at all. Especially with squad spawn too what the hell are they good for?

As for Armor I could see that system working differently for Infantry this time around. Maybe only MAX's would have armor points. I think the value of it is that if you die but shot the guy some you still feel like you did some damage at least. Which works well in the case of MAX's that don't respawn as easily.

[EASyEightyEight]

I voted old school, but really, I could have picked all 4.

My favorite health system was coincidentally found in Resistance: Fall of Man. To an extent you had regeneration, but it only filled up to the current pip of health. The health bar was divided into 4 pips representing 25% hp each, and if you went beyond a pip, you lost that pip until you found an external means of healing, however you completely self healed your current pip after hiding for a period of time. Like say I have 62 health after an engagement, it will heal up to 75 tops and then I need to find a med-kit of sorts to return to 100%.

Likewise though, another game (that isn't an FPS) called Mabinogi had an interesting system: you basically had hp loss and then wounds. HP loss could be healed via potions or magic, but wounds were a bit more permanent and needed slower forms of treatment. To apply that to Planetside: say I start off with 100 hp and take 4 hits of 12 damage each, and each hit has a 5 damage wound ratio. Basically, I lose 48 health and lose 20 points from my maximum pool of 100. So if I wait, I can naturally heal back up, but only up to 80 health maximum until a medic comes marching my way and patches me up so that I can naturally heal up to the full 100. Technically then, I can make some form of recovery between fights, but I'll eventually end up with very little maximum hp.

An interesting idea then would to allow med-kits (if they're in PS2 as they are in PS1) to soft-heal beyond the wound area. The wounds aren't healed per-se, but the HP is there until it's lost. Though alternatively, medkits could just heal the wounds anyway so people don't absolutely need a medic to make a full recovery, just an equipment terminal to pull ample amounts of medkits from.

I personally prefer the latter system, as it feels closer to PS1's system, just it integrates the "BLOODY SCREEN, SO REAL!" stuff current FPS gamers are accustomed to. That isn't to say I wouldn't be completely happy with just a straight up hp pool though. I'm completely happy with that too. I just don't want 100% health regen. That's annoying.

As for armor, I'm mostly either way with it. I'm for it, because otherwise a GOOD rifleman can turn the medic class into a pseudo super-soldier where mid-range fights are concerned (though with self-regen, that point is negated a fair bit) and armor drastically extends a soldiers life. Without armor, the medic is dead before he realizes someone is shooting at him.

Likewise however, engineers may do a bit more than just drop TRAPs, spitfires, and mines and I trust SOE to give them more definitive offensive options to fulfill their role (like direct AV weaponry, or blowing open doors, or temporarily offering some sort of buff to allies, etc.) They'll still be trusted to repair vehicles I'd wager.

Personally, I'd like to not have to worry about the little blue bar, but I can see how it has its uses too.

[CutterJohn]

I always found the 2 pools of health on infantry kinda silly. I'd prefer just healing. No repairs.

I wouldn't mind a limited regen. Something that fills you back up in a couple minutes, so if there is a lull in the fighting you don't have to bother finding a medic, but not enough to matter greatly in the current fight.

[cashfoyogash]

I dont like the regen health over time. I like it for something like COD. Halo has an interesting one where your hp does not regain over time but your shield or armor does. I think that style fits for really fast paced 10 minute death matches not battles that may take days.

I feel there should be hit points I just dont want to see a bland red bar that reads 100/100. I would like to see something like the resident evil heart beat monitors, closer you get to death the more flat your line becomes.

As for armor I think it should be locational. If your shot in the chest multiple times it eventually stops being effective but the armor on say your thigh, head, or arm is still 100% effective. Which for your HUD could show something like a body and goes from green to yellow to red like in WoW.

I also like the idea of reviving sickness. Like when revived for 1 minutes your at 50% health and upon revival your armor is still just as destroyed until repaired by an engineer. Medics are there to keep your heart beating, once revived you shouldnt automatically have new armor as well.

[FIREk]

To apply that to Planetside: say I start off with 100 hp and take 4 hits of 12 damage each, and each hit has a 5 damage wound ratio. Basically, I lose 48 health and lose 20 points from my maximum pool of 100. So if I wait, I can naturally heal back up, but only up to 80 health maximum until a medic comes marching my way and patches me up so that I can naturally heal up to the full 100. Technically then, I can make some form of recovery between fights, but I'll eventually end up with very little maximum hp.

I absolutely love this. It doesn't make you a medic's bitch ;), completely dependent on someone to patch you up after taking a stray hit, but gives you a high degree of independence and survivability, while forcing you to take breaks and make medics useful.
Since it makes medics mostly required in between engagements, it allows for the more immersive-ish stationary healing, kind of like in PS1 (but hopefully one that doesn't get interrupted by the slightest movement:P), rather than some weird healing beam.
On a side note, can you imagine a Medic tailing a MAX with a healing beam "leash", like a Medic and Heavy in TF2? Yuck! :)

An interesting idea then would to allow med-kits (if they're in PS2 as they are in PS1) to soft-heal beyond the wound area. The wounds aren't healed per-se, but the HP is there until it's lost. Though alternatively, medkits could just heal the wounds anyway so people don't absolutely need a medic to make a full recovery, just an equipment terminal to pull ample amounts of medkits from.

Personally, I would prefer a med-kit to heal some of those "wounds". Most people will choose to seek a medic to conserve medkits, anyway.
Insta-heal medkits in PS1 are lame.

[Bags]

I hope it resembles the same system we had in PS1 Heath/Armor/Stamina points. This is a really old school concept though and I'm not sure how many people are willing to go for that, but still.

Higby joked about the bloody screen so there's a good chance it won't be in PS2. I'm sure most people are against it. It's boring and cliche now adays.

What I was going to post.

[EASyEightyEight]

That was the plan. People wanted the self-sustainability, but it was super-soldierish. And if there's no armor counter, incorporating it into health to a degree can help with limiting the self-sustainability. Now instead of hitting 0 armor and even 100 hp is just a couple of shots, it's a few shots will kill you outright, and if not, a LOT will eventually. But there's still some non-reliance on medics for healing involved, so that should make that crowd happy as well.

As for medkits, they could afford to take a moment to apply when considering health regen. Currently, they're used in PS1 to artificially increase one's health pool by 25 hp.

Thinking a bit more on my suggestion, the numbers could be incorporated into armor as well. Let's take PS1's numbers as an example:

18 damage per bullet from the Cycler, and it deals 9 wound damage per shot. Rexo mitigates 10 of the base damage, and 5 wound damage. An agile mitigates 6 damage, and 3 wound damage. This way, heavy armor feels more protective still. Heavy armor would ultimately lose a bit of it's value if both light and heavy armor took the same amount of wound damage, even if base damage received were different.

[FIREk]

I think you should e-mail this to Smed or something. He claimed he replies to all e-mails as long as they make sense. ;)

As for stamina, I hope it will be turned into some kind of "implant energy bar", with no impact on mobility. Not being able to run ad having to remain still for half a minute in order to run and jump again is just retarded in an FPS game. Why don't we add drinking water for faster stamina regeneration? :P
Mana breaks should definitely remain in MMORPGs, where they belong... ;)

[EASyEightyEight]

I don't know his e-mail though D:

And it would be a while anyway, I got something I need to finish by 4 a.m. est, and I've put it off for a whole week 'cause I procrastinate hard (lol... crap.)

Wacom tablets are such a PITA compared to good old pencil and paper :mad:

[Highwind]

I could support "Natural Health Regen" but it would need to done tastefully. To me this would mean learning some "survival skills" via the skill trees. Once learned it would be passive but with rules, like only working out of combat (no damage taken) for 5+ seconds, and it would heal DRASTICALLY less than the "bloody screen". In PS1 terms I would say 20 health healed per minute maybe, 1 health per 3 seconds, give or take. I could also see there being more advanced version of "survival healing" higher in the skill tree for a lot of time investment.

I think that having a subtle healing perk like that for long time players could be "fair enough", given that all other types of health including chain using medpacks should out heal it by a lot. I stress again that it should be a small heal, because at no point should "waiting to heal" be a real strategy given other options, like healing with a med gun for example. The target goal would be gain 3-8 health between small fights in the cargo rooms (of our PS1 bases) while randomly hiding to reload, nothing more the way I see it.

[cashfoyogash]

I think you should e-mail this to Smed or something. He claimed he replies to all e-mails as long as they make sense. ;)

As for stamina, I hope it will be turned into some kind of "implant energy bar", with no impact on mobility. Not being able to run ad having to remain still for half a minute in order to run and jump again is just retarded in an FPS game. Why don't we add drinking water for faster stamina regeneration? :P
Mana breaks should definitely remain in MMORPGs, where they belong... ;)

No soldier can sprint forever. I think you should be able to keep a slighty fast pace without using stamina, like an airborne suffle. Stamina should only drain when sprinting or jumping. I believe they said the purpose of the stamina was to keep people from bunny hopping like retards. The only time I support bunny hopping is in Halo. PS has no place for such things. Much like strafing back and forth, I hate that. Ive accumulated so much grief because people strafe right into my line of fire... but on topic stamina should be there but only used when exerted like sprinting and jumping.

Id still like to see localized armor damage for grunts and maxes though, like the vehicles are going to have. I like the idea of the wound system but I still dont want to see a bland red bar that looks like it was drew with a simple paint program.

Also I seen someone else say medi kits should not be insta heal. I support this as well It should be heal over time, Like bandages in WoW.

[CutterJohn]

I like stamina, but I'd like it to have a shorter duration and faster recharge. I.e. 10s of sprint or 2-3 jumps, then 10s of recharge back to full.

Certain implants could have a stamina cost while active, adding extra time to recharge.

[MgFalcon]

I checked off ever single box.

MgFalcon - Skewing polls since 1989.

[Sirisian]

The game had self-healing with regenerative health. It was just an implant you had to op for. I remember I ended up using it for a while when cloaking so I could carry nades and more ammo. I think with a proper skill-tree for that implant it could definitely be an effective choice for some people.

In regards for health and armor I prefer the Planetside system. It gives engineers a purpose and medics a purpose. Sadly I feel the faster TTK they're adding in will end up hurting these rolls or make them nearly pointless. I liked soaking up a few rounds in my armor and pulling back without falling dead for walking into a hallway every time. It also felt nice where you'd be standing back for a second and repair a fellow soldier knowing that each few points of armor that was being healed was actually useful. Healing someone 50% armor and knowing they can only take 3 more bullets with that armor would kind of suck.

Same goes for health. I prefer where health is much tougher than armor. Pulling back out of a hallway with no armor left and 50% health is nice. To put it another way I'd make each health was twice as much as armor so 100 health would be roughly equal to 200 armor. So someone with 100 health and 100 armor would really have 300 life.

One thing I did enjoy was how weapons would damage health through the armor. The sniper rifle was nice in this respect. It wasn't enough to kill someone's health and leave them with 200 armor, but it was nice to show armor penetration. So a round that does 50 damage might do 40 of its damage to the armor and only 10 to health. Then if they had no armor it would do 50 to health.

[CutterJohn]

In regards for health and armor I prefer the Planetside system. It gives engineers a purpose and medics a purpose.

Medics: Heal and rez infantry

Engineers: Repair max units and vehicles, set up CE.

I'd say both have a valid purpose without making engineers into some weird half medic.

[Sirisian]

I like the weird half medic ability to repair a player's armor. Basically what I hate though is the concept of a health only system. I preferred the complexity of having armor over health with a separate way to repair each. I don't want to say removing it dumbs the game down but it simplifies it. I want health to feel different than armor basically and have the two work together.

You mentioned repairing maxes. I don't see a player's armor as any different. When an engineer isn't in the field repairing vehicles it gives them another purpose.

I personally hope that armor repair tool isn't just for engineers. I'm fine with medics needing their own tool since they're like specialized doctors, but it's nice to heal your own armor. Letting engineers fast heal armor and use the vehicle heal tool I think would be much better.

[CutterJohn]

You mentioned repairing maxes. I don't see a player's armor as any different. When an engineer isn't in the field repairing vehicles it gives them another purpose.

So when medics aren't healing grunts what is their other purpose? Shall we give vehicles a health pool underneath the armor?


And yeah, I mentioned engineers repairing maxes, since I figure health is kinda silly on a max unit. When its destroyed, it probably wouldn't feel too good from the inside. You certainly couldn't keep moving it around by muscle power.


I just view needing two separate tools to heal infantry as rather silly. Personal preference I guess.


Since opinions seem to be split quite evenly on the subject of armor, perhaps a compromise where armor isn't another pool of hitpoints, but does suffer from degradation. Perhaps for each 100 damage taken, your armor absorbs 10% less damage due to being chewed up. If you keep taking damage and surviving, or being rezzed, eventually your armor will be rags and you should think about getting repairs.

[Sirisian]

So when medics aren't healing grunts what is their other purpose? Shall we give vehicles a health pool underneath the armor?
Actually I was rambling in the IRC about the cert upgrades for a medic a long time ago and how many there would be if that was its own class. I randomly commented that it would be interesting to see some area heal or revive effect similar to an EMP blast but for revival. (It can be explained away by referencing the NTU warp gate bubble and how it used to revive players in the story).

Another was to open up their list of tools for area of effect healing deployables on par with the engineer's defensive deployables.

There are so many abilities a new medic role could unlock and cert into. I get that your comment was sarcastic, but it does say one important thing. That other than healing and reviving there's not much to a medic class which could make them feel worthless when gunning for a vehicle or other activities.

Also the idea should be to add to classes and give them abilities and responsibilities. If one class has too much responsibility it seems like some people want to jump on that and remove things so that players are focused on one thing. There seems to be this idea that each class or player in the game should be solely focused on one responsibility at a time. For instance, an engineer that can repair armor and vehicles and lay deployables would be going too far while the medic that can only heal players is an example of a specialized soldier. I'm not sure I agree with that. I feel that medics should be given a more responsibilities so they're on part with a more rounded character that fits into more situations in the game.

For instance, allowing a medic to cert a friendly healing affect on nearby friendlies similar to a slow loadstar heal seems fine with me. That would mean having a gunner that's a medic would be advantageous to nearby players.

[Robert089]

One thing I did enjoy was how weapons would damage health through the armor. The sniper rifle was nice in this respect. It wasn't enough to kill someone's health and leave them with 200 armor, but it was nice to show armor penetration. So a round that does 50 damage might do 40 of its damage to the armor and only 10 to health. Then if they had no armor it would do 50 to health.

I hated this! It took me a little while while to realise why I was doing so afwul in a few 1v1 duels at the back door, I would hit them with the bolt driver reducing their health to near nothing then whip out my sweeper to take them down, but I lost every time.

Then I did some testing and realised the sweeper does barely any health damage if they still have armour, it takes 3 sweeper shots to down someone in Rexo who has just been sniped!

[exLupo]

I would hit them with the bolt driver reducing their health to near nothing then whip out my sweeper to take them down, but I lost every time.

You should kit a Squirt w/ atropine loads as your backup. Straight to hp, does it every time.

[Tatwi]

This is another subject where I feel SOE got it right the first time with Planetside and thus, they should not reinvent the wheel for Planetside 2.

Keep in mind that I started playing Planetside this year, so it's not like I have anything invested in the game - I like these things just because I like them.

I like that Planetside has both Health and Armor and one's ammo choice effects which is damaged first. This adds strategy to the game while being very simple to understand.

I like the three resource bars. They make sense to me as a long time MMO player and don't see any need to replace them with some abnormal UI that will effectively represent the same thing.

Medics healing Health and Engineers healing Armor with different tools is also interesting, given the inventory meta game. I very much enjoy this type of game play and without it, I doubt I'd even bother playing Planetside 2.

Some people think that they are the "healer's bitch", when a game has a healer in it (trust me, I've healed some where around 2 thousand WoW instances), but what they are really saying is, "I don't want to take the time to be a talented player so I need the crutch that is having a healer, but needing a healer is embarrassing - so like totally get rid of the healers and let me auto-regen my health when I suck!". People in WoW expected to be "healed through" encounter mechanics that are, as described in forum posts by the developers themselves, intended to be avoided, rather than absorbed. Why? E-peen. And it's the same thing as people who say, "I think health should auto-regen, because it keeps the pace of the fight up in a FPS". How about, don't suck you won't take so much damage in the first place? And, just be happy that you were lucky enough to live and that there's someone around who can cover up your level of suckage by healing you...

I enjoy the multi-roll team game play that Planetside offers with repairing vehicles, MAXes, armor, turrets, and placeable objects as well as the healing of health bars and the rezing of players. All of these things encourage the use of co-operative game play and the use of strategy. Without these things Planetside would be nothing more than fish in a barrel shooting each other with shotguns.

I very much enjoy the "Health/Armor and healing/repairing" game play of Planetside and without it, I doubt I'd even bother playing Planetside 2 if it ends up using some simplified system for kids who just want to run around solo pwningface non-stop rather than playing a strategy oriented, team-play game.

On a side note, as a WoW healer who can cast healing spells at a distance on players regardless of the way he is looking, I think it's hilarious when I am clearly chasing someone through a field in Planetside with my healing gun out - roflsaucer FPS: the guy can't see me chasing him, so he doesn't know he'd be healed if he'd just stop running away! It would be handy to be able to cast healing spelling in Planetside, but much like it is in WoW PvP, doing so would be far too over powered (until the healer is focus fired to death).

[millo]

I'm hoping for some streamlining (not dumbing down) from PS1. Ideally i'd like:

-Infantry: just health, no armor bar, of course different absorb level based on your current armor, healed by medic. There could be a great deal of customization here, for example being able to equip in the "tool" slot either a medical station acting like the medipacs from Battlefield games, or something requiring more focus (a gun firing healing nanites to give soldiers some kind of regeneration), in addition to a defibrillator or equivalent for ressing (with the ability to refuse the rez, pretty please. Also, i'd like some kind of death being not ressable, pretty hard to defibrillate someone who just took a 120mm shell to the face). Health should also regenerate after some time (not 5 seconds of course), maybe up to a fixed percentile, like 25% more than you currently have, tops.

-MAXes: just armor, no health, to be treated in all regards like a walking vehicle. When armor depletes, the soldier inside dies in a gruesome way. Healed by engineers with the same tool (BANK from PS1 coming back?) they use to fix vehicles. No regen whatsoever, MAXes should be depending on other team members for pretty much everything.

[Hyncharas]

I don't believe there was anything wrong with the old system; having someone on hand to repair instead of trudging back to base was useful.

As for healing, people who want to remove resurrection obviously haven't played enough of PlanetSide to know the difference... spawning back to a squad/clan in battle can be a bitch.

[Trolltaxi]

Health and armour (and stamina) for infantry!

Health should not regenerate (unless you have the implant), and let's everyone have medpacks. (PS1 system). A medic is needed to heal.

But armour should reconstruct itself using nanites in time - this may be enhanced with skills too. And you could accelerate the reconstruction with the repair thingie if you choose to support. (skills for faster repairs too!).

[Sirisian]

But armour should reconstruct itself using nanites in time - this may be enhanced with skills too. And you could accelerate the reconstruction with the repair thingie if you choose to support. (skills for faster repairs too!).
You mean introducing a new implant or just a passive healing?

Speaking of that we should add another layer over health and armor. It would be an activated shield with a movement penalty and activation delay. (Kind of like the cloaker's ability to cloak, but for an offensive shield).

Not sure if anyone has played Crysis but they have an armor mode where your character slows down but is given a huge boost in armor. I think a shield mode could be used in a similar fashion. When activated it would slow the player down and nullify most of the effect of being hit by bullets. (Normally when you're hit your COF blooms). A soldier could then walk into a hallway and activate it to move slowly (or sit behind a crate).

If activated and they are hit with an EMP grenade then it shorts out doing damage to the player and destroys the shield. There could be a class with like 300 shields 50 armor and 100 health. It would open up the possibility for some interesting play styles, but still have a known weakness that could be exploited.

[wildcat140679]

-I prefer armor that doesn't degrade after taking damage.
-I prefer armor that gets damaged and needs to be repaired by an Engineer.

I’m hung up between these two options and the original, mainly because I don’t believe it’s only about health and armor but also about death.

I think most will agree that the roles of medic and engineering were more often chosen for own personal survival, to be able to self-heal/repair. Being able to repair/heal other came secondary.
Being able to heal/repair your self allowed you to get back in to the action again quickly, instead of having to wait your turn for an allied medic/engineer to patch you up again.

Combat Medic’s had a though time reviving people, for tapping out came often with less down sides as being revived.

Being revived had it’s perks but paired with many disadvantages as well.
No stamina (being winded), damaged armor, possibly low on ammo, no more medical packs and a high risk of being gunned down in your weakened state.

I really believe Planetside would have been a better place for medic’s and engineers as a support role, if the ability to self heal/repair would have been very inefficient and slow when compared to when some one else is healing/repairing you.



Situation 1: armor that doesn't degrade after taking damage.

If for instance I got killed and it’s worth the time to wait for a medic to get me back up on my feet again, get a small stamina boost so that I’m no longer slow moving and am at full health, I don’t have to worry about armor repairs, then I’m ready to get back in to the action again with my only disadvantage of need to be careful of my low stamina and need to remember to no to jump or sprint. If this all is faster than a trip back to the nearest spawn tubes or AMS, than I’ll stay down and be revived by a Medic.

No longer needing armor repairs will greatly speed up the game play, for you no longer need to fix your armor. This would completely remove the role and the need of an engineer to maintain infantry armor.


Situation 2: armor that gets damaged and needs to be repaired by an Engineer. (More durable armor)

Would Infantry armor be more durable and by that I don’t mean it absorbs more damage, but requires less maintenance and last longer than the person wearing it. If I get killed for instance and my armor is only reduced to 2/3 of its strength I only need a medic to help me back on my feet again. Even with degraded armor it’s still as effective as it was in top condition and when I get back on my feet I’m not in a weakened state easy to gun down. With the stamina boost leaving me no longer winded I can jump right back in to action.

Because the armor degrades as it takes damage I can’t keep it up for ever and I’ll require an engineer sooner or later to get it fixed.


In both situations the medic’s will have a more pronounced role, while the engineer will only have a much smaller role to play in the second situation with the more durable armor.
In both situation, the pace of combat should be much faster than as we know it now.

[Haro]

My personal preference for health is a hybrid system, like with what Halo Reach did. An outer energy shield, or armor value in PS, that recharges, with a health that does not recharge, only partially recharges, or recharges very slowly.

Basically, I think that even if you have low health, you should still have a chance in combat and not just die from a stray bullet. Shields give you that extra few hits, but make a fresh combatant far more likely to win in an equal fight.

I'd be fine with a conventional health system as long as they have a good medic class like in TF2, or even a recharging health system as long as it takes a fair amount of time and doesn't have the bloody screen. I don't really despise it, I just don't think it's ideal.

On another note, I didn't like the old mechanics of Planetside. Holding your own medkits isn't that fun when you're playing a guy and he get's to recharge when you nearly killed him. I also didn't like having a different, non-recharging armor. Managing two values isn't really necessary and would probably confuse new players.

[Bags]

I'd be fine with a conventional health system as long as they have a good medic class like in TF2, or even a recharging health system as long as it takes a fair amount of time and doesn't have the bloody screen. I don't really despise it, I just don't think it's ideal.

.

Oh god no we don't need the traditional healer + tank + dps trifecto in PS.

[Sovereign]

...Or perhaps a compromise? Have the best of both worlds where infantry can have the hybrid system at play at high tech station bases, where normally they wouldn't.

Yet another approach would be to have shields as a cert...

[EASyEightyEight]

If we really go for a hybrid recharge/pool system, I'd rather see my "wounds" idea. It integrates recharge with a permanent health loss, with the latter only being treatable via a medic or through a medical terminal. Keeps medics from being useless, but allows players whom don't want to have to 100% rely on an icky medic to fly solo for a little bit, but not indefinitely.

[Logit]

I didn't think there was anything wrong with the old system. Sure a tweak here and there, but the "traditional" games you speak of don't have 1000s of players.

I think the tweaks were needed more so on the Medic and Engineer class, which I feel they have addressed.

[Rbstr]

I'd prefer armor to lower damage taken but not be extra hitpoints itself on standard infantry. Some kind of degradation system where it gets less effective at damage mitigation after getting hit is cool, though.
MAXes should have armor hitpoints of some sort.

I don't want automatic health regen.
But at the same time, a visible hitpoints system isn't necessary, a less certain and more modern "tis but a flesh wound", "I'm hurt", "I'm dying next pin prick" continuum kind of indicator would be good. BC2's hardcore mode does both of those things.

I also don't think medikits should be a permanent boost of HP, they should only last some amount of time until you can find a medic or station or even heal yourself with a medapp or drop box (I'd prefer drop boxes to applicators, they're just too slow).

Healing certainly shouldn't be TF2 style where it can "tank" you against incoming damage in a practical fashion.