Medics

[Hamma]

I was reading through the Developer Chat (Again) and a question came to mind.

Do you think there will be allot of Medics floating around? Since they only gain shared Outfit BEP's.. you think anyone will even bother using them? It seems in most games that have medics people dont use them much...

[Tetsugaku]

Just cos ur a medic doesn't mean u can't carry a gun

If the cost of death is having to respawn potentially 10 minutes away, you are going to want a medicaly equiped team member with you, this means you look out for them more which leads to some intresting types of team play.

[CDL Full Otto]

Perhaps a team should look to them for the advantage. Lets say a squad of 30 soldiers 5 of them are gun toting medics hanging back in differant areas, half the squad are wounded or dead (assuming the medic can heal death) instead of a 10 minute spawn the medic waits a few and comes out to heal, where the enemy assumes they are dead and pushes ahead, they are suprised by so many now alive.

Otto

[RocketFodder]

Yes, medics can heal and revive. Not to mention they are equally adept with firearms since no certifications adjust accuracy. Plus, squad experience is distributed eqaully, so you'll still get perks if you stop to fix some people up.

[Incompetent]

THIS IS NOT MY IDEA, TerraxNovae made a very good post on the subject and im transplanting it

Ok, I have to retype a lot of shit, dropped my mouse and fucked it all up.

Here we go.

3 characteristics at 5 per

000
001
002
003
004
010
011
012
...

Suffice to say, 5^3 = 125 combinations

I'm going to go through a very complex setup now, somthing I hope Planetside will have.

Sexes = 2 (if you don't know why, please go repeat 6th grade PE and Sex Ed.)
Eye colors = 5 Blue Brown Green Gray and Violet (rare but documented)
Skin Tones = 6 Ranging from White (pale) through Tanned etc... to Dark Brown (the guys who make powered down TV screens look gray)
Hair Styles = 10, with everyone having SOME hair.
Hair Colors = 12, the basic Blond, Brown, Black, and Red, with the Anime colors Red, Orange (internatonal "Don't shoot me Orange" hair... Sniper target if you ask me ), Yellow, Bright Green, Forest Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet.
Facial Features = 10 sets per sex.
Facial Tattoos = 24 + option for none. There are reasons I went with this instead of facial hair, and made it seperate from facial features. Basically it works with both sexes, it helps personalize the avatar, it works through visors, and it should make the largest impact with the smallest amount of graphical space.

Doesn't sound like enough? Think you'll look around and say "I had that avatar first!" do you? Well lets see...
Here's the numbers

25
12
10
10
6
5
2

So using the system above

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Male, Blue Eyes, White (pale), Default Features, Military Buzz, Blond Hair, No tattoo. (Your basic Nazi Superman, a real zero)
0 0 0 0 0 0 24 Same phenotype run through the gamut of tatoos.

so 25 variations on a theme,

x 12 Hair Colors
x 10 Hair Styles
x 10 Facial Features
x 6 Skin Tones
x 5 Eye Colors
x 2 Sexes

(all of this info can be communicated Server to Client in >20 bytes, for those 56ker's who are worried about the complexity already. For comparison, it will take more than that just to send the NAME of most avatars.)

Final total:

1,800,000

UNIQUE Avatars.

For comparison, thats enough to give everyone on the 3 start up servers, maxed out at the highest mentioned number (10k), 8 active characters, EACH with an unique avatar.

Oh... and thats with everyone having the same eye color.

Add in visible implants (instead of subbing them in for some of the tattoo options) you increase the number of possible avatars exponentially.



I think something like this might just work for PS.

(edit, took out a few spaces I added to seperate...

Just to repeat, NOT MY IDEA, credit goes to TerraxNovae

[Shiver]

There's a prospective medic sitting right here ...

I got the impression that being a Medic would be very popular. The only downfall is that you might not be able to pilot that lovely Galaxy later in life

Like RocketFodder said, they are equally useful in combat so if a squad wants to kill more things quicker they may as well hire a medic as readily as any other profession. The added bonus for them is that they stay in the fight for longer and may rejoin it quicker, in turn gaining more BEPs for themselves (and making the squad leader's chances of CEPs higher).

The benefit for the medic is that they can heal themselves on the move. They can offer more support to their comrades who will help to protect them as they are healed. The squad that the medic is affiliated with will in turn gain more BEPs for being in the action for so long (and so the value of the medic's share will rise). If you are a commander (right here), then keeping your troops in the fight is vital.

There will surely be a use for medics in game

[Unregistered]

I hadn't given much thought to what the commander would be doing durring a battle, but it really makes sence that to best lead the team he could play a dual role. Sit back out of the action and command, and if need be come closer to the front to give a team mate some medical attention.