Health/armor and healing/repairing

[Sirisian]

Originally Posted by Trolltaxi

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]

Originally Posted by Haro

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.