Combat Medic Archive
Thread: Don't understand CM, please help
Hey guys,
I don't understand the current setup of the Combat Medic. Now, I am NOT a CM, nor do I intend to pick it up, but I have encountered enough in play and read things in the forums that I have to ask the questions.. So at the risk of lighting off the flames...
What is the role of the CM in SWG?My only reference is what a CM is in real life. And that is NOT an offensive unit, like you seem to have become. Were you not supposed to be a support class that conducts heals while incombat? Stopping bleeds, fixing damage? How did the bio-warfare piece show up and become the "uber" attack of the game? I dont' get why a CM has any kind of offensive ability inherent to his profession. You are a support class and if you want offense you should have to pick up a weapons skill like the other support professions (SL, Ent, etc. etc.)
You could flame me and tell me to keep real life out of this, and thats fine, but tell me what your job description actually is. I simply want to understand where you are coming from.
Thanks
Ok, I noticed after I posted my question that you have a stick-ied post with the similar topic. It would appear that many of you are just as confused.
So I am open to any direct replies you may send my way, but I guess I got my answer via the other post.
In real life I can asure you that a "combat medic" in the Marine corps can be just as deadly as any "commando". In real life he has the same combat training in addition to medical training.
In this game we don't have that luxury due to a limited number of skill points. We can't learn both so the good devs gave us some combat training of our own.
Makes perfect sense to me.
from http://www.specwarnet.com/americas/pj.htm:A little known fact is that Pararescue were on hand after the 1989 earthquake in San Francisco that destroyed buildings and collapsed bridges and highway overpasses.
There's a Pararescue unit stationed at Moffet Field in the South Bay (Mountain View, near San Jose, about 45 mi south of SF) and I know some guys in it. And yes, they do have extensive military training too.
Love the link
matadire wrote
I dont' get why a CM has any kind of offensive ability inherent to his profession. You are a support class and if you want offense you should have to pick up a weapons skill like the other support professions (SL, Ent, etc. etc.)
Tell me this, how many Kurds died from chemical weapons? If we went to war today and it wasn't a moral issue to poison the enemy, don't you think we would have a combat medic type class in the military to administor the poisons and/or disease.
Ok gang,
1. I was simply asking the question, not trying to throw darts. So is the repetitive misspelling of the name some kind of dig?
2. I can't believe you directed me to an Air Force site..Blah...Granted I've worked with some pretty motivated PJs, that isn't quite the answer you were hoping it would be.
Navy Corpman who are FMF and even AF PJs have combat weapons skills so they can protect themselves without shooting their teammates in the back. They are NOT an offensive unit in their own right.
My point was that you have an offensive skill that is more damaging than many other weapons and is unique to your profession. The Kurd analogy was interesting, but I can tell you it wasn't medical personnel that were firing HD artillery rounds. It was a specially training chemical corp or for bio, a specially trained Bio team. Not those tasked with saving lives....
Now, with an attempt to prevent this from becoming some kind of personal flame war, I simply want to close that my only question was what you guys felt was your mission. If SOE want the CM to be an offensive WMD flinging guy, then so be it. I didn't see it that way when I heard about the CM and simply wanted to understand it from you, the CMs. By getting the info straight from those who play it, I can get a better understanding of your role, and thus a better appreciation of how to play this game. You see in my signature that I am a Squad Leader. I wanted to understand the strengths, weaknesses and motivations behind those I lead in order to be a more effective leader.
Thanks
Great Link novamarine.
I would love to hear a response from metadore.
metador are you there???
Matadore wrote:Ok gang,
1. I was simply asking the question, not trying to throw darts. So is the repetitive misspelling of the name some kind of dig?
2. I can't believe you directed me to an Air Force site..Blah...Granted I've worked with some pretty motivated PJs, that isn't quite the answer you were hoping it would be.
Navy Corpman who are FMF and even AF PJs have combat weapons skills so they can protect themselves without shooting their teammates in the back. They are NOT an offensive unit in their own right.
My point was that you have an offensive skill that is more damaging than many other weapons and is unique to your profession. The Kurd analogy was interesting, but I can tell you it wasn't medical personnel that were firing HD artillery rounds. It was a specially training chemical corp or for bio, a specially trained Bio team. Not those tasked with saving lives....
Now, with an attempt to prevent this from becoming some kind of personal flame war, I simply want to close that my only question was what you guys felt was your mission. If SOE want the CM to be an offensive WMD flinging guy, then so be it. I didn't see it that way when I heard about the CM and simply wanted to understand it from you, the CMs. By getting the info straight from those who play it, I can get a better understanding of your role, and thus a better appreciation of how to play this game. You see in my signature that I am a Squad Leader. I wanted to understand the strengths, weaknesses and motivations behind those I lead in order to be a more effective leader.
Thanks
One thing you are failing to realize with your "real life comparisons" In SWG the combat mesic is an elite profession. That means they are on par with Doctors and Engineers. If you want to compare the level of healing skill to real life, then you would have to look at the basic medic tree. In fact there are title tags in that tree that substantiate my claims. Tags like "First Responder, and Stimpack Chemist" lend themselves more to the basic medic you would see in most military units today.
Case in point, a medic on the front line is really only meant to stabilize the patient until they can get to doctors in the rear. Since Medic is a basic skill tree and not an elite tree, then Combat Medic would have to be something beyond what your real world analysis would take it.
So if we draw that conclusion, that a Combat Medic should be at least as powerful, or in real world terms, as "educated" as a doctor, then you have to view the combat medic as a Chemical Warfare specialist. In fact we have titles in our tree that state exactly that.
In real life there are Chemical Warfare specialists. Both for offense and defense. There are people trained especially to release diseases and toxins on mass groups of people. That is what the Combat Medic is. The reason you do not see htem on the front lines doing what the Combat Medic does in SWG is because we have laws that say we cannot use those weapons. Yet there are countries that defy law and use them anyway.
Of course to be able to use chemicals and diseases in a fashion to destroy it would stand to reason that you would also know how to heal. In fact many of the agents we have today can actually cure ailments. Atropine, which we use to combat nerve gas, is a deadly chemical in its own right.
I am not sure if any of you remember the terrorist years ago that released an agent on a subway in Japan. If I remember correctly a hundred or more people died in that attack. That is what a combat medic is supposed to be and do.
I hope that helps clarify your question for you.
You should probably do some more research on AF PJ's. While you are correct in the fact that they are not an offensive unit per se, they are highly qualified in all sorts of weapons and tactics, all special operators are that way. They are defiinetely more qualified than the average ground pounder soldier. Their training pipeline takes over 2 years and covers everything from First Aid to Squad tactics and HALO jumping.
That being said the idea of a CM fits perfectly, a battlefield medic that has some offensive potential in the right situation. Granted PJ's don't toss poisons, but who said SWG was real life.The CMmay be currently doing well in pvp but are by no means the reigning kings, as the game balances out more I think you'll see all the classes find their niche in the GCW.