Combat Medic Archive

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BeelzeDubbs wrote:

Biological and chemical warfare, on the other hand, is not precisely the province of combat medics in the real world. To an extent, it almost demeans the profession of combat medicine to include these tactics in their arsenal. Many folks have been calling for the doctor to be able to area heal poison and disease. I feel that poison and disease should be removed from the combat medicine profession in exchange for the ability to area heal poison and disease.

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Well, you know, the province of the "Real Life Combat Medics" is, by the time you achive "SWG Combat Medic", allready filled.

There is a starting profession, I do not know if people have heard of it but if they hit ctrl+s they can easily find it, called "Medic". This so called "Medic" actually have almost all of the abilities and restrictions needed to fill the role of a combat unit issued healer.

So "SWG Combat Medic" is somehting diffrent alltogether. Just accept it.

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BeelzeDubbs wrote:

This is another thread to add input from the SWG Combat Medic forum community regarding the Combat Medicine profession and ways to change (or not change) the way it is structured in the game.

My feeling with combat medicine is that poison and disease use were added in to flesh out the profession, which would otherwise be a more versatile doctor, designed to deliver healing more effectively on a battlefield via area healing and mind heals (which soon won't be part of the attackable HAM, from what I've heard on future developments). To be certain, with the introduction of speed formulas, combat medics will have the potential to be speedier than anyone else and highly effective healers in PvP and PvE. (which is not needed at the moment because of high resist composite and doctor buffs)

Biological and chemical warfare, on the other hand, is not precisely the province of combat medics in the real world (Neither are jedi, lightabers, laser rifles, etc, etc, etc....It is my understanding that SWG has very little to do with the 'real' world. It is unfair to hold one profession to the standards of the real world and not others. If you want to determine what 'Combat Medics' should or should not be able to do base purely on the name, please look at some of the titles given for the specific CM lines, such as chemical warefare expert and toxicologist). To an extent, it almost demeans the profession of combat medicine to include these tactics in their arsenal (Pardon me? how is this so?). Many folks have been calling for the doctor to be able to area heal poison and disease. I feel that poison and disease should be removed from the combat medicine profession in exchange for the ability to area heal poison and disease (There will be no need to use area poison or disease cures in SWG if the ability to apply them is removed from CMs).

A distinction should be maintainedbetween the ability of a doctor and a combat medic in healing poison and disease. The doctor should be able to completely cure a single player as per the current game mechanic. Area of effect posion/disease healing used by combat medics should reduce the severity of the posion/disease by one level per application of area heal (Huh? So they won't even be able to completely cure? Am I understanding you correctly?).

Combat medics should also have the ability to craft gas masks and environmentally protective clothing in conjunction with tailors (who would provide base components of some sort for the final product). They should be able to experiment on effectiveness of these pieces (chance to resist or lower the damage taken from posion/disease) and durability. These pieces should lose durability when struck with physical damage, just like armor.They shouldbe exclusive of armor being worn under or over the top of them. Masks should contain two sockets for filters, and the filters should have a saturation level (basically a durability level) that increases everytime the mask encounters a poison/disease tick.

Biological and chemical agents are engineered in lab facilities by scientists, and I feel that bio-engineers are more suited to that sort of role-play than doctors. The entry level skills to enter the profession of bio-engineer include study in Organic Chemistry IV (Last I checked, CMs need even more medic training than organic IV)and Unconvential Methodology, and we all know that biological and chemical warfare is certainly a far cry from the "conventional" type (Again, you are basing this either upon RL or by title name. See Chemical Warfare Expert and Toxicologist above).

As for the nature of the agents, the game already does have something of a distinction between chemical (poison) and biological (disease) agents. Probably we could leave the crafting of chemical and biological disease agents exactly the way it is, only make it so that only bio-engineers can cook this stuff up.

Just as doctors and combat medics would be able to heal single or mutiple players in this system, there should be two types of craftable delivery shells for the agents, one for single use (the"dart") and one for area use (the "bomb"). The "dart" should cause as much damage as the current level of poison/disease does. The "bomb" should do a level of damage at a lower level.

As for actually firingoff agents in battle, it should be done withbio-rifles and bio-pistols crafted by weaponsmiths. I'm not too sure aboutthe bio-carbine or the coating of knucklers and other blades. Technically, logic would suggest that anything fired from a gun falls under the province of marksmen professions. However, combat medics should retain their current delivery method for area healing and for area posion/disease cures (if added) (Which woork very poorly, with target aquisition being buggy at best in crowded and laggy areas, and LOS being determined by all objects in the SWG having infinate height (targets are out of LOS if they are behind an ankle high log for heals). As it goes, if marksmen could shoot these things off, it stands to reason that they wouldn't have any motivation to use any other type ofgun attack in battle, given how potent poison and disease already are. Whether or not bio-engineers should be required to deliver poison and disease agents is a matter that probably could use much discussion. It would certainly make for a very interesting change in tactics, with a struggle between bio-engineers and medical staff for control.

We were thinking thatwhat would happen is that players would find a choice between their armor or their bio-suits, and that the ability of bounty hunters, pistoleers, carbineers and riflemen to make shots to certain areas of the body might have a huge impact on, say the use of a gas mask in conjunction with composite armor. Unfortunately, the discussion gets further complicated by the suggestion of further diversifying biological and chemical agents by the way in which they enter into the target's system (airborne, skin contact, or both). Once again, probably something for considerable discussion. In any event, the more simpified solutions are more valuable when it comes to game play.

On a side note, Wookiees and Trandoshans have some "challenges" when it comes to clothing. I would recommend increasing their resistances to disease and posion if it turns out that the skin exposure is an issue with respect to protective bio-suits.

On a final note, it seems to me like area of effect poison and disease should affect ALL players in the area. This enhances the tactics of the game by forcingthe attacker(s) to consider carefully before throwing. It allowsbrawlers to become engaged fairly in mass melee. It makes ranged ranks tastiertargets. The only problem with this is that it would be unbalanced on the flip side, where area of effect healing enters the picture. If area of effect poison and disease affect all players in thezone, then, at thevery least, combat medic area heals of poison and disease should also affect all players in the zone. Unfortuately, this also suggests that area of effect regular healing would affect all players in the zone, and this would rob the combat medic of what simulates, somewhat, his or her ability to quickly aid allieson the field.

As usual, these are only my opinions on the matter. Further discussion of this topic is encouraged in the hope that it will beof use in the changes already in theworks for the balancing of the combat system.

Happy trolling!

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So, how far off am I when I say that you basically want to take poisons and diseases away from Combat Medics and give them to Bioengineers?

What do you propose to do about the Skill point disparity between doctors and combat medics if CMs lose the ability to use medical DoTs? CMs can use ranged damage healing, area DoT (damage reduction, not even cures?) cures and will not have the ability to cure states, res, use proper cures or buffs?

I think what you have is a calmly written attempt to take DoTs away from CMs. IMO, however, you will need much better reasons than what you have above. There is some merit to your gas mask-type ability, but that is about it.

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BeelzeDubbs wrote:

This is another thread to add input from the SWG Combat Medic forum community regarding the Combat Medicine profession and ways to change (or not change) the way it is structured in the game.

My feeling with combat medicine is that poison and disease use were added in to flesh out the profession, which would otherwise be a more versatile doctor, designed to deliver healing more effectively on a battlefield via area healing and mind heals (which soon won't be part of the attackable HAM, from what I've heard on future developments). To be certain, with the introduction of speed formulas, combat medics will have the potential to be speedier than anyone else and highly effective healers in PvP and PvE.

Biological and chemical warfare, on the other hand, is not precisely the province of combat medics in the real world. To an extent, it almost demeans the profession of combat medicine to include these tactics in their arsenal. Many folks have been calling for the doctor to be able to area heal poison and disease. I feel that poison and disease should be removed from the combat medicine profession in exchange for the ability to area heal poison and disease.

Don't Compare this game to the real world you just make yourself look silly.

A distinction should be maintainedbetween the ability of a doctor and a combat medic in healing poison and disease. The doctor should be able to completely cure a single player as per the current game mechanic. Area of effect posion/disease healing used by combat medics should reduce the severity of the posion/disease by one level per application of area heal.

Combat medics should also have the ability to craft gas masks and environmentally protective clothing in conjunction with tailors (who would provide base components of some sort for the final product). They should be able to experiment on effectiveness of these pieces (chance to resist or lower the damage taken from posion/disease) and durability. These pieces should lose durability when struck with physical damage, just like armor.They shouldbe exclusive of armor being worn under or over the top of them. Masks should contain two sockets for filters, and the filters should have a saturation level (basically a durability level) that increases everytime the mask encounters a poison/disease tick.

I've always liked this idea give us some way to bring in extra cash

Biological and chemical agents are engineered in lab facilities by scientists, and I feel that bio-engineers are more suited to that sort of role-play than doctors. The entry level skills to enter the profession of bio-engineer include study in Organic Chemistry IV and Unconvential Methodology, and we all know that biological and chemical warfare is certainly a far cry from the "conventional" type.

simply moving poisons and diseases to bio-engineersdoes nothing to help the situation we might just as well re-name combat medics "Bio-Warriors" or something

As for the nature of the agents, the game already does have something of a distinction between chemical (poison) and biological (disease) agents. Probably we could leave the crafting of chemical and biological disease agents exactly the way it is, only make it so that only bio-engineers can cook this stuff up.

Just as doctors and combat medics would be able to heal single or mutiple players in this system, there should be two types of craftable delivery shells for the agents, one for single use (the"dart") and one for area use (the "bomb"). The "dart" should cause as much damage as the current level of poison/disease does. The "bomb" should do a level of damage at a lower level.

As for actually firingoff agents in battle, it should be done withbio-rifles and bio-pistols crafted by weaponsmiths. I'm not too sure aboutthe bio-carbine or the coating of knucklers and other blades. Technically, logic would suggest that anything fired from a gun falls under the province of marksmen professions. However, combat medics should retain their current delivery method for area healing and for area posion/disease cures (if added). As it goes, if marksmen could shoot these things off, it stands to reason that they wouldn't have any motivation to use any other type ofgun attack in battle, given how potent poison and disease already are. Whether or not bio-engineers should be required to deliver poison and disease agents is a matter that probably could use much discussion. It would certainly make for a very interesting change in tactics, with a struggle between bio-engineers and medical staff for control.

I'm dead set against us having to rely on another profession, we need docs to make our stim parts and I'll bepissed offif we going to need weapon smiths to allow us to use our poisons/diseases as well

We were thinking thatwhat would happen is that players would find a choice between their armor or their bio-suits, and that the ability of bounty hunters, pistoleers, carbineers and riflemen to make shots to certain areas of the body might have a huge impact on, say the use of a gas mask in conjunction with composite armor. Unfortunately, the discussion gets further complicated by the suggestion of further diversifying biological and chemical agents by the way in which they enter into the target's system (airborne, skin contact, or both). Once again, probably something for considerable discussion. In any event, the more simpified solutions are more valuable when it comes to game play.

On a side note, Wookiees and Trandoshans have some "challenges" when it comes to clothing. I would recommend increasing their resistances to disease and posion if it turns out that the skin exposure is an issue with respect to protective bio-suits.

On a final note, it seems to me like area of effect poison and disease should affect ALL players in the area. This enhances the tactics of the game by forcingthe attacker(s) to consider carefully before throwing. It allowsbrawlers to become engaged fairly in mass melee. It makes ranged ranks tastiertargets. The only problem with this is that it would be unbalanced on the flip side, where area of effect healing enters the picture. If area of effect poison and disease affect all players in thezone, then, at thevery least, combat medic area heals of poison and disease should also affect all players in the zone. Unfortuately, this also suggests that area of effect regular healing would affect all players in the zone, and this would rob the combat medic of what simulates, somewhat, his or her ability to quickly aid allieson the field.

you'd better makeALL AOE attacks affect ALL players

As usual, these are only my opinions on the matter. Further discussion of this topic is encouraged in the hope that it will beof use in the changes already in theworks for the balancing of the combat system.

Happy trolling!

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