Doctor Archive
Thread: Radical solution
Make all Stimpacks (no not ranged or area, as instims A through E) usable by everyone.
Many things would have to come together for this to work.
First Aid and Injury Treatment would have to play a major role in order to keep everyone in the medical field in demand. One way to help might be to let the power/healing ability of the stim be the max for those without the skill and the minimum for those with it. It would take a long look at the numbers to get the balance right and the Devs would hate it because of that. Maybe the Injury Treatment would work kind of like now; Injury Treatment would be a direct increase by % on Stimpack application. But it would have to be a consistent increase such that a bad roll could never be less than someone without the skill. An additional idea is to have Injury Treatment Speed have a greater role/power to help balance things out. Or from the back end, make the timer longer unless you have Injury Treatment Speed, and thus are at least a Novice Medic.
Those who wish to craft may gravitate toward us. We would now have a solid ability to cater to everyone and is there anyone who doubts the desire for these goods? We may gain a few who like crafting, but again I would think the numbers would be few. Generally if you want to craft you go into the perceived crafting classes. This will definitely blur the line though.
It will provide us with an income, a huge income. Now we can pay high prices for rare resources, and people will have a vested interest in getting them for us. It will provide Medics with an income. Just as with other crafting professions, the Medic will likely make the As, Bs, Cs and we provide the Cs, Ds and Es. We would focus on the higher level stims since there will be a demand for them and a better markup.
CMs will need their ranged and area healing stim potential brought into line in some way with the new healing potential that everyone will now have.
Ok, let the flaming begin....
Almost everyone is at least novice medic and can buy adv stimB with a base heal of 250-400 with just 5 medicine use required. These stimpacks are already very powerfull and allow anybody to completely recover hist action and health.
What is the point of being medic if everyone can use up to stimpacks E ? No need to group them as you can heal as much as them (stim E are like 800+ base heal without adv components). You are giving 15 skill points back to all the soloers.
So what is this a solution for? Giving doctors an income that's separate from the income of a medic? For one thing, a lot of medics and doctors don't make money by selling stims. Some do (myself included), but not all of them make their money this way.
One way that docs make money that a medic can't is by selling enhancements. Stand in a populated area and shout that you're selling enhancements at 1k credits a pop (for the best ones) and watch the line form up.
I really don't like the idea of opening up all stims to everyone. For one thing, how useful would the average joe find a Stimpack E? He can't use an enhancer so a well crafted B is going to be roughly the equivalent of a full heal (which I think is too powerful for someone without any medic skills, but that's another thread). Why would he want to pay a lot more for a Stimpack E which isn't going to do any better for him?
Or, if someone could buy an enhancement from me in town and then take off with his Stim E's, why would he have any inclination to bring a doc along? Suddenly, docs would become a very optional part of any adventuring group and I don't like that idea at all. I'd hate to be banished to babysit my factories. I don't mind doing it, but I'd hate it if that's all I could do.
mcglonec: You're selling a full slate of 6 enhance Ds for 1k a pop? No wonder I can't make moeny selling these things. That's incredibly cheap compared to what these folks get for that. I know folks who could solo 13k missions on those, and be able to do those kinds of mission for 2-3 hour straight, Wow!
I think you are stongly undervaluing your Enhances. OF course that also has the unfortunate side effect of making expectations such that a price like that should be stnadard not to mention undercutting anyone else from selling at a more resonable price.
Now 1k each, it's too bad.
Of course there is the added problem that wihtout inurance costs folks will just do a misson (all of 10 minutes) and then die for a fast trip back, so buffs will only last 10 minutes (or 2 missons, as it where) for those folks. Even so on an advanced planet they make a lot of creds profit doing that. Looks like we're damned if we sell them for more, and we're damned if we sell them for less.
Yeah. I have heard of Docs selling a full slate on Lok for 1k total. I've been trying it at 1cr per point buffed (because they are so variable) but the SWG "teleporters" (dying to get back to base quick) don't see the use of it, especially if they know someone selling them for 1k for the whole lot.
And good avian meat isn't always that easy to get. Definitely makes it tough to get a good market on these going.
Microbella, as I understand it, as in I'm being told, Medics are a crafting profession. But if your like me and don't agree with this 100%, no worries. The base's for this idea relies on balancing the healing ability, as in changing the current values and not using the current values. When thinking about this idea think what values would be necessary to make it work. What values would be balanced for non-medics and for medics, to keep those who want to be just a healing medic healing. Giving a medic the ability to make cash does not mean they have to use the ability. I'm just thinking in a so-called worse case where they all do.
Yes, this has a good chance of giving 15 points back to the soloers. That is why the raw healing ability needs to be reduced, as well as the timer for non-medics. Will that be enough? No matter what, I agree that the soloers will probably gaina lot from this. But the added point is to make it so that groups will get a benefit too from having us. With the reduced healing ability of the stim for non-medics, groups will still desire medics for overall healing. Medics would have skills that would turn a stim #, which for this example say get nerfed to a max value of 500, into a 2000 point if Master Medic. Thus 100pts in Injury Treatment has a 400% increase in the effective power.
I'm not focused here on what the values would be;I'm assuming the right numbers could be found. I'm more interested in the idea if it would give way more positive results over negative ones.
mcglonec, it's a solution for mutable problems. I was more into the ida and forgot to list them, sorry. From the great list that Zarlor compiled, #'s 2, 5, &11. Giving this ability will not make it mandatory for medics, CMs, or us to craft beyond what we have to do to get what we want out of the class. It just gives us all a very good income from doing so. It did not take away the ability from medics, CMs, and docs to keep making credits the same ways they are right now, it adds to them. Doc's can still make money from enhancements. It may even help find the equilibrium for the cost on enhancements.
Your concern over our being needed is the biggest issue for me that I was thinking about when I came up with the idea. The healing potential needs to be such that all in the medical profession do not loose our main job of healing. What I think is that those who want to group will always want someone with medic skills. This does give soloists more freedom and semi-groupers less reason to group.
If done right, I feel that the balance between non-medic healing and medics would make it such that all in the medical professions are still desired in groups. I feel this would add to all in the medical profession much more than it would take away/hinder us. If done right it will not make us obsolete.
The question is, do you want a game where medic-crafted items are in demand, or a game where medics are in demand?
I think the second is preferable, even if it means that being a medic is a little less lucrative.
Besides, there is just about always one active thread on the medic board about some combat-type wanting advice on how to spend their excess points in the medic skills. As people start reaching Master in their combat classes, and start looking to spend spare points, I suspect a lot of them will want meds then.
Also, meds are a pretty big advantage in combat when the mob can't heal itself. Giving everyone the ability to use meds would further mess up the balance between players and mob difficulty.
I usually sell a full buff (all 6 stats) for 10k, and I get that all the time. If I am in a good mood I may go down to 5k or even just have them tip me what they feel they are worth (but I rarely do that).
Back to the original topic, opening up stims to everyone would make doctors in the field obsolete. As why would someone want us to go with them when they can heal theirselves for 1k+ just as easily. Only thing I can think of would be for us to res and then rebuff after that, but even then most of the hunting groups now adays don't travel more than 2k meters away from towns so the run back doesn't matter as much.
JawaJames wrote:
The question is, do you want a game where medic-crafted items are in demand, or a game where medics are in demand?
Why not both? The idea here is not to make one exclusive of the other. And why can't intelligent mobs have stims too? Longer battles if they did. Level the playing field too.