Doctor Archive
Thread: RFC: Active Biohazard Suit
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Lucreel
Fri May 28, 2004 4:31 pm
#1
I've been thinking a *lot* about a few different problems that I have as a Doctor, especially in the context of PvP. And I think I've come up with a nifty solution. This Request For Comment is to get feedback on my proposal from the Doctor community. If it is favorably received, I will post it to a few other forums where it would be of interest.
Proposal: new item/wearable - Active Biohazard Suit
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A new craftable item. Would be crafted by Master Tailors. Could be worn under certain types of armor (to be determined), or possibly a new type of armor that would be paired with it. Would not be able to be worn under the heaviest/bulkiest armors (so that there is a trade-off for the benefits provided by the suit).
The purpose of the Active Biohazard Suit is to have an active defense system against hostile attacks from the environment, and as a defense while serving in the Galactic Civil War.
Features: Active Biohazard Suit has the capacity to be charged by Doctors with sufficient skill and medicine with up to 3 charges (perhaps some special loot or faction-reward, or an especially high level of skill by the tailor, could give 4 or 5 charges). These charges could be preloaded with any state-healing medicine (for fire, since fire-blankets aren't really a 'medicine' perhaps the devs could let Doctors craft a fire-suppression gel - basically would have the same requirements as the fire blanket, sans the synth-cloth).
Discussion: The main problem that Doctors have with the state heal medicines they are given is that, while the medicines can be very effective, Doctors are not very well equipped by their skills to survive long enough in battle, especially PvP, in order to administer that medicine. Additionally, because of area-of-effect attacks, some DOT's and other negative state effects can be applied by opponents *much* faster than a Doctor can heal his team mates.
I feel that this bio-hazard suit presents a nice trade-off: it does not make a player completely invincible, but does allow Doctor's to prepare their teammates for battle. The limit of only 3 charges means that players have to choose what they most want defense against, and that defense is still very limited. Additionally, since each time an opponent attacks, one charge is consumed, it doesn't over-whelmingly 'nerf' the other players skills/abilities. There is a significant chance that the player wearing the biohazard suit won't have a defense for the specific attacks being used against them, and if each team has a diverse group of professions then it can be virtually guaranteed that any given player is still vulnerable to attacks by most of the other team.
This would give a new craftable item for Master Tailors, which should have good demand. It provides an opportunity for the developers to introduce additional upgrades to the biohazard suit as faction rewards, or as rare loot from special quests, missions, or other encounters. Potentially it can offer a new type of armor for Armor Crafters, should the developers decide to create special armor that would be paired with the biohazard suit in order to ensure that the combination of the suit and the armor are balanced vis a vis other armors. And, lastly, it makes the state healing abilities of Doctors more practical to use to benefit their groupmates.
Restrictions on the biohazard suit can ensure that it does not become too overpowering, so that it will not effectively nerf or adversely impact any one profession.
Proposal: new item/wearable - Active Biohazard Suit
--------------------
A new craftable item. Would be crafted by Master Tailors. Could be worn under certain types of armor (to be determined), or possibly a new type of armor that would be paired with it. Would not be able to be worn under the heaviest/bulkiest armors (so that there is a trade-off for the benefits provided by the suit).
The purpose of the Active Biohazard Suit is to have an active defense system against hostile attacks from the environment, and as a defense while serving in the Galactic Civil War.
Features: Active Biohazard Suit has the capacity to be charged by Doctors with sufficient skill and medicine with up to 3 charges (perhaps some special loot or faction-reward, or an especially high level of skill by the tailor, could give 4 or 5 charges). These charges could be preloaded with any state-healing medicine (for fire, since fire-blankets aren't really a 'medicine' perhaps the devs could let Doctors craft a fire-suppression gel - basically would have the same requirements as the fire blanket, sans the synth-cloth).
Discussion: The main problem that Doctors have with the state heal medicines they are given is that, while the medicines can be very effective, Doctors are not very well equipped by their skills to survive long enough in battle, especially PvP, in order to administer that medicine. Additionally, because of area-of-effect attacks, some DOT's and other negative state effects can be applied by opponents *much* faster than a Doctor can heal his team mates.
I feel that this bio-hazard suit presents a nice trade-off: it does not make a player completely invincible, but does allow Doctor's to prepare their teammates for battle. The limit of only 3 charges means that players have to choose what they most want defense against, and that defense is still very limited. Additionally, since each time an opponent attacks, one charge is consumed, it doesn't over-whelmingly 'nerf' the other players skills/abilities. There is a significant chance that the player wearing the biohazard suit won't have a defense for the specific attacks being used against them, and if each team has a diverse group of professions then it can be virtually guaranteed that any given player is still vulnerable to attacks by most of the other team.
This would give a new craftable item for Master Tailors, which should have good demand. It provides an opportunity for the developers to introduce additional upgrades to the biohazard suit as faction rewards, or as rare loot from special quests, missions, or other encounters. Potentially it can offer a new type of armor for Armor Crafters, should the developers decide to create special armor that would be paired with the biohazard suit in order to ensure that the combination of the suit and the armor are balanced vis a vis other armors. And, lastly, it makes the state healing abilities of Doctors more practical to use to benefit their groupmates.
Restrictions on the biohazard suit can ensure that it does not become too overpowering, so that it will not effectively nerf or adversely impact any one profession.
Nexxus82
Fri May 28, 2004 4:55 pm
#2
I like that idea. It will stop a lot of the CM whining and hopfully makes the uber armor go away for a little bit. I would like a little clarifacation on the 3 slots though are you talkin 3 charges in total or 3 slots like I load a dizzy state pack and it has 20 charges is that 20 heals or just 3?
WarFerret
Fri May 28, 2004 4:57 pm
#3
It's quite a good idea, if there were more adverse environments in SWG (the only one I can think of is the poison gas in the Geo caves), otherwise it just comes over as a CM nerf (I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but you'll have a hard sell of it against the CM community).
The way I'd implement it's protection though is to have doctor crafted items like poison/disease/flame retardent materials and to have the clothing's condition decay in a similar manner as armour- when you get poisoned, the clothing absorbs XX% of the poison (so you still take damage, like armour), and that amount is subtracted from the clothes condition, when it reaches 0 it's useless - that's how I'd do it instead of the charges idea, but aside from that, should be pretty cool.
We need more hazardous environments in SWG as well 
Lucreel
Fri May 28, 2004 5:03 pm
#4
Nexxus82 wrote:I like that idea. It will stop a lot of the CM whining and hopfully makes the uber armor go away for a little bit. I would like a little clarifacation on the 3 slots though are you talkin 3 charges in total or 3 slots like I load a dizzy state pack and it has 20 charges is that 20 heals or just 3?
Just three applications - not 3 packs. It would basically function like I'm curing your state, but in this case you wouldn't have a state - it would just save the medicine for one 'shot' of cure in the suit.
As for CM's - it's not that big of a nerf - the most powerful CM poisons and diseases can take up 3 shots of medicine just to cure them - so, the CM has his/her first spray of poison neutralized - second one would still hit probably. That assumes the player gets cure poison from the Doctor - they might just equally opt for flame-suppresant gel to try to defend against a Commando with flame thrower - and then they'd be wide open to the CM. See that's the beauty of this - it gives *some* defense, but it's certainly not overwhelming, and it makes Doctor state heals actually have some effect on the game.
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