Medic Archive

After reading and responding to some other posts about the medic profession, I think this issue is worth addressing here. I doubt it'll change anything as this is a "wishlist" item, much like the thousands of "wishlists" items everyone has with every profession. I guess this is more for discussion to see what people think.

Following the whole philosophy of real world persons in the medical (I'm one in a roundabout way) field, I think that medics regardless of factional status, should be able to /healdamage /healwound (and /tendxxx) on anyone else, regardless of their factional status. Healing isn't a negative action in and of itself.. and isn't really an overtly positive one. "Healing" in the game is treated as though its providing a boon to whomever you heal, which is a bane to the opposing faction. I don't think its really an overt act of rebellion or adherence.

As I've posted elsewhere, battlefield medics are the closest units to being neutral. They will tend the wounds of their own men first, but when it's all said and done, if the enemy is lying in a pool of his own blood, and chances are he could make it, an opposing medic generally tends to try to save them (if they can of course... for intelligence purposes, pow status, etc.) It's also considered an immense insult to knowingly slay the opposing side's medic. Nowadays they give medics guns and train them to be equally efficient soldiers, but historically the medic's only job on the battlefield was tending the wounded, and therefore they were considered non-hostile targets.

That aside, healing is an act of compassion, and in the real world is transcends race, religion, political viewpoints, etc. I really think it should be treated equally in the game. You get a rebel and an imperial alone in the MedCen on Lok together, and they have but two options now, fight or don't fight. I think it'd add a little human emotion to the game if they also had thechoice to heal each other and then part their seperate ways.

As for someone joining a faction and then exclusively healing the opposing faction (because they sympathize with that faction in the first place), maybe make it so that a medic who heals an overt player can be killed by the opposing team of the person whom he's healing. It at least gives them the choice to take that risk if they want to.