How is medic play in this game?

[LazyTiger]

I want to play medic exclusively and maybe fly. I know in Hell Let Loose everyone mostly just re-spawns and doesn't wait for a medic, what about this game? It looks awesome from the video online.

[interrupt]

That's a great question. I've been playing a lot on the official servers and have never seen or experienced anyone playing as a medic. Maybe on community servers there is more of this type of play?

I hope someone with more experience answers your question. I think more use of medics would contribute to greater immersion rather than respawning immediately.

[Sgt. Osiris]

It's worse than HLL. There is no ticket system and the respawn time is 5 seconds making the time it takes to heal someone not worth it.

The way the medic system works is you have to first examine the player and then their injuiries on their limbs will be displayed when you hover over them with your mouse. This area is very small and the time you have to see the display is very low which makes healing others very difficult. It's more efficient to cover that person so they can heal themselves. If they're badly injured, like a grenade up right on top of them, it will be faster and more efficient for them to respawn then it will be for you to sit there and heal all their injuries. You also cannot drag bodies like you can in Squad.

The next update, v1.3, should make medic gameplay more useful and appealing. Injuries are going to be made more debilitating and those injuries can only be fully healed with a medical bag, ambulance, or at the medical tent. The are also changing how the respawn system works so the meta is no longer wave tactics. This should slow down the game considerably and make medics more worthwhile.

Modded servers have more in depth medical systems, but I haven't played enough to comment. Those systems seem a little too much for how arcadey the game currently is. The respawn time is 5 seconds, why wait to be injected with X, Y, Z, and have chest compressions performed on you for a minute.

If you want to play medic, I can highly recommend Squad if you haven't played that already. Respawn times are higher and you can drag bodies making your job easier. I played exclusively medic. I would dive into the ♥♥♥♥ and drag friendlies to safety to heal them. At the end I would have 30-40 revives, which at times when you are winning by a few tickets, means your revives helped win the game.

[LazyTiger]

Thanks for letting me know. Bummer since it looks like a really nice medical system. I guess we have to keep catering to the gen Z mosquito level attention span...

[Bad Distraction Carnifex]

Originally posted by LazyTiger:

Thanks for letting me know. Bummer since it looks like a really nice medical system. I guess we have to keep catering to the gen Z mosquito level attention span...

If you want to be a combat medic on the front lines it's good. If you want to sit at base waiting for jeeps and helis to bring you wounded it's a waste.

The medic system is good but you're not going to be playing MASH. Instead you're playing Saving Private Ryan if you catch my drift.

[LazyTiger]

Originally posted by Bad Distraction Carnifex:

Originally posted by LazyTiger:

Thanks for letting me know. Bummer since it looks like a really nice medical system. I guess we have to keep catering to the gen Z mosquito level attention span...

If you want to be a combat medic on the front lines it's good. If you want to sit at base waiting for jeeps and helis to bring you wounded it's a waste.

The medic system is good but you're not going to be playing MASH. Instead you're playing Saving Private Ryan if you catch my drift.

100%, I meant in the field to be clear. In the middle of the wedge. :)

[Bad Distraction Carnifex]

Originally posted by LazyTiger:

Originally posted by Bad Distraction Carnifex:

If you want to be a combat medic on the front lines it's good. If you want to sit at base waiting for jeeps and helis to bring you wounded it's a waste.

The medic system is good but you're not going to be playing MASH. Instead you're playing Saving Private Ryan if you catch my drift.

100%, I meant in the field to be clear. In the middle of the wedge. :)

You'll probably like it then. Medics in the front save people from the massive travel times to get back into the fight. Because Lordi this map is HUGE lol.

[LazyTiger]

Originally posted by Bad Distraction Carnifex:

Originally posted by LazyTiger:

100%, I meant in the field to be clear. In the middle of the wedge. :)

You'll probably like it then. Medics in the front save people from the massive travel times to get back into the fight. Because Lordi this map is HUGE lol.

Nice, that's exactly what I meant, I should have been more clear. Combat medic. I just wasn't sure if there was an incentive to let the medic patch you up in the field vs. respawn.

[|H|H| Fr3ddi3]

Reforger has a rather robust medical system that unfortunately, like a lot of things here, is almost entirely unused by the random public server denizens, if your intent is to just play medic on a public server i'd say it's a total waste of time, you need players actually working as a team and communicating for it to be of any use.

I'm sure there are some 'higher level' public servers where you can do it though, and like always with ARMA, the private side of the game is where you see the actual use of these roles and mechanics pay off.

All this is to say, you can be a medic and i'm certain it is rewarding ... you're just gonna have to find a server / community that it's worth doing it on first.

[Jedra]

If you play in a squad then someone who is a medic and carrying medical supplies is invaluable to keep the Squad going. Otherwise, if you don't have a radio then the injured squad member would re-spawn miles away potentially.

Like most things in this game, being in a squad and communicating as a squad really makes all the systems work well. This is really what the game is trying to get you to do. It will be even more important when 1.3 drops.

As just a lone-wolf medic then it doesn't really work.

[RunsWithScissors]

I haven't met anyone exclusively playing medic and as others have said, the 1.3 update will change things. Right now there is no real cohesive squad play, maybe future updates will encourage that. Currently if there is a cohesive push on a point medic could work. The first rule of TCCC is win the gunfight and security. That's kind of hard in this game as everyone tends to lone wolf. It would be nice if folks saw someone going to aid a downed teammate and knew to pull security for them.

I have no idea what the XP is for healing teammates, but if they find a sweet spot I could see more medics. But they also need to build the emphasis on squad play to make it really of utility.

[Mr. Ron Hands]

cant drag team for safe healing. Most of the time if you were to heal a buddy in the middle of a fight, you're done too, cause its where ever they got shot and you'll be next by the time you look at the right area on their body.

[Ibuprofen]

Originally posted by Sgt. Osiris:

It's worse than HLL. There is no ticket system and the respawn time is 5 seconds making the time it takes to heal someone not worth it.

This sums it up pretty well.
I played a lot as a medic in Reforger. But because the system does not reward it and does not sanction exessive use of the respawn button most people just respawn. Which is why half the people I actually revive went AFK and that was the reason they waited till they got up again.

To the mechanics itself: They are not very realistic and the system can be called primitive. But it is still immersive to some degree and adds to the gameplay. But as you can imagine it is mostly about fixing up yourself, or friends you play with.

[LazyTiger]

Thanks for the answers. It's just how gaming is these days, a nation of loners.

[Memphis]

the best way to do this is having a squad that works as a squad, maybe your friends or other gamers who are into that kind of thing. so, you would have different jobs, and one of them could be medic.

the great thing about armer reforger is the teamwork. we had our best results and most fun, when we worked as a team.

medic is a job "on the road" - you don't work stationary at a hospital.

once we played, and there were guys on acertain base, who just repaired and maintained helis - they inspected the heli, repaired it and filled up with fuel and ammo. that was really nice.

if i would develop the game, there would be field hospitals and medics - if one is wounded, he either gets treatment or dies. and if one dies, he wakes up in one of the field hospitals, no respawn by choice and getting back into the fight immediately. people would hat it ;) but it would make the game much more immersive.

[andrieu_pizza]

Only with friends and a full squad with cooperative players is it viable.
Or milsim servers. Or occasionally on Combat Ops game mode servers.

Otherwise it's just random dudes creating single man squads and getting killed and respawning immediately.