Store Page
XCOM 2
All Discussions Screenshots Artwork Broadcasts Videos Workshop News Guides Reviews
XCOM 2 >  Workshop > shiremct's Workshop > LW2 Field Medic Soldier Class > Discussions
LW2 Field Medic Soldier Class
Description Discussions2 Comments129 Change Notes
shiremct  [developer] Jun 23, 2017 @ 10:31am
Design/Balance Feedback
Hope everyone has been enjoying the mod so far! I wanted to share some plans for the future and hopefully get some feedback on the current and planned designs.

Currently the Field Medic is being redesigned a bit and rebuilt to work with either LW2 OR the Community Highlander. This is going pretty well and I'm about half-way through this process (not counting figuring out how to handle the arc-thrower) but that release may have to wait until I have a second class to go with it.

Anyway, these are the ability changes planned so far:

Non-Combatant is being replaced with Medivac as a starter perk. Medivac will provide healing to injured squadmates similar to a weaker version of Quality of Care after a mission is over using any remaining un-used medkit charges - each unused medkit the Medic has remaining after a mission can be used to bring any soldier who has taken more than X% (probably 25 or 30%) of their total HP in damage up to that X% for wound time calculations. Starts off much weaker than Field Surgeon, but scales better later into the game.

The damage penalty from Non-Combatant is being moved to the place where it was really needed most - Run and Gun, which is being replaced with Adrenaline Rush, which is basically Run and Gun with a 25% damage penalty applied when its active. Adrenaline Rush is also switching trees to the Corpsman tree.

Shadowstep, by far the weakest choice at that rank, is being replaced wit Fleet-Footed, which will move to the First Responder tree. Fleet-Footed will grant shadowstep and probably a small stat boost. Aditionally, Fleet-Footed will passively interface with Emergency Aid and Rapid Deployment - if you have one of these abilities activated allowing actions to be taken for free, Fleet-Footed will grant you a special action point that lets you use these free actions IF you use your last regular action on a move. Normally, you must have an action point available to use a free action. Fleet-Footed allows you to dash and then still use these free actions (or reload, move, then free heal, etc.).

Hopefully these changes balance the power of abilities at this rank a little better.

Other changes include Quality of Care will modify the number of Medivac charges available from remaining un-used medkits by +50%, Rapid-Fire will be replaced with something that has a cool down (maybe 2 shots at no aim penalty for 3 ammo with a 3 or 4 turn cooldown?), and ...something with Kill Zone. Some of the other high-level abilities may be adjusted once I get to them.

I'd love to hear any balance feedback on the current class or comments on the planned changes.

BTW, the next class I want to work on alonside this is a hacking class, allowing them to split/replace Specialists. I have most of the design done, but haven't started the coding or art.
< >
Showing 1-10 of 10 comments
NumbTongue Jul 20, 2017 @ 4:17am 
Like the changes mentioned above especially run and gun plus the wound recovery passive tat comes automatic with the class. Run and gun it seemed was the strongest out of the 3 skills and it preety much was a must pick for me.
Also with chnage to non-combatant , whts ur plan for combat conditioning? Maybe run and gun/adrenaline rush cooldown reduction like one tat assault has or are u gonna keep it same and have it negate the aderenaline penalty.
One more question since first time i've added a new class, when u do update the class, is it gonna be save game compatible or gonna need new game to work?
Last edited by NumbTongue; Jul 20, 2017 @ 4:22am
#1
Zebo12345 Jul 30, 2017 @ 12:30pm 
Under Combat medic, what if you focused a bit on using drugs to hinder enemies?

You could replace Kill Zone with an ability that grants passive debuff chances to your shots. Like, maybe you have a chance to poison, disorient, or stun enemies with each hit.

I haven't actually played the mod yet, but just reading the perks, it seems like the combat medic tree really undermines the purpose of the class. Anyone who tries to build a combat medic is going to find that they rarely want to use their health kits to heal. At that point, it becomes a regular soldier that so happens to have a couple health hits for free. That's good, but not as good as if you took a different soldier who was able to kill enemies before they even had a chance to wound anyone.

Perhaps rework that entire combat medic tree with a whole new set of unique abilities that perhaps spend medkits to hurt enemies. Afterall, too big a dosage makes a medicine into a poison.

I like that because it adds a dynamic to whether you want to spend your medkits on allies or enemies. It also blends well with the squaddie ability, allowing their combat effectiveness to scale with Medical Specialist.

Do you have any thoughts on this concept?
#2
shiremct  [developer] Jul 31, 2017 @ 1:31pm 
@Rusty_khukri, Combat Conditioning will remain the same and will just be the stat boosts. I think it's strong enough without giving +effective damage to stay the same even with the changes to Non-Combatant. I've considered replacing KillZone with an ability that removes the damage penalty from Adrenaline Rush or the mobility penalty from Reposition, but didn't know what to do with Flee-Footed/Shadowstep. I'm still unsure what will happen with KillZone or its spot.

Normally, any updates would be save compatible, but since we have WotC coming and I want to work in the option for non-LW2 campaigns, the next update will probably be a new mod that will not carry over the class in a savegame; however, this one will stay around for compatibility with any ongoing games and the next major update won't be until after the expansion is released when everyone will be starting new campaigns anyway.



@Zebo12345, using medkits to buff damage instead isn't something that would really fit the class or work well without just being a re-implementation of venom rounds and the like. The class as a Combat Medic is intended to be exactly as you described... A slightly weaker rifleman that has good healing potential, if needed. That's the trade-off and if you,re playing a configuration where you never take wounds or don't care about them when you do (no Red Fog, etc), there isn't much that can be done to make a traditional medic class viable without relying on some nonsensical abilities.

However, the concept of choosing to use the medkits to provide temporary buffs to themselves or teammates vs saving them for wounds is a good one and I can think of several options there that fit the theme of the Combat Medic well... The problem is fitting them in. The only space on the tree that's really still open is KillZone and coming up with something of an appropriate power level for that rank is much tougher than the earlier ranks. I'll have to think about that a bit and see if there's a way to work something like that in.
#3
Zebo12345 Jul 31, 2017 @ 4:54pm 
Sounds neat. I definitely like the sound of using medkits in non-traditional ways.

I definitely see what you mean about the combat medic tree though. Never thought about how Red Fog would interact with it.

Well, you're the designer here, not me, so I'll just keep an eye on this mod to see what you end up doing. :)
#4
Onji Dec 18, 2017 @ 7:55pm 
Did you ever add these changes for LW2 somewhere?
#5
Iceberg Feb 19, 2018 @ 4:58pm 
Would be neat to make the stun gun the primary weapon and still have a gremlin, or give the class a pistol primary instead of noncombatant.
Last edited by Iceberg; Feb 19, 2018 @ 4:59pm
#6
Snoup Sniddly Nov 6, 2018 @ 8:25pm 
Straight up best class mod. I came to this forum because I had some feelings about Run & Gun and combat conditioning being too good of a combo, and your suggested fixes seem to... well, fix that problem. But where hath ye gone, friend? We need you! And Coldburg, I think the stungun is the most thematic secondary for the medic to have. And no combat medic irl carries a pistol.
#7
shiremct  [developer] Nov 7, 2018 @ 9:08am 
Thanks, I put a lot of thought and work into it so I'm glad you like it, especially since you were on the fence about class mods to begin with. I moved on to WOTC before I could finish updates for vanilla. I was updating this mod to work with or without LW2 which required splitting out the LW2 secondary weapons. I was still working on that when WOTC dropped and further updates continued there.
#8
WaldoTheRanger Dec 13, 2019 @ 6:23am 
Is there any chance of this working for LWotC? does it currently or could it be made to?
#9
shiremct  [developer] Dec 13, 2019 @ 2:53pm 
It is highly unlikely to work due to the vast differences in the code base between pre- and post-WOTC.

There is a WOTC version of the class (and others) that would be a much better starting point if you wanted to use it in LWOTC: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1265143828
Last edited by shiremct; Dec 13, 2019 @ 2:53pm
#10
< >
Showing 1-10 of 10 comments
Per page: 1530 50