PROBLEM (according to me): Deaths for marines are too unconsequencial, and current system in place is not punishing enough (25% for 5 damage to heart when defib activates)
IDEA: When successfully revived, there is a modifier that increases the consequence of future defib attempts.
I wish to get feedback on this idea before I implement it, mainly these few questions regarding implementation.
Should modifier increase change of heart being damaged, overall damage incurred to heart, or both?
Should there be an upper limit? If so, should this upper limit prevent a revive? (unless scars repaired, if we want that)
Should this modifier reset upon repair to heart, or should this be considered a âscarâ or sorts and not be removable? What if we make it so you need cryo tube to repair this damage?
My vision on how it will play out: This would play out as follows: Pvt Charles âLuckyâ Smith dies to PB Buck, unfortunate. He is revived, given some medicine, and returns to front. But on the way there, he gets attacked by a runner! Marines nearby scare the runner off but Smith dies to his wounds. He gets revived, but his heart took some damage! Now he made it to front, but oh no! He exited cades to grab something, and a boiler acid glob hit him in the chest and it kills him! Defib still works, but medics inform him his heart wonât take another revive, and have him medevacâd to ship.
Format Morrow made me use:
Does it feel good to use?
This will require you to leave the front if you take too much heart damage, and would lead to more cases where you become unrevivable.
Does it feel good to play against?
Xenos would have a additional reward for getting lots of âkillsâ without perma, as eventually that marine WILL need to head for surgery and away from front if they die too often
Does it affect other systems?
Affects revives, heart damage only goes into revives far as I can tell.
Roleplay:
Does it increase immersion?
Yes, adding more meaning behind death will likely make it treated more seriously and with more concern (the marine would be wondering how much more his heart can take)
Does it increase communication/interaction between players?
More surgery = More RP with the doctors
Simulation:
Does it fit in the CM universe aesthetically?
Yes
Does it fit in the lore of CM?
Yes
Does it make sense ârealisticallyâ
Your heart cannot take lots of defibs without consequences, lots of real world decision making behind defibs are because of this aspect.
Maybe just increase chance of heart damage? Or do some guaranteed damage after successful revive? Heartbreak mechanic is quite fair, the only issue itâs too rare.
As an RPer and masochist, however, Iâd simply remove Phase 1 or 2, as low heart damage can be and is often ignored, therefore still allowing you to continue an operation with minimal consequences and driving-home the impact of repeated deaths: three strikes and youâre out.
Understanding that one of the biggest worries of limited revives is marines losing their Xth life to friendly fire being infuriating and rarely a fault of the victim, I could see a potential solution being a check for cause of death from bullets leaving a âlodged bulletâ (distinct from shrapnel) in the victim which when extracted would not remove a âlifeâ upon revive. That way, the balance could be focused around punishing morons trying to rush resin doors without backup or barricades, and worry less about safety nets for people who had no agency over their death.
I definitely think youâre trying to resolve a very real issue. Currently dying is sometimes the best option (not just when infected, but in other situations too) and itâs because of how lenient death is. Death should not be a mechanism taken so lightly, and a fix surely should be introduced. I think this is one of many possible solutions.
I like this a lot but dying already has its own downsides. Broken bones, low blood, etc. staying in the fight longer means you get more hurt but still have the choice to stay in. Even now with the recent IB changes a lot more people fall out for surgery. Getting heart break or even damage that makes you pass out or unable to fight has always eh, no one likes to stare at a black screen unable to do anything. Having marines also get hurt after using a defib more than once would massively change the balance of the game. Marines would get a soft nerf and thereâs not exactly a way to ask a dead person how many times theyâve been deffibed.
Imagine you push a choke and recover a team player thats been nothing but helping his team. You defib him and then cause heart break. You didnât know how many times he was defibbed and he was already about to perma so there was no time to find out. You now have to walk back all the way from the ETA choke on Solaris back to the LZ and try to keep him alive while the docs overwhelmed with heart break cases. While you were back at the fob, due to the lack of medics at the front and the team player it fell with little resistance.
Medics would also be running more people back to the fob from chokes with passed out marines unable to do anything. I like this idea but it needs to be more thought out, in its current state youâd have marine marines screeching xeno bais
I gotta be honest with you, while youâre certainly right that this would be a marine nerf, everything about the scenarios you just put forward sounded awesome.
If you want some medical changes a better push would be:
Over 1k burn = Husk within 1 minute untreated
More common delimbs. Reducing delimbs chance in this game was one of the great crimes (half-joking) of development.
Maybe instead of after 2 itâs heart damage increase the percent chance of heartdamage by 10-20% after the first 2 or 3.
I enjoy the IB system rn as a marine but you could make it either more common to get or make it less common but harsher like it used to be.
Overall, I agree with the game design idea that xenos should be rewarded for getting lots of kills on people even when those people get defibbed.
Husking when excessively burned, delimbs chance increase, and defibs having dimishing returns to a point where marines eventually need professional Almayer/medical installation treatment should be a thing. It disciplines overly suicidal behavior and forces marines to return shipside more (elevating shipside medbay importance beyond glorified facehugger removal)
What if, and Iâm just playinâ with ideas right now, instead of reducing the perma death timer, we actually increase it. The cost? You donât stop bleeding when youâre dead, internally or externally.
Interesting idea. Not a huge fan personally but here are thoughts.
The issues I can see with this are a couple-fold but it just changes how medic plays slightly in a couple ways that I can see.
Blood packets would be used more. Maybe even to the point of needing spares (itâs a rare day you need more than 1 honestly, at most, in current balance).
Having to hold the blood packet for people may mean an increase in wounded who are passing out due to low blood.
The previous issue would mean medics might have to use one-hand on patients while feeding others bloodâŚor focus on the critically wounded before giving blood to top up people who were hitting concerning levels of blood %.
The counter point fix for any issues that may result would be a couple-fold.
MedHUD Suggestion: âGive Bloodâ.
A new sort of tool that is a miniature version of the doctorâs IV Drip. Alternatively, a way for medics to feed people blood when standing next to the patient without having to hold the blood bag in their hand.
Research can make foods or pills that rejuvenate blood fast and on their own/with food.
Chef can make food which, while not a miracle food on its own, could raise blood up by 5-10% when eaten in quantity
My personal observations. Barring people who walked around bleeding out or saw extensive combat and bled: I donât tend to see below 80%.
If sub 70/60% is the pass out point and 40% is insta-death, I think this change would be fine so long as nothing regarding rate of bleeding is increased.
A major counter point that just occurred to me that I can see is that the people affected most by this would be people who were bleeding out and werenât brought to a medic, and died some time ago. In this scenario you could get someone who has large damage, plus many bleeds, plus is so low on blood and just insta-die when revive or arenât even able to be revived.
So. How to address this massive concern?
Make bleeding continue even during death but at a pretty reduced rate.
shrug
â Overall:
I think bringing back semi-common delimbs, increasing husking when high on burn, and even requiring IB to be a serious, generally shipside (OR) procedure would improve the medical situation and even balance situation overall.