'Friendly, Down!' icon? A medic's cry for HELP

[ShavenRaver]

I'm hoping this is a completely new idea -

A map and overlay icon that informs ALL squad members of a downed friendly.

But hear me out now, this is NOT simply the icons a medic sees... for everyone. I'm talking about something that will promote realism, and teamplay further!

Currently the medic knows where there are friendly's down - he can see the icons... as a screen overlay, and on the map.

No one else can - which is fine, but it's incredibly difficult for the medic to request AFFECTIVE support whilst he fixes up a comrade, unless in very close proximity to the rest of the squad. Also, the support ought to be on the downed soldier's location - not on the medic who's perhaps 20 meters away from the casualty.

So, what if....

The proximity needed to produce a 'wounded soldier' overlay icon (the 'medic needed'symbol you see as a medic?) was reduced - the overlay at longer distances are effectively a sixth sense.

This is compensated by giving the medic an ability to place a new 'downed soldier' REQUEST marker (ONLY on a friendly) that the squad leader can approve or decline.

It would go something like this...

1, The medic would hear the 'medic' request from the wounded soldier.

2, Medic would check his map to see where the incident took place

3, He can then right click on the map (squad screen) to place the 'downed soldier' REQUEST marker

4, If the squad leader approves, a defence marker is then placed. (or perhaps a whole new marker? Medical defence marker?)

5, Now the whole squad knows where the downed solder is, and can affectively support the medic

Now in this situation, the marker is not a sixth sense like the medics are currently blessed with, but is a coordinated visual waypoint that compensates for a reduced sense of spatial awareness inherent in a computer game

I'm sure this idea can be expanded upon, and technical issues aside, I can see no reason why this wouldn't work well.

Thanks for reading

Comments?

[Rudd]

Pretty much agree

would also like the "medic" voice emote to be louder and carry further

[Pariel]

The louder medic voice should go hand in hand with the ability to finish off enemies as in .756.

If people can hear you further, the enemy should be able to hear you, and therefore come to find/kill you since you're dying.

[yakuz]

Like it in princple, but i play a lot of medic and having to do all this in the heat of battle before reviving a downed teammate could be a little too complicated. On the other hand it will be very useful for those siuations when a downed teammate is in a hard position and u need to plan ahead and get covering fire.

[ReapersWarrior]

The louder medic voice should go hand in hand with the ability to finish off enemies as in .756.

You can finish enemies if their wounded?

[vilhelm123]

You can finish enemies if their wounded?

Not as far as i know, believe it can be done with an explosion (e.g. Grenade) but not with bullets.


I like the idea of map marking team-mates, would i pose a problem with working out were exactly they fell or in many cases with a good squad working together you'd be nearby anyway?

[LtSoucy]

As yakuz said. The heat of battle a Squad Leader cant be looking at his map, but thinking how to flank, outsmart and defeat his opposition.

@Pariel:You cant finish off enemies, it was suggested but since the BF2 engine doesn't allow it we cant do it.

[ShavenRaver]

Currently, only a Medic that can clearly see a downed friendly (shown as a defibrillator request icon on the map, and at shorter distances an overlay icon) - I don't propose this to be changed much, if at all.

Instead, what I'm advocating, is that a medic can EASILY pass this vital location information to the squad leader. Then with all the ease of pressing page up or page down, the SL can accept or decline a defence marker request, as he would if a commander issued an order.

The squad can then position themselves to protect the medic whilst he revives or heals a team mate.

BTW, thanks for your comments.

[Smegburt_funkledink]

You cant finish off enemies, it was suggested but since the BF2 engine doesn't allow it we cant do it.

Wrong.

https://www.realitymod.com/forum/f18-pr ... post807609
https://www.realitymod.com/forum/f245-j ... amics.html

[ShavenRaver]

Sorry guys. Don't wish to be a killjoy, but can we stay on topic?

If you wish to start a new thread on this, you can post a link here, but please, no further discussion. Thank you

I am discussing a possible improvement to gameplay, by altering the game in such a way as to promote teamwork around the use of a medic

[ShavenRaver]

BTw,

The beauty of my suggestion is not only the promotion of teamplay, but that it doesn't subtract anything from the way it already is.

Also, it possibly makes the medic kit a little more attractive. Folks often take on this kit with some reluctance... may be this'll help fix that.

[Smegburt_funkledink]

Sorry, ShavenRaver, I was trying to divert certain discussions away from your thread.

While I understand what you're after and you understand compensations for a reduced sense of spatial awareness inherent in a computer game, this wouldn't be realistic really.

Medics only work when the squad is working together, I often find myself screaming to a scattered squad to stick together or watch their spacing whilst playing as medic.

When a player is downed, I'll announce "man down", "cover me" etc... the rest of the squad should be aware of what is going on. If they're not, it's not the job of a marker system to do this for them, it's their own.

I remember watching a video about a shootout in Najaf, where a US soldier had been killed, he was fairly close to his squad but was not found for a good few minutes. This was all down to the nature of the battlefield they were in and the gunfire they were taking. A marker system like you have described would take some of the aptmospherics away from certain pinned-down firefights etc...

It's all about keeping tabs on your squad/team, I for one would like to see the removal of the '3d map', adding to realism.

The more markers and such like this that we have, the less people will cover eachother or actually bother communicating SITREPs etc...

[Noobofthenight]

I'd rather give standard soldiers a 'FRIENDLY DOWN!' emote.

Currently medic's have a damn hard time in finding bodies as the icons go really quickly, so often I'll end up over some guy's corpse shouting 'medic' only to find the medic tries to heal me (numnuts eh?)

You could cut out all of these complications, if you had an emote standard soldiers could call 'Man down!', giving an icon possibly near that unit that called it?

I dont know, you could get some epic icon spam that way :S

[ShavenRaver]

You're quite right sgt.smeg, the example of the shoot out in najaf demonstrates the point well. It wouldn't be realistic to have the marker system that I'm proposing.

Having said that though, in game we have an unrealistic disadvantage in communicating...

No eye contact - "who are you talking to?"
No auditory sense of direction on VOIP "I'm over here!" "Where's here?"
No body language - pointing?

I don't think that the system I'm proposing necessarily gives that much an advantage over the current system. And I carefully though it out so that it cannot be abused to other ends. I'm suggesting an, albeit, unrealistic solution to an unrealistic handicap, to help make communication a little more efficient. I guess I'm suggesting an unrealistic simulation of realistic capabilities. e.g. like being able to point to the area you're talking about

I know taking existing functionality out in the name of realism has its merits, and in a lot of case has promoted teamplay, but too much and we'll need nothing short of actual combat training.

OK, that's a slight exaggeration, but the ease at which a player just OUT of noob camp finds PR surely must be akin to a soldier fresh out of Basic training. i.e. you've learnt how to communicate effectively, following protocol, but there is plenty of room for improvment.

I'm aware that I'm opening a much bigger debate... perhaps we could keep discussion on realism/compensation/simulation to atleast the topic of communicating? There has to be plenty of topics on this though, right?

Thanks for you comments. Like the 'man down' emote idea - it certainly beats asking for a medic on behalf of someone else.

[Noobofthenight]

To be honest Shaven, I think it is pretty cool...

I've an idea...

You know in bf2 vanilla you could do 'Spotted', and it would put an icon on the map of an enemy contact?

Could you not do 'MAN DOWN!' and then invent a new icon, and have that icon appear on the map for a bit?

Coding wise this is feasible if you are able to add an icon for friendly units like you do when you spot enemy units, and I've seen you can change icons.

Could you do 'friendly spotted' icons and then use a boolean to figure out whether the man is actually in a crit wounded state?

So for example...

Man goes down. Friendly sees him... He then clicks 'friendly down' from the comma rose?

The engine would then need to check:

If Target = friendly,
Then test if target is 'crit';
Else 'invalid target'

If Target is state 'crit', then
Procedure 'Call medic'
Else end.

I know it is shit pseudo-code, but I've not done programming in a long time...

But can the engine make those kind of checks? Is crit wounded a testable variable? (I'd presume so due to the fact you cant epipen a live person )

[ShavenRaver]

Yeah, that works nicely

I kinda considered that, but thought that it would lead to abuse i.e. using it as an enemy spotting system, but your solution sounds great. Given the way I see vanilla working, and the different ways I've seen PR working I'm quite sure that your solution would work.

Minor alteration to your suggestion: I would be in favour of the SL being the only one that could see the icon. It's then up to him to divert squad members to the problem or not. He can then place a defence marker if he wishes

What do you think about that?

Cheers

[Noobofthenight]

Sounds like a good idea man, even more team play going on there

Dev input? Is it at all possible?

[Lorfah]

Nice idea, I for one would love to see this implemented.
On a sidenote, could it be possible to implement some kind of punishment-action taken on medics not doing their job?
I've seen it all to often, beeing in need of a medic, standing right next to one shouting that I need attention ASAP, and then the little ******* sods of, leaving me standing there and !! Takes me to the mood of tk'ing. But I never do. Intentionally atleast

[daranz]

Nice idea, I for one would love to see this implemented.
On a sidenote, could it be possible to implement some kind of punishment-action taken on medics not doing their job?
I've seen it all to often, beeing in need of a medic, standing right next to one shouting that I need attention ASAP, and then the little ******* sods of, leaving me standing there and !! Takes me to the mood of tk'ing. But I never do. Intentionally atleast

I just love when I have 3 dudes nearly bleeding to death, and some crybaby specops with a bruised knee runs up to me and starts spamming "I NEED A MEDIC!" When I finally have time to get to him (of course, he can stand a meter away from me and and come to me when I'm healing someone else), he's already run off and bitching me out in the chat. So no thanks, I wouldn't want to be punished for not being omnipotent.

[Lorfah]

Allright daranz, I see that one might be a problem ops: