How to appeal Medic to the playerbase?

The thing is, that just turns heavies into max equivalents, a field giving them 2x the amount of resistance is insane, which is why it's given in the form of adrinaline shield, rewarding the player with more HP for killing. Medics simply giving that reward just by existing is a bad thing.

Yes. Yes it does. An HA push with a backfield of medics should be an effective tactic. Why isn't it? Make it obvious via change in shield color that this is occurring. Enemies should have an oh**** moment when they see it and respond with focus fire on the buffed player, or redirecting to the medic.... as well as having a dawning realization that they should be doing the same.

Solo HAs or LAs that have drifted away from group cohesion will not gain this benefit.

I'm shamelessly borrowing a gameplay experience from TF2... because it's fun and encourages teamwork. The current medic style is kinda cheesy & COD worthy.

The topic is how to get medics to appeal to the playerbase. This is one way. Add a new and *fun* aspect to the gameplay and more people will play it. Side effect being: More likely someone is around when you need that res.

The other less fun and more punishing way would be to increase non-revive spawn times to the point of pain.

Heavies need a nerf, if anything. It's already nothing but HAs everywhere you go.

Oh lawd. Heavies do NOT need a nerf. Have you actually tried using LMGs? The class is balanced just fine with both major strengths and major shortcomings. Properly supported HAs are fearsome, but rarely does this manifest. An LA will win most 1:1 duels.

Oh hell no. PS2 isn't geared for this type of gameplay. And we especially don't want Heavies to start complaining "but mah Medic didn't support me" on top of the "but that Medic didn't revive me". PS2 already has enough of a blame-someone-else culture, we don't need to expedite this.
Additionally giving Medics even more of a "All you are good for is holding a tool so other can actually play" is a kick in the teeth rather than an upgrade. In PS2 it's not just what you can bring your team, it's what you can bring yourself. That's the exact reason why the HA, which holds completely zero teamplay abilities, is the most used character.
If you give Medics something that specifically boosts them and can coincidentally be used in teamplay, like a shield the Medic and allies can hide behind, you can do this.

Now you'll think "but my shield regenerator idea does exactly that!". What it mostly does is make chokepoints even harder to capture unless you've got a team of Infils throwing EMP's while the attackers get nothing. And unfortunately for PS2, the attackers are mostly on the defense, IE protecting a point while the defenders are attacking to destroy the Sunderers and stop the entire attack. The boost this gives is far too large and will only encourage ADAD dancing HA's and one or two Medics who support them.

PS2 is geared toward this type of gameplay, it's just poorly implemented and executed. See Max+Engy combo. Should rock. Doesn't.

Yes, a much buffed shield regen makes chokepoints tougher to break. Maybe try breaking it with HA/LA that are being buffed by the medics advancing right behind them (per the other part of my suggestion). We have no mechanism for "running medics" right now. They just run from corpse to corpse. It's kinda sucky gameplay.

As for a blame someone else culture? Jeebus, negative nancy. If I'm not happy about a medic failing to revive me then I blame myself for #1 getting killed in the first place, and #2 being so far out of position that I'm not gaining the benefits of teamplay. How to fix whiners isn't even a topic for another thread. That needs it's own forum.

I'm afraid I don't follow the concept of HAs not having any teamplay role. If you completely ignore their role as anti-vehicle infantry then they have the same role as the other assault class: Assault stuff. Try taking a base with only support classes. It doesn't work very spectacularly.

A Max with Engineer does rock. It's a repairing Max suit, so it can fire for longer and be exposed for longer without exploding.
Just since it isn't invulnerable due to one Engineer on it, doesn't make it ineffective.
With one Engineer, a Max can rejoin the battle, engage for longer, and be resupplied, keeping it in the battle zone for longer or indefinitely.

Your suggestion, is a Medic becomes an Invulnerability provider to Heavies.
With the idea of needing to use this to break your own problem, and the Shield-Regen issue.

Medics run from corpse to corpse, body to body, pumping bullets into faces, and throwing Necromancer grenades.
unlike a Heavy which hugs a wall, shields up, and stim packs.

Heavies have no abilities that support others, beyond firing a Gun.
They have nothing to help another player, beyond killing something.

Actually, a Zombie army works great. That's called Medic Spam.
Infils to hell works great as well, unless a Max pops up, but with great teamwork, even those die.
Engineers? I have a bloody archer, maxes are the easiest sods.

And each of those, actually supports the entire group: Area heals, revives, Ammo packs, repairs, walls, sensor systems.

I think my suggestion has been misinterpreted. In no way am I suggesting medics be able to dish out invulnerability.

Right now the shield recharge field is too weak to be of much use beyond telegraphing the location of concentrated players. It needs a significant buff. Enough of a buff that taking it out with a grenade before attacking that corner would be wise. But... for balance sake such a buff needs complemented by a weakness. One shield recharge beacon per trip to the resupply would be the most obvious. A timer may also be wise.

Similarly the heal beam from the medic gun is useless. When you've taken damage and a medic starts restoring your health, you don't really care a lot. You're more anxious about your shield recharging than your health, yes? This should be fixed. Allow the medic gun to work on shields and to do so while both players are on the run. It won't make the assault invulnerable, but it will make them guaranteed to win a shootout with someone who isn't employing the same teamwork.

Still not buying the HA logic I'm afraid. By that measure, what teamplay does a max provide? What about light assault? All three having "nothing to help another player, beyond killing something." If you get killed, you want a medic buddy. Out of ammo, you want an engy. But what do those players wish for when they encounter a max, vehicle, or similar? Is one of them going to pop shield and be the first to breach?

Seems a lot of HA hate out there which mostly seems driven by "I want people to play the way I play". /shrug

The Shield Bubble is quite useful in defensive positions.

The heal beam is actually useful, as long as the target isn't letting themselves be nailed endlessly.
This means the Medic behind the corner, or behind them isn't capable of making them an endless bullet sponge.
if it restored shields, you'd barely get past the shield to re-damage the health which would be full in a loop.
A medic shouldn't be capable of letting someone tank bullets that hard.

A MAX absorbs bullets, is a massive target, and costs nanites.
LA's ambush from other angles, but has no supportive elements - Medics, Engineers, and Infils do.

Engineer for Max, Vehicle is a cross between Heavy or LA, unless there is time: Then It's Engineer, or anyone with C-4 if the distance is short.

I run in as an Engineer, or medic, or Infil if need be; You might live, you might not.
The Storming a Room, isn't granting your allies your shield, it only works for you. lol

Getting the shield recharge rate on the medic tool correct would be key. I'll try to give an idea of what I have in mind...

Consider a two versus two battle.

On the charging offense we have an HA and a Medic that is healing the HA, but not otherwise providing offense.
On the defense we have two HA.

Today, the defense would win 2 to 0. They would take out both the HA and the Medic before the offensive HA could take out one of them.

The balance I'm after:
The defense wins 2 to 1. The medic is able to "bullet sponge" his buddy well enough that that buddy can take fire from two players well enough to take out one of them before dying.

What would wreck balance:
If the offense wins. That would be too strong of a bullet sponge. I'm not after that at all.

Does that bring anyone closer to the idea? I'm open to the possibility that it's just plain stupid

And the moment it's not 2v2, but 3v2 or 2v2 without a medic, or heavy?

A Medic regulated to being a heal-stick or nothing, while the HA gets all the certs really.
And makes the Medic, reliant entirely on the HA, while having to be targeted to kill the HA.

Also recall medics can heal the same target.
Medics can do this around corners, that they have area-heal in addition, that not every target is an HA.

How in hell do you balance the Shield & Health regen at once, let alone without making the medic be regulated as a Tool to heavies?

Make it fill up health before it starts filling up shield.
Make the medic tool overheat a bit faster than it does currently.
It's not HA exclusive and doesn't impact the overshield, just the normal player shield. Could work on an LA, or even another medic.

The way it works now..
medic standing behind cover. Some teammate is shot up and comes running back to this cover. Medic heals him, but he still sticks around because he has to wait on his shield to regen before going back out. Partially defeats the whole point of a "medic tool".

New way..
medic behind cover. Shot up buddy comes running over. Heal him through full health+shield and he runs back out to the fray right away.

Medic could still do what they always do. This would give another option for team oriented players and encourage more medic play though.

I guess one of my overall gripes with the medic class is how crappy the health -vs- shield mechanic works. TTK with full health and no shield is basically a hard sneeze. Because of that the medic healing is nearly useless. That mechanic needs tweaked.

The medic tool heals, Shields recover: health does not without a Bio-Lab while in allied hex, Med kit, or Regen implant.
Ally stays to regen Shield - Which is half their effective health.
Without a Med kit or Regen Implant (which is slow), they'd never regen health if they didn't have a Medic.

The point of a medic tool is healing this health, and reviving the dead.

Your idea makes medic spam more viable.
And for some reason you believe Shields not health is important - Shields recover, health does not outside of specific cases.
And all require you to be out of combat, beyond limited Med kits or Medics.

I have read very good suggestions and it seems logic that to Increase the Medic-population there has to be a decreae in the Most-poped class-> Heavy Assault....

I did read that :
-The Heavy is more a Singleplayer and less a Multiplayer

-Heavies do care about their KDR (that's why they choose the Class)

-Heavies seem to be too "allroundy"

Imo it's not that simple. It's not like you have to nerf a class to make another more appealing. The problem is more on a general level.

Take the stats panel. It tells you how many you killed and how many times you died: showing that as the main stat make players believe like the better that number is, the better they are doing. Why doesn't the game count how many players you revived? How many generators overcharged? Vehicles destroyed? Why Max kills count the same as other infantry classes?

We need the death counter to go away, so players would care less if they die. We need the respawn and redeploy options to be more limited, so players would value a revive much more. And we need the XP to be splitted in the different categories.

Instead of showing a KDR the game should show XP divided in the different areas: resupply, heal, revive, scouting, transport, explosive destruction and so on, drill sergeant, points guard. Also Directives should be converted from "X kills with a certain weapon" into "Y XP with a certain weapon". This would highlight players they can shine in different activities and remind them there is more depth than killstreaks.



We desperately need the focus of the game to gradually shift from a selfish meatgrinder to a game where cooperation really matters. There must be something more, if we let PS2 stagnate as a conventional shooter then we lose as opportunity. And if we put the game on the same level as modern shooters then the game will slowly die: PS2 doesn't have the graphics and the features to compete with more recent games. We need PS2 to make a better usage of its unique features, not just copy COD or BF.

How on earth doesn't it rock? It's pretty much the best combination in the game. The only thing that doesn't rock... Is the fact that the Engi needs so much time holding a tool staring at the MAX, which is kinda boring.
PS2 doesn't have the objectives and doesn't have the arena shooter layouts to reward this type of gameplay. PS2 is primed for wonderful teamplay gameplay, but nothing of the "run after an ally while you can hardly defend yourself" type of gameplay.

And why would we need a mechanism for running medics if the only change is that they run after living corpses that move around instead of dead one's that lay around?

I do blame someone elses culture, and it's the largest culture when it's concerning Medics. In every single Medic thread half of the posts are about how Medics are only thinking off themselves and don't revive anyone, and this complaint culture will only worsen the moment Medics can boost player's capabilities as they will blame the Medics for not boosting them but not-boosting/boosting someone else/spending time reviving someone else/spending time defending themselves.
Keeping that in mind doesn't make me a negative nancy, but a realist.

I don't completely ignore their role as anti-vehicle infantry, and "assaulting stuff" isn't exactly a primary teamplay function. Anyone can assault stuff, the Medic can, the Engi can, the LA can, the Heavy can, even a proper Infil can. In the meantime a Medic can fulfill a task that truly supports his allies by healing and reviving them, the Engi can support with ammo, repairs and small cover (which should go to the Medic as big cover) and the Infil can support with recon equipment. They are all tools that helps allies and in some cases yourself. The HA (and LA) on the other hand have only their power of murder. Well that's not completely true, their grenades are supportive in nature by debuffing the enemy, and they could focus a support ability on something like that to make it easier for their allies to assault enemies.

people that care about KD are sniper infills because if propperly played they are at the least risk of dying with onehitkill from a range otherclasss can only archieve with vehickeweaponry .. when i play heavy i play him as support (midrange supression)
the kills i get i can count from one or somwtimes 2 hands .. yes heavies are a allround class offering equal tools for anti infantry and antivehicle engagents with more survieveability than other nonmaxclasses ... they are meant to be a accessible class to play for your avarage player for almost any situation

So, if you want more medics on the field, i would just remove stim and med sticks. Then having a medic in the team for healing would be a huge advantage, but as the time stands, medkit chugging heavy is the meta. Thing is not only the heavy does not provide teamwork, but he also need none, besides a spawn point.

Healing has never been the Medics primary goal. It's a small bonus to the Medics capabilities, it's most valued and impactful ability is reviving players. Removing medkits and the like won't be a big improvement and won't be a huge advantage. And no, medkit chugging Heavy's isn't the meta, there's a few people who abuse it in combination with ADAD spam but it's not meta.

Well, if people were wounded and therfore are more likely to be killed in the next engagement, how would this not be a buff for the use of healing and having more medics?
It HAS never been the primary goal, but the changes i suggest would shift this. Also it would not hurt removing the medkits, because they are most likly abused, like you said. It will force a self substaining class more into teamwork