[Suggestion] Medic Directive - Why so centered around kills for a support class?

I always love when the "Combat Medic" thing comes up. More particularly, when people reference the "Combat" part as to mean they are meant to be shooters. Based on the origins of the title, the "Combat" part is meant to identify Medics who perform their MEDICAL duties on the frontlines, right behind and alongside Infantry. Unfortunately, in FPS games, the developers perpetuate stupid things, such as referring to Magazines as Clips (so many FPS games are guilty of this). So even when they create a class or vehicle SOLELY as support, the PLAYERS beg for it to be capable of being an assault class/vehicle. Hell, look at all the previous requests for the Valkryie to get strong AI/AV guns, and basically become a CAS vehicle, versus that of cheap, light transportation.

I wrote a small thing in another thread referencing Medic Directives: https://forums.station.sony.com/ps2...et-the-directive-weapons.216901/#post-3126918

"I think they should have found a different directive type for Medics. It's bad enough Medics (the bad ones) didn't revive or heal before directives, but when they were given even more of a reason not to pull out their Med Tool, it became even more frustrating. The support classes should have been given Directives that award them awesome stuff based purely on their support class abilities and roles. Hell, even if they were to have weapon unlocks that occurred based on needing a massive amount of Revive/Heal/Shield Bubble ribbons. Or even a "Doc" title (military folk know the significance of that title) they could get after a certain number of heals or revives. Just something that didn't inadvertently "force" (based on our understand that players just want to kill) support players to ignore their roles, and act as Infantry. I know, I know, Medic is Medium Assault, and is only played for the self-heal, not for reviving"

Wikipedia Excerpt: Combat medics (also known as medics) are military personnel who have been trained to at least an EMT-Basic level (16 week course in the U.S. Army),[1] and who are responsible for providing first aid and frontline trauma care on the battlefield. They are also responsible for providing continuing medical care in the absence of a readily available physician, including care for disease and battle injury. Combat medics are normally co-located with the combat troops they serve in order to easily move with the troops and monitor ongoing health

Sorry buddy, this is a game that has no relevance to reality. Combat Medics are a combat class just like any other class. They were designed that way from the very beginning. There is no such thing as "pure support." This isn't an MMORPG where you match the trinity of heal-tank-dps, this is an FPS where everyone participates in direct action.

If medics were meant to only use their MedGun, why do they have exclusive access to Assault Rifles, which are some of the best all-around anti-infantry weapons in the game?

Ugh. Straw man. False equivalence. Inconsistent comparison. Ad hominen. Proof by assertion. Affirming a disjunct. Fallacy of exclusive premise. Continuum fallacy. Argument from fallacy. Ignoratio elenchi. Mind projection fallacy. Red herring.

Just... just, if you're going to respond to someone who obviously put some effort into their response... just, oh my gosh, just put some effort into yours. Don't just repeat what everyone else said before he posted and then end with a dumb question.

"Best all-around anti-infantry weapons" are probably to offset "should be healing more often than killing." Duh. Stop looking at the game as a potential exploit, bro, and think about what will make it a better experience for everyone.

Ugh. Straw man. False equivalence. Inconsistent comparison. Ad hominen. Proof by assertion. Affirming a disjunct. Fallacy of exclusive premise. Continuum fallacy. Argument from fallacy. Ignoratio elenchi. Mind projection fallacy. Red herring.

This isn't quite as "Duh" as you seem to think. Medics weren't designed to use either their tool or their weapon more than the other. They have the versatility to near-instantly play both roles at the same time. You are being too narrow-minded.

Personal opinion:
I would rather they fix the directives:
on my vanu, I was going strong for heals, revives & kills.
Apparently, unless you also advance the shield (or another) any progress on heals, kills etc, is lost. Ribbons dont "overflow" into the next directive tier before you unlock it. Pretty stupid if you ask me.

Secondly:
the directive parts are not of equal worth.
To me, overall kills, revives, heals & the shield thing are by far easier than assists or enemy medic kills. Maybe the ratios will be different for the final tier, but I doubt it.

Another point: killing enemy medics is about killing enemy support. O-k.
What about that engineer reparing the max? Killing him seems a pretty "support-y" accomplishment, no?


I dislike the revive assist: it encourages reviving people under fire.

Medical streak: 2 is by far too low. 5 or 10, or otherwise XP going up per rezz; so the second person you rezz, get 5 "streak" XP.
3rd: 10 xp.


Another thought: platoon revives.
At the moment you get extra xp for squad revive.
How about a directive platoon revives?

How about a directive line: max revives.
(with a low-ish number of course). Reviving a max is by far a bigger contribution than reviving that light assault, presuming the max will get repaired.

Instead of medic kills, medic revives?
that could get a funny name. "Encouraging competition" (for the other revives), ..

I don't think overall kills should be halved, medic is plenty effective for combat thanks to the AR & C4.

Directives are a bit annoying, but I find that's for all classes. But Medic especially so. I play Heavy Assault, and if I find myself in a low-pop fight, the last thing I want to happen is that medic I just buddied up with to charge around the corner and getting himself killed, instead of letting me do what I'm supposed to do. I can't follow up on his work and revive him, but he can (or she). The thing with Medics having 3 different kill directives is just annoying. I understand overall kills, that shows that you actually participate in the front lines, helping there, hence "Combat" Medic. But Savior kills are just extremely difficult, requiring a great amount of luck and timing to get there when an ally is under fire and you kill the enemy before your friend dies. Medic kills is also difficult, as a lot of medics will hide back and not participate in the fighting, only a few.

Medics have the worst Directive of all, being the medic. Infiltrator and Light Assault are easy, just kill things with guns. And also use motion detectors for Infil. Heavies have the annoying directive of killing MAXes, which is very annoying due to MAXes being MAXes, although doable. They also have to use AV nades to get kills, which is much more annoying than using Frag. Engineers have to get medals on sticky grenade. But yea, Medics have it worst.

Forget about Savior kills, you'll get everything else BEFORE that even if you are actively trying to get a savior.
Talking from experience here. I even got my medic kill counts resetted THREE times back in the day when directives were bugged. I know what I'm talking about.

Go for medic kills as last directive.

Pro tip: if you find yourself in a safe spot and find 2 medics reviving themselves, don't kill the reviving medic straight away, let him finish the revive THEN kill him. When the other medics comes up, don't kill him, let him revive his friend THEN kill him. I stole dozens of kills this way

I'm on my last tier and I'm going to finish savior kills (251/300) before medic kills (467/800). It is still slow going. I have a theory that because Vanu assault rifles are in general so much worse than their LMGs that the mix of heavy to medic is different than that of TR who have good assault rifles. But it is still taking forever. I've been tracking it and I get about 1 savior kill for every 11 kills.

Clear then revive! Clear THEN revive!!!

AR's are incredibly powerful 1v1 weapons. Medics are very good at killing, and in order to be good support classes, they often need to kill before pulling out the revive tool.

I have the medic directive unlocked on TR and VS, as well as the directive AR's for both. The key is to not treat the directive as a grind, but simply play the class normally. Clear the lane, then revive your buddies. The only thing I had to be self-conscious about was changing to the shield dong from the self heal aura.

Here is some medic gameplay footage of mine. Hope it is helpful or at the least, entertaining. The only idea i've read in this thread that would actually be a nice addition would be adding a category for max revives. That makes sense and seems like a great idea.

Exactly, nice research, appreciated

The Max revives sound interesting as a possible directive line

I completely agree with the clearing before rez, but having to compete with the amount of kills required for Heavy Assault and Light Assault (1200) - just through clearing, I believe is far too much to ask. Medics should not be expected to be killing as many ad Heavy Assaults and Light Assaults whose sole purpose more or less is elimination of enemy troops. Medics primary role is to keep troops on the battlefield alive. This should be refkected more in the directives through a reduction or removal of Savior/Kills/Medic kills lines.

Seems like this is more applicable to the Engineer than Combat Medic.

Yes I agree that this sort of overhaul should be applied to engi's aswell... I just play medic quite often so had a bias! The "Combat" in Combat Medic just means a medic on the frontline, it should not be in contention with Heavies , MAXes amd Light Assaults.

I enjoy shooting, healing and reviving.

Where do I fit in?

Can confirm.

Play TR = dozen medics around
Play VS = medic ghost town

NC is more of a random mix.

http://planetside.wikia.com/wiki/Combat_Medic

After an intense firefight, when the dust settles, every squad and every soldier simply wants to be alive. And if they are, they probably have their Combat Medic to thank. Every class is capable of putting enemies in the grave, but the Combat Medic is the only one that can pull them back out. Yes, their rifle is capable of dropping enemies efficiently. Yes, their versatility on the battlefield is infamous. But, it is their powerful healing tools and abilities that define them. A Combat Medic’s role is to keep their soldiers alive and their empire at full fighting strength. Since a single Combat Medic can make all the difference between holding the line and falling in slaughter, they’re an integral member of any squad and should be regarded as such.
The Combat Medic’s handheld medical applicator provides them with the primary means to make a squad of wounded soldiers fit to fight again. Using a concentrated beam of nanites programmed to mend flesh and dispense coagulation agents, the medical applicator can repair even the most grievous of wounds in seconds. The latest models are even equipped with experimental Field Rebirth technology, allowing the recently dead to be brought back to life. Few others can rival the power and potential of the Combat Medic on the front lines, as they do only things a war-hardened doctor can...saving lives.
While primarily earning points and certs through healing, Combat Medics can serve as roles beyond squad support. Although they’re defined by their ability to help others, their customizable rifle establishes them as a force in their own right on the battlefield. The Assault Rifles they carry are almost unparalleled in medium to long range encounters, only being out-shone by the Infiltrator's sniper rifles. Needless to say, don't take these angels lightly, they may just kill you for it. Through the use of specialized loadouts and kits, the Combat Medic can become all the more versatile, ready and able to bring whatever is needed to any combat situation.

This thread is just drawing attention to how messed up the current Directive system (iteration?) actually is.

• mixing weapon tasking and support tasking, true for both Classes and Vehicles
• missing tasking (weapon groups are obvious things to flag)
• misplaced tasking (half of the Infiltrator-centric tasks are in Force Recon and Objectives; there are explosives not in Explosives)
• redundant tasking (SMG LA and SMG Infiltrator and a SMG Directive? MAX Kills as a MAX and MAX kills as an HA?)
• ridiculous tasking (you're not supposed to primary your fist as a MAX, and there's no way to work towards being a Savior)
• bad groupings (Force Recon seems to be a stew, with a poor justification of why some of the things are in the same boat).

My favorite part is that the Light Assault Directive is so blatant about how badly the class has been neglected from a developmental standpoint. It's nothing but weapon kills. They didn't even try to work the class-specific Jetpack or Flash Grenade into it.

I don't know how many threads I've seen regarding the Exceptional Weapons category.

I just think savior kills should be replaced with kill assists, this will emphasize its support roll and be fairly easy to do