Medic Visual Changes

[PikachuPals]

To fight a team with a medic, the battle becomes one of attrition, to know when you can engage is necessary.

SnD revolves largely on team decision making whether or not you play casually or competitively, a visual QoL change will benefit all players no matter their gameplay style.

Currently, one can only assume medic has a full mana pool at all times making it difficult to gauge the strength of the group of enemies you and your team is planning to attack.

If they can see that the enemy medic has ran out of / low on heals, it will give a much clearer indication that they should probably push now before the medic can recover it's full healing capabilities.

By changing medic's armour to reflect the mana pool it has it can allow for better attack decisions for the team dealing with a medic.

Change:

Make medic's armour leather and change it's colour depending on it's mana pool. It could be a simple:

Yellow - over 50% mana.
Orange - 25 - 50% mana.
Red - 0-25% mana.

Not only will this help the enemy team, but it will also give an indication for the team with the medic on the status of the medic. Giving them a visual indication of whether or not their medic can actually heal if they choose to engage.

This on it's own wouldn't make medic manageable in smaller games but should help with the fear / dread of seeing a medic or two on the enemy team.


Edit:

Why not name tags?
- Name tags simply aren't visible from far distances.

Armour to leather?
- Not all armour pieces need to be leather, one piece can be enough of an indication. Also, armour values of medic should not be changed from what it is now if that wasn't made clear.

 

[Woaxa]

I'm not personally a fan of this, not only is it sorta complicated but making the medics heals public would take a ton away from the person playing medic. It's just sorta an unneeded handicap. If a lot of people agree with your suggestion I'll come back and re-reply with a fleshed out post.

 

[Tyrue]

I like the idea of a visual queue for medics, but I think it should only be seen by the same team. This way people don't get mad at the medic for "not healing" them when they are out of heals.
I think armor color changes are a bit complicated and overdramatic. A couple of heart potion effects over the head like the cosmetic could do the trick.

 

[PikachuPals]

I'm not personally a fan of this, not only is it sorta complicated but making the medics heals public would take a ton away from the person playing medic. It's just sorta an unneeded handicap. If a lot of people agree with your suggestion I'll come back and re-reply with a fleshed out post.

I don't see how making the mana pool of a medic known to everyone will take anything away from the medic. Knowing a medic is out of heals or has full heals doesn't change any medic's mechanics or skill. If anything, this change could reduce the targeting as enemies in a team fight will realise that getting the damage dealer gone is much more effective than a medic that can only heal 1-4 hearts at most in certain situations.

A lot of the time, it's much harder to push into a group and to try and kill the medic within so knowing that the medic itself would only be able to heal a small amount gives the enemy team an extra few seconds (mana regen delay) to get the damage in to kill someone.

Once again, I don't see how this handicaps the medic itself. If you could explain this to me, a medic player that would be great.

I like the idea of a visual queue for medics, but I think it should only be seen by the same team. This way people don't get mad at the medic for "not healing" them when they are out of heals.
I think armor color changes are a bit complicated and overdramatic. A couple of heart potion effects over the head like the cosmetic could do the trick.

Particles over the head could make medic very easy to single out if they're hiding behind cover. It' could also be distracting and can cover the screen during combat in some situations depending on implementation I guess.

Also depending on the implementation, at a distance it can be difficult to gauge if using particle effects as you can either use a lot / larger effects to make it more visible.

Also making it visual to the same team only, will only make medic more oppressive in team play. It's already difficult enough to fight against a team that contains a medic or two when your team doesn't have one.

 

[Setery]

I'm wondering if this should just be done on the chestplate and not the entire armor set. Also would it be coded to work like gold or stay as leather for armor?

 

[PikachuPals]

I'm wondering if this should just be done on the chestplate and not the entire armor set. Also would it be coded to work like gold or stay as leather for armor?

Work like gold.

 

[Woaxa]

I don't see how making the mana pool of a medic known to everyone will take anything away from the medic. Knowing a medic is out of heals or has full heals doesn't change any medic's mechanics or skill. If anything, this change could reduce the targeting as enemies in a team fight will realise that getting the damage dealer gone is much more effective than a medic that can only heal 1-4 hearts at most in certain situations.

A lot of the time, it's much harder to push into a group and to try and kill the medic within so knowing that the medic itself would only be able to heal a small amount gives the enemy team an extra few seconds (mana regen delay) to get the damage in to kill someone.

Once again, I don't see how this handicaps the medic itself. If you could explain this to me, a medic player that would be great.

Sorry for taking so long to reply to this again, my main point is that tracking a medics heals is a skill, making that info available to everyone for no effort is kinda stupid. It'd be the same thing as an explosive getting a counter above their head for their rpg cooldown. Doesn't really make sense. Obviously snd is it's own thing but in what other game can you track a healers healing ability. I can't recall a single one.

 

[Setery]

Sorry for taking so long to reply to this again, my main point is that tracking a medics heals is a skill, making that info available to everyone for no effort is kinda stupid. It'd be the same thing as an explosive getting a counter above their head for their rpg cooldown. Doesn't really make sense. Obviously snd is it's own thing but in what other game can you track a healers healing ability. I can't recall a single one.

I mean Overwatch is a great example and it's not limited to just healing alone.
-Moira healing is on a charge system, you can determine if she doesn't have (or is low on) healing if you see her spraying health a lot
-Healing cooldowns such as Ana's Grenade
-All healer ultimates can be somewhat tracked to a degree
-You can also look at things like Ana's bullets, at some point she needs to reload to heal

Currently there is no logical way to determine how much a medic has healed in SnD

 

[Woaxa]

I mean Overwatch is a great example and it's not limited to just healing alone.
-Moira healing is on a charge system, you can determine if she doesn't have (or is low on) healing if you see her spraying health a lot
-Healing cooldowns such as Ana's Grenade
-All healer ultimates can be somewhat tracked to a degree
-You can also look at things like Ana's bullets, at some point she needs to reload to heal

Currently there is no logical way to determine how much a medic has healed in SnD

See enemy take damage, see enemy go to enemy medic, assume enemy was healed, lowering the medics heals. I don't see what type of indicator you are suggesting, having essentially a % of the medics heals displayed to all doesn't make sense, that's what my point was.

 

[Setery]

See enemy take damage, see enemy go to enemy medic, assume enemy was healed, lowering the medics heals. I don't see what type of indicator you are suggesting, having essentially a % of the medics heals displayed to all doesn't make sense, that's what my point was.

Well you can't assume the medic even has heals in the first place, there is no visual indicators. With the examples I provided earlier there are visual indicators that are clearly defined.

Moira is probably the best example, you can physically see that she heals, but there's no way of knowing how much is remaining in her healing pool especially since there are ways such as dealing damage to add heals back into her pool.

The only thing you can see with medic is teammates sticking to them, that's it. I don't really understand why you're against being able to know when medic, the most oppressive kit by far, is at its most vulnerable state.

 

[Woaxa]

Well you can't assume the medic even has heals in the first place, there is no visual indicators. With the examples I provided earlier there are visual indicators that are clearly defined.

Moira is probably the best example, you can physically see that she heals, but there's no way of knowing how much is remaining in her healing pool especially since there are ways such as dealing damage to add heals back into her pool.

The only thing you can see with medic is teammates sticking to them, that's it. I don't really understand why you're against being able to know when medic, the most oppressive kit by far, is at its most vulnerable state.

Maybe a "better safe than sorry" approach, enemy goes to medic. Assume medic healed, reducing the medics heals. If the medic didn't have heals it doesn't really change your prediction at all. I'm not necessarily against it, I just believe pikas approach was extreme. To me something like this just doesn't feel needed. I'd rather see other changes over this.

 

[PikachuPals]

Maybe a "better safe than sorry" approach, enemy goes to medic. Assume medic healed, reducing the medics heals. If the medic didn't have heals it doesn't really change your prediction at all. I'm not necessarily against it, I just believe pikas approach was extreme. To me something like this just doesn't feel needed. I'd rather see other changes over this.

Except it's not possible to even gauge how many heals a medic has. Just it used some or it has full mana pool 24/7.

This is since we have no idea what the initial mana pool of medic even is. How many heals can a medic even pull off before they reach 0 mana and no idea on the length of mana regen delay (the time it takes for the mana regeneration to start back up after healing), cooldown between heals and no clue on how long it takes for a medic to regenerate back to full mana.

Unless you have some sort of health seeing hack, there's literally no possible way to even grasp at how many hearts have been healed in that time by a medic.

Also, knowing when a medic is low on mana does not affect the medic player themselves. It affects the gameplay and decision making of players around them.

Rather than continuously nerfing / buffing values to medic; adding in more and more changes to the kit; we should address the main factor as to why medic is so strong as a support class and how it can shift games entirely in it's favour. Medic isn't strong on it's own but rather the teamplay it brings in which it becomes a strong favour for the team with the medic.

By allowing some improvement in teamplay decisions against medic, it's reign as a game decider for the majority of games would be reduced. The severe team imbalance that having a medic could be lessened.

Obviously, I don't think this change will have too much of an impact overall as the majority of people may not look out for it, but for those who are more aware of kit changes, they could help create the initial engagement in the slight window of opportunity it brings with it.

Added an edit saying armour values should not be changed and only one piece of armour can be used as the indicator if having the entire set of leather is too much.

 

[Setery]

Except it's not possible to even gauge how many heals a medic has. Just it used some or it has full mana pool 24/7.

This is since we have no idea what the initial mana pool of medic even is. How many heals can a medic even pull off before they reach 0 mana and no idea on the length of mana regen delay (the time it takes for the mana regeneration to start back up after healing), cooldown between heals and no clue on how long it takes for a medic to regenerate back to full mana.

Unless you have some sort of health seeing hack, there's literally no possible way to even grasp at how many hearts have been healed in that time by a medic.

Also, knowing when a medic is low on mana does not affect the medic player themselves. It affects the gameplay and decision making of players around them.

Rather than continuously nerfing / buffing values to medic; adding in more and more changes to the kit; we should address the main factor as to why medic is so strong as a support class and how it can shift games entirely in it's favour. Medic isn't strong on it's own but rather the teamplay it brings in which it becomes a strong favour for the team with the medic.

By allowing some improvement in teamplay decisions against medic, it's reign as a game decider for the majority of games would be reduced. The severe team imbalance that having a medic could be lessened.

Obviously, I don't think this change will have too much of an impact overall as the majority of people may not look out for it, but for those who are more aware of kit changes, they could help create the initial engagement in the slight window of opportunity it brings with it.

Added an edit saying armour values should not be changed and only one piece of armour can be used as the indicator if having the entire set of leather is too much.

highly agree