Hello to all. I was bored and got to thinking. Everything in Star Citizen is equipment based. Fighters for fighting, Capital ships for capitalizing and so forth. So I further wandered from sanity thinking about why medical gameplay isn’t already in when its usually the second profession that gets done in other games. My guess is that they haven’t quite figured out how to do the middle part. We have med pens for first aid, then we go all the way to medium sized ships for ambulance/light medical work and the endeaver, a full blown cap sized medical ship.
You need armor for FPS fighting, you need medics as well. We have med pens, but only 2 equipped at a time. What equipment does a medic need? Armor for one. Maybe a special type where you can revive a severely injured person? Maybe a way to transport the severely injured off the battlefield to an ambulance? In real life there are stretchers for 2 person carry (Trust me it takes 4 at least to carry a full sized human in combat gear.) Also the ability to repair suits that are compromised as well. This might dovetail into FPS ship repair too. It seems to me they either don’t have a fully scratched out plan or just haven’t gotten around to it.
One possible way to transport wounded/dying/dead would be to use some kind of drone. One that can encapsulate the victim and speedily transport to the nearest ambulance.
Probably be easier for them to do up the graphics for a basic rescue carry. Although in a real life situation it would only be used for a short move in game there are not as many restrictions so you can reasonably carry an armored casualty back to your closest med ship.
If I recall they did talk a bit about using drones to get injured folks up to the Apollo. S&R will hopefully be my primary gameplay so I am eager to hear what CIG has in mind. With the Cutlass Red due out this month maybe they are a fair bit further along in medical gameplay.
This type of gameplay hints that maybe CR had wants us to plan a bit. If your going to attack a base with X defenses, you need an attack force to overcome those defenses. Since your likely to take damage in some form or other, you need to plan for that. Getting your ship blown up means you need a repair ship on site because even if you use insurance, that’s going to last long enough to keep you out of play. If you get hurt and have to suicide because your leg is blown off, relogging at your last ezhab is also going to take you out of play. So you need a ship that can patch you up or allow you to re animate from there. Vehicles close enough to help but far enough away from the battle as to not attract unwanted attention.
While the newly announced RSI Apollo is the reason for this new design post, it is not the first medical ship we’ve announced so far.
The two other ships we’ve made for this career are not forgotten – in fact, all three provide distinct roles: The Apollo is a medium-sized clinic for uncharted regions, the Endeavor can be a complete hospital, and the Cutlass Red is a well-equipped ambulance and the entrance to the medical career. The player can graduate from one to another like other careers, or focus on perfecting using one. Like other roles, a ship might be more useful for specific missions, while another might play a wider role in the PU.
So the advantage of the Endeavor Hope class is that you have a hospital to respawn players, a hangar to ferry injured in and out with the Cutty Reds, and the ability to spawn ships for a fee.
The Endeavor has always been listed as a ship that would be developed after beta, perhaps even after release. But it is one of my most anticipated ships. I love playing the healer in many MMOs and in Star Citizen, being the doc in space just sounds like a blast.
If I can fit the Apollo and a Cutty in the hangar of the Hope, then I am all set.
If not, then I will use the Kraken Priv. as a mobile health center, sell medicines and stims, have an Apollo parked on deck and a couple of Cutty Reds ready to fly. Park that next to an Endeavor for respawns and you have a helluva set up.
As for the medical gameplay, they have been pretty straight forward about that even though that have not said much lately. You will get injured, you will need healing. Respawning will not be automatic, it will be a pop up menu that allows you to select one of a number of respawn points. One would be the nearest or your last space station, while others would include local hospital or clinic locations at bases in the area as well as nearby Hope’s that would allow you to spawn close by for a fee. As far as we have been told, the Endeavor is the only ship so far that works as a full hospital in this way, but I would not be surprised to see more before release.