Medics

[civzombie]

"IIRC Soren said he hopes significantly improve the AI's warring capabilities and use of combined arms will be a much bigger issue in Civ4. Guess we'll see."

Yea, I'll believe it when I see it.

Anyway, isn't it too late to add medics to civ4?

 

[Whomp]

There's a new health system so who knows.

 

[dh_epic]

The release is at least 9 months away, probably more after pollishing and testing.

There's no way it's too late to add medics. It's just a unit that speeds up healing. They could sit me down in front of their code, show me around for hours/days, and I could build a prototype medic in a few hours. It's a lot like a "moving barracks".

The question is if that would make war easier (since there would be fewer casualties), or more strategic (with people finding strategies to seperate groups from their medic, and so forth).

 

[civzombie]

"There's no way it's too late to add medics. It's just a unit that speeds up healing. They could sit me down in front of their code, show me around for hours/days, and I could build a prototype medic in a few hours. It's a lot like a "moving barracks"."


This kind of thinking emphesizes my point about the AI not being able to use medics resulting in medics being a player exploit. Feature creep can ruin games.

To add them correctly you would have to write some serious AI coding so that the AI uses medics properly and protects them. Using them properly is easier said then done. If they are underutilized you have a problem. Over, another problem because the AI won't blitzkreg properly due to constantly waiting for medics to catch up.

 

[Chazbagel]

My Idea for building a barracks outside of the city was better than this one i think. That would be too abused, and so would this.

Although this could bring america a new UU. Armed Medics.... in ww2 the American Medics had Thompsons. Thats a pretty good gun.

 

[rhialto]

Every medic (in first aid/triage roles anyway) in a modern army is a soldier first. The US army isn't exactly unique in arming these guys.

 

[dh_epic]

Civzombie raises a great point. But gameplay balancing is probably the longest thing that you do in Civilization, and often they're done collectively as a whole. If you add a basic AI algorithm of "medic, stick with the troop stack", you'll find out the limitations of that strategy in the balancing stage.

Not that I'm for medics. Just saying that it's probably one of the easier things to implement, and truthfully, I'd be disappointed if they tried to market medics as the new "killer feature".

 

[Dida]

I don't object to barrack outside of cities. In fact, it is very interesting and realistic to station units outside of cities, but medics is too much.

 

[KrikkitTwo]

While I do think the logistics that healing represents can be definitely improved, I think Medics would actually be a step back... More likely would be something like a 'Military Base' Terrain Improvement which could act as a Barracks if properly connected to your civ (the method of producing it could involve a "one-shot unit" ie the Mobile Military base unit that gets consumed like a worker does when making an outpost)

On logistics another thing would be the limitation of unit functioning away from home.. admitedly early units can forage for supplies.. but not for troops.


And actually abstracting unit movement isn't such a bad idea... I'd like to see unit movement handled more like air attacks (after all an army of un mechanized infantry could off road a significant distance in a one year turn if their supply train could keep up))

 

[Chazbagel]

I don't object to barrack outside of cities. In fact, it is very interesting and realistic to station units outside of cities, but medics is too much.

hehe thank you.

 

[Chazbagel]

While I do think the logistics that healing represents can be definitely improved, I think Medics would actually be a step back... More likely would be something like a 'Military Base' Terrain Improvement which could act as a Barracks if properly connected to your civ (the method of producing it could involve a "one-shot unit" ie the Mobile Military base unit that gets consumed like a worker does when making an outpost)

On logistics another thing would be the limitation of unit functioning away from home.. admitedly early units can forage for supplies.. but not for troops.


And actually abstracting unit movement isn't such a bad idea... I'd like to see unit movement handled more like air attacks (after all an army of un mechanized infantry could off road a significant distance in a one year turn if their supply train could keep up))

I posted a barracks idea about, hmmm a month or so back. And that is pretty much what i said.

 

[Whomp]

I think my main point is there should be a cost to going to war. I like the mobile barracks idea too.

 

[Rohili]

Thing is, healing units in civ does not represent men being fixed up by doctors so much as replacement soldiers being brought forward. The entire unit strength model needs to be rethought out. It shouldn't be possible for a unit to "heal" to full strength while in enemy territory, ever.

I think we shouldn't place overdue emphasis on realism. No games can be 100%, or even 50% realistic, and so long something doesn't deviate too much from realism so that it is entirely fantastic (for example tactical nukes being able to grow arms and attack units), then it should be fine and doesn't need a total overhaul just to achieve total realism.

 

[randomthings]

I think that medics should be part of a small wonder (maybe battlefield medicine) and just be an additional button on each unit. The player could then just simply press the button to heal the unit a couple of points at the cost of all it's movement points.

 

[Commander Bello]

I think that medics should be part of a small wonder (maybe battlefield medicine) and just be an additional button on each unit. The player could then just simply press the button to heal the unit a couple of points at the cost of all it's movement points.

Objection, your Honour!

This would add just another session of clicking. I think, we are already stressing the mouse buttons enough.
In regards to healing I have the impression, that it's o.k the way it is. The automatic healing if left unmoved seems to replace the medics well enough.

 

[dh_epic]

Wait, I think that's a great idea. We'll call it "Battlefield Medicine", and it will attach a medic to every single unit. And we'll add this button on the unit that lets you trigger the medic, who can heal one point of damage at a time. Except there's no point forcing the player to repeatedly press the button whenever they can, so let's automate the button and hide it. So basically, the unit automatically heals some damage whenever possible.

I've put this suggestion in a letter and mailed it back to 5 years ago. I'm optimistic it will reach the development team for Civ 3.

Medics are in!!!

 

[Dida]

I think that medics should be part of a small wonder (maybe battlefield medicine) and just be an additional button on each unit. The player could then just simply press the button to heal the unit a couple of points at the cost of all it's movement points.

This is exactly the same as how battlefield medicine works right now in Civ3. To heal an unit, all you do is leave it along, for 1 turn, w/o moving. Now, why do you want the player to click a button when the same effect can already be achieved w/o clicking?

 

[dh_epic]

It's ok Dida, I already automated the clicking system and sent it back in time. How did you like Civ 3's medics?

 

[Dida]

It's ok Dida, I already automated the clicking system and sent it back in time. How did you like Civ 3's medics?

Good job buddy. Thanks to your hard work, we now have a awesome medics system working for civ3. Glory!

 

[Sirian]

And there's no way to improve on Civ3's medics? We've reached perfection, the end of the line? I dunno about that.

- Sirian