u/JoanLambertEnjoyer

This is a bit of a rant, but I've noticed since at least the last update that the XP loss on death mechanic demotes players to renegade with regularity. I was under the impression that this wasn't supposed to be the case, but I've seen this in vanilla conflict for long enough I assume it's intended behavior at this point.

I understand FIA as a faction is designed to be a dumping ground for "solo sniper" players -- I prefer to play it with a squad/team mindset and it's become my main. However, it's become next to impossible to play recently.

In a recent game, I was demoted to Renegade after trying to hold a supply depot from the enemy. I didn't think it too big a deal, I spawned near a supply truck and thought I'd run supplies to the friendly point, only to be attacked by the AI guards.

Forced to hide, my options were:

1. Kill the AI to get through, potentially locking myself in Renegade permanently

2. Avoid AI and travel for ~30 minutes with a Makarov and hope to kill somebody (you can't steal from enemy arsenals if you're Renegade)

a. You won't be able to do that because the enemy spawns with ballistic plates and helmets and you have 14 rounds in 2 magazines

b. Each time they kill you increases the chance at being locked permanently.

3. Beg and plead and hope you can find a friendly player who will find and bring you a medical kit, then stand still while you beat them half to death and revive them in sequence for points.

The third option is the only real option under most circumstances and it requires you to spawn near a base / ambulance and other players. Because being unable to use supply caches/enemy arsenals is basically a death sentence in a faction that only has a PM on spawn, it essentially locks you out of the game.

If this is intended behavior, I hope the devs will consider changing it

Something I have noticed, playing this game for a while, is that there is almost no point to a combat medic in this game. Easily 85% of the time, when somebody is shot, even if they are knocked unconscious, they will be able to wake up and patch their own wounds in time. Under these circumstances, there's really no point in rendering buddy care or medical aid -- you're more likely to get shot. This mechanic also disincentivizes players from providing aid to their unconscious friends when it is needed because they just assume they will wake up, bandage, morphine, and move on.

The game does have built-in systems to aid healing: the hospital tent, ambulance, and medical kit. The medikit can be carried in a bag and very awkwardly used to generate medical items and pass them to friends. I had to look up how it works on the wiki because it is plainly unintuitive. The only use I have had for it so far is putting it in a truck near a tent as FIA. Under other circumstances, there is no real reason to carry it instead of loading a backpack full of the supplies you want at an arsenal.

The ambulances are theoretically a good mechanic, however in my couple hundred hours of conflict, I cannot once think of a time where the "treat patient to full health" mechanic was ever used. I'm not even sure if it has a radius of effect for healing, or if it has to be done in the bed and if you have to be holding a medikit to do it. The only use I have had for these is putting an arsenal bag and some guns in the trunk, and loading it with supplies for a respawn tent on FIA (see: medikit).

In general, although the medical system in Reforger is theoretically advanced over Arma 3, I feel like a CLS in Arma 3 was far more useful from a gameplay perspective and better incentivized rendering first aid or healing casualties than the current system does. What are your thoughts?

E: I’m aware of Ace Medical but playing on a server with ACE also means playing on a server with 9 gigs of mods, universal ELCANs/hybrid optics, and significantly poorer stability. Good vanilla+ Cold War servers are few and far between unfortunately.