One way to breathe a new life into multiplayer shooters could be removing any guns from healers.
Make them potent, but vulnerable!
Why is it important:
- Players that don’t like shooting, but love teamwork would finally be represented (yes, I’m speaking of your girlfriend!)
- Having to protect healers would benefit more organized teams, rewarding teamwork
- Healers would have a more dynamic gameplay revolving around avoiding damage: stealthy movement, ability to quickly traverse dangerous zones, coordination with fellow teammates are all required to benefit your team as a healer
What might need to be tweaked:
- Healers should be made into the only revivors, and we should either punish death more (which we’d better be careful of if that’s a dynamic game) or give buffs on revival
- Healers should get more movement abilities to increase survivability. They may also get speed boost when running towards teammates (similar to Conduit Savior’s Speed in Apex Legends)
- Team compositions should accommodate for several healers as to not introduce a single point of failure
Overall, I think it could introduce a new dynamic to team arenas and skirmishes, as winning now requires more coordination within a team and better understanding of everyone’s roles.
Dreadnought had a support cruiser what was like that. Wasn’t super boring either.
I’m still so sad to see Dreadnought gone.
Its pace is first a bit slow for folks used to fast-paced shooters, but it is actually genious. When you get used to it, you just see this is how it should be, always.
Putting tactics before pure reaction.
Had so much fun playing each ship class. Maybe They should have reskinned the game for a 40k theme. Would have been fun even if balanced was terrible. I could just imagine orks spamming red button for speed or imperials ramming everything.
Lol
Wouldn’t shooting them violate some kind of convention (like Geneva, idk) in this case?
If shooters were played by Geneva convention, where would be the fun? :P
I feel like there’s already lots of things in lot’s of games that violate a variety of conventions
buT THInk aBOUT wHaT KINd oF exAMpLe it pReSenTS TO THE cHILdREN
So basically Mercy from Overwatch? I think most games have versions of this type of healer. Medic in TF2 etc. They basically have guns that can’t do much other than be used to shoot your teammates in the face to get their attention.
The only reason I start shooting is if my team isn’t doing their job. You want me to go out there and heal with no protection from the enemy? They already focus on the healers as it is, and we get left behind often. I honestly would never play healer again. All the stuff you’re explaining already happens. My goal already is to avoid damage, my team is already supposed to protect me (and when they don’t/can’t, I have a weapon for that).
also, not only “girlfriends” dislike shooting, there are plenty of guys who are main healersGirlfriend joke was just a light pun :D
I respect healer main guys, and often am one :)
Medic in TF2 is a pure healer. The only time their weapons come out is if they get separated or get surprised by a spy. In high-level play, basically never.
There are pure healers in wow too for example.
None of them are totally 100% healers. Even Holy priests can cause some damage.
Yeah by switching to a farm-stance, but when healing they do super little damage (and if they do they aggro hard so not very useful).
I like the idea from a roleplaying-POV.
However, as someone who loves to play medic since BF2, I can tell you that I’d stop playing supportive (medic) if they’d remove the guns from the class. It sounds like it’s just half as fun.
The dispenser tf2
Need a dispenser here!
MVP
Dude, in even MMOs or other party-based games healers can defend themselves.
But also: ARMA 3 with the DLC that adds in the humanitarian aid and rules of engagement stuff. Medics aren’t allowed to carry weapons, IIRC, and all the milsim servers tend to enforce real life rules like that. You could be a NATO medic and not even be given a gun.
I enjoy playing support classes, you want me to stop Playing support classes? Make it so that they are utterly defenseless and rely solely on others to stay alive.
Ultimately, it will play absolutely terribly if all you can do is run away unless you are playing with a well organized team. And then you may find that all your team mates get to have all the fun in the game while you get stuck with only the boring stuff.
No thank you.
There could be options. You can get some sort of a balanced healer/damager, while someone else would pick a pure healer. It’s just that there should be an option to heal only.
You have to balance that. A pure healer would need to be so strong that it would become the primary target at all times. Which would be frustrating for both sides. For players playing against it because they can’t really play the game anymore. For the pure healers because they would be under tons of pressure.
Unfortunately (or fortunately) we (should) design games around a core audience. Chances are that if your ( r my) hypothetical friend isn’t enjoying the competitive part of the game at all, that she (or he) is going to get frustrated at that game at some point anyways. And there are probably games that suit both your needs better to start with. Competitive games may just not be the right choice. Don’t ruin the game feel of those games for those that enjoy them for the sake of non competitive players because that will just create a game that no one actually wants to play.
It would exclusively work for competitive eSports.
Many people play just for fun, don’t want to focus on teamwork
Some people’s definition of “fun” may differ, and it would be cool to serve them too. But still, healers must be equipped with abilities that would grant them some level of survivability on their own - particularly those helping to escape the fight and reset.
It’s just that teams that play tactically will be rewarded.
I think a mix of healing and damage through curses is better. I haven’t played wow in like 20 years, but my favorite was the shadow priest. Both a healer and a strong damage dealer.
Team Fortress is built off the idea that no class can’t do something, some just do it way better.
Team Fortress ain’t perfectly balanced and thoroughly thought out though. It’s just a fun meaty shooter, that’s it, and it’s alright :)
Oh no it is very ballanced.
if you use 6s rules
Casual is more balanced actually
Huh?
Casual is more balanced due to the amount of people. It’s more viable to play other classes.
That’s not really any sane definition of balanced.
In that sense Highlander would be the most balanced because every class is always played.
Sounds like you want OG Mercy from Overwatch, who didn’t work out btw
No, FPS players tend to be the “killer” type of player who play to score and win, they are rarely the “socialite” type of player who are in it for teamwork.
Simply put, this is the wrong audience to implement this idea in, there are gaming communities where this works but FPS just isn’t one of them.Yeah, Mercy was one of my inspirations.
I feel like one of the reasons FPS scene is like that is exactly because players have no choices left but to pick up a gun and shoot enemies. Without that, you are useless in any classical FPS composition, regardless of the role, which alienates players that want to see other types of gameplay.
Simply put, if you are not a “killer” in an FPS game, you have nothing to do there, and that’s why only those players remain. Something has to be changed inside the genre.
Fuck no.
As someone who loves maining healers, I would never play one again if my only hope for defence was my team mates.
Healers are already are hard role due to lack of support and cover, making them more dependent on it would be worse
As one of the commenters has put it, there could be options, like having more of a “field healer” that is armed but has less healing-related abilities, and a full healer that only heals but has unique options.
You could pursue the former.
Also, movement and stealth abilities are a must for a defenceless healer, so you could still protect yourself in other ways.
like having more of a “field healer” that is armed but has less healing-related abilities, and a full healer that only heals but has unique options.
And this differs from most existing games how, exactly?
This is coward talk. Healers should be given silver bullets for their guns with badass names like “Spectre Covenant” and huge medieval maces.
