Proposals/Obsolete Proposals/Medikits

Wounds and Medikits

Author: BTAxis (talk, contrib)

This article describes the system of soldier wounds, bleeding and the use of medikits as per official design. The purpose is to create a realistic yet simple system that allows players to tend to the wounded on the battlefield without unbalancing the game.

It is assumed soldiers will almost always be wounded before they are killed; weapon and armour balancing will have to ensure that this is the case. In general weapon damage should be lowered; the reduction in killing power is compensated by bleeding.

Wounds

A soldier, when taking damage, will also be wounded. As it is currently not possible to determine where the soldier was hit, the location of the wound will have to be randomized, with each body part having a set chance of getting the wound. This chance may be subject to factors such as armour and implants. The possible locations are head, torso, arms and legs. There is no distinction between the right and left limbs.

Each wound inflicts a penalty on the soldier, depending on which body part is wounded.

• Wounds on the arms reduce accuracy with all weapons, and increase TUs needed to shoot.
• Wounds on the legs increase the amount of TUs needed to move.
• Wounds on the torso increase the amount of TUs needed for reaction fire.
• Wounds on the head decrease visibility and accuracy with all weapons.

Each wound also bleeds, steadily taking health from the soldier until the battle is over, the wounds are healed or the soldier dies. Bleeding takes health directly from the health bar; there is no "second" health bar of any kind.

Wounds treated with a medikit do not disappear. Instead they are considered "treated". A treated wound does not bleed and only incurs half of its normal penalty. However, treated wounds can only be fully healed by spending time in a PHALANX base hospital. A soldier with wounds that is sent out on a new mission will start that mission with the penalties associated with those wounds.

When the player wins a mission, all untreated wounds will be automatically treated.

Aliens are subject to wounding just like humans, but the specific race of aliens may affect the chance of taking wounds, the penalties and the rate of bleeding.

Functions of the medikit

The medikit has three uses: treatment of wounds, recovery of morale and revival of stunned actors. All three functions draw from the same ammunition pool, for simplicity. Each of these functions is a separate firemode on the medikit. Note that the medikit may not be used on robotic targets for any purpose.

Treatment of wounds

Each use of this firemode treats a single wound on the target actor. Wounds are treated in the order they were inflicted. When the wound is treated it ceases to bleed and its penalties are halved. In addition, the actor being treated recovers a small amount of health. This firemode can not be used on actors that have no untreated wounds.

Recovery of morale

Each use of this firemode will raise the target's morale by a fixed amount. Useful to prevent soldiers from panicking.

Revival of stunned actors

When used on a friendly target, each use of this firemode will remove a fixed amount of stun damage. Once stun damage falls below health, the actor is revived. When used on a stunned alien target, this firemode will actually increase stun damage, keeping the target sedated. However, this function may not be used until Live Alien has been researched.
Civilians count as friendly targets.
This firemode may not be used on conscious enemy targets.