This thread is for feedback regarding the advanced medical system test Smokescreen. AMS is the main focus here, but feel free to give feedback regarding the mission, too.
I was AAR during this mission. I found AMS interesting and a good semi-realistic approach to combat medicine. Got to try patching up once after that people started dropping like flies - dead before had a chance to examine.
Mission was interesting. In hindsight it felt that missteps started with choosing the dismount point. It was under clear view from the radio tower and fell under direct enemy fire. Then many of us were not really able to spot the exact locations of the enemies and when did the enemy wasn’t suppresed enough. Having to deal with heavy losses and pulling the group that was alive together seemed like a good teaching point from the spectators view (Being among the casualties). But the team spirit never wavered and everyone kept going. Clarke even got a match in Tinder from the OPFOR!
Organisationally I feel that in a situation like this when unit is in military sense destroyed (Over 30% casualties). Platoon commander (Highest ranking officer) could ask for some additional resources from higher officer (GM). Simulating battallion or brigade command. He would decide whether to grant any and of what kind. Those ranging from (dependant on scenario) improvised mortar support, artillery, CAS, temporary speed up on reinforcing. Possible choices added into the scenarios five paragraph order. Even if we are never playing with more than a platoon a grander structure has to exist even if it is imaginary.
In my opinion AMS is amazing. It’s much better than just bandaging each limb, injecting some morphine and running back into the fight. During the mission I lost conciousness but we had to pull back so I got patched up a little bit, by my commader, so i was able to run and we ran as fast as it was possible. Then we got to bandaging me and healing my wounds. It is just very nice that you actualy have to think before you do something. It puts some pressure because on the battlefield you gotta act fast. I’d like AMS to stay.
[justify]Generally I felt that AMS was a positive experience during the test, especially the "loss of legs" simulation whereas you cannot sprint away anymore if your legs are hit. Most features we experienced yesterday are a very welcome addition to our gameplay.
However, I’m not sure if the wound stitching mechanic is currently feasible for us due to our size. Most of the times we can field one squad and one support element plus a helo crew. As was mentioned we could include medical vehicles to remedy the loss on medics during a mission, but we usually can only mount three vehicles and often leave them at a dismount point further away from the action. So once losses are high, medics got taken out and we’re cut off from the vehicles everyone would slowly bleed out, likely before the hourly reinsertion arrives. This can also promote mission stagnation as you don’t want to break out of such a situation with a bunch of guys with non-stitched wounds, as they may go unconscious during the move / fighting and thus possibly endanger others who then try to carry them etc.
We should definitely do a couple more testing missions with stitching enabled (plus medic vehicles) to see how things play out.[/justify]
With using the vehicles as a medical vehicle could I point out it would be a great idea to have a system like the Americans use called PEDRO where a blakhawk is on standby with combat Medics on board able to move in to hostile environments and extract injured personnel.
The way we could use it:
The HELO is at base and when people die and are waiting at base they can then become PEDRO Crew and Security (something to do for dead guys and helo pilots). If things get real bad and have mass casualties or all Medics are dead we can call in the Pedro to treat guys and get them back in the fight. Maybe an armoured vehicle depending on the mission type as I know a helo would not be best in all situations.
Anyway just thinking of a way to entertain those that have died while keeping the main fighting force up and fighting.
AMS on a whole you know I want it and I also want wound reopening because I want Medics to have an important job.
On the mission itself it did go wrong from the Dismount marker thathe was all my bad but we didn’t take too many casualties only 1 I believe and the use of the vehicles smoke screens and withdrawal was nice.
After that we tried to carry on with the original plan but we seemed to take really accurate fire every time while trying to manoeuvre in to a better position that’s where we took our casualties just a bit unlucky I think or bad positioning.
When I died the guys were in a bad way lots of casualties and we were coming at ineffective so the right call was made and the guys pushed north to some building to hunker down awaiting reinforcements so they could push on.
After my death things slowed down and there was a lot of waiting but once reinforcements arrived the guys seemed to be planning there next move.
On the whole the lack of proper contact reports and marking of targets on map so everyone knows where the
target is mixed with lack of Suppression which obviously is a knock on from people not knowing where targets were.
I prefer the advanced medical system. There’s more sense of urgency with wounds, and more complexity and depth to treating the wounded. I think we should start using it. As dachi said even have a medivac team made from the respawners and a field hospital ready to accept the gravely wounded.
I was being dc’d because my connection to the internet dropping at micro-intervals because my isp has me on a 12 month contract and therefore thinks it doesn’t even have to provide me with internet and the gsp doesn’t think it’s economically viable to update our century old lead telephone cables. Battleye did as battleye does.
First of all, AMS is a very positive change, and personally i think it removes a bit of the "Rambo" mentality and add much more to the gameplay. Furthermore I saw basically everybody paying much more attention to their state of health.
I think this comes from the "reopening" feature, since if you get hit, you loose some combat effectiveness until you find a medic. This also gives a job for the medics since, from my point of view, they didn’t really had one before.
I really like that you have to know details about the medical system (which bandage to which wound and so on), and you have to prep yourself for the medics, for everything to be much more effective. This could possible give some issues down the line in situations, where 10 guys in need of a medic, all screaming for his attention.
I regards to the OP yesterday (21-06-2016), the initial planning was lacking a bit. Things was missed and not thought through. This gave a valuable lesson and gave a really unique start to the mission. I think we did well against a .50cal getting a jump on us by using smokescreens from both vehicles and grenades. The sad part of the start was that basically every APC’s turrets got taken out/did not respond to the fire. The next part i want to mention is that, i think we noticed why you do not engage downhill. As far as i recall we had enemies both on the radio-tower with high powered weapons, and enemies in defilade. It was a very strategic difficult situation, and i actually think we did very well, by trying to flank around them.
All in all a fun mission, very difficult, but super fun!
As for the loss of medics: there was some discussion yesterday about having FT level medics. I think that is whete you can counter the loss of the squad and platoon medics. The FT medics shouldn’t spawn with a sugical kit, but if the squad medic goes down they should be able to pick it up and use it. Much like the long-range radios. It should be dropped when the squad medic returns (don’t want too many floating about).
I think that we can reign that in with a little discipline and training, The medic will likely treat by priority of treatment (via Triage cards?), people low on blood or with low heart rates and such. Anyone in the fireteam who isn’t a medic can drag you out of the fight, stabilize you if you’re bleeding out, unconcious or wounded in some way, and you can even stabilize yourself if you’re able. If you’re unconcious you can’t really complain so it should be someone’s job (Usually your buddy team buddy) to find you, drag you out of the fight and stabilize you, and alert the medic, If you’re fit but just need surgery you can wait in line, keep fighting or otherwise. It might encourage people to get shot less too.
As goat said I think one man (possibly AAR or Squadlead) of our four man fireteams should be qualified medics, capable of recovering a surgical kit from the nearest medic (or medic’s body), and aid in tending the wounded when the chance arises, it would take the pressure off.