Doctors in FOBs, opinions?

[Snypehunter007]

What is everyone's opinions on doctors in FOBs?

I am going to come out and say I find them detrimental to medical in general and one of the most rage inducing things.

I want to hear everyone else's opinions in the matter however, so type away!

[Crab_Spider]

I don't approve of them. They waste manpower, most of what's needed for this role is near LZ2, and too many people are getting injured so yeah, people are dying.

[TehSpoderman]

personally, i feel like they should be mandatory for a great FoB. it keeps marines on the ground. its fucking lame when you get FF'd by AP then you have to head up and get your bones fixed then head down again. i rather someone fix me up on the ground and then i race immediately to the frontlines then head back up.

[tuzz]

I think they generally add to the experience. You don't see them every round so it adds at least a little variety at the cost of the rest of the medical staff having little to do on the ship.
Maybe some paperwork could be added for crew to go down that requires the department head's and CO/acting CO's signature? It would at least make it very clear if they did or did not get permission.

[Challenger]

Lets facehugged patients get surgery sooner and by extension, increases survival rate of facehugging. Assuming you're aware that facehugging leads to infection, that is. Don't go cutting into someone's chest "just to check" when they swing by complaining a crab jumped on them after you went down on the second drop.

Removes the terrible round trip time of medevac. Normally accumulating too many splints means you have to wait a several minutes for the DS, then take the trip up, then wait in the lobby, then wait for a scan, then wait outside surgery, have surgery, then wait for the DS, then take the trip down, then get back to your squad... takes forever. Can't imagine a situation where you get put back into the action in any less than ten minutes. But with a good, competent FOB medic you will be put back into the action MUCH faster.

Also normally missing limbs forces medevac since you can't splint what ain't there but FOB medics can slap a new one on with just four surgical steps of ten seconds each which is a fucking GODSEND in the day of crusher stomps. What would normally be a valid reason to SSD because the next thirty minutes of your round are going to be paincrit until a doc slaps on a new one, is now a two minute inconvenience. But the doctor needs to prepare a crate with robolimbs beforehand, which takes effort and planning.

In addition the FOB atmosphere is pretty great compared to medbay. Medbay you normally just get a bunch of whiners, afks, idiots needlessly taking up space, the environment never changes and it's sterile and boring. FOB doctoring is much more fun, you get to see the battle from the lens of the wounded as they trickle in, you get to set up your surgery to your style, you hear and see the gunfight around you, patients are much more willing to roleplay since they didn't just have to wait for fifteen minutes doing nothing, and those moments when you're finishing a surgery right as the FOB is being overrun and you skedaddle with your patient on a rollerbed, blasting magnum rounds into the horde behind you are the pinnacle of the experience.

[Jroinc1]

Depends.

That fuck with a regular medical belt, DRAGGING a surgery CRATE, and looking for a vendor for his supplies? He's a hindrance who won't know what he's doing and will fuck up 'rines AND make them crowd him instead of going shipside.

The MD with a CLB loaded with custom meds, but no tools? Not a bad thing, but you've demoted yourself to medic that can't leave the FOB, and you really shoulda just handed out the pills.

MD with surgical tools ON HIS PERSON, a kitted-out CLB, and supplies of blood? VERY useful groundside, but you take a lot of work away from medical.


In GENERAL, FOB docs are a plus, as long as they don't try to do everything. I love going FOB MD, but I'm gonna try to concentrate only on broken chests and larva now (forward EVERYONE else ship-side), and see how that goes.vBeing at the FOB allows you to get inside the "response loop" of medical issues, and allows you to fix problems before they kill people.

[Symbiosis]

They're great. From a military standpoint it's normal in combat areas/FOB's to have a PA running a triage center. (MOS: 65B)

Medics deal with lacerations/injuries that don't require immediate medevac. The PA's stablize dying/critical patients.

The one thing that's iffy is that due to medevac speed here on CM, it's not for certain if a FOB Doctor is beneficial from an efficiency standpoint. I'd argue that it's great for quick fixes - and inevitably having one down below is a life saver for Marines when they eventually learn about Facehuggers. It can be fun from a Doctors perspective trying to treat wounded while gunfire can be heard in the next room.

Pro's - Fun for the Doctor. Morale booster for Marines. Quick care for Facehugged patients. Quick fracture fixing.

Con's - Not efficient. Doctors aren't PA's, they're civilians. No scanner. Doctor's are at risk.

One answer to the "They're civilians" argument is Doctors Without Borders. Often they're in dangerous areas.

[Jroinc1]

Honestly, if you need an advanced scanner, you're pretty new to MD. I just use them to check my diagnoses.

[Challenger]

By the way my priority list as a FOBdoctor is reviving patients > removing larva > replacing missing limbs > stabilizing patients > giving blood to patients > healing patients > properly amputating missing limbs to remove paincrit when I don't have replacement limbs > treating broken bones.

Yes, treating broken bones is at the very end of the list, which is sad because that's what 90% of FOB doctors do. Guys. Literally everything else should be a higher priority than taking on the very lengthy bone surgeries that don't REALLY result in that much of a benefit other than a slight speed increase and increased pain capacity.

Here are some more pro tips related to being a FOB doctor.

I've already mentioned pre-printing organs, but did I mention that you should be taking them down in a body bag? More convenient than a crate since you can stand over it.
Spend some time roleplaying out the creation of a good surgery room, don't just pop a roller bed and call it a day. Set up metal tables, pry off the floor tiles, clean your space, block all entrances but one (for safety), move a food vendor near the entrance, make some chairs. Get your shit looking like an actual attempt at a surgical room.
Bring anaesthetic injectors and use them liberally, you're a doctor with a god complex and no one gets to intrude on your surgery without a very good reason. Generally act like a dick if you want, you don't share the sense of camaraderie or come from the same class that the marines do. This is just an option, being a good guy is fine too but more boring.
Your CLB can carry chemmaster-created bottles, which you can use to refill hyposprays. I like to use peridex, diluted QC, bicaridine, tram.
Since you're a doctor you're aware that water and potassium will mix to clear all reagents from someone's bloodstream. This is an ancient bug on all codebases that has become a feature, just roleplay it however you want. Anyway, use water and potassium to clear out QC ODs and now they won't have to medevac.
Advertise yourself. Use spare time to inform the medics that your surgery is set up at x location, and over general comms inform the marines too.
Pretend not to have heard the evacuation orders so you get an excuse to fight your way to the dropship

[Jroinc1]

I have a different priority list, and here's why.
Larva, chest/head bones, reviving, stabilizing, blood.

Reviving is a medic thing, removing larva is top, replacing limbs... I USUALLY don't have enough to do that consistently, stabilizing is what my hypo's for (also medics), blood is medics (which is why I have 2 bags as medic and 5 for them as MD) and is stupid-easy, amputating... didn't know that... added to inventory , chest and head is so that WHEN the splint comes off, they don't die.

[4thsurviver]

FOB doctors are clearly a good thing to have but I wonder how other doctors on the ship feel when a FOB doc is taking all the work.
Maybe having some general Triage guidelines could help divvy up the patients and keep everyone working. A FOB doctor probably shouldn't be working on every single injured marine and should have to send some up. Things like missing limbs could be a mandatory medivac where FOB doctors don't have them on hand.

[Snypehunter007]

FOB doctors are clearly a good thing to have but I wonder how other doctors on the ship feel when a FOB doc is taking all the work.
Maybe having some general Triage guidelines could help divvy up the patients and keep everyone working. A FOB doctor probably shouldn't be working on every single injured marine and should have to send some up. Things like missing limbs could be a mandatory medivac where FOB doctors don't have them on hand.

I'll tell you what the doctors on the Almayer think: "Where the fuck is the patients?" and "Holy shit, I'm going to kill myself from boredom."

That is one of the primary reasons I try keep all the docs on the ship as the CMO. Marines pile most of the wounded into the FOB with the one FOB doctor. Because of that, a lot of times marines never reach the Almayer.

[darkwahn]

I like them for larvae removal, and stabilizing people a bit better than medics can. But I think that they should send the lower priority patients up to the ship to save on ground supplies(and to let the other doctors have something to do.)

[Nubs]

very useful (potentially) but rarely seen. They're ideal for fixing bones, treating some infected and whatnot, while the more serious cases get sent up (don't be a jerk, give the other docs some work to do.) My rule of thumb when playing a fob doctor is to have a max of 3 patients (2 waiting one being worked on) at a time, any surplus get sent up to the other docs.

[Ikmalmn]

FOB doctors are in my opinion. Bad. It's a very risky investment.

First of all, it cuts your staff by half (depending on how much you sent). Which means, there won't be any doctor stabilizing patients while the other doctors are tunnel visioned to do surgery (In the Almayer)

Second of all, FOB doctors are ONLY useful if the Marines can even hold back the xeno's. If they fail to prolong that, FOB doctors are useless and a liability.

This is not saying FOB doctors are useless, I've seen a FOB doctor worked before and it did wonders. Just as long as the Marines can hold long enough and make the FOB secure enough for it return it's investment to the Marines. Also, some maps works well for FOB doctors, like LV-624 since it has a number of bone gel that is required to do surgery. But on some maps like Big Red, I don't think it's feasible.

[Ping]

Can't say for sure. I've seen good FOB doctors and bad FOB doctors. I've seen good medical setups planetside and I've seen bad medical setups planetside. At the end of the day, I'd have to disagree that sending down a FOB doctor is detrimental to shipside medical (unless said FOB doctor insists on hoarding all the patients to himself), mostly because I find that shipside medicals bottleneck is surgery. There are more doctors than surgery rooms, which means eventually doctors will end up doing nothing (especially when they have medics helping out with stabilizing). This of course assumes medical is competent.

[Garrison]

I'd say FOB doctors are circumstantial. You can save patients who would of died by the time they get back to the Almayer. (End stage infection, fatal exsanguination for examples) only problem is that as pointed out, if the FOB is insecure, the doctor or their patients will end up getting killed or harassed. The worst is when marines get over dependent on the FOB doctors and forget there is another medical team back on the ship who can also deal with their problems.

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. It just comes down to how well established the FoB is and how Administration/Medical manages the triage.

[Nick123q23]

Field surgeons are pretty good if the FOB is secure and marines are beating the aliens back. Otherwise, more likely than not that doctor's going to get killed by a single runner.

[Karmac]

Overall you benefit more from keeping the docs up on the Ayylmao.

[Sleepy Retard]

Overall you benefit more from keeping the docs up on the Ayylmao.

you gonna provide reasons why or are ya just gonna state your opinion

[Crab_Spider]

you gonna provide reasons why or are ya just gonna state your opinion

There's more doctors on the Alymayer, you have more assistance if something goes wrong, and there are actual body scanner on the Alymayer.

[Karmac]

Hey man the thread title asks for opinions, that's my opinion.

[Swagile]

My problem with staying on the Almayer as a doctor is that you don't get "patients".

You get "waves".

Its always the first "wave" which is the first assault failing or winning, but either way, you get like 10 marines on the first wave that you have to take care of. Most of them have a fracture or two, maybe a broken bone, maybe worse if its LV because T2's are Elite and T3's are Mature.

Then the second wave, either being pushed back to Hydro, or pushing to Caves via table fort.

Even MORE marines get piled on, some dead because medics suck, some barely alive because medics are good but usually like 10-20 marines if not more. They have AT LEAST two fractures, three is common, or even two broken bones. Internal damage is rampant, someone forgot to QC a marine and he dies right in front of you, and half of them have low blood.

This continues until doctors are swamped. One FOB doctor will NOT solve this problem; doctors in Almayer will always have someone to fix because, like I said, marines go up in waves whenever they are injured, almost never singularly. Hence, as a FOB doctor, your job is just to stem the tide aka do all the worst cases (broken bones, collapsed lungs, larvae) while leaving the rest (3 fracture cases) to the Almayer doctors.

[Zartam]

A doctor in Fob is good RP, occasionnally good GP
I love to be a Fob doctor or to send one because it provides more variety to the game

[Cash7800]

I really think the best loadout to have as an FOB doctor is just your regular medical belt that can't store a bunch of extra stuff because you can put a bottle for every single type of damage in there plus a syringe.