Dropship medevac

[Jroinc1]

Summary (a quick, 2-3 sentence summary):Stasis bags can be picked up by a DS that's on a fire mission.

Benefits (How this will benefit the server and game as a whole):Grant use to these shitty, shitty items.

Details (Description of how you think this would work, the benefits, etc):
Currently, stasis bags are very rarely used, because they have no benefits.
Anything life-threatening that the person has can be treated groundside due to cheap perdiox and splints that can go anywhere.
Stasis bags are dragged at walking speed, not roller-bed speed, so you're slow, and more-importantly, no-one WANTS to drag them.
Stasis bags produce non-trivial amounts of genetic damage, so you'll kill the "stable" person over time.

Add a dropship part for the rear-gun slot named "Recovery Winch" or something similar. Alter the stasis bag to have a second, toggleable option, named "Recovery Beacon" or something similar. When the DS is on a fire-support mission, a person can activate the winch, which will choose randomly from any toggled stasis bags, and teleport one from the z-level below to the tile behind the winch, then enter a 30-second cooldown. You cannot go down the winch as 'rine, or go up the winch as ayy.

Implementation (Optional, if you have an idea how to implement it):Coding.

Add the secondary toggle to the bag, and sprite in a cool flashing light for it.

Copy rear smartgun code, re-sprite it in deployed/un-deployed form, alter it to where upon firing, it picks a stasis bag and teleports it to the DS, then enters 30 second cooldown mode (only usable during fire missions).

[Ikmalmn]

Eventhough theres another very similar suggestion based on what you have suggested....

I'm gonna choose this one due to it being very simple and easier to develop for use. Especially for a simple mind like me to lazy to read long texts in the times after midnight.

+1

I'll give some points on this suggestion if need be for this suggestion sooner or later.

[Chuckachu]

I'll back this one as well. With just part of mine tossed in here as well. Overall the same idea, flyby and grab the guy. I just want to make sure its not a instant thing so you can't get two laser tags and a medic beacon all at the same time.

Details (Description of how you think this would work, the benefits, etc):My thoughts would be the DS would be on a normal "Fire" mission but would have just like now there is the laser detector would have the beacon detector. While on the mission he could at the cost of not being able to use weapons (his flight time would remain the same despite how long the evac might take, IE if he waits to long to take it he'll have to try again and the beacon has a limited battery life) while pulling the marine to the special pad onboard.


+1

[Jroinc1]

I'll back this one as well. With just part of mine tossed in here as well. Overall the same idea, flyby and grab the guy. I just want to make sure its not a instant thing so you can't get two laser tags and a medic beacon all at the same time.

Details (Description of how you think this would work, the benefits, etc):My thoughts would be the DS would be on a normal "Fire" mission but would have just like now there is the laser detector would have the beacon detector. While on the mission he could at the cost of not being able to use weapons (his flight time would remain the same despite how long the evac might take, IE if he waits to long to take it he'll have to try again and the beacon has a limited battery life) while pulling the marine to the special pad onboard.


+1

I spec'd a 30-second cooldown for the winch to prevent grabbing 50 people, so I think that's covered. As for preventing him from shooting, I'm not familiar enough with how fire missions work to know if that's possible. I'm seeing the DS just hovering and unleashing hell on a target while winching someone up, tbh.

As for the designator, I don't like it. The SL already has enough to do, and by making the beacon an integral part of the bag, the job's being farmed out to medics instead of the SL.

EDIT-And gives an actual use to those bags.

[Chuckachu]

I was waffling between the beacon idea like you did and keeping it involving the SL while I was writing it. It was why I prefer yours over my pitch. I'm a PO main and love fire missions. They take a bit of time during which the PO just sits in his chair hoping for a laser target to show to spam click. I just didn't want to be able to pick up six marines while firing a ton of ordance. Like turning on the wench diverts the power away from the guns temporarily or something turning fire mission button into Close Combat Support button instead. haha


Personal addendum:

Perhaps a balanced procedure would be like it is for the SL's beacon. Medic or his assitant straps you in the bag, beacon is active, the spinny thing over the medic's head activates and he can't do anything until its done. While the spinning thing is going thats the window for the bag to get picked up?

Not so much ID locked beacons but like the SL's Supply and OB beacon its on him. And if the medic gets dragged off into the caves you either go get it or just cry.

[misto]

and rename them to fulton medivac bags :3

it would also be good if the ds attachment dumped the bags out the back on landing on the almayer so there would be reduced risk of inattentive pilots bringing bagged ppl on multiple fire missions and dooming them

make sure that the bags have to be activated in "outside" and surface areas so they arent being picked up thru roofs or cave ceilings or what have you

[Casgair]

I'll weigh in with what I said in minichat:

The random pickup seems a little goofy -- why not just have something like laser targeting for the new DS "bombardment"? That way it's not "random chance to pick up", and you can potentially prioritize.

Also, what would make sense to me is rather than having a simple "hatch", would be having the winch pick up the stasis bag/roller bed (or just have the winch equipped with a bed -- could be like crate dropping in reverse), then a Doc on board presses a lever/switch to bring patient to DS "floor" via conveyer or something (read: coding magic/zlevel nonsense). This process is repeated until all injured are evac'd, and those on board are getting stabilized by docs on the DS on their way back to medbay.

The benefit obviously is the combat medic can more easily get severely injured/time consuming defib cases into the hands of those better equipped to deal with that.

That being said, what I don't like about this suggestion is that it takes a lot of pressure off the marines to evac and makes it harder for the aliens to counteract this: Healthy marines have to travel shorter distances to evac their buddies, getting back to putting pressure that much faster. On certain maps medevac'ing might even be nearly impossible to counteract on the Alien side. If Ayys were NPCs then I'd be all for it, but it otherwise seems to mess with balance. Perhaps if peri actually does get removed or toned down? Otherwise I'm pretty neutral about this.

[Chuckachu]

The series of steps would take to long to complete for any flight. You'd still at best get one guy as none of this should really be instatanous. Most of the idea was stemming around the PO doing everything as asking a person to sit a whole round on the DS while it does nothing for 30-45 minutes just in case already has a lot of problems. usually a PO will go SSD in the cockpit and have to be drug out by the other PO so they can be cyrod. From experience sitting around waiitng for the SL's laser is already pretty boring, a medic would be better off stayin in medbay.

The balance I suggest was the medic on the ground is stuck in action pause with the little clock over their heads just like the SL can't move with the laser. If the medic moves or is interuppted the process stops just like the laser is. And has a maxiumum wait time of six 30-45 seconds. But if the PO gets there in time the bag/lift is taken into the ship on the 'pad' and if there is time left in the flight then the PO could jump out of their seat run to the back drag the person out of the bag/lift so he could try for another one. The key to me is that this a quick thing for a most likely mox two folks without CO/XO directed aid to the PO.

I can see it being abused in EVAC or VIP situations where the CO/XO orders a MP or two to drag bodies out of the lift bu still the medic/marine on the ground would have to go through the activation time of the beacon and have enough beacons in the first place. Maybe a good team could get 3 or 4 but the 'Fire Mission" has a limited flight time.

[Jroinc1]

Snip

Random pickup is kinda goofy, but look at it this way- Can the PO prioritize the laser-targeting? Does he know where it's targeted, or is it just a "A mission popped up, I'mma hit the button, wonder where it is?" thing? If that's how it works, then, yeah, let the SL prioritize things.

can still totally see the SL mix up laser designate and new designate and fry half the squad

As for the winch picking up the stasis bag, that's as-intended.
As for having it have a droppable bed... I could see that, but it was denied on account of possibly allowing marines to use it to ENTER the field.

I see where you're going with balance, but the only way it affects ayys is if the guy was infected. If he was dying, instead of being recovered/dead, he's gone. Additionally, I'm shooting for allowing 1-2 people to be brought up per DS mission, to prevent the "Aand now the entire squad's gone" scenario, where ALL wounded are removed.
ADDITIONALLY, each guy takes a stasis bag, so the medic has to have an item, like resupply beacons for the SL.

[misto]

maybe medics could get a little ambulance scooter and drag the stasis bags in a bundle behind it

[Chuckachu]

Case in point a real life Heli-Rescue Bag.

Recolor the statis bags and add the pickup locator beacon (patent pending) and call for a emergency medical evac.

[Jory13]

+1 Please, we need this in our lives.

[jusa297]

+1

[Nick123q23]

Yup, this is neat. +1

[Mobius_None]

+1 This would give a purpose for the stasis bag. Perhaps at 20s delay would be more viable though.

[Chuckachu]

True plus the fire mission dropship isn't there and back in a few seconds. It still stays flying for the original unmodified flight time before the modules.

[dylanstrategie]

That's an interesting idea, but we'll need to be careful. If we put too many stasis bags around, this could be used to virtually nullify damage, since an automatic pickup during fire mission means you can zip up Marines on the frontline and near immediately evac them without risk

I wouldn't mind a more convenient way to medevac, but I'm staying on the side of caution. It's possible we'll go for another solution, like making stasis bags easier to move or giving another way to cut medevac times with cooperating pilots

[Jroinc1]

That's an interesting idea, but we'll need to be careful. If we put too many stasis bags around, this could be used to virtually nullify damage, since an automatic pickup during fire mission means you can zip up Marines on the frontline and near immediately evac them without risk

I wouldn't mind a more convenient way to medevac, but I'm staying on the side of caution. It's possible we'll go for another solution, like making stasis bags easier to move or giving another way to cut medevac times with cooperating pilots

Currently, stasis bags aren't used, but they can fit in medkits, so you could see a LOT of them deployed.

I was hoping to deal with the "nullify damage" thing by allowing 1-2 pickups at most per mission. Sure you can grab them straight from the frontlines (with a cooperating medic and a stasis bag), but you still gotta deal with the other 5-6 injured swarming you. And it's 1-2 for everyone, so 2-3 squads wouldn't be touched per mission too.

[Snypehunter007]

Going to run through this with BMC, tomorrow. Please do not post until after Monday (07/03/17).