Healing

People are also more likely to play healers if they are actually needed. What's the point if everyone can heal themselves quickly and easily.

Don't make it impossible for people to heal themselves but make having a healer a lot more beneficial and I think you'll see that becoming a class that people will play.

 

Could it be that the lack of healers is directly tied to the fact that they're not needed in most MMO's? I don't usually play a healer, but I know that in Gemstone III there were plenty of them because they were needed.

 

I would be OK with some notion like "if you're rested and well fed, auto-heal happens." This makes food and sleep important but saves you from having your character eat and sleep every 5 minutes, which is just silly.

 

If you make torches run out and make that a requirement, some people will complain about carrying around torches. If you make weapons break, some people will complain about having to repair weapons. If you make gold take weight, some people will complain about not being able to pick up all the gold they want. If you make hunger, some people will complain about carrying around food.

But adding all of things demands only two things: preparation and strategy. And those two things make the game fun, and less grindy, imo.

 

Not having these things occur makes the game very "diablo-ish" where you never need food, sleep or break a weapon. You heal quickly and it's all about the rushing from one battle to the next. Hmm.. I say we make this game different. So I agree with redfish.

 

That's a good twist, and I like it. In fact I think I prefer that!

But the key would be that if you don't have good sleep or eat then you're not auto-healing at all. So yes, there's an upfront cost of eating and sleep...but that might last for like 48 hours (which I think would be a great place to start this at).

 

I like auto-healing (I don't want to carry a bag of potions and sandwiches to heal).

You can still have critical injuries that require healing while still allowing the recuperation of hps.

ie. 10% less damage, 15% reduced health pool, 50% less focus. Etc. etc. that all require the attentions of a healer or potions or whatever.

This way health can regenerate but injuries will still bother you and have you seeking a healer.

 

Interestingly enough I am currently playing Skyrim with a ton of mods to add atmosphere and a bit of toughness....

For instance I can freeze to death if I don't watch my exposure andhave proper gear on. My stats are effected the colder i am. I require sleep and food....

It adds a bit more things to do...but does it ever add to the atmosphere.

 

@rune_74, I remember freezing in Serpent Isle and Martian Dreams :>

 

Good post OP. I agree with most of your stances but my views differ slightly.

Potions are great for solo players. That being said, I don't think anyone should be able to just sit and chug down 20 potions. 1potion/(x)mins to be determined by the devs in balancing the game. Also as the OP stated in a later post, I disagree that whoever made the potion should incur the dmg.

It would handicap an alchemist in so many ways and make potions absurdly expensive. The potion crafter would either have to stand around not crafting or use some other sort of spell to heal, to then make another potion (eating up reagents, time or both). If you were to apply that train of thought to a caster, battlegrounds would be littered with dead healers who essentially gave their life to heal their party. I can't abide by that.

Bandages should certainly be able to be used in combat. If I'm in a party, capable of using bandages, and am not being attacked... Why would I ever not be able to apply first aid? Even if I'm attempting to bandage myself I should be able to. I will submit, however, that while bandaging myself or others I should not be able to preform any combat action. Also, being hit should disrupt/interrupt this function in some way. Maybe even give me some sort of negative combat modifier making me easier to hit because I would be busy/distracted.

Being well nourished for proper healing/skill gain is pretty much a must to me. Even to the point where a healing spell would be more effective cast on a well nourished body as that person would be more capable to recuperate; and less effective on a starving wretch who is a day away from dying because they don't eat.

 

I am all for a serious healing system but how would you handle death without further player intervention? Currently it sounds as if a ghost run is less hassle then finding two other people two rvive you...

 

@rschultzy,

Or they could make the heal effect of potions not instant. I think potions or bandages should be able to occur in combat, but only if you have enough time to use them, and aren't interrupted by melee. The devs have already talked about possibly being able to change card decks in a combat environment, but only if you're not currently under attack, which would interrupt it. The same thing would be true for potions or bandages. If you'd want to apply a bandage, you'd have to get a safe distance where the attacker is off your back.

Also I have no problems with basic herbalism skills, where a player could in theory collect some plants growing around in the scene he's in and make some minor healing salve or potion, or whatever tools he has on hand to do it with. That would also make alchemists useful for adventuring scenarios.

 

If healing isn't free, then you run into the possible issue of a player getting pretty heavily screwed by not having a means to heal themselves, dying, and leaving their body somewhere they can't really get back to it safely.

If healing is free by sitting for 5 minutes or 30 seconds, or whatever interval, then I'm not sure what the major difference is from an auto-heal. SWTOR forces you to sit for a few seconds to heal, and every class has this. This allows you to play most PvE content by yourself without having to be grouped with a healer.

 

I plan to have skill in alchemy and I don't see it as a large hindrance. But I do understand the concern that it would require too much time and money to make a living selling healing potions. Still, that's really the point. That healing potions wouldn't be common.

In my opinion healing potions shouldn't be common, and if they cost a lot that's great!

 

@enderanrew,

Not sure they're planning on doing corpse runs, so it wouldn't be an issue. But ultimately the point would be for players to prepare before they go out and do something potentially risky.

 

I'm not entirely sure how death is currently designed.

I don't have a problem with people dying and then performing some kind of function to come back to life within those mechanics. I was just listing death as the ultimate wound that would require healing. I'm not in favor of requiring another player to bring you back to life (I probably worded it poorly above). Remember there are likely two forms of "death", the death where someone can resurrect your body and the death where you died and your body is gone and you're playing again. I was only referring to the death where someone can still resurrect your body (that I think should require another person).

 

Btw, I'd argue the point with slow auto-heal --- if they choose to go down that route and make food enable auto-healing --- is to make a difference between food and potions. If you'd want faster healing, you'd use a potion.

 

I agree Redfish, heal potions shouldn't be instantaneous. Cure poison and things of that nature are obviously a different topic.

 

To the argument that folks don't want to sit around and wait for healing, a solution is to offer other things to do while healing. Give a player something to do - reading, exploring a safe region, a minor puzzle, plucking valuable hairs from that recently slain spider, etc.

Healing spells often just trade healing regeneration with mana regeneration. I'm fond of the idea that a healing scroll would cost the creator some health, as long as there are other methods as well. For instance trading one's own health vs the cost of reagents to create a potion.

 

I really like the idea of various types of wounds, some of which require 'more treatment' to heal up to full strength. It adds another layer to the game.

I also thought this could be extended to some kind of illnesses/poisons that cap your health at a lower level until you can be 'cured'... e.g. a plague that requires an elixir specifically for that ailment.