this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2024
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Showerthoughts

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One way to breathe a new life into multiplayer shooters could be removing any guns from healers.

Make them potent, but vulnerable!

Why is it important:

  • Players that don't like shooting, but love teamwork would finally be represented (yes, I'm speaking of your girlfriend!)
  • Having to protect healers would benefit more organized teams, rewarding teamwork
  • Healers would have a more dynamic gameplay revolving around avoiding damage: stealthy movement, ability to quickly traverse dangerous zones, coordination with fellow teammates are all required to benefit your team as a healer

What might need to be tweaked:

  • Healers should be made into the only revivors, and we should either punish death more (which we'd better be careful of if that's a dynamic game) or give buffs on revival
  • Healers should get more movement abilities to increase survivability. They may also get speed boost when running towards teammates (similar to Conduit Savior's Speed in Apex Legends)
  • Team compositions should accommodate for several healers as to not introduce a single point of failure

Overall, I think it could introduce a new dynamic to team arenas and skirmishes, as winning now requires more coordination within a team and better understanding of everyone's roles.

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[–] [email protected] 82 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Fuck no.

As someone who loves maining healers, I would never play one again if my only hope for defence was my team mates.

Healers are already are hard role due to lack of support and cover, making them more dependent on it would be worse

[–] [email protected] 25 points 7 months ago

You'll just die all the time because hardly anyone would help you, and as a bonus you get yelled at by your team for not healing them. Sounds like fun.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

As one of the commenters has put it, there could be options, like having more of a "field healer" that is armed but has less healing-related abilities, and a full healer that only heals but has unique options.

You could pursue the former.

Also, movement and stealth abilities are a must for a defenceless healer, so you could still protect yourself in other ways.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago

like having more of a "field healer" that is armed but has less healing-related abilities, and a full healer that only heals but has unique options.

And this differs from most existing games how, exactly?

[–] [email protected] 46 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I enjoy playing support classes, you want me to stop Playing support classes? Make it so that they are utterly defenseless and rely solely on others to stay alive.

Ultimately, it will play absolutely terribly if all you can do is run away unless you are playing with a well organized team. And then you may find that all your team mates get to have all the fun in the game while you get stuck with only the boring stuff.

No thank you.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

There could be options. You can get some sort of a balanced healer/damager, while someone else would pick a pure healer. It's just that there should be an option to heal only.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 7 months ago (3 children)

You have to balance that. A pure healer would need to be so strong that it would become the primary target at all times. Which would be frustrating for both sides. For players playing against it because they can't really play the game anymore. For the pure healers because they would be under tons of pressure.

Unfortunately (or fortunately) we (should) design games around a core audience. Chances are that if your ( r my) hypothetical friend isn't enjoying the competitive part of the game at all, that she (or he) is going to get frustrated at that game at some point anyways. And there are probably games that suit both your needs better to start with. Competitive games may just not be the right choice. Don't ruin the game feel of those games for those that enjoy them for the sake of non competitive players because that will just create a game that no one actually wants to play.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Mercy from Overwatch is a perfect example of why pure healers don't work too well in shooters. She is consistently throughout the games lifespan either been too overtuned or too undertuned. It is very difficult to find that balanced spot for pure healers.

They either end up too powerful and require constant tagging by the opponents team which is frustrating both for the healer player and the opponent team. Or they become almost mandatory for a team too win even in a casual setting, which is incredibly unfun for both teams.

In the case of being undertuned though, if they're not powerful enough then no one picks them as it is just not as fun or engaging to play as a pure healer.

Or finally in the case of medic from tf2. They become a fairly predictable 1 trick pony, low reward class.

Overall pure healers in shooters just really don't work well for the medium/genre. I love being a support player myself in games. But I loathe seeing pure healers in shooters. It's nearly always just a source of frustration rather than fun

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 7 months ago (3 children)

So basically Mercy from Overwatch? I think most games have versions of this type of healer. Medic in TF2 etc. They basically have guns that can't do much other than be used to shoot your teammates in the face to get their attention.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Have you never seen a battle mercy wipe an enemy team?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago

Mercy got that Glock delivered straight from the angry hands of God and it shows

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago

Medic mains when their "useless" ubersaw crits for the 12th time in a row

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Medic in TF2 is a pure healer. The only time their weapons come out is if they get separated or get surprised by a spy. In high-level play, basically never.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago

Same with Mercy in Overwatch. She has a little peashooter pistol but is effectively defenseless. This already exists.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago (2 children)

There are pure healers in wow too for example.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

Was with you until you thought you were speaking of my girlfriend being a support role.

Dude, I’d be willing to bet she’d eat your lunch in a multiplayer shooter.

Maybe lose the sexist shit and I’d say you’ve got something here!

[–] [email protected] 16 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Sorry if this sounded offensive, I thought it could be a light pun. My apologies.

In any case, I know plenty of girls that would absolutely kick my ass in shooters and that actively take offensive roles. I never meant to say all girls are opposed to taking a gun!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

Nope, I'm cancelling OP. He's cancelled. He'll get the paperwork... Eventually.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 7 months ago (13 children)

Team Fortress is built off the idea that no class can't do something, some just do it way better.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 7 months ago (1 children)

The only reason I start shooting is if my team isn't doing their job. You want me to go out there and heal with no protection from the enemy? They already focus on the healers as it is, and we get left behind often. I honestly would never play healer again. All the stuff you're explaining already happens. My goal already is to avoid damage, my team is already supposed to protect me (and when they don't/can't, I have a weapon for that).

~~also, not only "girlfriends" dislike shooting, there are plenty of guys who are main healers~~

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Girlfriend joke was just a light pun :D

I respect healer main guys, and often am one :)

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 7 months ago

This is coward talk. Healers should be given silver bullets for their guns with badass names like "Spectre Covenant" and huge medieval maces.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Sounds like you want OG Mercy from Overwatch, who didn't work out btw

No, FPS players tend to be the “killer” type of player who play to score and win, they are rarely the “socialite” type of player who are in it for teamwork.
Simply put, this is the wrong audience to implement this idea in, there are gaming communities where this works but FPS just isn't one of them.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

Since so many people played the original overwatch at it's prime, it was a good way to see what people played and how. The dps queue was sometimes 30 to 40min, while as a healer you got into a game instantly. When Ana dropped, people just played ana and didn't heal people, because she had a sniper rifle. When moira dropped, people just played her as a dps who could heal herself. Support is very niche already, making it more niche, and only a handful of people would even consider support.

I think the finals did a good job in giving the medium class a healing beam. It's supper powerful on it's own, and if your team dies, you can still whip out a very good if not the best gun.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Yeah, Mercy was one of my inspirations.

I feel like one of the reasons FPS scene is like that is exactly because players have no choices left but to pick up a gun and shoot enemies. Without that, you are useless in any classical FPS composition, regardless of the role, which alienates players that want to see other types of gameplay.

Simply put, if you are not a "killer" in an FPS game, you have nothing to do there, and that's why only those players remain. Something has to be changed inside the genre.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

and continuing my thought, overwatch was literally what you wanted in them first years. But it turned out that the main game group was not interested in playing for healers or tanks without damage, and as a result, the bias in choosing these roles was more than 3 times. This increased the waiting time in the queue quite a lot. As a result, everything returned to the option where each role can cause damage.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 months ago (4 children)

Wouldn't shooting them violate some kind of convention (like Geneva, idk) in this case?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I feel like there's already lots of things in lot's of games that violate a variety of conventions

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 months ago

Battlefield does most of this, except medics csn defend themselves because people already rarely play support. As seen by the endless rage and whining, the ad-hoc emergent teamplay doesn't work as often as it does.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago

I like the idea from a roleplaying-POV.

However, as someone who loves to play medic since BF2, I can tell you that I'd stop playing supportive (medic) if they'd remove the guns from the class. It sounds like it's just half as fun.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago (1 children)

It would exclusively work for competitive eSports.

Many people play just for fun, don't want to focus on teamwork

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

Some people's definition of "fun" may differ, and it would be cool to serve them too. But still, healers must be equipped with abilities that would grant them some level of survivability on their own - particularly those helping to escape the fight and reset.

It's just that teams that play tactically will be rewarded.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago (1 children)

What If "healer" was assigned at random at the start of a match of no one picks it, healers weren't on either team, land were scored separately by how many people they revived?

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago

That would just make them even bigger targets than they already are. And now they won't have a way to defend themselves? That sounds like a nightmare. I used to play Overwatch and would always play support. There's no way in hell i'd trust my team to help me if I'm being attacked. They're probably just gonna jump ahead and say "I need healing!" fifteen times and call me a trash healer as I get the shit beaten out of me with no way to fight back. If this is how support roles worked nobody would play them. I already get left to my own devices as the rest of the team ignores me getting attacked in the back line. It's already a thankless and painful role to play and this would make it unbearable.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago (1 children)

This almost seems like healers would become the main focus of the game. Some might like it some may not. But it would change things. It almost seems like you want healers to be so core that you will basically auto lose a fight due to a lack of revival and sustain. So if your healer gets caught out of position or sniped you just have to back off or otherwise just lose. To me that does not sound like a fun game loop.

A better option would likely to be have a multitude of different style of healers that can fulfill multiple different styles of gameplay. Sure have one that can only heal and not dps and has to be protected by teammates, but also have a healer that can Frontline and half allies when they do melee dmg. Have are healers, have single target healers. Have dot healers, have burst healers.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

Of course it has to be somewhat balanced - healers should not get super OP, but they should be good enough for players to give up damaging abilities and still be important in a team.

There could be an in-between option added though, fair enough.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago (2 children)

So you're respawning and no DPS are near you and you encounter an enemy DPS in a narrow corridor. No thanks.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago (2 children)

If healers are unable to harm others, then maybe add a scoring system which penalizes people for harming/killing healers. Taking “kills” away or whatever.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago
[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

Need a dispenser here!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago (5 children)

Nope. Favours pro play and is absolutely shit at lower tiers.

This is why Mercy has a gun and why tanks in mobas have to have a bit of kill potential. It'd be incredibly frustrating to want to play a healer like that and your team being completely dogshite without you having any ability to affect enemies.

AugustUwU, a Riot developer talks about that a bit on some of his videos.

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