Community Question: Incapacitation and You

(badman) #1

Community, each of our games has featured an incapacitation mechanic that kicks in once you take a certain amount of damage. While incapacitated, you can either wait for a friendly Medic to revive you, or join the next respawn wave. What we’re interested in today, though, is the subtle differences each Splash Damage game has brought to incapacitation:

[ul]
[li] In Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, once you were incapacitated and chose to join the respawn queue, there was no going back from that choice (even if, say, a Medic suddenly appeared nearby). [/li][li] Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars allowed you to freely switch back and forth between waiting for a Medic and joining the next respawn wave. [/li][li] Finally, Brink added another choice to that mix, allowing you to pick the exact moment of being revived once a Medic had dispensed a revive syringe to you. [/li][/ul]

So, we put it to you, community. Which incapacitation mechanic reigns supreme? Furthermore, if there’s anything you particularly liked or disliked about the various incarnations of incapacitation throughout the years, or if there’s an entirely different mechanic you’d like to see, let us know in the comments.

(Humate) #2

ETQW had 3 options. Wait for a medic indefinitely, wait for a medic until the counter hits zero or respawn.

As an incapped player you had the ability to look around and survey the ‘risk/reward’ element of being revived.

Sometimes, its best to respawn completely so that the medic doesnt put themselves in the position where they will get killed. Other times its best to tap out until the counter hits zero, because you want to get revived but you dont want to miss the spawn wave.

And ofcourse you might be incapped directly under an objective, so staying put is the best option.
Also the faction you were on, determined how ‘liberal’ you were with tapping out - because each faction had their own revive method.

As far as anything I disliked - Brink.

(timestart) #3

I voted for ETQW-style. What I like about it is that you can still /kill to stop yourself being revived if you definitely want to respawn but if you aren’t sure you can stay revivable without missing the spawn wave. I feel revive syringes make things too easy for the medic - they don’t have to choose an appropriate moment to revive because players can choose instead and they don’t even have to get close to the downed player.

I think all classes should be able to gib downed players instantly rather than it just being a side effect of some class abilities.

(DarkangelUK) #4

ETQW style for reasons mentioned, but even purely so there’s no mechanic that requires a ‘lock on’ to work.

(Smooth) #5

I should point out that the ‘lock-on’ is irrelevant in this instance, the question is purely about the choices the downed player has.

(tokamak) #6

Also, more incapacitation please. Tear gas, smoke, flash bangs, knock-downs, tranquilisers, taking living shields, I want it all.

I liked the concept of caltrops, though I’d prefer to have these things cause a snare rather than damage. The effect and their danger wasn’t apparent to most players and with it had lost it’s psychological effect.

(BioSnark) #7

I’d <3 this: “allowed you to freely switch back and forth between waiting for a Medic and joining the next respawn wave…” but, give them an easily accessible ui option to not be revivable so I don’t go running to reach people who want to respawn for ammo, etc. Also not a huge fan of bodies / hosts lying around ready to pop when I’m not looking but it is a cool asymmetrical mechanic in the ETQW med vs tech context.

(DarkangelUK) #8

The context I took it from is with the ‘revive yourself’ style requiring the syringe to be tossed to the player using the lock-on option, I assumed this goes hand in hand unless you have another option for getting the syringe into the players hands.

(Humate) #9

I should point out that the ‘lock-on’ is irrelevant in this instance, the question is purely about the choices the downed player has.

The revive method, influences the incapped state’s - risk/reward element.
Therefore people are going to have opinions on the incapped state based on the revive method.

(TheSgtBilko) #10

I prefer the W:ET way, Opting out of being revived should be irreversibel, meaning think before opting out.

Actually I never really understood why you would be able to switch in and out, it’ll just be confusing for medics.
You normally opt out for two main reasons. You’re either to far off from/bad spot for a medic or the wavespawn timer is almost up.

So I’d prefer it staged - unless you get instakilled you’re waiting for revive, once you opt out you’re up for wave spawn no swapping back.

And /kill should mean that you go directly in to spawn queue.

(DarkangelUK) #11

[QUOTE=TheSgtBilko;392350]
Actually I never really understood why you would be able to switch in and out, it’ll just be confusing for medics.
You normally opt out for two main reasons. You’re either to far off from/bad spot for a medic or the wavespawn timer is almost up[/QUOTE]

That’s not how it works, opting to spawn in the next wave doesn’t change the state the medic sees you in. As far as he’s aware you want revived, he doesn’t see if you change between waiting and wanting to spawn at 0. Perm killing yourself to join the next wave is irreversible.

(light_sh4v0r) #12

ETQW for reasons mentioned.

(Verticae) #13

ETQW method as long as there’s a /kill.

(TheSgtBilko) #14

Sorry for the confusion, I’m talking about how it works in RtCW/W:ET. If you opt out of being revived (meaning that you will respawn in next wave) your character shows up as dead in game intead of the wounded player animation.

Can’t say I played ETQW that much, wasn’t really our cup of tea.
I got the impression, from the posts above, that you were changing state from wounded to dead (and back) lik ein RtCW/W:ET.

So what you’re saying is that you will stay wounded and revivabel in ETQW until you respawn no matter what.
And that pressing “space” only means that you toggle between waiting forever to ending up on respawn queue (but still wounded)?

That sounds OK to me!

(.Chris.) #15

[QUOTE=TheSgtBilko;392360]So what you’re saying is that you will stay wounded and revivabel in ETQW until you respawn no matter what.
And that pressing “space” only means that you toggle between waiting forever to ending up on respawn queue (but still wounded)?[/QUOTE]

Basically, lets say you die on full and have to wait 20seconds. During these 20seconds you can decide whether you want to join the respawn wave or wait for a medic, either way you can be revived during this time. When those 20 seconds are up and you decided to join the respawn wave you respawn, if you decided to wait you don’t, you can change this back and forth, also during this time you can see your surroundings.

However by /killing during those 20seconds you are ‘gibbed’ and can’t be revived and this cannot be reversed, you also can’t see your surroundings once /killed and you spec a team mate. If no one else is alive you see a black screen.

(tokamak) #16

I like the way your visibility is reduced while incapped, really nice touch.

(Raga) #17

I like etqw method.

(Om3ga) #18

Can i switch my vote somehow? :o

(gr33nf4c3) #19

Regardless of whether or not the decision to spawn with the next wave is an irreversible one, I much prefer the way Brink lets you decide when to get up once you’ve been passed a syringe.

I play pubs a lot and hoping for a medic to revive me is big enough of a stretch. So if a newbie medic decides to actually revive me, I’d rather not just pop up in plain sight and be gunned down again. I’d rather wait a little until no one is focusing on my incapacitated player model any more before I get up from the ground.

(MoonOnAStick) #20

Looks like I’m in the minority, but I thought the revive method in Brink had some potential. The ‘lock-on’ implementation was a bit rubbish but the idea of chucking out needles seems appealing (more like grenades but with a shorter range so there’s some aiming involved.) Choosing whether/when to accept a revive is also positive.

If you could manage to crowbar in spawn hosts for one side too, that would be terrific. :smiley: