this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2024
90 points (73.9% liked)

Showerthoughts

29567 readers
1597 users here now

A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The best ones are thoughts that many people can relate to and they find something funny or interesting in regular stuff.

Rules

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

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.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 46 points 1 month ago (6 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] -5 points 1 month ago (5 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] 14 points 1 month ago (4 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 1 month 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

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

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

I miss the medic from TFC. The double-barreled shotgun and the concussion grenades gave them options.

(I guess that's kinda proving the point against "pure healers," LOL)

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)