Medivac Energy to Healing Ratio

Ya people will QQ but I don't think it will be useless.

In Starcraft 1, medics were basically free in-combat healing. You just mix in as many medics as you want into your marine ball and the only disadvantage is that each medic is one less marine. In marine balls nobody ever bothered to focus fire medics because it just wasn't worth it.

Medivacs aren't supposed to just be free in-combat healing, they force you to diversify your army by adding air units to it and actually presenting your enemy with something worth targeting. And I think the use of units like science vessels (in starcraft 1) and nighthawks (in BR2) have shown that just because you don't have an air force doesn't mean air casters cannot be useful. The fact that science vessels could be sniped didn't stop marine ball players from using them.

Combat shields also help the marines survive better in SC2 so they won't be as weak without healing.

 

It's still doesn't make sense why players shouldn't have an infantry medical unit. I mean with so many units on all sides that can 1 shot kill marines, I just think a medic won't hurt the balance that much. Between banelings, Colossus, Siege tanks, and ultralisks maybe. I think an infantry medical unit would prove useful and not OP to the terran side. Maybe have the medic tier 2.5 or something. To increase the health and survivability of your marines.

 

Medics would overlap with Medivacs, so I guess that's why they were removed.

 

While the old Medic was able to heal 2HP per energy, the current SC2 Medivac build is able to heal 5HP which consumers 5 energy. Cost effective wise, Medivacs are useful, however, this also means that a Medivac could not heal as much as a Brood War Medic. Also, Medivacs have a titan reactor which allows it to heal at a greater extent.

 

where have you heard about the energy cost of the Medivac heal? from what I heard it was 5 hp healed per 1 energy point.

 

Medics can heal medics; I think this was the problem Blizzard had with them. (Also, why the heck did medics have more hit points than marines? That made killing them harder, when they should be the priority targets. By that logic high templar should have more hit points than zealots, which they clearly did not. However, unlike the former issue, Blizzard could have fixed this just by nerfing their hit points.)

Also note that marines with shields can survive hits from siege tanks, ultralisks and maybe colossi (depending on the exact damage output; also marine hit points seem to vary from 40-45 base to 55 or so with the shield). I think with the armor upgrades marines can even (barely) survive attacks from banelings.

As for flavor ... well, there will be medics in the campaign, and I will welcome them. What is good for campaign flavor isn't necessarily good for game balance.

Medivacs increase survivability of the marines, as long as said marines don't go near anti-air towers. They gets healed faster (about twice as fast) which is a big deal when a marine gets dropped from max to maybe 5 hit points by a siege tank hit. Between the high rate of healing and the siege tank's low RoF, the marine might be able to take the next hit.

(I hope the marine shield upgrade also applies to medics in the campaign. Medics could lame hit points to start but culd then get a boost, including a visual change.)

 

The medic help keep marines alive in the early game. Now if you want a medic, you have to wait until late game. Marines aren't as strong in the early game. Making the terrans able to be ran over in early game. The combat shields will help. But if some one rushes you before you research combat shields, it's over. As with the medic, the player rushing would have a harder time rushing you. The combat shields are only in there for early game. It's blizzard's replacement of the medic for early game.

 

I love the medivac from a zerg's point of view. Healing first rdy when plague it out, gonna love it!

 

Marauders are there to assist with rushing. They slow down attackers, giving the marines free chances (more time) to shoot them.

When zealots are getting their Charge upgrade, the terran player can be getting medivacs. This doesn't help much against zerglings, though, who can get their speed upgrade around the same time the terran player gets marauders.

 

Actually if you have seen battle report 1. The protoss player got the charge ability way before the terran player even got Hellions and a long way before the banshee. The Marauders do help. But if it was a rush like the rushes in sc1. You wouldn't even have Marauders. Maybe a few marines but that's only if your fast. Most people don't even have marines yet. Of course that was a custom map, where there is a phantom that got a lot of resources per minute. So he could send in a army of 20 zealots into your base by the time you started building your barracks. If was a normal map, then it would be slightly longer time. But they would still get you before you got Marauders.

 

Just because a player didn't build them earlier doesn't mean they couldn't have. It's not a good idea to base so much on the individual events in the battle reports- they're there just to give you an idea, not to spell-out the whole story. By the look of the tech trees, there is no reason the Terran couldn't have gotten to those units within a reasonable time, excepting the possibility that the player himself failed to make it happen.

 

I used the battle report as an example. Along with things I have seen in sc1. But you are right about the player failing. The people playing it weren't pros. But if they were, the game would have played out differently. The terran player might have even gotten them earlier. It all depends on skill.

 

they may have moved the healing into a higher tier technology to make sure the infantry (marines + marauders) more useful in late game, along with other upgrades like the riot shield. if they kept them low-tier, everyone would just rush to marines+medics again, or just skip them entirely for higher tier unit strategies.

in any case, i think it would be nice to have healing upgrades for the medivac. say, going from 2hp/energy to 3 or 4, and maybe another upgrade for an extra healing beam. stuff like that.

 

Hmm, that's quite possible, since the last time we saw BR2, David didn't even used Medivacs, considering its possible benefits towards the terran infantry, or its just a mere coincidence or plot to make the viewers wonder the word "what if" during those situations to stimulate our perceptions on the gameplay....

The same healing factor wouldnt be efficient enough for a squadron of infantry if a player is going to go for medivacs, I mean it is possible that we could be looking at 2-3 medivacs in an attack squad but somehow the expenses might be more than that of what the medic was before, so its all still one question until beta comes out..

 

well, i think the medivac should heal faster than the medic, simply because it's higher tier. if it has to be used on lowly units like the marines, it has to keep them alive against upper tier units... otherwise both units are pretty useless. when you got medics in SC1, you were mostly facing zerglings, zealots, hydras, and dragoons. by the time you get the medivac, you'll be facing dark templar... colossi... mass mutas, etc.

 

I think medievac should have a healing field skill.
healing all organic units withing a certain range making unit like marines almost invincible.
The field would move as the medievac would move too.
It would be powerful to defend against ennemie massive attack or when you wanna pass tru ennemie base without attacking defenses. Unfortunately it would drain energie and would only last 15 second(or less) when full energie.

That would make the medievac extremely useful especially if you have more than 1 and would make ennemie rush to kill them. (medic wouldn't be able to heal themselves)

 

Oh, so give it an abillity stronger then those of the motherships, great idea!

 

I'm up for the healing field. But not that powerful. I'm thinking about the same amount of reg. but just for more units. It would extend the marines' life past a minute max. The marines would be able to with stand a large group or roaches. Seeing how roaches are much more powerful than the marines. But now that I think about it, it should only be able to heal like 3-5 units at a time, so it doesn't make the terran murder the other races.

 

if this was implemented what were talking about now would be balenced so that the zerg especialy dont just get murderd or any of the races. plus if that was so for a good time before counter strats come out. people would only terran and do a M&M strat like SC1 only skiping maurders and going a crap load of rines and a few Medivacs.

 

no Medivacs no medic wahhh, it`s better than nothing