Introduction
Medical Gameplay, like other systems within the Star Citizen universe such as mining and salvage, is not a standalone endeavor within the overall development of the project. It is inexorably and essentially linked with several other systems like the Actor Status System, Scanning, FPS traversal, beacons and more.
Because of this, forward development is often dependent on outstanding work to related-systems first, and it can often seem like this vital and important aspect of our intended Star Citizen experience has taken a back seat to other, flashier systems.
This unfortunate reality was compounded earlier this year with the release of Server Meshing, which had an adverse effect on beacons, which were not and still have not been fully updated and converted to the multiple star system reality of 600 players we have today.
While Alpha 4.3.1 brings several new aspects to medical beds and restores some of the recently lost rescue beacons functionality, we wanted to take this opportunity to explore the intended future for regeneration beyond Alpha 4.3.1.
This is not the comprehensive Death of a Spaceman we're still driving towards, but a brief exploration of some of the changes and additions we'll encounter along the way, all currently in development.
It is also worth noting that similar to every other Design Brief we've done, the information within accurately reflects our current development intentions at the time of publishing, but we always reserve the right to listen, adapt, improve, or change features and designs in response to feedback, playtesting, design revisions, or other considerations to improve balance or the quality of the game overall.
Life, and Death, and Life Again Beyond 4.3.1
While much of medical gameplay is rightly aimed at preventing death, we must still do everything we can to prepare for the worst, while giving you meaningful and strategic options for getting back into the 'verse as soon as possible post-death.
To that end, the following additional changes to medical beds are currently in development:
- Adding the ability to imprint on multiple medical beds at once.
- Adding the ability to choose which imprinted medical bed you wish to regenerate at.
- Adding new conditions which may limit regeneration, such as cooldown timers or regeneration limits before re-registration of an imprint is required.
Multiple Imprints at Once
The first key to this will be to allow you to have multiple imprints at different locations simultaneously, allowing you a tactical choice upon incapacitation if no help is available, of choosing where you regenerate next.
These choices will fall into one of four categories:
MedBed Conditions
In Alpha 4.3.1 the MedGel requirement was added to medical beds, providing another condition that needed to be met for successful healing and regeneration: being stocked.
In the future, there may be other conditions you encounter that affect or limit your ability to use a specific medical bed either owned by another player or found in the wild. These are not global conditions applied to all medical beds, but specific states enabled by deliberate content or player action.
Additionally, some of these conditions may be found combined with one another.
If a medical bed is within your ship, vehicle or base, then you may set permissions limiting who can use it to heal and imprint independently:
- Only You (overrules all other options)
- Everyone (overrules options below)
- Friends
- Party Members
- Org Members
Changes to the Regeneration Interface
To account for these changes, including the ability to imprint and regenerate at multiple locations and apply a variety of status conditions to a medical bed, a new interface is currently in development.
Rescue Beacons
Since the launch of Alpha 4.0 the Rescue Beacon system has suffered from several legacy design elements that are waiting to be updated:
- With the increased player capacity of 600 people, the existing notification system became unmanageable and needs to be refactored.
- With the addition of multiple star systems, the marker system needs to be updated to provide intermediate destinations (like a nearby jump point.)
- With both factors, a better way of finding and sorting them is needed.
Additionally, we need several UI improvements, including a way for first responders to see the last several medical beacons a player has sent, to better judge the likelihood of ambush.
While we can provide no dates or estimates for when these fixes and additions will arrive, we wanted to acknowledge that we're aware of the issues, and re-iterate our intention to address these issues on our road to 1.0.
A Note to the First Responders
Of the many aspects that excite us about this universe we continue to build each and every release, medical gameplay, and specifically the role of first responders in the 'verse, is something that inspires many of us to continue bringing these facets to life.
Whereas mining, salvage, transport, racing, combat and more all provide personal dividends in credits/loot/bragging rights, the acts of those who dedicate their time specifically, intentionally and frequently towards helping others has a nobility and positive effect on everyone. These are acts we want to better support going forward.
This begins with the medical bed evolutions listed above, and continues through restoring and improving the rescue beacon system in the future, but there's even more we can do on our journey towards Death of a Spaceman and Star Citizen 1.0. It will take time, and we'll share more details as those releases approach, but in the meantime, we wanted to say that we see you: those people who fight not for riches and individual prosperity, but to help your fellow citizen day in and day out, and make the persistent universe a better place to live in.
Thank you for helping others, and we're exploring what more we can do to help you along the way.
| Category | Description |
|---|---|
| Landing Zone | The last landing zone hospital bed you imprinted on. |
| Ship/Vehicle | The last vehicle you imprinted on. |
| Home Base | The last medical bed you imprinted on at a base you or your org own. |
| Temporary | A bed which does not fall under any of the three categories above. For example, a POI location like Storm Breaker. |
| Condition | Description |
|---|---|
| Manual MedGel |
Panacea MedGel is a resource that is added to the medical bed by you for the unit to function. Added in Alpha 4.3.1. |
| Auto MedGel |
The MedBed requires MedGel to function, but will automatically restock at a set rate. No one can manually restock the unit. |
| Temporary Imprint |
Your imprint lasts for X amount of time. After imprinting, a cooldown of Y time starts before you can imprint there again. |
| Regeneration Timer |
You may only regenerate at this location once every X timeframe. Timer is individual to each person. |
| Delete Imprint | You may remove the imprint(s) of anyone from a bed. |
| Enabled by Event |
The bed is only made functional by an event occurring or you performing a specific action. |
| Disabled by Event |
The bed is no longer functional by an event occurring or you performing a specific action. Imprint is not lost; you just cannot heal or respawn while disabled. |
| Disabled by Distortion |
The medical bed has been disabled by distortion damage. Imprint is not lost; you just cannot heal or respawn while disabled. |
| Disabled by Soft Death |
The medical bed has been disabled by vehicle soft-death state. Imprint is not lost; you just cannot heal or respawn while disabled. |
| Invalidated by Distance |
If you travel more than X distance away from the medical bed, you may lose your imprint status at that location. |
| System UEC Fees | The location of this bed has set a UEC fee for healing or regenerating. |
| Player-Defined UEC Fees |
The player-owner of this bed has set a UEC fee for healing or regenerating. vehicle. Must be placed in area owned by a player to function. There is a system tax of X%. |
| Permission Editable |
The owner of this bed has set the permissions of who is able to use it. Must be placed in area owned by a player to function. |
| Destructible | The bed can be destroyed and so the imprints are lost. |
| Element | Description |
|---|---|
| [1] Game Chat | Game chat is still accessible while incapacitated. |
| [2] Incapacitated Info | Incapacitated text is moved away from the bottom of the screen to make room for the regeneration bar. |
| [3] Regeneration Options | Hold for X seconds to activate. From left to right: Landing Zone, Primary Vehicle, Home Base, Temporary and Rescue Beacon. |
| [4] Invalid Location |
If your location is not valid for regeneration an error is shown, providing context for why the bed is unavailable. |
| [5] Regeneration Conditions | Displays any conditions for regeneration the medbed may have. |
| [6] Deploy Beacon | Initiates the flow for deploying a Rescue Beacon. |
| [7] Minimize | The Regeneration Bar can be minimized giving you a better view of your surroundings if revival by companion is anticipated and regeneration is unneeded. |