Medical Injections

[acm]

Hello,
i know, the idea isn't new and it's only a proposal and i haven't found this idea in the forum:

We write the year 2084, Aliens try to conquer the earth. Our earth. An apocalyptical Scenario, wich requires apocalyptical Methods.
Methods beyond ethnic and moral  .

Now,  to my idea:

An injection, with an serum, that has an effect of doping.
The injection is consumable and and will lost after using.

Positive Effect:
The soldier get some additional TU's. (is faster)
The Effect is only temporarly, not like an Implant. (1, 2 or 3 Rounds)

Negative Effect:
After getting the inject, the soldier lose live. (the soldier can die, if ....)
The soldier has trouble to target the enemy.
The Effect is also temporarly. (1, 2 or 3 Rounds)

Based on this Idea, there can arise a new Research-Branch.
Each Serum has an positive Effekt and also an negative.

For Example: an serum, where a skill of an soldier will be increase for a short time,
but the soldier can (not must) fall in to panic.

Or the serum can be found on an alien.
Has the aliens developed the serum?
Is it danger to use?

For this, it's only an idea for some new Equip and with the negative Effects, the equip will not be imbalanced.
Greetings, ACM.

[Legendman3]

This sucks but good try

[DiDiT]

*punches legend man* Don't be a dick.  


*Straightens tie*
-Ahem-, anyway, I actually sorta like this idea... well, the idea of drugs being used by troopers, anyways.
Hell, its better than some of my old ideas!

[Legendman3]

*gets back up and rubs sore head*Ya well this is sorta unfair dont ya think? And it is a little good*cowers in fear of DiDiT*

[acm]

@Legendman3
don't you think, it's unusually to suck drugs... but possible 

@DiDiT
Yes, the idea is anyway .. but who care's at war ...   

This idea was inspired from Starcraft, take a look to the terran soldiers.

[DiDiT]

Ah, yeah! 

Starcraft stim-packs, gotta love 'em.

Now, where's that medic?...

[acm]

Only to describe, which kind of Injection.
Because an Injection, which you can find it in an engine, would be the wrong one  .

[Legendman3]

Oh, your baseing it off of starcraft? Then i like the idea i liked that game

[Sgt. Hatter]

An injection, with an serum, that has an effect of doping.
The injection is consumable and and will lost after using.

Positive Effect:
The soldier get some additional TU's. (is faster)
The Effect is only temporarly, not like an Implant. (1, 2 or 3 Rounds)

Negative Effect:
After getting the inject, the soldier lose live. (the soldier can die, if ....)
The soldier has trouble to target the enemy.
The Effect is also temporarly. (1, 2 or 3 Rounds)

I kinda like this idea.  It stands to reason that an army facing implacable foes with a serious advantage in both numbers and equipment would resort to drugs, particularly hard stimulants, to give them an edge.

My only concern is that, even though it makes sense from a fluff/flavor/environment standpoint, what will it do for game balance?  That's a bit harder to quantify.

On one hand, anything that gives soldiers more TUs makes them significantly more powerful.  TUs are the single most important resource in combat; with enough of them, even a single soldier with nothing more than a knife could theoretically lay waste to an entire legion of aliens (admittedly, this would require an absurd amount of TUs; probably more than the engine can handle comfortably and definitely more than any soldier can obtain legitimately, but still the fact stands.)  Giving the player more TUs is going to make them stronger, period.

I do like that you balance it with drawbacks, such as the stim-users losing health or potentially dying as a result of the stimulant-injections.  That's a pretty good drawback; one has to balance the immediate gain in TUs with the fact that the soldier will be more vulnerable or potentially perish.  Since replacements, and particularly good replacements are hard to come by, you have to ask yourself, "is the additional killing power worth putting my soldiers at risk if the the extra attacks/movement fail?"

In the end, the viability of the idea comes down to specifics; exactly how many bonus TUs can you get by using stimulants, how much damage each dose of stimulant causes, whether or not there's long-term effects associated with stimulant use/abuse, etc.  There's also the fact that this idea will force more work on the part of coders and possibly modellers/graphics artists if implemented, since it will likely require new research topics, new mechanics added to the battlescape, and new graphics for any equipment/interface elements involved.  Needless to say, it'll also require extensive testing from both a code and balance perspective.

Still though, interesting idea and one I would love to see seriously considered.

[TrashMan]

Drugs? Bleah...we need to move to HEAVY genetic modifications!