Opinions and effectiveness of Medivac?

[Triceron]

The lore explains the medic as using nano technology to heal. The beam of light could be an energy source that's transporting the nanos. It's all sci fi anyways, it pretty much all borders on the line of 'a techno-wizard did it'.

[DemolitionSquid]

'a techno-wizard did it'.

I blame Jesus, myself.

Water into wine? Thank you, cold fusion.

[pure.Wasted]

For marines, firebats, whatever, a slug/spine/arm-scythe could easily penetrate the armour and injure/wound the marine, even severely, without killing him.


And then according to the wiki.


They will heal the marine.

That wiki quote sounds to me like pure magic. "We invented a serum that'll heal somebody up to full life when they just got sliced in half by a Zealot's psi-blade." Or, lest we forget, what the other injuries possible are -- SIEGE TANK barrage ("Let me magically reattach your leg and make it A-OK!"), LURKER spines ("Let me just completely straighten out your spine after it got torn in half from below"), ULTRALISK arms...

I don't really buy it -- I prefer to think of Medics as engineers, and until it becomes important either way or is shown in a cinematic, the truth doesn't really matter. But if you buy their explanation, there's no reason the Medivac can't do the same thing from afar. Magic serums are magic serums.

Yes, a medic would be different. Tell me what's the difference between a tall profile tank and a low profile tank?

A big ass hovering craft with giant red crosses on it is going to be a much easier target for EVERYONE than a medic, who's much cheaper and expendable.

Tell me what's the difference between a person trying to outrun something that flies at supersonic speeds, and an aircraft trying to outfly something that flies at supersonic speeds.

If a Medic is spotted on the field (from the air, from afar, by an Overlord, for instance) she has nowhere to run. A Medivac on the other hand...

[Pandonetho]

That wiki quote sounds to me like pure magic. "We invented a serum that'll heal somebody up to full life when they just got sliced in half by a Zealot's psi-blade." Or, lest we forget, what the other injuries possible are -- SIEGE TANK barrage ("Let me magically reattach your leg and make it A-OK!"), LURKER spines ("Let me just completely straighten out your spine after it got torn in half from below"), ULTRALISK arms...

Obviously there are situations where death is instant. A marine is as likely to be in a situation where he is impaled by spines, impaled by slugs, impaled by scythe arms, or just plain suffering from the explosive properties of a glaive wurm, the fact of the matter is those can be healed, and thus should be.

I don't really buy it -- I prefer to think of Medics as engineers, and until it becomes important either way or is shown in a cinematic, the truth doesn't really matter. But if you buy their explanation, there's no reason the Medivac can't do the same thing from afar. Magic serums are magic serums.

Yes, well the facts point to medics being what they're actually named. And the main problem with the Medivac is not the holy beam, it's the way it heals people, a giant floating target.

Tell me what's the difference between a person trying to outrun something that flies at supersonic speeds, and an aircraft trying to outfly something that flies at supersonic speeds.

If a Medic is spotted on the field (from the air, from afar, by an Overlord, for instance) she has nowhere to run. A Medivac on the other hand...

Don't be ignorant dude. It's a clear fact that tall profile machinery is bad. The Medivac isn't a tall profile machinery but it clearly acts like one, floating in the sky shooting bright glowing beams of light.
Nobody specifically targets medics just because.

First of all.
A) How much is a medivac compared to a medic in cost? The Medivac
B) Who's bigger? The Medivac
C) Who's in more vulnerable space? The Medivac

Why a scourge would want to target a medic instead of a wraith is beyond me. Why a scourge would want to target a stationary floating dropship potentially filled with injured soldiers while continually supporting ground troops instead of a wraith makes perfect sense to me.

[pure.Wasted]

It's a clear fact that tall profile machinery is bad.

Except when building the machinery tall increases its effectiveness by 3, 4, or 10 times. By using the Medics' technology on a Medivac instead, they can get to ANY wounded soldier on a massive battlefield in an INSTANT... meaning, a lot more Marines saved than lost.

A) How much is a medivac compared to a medic in cost? The Medivac
B) Who's bigger? The Medivac
C) Who's in more vulnerable space? The Medivac

Imagine a Medic navigating a battlefield strewn with what looks like charred car parts. Can she efficiently pick out the ones that still have life signs? Even if she has a computer to detect them, one would think that a Medivac, with its size, could afford a much more powerful and effective one, significantly cutting down on the time it takes to find and heal dying soldiers.

A Medic might actually heal soldiers, but even if she does that, she does so through technology -- having a powerful engine and a lot of room to spare, it's only reasonable that the Medivac might triple or quadruple the Medic's ability to heal.

Why a scourge would want to target a medic instead of a wraith is beyond me. Why a scourge would want to target a stationary floating dropship potentially filled with injured soldiers while continually supporting ground troops instead of a wraith makes perfect sense to me.

Let's go at it from a different angle. Medics would get shredded to bits by Zerglings, by far the most common sight on a battlefield, and blown to pieces by Banelings. Neither of these can touch the Medivac. And even if Scourge still exist, simply outside of the multiplayer gameplay, at worst there is now an explosive unit both for air and for ground, so a Medic and Medivac would both be in equal trouble. Actually, when the threat comes from above, at least the Marines it's healing might be able to shoot that threat down as it approaches. But a Baneling underground? It's going to kill the Medic and the Marines, and no one's going to see it coming.

[Kimera757]

Would giving an air unit auto-repair for energy be too overpowered a solution?

SCVs can already auto-repair for resources.

[Pandonetho]

Except when building the machinery tall increases its effectiveness by 3, 4, or 10 times. By using the Medics' technology on a Medivac instead, they can get to ANY wounded soldier on a massive battlefield in an INSTANT... meaning, a lot more Marines saved than lost.

No, not really. No modern day military would design tall profile anything.

The Thor is a bad unit, so is the colossus, except the Protoss have the benefit of Protoss magic and crap that Humans aren't supposed to understand.

The Medivac is a great unit if realistically it lands to load up injured/wounded troops to heal them, much as real life medivac units do. If it just hovers above the battleground shooting healbeams at infantry targets, then it's retarded and by far more easily taken down than a medic. This, is, undisputable. This cannot be disputed. While you're in the middle of healing, what's to stop a single anti-air missile from blasting into the craft destroying it? While it's in the middle of healing, what's to stop a scourge from hurtling down and destroying something, which as I've already mentioned, is 100x a bigger loss than a single medic?

Let's go at it from a different angle. Medics would get shredded to bits by Zerglings, by far the most common sight on a battlefield, and blown to pieces by Banelings. Neither of these can touch the Medivac. And even if Scourge still exist, simply outside of the multiplayer gameplay, at worst there is now an explosive unit both for air and for ground, so a Medic and Medivac would both be in equal trouble. Actually, when the threat comes from above, at least the Marines it's healing might be able to shoot that threat down as it approaches. But a Baneling underground? It's going to kill the Medic and the Marines, and no one's going to see it coming.

This is utter baloney. If a medic is going to be shred apart by ANY of those things, chances are the marines are already dead. Medivacs are VASTLY more easily targeted, this cannot be disputed. This is a fact. A giant HOVERING mind you, it's not even moving, it's HOVERING above infantry units healing them, will get destroyed by guerilla forces shooting rockets at it for god's sake.

Medics are one with marines, if medics are dying, chances are your marine force has already been slaughtered.

Imagine a Medic navigating a battlefield strewn with what looks like charred car parts. Can she efficiently pick out the ones that still have life signs? Even if she has a computer to detect them, one would think that a Medivac, with its size, could afford a much more powerful and effective one, significantly cutting down on the time it takes to find and heal dying soldiers.

I don't know why a medic would be wandering down a battlefield strewn with bodies, Terran units should operate like squads. And they do, thus medics are assigned to squads, and will move with their squad.

A Medic might actually heal soldiers, but even if she does that, she does so through technology -- having a powerful engine and a lot of room to spare, it's only reasonable that the Medivac might triple or quadruple the Medic's ability to heal.

This is obvious, and it makes sense too, that is if the Medivac lands to heal infantry.

[Nicol Bolas]

what actually is the point/benefit of having them double pumpable or needing a critical mass? Also, how many is critical? I agree that double-pump is a nice thing, but for each Medivac you have, you get 4-8 infantry slots.

So that you can build them faster. Marines are double-pumped from a Barracks. By the time you safely tech to StarPorts, you've probably got at least 2 Barracks (if you're going for infantry), one of them dedicated to Marines with a Reactor. By then, you've got a good 30 or so infantry in need of healing. You need to get those Medivacs out and quickly.

Warp-in upgrade costs 50/50 mins/gas, warp prism 200 mins

WTF? That is imbalanced as hell. The Protoss get, not only a transport unit, but for a mere 50 gas, the ability to build units anywhere? Meanwhile the Terrans have to pay 100 gas for a single transport?

No, that's getting fixed in the beta, if it stays that way until beta. Man, the BlizzCon build was way Protoss imbalanced.

This, is, undisputable. This cannot be disputed. While you're in the middle of healing, what's to stop a single anti-air missile from blasting into the craft destroying it?

I don't understand how it is you're trying to rationalize StarCraft.

Transports in StarCraft can survive multiple direct hits by anti-air turrets, balls of glowing plasma, and whatever the hell Spore Colonies shoot. A man-portable missile isn't even going to scratch the paint.

The simple fact that air units can only be attacked by certain units shows that, in StarCraft, hitting and damaging flying things is not trivial.

[Aldrius]

The Medic had actual on-site medical tools for healing, you know, the marine himself. Not the armour.

Medics used glowing beams of light just like Med-evacs. Except they were used at melee range rather than from afar.

[Iceman_jkh]

So that you can build them faster. Marines are double-pumped from a Barracks. By the time you safely tech to StarPorts, you've probably got at least 2 Barracks (if you're going for infantry), one of them dedicated to Marines with a Reactor. By then, you've got a good 30 or so infantry in need of healing. You need to get those Medivacs out and quickly.

Yes, I realise that. And I dont have a problem with being able to catch up to your requirement to move a large group of infantry. What I was asking though was, why do you need the critical mass of 4 or 5. Thats quite a lot of dropships. Id like the dropship to be fairly useful in smaller numbers 1-3, rather than NEEDing to be brought to the field in 4-6s. Also, after you've used doublepump to catch up to your infantry requirements, is the doublepump all that useful?

So my point is: Are they really that useful when theres 1-3.. or do you need the 4-6? And if 4-6, I dont think that the unit is that much of a success. It feels more like a "dropship with healing facility bolted on", rather than a "medical evacuation/drop" capability. Therefore, the healing aspect is not terribly effective until you have a lot, at which point, you have overcapitalized on the transport capability. Perhaps all it needs is a buff to the healing aspect to make it seem less 'token' IMHO.