54 replies to this topic

[TheMattgician]

Its pretty obvious there is a shortage of medics, its almost always the last class to be picked. This may be because the medic tends to be flamed, people don't want to take that much responsibility or just because its not the most fun.

 

Does anyone have ideas to encourage people to play med?

 

I was thinking that a guide would be a good place to start. Perhaps a coaching service could be beneficial too.

[VoidWhisperer]

I remember class-specific TF2C achievements being talked about earlier to encourage people to play the classes

[TheMattgician]

Yeah, though I'm thinking of something that would be more proactive. Achievements might have an insignificant effect (though it is a good idea).

[Timon]

For me the main reason I don't play medic is not because I am worried about getting flamed etc but more other people that I play with don't understand their role so I constantly die. Medic is generally the least fun when you're plying with randoms because they aren't bothered so much about your protection compared to a team. They are more concerned with getting a buff then going off for frags. I'm guilty too of doing the latter but generally medic just isn't fun because of the high death count.

 

The absolute best way to convince people to play medic more is to ensure everyone uses mumble. Even if people are bad if they are at least trying and talking then I don't mind healing them.

[TheMattgician]

Yeah, I nearly never play medic on games where mumble isn't required.

[yesdogboy]

the problem with medics is them not knowing what to do

 

i've never waited more than 5 minutes on a medic in a 6s lobby

[CupCake]

I completely agree with Timon. Playing medic in lobbies is very soul destroying sometimes. In certain games your team mates don't know what they are doing and this means you are dead as they don't protect you. Then if/when they overextend and die they go mad and shout abuse at you for not healing them. 

The life of a medic is hard and ungrateful in many ways. 

 

I think a guide is a great idea to start with. In general I think the community can help out all newbies, not only the medics. So if someone seems a bit clueless just teach them the right way. Ie, tell the new medic the heal order, the positioning and so on. 

 

My first lobby was actually as medic in a 6v6 game. I had over 1500 hours at the game. but didnt know the heal order. The leader let me play (despite the whole team wanted to kick me) and he talked me through the heal order. We won that game. I was forever grateful to the leader who let me play the game. 

I also think that treating lobbies as hardcore competative and putting 2000 hours needed is abit OTT and puts a lot of players of the game. I thought that tf2 center was kinda a stepping stone towards comp. A place where people could get a bit more feeling for the competative. And a place where the community could interest the newbies to play comp.
 

Obviously I do understand that sometimes you are fed up with the fail lobbies and so on. But give the newbies a chance to learn 

 

Also people opening yet another lobby despite there being 5 hl lobbies and 4 6s lobbies open at the same time all looking for medics is not helping. 

[R.E.M.]

It's funny, as someone who plays only medic, I don't really understand people's gripes about playing medic on lobbies. Sure it's annoying sometimes when people don't protect you well or don't communicate in mumble but at the end of the day none of these things would ever convince me to stop playing medic.

 

I've not been playing lately because I've been a bit busy with IRL things but I hope to be coming back and playing in the next few days so hopefully I'll help the "medic shortage" somewhat

[TheMattgician]

It seems that the problem isn't just about educating people how to play medic, but also how other classes should interact with the medic. For instance, new scouts on 6s have a tendency to feel that they can fuck off and do the combo do its thing (at least I thought so).

 

There are no full guides out there, the best information is in various POVs on YouTube, but the class' roles aren't explicit.

 

Should we try to get the community to work towards building a  guide on comp?

[R.E.M.]

There are no full guides out there, the best information is in various POVs on YouTube, but the class' roles aren't explicit.

 

Should we try to get the community to work towards building a  guide on comp?

 

http://etf2l.org/help/new/

 

and there are more detailed guides on the etf2l forum itself. Perhaps we could borrow one?

[TheMattgician]

I was thinking of a video guide on YouTube because its very accessible. However, its harder to integrate everything there is.

 

But these guides are a good place to start. The simple thing would simply to have a link to said guides somewhere visible.

[R.E.M.]

I was thinking of a video guide on YouTube because its very accessible. However, its harder to integrate everything there is.

 

But these guides are a good place to start. The simple thing would simply to have a link to said guides somewhere visible.

 

Whatever we come up with, it should be included in the upcoming "newbies backpack" we discussed on the splash-page thread on the members section.

[Kent]

Some people are hypercritical and rude to medics, regardless of the medic's actual skill. They expect the medic to instantly be in-tune with what their plan is- all five of them.

 

I had a game today where the roamer, demo, and pocket all kept going valley on cp_badlands mid fights. I tried to explain that with this rollout there is simply no way I can buff all three of them to max by the time they make it to the bridge. I try to make suggestions and explain what I'm doing and why I'm doing it, but often the team just turns to medic-blaming for the fact that they've died or didn't get the buff they wanted.

 

I've almost been sub voted twice simply for using the vaccinator. Because of this I often can't practice with other mediguns and playstyles.

 

 

Complaining aside, I'd like some way to encourage players to join Mumble and communicate positively with the team. Negative attitudes are discouraging.

[TheMattgician]

Yesterday, both scouts were complaining on the game chat in a mumble required lobby that the medic wasn't healing them. As a pocket, I nearly never saw them.

Its clear that teaching medics is important, but teaching the other classes is also important to help the medic experience.

[art0nic]

I just came from my first game here. I have a general idea of what to do, but my teammates almost always abandoned me. Then they decided to kick me out. Life as a medic is so hard. ( I wish the games I joined in were with people like you guys...

[Timon]

Yesterday, both scouts were complaining on the game chat in a mumble required lobby that the medic wasn't healing them. As a pocket, I nearly never saw them.

Its clear that teaching medics is important, but teaching the other classes is also important to help the medic experience.

 

Scouts need to come for heals yeah. I've noticed people going "I only got 3% heals" when they never make an effort to get buffed.

 

 

I just came from my first game here. I have a general idea of what to do, but my teammates almost always abandoned me. Then they decided to kick me out. Life as a medic is so hard. ( I wish the games I joined in were with people like you guys...

 

See this is exactly what you do not want.

 

I'm not sure about videos because you're basically mentoring then, where do you stop? Heal order? Positioning? Counting uber? Flashing vs solo uber? For every map?! You could potentially make loads. I agree with the idea that it is other classes playing better for the medic personally. You almost need dedicated pocket soliders who use mumble and communicate. The two most important things to making a medic's life better are that everyone takes a responsibility for "pocketing" so that when say there are only 3 people alive those two stick with the medic and that pocket and medic communicate when either one of them is down so that people are "picked up from spawn". When I was playing medic in div5 back in the day I basically shouted "NOT HEALING ON STONE BRIDGE" so everyone knew and whoever was close needed to temp pocket so we built and I was protected. In most lobbies though I cannot imagine trying to get a pocket soldier to pick me up from spawn! 

[VoidWhisperer]

I'll see if I can write up a medic guide when I get home just for the sake of it being there.

[Migthy Burger]

For Highlander games, I would also extend this shortage issue to Heavies. Both are highly rewarding in their own right, but can put off people because their reliance on their team for support is much more obvious, as are their failures.

 

Although I did witness medics not really knowing what to do, the problem is often worsened by the dispersion of the team (think swiftwater after capping A). If you're a Heavy, Demo or even a Pyro, and see the Medic being a bit lost, you can at least try to play more conservatively, stick close to him, and use voice comms if he's not on mumble to try and bring him where you need him. If you're a Medic, it's harder to deal with an overextending Demo, a Heavy far back and a roaming novice Pyro all at the same time.

[VoidWhisperer]

Guide is done. http://forums.tf2cen...petitive-medic/

[TheMattgician]

What about making a sub-forum for comp FAQ? Guides would be pinned and people could ask questions. Though this might deviate from the original point of this forum.