Idea A slightly different idea for awarding medics credits for healing:

I suggest a way to award credits to medics who actively heal their teammates. I know the idea is nothing new, but the way that some ideas I've looked over seem, the biggest issue is that most (if not all) offer a chance to be abused with very low or no risk at all.

Obviously, awarding credits for heals is fairly tricky. If a medic gets 1 credit each time he heals/refills a teammate who hasn't already been helped by a medic recently, then they'll just stand near spawn and spam heals on everyone who walks out. This would be far too easily exploited.

If a medic only gets 1 credit each time he heals someone who is actually injured, then they can just beg teammates (or their teamed friends talking on something like Discord) to leap down a small cliff on their way out of spawn and quickly be healed to farm credits. This is a bit trickier, but it can still encourage some exploitation. On that same note, if the injured player needs to be under 50% health when healed, then the cliff simply needs to be a bit higher and the same exploitation would do the trick again.

My suggestion:
A medic is awarded 1 credit ONLY IF the medic and the injured player being healed are BOTH at 50% health or less. This would act as an automatic limiter, because the medic will always be regenerating health. It also involves more effort if the medic wants to keep jumping down a ledge to take enough damage -- and meanwhile, enemies have a much easier time exploiting two or more players who are likely at half health or less trying to farm credits for the medic. So in this way, "easy 2 kills" exploitation attempts would control "easy credit farming" exploitation attempts. ;-D

Furthermore, if this were to go into effect then medics who are engaged in combat who suffer a few hits and time their steaks just right will have more opportunities to gain more credits (albeit 1 credit at a time). Many players being healed by a single medic in this way can award many credits - but a single player being healed by a medic this way may only offer far fewer because of the cooldown on healing, and the regeneration that keeps raising the medic's health. Of course, the medic might be attacked as well and remain at or below 50%, but it would introduce a new and interesting play strategy for medics to explore.

One drawback to this is that additional heals to the medic to keep them alive would hinder their bonus credits, even if their healing efforts are stellar. It may also introduce a new form of trolling, where healing classes (including other medics) could shadow a medic and keep that medic at full health to eliminate any chance of gaining bonus credits this way. So of course, there's a lot to consider, but at the very least it would be something to incentivize playing medic to work toward earning more credits...which was the goal from the very first person who suggested credits be awarded for healing strategies so long ago.

 

Medics are already a pretty decent class as they are without any changes to their playstyle. They don't pack a mean punch, but they have amazing survival abilities when played skillfully. I suppose a higher credit reward could be possible, but any exploitation would mean that many times more credits gained by taking advantage of it. However, since the medic must be hurt pretty bad in the moment that they're awarded the credit(s) for a crucial heal to a teammate, that seems rare enough to be trickier to farm easily.

And sure, credits can always be earned by killing/capping/defending, but all those ways to earn credits mean fewer reasons for credit-seeking players to heal as a medic. The goal is to incentivize healing as a medic - even for those who would like to gain a few more credits, like all the ones around them seem to be doing (thanks to the medic's help often enough LOL).

I can't help but think that introducing a punishment for not healing as medic would drop the incentive to play as medic even more for many players. It might be better to reward effective healing instead. For example, a medic gains a temporary Speed I boost if they refill a teammate (like there's a lighter load to carry since some supplies have been handed over to the teammate)...or a medic who heals/refills a teammate gains a sort of "buff" that doubles their kill credits & carrier kill credits for 30 seconds (but this timer wouldn't be able to reset until it fully runs out first. I'm not sure if a cooldown timer would be necessary also to keep this under control, but it would certainly give more reason for the credit-hunting rush-and-fight medics to help nearby teammates while they're at it). Just to spout a few random brainstorms and put them out there for side ideas...

So does having 2 credits awarded instead sound better to everyone then?