Distress Beacon for solo players in coma

[spark carbon]

How about a distress beacon that pings on map showing downed players in coma state. Would be great for solo players like myself. Maybe make it purchasable in vendor or something.

[cursive mesa]

The issue is...how beneficial would it even be? Most times coma'd players bleed out in like...30 seconds.

[spark carbon]

I have definitely experienced it lasting longer than 30 sec. On the flipside I have had a couple of people die in the middle of me trying to save them. Maybe if a player examines another player it could slow down or lengthen the coma state.

I don't know how much they are willing to change up the whole coma mechanic but some sort of alert to a downed player would be helpful in some situations

[woeful glade]

I am pretty sure that coma last now 5 minute.

and bleedings stop or go down significantly to allow for that

[spark carbon]

Does it depend on the injury?

[woeful glade]

I am not aware, but in one of the dev streams they did say they increased the coma time from 2 to 5 minutes.

so I assume, that organ/injury level does not dictate how long comas last.

[spark carbon]

I was at MS last night in coma, called for help and a couple of guys heard me. They found me just before I passed. Gave me the idea.

Really I think this could turn into like maybe some sort of rescue operations for players to earn xp or something if it's developed in that way.

[uneven salmon]

The question is who's going to wait the 5+ minutes with no knowledge that someone is even on the way to "save" them. Not to mention the time it's going to take to get there by chopper and then by foot to actually get to them, going to take a whole lot longer than 5 minutes.

[cursive mesa]

If you are not bleeding out, but most times you are absolutely drowning in your own blood while in a coma.

Another thing that needs to be said in regards to time is the time it takes to clear the area before you can be saved

[tired dust]

I personally feel like coma is perfect right now. It lasts a long time and there are ways of preventing it / bringing yourself back up out of coma. As for teammates not having time to clear bots for revive? Skill issues to put it bluntly. This is a tactical shooter there shouldn’t be any holds or helps

Someone who is laying unconscious cannot signal teammates

[woeful glade]

I think the main issue might tho that you just immediately fall into a coma.
perhaps giving the player like 10 to 20 seconds of fading consciousness to request aid could allow for that?

[tired dust]

There is though

[woeful glade]

I had several situations where I was insta-coma.

[tired dust]

There’s many ways you can enter coma and sometimes it’s slower than others

If you are instant coma you either are revealing weak points or not wearing the right armor

[woeful glade]

and how is this relevant to what I said? It doesnt change the fact that insta-comas do not allow you to ask for aid, unless you are playing with another person, comas might as well be disabled for solo players.

or there just happens to be a nearby player, but that is actually rather rare from my experience.

[tired dust]

But like I said

How would you ask someone for help, when you’re in a coma?

Couldn’t happen IRL

Maybe a distress signal before entering coma that must be activated?

[woeful glade]

yeah, that is why I suggested that even "insta-comas" should give you a grace perioud before you fade out completely.

[uneven salmon]

Normally if someone is calling for pararescue, it's your squad mates not you yourself.

[tired dust]

That would defeat the point of Instant coma

There is non instant comas

Just need to wear the right armor and manage injuries

I rarely have had instant coma after 600+ hours in this update

[woeful glade]

so I also assume that voice chat should be disabled if you are in coma, which it isnt currently.

[tired dust]

Honestly, yeah

It should be

Can’t talk in a coma

Can’t do anything

[woeful glade]

sure, but I guess then just remove comas for solo players.

and kill them instantly.

[tired dust]

Wouldn’t be fair

Oh

[woeful glade]

why?

[tired dust]

lol

Sorry

Too quick

Instant death for solo? Not so bad

Quicker trip back with full health honestly

[cursive mesa]

Disagreement.

[tired dust]

I don’t wait in coma even if there’s 6 players near me

Only squad mates

[cursive mesa]

The spirit of Jolly Cooperation can be one of spontaneity

[woeful glade]

yeah, whats the point of comas for solo play? most of the time faction members dont help you. like I said, unless you run with a squad coma is just meaningless fluff.

[tired dust]

I think that in PVE ONLY a ping for nearby friendlys that a teammate is in coma wouldn’t be SO bad. Maybe only if that player IS solo

[cursive mesa]

Sudden cooperation is always good

[tired dust]

Agreed

I have met and worked with many “random” players

I have actually saved solos from coma as well. Usually other faction

[cursive mesa]

If you stumble upon a Battle Brother, having him just drop dead with no recourse because you guys didnt squad up, when normally he would coma would suck some of the fun out of it.

[tired dust]

So that’s something

[woeful glade]

there is a difference between meeting other players and agreeing to stick together and just several faction members being in the same area.

[tired dust]

True

[cursive mesa]

Then Silent agreements are more common than I would think

[tired dust]

Silent agreements happen to me all the time. Even in PvP

Part of the fun

[cursive mesa]

Was Chasing YBL boss a week ago, he ran in and blasted an LRI noob, I blasted the YBL boss with a 00 through the ear, heard the choking coma sounds and told him to not give up while I patched him up

I am not LRI

[tired dust]

lol

[uneven salmon]

I would have blasted him as soon as I woke up. 🤣

[snow otter]

have to admit it's quite rare a teammate helps you from a coma. Of which half the time they problably didn't even know you where in one.

I think team mates being shown would probably increase the rates since they'd know

of which it's a advantage squadded players get anyway since their just sat in a discord and able to com it.

[cursive mesa]

I mean, they were lucky the song I was listening to at the time, cuz I listen to music and game, screw headphones, was at it's quiet part.

[spark carbon]

The "beacon" is an app that reads your health info through your watch and is triggered when certain monitors spike or drop to a certain thresh hold. It's a thing.

[spark carbon]

It is rare but I always try to help others who are downed. faction does not play into it for me I do pve anyway.

[snow otter]

i'll help people who are downed

but like, say someones just 20-30 meters away, theirs no way of knowing their coma'd to go and help them

[spark carbon]

exactly. That is why the distress beacon can save lives. wear it around your neck or wrist and it reads and monitors your heart rate and is triggered when monitor reads below certain thresh holds

[snow otter]

I wouldn't have it as a buyable, i'd have it as a default. But i like the idea

[spark carbon]

I think they could possibly work it where you save X amount of players from coma you earn xp or some reward. Call it rescue ops. Add a little more to being out there.

[uneven salmon]

I'll just say, vital signs alone absolutely cannot dictate whether someone is in a coma or not and it's a stretch to even say they can be informative to injuries sustained.

[spark carbon]

an AED can read a person and tell you if the device can be used on them. I don't think it's too far of a stretch.

[spark carbon]

Over at Lamang Initiative we have a great R&D dept. They're working on it.

[oak prawn]

99% of the time the distressed person would die while you're on a 2 minute chopper ride to them.

OTOH if someone is nearby maybe it would work.

[uneven salmon]

An AED reads heart rhythms and determines whether that person is potentially having a heart attack which is so far from anything combat related. You can take someones pulse by hand and come to the very same conclusion.

[spark carbon]

I said it's not too far of a stretch given what an aed can do. I don't think it's out of reach and could be easily believable. Elon could have us one in two weeks.

[craggy pendant]

Thing is, you're not taking into account things like an individual's "baseline" heart rhythm, or techniques such as breath control which will naturally lower it, an sudden adrenaline dump which might cause a spike in heart rate, or even mechanical failure of the AED itself (given the setting of the game, high rads will destroy delicate electronics).

None of those are indicative of a coma in and of themselves, nor will an AED tell you that someone is in a coma as a result of any of those conditions.

[opaque steppe]

This has been talked about to death and it doesn't work for two core reasons (which I would imagine have been called out here already):

1. Most people are going to die before anyone can get to them. You basically have to have someone immediately by your side.
2. Say you hit the button or whatever to trigger this beacon. So you... just sit there and stare at the screen hoping someone will come by? That's a miserable play experience. But it'd also be what a lot of players do because they'd rather not run back to their body. Especially new players that may think there's something remotely guaranteed about this feature.

And, at the end of the day, if you want to have someone pick you up when you die - then squad up. That's why cooperative play exists.

Deploying solo is a risk. This is one consequence of that risk.

[spark carbon]

I disagree and I see your argument as invalid. No offense.

[spark carbon]

I like realism in a game to the extent that it doesn't trump fun.

[cursive mesa]

No-No, Mike has the right of it, this suggestion has been made at least a dozen times this wipe alone, and the community frequently debates this, and this is frankly the conclusion that seems to be something us Oldheads seem to come to when thinking about Practicals

The theoreticals show that yes, this mechanic would be a good addition, and nobody denies that, but the practicals show that in a live gameplay environment, unless Comas get reworked entirely...this...just doesn't work how the theoreticals propose.

[spark carbon]

Well its an opinion I disagree with. I think it would add and promote teamwork. Personally I'd love to rescue peeps out in the field and wouldn't mind waiting a few minutes while someone fought to get to me.

That just me though. More people may feel the way you do about it.

[opaque steppe]

The reality is that "promotes teamwork" just doesn't actually happen unless there's significant incentive for most people to stop what they're doing, put themselves at risk and then go and help you.

Unless, of course, they're already in the area as noted above.

I've def helped a ton of ppl while in the same area that I'm questing in or looting or whatever. But I don't think I'd fly across the map to do so. That's just a lot of idle time when the person could just respawn and get back to their body in basically the same amount of time.

And, as I called out above, if people cared about "teamwork" - then they'd already be in a squad, which carries the benefit of the exact thing you're requesting without all the extra steps and more-often-than-not negative play experience of sitting on your coma screen waiting for someone that will never arrive before you finally bleed out and die.

[spark carbon]

Of course no one is gonna fly across the map lol. You're not convincing me that it's not a good idea. I play solo, im kinda introverted and like going at my own pace but like random opportunities that present themselves with other players. It is an advantage having a team no doubt. From what I've seen in the game your estimation of other players is some what off. I've helped and have had other players help me plenty of times with no promise of reward. Has been some of the funnest times in gzw.

[opaque steppe]

I definitely didn't say that nobody would help anyone else without a reward and I specifically said I've done that for others.

But if people are playing the game and otherwise busy or not in your specific POI, people aren't going to fly to you because they're in the middle of doing something. It takes time to exfil and you'd likely be dead before they got to you.

So it only makes sense if someone is already nearby.

[spark carbon]

I agree. Your hotspots is where you're most likely to benefit from it. They could even give xp towards reviving X amount of downed players. I think it would be cool to rescue someone and be the reason they finished a task and made it back to base successfully.

[upbeat cairn]

2.5 minutes.

That's how long it took my buddy to die while I tried to get to him

[main lance]

I think this is just a risk solo players under take..noone to help.you unless a blue Berry is kind and nearby

[prime glade]

Didn't they change the time it takes to die? I thought they recently extended the amont of time u can be in coma

[prime glade]

I think I would depending on the scenario. I also think there would be times that I'd just kind of be playing and pretend to be a PJ etc lol.

I really do wish there was a way to have a little becon or notification, if you choose to. Even if it was an item that let u do it like a tracker but for health. Thinking of the old life alert commercials

[cerulean palm]

Could be a great feature to use if player in your radius, but i would press skip coma anyway xD

[cursive mesa]

Yes, but they didn't artificially slow how fast you can die from other factors in a coma, such as if you have a light bleed but you coma from an organ and not blood loss, you can be in a coma for a while, but a Coma from blood loss quickly spirals into death unless someone can treat you within a matter of seconds

[uneven salmon]

Only to 5 minutes and if no other wound kills you beforehand. Mike has it right though, no one is going to sit on the coma screen with no way of knowing if someone is coming to help.

Quicker to respawn.

[spark carbon]

Well its getting a few downvotes so maybe not as good idea as I thought.

[uneven salmon]

I'd say it's really not that hard to sort of do this now. Choose an area you want to operate out of because obviously you can't cover the whole map. Send out some messages to squads in that vicinity letting them know you want to operate as a sort of "Pararescue" and will come to the aid of fallen members. Get eyes on the map and when you see a friendly marker drop, head on over and if you sent out messages and got replies, that lets you know they are willing to wait for a possible rescue. If they didn't reply, that sort of lets you know right off the bat they are just going to respawn and not bother with waiting.

You'd probably get more traction messaging squads and telling them you want to be a dedicated "medic" to that squad, avoiding combat and only responding to medical situations.

"Hey, you guys need a medic? You got one right here". I know my squad would jump at getting a message like that, like absolutely tag along.