Using Medi-Kit?

[PzSniper]

I've a sergeant wounded, if i change turn he die for fatal wound.

Ok, i saved the previous turn... so i give a medi-kit from a buddy near him but... i sergeant can't use it, i've enought energy point, but a msg tell me: "No one on there"

 

What is it?!?

And how fo i decide if use every option? Painkiller...Stimulant....etc...

 

I hope someone kind wanna clear me the use.

[NKF]

In UFO and TFTD, the user of the medikit cannot use the medikit on his or her self. It must be used on someone else.

 

To use them on soldiers who are conscious, you must be facing them. For unconscious soldiers, you must be standing over them.

 

Pain killer - Gives a bonus to morale if a soldier has less than 100% morale. Don't even bother giving soldiers with low psi-strength any pain killers, as the aliens will easily decimate any remaining morale the unit has with one panic attack. Otherwise, great for stopping soldiers from panicking or going berserk if a lot of their comrades have fallen.

 

Stimulant - Increases your energy if it's below 100% -- I think only up the amount of hit points your soldier has. It also reduces the paralysis bar (the white bar on top of your health bar). Basically great for giving a tired soldier a boost. Its most important function is to wake up a stunned soldier.

 

Heal - Just that -- reduces 1 point of critical wounds in any body part you select on the left screen

 

- NKF

[JellyfishGreen]

As NKF said: Have the medic hold the medikit, facing the wounded soldier or standing over the body, then use the medikit.

 

Heal is the usual option, to close those fatal wounds ASAP. Click on the red wounded parts in the scanner window until the red goes away or you run out of time.

 

Stimulant only to revive unconscious soldiers, but I guess I'll remember to use it now when there's been a bit of smoke inhalation I could do without.

I don't really use Painkiller at all, except for the odd time where I wondered what it did.

 

I use about 3 medikits distributed among my squad of 10; generally I find it good to give one to the flying suit/high TU soldier to make them a "Flying Doctor". Sometimes I forget who's got the kit, though, and have to do a quick rummage through inventories.

[PzSniper]

Ty very much guys i'll try it asap!

[Zombie]

Don't mind me, necromancy is a hobby.

 

Today I did some calculations on the plasma-based weapons to see how much of an effect they have on a rookie. Now, assuming the best-case scenario where a rookie has the max of 40 for health and 12 for front armor, he will die approximately 51% of the time against a Plasma Pistol hit, 68% against the Plasma Rifle and 78% against the Heavy Plasma. Those aren't very good odds of surviving and by default, less of a chance to even whip out the ol' kit to heal the injured soldier. I didn't take into account when a soldier is dealt 0 damage and thus doesn't require healing, nor the probabilities in the 1-9 damage range where 0 fatal wounds are applied. If those are factored in, the probability of using the Medi-Kit drops even more. More still if the shot connects anywhere than the front plates. And even more if he took damage but wasn't allocated fatal wounds and then shot again.

 

Let's look at the grim situation. If your rookie is unlucky and has 25 for health (the lowest possible that I've seen in the CE) and 12 for front armor, he stands a 65% chance of dying against any shot from the Plasma Pistol, 77% for the Plasma Rifle and 84% for the Heavy Plasma. And don't even bother looking at what would happen with an Alien Grenade, Stun Bomb or Blaster Bomb against a freshmeat rookie. If any of those hit at GZ, it would mean instant death or a high probability of being stunned.

 

Now, let's face it, the only time you where you absolutely need the Medi-Kit is for healing fatal wounds. The other situations can rectify themselves given enough time and proper soldier management. Looking at the probabilities of not even getting a fatal wound applied due to death, it raises the question of Medi-Kit usage. There will not be too many occasions to use it, but I suppose it's better than the alternative if you didn't have it at all. But wouldn't logic dictate to research the more powerful laser weapons to kill the aliens faster or research Alien Alloys to get better armor protection? The more armor a soldier has, the greater the opportunity you have to use the Medi-Kit as the soldier will not die, just get injured. Unless my scientists are running out of research topics fast , the Medi-Kit is pretty much a non-issue in the first few months anyway (no alien bases yet to do a smash 'n grab so what's the sense). At least that was always my thinking in the past and the numbers certainly support that action.

 

So how many of you make the Medi-Kit a research priority? Is it really that important early on? Your views please.

 

- Zombie

[Kret]

As you've stated, it is rare that a "no-armored" unit will survive from a single plama shot, so I prioritize other topics. When I do get around at reasearching it, I normally produce 1-3 of them at each base as they can be tossed around fairly easy.

[NKF]

As mentioned, the first month's a doozy where you aren't going to get any furious research done. I would probably put the laser pistol/rifle higher up on the list before getting the medikit , but it does feature amongst my early bread-and-butter topics. Come to think of it, I unconciously select Laser Weapons right away on every new campaign. Force of habit, I guess.

 

Some topics that I would ideally like right off the bat include the plasma cannon and power armour. To be realistic though, I still need to gather up some resources to build them, and I need to expand the engineer workforce. So rather than have the research done but not being able to produce them, they can usually wait a bit. During this time I might as well get the medikits done. Also having the motion scanners even lower on the priority list helps free up a bit of time. I only ever build one or two, so it's not as essential as other items.

 

Even without armour, I want to at least be able to save a soldier who may have only just been grazed and is slowly bleeding to death. I'm not terribly fond of imminent death countdown timers.

 

- NKF

[Bomb Bloke]

My research goes as follows, laser weapondry up to rifles (I don't bother manufactoring the pistols), personal armor, then medkits.

 

Personal armor isn't as tough as power or flying suits, but it makes a difference and it's cheap.

 

I usually then head off into heavy plasma land before making a beeline towards the Avenger.

[Knan]

Medkits get researched early. My reasoning is that whenever I get seriously hurt units, it's usually the rambo guys that somehow have killed eight aliens at Terror Site-1 and got a whole bunch of shrapnel wounds from various grenades, burns, exploding scenery and mishaps.

 

Losing that experience hurts. Even though Mr. Rambo will spend the next month in hospital.

 

(Not to mention that I get rather attached to units when there are two survivors from a mission.)

 

Priority #2 is laser weapons and personal armor. So the odds of actually surviving a plasma shot goes up from <1%.

 

The first, extremely struggling, part of the game is usually most fun anyway.

[Alpha_Monkey]

Agreed.

That's why for this game I've been deliberately nerfing my research, with about 3 guys working on each topic.

As has been said, medkits are more important in the late game when you have lots of armour for your guys.

 

I've just reached this point, with a little over half my guys in power suits, the rest in personal (which has actually made a surprising difference. The amount of shots square in the face to be stopped by that stuff......I'm sure it never used to be so effective). I've also been holding back on the medkits, by assigning two troopers per squad as the designated medic. Just to make things interesting, like. Contrary to BB's opinion, I'm finding the Laser Pistol to be invaluable for room-clearing so far. Especially considering my lack of heavy weaponry.

 

Although I got surprised when I took down a terror ship full of Ethereals and Sectopods recently. I'd been mostly encountering floaters and a few snakemen thus far (no mutons yet), so I was caught unprepared. My psi-labs were still being constructed, and my men only had a single prototype Heavy laser by pure chance, which saved my ass. Hell, my two snipers still had the standard rifle for accuracy!

 

Lost my tank (again), and half my squad needs the next month in sickbay.

 

edit:

As well as seeing more use in the personal armour, which strikes me as unusual, something else has become apparent. Laser weapons are VERY unreliable in scoring a hard kill. Compared to my usual games, this slow-tech game has seen LOTS of aliens I'd previously tagged getting back to their feet. Lots.

This is usually a good thing, since at best you can capture them, at worst use them for reaction training. However, Chryssalids have a very nasty habit of playing dead, then striking when I happen to have my back to them. Buggers.

I've taken to having an extermination squad with AC-HE's bringing up the rear and frying the corpses to be sure.

[Knan]

This is usually a good thing, since at best you can capture them, at worst use them for reaction training. However, Chryssalids have a very nasty habit of playing dead, then striking when I happen to have my back to them. Buggers.

I've taken to having an extermination squad with AC-HE's bringing up the rear and frying the corpses to be sure.

 

Ooh, echoes of Aliens. I like it. AC-I is more stylish on that front, though. (And my main illumination method on night missions)

[Zombie]

To be honest, there are a few occasions when a Medi-Kit would have come in handy in some of my campaigns. A problem is that your rookies don't have a whole lot of Time Units to muck around with. If you space your men out enough to thwart a sneak alien grenade attack, it also means the guy with the Medi-Kit will do a fair bit of walking to reach the soldier in peril. That reduces the number of injections which can be administered in that round. It also puts the medic within reach of the alien which shot your soldier. None of those are welcomed situations.

 

I suppose part of my problem is that I don't bring along a slug of Medi-Kits on a mission. One or two of them have enough doses to easily last a whole mission, but that places them in the hands of only a couple select individuals and usually those guys are too far away to help. Throwing them are a great way to bridge the gap though.

 

However, if your soldier has a small fatal wound which is slowly draining health, why not huff it back to the transport and try to abort? If your men aren't all pinned down and it is early enough in the mission where you aren't committed to completing the task, getting the team back to the transport for a trip to the emergency room is certainly feasible. With one fatal wound and health at 24 you have about 22 rounds to get him back. Plus, fatal wounds are automatically healed at base and don't add to the amount of time your wounded sit in the infirmary to recover. Basically a poor-man's Medi-Kit. Then again, it depends on how much health your soldier has left, how far away from the transport he is and how many fatal wounds are present.

 

- Zombie

[Knan]

If your men aren't all pinned down and it is early enough in the mission where you aren't committed to completing the task...

 

That's two very big ifs...

[Alpha_Monkey]

Sometimes it helps to have a spare medkit waiting back on the Ranger.

If my guys are hurt badly, they usually lose enough accuracy to be combat inneffective anyway, so I'd may as well pull them back if possible.

[Gimli]

What I do is to bring five medi-kits on a mission. The two guys that are in the back of the Skyranger will get two medi-kits and the other 3 are left on the floor of the Skyranger on the square closest to the ramp. That way I can use the guys in the back to heal or remove stun damage or if they're too far away I can have someone else just pick one of the floor ones and use them. Works well most of the time.

[Strong Bob]

I research medi-kits directly after researching armor.

 

I then assign all my men with one medi-kit.

 

Medi-kits are used in extremely rare situations in my experience, regardless of whatever armor my men are wearing, wounds are less common than death. However, I've noticed that whenever I do need a medi-kit, I don't have one nearby. So I just give one to everybody and make sure I send the team out in groups. Whole problem solved. (I also never had the need to have more than one kit per soldier. I've always wondered why there were 10 shots of each option, when I do not think I've gone below 7 in all the time I've ever played.)

 

Medikits only take a couple weeks of research, as I remember. I usually blow right through the research period without encountering any aliens, so I don't see the problem with devoting resources to them.

[NKF]

Sometimes it helps to have a spare medkit waiting back on the Ranger.

If my guys are hurt badly, they usually lose enough accuracy to be combat inneffective anyway, so I'd may as well pull them back if possible.

 

Combat ineffective? Nay, nay, nay! They many no longer be able to shoot straight, but they can still be effective as grenadiers!

 

Unfortunately the problem with badly wounded soldiers is that they're one-hit wonders. They probably will not survive the next shot if it does any damage.

 

- NKF

[Alpha_Monkey]

I dunno, they tend to lose a chunk of throwing accuracy, too.

 

Maybe this doesn't matter so much (since throwing seems to be inherently fairly accurate anyway), but I've not been willing to chance it so far. As you say, if it doesn't work out they get shot in the face for their efforts.

[Knan]

Bah. If they miss by a square or three, so what? An alien grenade works admirably to vaporize the friendly neighbourhood sectoid(s) nevertheless.

[NKF]

Unlike firing accuracy, throwing stuff is a bit more reliable thanks to the area-effect nature of the grenades. This means you can easily afford to fudge the throws a bit, the grenade will still travel in the general direction you want it to go.

 

Oh, and don't forget: Blaster launchers. They don't need firing accuracy.

 

- NKF

[Zombie]

The Stun Rod also doesn't have any accuracy restrictions due to fatal wounds and the like. But then again, it would be a suicide mission for the unlucky soldier to charge an alien with just a prod. I should really check if fatal wounds affect melee stats sometime. It would be interesting to see if it does even though it doesn't matter since the Stun Rod's accuracy overrides soldier stats and is a constant 100%.

 

Unlike firing accuracy, throwing stuff is a bit more reliable thanks to the area-effect nature of the grenades. This means you can easily afford to fudge the throws a bit, the grenade will still travel in the general direction you want it to go.

Today I was fooling around in a mission and decided to see how inaccurate a throw could be if TA was 0%. The throw was surprisingly accurate considering what 0% FA would have on a shot. Still, with the grenade landing 4-5 tiles away from the intended target on a consistent basis, it negates the attack on the vulnerable under armor and lowers damage considerably. I suppose the more powerful grenades would be more beneficial, but HE packs are hard to throw and the Alien Grenade isn't available right away. And a mis-thrown Proximity Grenade is useless.

 

- Zombie

[NKF]

Proximity mines should never be handled by maimed grenadiers! Never. Ever! At least not without flying suits.

 

Standard grenades are probably not going to be too effective on a really wild misthrow, but you have to admit that your cripple is going to be consistently more effective with grenades for ranged combat than with a gun.

 

You can always keep this up even when you're well into the game, and not just restrict it to early missions. That way access to alien grenades and having the strength to lob high explosives will not be too much of a problem.

 

As for using the maimed as stun rodders - that's not a bad idea. Perhaps not dedicate them in that role, but they could carry one around with them.

 

- NKF

[Bomb Bloke]

Rocket troopers usually don't need all that much accuracy, especially if they're high up. Flying suits help out there but there's usually something nearby to climb anyway. The problem with all the decent explosive weapons is that they're slow and have a rather limited amount of "shots".

 

Plus, fatal wounds are automatically healed at base and don't add to the amount of time your wounded sit in the infirmary to recover.

Bit late on the ball with this one, but I had a hunch it wasn't quite right and only just got around to chasing it up.

 

Troopers take between half a day to a day and a half to recover for every hit point they lose. Using a medkit to heal a fatal wound restores three hit points.

 

Given that a hit can deal up to three fatal wounds (if memory serves, anyway. In theory a unit can recieve more as he takes in more hits, but this usually just leads to a "truly" fatal wound), so patching all of these can therefore remove up to 13 days from his recovery time... whereas even repairing a single fatal will still prevent at least a days wait (assuming the unit has lost at least two HPs).

 

Given that for every turn that passes a fatal wound will deal more and more damage, ultimately whether it's practical to heal them depends on how long it'll take you to do so, how many there are, and how long it'll take you to win/abort the mission if you choose to ignore them.

 

Also keep in mind that fatal wounds give extra penalties besides constant health loss, such as decreased time units and lowered accuracy.

[NKF]

I think zombie meant the fatal wound condition itself as opposed to the effects of the lost health (which you do suffer from in by way of sickbay time). Sort of like Apocalypse where all forms of nastiness that's happening to your soldier will cease the moment the soldier leaves combat and is only left with whatever health was lost once back in the cityscape. Of course, you cannot cause individual soldiers to leave combat in UFO, but escaping the battle will have the same effect and the bleeding and stun damage just vanishes automagically.

 

- NKF