SWTOR/STO healing from a canon perspective

So my boyfriend is a big, BIG Star Wars fan, as are some of my mates. I'm not especially knowledgeable - I've seen the films and read a couple of books in preparation for SWTOR. Having explained to them how healing will work in SWTOR, none of those Star Wars buffs I know have responded positively. Apparently there's little canonic evidence of the Force-based in-combat healing we'll see in the game, and the Smuggler/Agent mechanic of shooting kalta darts sounds silly even to me as a relative SW noob.

I responded similarly to healing in STO - it's all really a bit of handwaving to bypass the fact that few of the healing abilities we're given work in the context of Star Trek. Medical tricorders, triage, etc just don't work like that in the TV shows or films.

I understand the need for this from a design perspective... kind of... but this kind of cognitive dissonance does somewhat spoil my experience. And it also makes me wonder why the designers didn't take the opportunity suggested by SW and ST lore (can you say 'lore' for SF?) to ditch the traditional healing models, as GW2 seems to be trying to do.

Anyone else have thoughts on this?

I've been sort of taking the healing thing for granted when thinking about SWTOR. I hadn't really put much thought towards it; I suppose there will be force healing and perhaps medic healing as there was in SWG.

My biggest concern with SWTOR, right now, is the fact that they have addressed the fans' desires for space combat by installing a tunnel / rail shooter (a-la Starfox) into the game and calling it "Cinematic space combat". I'm hoping that it's wholly optional, but I've been hearing rumblings that it is not.

It's always a hard call between following "lore" type elements and what makes a good game (by good I refer to a game should be easy to access and enjoyable for the majority of players, not a select few puritanicals).

My usual argument for having a healing type class/role in a game where the IP doesn't really have it in place: I don't see characters in the "lore" coming back from the dead repeatedly. Maybe they should just use perma-death! Hope you don't want to get attached to your character!

As long as they don't go to a potion-spam system like some Asian MMO's I'm happy!

We would all love to see cannon in everything that relates to our beloved movies.. However with game mechanics it just does not work.. Can you imagine having to have your healer in the middle of ground combat in STO run up to you and hit you with a hypo? Just the run time to get to you would insure you die..And than if you speaking of cannon let us look at the kits.. I never once seen a Star Trek episode where McCoy or Spock stuck someone in place by increasing the gravity in one location only.. Nor do I recall Scotty or Geordi sending out drones that attacked non the less little machines that healed..

We can only have so much Cannon and keep the game fun for all.. :)

Quote by DCollins

We would all love to see cannon in everything that relates to our beloved movies.. However with game mechanics it just does not work.. Can you imagine having to have your healer in the middle of ground combat in STO run up to you and hit you with a hypo?

You're taking the standard healthbar/healing/death model that we see in almost every MMORPG now as a given. This model isn't 'the game mechanics', it's just one way of doing combat that designers now seem terrified of changing or incapable of imagining differently, despite the difficulty it creates with the IP and, frankly, the sheer repetitiveness of it.

LotRO made a bit of an effort in this regard by switching 'health' to 'morale', which helps make the healing abilities of Minstrels, Captains etc make a little more sense. Rather than dying, you fall back or retreat from battle. IP intact, gameplay intact.

GW2 looks to be doing away with healing classes entirely, which despite being a healer in almost every game I play I thoroughly approve of. Also, their idea for replacing 'dead' with 'downed' (a state in which you can still do stuff) suggests to me that it's possible to reimagine this health/heals/death model that has become so dominant.

I would prefer to see healthbars done away with entirely in some MMORPGs, especially ones with a strong IP base in which regular death and resurrection makes no sense.

I can kinda see how the force could revitalize and re energize a person in cannon they talk about how one sith lord cured someone from death with the force so its not like its not unheard of in cannon

problem is in the programs you got hit or hit someopne with a laser most of em went down first shot and some even evaporated.

Would spoil the game if you died instantly every time yopu got hit and ecven the dedicated fans would blac at the fact of playng a game where you died so easily.

on fantasy games it is the same. in tv as example. old robin hood movies. an arrow will needed to kill the enemy. but in fantasy games you need more as one arrow.

i think it is ok. when it is not possible to get a killshot . but some games has a sniper gun. so 1 hit only is needed.

but in sto are something like killshot possible with exploit and expose attacks
as science you can push it very high the chance to get expose. so enemy has no chance avoid the attack