Health and Healing

The Health system used in Ward Thirteen differs greatly from the system used by most RPGs today. It most cloesely resembles systems used in both Pen and Paper RPGs and modern FPS games. In the Ward, every bullet matters, and any wound can be fatal. Players should never get to a level of complacency that they don’t fear a firearm.

As far as Vitals go, you have three main stats to worry about. Your first stat is only displayed in combat, just above your head: Suppression. Every combatant has a Suppression level, serving as a makeshift guardian angel. Initially, our combat system was too deadly, and surprise attacks led to easy massacres. In light of the play tests, we took a cue from action movies. Mainly, the main character always seems to just barely avoid being shot, making that first round to actually land stand out in dramatic fashion.

Suppression in Detail

Your Suppression level is on a  scale of 0-100, with 100 being full. When a shot is calculated, your current Suppression level is applied as a % chance to avoid that shot entirely. If you have a current value of 75, and an enemy fires a single bullet at you, you have a 75% chance to dodge; however you then take the full force of th round directly to your suppression. Suppression recovers at a slow rate, only when not taking any damage for a few seconds. The recovery effect is similar to the regeneration effect used in many FPS today.

Blood and Bleeding

Your second level of health is also your most important, Blood. Many games use the arbitrary value of ‘Health’ for absorbing damage. However ultimately, regardless of how much physical damage your body takes, the primary cause of death is the actual bleeding out of those wounds. In Ward Thirteen, Blood is your primary life bar and recovers at a very slow rate. All damage that gets past your suppression is subtracted from your current blood level. However there is an even deadlier force hidden behind each trigger pull.

Critical Hits

In many games, critical hits represent striking a vital point, often causing double damage. We’ve taken that interpretation and carried it even further. In Ward Thirteen, high caliber ammunition deals less bleed damage, but in turn has a higher critical chance. Each critical hit represents striking an organ, still causing minimal bleed damage, but causing a wound, something much more dangerous.

Wounds

Your third and final health system, wounds represent vital injuries sustained in battle.  Your wound table has ten ‘slots’, with a scale of 0-10. Whenever a critical hit is scored, you suffer a wound equal to the caliber level of the ammunition used. Each subsequent critical hit fills the next box, then the next, until the table is full. Once the table is full, any additional critical hits are distributed evenly among all existing wounds. Every 5 seconds, you lose blood equal to the current value of all of your wounds added together. Because of this, even a few small wounds can lead to death if not teated quickly.

Medic!

Now when designing our healing system, we designed around the idea that all combat oriented players are likely to pick up basic medical skills; because of this all lower level medical abilities simply buy time, not fix the problem. This is necessary to keep players from quickly trivializing injuries. Bandages are able to stop one wound from bleeding, however do not heal the wound. Naturally, you will recover 1 point off of each wound every 15 minutes, meaning numerous small wounds recover faster than a small amount of deep ones. Strenuous activity such as further combat can reopen the wound, negating the bandage effect. Surgeons can attempt to operate, attempting to heal one wound, however this is physically exhausting, and can only be preformed every 30 minutes or so.

Fade to Black

Finally, defeat in Ward Thirteen doesn’t mean death. At 5% blood level, you are incapacitated. In this state, you cannot move, attack, use items, speak, or be the target of any attacks. In this state you also cease bleeding, and instead bleed out at a level of 1% every 5 seconds. An ally with the proper training (or equipment) may attempt to resuscitate you, restoring you to 10% blood, and temporarily halving your original blood loss. In the event you hit 0%, you are Medevaced to the nearest hospital. While in the hospital bed, you recover at an accelerated rate, however you are charged for every minute spent inside. You can opt for professional surgery, healing your wound table, at a high price, or you can even walk right out the door, waiting is for wusses right? Regardless of your choice, your wounds all cease bleeding, but remain on your table (unless you opt for surgery). You also have a chance of receiving permanent wounds this way, however it’s rather rare.

With the proper equipment,a player can outfit themselves as a proper combat medic, running from cover to cover patching up their allies, and attempting to revive fallen comrades. Due to the generally diminishing nature of wounds however, be sure to remind them they are far from invincible, and the best you can do is slow their trip to the hospital.

In short, play it safe, keep your tools handy, don’t die; and be sure to tip your medic.