The new knack system with a bunch of skills that are on 2 minute timers, where you drop the timer to 1 minute if you're favored in the discipline seems overly complex. Additionally, I think making first aid a 2 minute timer for anyone who doesn't have bio favored will slow down combat. I know there's a desire to make it seem like there's a benefit for specialization in something, but I don't think timer shenanigans is the way to do it. I think a medic can feel like a medic without being able to do first aid twice as fast as everyone else.

I politely disagree with that argument. I have played FI with both 5min and 1 Min first aid. 5 Min is a life time, but it changes the scape of combat and forces you to make choices.

Game Balance wise 1 min bandage for everyone is a bit Broken IMO.

1) It allows any character regardless of classification or background to be a Primo Front Line Medic
2) It makes Tend Minor Wounds and Skinweaves almost useless as for 30CP you no longer need them. Unless you choose to handicap yourself, but from a min/max standpoint why would you not take it for 30cp.
3)The only Healing Procedures that a medic needs at that Point is Heal 1 Instantly and Restore Life. With all other Characters able to do 1 min bandage the need for the Biologists to use a Heal 1 instant is much lower and their pool of skills can be saved to Mitigate Deaths

With the ability to have a large percentage of the players be able to restore someone back up to full base vit after 1 min it makes creating fights more difficult. at that point Pure numbers will win almost 100% of the time in an even skill level fight.

Item 3 Is exactly what I have seen in FI2, and from a Player Perspective is cool for the hey look we kick ass, but it makes it harder for cast to give a solid fight with out overpowering. It also seems out of place from a Classification and Studied Discipline stand Point.

IMO I would suggest 3 min bandage for someone who was not a Biologist. A not being specialized in that science should mean you are not as good at it as someone who is. If you want to perk it and cut that time down then that is your characters decision and shows you put effort and time into getting better.

---

Leader of Vanguard Squad, Archipelago Liberation Forces

I have to agree with Maddums here. Back when it was 5 minutes vs. 1 minute to First Aid, specialized medics were the only ones doing it and there was a HUGE benefit to specializing. However, it was too much and made it virtually useless for non-medics to pick up First Aid. I like the idea of slowing combat down. It lets encounters go on longer, allows for more of the feeling of danger and harrowing escapes, and gives the specialists a little more of a feeling like it was worth it to bother specializing for the reasons Matt gave above.

3 minutes would almost be too long, IMO but it's SO much better than 5. It will be worth a combat playtest, for sure.

My suspicion also is that it will actually speed combat up. Right now there’s a tendency to play it safe with an attrition game, because there’s little cost to getting dropped. This will slightly increase the impact of someone going down, which makes the attrition game much faster.

I'm torn on this, on one hand I see the value of making bio specialists better at it.

On the other I think this will make combat less fun, especially for the first few events as people would t easily have access to any faster healing. I also worry that cast will have to have a greater artificial restraint put on them to not party wipe the players, and that could mean less of a fun time for them.

Reading the other calls being added, it looks like combat isn't going to be purely "kill it and it'll go away" which gives a variety of combat scenarios that don't necessarily require Vitality healing or completely dropping your opponent.