Damage In Combat

Damage Overview

There are no 'hit points' in FS3. Instead each wound is tracked separately, and you are given an overall damage modifier (a percentage) based on the accumulated damage you've taken. The more seriously hurt you are (or your vehicle is), the less combat effective you will become, until eventually you won't be capable of doing anything but flailing around aimlessly.

Damage Levels

Damage is deliberately vague and divided into four levels. Below are the levels with an example for what it means for firearms and unarmed damage. You can extrapolate other kinds of damage from that.

Severity Wound Modifier Fighter Firearms Unarmed
Light -5 Scorch Marks Grazed Slight bruise
Moderate -10 Small chunks missing Missed everything important but hurts a lot Nice shiner / bloody lip
Serious -50 Intermittent system response, ion leak Bleeding badly, possibly nicked a bone or something important Broken nose / loose teeth
Critical -80 slow speed, unresponsive controls, sheered off wing Potentially life-threatening. Organ/artery damage Concussion or busted rib

Players are expected to RP appropriate to the injuries they have taken. The combat system will inflict modifiers based on wounds, as shown in the table above. Modifiers are cumulative, meaning if you have two light wounds your total modifier is -10.

Viewing Damage

You can see a summary of damage taken in the Combat HUD, or you can use the +damage command.

  • +damage - Views your damage.
  • +damage <name> - Views someone else's damage, PC, NPC or Vehicle
  • +damage/move <#>=<location> - Spends a luck point to move the hit location of a wound to yourself. This can only be done within a few minutes after the wound.
  • +damage/notes <name>/<#>=<notes> - Adds notes to a wound. This is appended to any old notes.

Name may always be a PC, NPC or Vehicle

Damage Status

When you look at your overall damage display, you will see your wounds listed (past and present) as well as your overall damage status:

  • Fit for Duty = You may be a little banged up, but you're fine.
  • Light Duty = You are restricted to light duty. Limited sparring, simulators, patrols, no major strike missions until you're Fit for Duty.
  • Hospitalized = You are hospitalized, and must remain there until your status is downgraded to Restricted Duty.
  • Down for Repairs = Vehicles are down for repairs if they should not be operated until fixed.

Damage status is only relevant after the combat is over. While the bullets are still flying, you're not terribly concerned about whether your ship will be down for repairs when (if) you eventually land it. Personal injuries will make movement including piloting more difficult, but often adrenaline will dull out the pain until the end of the engagement. Critical injuries, however, will be extremely noticeable.

Types of Damage

There are two types of damage: Wound and Stun. Wound damage is from things like bullets, neutron bolts, shrapnel, etc. Stun damage is from fists, tazers, fatigue and other generally non-lethal damage. Both wound and stun damage factor into your overall damage modifier. Wound damage will KO you quicker, and heals much slower. Stun damage can conceivably be lethal (people do sometimes get beaten to death by bare hands) but this is at the organizer's discretion.

Healing

Wounds heal automatically over time, and the damage display will give a rough idea of how long it will take until fully healed. This time is influenced by a number of factors, including your character's attributes and any medical attention you receive.

Medicine and Repair

Medics and doctors have some commands available to them to speed the healing process. Vehicles may be treated (repaired) as well.

  • +treat is a quick, emergency action such as first aid (for people) or jury-rigging (for vehicles). You may only use +treat within a few minutes after the injury. A given wound may only be treated once, but you may use the command again if the person is re-injured. Treating may also be done in combat (see next section).
  • +heal is for long-term treatment or repairs. You only need to use the command once, and you will be marked as caring for that person/vehicle until they are fully healed or until you stop healing them. +heal may not be used in combat. You may only have one "patient" for every 2 levels of healing skill. In other words, an expert doctor (12) could be caring for 6 patients simultaneously. Multiple docs/mechanics can treat a single patient/vehicle.

If you fail your treatment roll, it is possible for you to make the wound heal SLOWER, but you will never cause more damage. Keep that in mind if your skill is low.

  • +treat <name> - Performs fast first aid or jury-rigging.
  • +damage/scan - Scans your current location for damaged characters/vehicles. Will not show NPCs.
  • +heal <name> - Ongoing medical treatment/repair. Continues until fully healed.
  • +stopheal <name> - Stops healing someone.
  • +healing - Shows who you're healing.

First Aid In Combat

Applying first aid in combat is a very effective way to aid your teammates. Treated wounds have only 1/2 the damage modifier, making the injured soldier more combat effective as well as less likely to get KO'd. Do not use the +treat command in combat, but instead use the +combat/treat combat action. +combat/treat may be used on vehicles as well to reflect jury-rigging.

The treat action has a chance of un-KOing a KO'd player or vehicle. A combat medic can also use the 'rally' action if it's more appropriate ICly.