Characters saying their last words

[Toadilicious]

Is it just me or does it seem strange that I am watching a NPC give his last words before he dies and I don't get to share my healing power or revive power on him? I feel like that is a dark side move. When I tell him that I should carry him to the Bacta tank, and he says don't worry about me, in real life, I would reach into my pocket and grab a Medpac. I understand it forwards the story, but at the same time it just seems wrong. Does anybody agree with this?

[Rhyltran]

Is it just me or does it seem strange that I am watching a NPC give his last words before he dies and I don't get to share my healing power or revive power on him? I feel like that is a dark side move. When I tell him that I should carry him to the Bacta tank, and he says don't worry about me, in real life, I would reach into my pocket and grab a Medpac. I understand it forwards the story, but at the same time it just seems wrong. Does anybody agree with this?

 

Gameplay mechanics. The best way to realistically justify it is he was beyond help. Healing only heals minor injuries that can hinder combat performance. Revive wakes someone up who is incapacitated but not exactly dead. (That's why medical probes shock someone awake too.) So in this case his injuries are so severe your med packs and healing abilities aren't going to save him.

[AshlaBoga]

Gameplay mechanics. The best way to realistically justify it is he was beyond help. Healing only heals minor injuries that can hinder combat performance. Revive wakes someone up who is incapacitated but not exactly dead. (That's why medical probes shock someone awake too.) So in this case his injuries are so severe your med packs and healing abilities aren't going to save him.

 

Ha! I never thought of that.

[Kaisernick]

Is it just me or does it seem strange that I am watching a NPC give his last words before he dies and I don't get to share my healing power or revive power on him? I feel like that is a dark side move. When I tell him that I should carry him to the Bacta tank, and he says don't worry about me, in real life, I would reach into my pocket and grab a Medpac. I understand it forwards the story, but at the same time it just seems wrong. Does anybody agree with this?

 

Even the force cant heal all wounds my guess is there to far gone.

 

 

The consular tries to heal a man on Balmoria and it doesn't work.

 

[Toadilicious]

I feel like they could at least use the force to prolong the process until they get to the bacta tanks

[Spetulhu]

I feel like they could at least use the force to prolong the process until they get to the bacta tanks

 

Not all Force users are adept at healing, and even those that are might not be able to do it fast enough if someone's bleeding out. Yes yes, when playing the game healing spells go off in seconds - but that's standard MMO mechanics. You also have to hit some mobs several times to kill them even if a lightsaber should make short work of anything less than Rancor size. Only weak mobs usually fall to the first surprise attack.

[eldefail]

Gameplay and story segregation. All the medpacs, insta heals, stims we carry around? The characters in the story simply aren't kitted out that well, and even if they were, you can't fix everything. Somebody bleeding out is probably going to die no matter what force powers you have or how many medpacks you try.

 

A Certain Other MMO frequently illustrates gameplay and lore segregation very, very clearly. While you can resurrect a fallen group member in combat (depending on the caster's player class) the lore makes it very clear that resurrection is rather rare. Additionally, while undead players can freely cast light-based spells to heal and stuff, the lore states that very few undead are actually capable of it and that it causes them a cartoonishly absurd amount of pain to do so.

 

Here in SWTOR, again, we can assume that while we can pop a medpack that restores half our health instantly or a Sage can cast a few heals and bring you back up to full health, that doesn't mean it works that way in the setting from a story and lore standpoint. Game mechanics that make flashpoints, group pvp, and ops balanced and fun don't necessarily reflect lore nor are they intended to do so. Sometimes a video game's dev team makes it clear what is simply game mechanics and how it differs in the actual story, sometimes they don't. But an Imperial NPC states in a mission on Nar Shaddaa that "kolto can't revive a corpse." Said corpse was fully kitted out with cybernetics and automagic kolto injection systems, and by all accounts nigh invulnerable because of this but the player character still manages to chisel him down faster than his kolto can heal him.

 

Another example of gameplay and story segregation is the alignment system. Non force users really shouldn't be subjected to an alignment system at all, but it's in place across the board because it's fun. While a non-force sensitive individual who is a total jerk and criminal isn't going to be displaying dark side corruption any time soon story-wise, in game the option exists for the sake of fun.

 

The standard MMO leveling system, zone specific level ranges of mobs, things like that are also gameplay segregation. Game mechanics that gate content based on level are a story pacing mechanic, not necessarily a reflection of lore. Were that the case, Darth Baras could have and would have been sent to solo Balmorra and secure it for the Empire because he's a level 50 champion. No need for any of the level 20 player characters for any of act 1 when we have level 40+ NPCs who can literally solo the job. Why? Because the mechanics present you with mobs that pull in small groups, when the story describes a raging and costly battle for Balmorra that so far seems little more than a stalemate by the time the Empire story begins there.

 

Sorry for not being brief, tl;dr it isn't just a story forwarding mechanic, it's just gameplay and lore segregation that isn't as clear cut as it perhaps should be.