As we have changed to ACE3 I've taken this off of sticky. I'll try and get something up for ACE3, or if anyone else wants to note down their findings and share, please do.
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Some of my thoughts on how to manage combat casualties
For the uninitiated, we use the @agm mod to simulate combat injuries within our ops. This simulates the need to stabilise and medically treat injured and unconscious comrades.
There are 3 basic states a soldier can be in; injured but conscious, injured and unconscious, or dead. Injuries can be light to heavy and can result in various states of blood loss and pain. There are four pieces of medical equipment which can be used to recover the situation; bandages, morphine injections, epinephrine injections (Epi) and blood bags. Bandages stem bleeding, morphine reduces pain, Epi awakens from unconsciousness, and blood recovers from blood loss.
@agm is relatively sophisticated. It tracks your blood content, injuries, pain and morphine usage. Bleed and you suffer blood loss, not enough blood and you suffer from poor vision and eventually collapse into unconsciousness, too much morphine and you can overdose and die. Epi injections speed blood flow, give an Epi injection before stemming the flow of blood and you accelerate blood loss and potentially put the patient into unconsciousness. It can all sound complicated, but don’t panic, it’s easily countered by following some basic principles.
Hint – try to operate on the battlefield in buddy teams. You are responsible for keeping an eye on your buddy; he keeps an eye on you. If your buddy goes down the following simple steps keep you both alive.
GOSH, your buddy has been shot and he’s unconscious. You know this because you either see him, or he doesn’t answer his radio call. Yes, that’s right he’s unconscious and this is simulated by freezing his ARMA inputs and he can’t talk….
Step 1 – find your buddy. If you can see him then you’re already ahead of the game.
Step 2 – report your buddy is down and secure the area. Don’t immediately rush to his aid; if he has been shot then whoever shot him will probably shoot you. If you’ve killed that pesky enemy soldier remember he probably has a battle buddy. If support is on its way wait if you can. If it’s safe(ish) drag or carry your buddy to hard cover or concealment. This is done by using the interact with another menu (ctrl & left window). Defilade can also provide cover, and don’t forget you can work on your buddy lying down so low walls and rocks also work.
Step 3 – stabilise your buddy. Blood loss is the immediate risk, put bandages on him. Don’t diagnose, you know he is shot so get on and stop that bleeding. As a general rule put two bandages on him straight away, don’t diagnose in-between, just put those bandages on.
Step 4 – assess the situation. Is the area secure, do you need to move your buddy again, do you have support? If you and your buddy are safe work on him there, if not then think about moving him again. It’s at this time it’s worth diagnosing him. Has the bleeding stopped? If not then bandage again, if yes then what next? Tell him the situation, your comforting words on the situation may bring him into consciousness on his own. If not then at least he may unconsciously understand he is being worked on and not go off and get a coffee.
Step 5 – with the bleeding stopped and you and your buddy in a secure situation give him an Epi. He will awaken; let him administer his own morphine. He can assess himself based upon his vision, diagnoses, pain, and decide how much morphine to administer. Also, if he is in heavy pain he won’t see sh*t so you’re better providing cover support than he is.
Step 6 – once he is patched up and pain free make sure he diagnoses himself for any potential ‘minor bleeding’. You don’t want him falling unconscious again because of an untreated paper cut.
Further hints – heavy blood loss makes your vision lose colour. Whilst you can bandage, morphine and even Epi yourself when you are conscious it’s not possible to give yourself blood. Others can give blood but it is a slow process.
The 4th morphine is generally a killer, administer with care. Morphine dissipates over time so if your particularly accident prone you could go through more than 4 morphine’s in one mission. That’s OK; just don’t take them all at once.
If you’re not unconscious you can treat yourself but make sure you are in a secure location. You don’t want to get shot whilst you are jacking up on morphine… I mean treating pain.
All soldiers are trained in basic first aid. A Combat Medic has received considerably more training and so his treatment is much quicker.
Head shots, 50 cal rounds, grenades, heavy explosions and other such delightful things won’t just scratch. You can get killed instantly.
Enemies can also be knocked unconscious. Check your enemies by either diagnosing them or putting a few rounds into them to be sure. If they twitch when you shoot them they were probably unconscious.
Any further hints tips or if you disagree with any of the above feel free to post here.
---------
Some of my thoughts on how to manage combat casualties
For the uninitiated, we use the @agm mod to simulate combat injuries within our ops. This simulates the need to stabilise and medically treat injured and unconscious comrades.
There are 3 basic states a soldier can be in; injured but conscious, injured and unconscious, or dead. Injuries can be light to heavy and can result in various states of blood loss and pain. There are four pieces of medical equipment which can be used to recover the situation; bandages, morphine injections, epinephrine injections (Epi) and blood bags. Bandages stem bleeding, morphine reduces pain, Epi awakens from unconsciousness, and blood recovers from blood loss.
@agm is relatively sophisticated. It tracks your blood content, injuries, pain and morphine usage. Bleed and you suffer blood loss, not enough blood and you suffer from poor vision and eventually collapse into unconsciousness, too much morphine and you can overdose and die. Epi injections speed blood flow, give an Epi injection before stemming the flow of blood and you accelerate blood loss and potentially put the patient into unconsciousness. It can all sound complicated, but don’t panic, it’s easily countered by following some basic principles.
Hint – try to operate on the battlefield in buddy teams. You are responsible for keeping an eye on your buddy; he keeps an eye on you. If your buddy goes down the following simple steps keep you both alive.
GOSH, your buddy has been shot and he’s unconscious. You know this because you either see him, or he doesn’t answer his radio call. Yes, that’s right he’s unconscious and this is simulated by freezing his ARMA inputs and he can’t talk….
Step 1 – find your buddy. If you can see him then you’re already ahead of the game.
Step 2 – report your buddy is down and secure the area. Don’t immediately rush to his aid; if he has been shot then whoever shot him will probably shoot you. If you’ve killed that pesky enemy soldier remember he probably has a battle buddy. If support is on its way wait if you can. If it’s safe(ish) drag or carry your buddy to hard cover or concealment. This is done by using the interact with another menu (ctrl & left window). Defilade can also provide cover, and don’t forget you can work on your buddy lying down so low walls and rocks also work.
Step 3 – stabilise your buddy. Blood loss is the immediate risk, put bandages on him. Don’t diagnose, you know he is shot so get on and stop that bleeding. As a general rule put two bandages on him straight away, don’t diagnose in-between, just put those bandages on.
Step 4 – assess the situation. Is the area secure, do you need to move your buddy again, do you have support? If you and your buddy are safe work on him there, if not then think about moving him again. It’s at this time it’s worth diagnosing him. Has the bleeding stopped? If not then bandage again, if yes then what next? Tell him the situation, your comforting words on the situation may bring him into consciousness on his own. If not then at least he may unconsciously understand he is being worked on and not go off and get a coffee.
Step 5 – with the bleeding stopped and you and your buddy in a secure situation give him an Epi. He will awaken; let him administer his own morphine. He can assess himself based upon his vision, diagnoses, pain, and decide how much morphine to administer. Also, if he is in heavy pain he won’t see sh*t so you’re better providing cover support than he is.
Step 6 – once he is patched up and pain free make sure he diagnoses himself for any potential ‘minor bleeding’. You don’t want him falling unconscious again because of an untreated paper cut.
Further hints – heavy blood loss makes your vision lose colour. Whilst you can bandage, morphine and even Epi yourself when you are conscious it’s not possible to give yourself blood. Others can give blood but it is a slow process.
The 4th morphine is generally a killer, administer with care. Morphine dissipates over time so if your particularly accident prone you could go through more than 4 morphine’s in one mission. That’s OK; just don’t take them all at once.
If you’re not unconscious you can treat yourself but make sure you are in a secure location. You don’t want to get shot whilst you are jacking up on morphine… I mean treating pain.
All soldiers are trained in basic first aid. A Combat Medic has received considerably more training and so his treatment is much quicker.
Head shots, 50 cal rounds, grenades, heavy explosions and other such delightful things won’t just scratch. You can get killed instantly.
Enemies can also be knocked unconscious. Check your enemies by either diagnosing them or putting a few rounds into them to be sure. If they twitch when you shoot them they were probably unconscious.
Any further hints tips or if you disagree with any of the above feel free to post here.
