I think a good fix would be allowing a Doctor to use the Doctor skill as B2 if he is in B2B while a member of a link team. Also, I almost always take a 112 Motorized in my USARF. But that is mostly as a turn three fast, smoke, shotgun specialist.
Let me see if I understand the OP's point. He wants ITS to "experiment" with token bonus rules for doctor's/medics to make people use them, because his own meta cbf'd to use them to start with? Wouldn't it be easier to try and get your own meta to do the experiment first, log findings, then scale the experiment up (i.e. DIY first, then ask if they could do something for ITS)? Or are we talking "herding toddlers" level of difficulty with their meta (like herding cattle but you can't use electric prods)?
Doctors in Fireteams really aren't ailing. Whenever I play factions that can take them I run them in the team. I'd go so far as to say they are in a much better spot than solo doctors who operate through helperbots, which also are quite effective (particularly when you realise that a helperbot can do more than just poke at people with the healey/killey syringe). Depending a bit on the doctor in question. I actually like the idea of that Doctor skill shouldn't risk killing the patient. Would still not close the gaping chasm of effectiveness between the Bourak Doctors (who often tend to be fireteam-compatible to boot!) and the plebs who went to Neoterra/Yentang/Concilium's "finest" schools.
You know, that one guy that uses those little robots to get rid of mines and hits a button if it's close to the DZ. He doesn't do much else.
I'm not a game designer? I have no idea what's balanced and what isn't. Though one might argue CB doesn't either. ITS has been used in the past as a mass test bed for these sorts of things, why not again? Edit: I guess no one here plays factions with linkable doctors. Solo doctors are generally a net waste of orders in our experience. I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree.
I play MO and sometimes I play a doctor in my FT, sometimes I don't. But I always have a doctor and sometimes a paramedic in my lists because they are very useful for HIs and Shock immune units. If you deploy wisely, your HIs are placed so that at least the base isn't easily visible. This means that if you have a Servant nearby linked to a doctor, it will cost you 1-2 orders from your second group to get your HI back to business. And since its a HI, it will have a good impact on the game, unlike some LI which might die at the impact of some bullets. Doctors and paramedics are less about getting the job done and more about negating the job your opponent has done. If your opponent spent 6 orders to put your HI unconscious and you need only 2 orders to get it back on its feet, that's 4 orders wasted for your opponent. That's huge. Sometime, victory just comes from the attrition game. If you hold the line perfectly, reviving your losses while your opponent doesn't, you're going to win at the end.
