Listening to the community across different platforms over the past week, I’ve noticed a recurring theme around medical gameplay. People are laser-focused on respawning/regen in medical beds and how regen works, whether it’s the logistics of the process, which beds should or shouldn’t allow it, or new speculations about the mechanics (BioGel fuel, etc.). My take? We, as a community, are missing the plot on medical gameplay completely and I really hope CIG isn’t. If you're choosing to regen/respawn, you're literally bypassing all medical gameplay. The way I see it, medical gameplay is about preventing someone from reaching full death and even needing regen. If you had to regen, medical gameplay failed. We need more discussion around how to prevent regen/respawn through meaningful medical gameplay. First and foremost, the current insta-death mechanics should be removed entirely. Players should go from alive to incapacitated, allowing medical gameplay to always be an option. Right now, 9 times out of 10, the game just insta-kills you there’s no chance to wait for medical help. If you're in a ship when it goes up, insta-death. If you're shot in FPS most times its insta-death. Even in the new Onyx if you have gotten hit with radiation, its insta-death. Just instantly killing people prevents any hope for medical gameplay to ever happen. It also removes the decision of the player on what they do, get help or take a perma hit on their imprint with regen. Second, we need new medical field tools: easy example is a backpack with a primary medical gun that can fully heal at least T3 injuries and revive players in the field. Medical beds should be used rarely for regen/respawn only when medical gameplay fails. Their primary purpose should be healing wounds that can’t be treated in the field. If you don’t have a dedicated medic and someone suffers a T3, T2, or T1 injury, the medical bed should restore them to full status—maybe even with a temporary buff. But if you do have a dedicated medic whose primary weapon slot is taken by a medical gun, they should be able to heal at least T3 injuries in the field, leaving T2 and T1 for the beds. Additionally, when someone is incapacitated (again—no more insta-death), they should have a choice: wait for revival from anyone with a med gun, or backspace to a medbed. When a spaceman dies, their imprint viability should be reduced. You should only be able to regen 3–4 times before incurring a death tax and reputation hit (i.e., full death). Regen should be rare and avoided whenever possible. CIG’s own lore says the grade of medical equipment used affects imprint viability. So let’s make it so that regen on a T3 bed hits your viability score harder than regen on a T1 bed. One other option for field medical equipment is for it to incorporate more "buffing" mechanics, not just healing mechanics. Finally, more dedicated medical field equipment gives medical ships a purpose beyond just housing med beds. If we have armor, backpacks, and primary weapons for field medical gameplay, then medical ships should be able to refuel and recharge those items. That gives medics a real reason to use medical ships, not just FPS medic gear. If you're a medic you should want to have a medical ship supporting you while you are supporting your squad. I’m hopeful that CIG is thinking about this much deeper than the conversations I’m seeing in the community. Because regen/respawn is not medical gameplay and we need to start treating it that way.