Medical Attention

**Medical Attention** is the treatment of injuries sustained by Infantry during a mission. Soldiers hurt by enemy fire (or any other event) who do not die are likely to require some form of Medical Attention to treat their injuries and restore their combat effectiveness. In some cases, treatment can save a soldier from dying of their injuries.

Most if not all Infantrymen carry some sort of basic medical equipment to treat themselves and/or others for basic injuries. However a Medic is required to provide advanced care, and is often also carrying large amount of medical equipment.

The process of injury and treatment is vastly different between versions of *ArmA*. This applies to the types of injuries sustained during combat, the types of treatment required for each injury, and the types of equipment that enables such treatment. Each medical system is described separately below.

## ArmA 2

*Main article: ACE Medical System*
Medical treatment in *ArmA 2* runs on the ACE system, and is a complex procedure that may involve several rounds of treatment for different medical conditions. In this version soldiers can also fall unconscious due to excess pain or bleeding, requiring urgent treatment right where they fell. It is also possible to drag or carry an injured soldier to a safer location for treatment.

### Injury

Whenever a soldier suffers damage from any source (whether from enemy/friendly fire, from falling off something, etc.), the game applies one or more types of injuries to that soldier. If the soldier is not killed outright, his injuries will reduce his combat effectiveness to some degree (up to and including full unconsciousness). Different injuries have very different effects, and also very different treatments (see next chapter).

There are four different kinds of injuries in *ArmA 2 ACE*, which are listed below.

#### Bleeding

Other than shock from explosions or vehicle crashes, practically all combat damage will cause a soldier to Bleed to some degree. This is a life-threatening type of injury, as a soldier may bleed-out and die if it is not treated.
While a soldier is bleeding, the edges of their screen will flash red periodically. The deeper and more opaque the color, the more the soldier is bleeding, and the more urgently he will need medical attention before bleeding out.
Bleeding is treated with Bandages. Most soldiers carry at least one of these items, and can use it to treat themselves and others. A Medical Kit (carried by Medics) contains infinite Bandages.
Because of the urgency of treating bleeding, most soldiers will treat themselves as soon as possible once injured this way, and will also call for others (and/or a Medic) to assist them if the bleeding is severe enough to threaten their life.
#### Pain

Practically every injury suffered by a soldier will result in some degree of pain. While pain itself is not life-threatening, severe pain can cause unconsciousness (see below) which can be life-threatening. Pain also reduces Stamina and makes aiming more difficult, in direct proportion to its severity.
While a soldier is experiencing any pain, the edges of their screen will flash white periodically. The stronger the flashing white color, the more pain a soldier is experiencing. If the flashing color is large enough, the soldier is likely to pass out very soon.
Pain is treated with Morphine, which is in short supply. Most soldiers carry one or two syringes, which they can administer to themselves or others. Medics carry a larger number (usu. 20 at mission-start), but can quickly run out of them on longer missions.
Pain is the least-urgent injury to treat. On long missions when Morphine is running low, Medics may even opt to stop giving Morphine to soldiers who are not in dire need of pain relief (i.e. falling unconscious).
#### Unconsciousness

The *ArmA 2 ACE* medical system allows a soldier to fall unconscious due to injuries suffered. Unconsciousness is typically caused by an excessive amount of pain, and will often occur immediately on injury, or shortly afterwards.
When falling unconscious, the player's screen will go completely black. Vision may partially return every now and then, allowing the player to look around their fallen body, but not to move or perform any action. If the condition is not too severe, the soldier may even wake up from unconsciousness after a while on his own, but unless the pain is treated he will fall unconscious again shortly afterwards.
Severe unconsciousness can only be treated with Epinephrine, which will wake the soldier up within short order, and prevent him from falling unconscious again (unless injured again). Morphine may also be necessary to prevent the soldier from falling back into unconsciousness due to extreme pain.
Epinephrine is a finite resource. Most soldiers carry only one syringe, and even a Medic carries only 20. However Epinephrine is only used for treating unconsciousness, and will always be administered to any unconscious soldier as soon as possible.
#### Crippled Limbs

Shots to the arms or legs can cause a crippling injury to the affected limb. This long-term injury is separate from bleeding or pain, and is not in itself life-threatening, but can only be treated by a Medic. Such an injury severely reduces a soldier's effectiveness until treated.
Crippled legs are the more severe type of crippling injury. When the legs are crippled, a soldier cannot walk or run - they can only crawl. The soldier can crouch or stand, but any attempt to move will cause the soldier to fall back to the prone position.
Crippled arms cause the soldier's aim to be excessively shaky, preventing them from making accurate shots at any distance beyond face-to-face encounters. While this isn't directly life-threatening, it often renders a soldier practically ineffective in combat.
Both types of crippling injuries can only be treated by a Medic, using the "First Aid" procedure. This is a lengthy procedure that may need to be repeated several times to remove the injury, and renders both the patient and the Medic unable to do anything else until the treatment is completed.
### Triage

In the *ArmA 2 ACE* system, it is necessary to examine a soldier's medical condition before administering any treatment to them. This medical check can be performed by anyone. The procedure of checking a soldier for injuries is called "Triage".

When a soldier or medic wants to perform Triage on another soldier, they will first approach to within touching distance and then activate a special menu action labeled "Examine...". This action immediately causes a small text box to appear in the top right corner of the screen, listing all injuries suffered by the soldier as well as the types of treatment required for each injury. Opening the same menu again for that soldier will list all treatment types applicable to that soldier's injuries.

Other than enabling treatment, Triage also helps a medic determine which soldier requires treatment more urgently, when multiple soldiers nearby are injured. Soldiers who are not bleeding, for example, need treatment less urgently than those who are bleeding.

In general, the treatment priority is as follows (from most-urgent to least-urgent):

1. **Bleeding and unconscious.** These soldiers may bleed to death if not treated. The soldier administering the treatment may even often call for help in bandaging the patient, to make sure that the bleeding stops before the patient bleeds out.
2. **Life-threatening Bleeding.** A conscious but bleeding soldier could pass out or die if not treated. Therefore, anyone bleeding severely is a high priority for treatment.
3. **Unconscious but not bleeding.** Unconsciousness is somewhat dangerous in and of itself, and needs to be treated with some haste. Death from unconsciousness, however, is rarer. Furthermore, once the unconscious soldier is revived, he may be able to provide cover for the medic during the rest of the treatment.
4. **Severe Pain.** A soldier in severe pain may pass out, requiring more treatment. Therefore, it may be necessary to administer Morphine to them before that can happen.
5. **Minor Bleeding.** Minor bleeding can exacerbate over time and even lead to unconsciousness and death, but it is not immediately life-threatening. Soldiers with minor bleeding may even be able to treat themselves, if they can find some Bandages.
6. **Crippled Legs.** Soldiers with crippled legs have a bare minimum of mobility. Leaving them in this state could cause them to fall behind if the unit needs to leave the area, and should be treated sooner rather than later.
7. **Crippled Arms.** Soldiers with crippled arms are not very combat effective. Treatment of this injury will restore one soldier - and his gun - back to effectiveness.
8. **Mild Pain.** Mild pain in itself is not life-threatening, and reduces a soldier's effectiveness only mildly. Furthermore, Morphine is in short supply, and medics may choose not to treat Mild Pain at all in order to conserve it for more serious cases.

Note that exceptions do occur, for a variety of reasons emerging naturally from the randomness of combat.

If a soldier suffers additional damage during treatment, or their condition changes for any other reason (such as falling unconscious from pain/bleeding), Triage will need to be performed again to "discover" the new injury. Only then can it be treated.

### Treatment

The *ArmA 2 ACE* system provides five or six different types of treatment for injuries (depending on ACE version) - although *ShackTac'*s modset only ever uses four of those options. Each type of treatment handles a different kind of injury, and each treatment requires a different piece of medical equipment to perform. Without the appropriate equipment, treatment is not possible.

To treat an injured soldier, the treatment provider must first perform Triage on him (see prev. section). This will list all of the injuries in the top-right corner of the screen, and enable all treatment options relevant to that soldier.

Once Triage is performed, activating the medical menu again will list all 6 methods of treatment available in *ArmA 2 ACE*, with only the relevant options beind highlighted. Again, relevancy depends not only on the injuries the patient is suffering from, but also on the available medical equipment of the treatment provider. All non-available options are darkened-out.

Once any type of treatment is initiated, the treatment provider becomes immobile until treatment is completed. With most types of treatment however, the patient can still move and fire. If the patient moves away from the Medic for any reason, treatment will end prematurely - which is why Medics will often announce their treatment to the patient to let them know not to move away. If the patient is conscious, however, they can still fire or perform any stationary action (e.g. checking their inventory, or even treating themselves or others), and will typically provide cover for the medic during this time.

"First Aid" and "Epinephrine" are the exceptions to the rule above. Epinephrine can only be administered to unconscious soldiers, so the patient can't move to begin with anyway. During First Aid, the patient is immobilized (flipped on their backs) during treatment, and cannot move nor fire.

The progress of treatment is shown in the upper left corner of the screen, with a white bar that fills up as the treatment progresses.

#### Bandages

The most commonly used piece of medical equipment are Bandages. By default (in most missions), every soldier carries at least one of these, and can use it on himself or others. A Medic's rucksack/MedKit contains an infinite number of bandages (it shows at 20 in his inventory, but the number will never go down).
Bandages are used to stop bleeding, which is one of the most urgent medical conditions. The longer a bleeding soldier is left untreated, the greater the chance of them passing out (which would then require additional equipment and treatment) or even die from blood loss.
Treatment with Bandages takes at least one second, but could take much more if the bleeding is severe. It may even need to be repeated several times (with several bandages) until the bleeding stops. Because time is of the essence in severe cases of bleeding, the treatment provider may sometimes ask another nearby soldier to approach and apply his own Bandages on the patient. Two people bandaging the same severely-injured patient simultaneously greatly increase his chance of survival, since every single second counts.
#### Morphine

Morphine is a powerful painkiller, administered to soldiers in order to alleviate pain. Morphine is distributed in small measures to the troops, and may or may not be available to everyone. Even Medics do not carry an unlimited supply - they typically have no more than 20 syringes of Morphine. As such, scrounging up Morphine from fallen friends or foes is highly recommended.
Morphine can only be given if a soldier is experiencing pain. Because of its scarcity, it will rarely be administered to soldiers in mild pain, and Medics may even decide to stop giving Morphine to anyone but the more severely-affected patients when Morphine supplies begin to run low.
Administration of Morphine takes a few seconds or so, regardless of the severity of the pain. One dose is sufficient to treat pain of any severity. Therefore, the treatment provider will usually call out "I'm giving [him] Morphine" to ensure that no one else nearby will waste a second dose of the valuable substance on the same patient.
Once Morphine is administered, the patient's pain goes away and the effects of pain are removed.
Unconscious soldiers are usually given Morphine right before giving them Epinephrine (see below). This will prevent them from falling unconscious again after waking up - which would require a wasteful second round of Epinephrine treatment. Giving Morphine first removes the pain that caused the unconsciousness in the first place.
Note that First Aid (see below) can only be administered when a soldier is not suffering from any pain. Therefore, it is necessary to give Morphine before the option to give First Aid becomes available, assuming any pain is present.
#### Epinephrine

Epinephrine (**Epi**) is a powerful hormone that pushes many bodily systems into overdrive. This is useful for forcing a person to wake up after having fallen unconscious. In *ArmA 2 ACE*, it can only be administered to unconscious soldiers.
Epinephrine comes in syringes, which are often in short supply. While most soldiers will be carrying at least one syringe, even a Medic rarely carries more than 20. However, because Epi is only useful for waking up unconscious soldiers, there is less of a critical need for large quantities of it, compared to the far more useful Morphine.
Epinephrine given to an unconscious soldier will force them to fully wake up within seconds. Note however that if the soldier is still suffering from severe pain, they may repeatedly pass out shortly afterwards. For this reason, Morphine is usually administered before any Epinephrine is given. Due to the scarcity of Morphine, a Medic running low on Morphine may decide to administer it only to soldiers who are passing out from pain.
Administration of Epinephrine takes a few seconds or so. One dose is sufficient to wake up a soldier. Therefore, the treatment provider will usually call out "I'm giving [him] Epi" to ensure that no one else nearby will waste a second dose of the valuable substance on the same patient.
Note that once a soldier begins to wake up, they cannot be treated further until they are fully awake. After they wake up, the Medic will likely want to administer First Aid (see below) to treat any additional injuries.
#### First Aid

Severe damage usually causes complicated injuries that decrease a soldier's combat performance, depending on where the soldier has been hit. In *ArmA 2 ACE*, injuries to the torso, head and arms degrade a soldier's ability to aim, potentially making it hard or even impossible to hit anything at beyond close range. Severe injuries to the legs can cause a soldier to become crippled, unable to walk or run at all.
Treatment of any crippling injuries is called "First Aid", and can only be performed by a Medic. This is because the treatment is done using a Medical Kit, which only Medics can carry (in a special rucksack). Other soldiers cannot perform first aid at all - just one more reason it's important to keep the Medics safe in *ArmA 2*.
First Aid can only be administered if a soldier is not bleeding, unconscious nor suffering from pain. The option to do so will be disabled until those conditions are dealt with. Therefore, Badnages, Morphine and/or Epinephrine must be administered first.
When the First Aid option is selected, the patient enters an animation sequence that flips him on his back for the duration of the treatment process. He cannot move or fire until the treatment is completed. The Medic himself is also unable to do anything until the process is complete.
First Aid can take anywhere from one second to well over a dozen seconds, depending on the severity of the injury. As a result, Medics will often try to get the patient to a safe location before initiating the First Aid treatment process. This will often involve carrying/dragging the patient to such a location (see below) if he cannot get there himself (e.g. when the patient's legs are crippled). If this is not possible, the Medic may instead deploy Smoke to conceal himself and the patient for treatment out in the open - though this can be even riskier than dragging or carrying.
Once the First Aid treatment is completed, the patient is completely healthy and fully effective.
### Carrying Crippled / Unconscious Soldiers

As explained in the previous sections, the *ArmA 2 ACE* injury system can easily render a soldier incapable of moving at more than crawling pace, or of moving at all. This presents a problem for medical treatment, since soldiers will naturally sustain injuries in dangerous situations and positions. If the soldier cannot retreat from such a position himself to receive treatment, the Medic may need to move over to his position and administer treatment there - putting both the medic and patient at serious risk.

One way to solve this problem is to drag/carry the injured soldier to safety. This is only possible in the *ArmA 2 ACE* system. To initiate this maneuver, a soldier (usually, but not necessarily, a Medic) will approach the injured patient and use the ACE menu to give the "Drag" order. This initiates a short animation in which the upright soldier grabs the injured soldier by the shoulders, and can drag him around. It is then possible to initiate a second maneuver through the same menu, whereby the upright soldier hoists the injured soldier up over his shoulders.

Dragging is quick to initiate. In this maneuver, the injured soldier remains on his back on the ground, while the dragging soldier is in an almost-crouched stance behind his head, dragging him around by his shoulders. The dragging soldier can only move backwards in this configuration, although he can also rotate (which will rotate the injured soldier as well). Movement is *very* slow when dragging - it is useful only when moving the injured soldier a short distance into cover, where he could receive treatment or be hoisted into the Carrying position. While dragging, both soldiers can use their weapons (assuming the injured soldier is conscious at all). The injured soldier is prohibited from moving on his own while being dragged.

Carrying is more suitable when intending to move the injured soldier over a longer distance, particularly when there is little or no immediate danger from enemies. It takes a couple of seconds to hoist the injured soldier over the upright soldier's shoulders. Once this maneuver is completed, the upright soldier can only move at a relatively-slow walking pace (though somewhat faster than Dragging speed). If the injured soldier is conscious, he can use his weapon while being carried, but the upright soldier cannot use his weapon at all. Once in a safe position, the injured soldier can be dropped back to the ground for treatment.

Most dragging/carrying maneuvers are carried out under cover of Smoke, since both the upright and injured soldiers present a very big and slow target for enemy fire. Exceptions occur only when all enemy contact has died down, such as when a soldier needs to be carried a very long distance to a Medic or a vehicle while not under any kind of fire.

## ArmA 3 Basic (Pre-2018)

The *ArmA 3* medical system is significantly simpler than the *ArmA 2* ACE system described above. There are many differences, and these tend to make the Medic's job simpler and less involved. This system was used for about one year, and was eventually replaced with the *ACE3*-based system described in the next chapter.

In *ArmA 3*, a soldier's health drops as they are damaged. If the health status drops far enough, the soldier will simply die - there is no intermediate unconsciousness state. A non-fatal injury causes the soldier to become slower, in direct proportion to the severity of injury. It also decreases the speed at which Stamina recovers, and may also be tied to the minimum level of fatigue a soldier can drop to after any amount of rest. Severe injury can easily cause a soldier to move only at about walking speed, even when running.

Soldiers may treat light injuries themselves, using their own First Aid Kits. Severe injuries, however, can only be treated partway with such a kit, even if several kits are available. A Medic is the only soldier capable of restoring a severely-injured soldier to fully (or nearly-fully?) healthy state, allowing them to run at the normal speed again.

The Medical Kit in this version of the game allows the Medic to perform an infinite number of treatments. Therefore, whenever a soldier is incapable of restoring themselves to a healthy state, they will seek the help of a Medic. Because soldiers never fall unconscious, they will usually make their own way to a Medic unless the situation requires them to remain where they are, in which case the Medic may come to them instead. If a soldier's ability to move has been impaired sufficiently, the Medic will usually need to reach them for treatment, as that would be much faster. Note that *ArmA 3* does not currently provide the ability to drag or carry a soldier to safety.

Overall, this simplified system means that most soldiers will be able to treat themselves to a sufficient degree after an injury (assuming they have a First Aid Kit with which to do so), and will only then seek a Medic's assistance if they are still somewhat injured. Only the most severely wounded soldiers will need immediate medical attention, assuming the severe injury did not kill them outright. Even then, a simply First Aid Kit allows a soldier to restore their movement ability enough to be able to reach a Medic without too much hassle under their own power. Therefore, the Medic is initially a very passive member of the squad, but becomes more important and more involved as other soldiers begin to run out of First Aid Kits.

## ArmA 3 Advanced (Post-2018)

In 2018, *ShackTac* switched to an in-house modified version of the *ACE3* medical system. This new system works much more similarly to the one featured in the *ArmA 2* videos, with many improvements over that system.

Since this is a relatively new system, its specifics are not yet 100% clear. Some of the text below is based on speculation and conjecture. As time passes and more videos are released, this article will hopefully become more and more accurate.

### Diagnosis and Triage

Players typically rush to help one another immediately upon spotting or hearing a player being hit, watching someone fall to the ground, or being called to help. Quick response can save a player's life.

When examining a patient, the injuries may or may not be immediately evident, sometimes (but not always) requiring the player to hit the "Diagnose" button. This can also help determine whether a player is actually dead or just unconscious. An "Auto-Diagnose" button exists in the medical UI, but its behavior is not yet completely clear.

After diagnosis, the treating player gets plenty of details about the patient, including any injuries, side-effects, and treatment history of the patient. Any bleeding injuries are color-coded based on their severity, allowing the treating player to make quick decisions about which bodypart to bandage first. Patients with bleeding injuries - and particularly those with heavy bleeding or multiple injuries - typically get the highest triage priority.

Morphine and/or Epinephrine are sometimes injected instead of treatment. In some cases, this is a stop-gap measure that allows the player and his patient to retreat to a safer location. In other cases, this simply buys time to treat another, more critically-injured patient.

When Medics are not busy stabilizing anyone, they will look for limping players and attempt to administer First Aid. Players who require first aid for anything other than a limp are typically treated last.

### Stabilization

The first step in treatment is to ensure that the patient is stabilized. This requires bandaging any bleeding wounds, and restoring the patient to consciousness.

While a wound is bleeding, the player's blood count (which is not displayed) continues to drop over time, with serious wounds bleeding more profusely than lighter wounds. As the patient runs out of blood, their vision gradually becomes desaturated (loss of color vision). If all blood is lost, the patient dies instantly.

Bleeding can be stopped by applying a bandage. Each bandage heals only a single bleeding wound. The game continues to track injuries even after they are bandaged; Bandaged injuries may continue to apply side-effects - such as limping - which can only be removed by First Aid treatment.

The patient only becomes stable once all existing wounds are bandaged, and the patient has regained consciousness. Drugs can be injected into an unstable patient, but no First Aid may be applied until the patient is stable.

### Tourniquets

The tourniquet is a new item in this medical system. It is a long rubber tube that may be tied around the base of an injured limb, putting pressure on the blood vessels and artificially constricting them. As a result, less blood flows into that limb and out of the holes.

Tourniquets can only be applied to a limb that is currently suffering from one or more bleeding injuries. Once applied, the tourniquet stops (or reduces?) bleeding from any injuries on that limb. Tourniquets are applied first to the most critically-injured limbs, and only then (if at all) to less-serious bleeders. Applying tourniquets buys the medic some time to bandage the wounds before the patient bleeds out. Players often tourniquet themselves immediately after being hit, to avoid losing too much blood while trying to bandage themselves or waiting for assistance to arrive.

Tourniquets can only be applied to limbs, not to the torso nor the head. Therefore, massive bleeding from the head or torso is typically treated first, with limbs only being tourniqueted first if they are also massively bleeding - to buy time for treatment of the head or torso.

If a limb is not bleeding severely, the tourniquet may be skipped altogether. Also, due to the limited number of tourniquets carried by non-medics, players may have no choice but to leave the least-injured limbs untied. A player may even choose to remove a tourniquet from a lightly-bleeding limb to apply it to another, more severely-bleeding limb.

Tourniquets should be removed shortly after a limb has been fully bandaged. If a tourniquet remains tied to the limb for a long time (a few minutes), it interferes with the patient's blood circulation to such a degree that it causes the patient to fall unconscious. Therefore, after bandaging a patient, the medic will immediately remove any tourniquets before moving on to the next patient.

Players can remove tourniquets from each other even if they weren't the ones to tie the tourniquet in the first place. However, care should be taken not to leave the patient without any any tourniquets in their inventory.

### Patching

As of 2019, the medical system now allows "bandaging" wounds without a bandage, in a process called "patching". This is enabled when both the attending and the patient do not have bandages in their inventory.

Patching takes much longer to complete than bandaging, so a patient with severe wounds can easily bleed out before they can be patched up.

It is currently unknown whether patching has any lesser (or different) effect than bandaging when successfully completed.

### Basic / Advanced Aid

Even after a patient has been stabilized, they may still be suffering a variety of side-effects from their bandaged wounds. Primary among these is the "limping" effect, which severely slows down the patient's movement rate. These side-effects are triggered by massive damage to one or more limbs. Although drugs can be used to mitigate some of these effects, First Aid is required to remove the effects permanently.

In ACE3, First Aid kits have been split into two different sets of kits: Basic Aid Kits and Advanced Aid Kits.

The Basic Aid Kit has a simple function: It removes any of the side-effects triggered by limb injuries. Limping is typically cured with a Basic kit, and any aiming instability from arm injuries is also cured. The Basic kit is relatively quick to use. Medics carry plenty of these kits, and more can be found in medical resupply crates and sometimes on dead enemies.

The Advanced Aid Kit performs the same function as a Basic Aid Kit, and additionally completely heals all of the patient's bandaged injuries. This is necessary because, in this medical system, injuries remain relevant even after they are bandaged. If a player has suffered too many injuries to a single limb, that limb will not function properly even after a Basic Aid kid is applied; Therefore, Advanced kits are typically used on patients who have suffered many injuries (or very severe injuries) to restore performance to their limbs. Advanced kits take a long time to apply. They are somewhat rarer than Basic Aid Kits.

Basic Kits are typically applied first, with Advanced aid only applied if the victim is still limping even after treatment. Alternatively, if the medic notices that the patient is carrying many bandaged injuries, he may skip Basic treatment altogether and apply an Advanced kit immediately, saving time and kits.

The option to use a kit on a patient only comes up if the patient is stable: conscious and with no bleeding wounds. Neither type of First Aid kit will heal bleeding injuries.

Both types of kits are generally only carried and applied by Medics.

### Epinephrine

Epinephrine new has a new effect that makes it more situational but nevertheless critical: It temporarily alleviates all negative side-effects of injuries, apart from bleeding.

Epi is typically used when both the patient and the medic are highly exposed to enemy fire. Epinephrine is injected into the patient to get them conscious and moving almost immediately, disregarding limping effects and preventing the patient from falling unconscious as they run for cover. It is common to see Epinephrine used when the unit is attempting to withdraw, and cannot spend any more time treating the injured at its current position.

Nevertheless, due to the scarcity of epinephrine syringes, Epi is only administered in such emergency situations. If there is time to stabilize the patient and administer First Aid, the Epi will be saved for another time.

The effects of Epinephrine last only about 30 seconds. After that, the patient's medical condition returns to its previous state, and the patient may pass out or start limping again, requiring either treatment or another shot of Epi to restore them to combat effectiveness.

### Pain, Stamina, and Morphine

The *ACE3* system has been closely integrated with *ShackTac'*s improved Stamina system. Injuries seem to have a variety of different effects on Stamina, particularly causing it to rapidly increase towards its upper limit. This results in injured players having trouble moving after an injury. Any attempt to move away (if it is possible at all) may cause a player to pass out. Additionally, moving while in pain appears to increase Stamina at a much higher rate than normal - preventing long-distance travel even when not injured.

Pain is tracked for each player based on recent injuries. Bandaging a wound does not immediately decrease the amount of pain a patient is suffering from. Instead, Morphine must be injected into the patient to counteract the pain, which will then dissipate over time. While the patient is under the effect of Morphine, their current pain level has a reduced effect on their stamina.

The amount of Morphine in a player's bloodstream is also tracked, and this means that medics need to be careful not to inject too much morphine into a patient. Two doses at a time appear to be the upper limit. The consequences of injecting too much morphine are currently unknown (add data here if available). Morphine will slowly dissipate from the blood, allowing the patient to be injected with more morphine later as necessary.

Note that leaving a Tourniquet tied to a patient's limbs for too long results in increased pain, which has a similar effect to an injury and can cause a player to pass out and require morphine to offset.

Both Medics and non-medics carry morphine, with Medics having a significantly larger supply available. Morphine can be found in Medical Resupply crates and occasionally on dead enemies.

### New Effects

The *ACE3* system features a variety of new visual effects associated with injuries and medical treatment:

* When a player falls unconscious, their avatar ragdolls immediately. After about a second, the avatar assumes a particular, recognizable pose: Arms stretched forward, face down. If the unconscious player dies while unconscious, their body visibly ragdolls again.

* Blood and pain are still represented with red and white flashing around the edges of a player's screen. Unconsciousness, however, now appears and sounds very different than it did in *ArmA 2*. Unconscious players can still hear what's going on around them, except every sound is muffled, distorted, and distant. Anyone speaking loudly nearby can be heard, and sometimes even understood. Gunshots and explosions are still audible when unconscious (again, somewhat muffled). Players may also be able to see bright light sources even when unconscious (this may have been fixed in later versions).

* Crippled legs do not force a player to crawl - they only severely slow down movement as in the *ArmA 3* basic medical system. It is still sometimes necessary to carry limping players if they cannot be treated where they are.

* When a player is hit, their screen may fade to black momentarily, before fading back in. This is particularly true when the hit results from a nearby explosion. This effect also occasionaly happens when a soldier's armor/helmet is struck without penetrating or causing any injury. Such hits may cause "bruise"-type injuries to the player, although the exact effect of such injuries is currently unknown (please amend if you have more information).

* Severe blood loss causes the screen to desaturate (greyscale vision). It is currently what treatment (if any) can remove the effect, but it passes over time once the player's bleeding is stanched.

* When a player is being treated by another, he receives an on-screen message showing that he is being treated. If the patient is conscious, the message will display the name of the player administering the treatment (e.g. "Dslyecxi is helping you"). Only one name is shown, even if two players are administering treatment to the same patient. If the patient is unconscious, the message will read "Someone is helping you" instead. This message appears throughout the duration of the treatment.

* Whenever a bandage is used, a physical bloodied bandage object appears on the ground next to the patient. The ground around a particularly injured patient may end up being littered with bloodied bandages by the time their treatment is completed. These used bandages cannot be salvaged nor interacted with in any way.
* As of 2020, Epinephrine now makes a player's vision overly bright and slightly blurry while in effect.

## Terminology

The following is a list of terms related to medical attention that are used in *ShackTac*.

 No Legs
 No Arms
 Epi
 Stable
 Mass Cas | Short for "Mass Casualties", this call describes a situation where multiple players from a single unit or otherwise in close proximity to each other have all been injured simultaneously or within a short timeframe - requiring a medic and/or multiple other players to come to their aid quickly. Failure to respond in time can result in one or more players dying, whether due to the injuries already suffered or due to being overrun by an enemy force.
***Example:*** ***"Alpha One is Mass Cas! We need a medic immediately!"***