Guide

Game revive and downed systems explained

Harbor Siege's first public beta weekend ended in a chorus of “we had no chance.” A four-player squad cleared the courtyard, then the Sapper drone dropped a saturation grenade. Two players went down instantly; the third crawled behind a crate the medic could not path to. The fourth stood in open ground trying to channel a revive while bleedout timers ticked on both downed allies. Everyone died before the channel finished — not because healing was weak, but because downed state geometry was undefined. Crawling counted as full collision; revive range required line of sight but downed bodies clipped into cover. The squad wipe felt unfair even though every individual rule looked reasonable in a spreadsheet.

A revive and downed system sits between healing (preventing zero HP) and death penalties (what you lose when recovery fails). It gives teammates a window to save each other: incapacitated but not gone, crawl or call for help, channel or consume a rez item, stand up wounded. Done well, downed states create clutch moments and role identity for medics. Done poorly, they produce invisible failure — players blame teammates for geometry bugs. This guide covers downed-state taxonomy, bleedout and channel rules, drag-and-carry helpers, squad wipe policy, PvE vs PvP tuning, the Harbor Siege medic refactor, a technique decision table, pitfalls, and a production checklist. Pair with co-op design and checkpoint respawn for the full failure-and-recovery stack.

Downed-state taxonomy

Teams often use “dead” for every failure. Separating states early keeps UI, networking, and AI behavior honest:

State	Player can	Typical duration
Downed / incapacitated	Crawl slowly, ping allies, use sidearm or none	Until revived or bleedout expires
Bleeding out	Same as downed but timer visible and accelerating under fire	15–45 seconds PvE; shorter PvP
Hard dead	Spectate, wait for respawn or squad wipe	Until checkpoint, wave end, or teammate rez
Knocked (BR / extraction)	Crawl, shield break on finish; no self-revive without item	Until finished or ally revive
Self-revive available	Consume charge after delay (feign death, stim, phoenix kit)	One-time per life or cooldown

Pick one primary downed state per mode. Hybrid games that mix “downed then dead” with instant permadeath confuse players unless the HUD clearly labels which transition is next.

Revive interaction pipeline

Revival is an interaction, not a heal spell. Treat it as a finite-state machine with explicit cancel reasons:

Eligibility check — ally in downed state, within range, line of sight or soft LoS cone, medic has charge or free infinite rez in casual modes.
Channel start — lock movement or allow slow strafe; show progress ring on both players; play audio telegraph so enemies can punish.
Interrupt rules — damage to medic cancels; damage to downed may pause or reset channel; explosion knockback cancels.
Completion — restore HP to fraction (30–60% typical), apply rez sickness debuff, clear downed collision capsule, grant brief i-frames.
Post-rez vulnerability — reduced max HP, no ability refresh, or movement slow so rez is not a free reset button.

Document cancel reasons in a single ReviveController so QA can reproduce “it stopped at 94%” bugs. Players forgive hard content; they do not forgive unexplained channel breaks.

Range, LoS, and downed body placement

Downed players need a revive anchor — usually pelvis or chest bone, not head clipping into floor. Use a low-profile capsule (prone height) with separate navmesh obstacle flag so allies can stand adjacent. If crawl is enabled, cap speed and block entry into gaps smaller than revive range. Harbor Siege added a drag-to-safety interaction: standing ally holds interact on downed body to pull at 50% walk speed, sharing interrupt rules with channel rez.

Bleedout timers and shared pools

Bleedout is the pressure clock that makes revives dramatic. Design knobs:

Base timer — long enough for one rez attempt under light fire (20–30s PvE).
Damage acceleration — each hit while downed shaves 2–5 seconds; prevents infinite stall in boss arenas.
Shared squad pool — optional: one timer for entire fireteam so saving the first downed player matters; second down resets pool.
Mercy / execute — enemies or players can finish downed targets; telegraph the animation (battle royale finishers, PvE stomp).
Ping and VOIP hooks — automatic “I am down” callout with direction arrow; accessibility for no-mic groups.

Timers should pause during cutscenes or extraction helicopter boarding only if design explicitly allows clutch last-second revives on the pad. Otherwise players learn that downed on a scripted beat equals free wait.

Cost, limits, and rez sickness

Unlimited free revives trivialize difficulty; harsh limits feel punitive in pickup groups. Common economy patterns:

Resource	Effect	Best for
Medic charges (2–3 per life)	Only designated kit can rez; others stabilize to extend bleedout	Class-based shooters, MMO dungeons
Consumable syringe / phoenix kit	Any player spends inventory item; rare drop	Extraction shooters, survival
Cooldown per target	Same ally cannot be rezzed twice in 60s	Boss fights, anti-zerg PvP
Rez sickness debuff	−25% damage, −25% heal received for 30s	Prevent death spirals in sustained fights
Shared team lives	Four lives per mission; downed costs none until bleedout	Roguelite co-op, arcade difficulty

Rez sickness stacks with heal reduction debuffs only if intentional. Most teams apply sickness as a separate tag so medics can still top off a fresh rez without math confusion.

Squad wipe and respawn linkage

Define what happens when the last living player falls or all bleedouts expire:

Full squad wipe — reload last checkpoint, restart encounter, or return to hub with partial rewards.
Last-man carry — solo survivor can still finish objective; downed allies spectate with encouragement prompts (avoid idle kick).
Respawn wave — dead players respawn at infil point after 30s if one ally remains; common in horde modes.
Token rez at checkpoint — interact with beacon to pull all dead allies; limits infinite corpse running.

Link squad wipe policy to death penalties: if currency is lost only on hard death, downed players should see “you will lose souls if bleedout expires” on HUD. Ambiguity between downed and dead is a top support ticket in co-op launches.

PvE vs PvP tuning

Knob	PvE typical	PvP typical
Bleedout duration	25–45s	8–15s or none (instant dead)
Channel time	3–5s	5–8s or item-gated only
Crawl speed	30–40% walk	Disabled or very slow
Self-revive	Common on easy, rare on hard	Legendary item only
Execute / finish	Boss stomp telegraphed	Melee finish for full reset

PvP with long bleedout creates camping loops; either shorten timers or allow enemies to fully eliminate downed players for score credit. PvE can be more generous but should still punish standing in fire while channeling.

Harbor Siege medic refactor

Problem: undefined crawl collision, medic pathing failures, opaque channel cancels, and squad wipes that felt like engine bugs.

Changes shipped:

Downed capsule height 0.4m with ReviveAnchor bone always above floor via raycast snap.
Drag-to-safety interact (4m range, 50% move speed, shared interrupt table with channel).
Channel UI shows cancel reason text (“Damage interrupted,” “Out of range”).
Bleedout 28s base, −3s per hit while downed, shared pool +12s when second player drops.
Medic class: 3 rez charges per life; other classes can stabilize (pause bleedout 10s, no HP restore).
Post-rez 40% HP, 20s rez sickness (−20% outgoing damage), 1.5s i-frames.
Squad wipe returns to courtyard checkpoint; downed-never-hard-dead until bleedout to preserve penalty clarity.

Outcome: full squad wipes on the Sapper encounter fell 38%; medic pick rate rose from 9% to 22% without forcing composition. Support tickets mentioning “rez bug” dropped 71% week over week.

Technique decision table

Approach	Best when	Weak when
Channel rez (co-op shooter)	Squad tactics, clutch moments, medic fantasy	Solo play or very fast TTK PvP
Instant touch rez (action RPG)	Fast combat, frequent deaths, low friction	Tension and positioning matter
Checkpoint-only (no downed)	Soulslike, single-player clarity	Online co-op dependency
Self-revive item only (BR)	Last-player-standing integrity	Team modes without ally tools
Shared life pool	Arcade co-op, clear fail-forward	Individual accountability stories
Hard dead on zero HP	Competitive ranked, no stall	Narrative co-op with emotional beats

Common pitfalls

Downed body blocks doorways — use ghost collision for allies, solid for enemies only if spec requires.
Revive through walls — LoS checks on anchor, not camera.
Double rez race — two medics channel same target; first completes, second wastes charge unless you merge channels.
Bleedout during boss cutscene — timer expires while invulnerable; pause or skip bleedout during scripted i-frames.
Rez at full HP exploit — players die intentionally to reset cooldowns; apply sickness and ability lockout.
Network desync on crawl — server authoritative position; client visual only.
No feedback on stabilize vs rez — different icons and colors for pause-bleedout vs full restore.
Squad wipe without explanation — show “All allies down — returning to checkpoint” before fade.

Production checklist

Define downed, bleedout, hard dead, and knocked states in a state diagram.
Implement ReviveController with logged cancel reasons.
Revive anchor bone with floor snap; test crawl on stairs and thin cover.
Channel UI on medic and downed player; audio telegraph for enemies.
Bleedout timer with optional damage acceleration and shared pool rules.
Stabilize vs full rez distinction if non-medic allies can help.
Post-rez HP fraction, rez sickness, and brief i-frames.
Squad wipe policy linked to checkpoints and death penalties.
Separate PvE and PvP tuning tables or mode multipliers.
Auto ping / accessible callout when player enters downed state.
QA matrix: drag, channel interrupt, double down, last-man standing, wipe.

Key takeaways

Downed is not dead — label the transition and show the bleedout clock clearly.
Revive is a positioned interaction — anchor, range, LoS, and drag matter as much as channel time.
Costs and rez sickness stop revives from erasing failure entirely.
Squad wipe rules must connect to checkpoints and penalties without hidden state.
Cancel reasons belong in UI — mystery channel breaks destroy co-op trust.