Discussion about Medic's Infection

[Bridget]

Infection currently has no real defined purpose or role. You run up and smack someone with the medkit and they become infected indefinitely, taking 8 points of damage every two seconds. They also become very audible, meaning you can pick out their location without having to see them, and last, as the Wiki states, their character becomes surrounded with green particles (which tends to disturb your vision a bit!) [Wiki]

The infection has the de facto job of making the fight easier for those fighting the infected — whether the player is discovered easier or dies quicker. Is this sufficient? Is it too much? Should it serve some other purpose? Do something other than just draining health? Perhaps the way it works should be reconsidered. For instance, someone mentioned an implementation along the lines of: "Have the infection deal x amount of damage over time until it has damaged for [max damage]. If the infected manages to survive the infection, he is rewarded with some of his health back." The idea here, I think, is that it becomes a helping aid in killing the enemy only if you can also complement it with enough skill to bring the enemy down to a point of health where he's guaranteed to die. It makes sense. You can't infect someone and expect them to die. You have to help it along. What do you think?

Infection is somewhat cheap, too. It has an infinite duration. Many beginners take the intuitive step toward their spawn hoping a medkit or a touch of the respawn strip will cure them, but it doesn't. The only counter to infection is a medic. You need a medic handy. The only problem with that is 1. Medic is an offensive class. He infects the defense. So, your own defense is going to be asking for some heals. Being an offensive class, expecting the Medic to run about healing defenders makes little sense. The other problem is 2. If there is no available Medic, at-least one person is always asked to go Medic. That person kills himself and respawns as a Medic and heals his team mates over and over to counter the offensive Medic from the other team. This wastes a slot that could be used playing Medic as intended at the core: offensively.

What do you think?