The arguments against allowing heals in PvP zones don't make much sense to me. I'll approach them one by one.
Number 1, Xavier's issue, "If we deactivated PvP upon TP, we would open the path to exploits, like being able to be fully regenerated without on-site help when you're almost dead in a FvF conflict (just TP somewhere else, get healed, and re-TP nearby); when used by large number of players, it can make a real difference."
I don't think this is realistic at all. In the first place, teleports take a full 15 seconds to use. Anyone who has played in a PvP battle knows how fast-paced the battles are. Spending 15 seconds to teleport to a safe zone, finding someone to heal you, teleporting back to the PvP zone, and making your way from the teleporter to the battle... That isn't exactly an unbalancing exploit. Particularly considering the nature of PvP right now. You can't take any actions during those 15 seconds, and "without on-site help" you simply aren't going to survive until the teleport. Also it would be much more efficient to simply die and teleport directly in most cases. Teleportation on death
doesn't involve a 15-second timer, bypasses the issue of being unhealable, and will usually be much faster overall than a teleport while you are alive (assuming that you can successfully teleport when you are "almost dead in a FvF conflict" in the first place). Also you have more options when you die, since you can respawn directly at either the portals or the local teleporters,
or you can go to a "safe" teleporter for healing before rejoining battle.
Even if this concern were relevant, I don't see how it bears on being able to heal out of team within a PvP zone. If you are
already attackable, this argument doesn't approach why you shouldn't be able to heal neutral parties or even "enemies." And at the moment it is fairly easy to safely heal a teammate without putting yourself at risk, which should be fixed if the devs are really taking this argument seriously. Does anyone remember Infinity hugging the walls in the Arena and giving team heals with no fear of repercussions?
Number 2, what about bomb heals?
I don't think this issue is significant enough to dictate the mechanics here. But even if it were... If bomb heal did heal enemies as well as friends, that would add a tactical layer and might not be such a bad idea. Unfortunately bomb heal is almost useless right now and would be even more so if it healed everyone. That might change after the stronger bomb heals. But to me the solution seems clear - I might be missing something - just make bomb heals affect only your own faction (or team outside of FvF battles). That should be very simple to implement, so I don't understand why it's an issue at all.
Number 3, if you don't choose a faction, but are able to heal anyone, this could open the door for exploits
That's a condensation of most of the other arguments I am seeing here, and my first response is that it's not necessarily an "exploit" in the first place. Neutral parties are already open to attack, are able to attack others, and can heal in teams. Healing out of team is highly inefficient. Neutral parties should probably not be allowed to heal from a safe position, of course, but that applies to everyone else too (including teammates). Altogether, I don't see how this or related arguments apply. There is no way I can see to exploit this as a neutral party where you couldn't just as easily exploit it in a team. Since teams (and presumably factions) already have the option of healing their allies, allowing neutral parties to heal on the battlefield can't possibly cause any major balance issue.
Number 4, this will allow rez-ganking!
As far as I can tell, this is the most coherent problem. Personally, I would like the ability to refuse any rez (for RP reasons among others). I also think that a "rez timer" might be a good idea, as it would make the game much more challenging and prevent PvP from being the kind of "up-down-up-down-up-down" gopher game it is now. If you had to wait 60 seconds before being eligible for a rez, the tactics in Ryzom would need to become much more sophisticated (and tanks would be much more useful, tending to balance magic and melee). Large bosses would suddenly be challenging battles rather than pushover mat-stations.
Radical solutions aside, I don't think this possible inconvenience measures up against the utility of being able to heal anyone - from healing up your foes after a friendly duel, to managing treks, to allowing more complex interactions than simple black/white battles, the ability to heal in a PvP or FvF zone is much too valuable to trash for this reason. I really don't think this kind of ganking would occur very often, it would only occur in high-level areas, and there are a few possible ways of dealing with it (ask for help in region, relog, possibly teleport, send a CS ticket).
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