Herbal Medicine

[deedubya]

So, judging by several threads here and in feedback, there are a few issues. Let's go over them quickly: Most people hate lizardchems/cobbchems, especially early on. Botanists don't have a whole lot to do until they get their hands on mutagen, which will take them a while if they don't get it from outside sources. Lastly, botanists typically don't provide a whole lot of benefit to the station apart from potential griefing tools. So here's something that can alleviate all these issues during the early/mid sections of the shift(when it matters most): Herbal medicine that doesn't rely on winning the mutation lottery.

How it'll work: You buy seeds of the new plants like usual. They're grown just like any other non-renewable plant.(ergo they vanish from the pot on harvest) They then function as a replacement for bruise packs/ointment, in that you have to apply them to a specific body part to cure that specific type of damage. How much damage they cure will depend on the plant potency when harvested. The medicinal plants will be impossible to mutate; so you won't be able to screw them up for the people that want to use them, or otherwise waste mutagen on them. However unlike the current medicines, there is no "trade off" for using herbal medicine. Using a herbal medicine that heals brute won't then cause toxic damage. You can't overdose on herbal remedies. This is the trade off for not only having to have the medicine grown, but also having to apply it to each individual body part as opposed to pills/syringes/patches that you can slap on and forget.

I'd suggest using Turmeric/Waybroad for brute, Aloe/Mint for burn. If you also want an anti-tox solution, I'd recommend adding dandelion, that can then be ground into dandelion juice that can then be ingested for nutriment and anti-tox. However, charcoal and donk pockets are in such abundant supply early on and charcoal is so easy to make later on that I don't believe it's necessary for botany to work on early anti-tox solutions.

This would solve all of the problems stated above. It would give players a safe alternative to potentially harmful chem medicines. It would give botanists a meaningful way to contribute to the station, apart from their regular role of keeping the chef well-supplied. It would also give botanists a side project to grow while they're working on getting their trays upgraded/mutagen production going so they can get their own goodies. Although not directly related to this proposal, I'd also suggest giving botany an additional public-access fridge for the purpose of storing the herbal medicines, and/or possibly give them chem access as they'll be cooperating with medbay to create functional medicine for the crew.

(aside: yes I'm aware that you can get healing plants from mutations, but these are a very, very rare occasion that happens late in the shift and does not serve anywhere near the same function that I am proposing)

[gallowsCalibrator]

I like how this sounds a lot; hearing so much discussion about improving medbay in particular is pretty cool. You mention non-renewable in your post; would the station have a limited supply of these plants / medicines, then? Also, would you remove bruise packs / ointment for this? You did mention replacement.

I like how turmeric and aloe sound as choices; maybe these could also have lategame uses and upgrades / mutations, as well? Chemicals that use aloe / turmeric and their mutations in their recipes or things like that.

[deedubya]

Non renewable in the sense that you don't get multiple harvests for every seed planted. Ergo, every time you harvest it, you have to re-plant it, starting from scratch. If coders wanted to keep these things in short supply, they could consider making them incompatible with the seed extractor as well. Unless...

maybe these could also have lategame uses and upgrades / mutations, as well? Chemicals that use aloe / turmeric and their mutations in their recipes or things like that.

Having them all be grindable and usable in complex recipes to make the highest tier medicinal chems is also a solid idea, especially if we want to promote more inter-departmental dependence and move away from completely independent autism projects.

[gallowsCalibrator]

Aah, gotcha. I think making them incompatible with the seed extractor might be a bit harsh; if you wanted that to be the case you'd also have to make them incompatible with the DNA modifier device, right? Though, that sort of thing could be solved with a general re balance (IE, having perennial growth means lowered stats in some areas or things like that).

I think interdepartmental independence is a great goal to work towards, I appreciate it coming up so often in threads recently. I think we should make any of the changes here along with any big medical overhaul that does ship, though; my personal favorite medbay suggestions have been the ones in this thread, and I was already a bit concerned about how chems could work out there. What do you think about it?

[Cobby]

The point of the chem overhaul is to move away from chem-based healing, not shift that need from chem to botany.

I can probably be sold on more botany-unique chems if we had a system where that didn't mean they're either really good poisons/really good medicines/not good enough to realistically use compared to the chem counterparts.

[gallowsCalibrator]

I do agree that shifting away from chem-centric healing is a good idea, depending on how medical gets updated at least. As far as roles for chemistry in that system, I do have some thoughts. As a start at least, turmeric & aloe could be something like "heals brute/burn damage on applied area if applied area has less than X damage already"; a basic kind of thing people could keep on them for small injuries?

[deedubya]

The point of the chem overhaul is to move away from chem-based healing, not shift that need from chem to botany.

I can probably be sold on more botany-unique chems if we had a system where that didn't mean they're either really good poisons/really good medicines/not good enough to realistically use compared to the chem counterparts.

I've considered that, that's why I would want the herbal remedies to function identically to bruise packs and ointment. It gives a safer alternative to the lower quality chems, but it's more of a pain in the ass to apply than chem based healing. It also just makes more sense flavor-wise. You don't ingest raw aloe vera to help soothe a burn, you rub that shit on the affected area.

[Kryson]

However, charcoal and donk pockets are in such abundant supply early on and charcoal is so easy to make later on that I don't believe it's necessary for botany to work on early anti-tox solutions.)

Charcoal is getting removed. Bruise packs and donk omnizine will probably get removed as well if Cobby has any sense.