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What is the overarching goal?
As a general statement, the goal of the current healing rework people have dubbed as "CobbyChem" is to transition our current, passive healing methods into more active methods (in this case, surgery). In term's of chemistry's role, this does NOT mean I want to remove healing from chemistry/botany/bartender/etc. This DOES however mean I want those to be more conscious decisions and weighed against working with a Doctor, who is the "priority customer" of the changes.
Consequently, this is meant to establish the doctor role as something more than a glorified door remote to make it more engaging and dare-i-say fun, with fun being overcoming the challenge of patient turnaround and keeping the station afloat from your sterilized, 99.99% bacteria culled throne.
Chemistry
Chemistry, from the point of healing, has bottlenecked medbay for quite some time now. Up until Tend Wounds has been made free access and the slow transition of C2's appearance, I think I can safely say chemistry was medbay. Naturally, this means to raise the power of doctors I could either 1) Arms race against the two or 2) slice power from chemistry to provide room for medbay shining. Since I'm a firm believer of the speed to take people out of death is as important balance wise as the speed at which you can bring people to death, I went with option 2 and am continuing to do so.
Initially I had figured I could convert some to base meds to C2s while keeping C3s gated behind availability, but recently I found that to be quite difficult. So here are my current goals for Chemistry
- Convert ALL C3s to C2s
- Add Modified Version of C2s
So, what are the types?
I have tactfully named them after the arene sub pattern. In terms of how they'll interact with the nomenclature, they'll just be prefixed with the appropriate letter (IE O-libital, P-aiuri, etc.)
O(mnizine)- O-types are what I'd like to be amplified versions of the C2s. They heal more BUT they also endanger the user more. Default Recipe will be the C2 and Omnizine (ergo an indirect hit to Omnizine).
M(ining?)- M-types are what I'd like to be upgraded versions of the C2s. They heal less of their dedicated damage but they will also heal their sister damage type (Brute/Burn :: Oxy/Tox). This will allow chemists/doctors to have more control over what health downside the patient will receive. Default Recipe will be C2 and (something from mining maybe?).
P(... no clue sorry)-P-types are basically the tamer versions of the C2. They heal less while also doing less (not 0, less) damage to the user. Default Recipe will be the C2 and (whatever here).
The goal here is to give each type their own purpose and functionality on top of the unique natures of each individual C2, so there is never "one right answer" to any situation in regards to what chemistry should output. These are also subject to be mixed and matched as with all chems to find the "sweet spot" of healing/damage unique to each situation.
"But Cobby, The C2s right now are pretty negligible in terms of damage so why would I even bother with this anyways?"
I would like to bump up some of the organ damage numbers in response to my testing and the general feedback I've received. I still haven't figured out the sweet spot in a number that doesn't delete people, but one that also makes it not ignorable either. C2's damage should definitely be something you consider in your decision tree (or if there's no other option but to you it, something you prepare to handle).
The Rest Of The Chem World
- Phase out omnihealers. I don't like the idea that everything is fixed with one chem, so I'd like to see these either be C2'd or otherwise changed so they don't heal all damages at once per iteration. This also applies to crit chems. If someone has taken the opportunity to damage you with a variety of damages (or perhaps strike with another damage while you're already damaged), that should mean something. Omnihealers throw that out of the window.
- Look at Niche Healers. My current plan is to give them the same C2 treatment, I just haven't looked into each one to determine how to come up with good C2 strategies for them. Some of them are hardly made.
- Look at Non-Chem, Reagent-based healers. Your god'sblood, tomato juice, milk, etc. They don't all need to be C2'd but their healing should be reflective of chemistry's healing output and the relative availability to get these. Again, the rework is about directing these guys as healers to the door in favor of active methods.
Medbay, department of my life, fire of my heart. My sin, my soul. Med-Bay-Ee: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Med. Bay. Ee. It was Med, plain Med, in the morning, standing a grand 100 tiles on some stations. It was Medi in Nyaspeak. It was "That Fucking Department" at github. It was Medical in the code. But in my arms, it was always Medbay. Did it have a precursor? it did, indeed it did. In point of fact, there might have been no Medbay at all had I not loved, one year, an initial department. In a princedom by the sea. Oh when? About as many years before Medbay was born as my age was that summer. You can always count on a coder for a fancy prose style. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, exhibit number one is what the seraphs, the misinformed, simple, noble-winged seraphs, envied. Look at this tangle of thorns.
There is nothing greater than being a healslut.
I would like to imagine that, for the most part, i'm satisfied with the current outcome of medical. Surgery has certainly came a long way and perhaps the elephant in the room is that surgery is actually used for more than just cutting out brains in the purple department now. I would like to explore more organ surgeries that repair the organ vs. requiring replacements, and I would like vital organs (to the player, not necessarily to keep the character alive so basically include ears/eyes) to have a cybernetic counterpart so if you can trade material costs for convenience in not having to remove and store organs.
I do still want to cull the white medkits as being powerhouses of healing, and limit them to low HP remedies (<20HP) one can use to quickly but not instantly patch themselves up. I would like to see BPs/Ointments to be refluffed/structured as a self-surgery permissible version of tendwounds.
I think the skill system will open up an opportunity to further solidify the MD role, so i'm looking forward to that as well!
Other Healing Methods
I haven't looked too much into healing that isn't involving chemistry/medbay, so these are all subject to change in the future. Rule of thumb is that I'd like for the healing outputs to use a similar thought process to Chemistry's in that healing amounts of worth should involve a choice since it is competing with going to the dedicated heal department.
As for antag based healing, I would like to see traitors not have many options for healing without using subterfuge/deceit to be healed by someone else. Cult I think still also heals for no reason besides "you're now converted", so maybe i'll look at that as well. Ops have the magic healy gun so whatever, and Ling has fleshmend which is BTFO'd by fire.
Anything here is subject to change but i'll keep it updated. If it's on here, hold me to it until I change it here. Reminder this was just me word vomiting my thoughts so you guys can read them, things not listed here doesn't mean I don't want them or that I haven't given them previous thought.
