Goonhub
03-04-2024, 03:17 AM
I definitely think removing the pharmacy altogether, or some of its most crucial tools, would cause more frustration than we'd get gain from it. It's a good place so far for medical staff to spend some downtime in a very reactive job, as Glowbold put very well. It's also a fairly accessible place for medical-side antags to plan some mischief, which I think is good for the health of rounds.
I think the nerfs to perfluorodecalin and pentetic acid are a very good case study. Both are extremely useful apex medicines that were formerly fairly readily craftable by an experienced doctor in about 10 minutes of work, and ahve since the chem changes mostly - if not entirely, due to the availability of salicylic acid in the vendor and some workarounds for pent - been relegated to chemistry. Rather than encouraging Chemistry to make more of them, this has instead just resulted in medbay usually making do without them. I strongly feel we need better comms about requests though if any of this is ever going to lead to medical relying on chemistry more for things. A way to see requests as being worked on would be a huge game changer.
I'm a big fan of instead making some of the fancier chems be chemistry-only. Taking away the probably unintended workarounds that still let the pharmacy make pentetic acid as well as not letting them basically dispense perfluorodecalin, two of the most common 'apex' meds that can help a doctor out greatly, would add something that chemistry stands to benefit that medical can't just to themselves, without taking away the pharmacy as a fun place for medical to experiment or top up their own supply of the more basic meds. With a clearer idea of whether or not we're actually going to get something we asked for, this'd let chemistry be super useful to medical, while not ruining medical's existing fun.
I think the nerfs to perfluorodecalin and pentetic acid are a very good case study. Both are extremely useful apex medicines that were formerly fairly readily craftable by an experienced doctor in about 10 minutes of work, and ahve since the chem changes mostly - if not entirely, due to the availability of salicylic acid in the vendor and some workarounds for pent - been relegated to chemistry. Rather than encouraging Chemistry to make more of them, this has instead just resulted in medbay usually making do without them. I strongly feel we need better comms about requests though if any of this is ever going to lead to medical relying on chemistry more for things. A way to see requests as being worked on would be a huge game changer.
I'm a big fan of instead making some of the fancier chems be chemistry-only. Taking away the probably unintended workarounds that still let the pharmacy make pentetic acid as well as not letting them basically dispense perfluorodecalin, two of the most common 'apex' meds that can help a doctor out greatly, would add something that chemistry stands to benefit that medical can't just to themselves, without taking away the pharmacy as a fun place for medical to experiment or top up their own supply of the more basic meds. With a clearer idea of whether or not we're actually going to get something we asked for, this'd let chemistry be super useful to medical, while not ruining medical's existing fun.