Doctoring and Medical ideas I've had. Give me feedback and share your ideas please

[kyle2143]

Doctoring is one of my favorite things to do in SS13. Especially when you come across the more interesting things like heart disease and blood loss, or doing surgery. It's already pretty robust, but it can always be MORE robust. Here are a couple of idea's I've had and stolen from elsewhere, some of them I'm planning to code myself and I wanted to try and find out if my ideas are shit before I waste my time:

1. Change the recipe for Antihol slightly. Right now it is just charcoal + ethanol. And since ethanol is in the bloodstream of anyone who is drunk, giving them an antitox pill is the same as giving them an antihol pill and as a consequence, nobody uses antihol.

2. CPR should have a chance to do brute damage when brute is over a certain amount of health. Right now CPR is completely without detriment, it just lowers OXY damage very quickly pure and simple. In real life you're breaking ribs or cracking people's sternum.

3. Operating on patients without wearing surgical gloves should have a chance to do tox damage to the patient, or a chance to give them a bacterial infection. Similarly, operating without a surgical mask(or active internals) like cutting open their chest or head should have a chance to infect the surgeon with something. Mostly I want Pathology to have more usefulness to the station. (I'd also like someone to write a good for dummies article about it to make it easy for newbies so they are less scared to try it)

4. Latex gloves should be single use or decay over time until they are destroyed. Taken partially from this thread. IRL Latex gloves are shit, you can't really take them on and off and on again and again. They should be a resource and, maybe medical fabricators should be able to make them from some material.

5. Syptic Powder should be nerfed, in the amount of BRUTE damage it heals. I'm pretty sure that IRL Syptic Powder is just used for blood clotting. Which is funny since in ss13, Spytic Powder is not really the best way to stop bleeding. I think bandages, synthflesh, or  a new nerfed version that only heals BRUTE would make more sense as standard BRUTE treatment

6. Blood Types should really matter. This is something I've wanted for a long time and I think might be one of the next things I attempt. I think being given the wrong bloodtype should do significant OXY and TOX damage, so doctors will have to check, capture someone with O- blood that they can steal blood from for the round. Or maybe chemistry should be able to change bloodtypes with the right combination of chemicals.

7. With regards to bloodtypes, I also want an Dialysis machine that would be capable of filtering out all contaminants from a person's blood. Sort of like a slower, safer version of Pentanic Acid(sans radiation treatment). I'd need a sprite for it since that would definitely be beyond my ability to draw. maybe make it 1x2 with a chair attached?

8. Cardiopulmonary bypass machine, for making Heart Surgeries safer. Or for the daring crewman who wants to attempt to complete his duties without any heart, just like those cold heartless cyborgs.

9. Violently removing an IV bag should cause you to start bleeding severely.

10. fix pathology microscope textbox. It's cumbersome. I either want to get rid of it and let you change the distance with right click, or do something.

11. While inside a sleeper, you can select some sort of "distress" option to let people know you're in there and need help.

12. I've heard that on TG station, healing brain damage requires brain surgery. I don't know how it's done exactly there, but I like the idea of surgery to fix brain damage. Mannitol is too easy.

13. Meth is not nearly addictive enough.

14. Surgical circular saws should have an on and off function. They must be on to perform surgery, and they also do more damage in combat while on. Should have a short charge, and rechargers in robotics and the operation room.

Well that's all I have off the top of my head. Let me know if you think any of them or terrible or you have more ideas.

[Technature]

Oh boy...okay, let's go through this, see if I can belt these off real quick.

1. Had no idea what that is so I did some research. Presumably, the only reason you're creating antihol in someone is because someone spiked a poison with alcohol specifically intended to slow the healing process. I see literally no reason to purposefully sober someone because drunk people are funny.

2. Can we not nerf the already worst way to help someone? CPR's purpose is to extend someone's life by a few seconds, not reduce it.

3. Anything that introduces diseases more often makes me immediately not like it honestly. To be fair, this is cause man made diseases are the only common ones and they tend to make it literally impossible to play, so maybe I'm not the best person to ask.

4. Oh hey my idea Don't have anything one way or the other? Seems like a pointless change to be honest.

5. Styptic Powder is the most common healing thing on the station. Saving people is hard enough with them as it is.

6. People don't check if other players are puritan before cloning, this is only introducing pain and misery into the game!

7. i mean maybe? A constant usage but not very efficient poison remover could be interesting.

8. Oh hey this one's actually kind of good. Maybe if it's a machine that provides blood, but the person slowly loses it over time? Like 1 point every few seconds? Would be better than the death sentence at the hands of an inexperienced doctor.

9. I don't think severely but yes.

10. I don't do pathology cause it's horrible, I therefore have no opinion.

11. Medbay should be doing their job, but having a way to remind them you still exist you lazy fucks ask for help when you can't breath would be good.

12. Too much brain damage is instant death. Having a potentially easy way to negate that would be nicer than yet another way to ask a traitor to effectively murder you without your consent.

13. I HAVE NEVER HAD METH IN MY BODY AND NOT BE ADDICTED TO IT HOW ABOUT NO

14. i mean why tho? Just assume it's always on and that it takes almost no charge.

Overall: No need to make the farty space game realistic as hell.

[Eibel]

Personally, I was refraining from responding when I first saw this.  But I feel I probably should.

1. Antihol is developed specifically for ethanol.  The only time I've ever sobered up someone is with their consent, and all I do is shove a shitload of charcoal in them.  Yes, ethanol does hurt a person, 9/10 folks just want to be drunk as fuck.  Leave them to their devices.  Your body synthesies Antihol when it sees charcoal and ethanol in it together, so really, you always make it.  To me, this is just a 'lets make medics' jobs harder'.

2. You're under the assumption someone is even bothering to do CPR in the first place.  If this were implimented, I'd suggest low brute damage at best.  The detriment of CPR is folks wearing 500 masks, you forgetting you're wearing a mask, trying to do CPR in an airless environment, threat of death all around, and people just generally not doing CPR.  Currently this system is fine as it is in my book.

3. Due to the fact Pathology is a bitch to learn, folks tend not to delve into that territory.  Adding status affects to typical things docs do just adds more crap for us to deal with.  We're already dealing with quite a bit here.  Adding toxin damage for being unhygenic fucks though, I'm fine with.

4. Considering [latex] gloves do no benefit besides be white.  As their current implimentation, there really shouldn't be yet another thing for us unprofessionals to deal with.  We also have face shields we don't do shit with.  Add a specific use to these items before making them worthless.

5. This itself says 'lets make medbay absolutely dependent on medics who know chem, or chem actually providing shit to medics.'  We have one chemistry dispensor in pathology sometimes, and we're not going to be given the better medical drugs if SP gets nerfed.  We already run low on SP VERY quickly due to how people hurt each other, and their damage runs very high at times, to where even spamming patches on someone with only brute damage still may not save them on time.

6. You're going to need to recall how difficult genetics has getting people to come get their positive genes activated, as well as the fact medics don't have a way to force-capture someone and drain them of their blood without getting either admin boinked for being shitters we rightfully are at that point, or being an antag.
Blood types shouldn't matter in my opinion, we're all clones anyway.

7. I like this idea but not for bloodtypes.  Currently, it is quite possible for a human to 'fill up' their beaker (their heart) with food chems from the new digestion system.  Because it's full, we cannot treat our patients, as their body cannot accept more chemicals.  To create a dialysis machine that will take out current chemicals and put them in beaker A, while beaker B puts new chemicals in, would be an interesting addition.

8. Heart transplants are difficult and require speed, a bunch of medications, and knowledge, to not fuck up.  I fuck them up regularly myself, preferring not to do them at all because of their difficulty, uselessness, and the waste of a shitload of medical supplies, but I still do 'em if someone insists.  Having a stabilizing machine that isn't just 'shove the headsurgeon in the same room and hope it keeps my patient alive' would be nice.

9. Not severely, but yes. +1 bleeding +1-3 brute.

10. As mentioned before, pathology is a bitch.  The system needs a rework, but for now it seems not to be high priority.  This is more a quality of life fix than anything else, and it works the way it is now.

11. I'd prefer just an automated ping when someone jumps in a sleeper.  I tend to check them when I see people in them, but that doesn't mean I won't miss someone needing help in them.

12. Currently it's very easy to die of brain damage, very hard to even see what level of brain damage you're in, and brain damage on it's own is very dehabilitating.  I don't see how this is a good thing to make more difficult than it already is, especially how important it is to staying alive.

13. What do you want from meth? Some kind of addiction to the point of pathology-levels of game-ruining?

14. I only see this as a way to give doctors a weapon, and I'm not sure if you've noticed, but doctors are very good at killing on their own.  If it's just literally for the making surgery having more shit, there's quite a bit already for surgery.


Items 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 12, 14 are all items to make medbay's job more difficult than it already is, ignoring folks who don't know how to medbay, and choose not to learn.  I personally like how simple medbay is to pick up at first glance, it keeps new medics coming in, and with medbay having a lot of little edge cases, and ways to make things better, it's not like you learn EVERYTHING medbay related as soon as you can cure OXY/TOX/BUR/BRU/BRA, there's quite a bit more to it.


I don't think these are good ideas:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 13, 14

Sounds like a good idea:
7, 8, 9, 11

[kyle2143]

Hmm, you both have some valid points. Most of these were pretty off the cuff, but the one I was really interested in making was blood types matter. Mostly because bloodtypes have always existed, but nothing was done with them. Having a significant TOX and OXY damage was a terrible idea since it would give anyone with a syringe a deadly poison or stamina debuff. I think that maybe it should either do very light damage or cause renal failure if you have too much of the wrong blood. Like 100 units. Also, it can be simplified for most doctors by having the spawned fridge stock only O- blood.

You both mentioned how easy it is to die of brain damage, maybe I've been playing this game weird, but I can't recall ever dying that way. It seems that mannitol is just so easy to fix it. I feel like mannitol should be able to cure you up to a concussion and the last bit of damage should be fixed another way. Or maybe the other way around.

14, i guess the saw is tedious, but really the saw does bad damage now, i mean screwdrivers and crownars are almost twice as damaging.

11. I really like the automated ping idea. Hadnt thought of that.

4. I think gloves or some clothinf should have a medical use. Right now, Medical doesn't have any clothing necesary to do the job except the biosuit which is only useful for pathology. Like engineers needing insulated gloves, or miners with spacesuits.

Pathology, you both seem to hate it. It's currently one of the most arcane things on goon. I barely understand any of it. When I suggested that some diseases would spawn from unhygenic surgery, I didn't mean any of the deadly deadly ones. Just the minor to medium ones like space flu. But I thought that this pathology system was new, like within the last 2 years, I think a rewrite is premature. A good

[Frank_Stein]

Idea for gloves and surgery: Performing surgery with unclean hands increases Tox damage. Either wash hands before surgery, or put on fresh gloves

[Technature]

Brain Damage death is pretty uncommon. Usually happens because you're constantly dangerously low on oxygen or someone won't stop bible smacking you, though I did die for seemingly no reason due to mercury poisoning once. The main thing about brain damage is that you have no idea how much you have without constant scanning and once it gets to a certain point, you're dead. No crit condition, no strange messages about feeling weird, nothing. And since there are ways to die like this with literally no warning whatsoever, any chance of being found can potentially be non-existant depending on where you died.

As for diseases, I understand that you mean minor things like the common cold and what not. I just have an immediate bad reaction because, as I mentioned before, I've had one too many rounds where I could do literally nothing because Pathology exists.

Also, never underestimate a doctor with a scalpel, a bone saw, and a table. The second you're down for a few seconds, it's not hard to de-brain you.

Or de-heart you if they really want to watch you panic.