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# System prepended metadata

title: 'SkyMed Overhaul, Part I: (Chemistry), [DOC IS WIP]'

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# SkyMed Overhaul, Part I: (Chemistry), [DOC IS WIP]
Current state of Skyrat Medical is seen by many as in a less-than-desireable state of affairs: Elitism, a drainage of roleplay, an almost complete focus on  optimal mechanics, an unfulfilling medical system designed for an LRP environment on a server trying to promote higher roleplay -- there are many issues found in the medical department and the medical system as a whole. 

To attempt to make any significant changes to this system would be considered a huge undertaking, as well as uprooting a community with their heels dug firmly into the ground of playing the path of least resistance, which is why few have attempted it. 

This is an attempt to do exactly that; a sequence of several overhauls to slowly but surely rework medical into a system that's not only accomodating, but complimentary for the roleplay-friendly environment we strive to achieve in Skyrat.

This first batch of changes will address the issue with chemistry and how it plays into the aforementioned issues with medical, and lay the framework for a less "meta-obsessed" medbay.

# The Problem:
The current state of Medical on Skyrat is no-doubt reliant upon and even **dominated** by the existence and competency of Chemistry. 



![](https://i.imgur.com/ddZdDVk.png)
*Factories such as this are commonplace in the average medbay, providing complete automation and a potentially infinite supply of chemicals.*

Now, this alone may not spark any issues immediately in the mind, but consider this: 

**Do any of our primary healing meds actually have any major downsides?**

The answer is no. You can receive a quick and effective treatment with absolutely no significant downsides from a variety of chemical delivery methods that take little to no time at all, making surgery and other means of healing very much obsolete to a living patient. Some chems do cause organ damage, but the fact that it's usually minimal and can be easily ignored due to organs being able to self-heal makes it very negligible side-effect.

**How does this pertain to a lack of fulfillment in the Medbay? Why is faster healing an issue?**

Quite simply, the ability to inject or feed someone with a cure-all mix of chemicals that fully heal them within 30 seconds with no downsides gathered from a factory which can produce an infinite supply of said chemicals not only promotes minimal patient-doctor interfacing, but essentially makes the Chemist able to do a significant proportion of the Medical Doctor's work but quicker and much more effectively. Even without a factory, chems can be easily produced in bulk and supplied to the medbay to a similar effect. Having most of your work simplied to clicking on someone once in the lobby with a chemical you didn't even make is not an engaging gameplay loop.

Chemicals in their current state are overpowered not only in how effective they are at healing on a whim, but how said healing on a whim provides absolutely zero outstanding side-effects; it's a game design fit for the mind-numbing chaos and high pace of a normal TG round, not Skyrat.

![](https://i.imgur.com/FX7oW9D.gif)


# The Proposed Solutions:

What's the normal measure to take for something that's overpowered? Nerf it.

Chemical treatment shouldn't be viewed as the primary and optimal means of healing; it should be viewed as auxiliary, or the secondary choice to other options -- or, at the very least, it shouldn't be an option that provides so much in exchange for zero drawbacks.

What we plan to do with healing chems is the following:

* Nerf and reduce the healing abilities of almost every healing chem.
* Slow the rate of metabolism for chemicals, thus making chems an option for long and steady healing rather than quick cure-alls.
* Giving each chemical a side effect which must be taken into serious consideration; I.E: vomiting, nausea, and dizziness. 
* Chemicals may negatively interact with eachother, thus preventing people from being pumped full of seven different healing chems at once. *(Miners are a different story that may be addressed further down the line if need be).*
* Chemicals which heal the same type of damage will work much less effectively if attempted to be bundled together in one's system.
* (LATER ADDITION): A suture overhaul where left clicking a limb is a hasty action to patch up any potential bleeds, does not heal. Right clicking is a slow action which, once applied, provides passive healing to the limb that is only boosted with bandaging.

Ideally with these changes, we can shift the focus away from having such a chem-heavy medical system, and make taking damage something which can't be so easily shrugged off. 

# The Concerns:

Of course, this change will be very significant to not only the Medbay, but to many other roles. 

~~Take for instance the Miner; heavily reliant upon chemical pens for survival in lavaland, especially when fighting megafauna. To so heavily nerf their primary means of healing would mean assured death.~~

~~To counteract this, a new means of healing for miner shall be introduced, which ONLY can be utilized on Lavaland or the lower levels of Icebox. (Subject to possible future change and improvement).~~

*(REQUIRES TESTING TO SEE IF IT IS EVEN NECESSARY.)*

Quadruple Sec/Quintuple Sec will also receive a heavy nerf, having their healing capabilities reduced drastically so that security officers aren't rushing to the bar roundstart to get a flask of ultra-healy juice.

# The Takeaway:

This is only the first step of several to drastically overhaul how the medical system on Skyrat functions, to hopefully create a more balanced and roleplay-accomodating system. 

As it stands, our medical system provides very little incentive for actually valuing your life, or regarding any damage or injuries taken as serious. 

The broken state of our healing chems is one of many issues which has fostered a playerbase that's reliant upon convenient, unreasonably quick and care-free means of healing to make the everday dangers of the station and its consequences a mere inconvenience that can be easily remedied. 

**Mortality and danger holds very little weight when you're able to shrug off the consequences with a single pill or pen.**