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# System prepended metadata

title: I Hate the Current State of Synths and You Should Too!

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# I Hate the Current State of Synths and You Should Too!

*“Can a person really have no nature?”* asked Hui Tzu of Chuang Tzu.

**“Yes,”** replied Chuang Tzu.

*“But if you have no nature, how can you be called human?”*

**“Tao gives you shape and heaven gives you form, so why can’t you be called human?”**

*“But if you’re called human, how can you have no nature?”*

**“Yes This, and No That – that’s what I call *human nature*,”** replied Chuang Tzu.

**“Not mangling yourself with ‘good’ and ‘bad’ – that’s what I call *no nature*. Instead of struggling to improve on life, you simply abide in occurrence appearing of itself.”**

###### Seriously.

## Rant (Can be Skipped)

Oh my god, are you freaking serious, we got 1.4 shock damage multipliers and 1.3 brute and burn, and 1.2 cold damage multiplier, and TWO times hot damage multiplier? REALLY?! Oh, and also literally any EMP being more or less instant death to synths, due to it incurring hee hoo funny self-harm brain traumas!

For what, round start nobreath, rad immunity, no blood, no wounds, and virus immunity (which is arguably a downside)?

Oh, and the singular most broken (code-wise) race on skyrat? Nope. Not happening. I'm done, I'm fixing this. I'm actually so done. (🧂)

Oh, and we're just simplemobs with extra steps. Even xenos rival synths in terms of interaction with the medical system.

## TL;DR

Synths are getting wounds and their own medical system, that should hopefully bring them semi-adjacent to biologicals in terms of wounds and treatments.

Oh, and they're being merged into one race because there's literally 0 reason why they shouldn't be, with kapulimbs being a thing.

## The Problem

- Synths are a code travesty. They have so much snowflake (one-off needless edits/additions) code that it's borderline impossible to keep track of what the fuck they're meant to do in code.
    - Remind me which reagents work on synths? I thought so.
- Balance-wise, synths are so underpowered compared to baseline humans, it's not even funny. The damage modifiers straight up remove any potential for synths to toe-to-toe.
    - Don't forget they have 0 passive healing options (that people broadly know, I know nanites and solder exist, but they're objectively shit)

## The Meat

### PR 1 (Minifying the Races)
- Synths (including IPCs) will all be one race now.
    - This will allow for **FAR** superior customization options, and will allow for much cleaner code, and a less cluttered species menu.
    - This will remove IPC screens, heads, and chassis selection from other races. Not that those ever worked for them in the first place.

### PR 2 (The Code Sort) (Current)
- All modular synth code is now in the synths module.
- EMPs will be heavily nerfed against brains.
    - 20 damage from 36 on heavy EMP
        - It now takes two heavy EMPs before traumas can happen, though in exchange, they happen more frequently when it does occur, though I doubt anyone will notice, considering it's a ~2% difference.
    - 0 damage from 18 on light EMPs
        - Yes, this means light EMPs no longer deal brain damage, and therefor can't give traumas.
        - They still do everything else they used to, though.

### PR 3 (The Wounds System)
There is no avoiding it, this PR will likely generate a large diff. No, I'm not half-assing this, if that's possible without rewriting other parts of synths.

#### Changelog:
    add: Synth wounds! Watch out, synth players! There is a couple of guides to these in the robotics lab!
    del: Removed synth damage multipliers.
    code: Synths have been brought up to par with their biological counterparts in terms of "medical" complexity.
    balance: Synth blood type is now "coolant" rather than oil!
    balance: Synths no longer regenerate blood.
    qol: Synth's health cross for medhuds is now a gear. Medbay, rejoice at being able to quickly tell the nature of your patient without chat spam!
    add: Added a handful of free guidebooks to synths inside the robotics and medical vendors!

In slightly longer, with reasons:
- Adds wounds to synths. Most biological wounds have an analogue for synths, though some wounds that make little sense on a synth have been skipped over, in exchange for synth's special wounds.
- Synths no longer have blood regen. Having blood regen doesn't make sense on a machine. Not that anyone would've noticed before now.
- Synths now use a special coolant instead of crude oil, because oil made absoluetly no sense. It's still incredibly easy to make, but synths don't regen blood themselves, so you (robotocists, and medbay in a pinch) *need* to top them up after blood loss!
- The damage modifiers are gone. They are not a proper way of balancing a race.
- Changes the health icon in the health hud to be a gear, to indicate their mechanical status at a glance. This is to lower the likelyhood of synths being worked on by confused doctors and parameds.
    - Diagnostics huds now work on them too, cause robotocists don't have medhuds normally.
- Add in a stupid book to robotics and chemistry to make these synth-specific mechanics more evident.

#### Key:
- **Bold**
    - Means this is a wound that needs to be seen by a robo.
- Normal
    - Means this is a minor wound that is easy to self-fix.
- *Italics*
    - Means this is a temporary wound that goes away by itself over time.

#### Damage:
- Brute
    - Fixed by welding yourself with iron sheets in your offhand.
        - Uses two sheets per, and heals 10 damage. Comparible to sutures in healing rate.
        - Downside is that this takes significantly longer for yourself.
        - Alternatively, can be ghetto fixed with a lighter, takes 30 seconds to heal.
            - Emergency use only.
            - Gives a wound that deals 10 damage back to that limb if it takes more than 10 damage in one hit, though. The wound *doesn't* stack.
- Burn
    - Fixed by using a soldering iron filled with liquid solder.
        - Yes, this is a subtype of welder.
        - Uses 5 liquid solder per use, healing 10 damage. Similar to a burn mesh in healing rate.
            - The iron has 100 unit storage.
        - Downside is that this takes significantly longer for yourself.
        - Can be ghetto fixed with wires and a lighter, takes 30 seconds to heal.
            - Emergency use only.
            - Gives a wound that deals 10 damage back to that limb if it takes more than 10 damage in one hit, though. The wound *doesn't* stack.

#### Wounds:
- Special Wounds
    - Ghetto plating
        - Given if you use a lighter instead of welding torch for repairs.
        - Removed if a welder is used on the limb.
        - If the wounded limb is hit with 10 or more damage in a single hit, the plating falls off, and re-inflicts 10 damage.
            - The wound disappears afterwards.
        - Cannot be stacked on one limb, so multiple ghetto repairs will only inflict one ghetto plating wound overall.
    - Ghetto wiring
        - Same as plating, but for burns.
        - Uses wire instead of iron.
        - Removed if a soldering iron with valid fuel is used on the limb.

- Electrical Wounds
    - **Virus**
        - Can only be removed via robotocist using firmware restore/antivirus.
        - Acts a little like the trauma/virus that makes you randomly drop/throw things, pause in place for a moment, and go blind. 
            - Doesn't do deafness cause audio issues make it very inconsistent.
        - Special emag function. Requires 10s do_after on a prone synth to apply.
            - Possibly also be applied by legions upon death.

- Burn Wounds
    - **Short circuit**
        - Can (uncommonly) happen when shocked (requires high damage, or high burn on yourself to begin with) or EMPed.
        - Locks up the limb, and renders it unusable.
            - Picks a random limb to make non functional if on chest or head.
        - Repaired by a robotocist via surgery.
            - Ghetto fixed via soldering iron, sped up with multitool in offhand. Downgrades it to warped wiring/circuitry instead.
    - Warped wiring/circuitry
        - Can (semi-uncommonly) happen when shocked (requires high damage, or high burn on yourself to begin with), EMPed, or is above self-ignition temp threshold.
        - Causes slowdowns and intermittent limb control loss.
            - If on chest or head, randomly picks a limb to disable.
        - Upgrades from this into short circuit if rolled again for wounds on said bodypart.
        - Repaired via nanites (over time), or by a robotocist in surgery.
    - Scorched shell (better name TBD)
        - Happens the same way organic burn wounds happen.
        - Does not get infected, though.
        - Healed using nanite injections/plasters.
    - Scorched cooling pipes
        - Happens only on chest, and when hit by heavy hitting (20+ after modifiers) burn damage.
        - Reduces the cooling efficacy of the synth's heart and lungs, usually by enough to cause internal organ damage.
        - Repaired via surgery.

- Blunt Wounds
    - **Crushed shell**
        - Can (uncommonly) happen when crushed by anything (anvils, vendors, etc), or when taking brute damage (requires high damage, or high brute on yourself to begin with).
        - Causes slowdowns.
    - Cracked endoskeleton/Dented shell
        - Name is randomly chosen. Can't get both at once though.
        - Can (semi-uncommonly) happen when crushed by anything (anvils, vendors, etc), or when taking brute damage (requires high damage, or high brute on yourself to begin with).
        - Causes slowdowns.
        - Upgrades from this into Crushed Shell if rolled again for wounds on said bodypart.
        - Repaired via nanites (over time), or by a robotocist in surgery.

- Muscle wounds
    - **Crushed hydraulics system**
        - Rolls instead of crushed shell if muscle is the target instead of bodypart.
        - Causes slowdowns, or disables limb if on a limb.
    - Damaged servo motor/Dented hydraulics
        - Name is based on chosen locomotion.
        - Rolls instead of cracked endoskeleton/dented shell if muscle is the target instead of bodypart.

- Sharp wounds
    - **Note**: Synths do **not** regenerate blood, unlike biologicals.
        - But they also don't have an instant death threshold, and can actually survive if they aren't moved without being buckled!
    - Hemorrhaged cooling system
        - Very bad, synth equivalent to weeping avulsion.
        - Can be patched with two plates and a lighter or welding torch, or at double speed with plastic and a lighter or welding torch. Think fast!
            - If repaired with a lighter, it's just half as fast. Bleeding is punishing enough.
    - Split cooling system
        - Bad, synth equivalent to open laceration.
        - Can be patched with two plates and a lighter or welding torch, or at double speed with plastic and a lighter or welding torch. Think fast!
            - If repaired with a lighter, it's just half as fast. Bleeding is punishing enough.
    - *Chipped cooling system*
        - Normal, synth equivalent to rough abrasion.
        - Can be patched with a lighter or welding torch!
            - If repaired with a lighter, it's just half as fast. Bleeding is punishing enough.

- Pierce wounds
    - Ruptured cooling system
        - Very bad, equivalent to hemorrhaged cooling system.
    - Punctured cooling system
        - Bad, equivalent to cracked cooling system.
    - *Pricked cooling system*
        - Normal, equivalent to chipped cooling system.

#### Machines and Items
Yes, this includes two machines and three items to help with things.
- Synthchem machine
    - Creates essential chems for synths at 75% purity (Read: solder and synth coolant). Chemists can make these at a higher purity, though.
- Synth Analyzer
    - Health analyzer, but it actually works on synths!
- Soldering Iron
    - Needs to be filled with solder, similarly to a welder.
    - Can be used to repair most synth burn wounds.

### PR 4 (The Basic Organs and Chems)
- Organs will actually have functionality, and some of them will be *required* for a synth to be alive at all.
    - This will involve a bit more planning. Nanite Paste and Liquid Solder are not going to be forgotten about.
    - Add in the relevant information to the synth book to make these synth-specific mechanics and reagents more evident.
    - The heart is the hydraulic pump. Without it, you can't stand up or move, but you can talk and do other non-movement things.
    - Stomach is the synth battery. Without it, you're dead. Charged via the charging cable implant you start with.
    - Liver is mostly unchanged. There's nothing *inherently* wrong.
    - Lungs are heat exchangers, which will be required to not overheat.
        - Yes, instead of oxygen, you gotta worry about your temperature.
        - Subject to tweaks.
            - No, I am not going to try to make this 100% perfectly balanced, stop pretending perfect balance matters on SR.
- Heat mechanics.
    - Synths generate heat while moving and doing any particularly exhausting actions.
    - There will be a handy heat status effect on your HUD should you start getting particularly toasty or cold.
        - This will use the standard comfortable temperature stuff. No need to remake the wheel.
    - Synth ideal operating temperatures range from 243K to 313K (-30C to 40C).
        - Maybe add a quirk or two that shifts these numbers. Not sure.
            - -100 to 20C?
                - Higher power draw, heats up rooms slightly more due to active cooling.
            - 18C to 100C, with 250C ignition temp?
                - Low temperatures come up very often... Maybe make self-repairs take longer.
        - Lower than -190, and you'll start to freeze up, taking large amounts of both cold, hydraulic heart, and battery damage. You'll also suffer cold-based wounds.
        - Lower than -30C internal temperature causes your hydraulic pump and battery to slowly fail, and you'll start taking cold damage too. 
        - Higher than 40C, and you'll start taking *tiny* amounts of brain damage (like, 2 a minute), and your reagent processor (liver) and battery will start to take damage too, along with the typical hot (but not high enough to cause external damage!) slowdowns.
        - Higher than 200C, and you'll start engaging in self-combustion as your coolant starts to ignite. Yes, you will loose blood to this, along with your hydraulic pump starting to rapidly deteriorate, and you'll get "bleeding" wounds on top of whatever the fire gives you.
            - No, I am not using the reagents system to spurt coolant everywhere when on fire. This will cause more headaches than it will immerse.
        - Anything not in the ideal temperature range will be able to cause minor strain wounds. Sensitive electronics and un-ideal conditions do not mix!
- Synth coolant reagent. Crude oil is not a suitable bloodtype, frankly.
    - Made using equal parts ethanol and stabalizing agent.
    - Flammable, but not explosive.

### PR 5 (Organs Expansion)
- Heart
    - Servo motors
        - Uses noticeably more energy to move, and generates noticeably more heat. Better be careful of overheating if you're constantly running from sec, or are on lavaland!
        - If EMPed, you have a chance of gaining a special wound, fried servos! Be careful!
        - Bleeding wounds have significantly reduced bloodloss.
        - Roundstart pickable, but locked behind advanced synth components.

- Stomach
    - High-capacity cell
        - Has 150% capacity compared to the normal one. That's it. It's boring.
        - Blocked behind advanced synth components research.
    - Quik-charge<sup>:tm:</sup> cell.
        - Charges 150% faster than a normal cell.
        - Blocked behind advanced synth components research.
    - EMP-resistant cell.
        - Innately EMP proof.
        - Blocked behind advanced synth components research.
    - Wide-area coil.
        - Charges the battery passively, in exchange for having a kneecapped maximum cell capacity. 
            - It has 25% of the normal cell's capacity. 
                - Useless for miners and space-tiders, and questionably useful for anyone who plans on leaving the station for any length of time, especially considering it blocks cable implants from working without upgrades.
            - Requires an APC to drain from, unless inside centcom areas, where power is free instead.
            - Can be upgraded via implant to allow the use of charging cables.
        - Blocked behind advanced synth components research, but can be picked as a roundstart power choice.
    - Blood engine.
        - ***Yes, this is indeed an ultrakill reference.***
        - Gained from lavaland loot chests. Guaranteed to drop from Bubblegum.
        - Has a slight power tax.
            - It has 75% of the normal cell's capacity.
        - But each **gore** pile they walk over charges their battery, and heals 1 brute and burn on each bodypart.
        - Consumes the gore pile, and replaces it with a blood splatter.
        - Unlike the wide-area coil, it does not block the use of the cable implant.

- Wounds
    - Fried servos
        - Slows down your movement by 20%.
        - Stacks on top of all other wounds.
        - Healed using wire and a solderer or lighter, no ghetto penalty.
            - The lighter still makes it take twice the time, though.

### PR ??? (Robotics Lab Expansion)
This might happen before the synth wound PRs to help acclimatise robotocists to what's now expected of them.

**TODOs:**
 - **Add atomic PR change lists, similar to the above sections.**
 - **Refine Synthetic Surgery section: Explain our prior footguns, antipatterns, and pitfalls.**
 - **Explain map changes implementation / Robotics Lab mapping templates.**

___

In order to move forward with the desired changes to synthetic species, and to then curate the best experience for the players, we must recognize our past mistakes and "how we got here". The goal of this section is to synergize the above changes with Robotics Lab, then establish a "big picture" and clarity of vision between synths and the lab/roboticists, and then re-create the lab starting from where we are right now.

**I posit that** a majority of Skyrat's synthetic species playability problems come from the Robotics lab, and the fact that it is inadequate. Adjustments to synthetic species *indirectly* affect the usability of the Robotics lab, and even *directly* in vice versa. *If you add new/more injury types to synthetic species*, then a side-effect will occur which we have seen *many times* in the past: *Robotics lab may not be able to accommodate the patient, whatsoever.*

As of this writing, Skyrat's Robotics lab is almost identical to TG, and the supported use-cases for Robotics lab do not include the medical treatment of injured crew; this leads to a sub-par experience for both the Roboticist and all of their synthetic patients. Roboticicts' expectations around synthetics are unclear because their laboratory lacks contextual links to synths, and lacks surety of purpose in Skyrat-tg as a result.

### Visual/Map Design & Player Intuition

The main visual design currently being expressed is important to consider, both in its current state and when expanding it. The Robotics lab itself, as a part of the map, has a visual design which is interpreted by the player when they're doing their job as Roboticist. The visual design of the Robotics lab may heavily influence player actions and decisions.

The current visual design expresses some aspects which players intuitively recognize:
- **The ExoSuit Fabricator** is centrally-located, is within a secured area, and there are two of them next to each other. You can really easily ascertain that the entire role comes from this machine.
- **The Operating Room / Operating Table** is set aside, is sometimes its own secured area, and there is only one. The medical equipment provided is sub-par, and the Health Analyzers in the room appear intended bot construction. One can, with some certainty, ascertain that the OR is secondary/unneccesary to the main role.
- **The Mech Bay** is often front-facing, and crew members will always ask the Roboticist to open its doors to the public. Other than direct end-user interaction, the mech chargers and cyborg chargers quickly help you to categorize the room and who its end-users are.


**Visual Ideas / Possible Solutions:**
- Wall-mounted shelves, racks, or pegboards for storing tools, limbs, cybernetic organs, and implants.
- Randomized cybernetic limbs/organs hanging from the ceiling and on wall-racks. Multiple limbs may be tied together in hanging "bouquets".
- The visual language of the Operating Room can be changed such that it intuitively illustrates that the area is also intended for medical treatment. The player can visually and intuitively know that it's intended for both *medical treatment* and *augmentation*.
    - Additional medical-related imagery and perhaps a custom "cybernetic" variant of the MedBay "cross" symbol.

### Patient Triage & Treatment

The robotics lab was never truly adjusted to accomidate Skyrat's synthetic species, and it certainly wasn't meant to be a medical environment for treating injuries. Synthetic injuries are currently trivial to fix. Wounded synthetic characters tend to present injuries which are both easily detectable and easily fixed within the confines of the lab. The difficulty of repair is thanks to the general availability of the required materials, those materials being: *cable coils*, *iron sheets*, and a *welding tool*.

In order to humor the next paragraphs, please consider this conjecture for a moment:
> **FACT**: *"Synthetic injuries are currently trivial to fix"*:
**CONJECTURE**: *Could that trend be indirectly caused by an inadequate Robotics lab?*

In the past (Example: Bob Joga's "Bob Med") the treatment of fatal synthetic injuries was more feature-rich; the variety of synthetic injuries and their treatments added an engaging and interactive experience, bordering on realistic. Unfortunately, the past implementation's adherence to realism and variety created an inconsistent, time-consuming, and un-fun experience which generated too many admin-helps. The experience we have now has been simplified in order to address all of the aforementioned issues, and caused a significant lack of variety as a result.

#### Synthetic Healing Reagents

Despite the existence of synthetic healing reagents, Roboticists do not regularly create them or request them from Chemistry, and so they are severely under-utilized; this under-utilization is caused by a lack of any context linking the reagents to Robotics. There is a notable lack of context around synthetic healing reagents; that is to say, they do not have a presence in the game which is defined by anything else, i.e. a few round-start bottles in Robotics lab, or a "synth first aid kit". Despite player claims of inefficacy, the under-utilization of synth healing reagents *is definitely caused by a lack of contextualization*. For example currently, Roboticists perform a "posibrain logic reset" to fix brain trauma because "Liquid Solder" has no contextual link to the Robotics lab, and requires the patient or Roboticist to commission Chemistry.

**Triage Ideas / Possible Solutions:**
- Health analyzer and MedBay-grade First-Aid-Kit located next to surgical kit at round-start.
- Both Roboticists and their patients might be more inclined to begin relying on synthetic healing medications if starter-bottles/synth-aid-kits existed in Robotics lab at round-start.
- Synthetic crew can represent an oppourtunity for *interactive problem solving* to the Roboticist; they should be able to gather information in order to troubleshoot problems, test their solutions, and even undo erroneous actions. Information may be gathered via a visual examination, by using a Health Analyzer, or by speaking to the patient.
- Add a synthetic-only Health Analyzer as a kind of high-detail ["on-board diagnostics"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On-board_diagnostics) (OBD) reader-device that plugs into a synth's USB port, and displays more/better information than the Health Analyzer.
    - Add a cybernetics-focused medical kiosk/["diagnostic station"](https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Power_armor_station_(Fallout_4)) to the front-facing area of Robotics Lab, which anyone can walk up to and connect with. The kiosk must work for both synthetics and organics with implants and robotic bodyparts.

### Synthetic Surgery

**TODO: Synergize the lab itself with synthetic surgery.**

Currently, "synthetic revival surgery" is implemented as the de-facto way to revive a dead synth, and players compare it to an "admin-heal". Previously, additional niche repairs would also be needed to fully repair and then revive that person, and so the old experience looked very similar to the Med Bay "defibrilation threshold" experience.

As it is currently implemented, "synthetic revival surgery" works around our prior gameplay design mistakes, but it also removes all oppourtunities for interactive problem solving. The surgery also requires some extra materials, to reflect the fact that you're fully refurbishing the synth, but this workaround winds up completely breaking the experience; it becomes a band-aid that removes most of the problems, but also all fun and work.

**Revival Ideas / Possible Solutions:**
- **WIP, add actual stuff here.**
- **Yeah? Just punch the synth in the chest, works every time!** 👌

### Man-Machine-Interface

The current implementation of the Man-Machine-Interface (MMI) renders the sprite of an organic brain, even when a posibrain is inserted into it; this leads to players seeing an amusing and inaccurate sprite in-game. While at first it may seem to be a frivolous and cosmetic-only problem, one must remember that such visual design elements will *strongly influence* player actions. For example- and revealing its unintuitiveness -some players do not immediately understand that the posibrain of a crewmate can/must be inserted into an MMI, and sometimes only discover this fact via trial-and-error.

**MMI Ideas / Possible Solutions:**
- **New MMI sprites which support positronic brains.**

### Robotics Lab - Granular Changes & PR's

All definitely feasable and agreed-upon changes will be translated to the above PR list.

- **TODO: Identify chunks which can be made into PRs, and add those atomic changes**

### WIP - More to Follow

**WIP section for robotics lab expansion.**
**Think constructively here... what is fun, and what is blocking that fun?**
**What is "believable" on Skyrat and also fun to play with?**

## Add Extra Ideas Here for Expansion 

- (Rimi): I propose we make automapper templates that completely replace both the lab and the charging bay. We need to make the bay more compact to allow for the extra detail that we're striving for in these PRs.