# Broken bones and crutches and stuff
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Once when playing medical I thought to myself, huh, these gamers just get healed up and then go on their way, no follow up appointments or suffer any real long term effects (mostly). Quite different to how real life treatments are, with month long recoveries and stuff. Then I thought hey what if bones broke and you had to get casts and stuff. Tada.
## Okay so what's being added
- Each limb would get the ability to get broken (not torso or heads though because that'd be complex. Well, maybe ribs could get broken, but that's it). The broken limb would then debuff you in terms of movement speed and dexterity, possibly giving you more brute damage if you keep trying to use those limbs. The break doesn't add damage by itself (unless you abuse it as mentioned), and using a brute automender continuously until 0 brute health wouldn't repair the break. The break itself would show up on a basic scan, or even an examine text.
- so it turns out that all `/obj/item/parts` i.e. body parts already sorta have bones (and so do `/obj/item/organs`??). So I don't have to actually code much of anything for this bit other than when the actual breaks happen plus some miscellaneous tidy up.
- To heal a broken limb, you need to set the broken limbs in place (not clear on how that'd be done yet, maybe just help intent on the limb, causing damage and pain at the time, or maybe just automatically assumed) and then put a cast on it.
- For regular casts, you'd apply fibreglass bandages which would set and make a cast on the offending limb. The cast would then have to be removed after a set amount of time by some kind of saw. The fibreglass bandages would come out of a medical fabricator, and there'd be some lying around at roundstart.
- An alternative to a cast would be a splint, which would provide a little less support and heal a little slower, but it'd be able to be reused, unlike the bits of cast that get sawn off. Provides a few more options for doctors. There'd be different ones for arms and legs though, which is a bit of a downside.
- Crutches! For people with only one leg (or a broken leg). Wheelchairs of course still exist for people with two broken legs. Subtypes could be stylish walking sticks.
## pros and cons
- Pros are having people hobbling around the station with casts and crutches (hilarious), plus it's another layer of complexity for doctors to treat which isn't urgently life threatening.
- Cons: people can just opt to amputate the useless limb and get cyberlimbs, and it might even encourage it. Classic server enjoyers may opt for it even

## other ideas that have been suggested (scope creep)
- chem that speeds up bone healing, possibly made from milk or at least high calcium.
- walking sticks, subtype of crutches
- sprains, which would occur at the 'lower levels' of bone damage, which could progress to a full break if left untended.
- Having the sleeper speed up the bone healing by like a lot. Yet another sleeper application is good i think.
- cryo interactions??
- brittle bones mutation or trait possibly, or its opposite, strong bones.
- interactions with mutantraces like skeletons
- ~~femur breaker~~ a syndie weapon that possibly has a higher chance of breaking bones.
- Fractured skulls? Edit: can we just stick to limbs, this is already so complex

## things still left to decide
- When should bone damage be applied? It shouldn't be constant, otherwise everyone would break them constantly. If someone is targeting a limb should that increase the chance? Should big impacts or certain weapons guarantee damage, leaving small brute damage to cause no bone damage? If struck normally, just pick a limb at random?
- How fast should the cast and splint healing rates be? what's a good amount of time for 'long term' healing?
- How to implement sprains?

What do you think? ~~remember to like and subscribe and leave a comment down below~~ Please do give feedback in the player projects thread or the forum post. It's much appreciated.