---
# System prepended metadata

title: Coroner's Brain Machine (TM)
tags: [TGstation]

---

# Coroner's Brain Machine (TM)

## Goals

1. Give a way to revive someone through round removal as long as their death can be confirmed.
2. Make Coroner feel more creepy flavor-wise, and grant them an extra way to help Medbay through one of the things they haven't been able to do; revive the round removed.
3. Give an extra use to Medical records and try to bring it to some level of importance like security records are, and add a worthwhile interaction between Medical and Cargo, thus giving money a bigger meaning.
4. Give team antagonists such as Blood brothers another way to revive their allies once captured, rather than having to sit around and accept defeat simply because one of them was caught, while still having risk to doing so and a chance of interception.

## Non-Goals

1. Make death incredibly easy to circumvent.
2. Be the best source of revival for Medbay.
3. Re-add rules on forgetting who killed you.
4. On that note, this also should not be Cloning v2

## Idea

There are several new mechanics that are all tied in together:

### The Coroner's Printing Machine

The synaptic promoter is a dim machine that looks suspicious to anyone that isn't Morbid, this is meant to be a machine that should tell you what type of person the Coroner is.

The Coroner gets access to a new machine, a printer, but for memories. Putting the DNA sample of a deceased crewmember and a synthetic brain will allow you to start transplanting the synthetic brain with the memories Central Command has stored of the given crewmember, using their DNA as input.

The machine will, obviously, only work if the person is dead.

### Crate

The cargo crate will have 2-3 synthetic brains, this will be the sole source of getting synthetic brains. This will be an expensive crate, I am thinking of around ~2400 (``CARGO_CRATE_VALUE``x12), making it the most expensive crate in the medical section.

This will make it something that should be purchased when necessary, but not overdone. Alternatively, it can be a good use of the medical cargo console.

### Medical Records

Each crewmember will have their DNA sample in the Medical Records are the start of a round, and the Coroner will be able to request people's DNA through the console. Each DNA sample will be delivered through the Cargo console, and will cost a small fee for each one, as to prevent hoarding and spamming of this system.

### The Synthetic Brain

The Synthetic brain (the 'template brain') is the only brain (except perhaps Abductor) able to have memories imprinted onto it. Trying to use any other brain in the printer will cause the brain to go completely non-functional and fail.

The brain can't have brain surgery performed onto it, but the only way to get brain traumas is through ion/emp, making permanent damage easy to do in this niche way. Brain damage is not a thing, either, even through sitting outside of a corpse or in a dead corpse. No mannitol, no healing, no damage, only traumas.

Because you are technically a new brain with Central Command's memories implanted on you, it makes sense the crewmember would not know things they learned throughout that round since none of it is "stored" in the database, however I do not want to re-open that administrative nightmare. It is entirely up to administration if this is a rule they want to bring back for this mechanic, but we can alternatively say that all memories you learn through a round are automatically saved in a database if avoiding it is prefered.

## Coroner vs Hydroponics

This method of revival works somewhat in the same was as Pod cloning, part of the Botany job. There are massive differences between the two that allows the Coroner to have its niche without turning pod cloning completely irrelevant:

1. Pod cloning requires the person being revived to go out of their way to get a Blood sample to Botany, as no one brings corpses to Botany for revival, it's simply not their department, compared to the Coroner who is the one that has to go out of their way to bring others back from round removal through looking at sensors, doing health checks on people to see if they are missing, and getting help from Cargo to get all the necessary tools to perform it.
2. Podpeople get massive advantages over other species due to the light from a simple flashlight being enough to permanently give you a good mood, never having to eat, and getting passive healing, compared to the template brain that works in its own way but has massive downsides in comparison.
3. Transplanting memories into a brain does not simply revive the person, they still have to get their brain transplanted into a valid body, be it from the Morgue, Virology, or Genetics, while Botany is instant. Post-Synthetic revival, people are able to get themselves turned into a podperson if they so wish to swap their downsides with upsides, that is part of the sandbox.

For these reasons, memory transplant is not meant as a replacement or alternative to pod cloning, but simply another tool in Medical's arsenal to revive people that can co-exist with pod cloning.

## Alternatives

1. The DNA needed for the memory transplant could work differently, other ideas include using skin patches that can be ordered through Cargo and surgically removed from people's fat, and can have the DNA simply stitched onto it. I would avoid implementing this right away because it feels like overcomplicating for no good reason but to slow down the process.
2. The Synthetic brain is the only Robotic brain that can be achieved by players, so unique features to the brain would be cool, though it should preferably be downsides as it is a punishment for requiring revival through this extreme method.
3. Cargo's Recovered Crew (https://github.com/tgstation/tgstation/pull/87072), which mostly does what this aimed to do as well but with less Coroner involvement. The difference between these are mostly aesthetic.

###### tags: `TGstation`