Chirurgeon NPC

[Chettaman]

If we made healing harder than it is now, it would be a good idea to have medics handy. And we would also make those medics difficult or ... not as good as PC medics like they use dirty bandages on purpose or they don't wash their hands first or they overcharge or something...
If healing were harder than it is now it might even inspire a new sort of PC run guild to appear. Of healers and such. (non-magickal) of course.

[Hitsuchi]

I like the idea of increasing PC-to-PC interaction. When a lot of your playtime has 7 other players online, it sucks to be pressured towards it, though, and getting your healing through an NPC dispenser just feels... more boring than it would add fun?

And a slightly code-intensive, but fairly fun brainstorm idea:

• Another type of bandage, wearable, can be applied by anyone without risk. Only when it is worn, can you sleep to regain HP.
• Each point of below-limit HP you gain wears the bandage out.
• PCs with the bandage skill can maintain their bandages, like armor repair works (including fail chance).
• PCs with the bandagemaking skill can make new ones (obviously).
• Each PC starts the game with a low-quality bandage (50 HP worth of healing or so, if that).
• Clans could have an NPC that dispenses these, cheap or free of charge, as a perk.

What this would do:

• Increase interaction potential with PC medics, especially as a preventative measure: medic and player don't need to have the same playtimes, but it's beneficial to find each other at some point.
• In rough situations, make a medic useful but not vital, especially if you forgot to bring medical supplies (just like forgetting to bring climbing supplies when riding with the Byn near the Shield wall makes ropemakers useful...).
• Let someone new to the game make a mistake or two without them going broke for healing expenses.

I'm not sure this is a good idea, but if it inspires a better one, I have done well enough.

[Miradus]

If the desire is to make PC healers more viable ... then make them more viable.

How about giving an apothecary the ability to make some potions which will not only give you the ability to heal current wounds, but enhance your healing ability for the next 24 hours?

Or having a PC healer in the room with you grants a bonus to your recovery time?

The reason nobody goes to a PC healer is because beyond making some bandages their healing skills are shitty.

Make them less shitty. Don't force me to go hang out with their shittiness.

[Miradus]

Worried about balance?

Uberhealing requires hard-to-acquire ingredients, not just a couple of bimbal leaves.

[Vwest]

As someone who has played a few surgeon-grade healers over the years... this doesn't sound like it'll give more interaction.

The biggest problem with PC healers of a non-magickal variety is everyone is terrified of that failure message. I've lost unreal chunks of HP (equal to 'very hard' and above hits) from someone failing a bandage attempt and most scenarios where my PC has been out with a group and had to do some triage, most characters refuse bandage attempts and prefer to sleep it off - or even just keep riding with 40hp, rather than risk losing more to the vagaries of the ancient bandage code.

Worse, the one thing PCs always go looking for a healer over is the one thing even a maxed-master level bandage can't heal, mortally wounded targets. I've fiddled with every piece of medical item available in the game and have never found a combination that'll let me even attempt to bandage someone in a mortally wounded state. It seems to require magick healing full stop, further diminishing the point of being known as a reliable and talented healer.

Even if you added an NPC with 'advanced' bandaging, no one is going to use it because of the inherent risk of failure even with a maxed-master bandage skill. If you removed sleep healing in combination, all you're going to get is a lot of very, very, very frustrated players -- especially off-peak players.

There are at least three healers in-game right now that are both thematically talented healers and have the coded backing for it if people were really interested in some healer RP. However, my experience is most people would rather have a nap and ignore the three vicious bites to the neck that dropped them to 20~ HP, so they can go back to hunting in the morning or otherwise avoid having to miss out on impromptu RPT events, like riding out to kill yet another mekillot lured to the gates.

Really, I'm fine with it being an opt-in experience and don't think it needs to be changed.

Removing sleep healing and adding in an automated NPC seems like a lot of effort, hassle and frustration for absolutely no gain at all.

If we want to make a change to encourage people to go to PC healers, adjust the bandage skill to only deal damage on a critical failure, rather than every single fail. I'd also look at the consistency of HP healed relative to both the bandage being used and the skill of the person using them. In my experience, I've healed 20-30 HP with a scrap of cloth at journeyman, only to heal all of 8 HP with peak quality bandages at master.

The lack of consistency and reliability of the bandage skill (along with a hefty dose of player disinterest/fear) is the major reason PC healers are so under utilized. Some refinement to the skill will likely entice more interest from players and thus, make being a talented healer as valued as it ought to be.

[Malken]

til Chirurgeon is a real word.

French for surgeon = Chirurgien.

English for chirurgien = Surgeon.

Chirurgien + Surgeon = Chirurgeon.

The more you leeeeeeeearn.

[bardlyone]

As someone who has played a few surgeon-grade healers over the years... this doesn't sound like it'll give more interaction.

The biggest problem with PC healers of a non-magickal variety is everyone is terrified of that failure message. I've lost unreal chunks of HP (equal to 'very hard' and above hits) from someone failing a bandage attempt and most scenarios where my PC has been out with a group and had to do some triage, most characters refuse bandage attempts and prefer to sleep it off - or even just keep riding with 40hp, rather than risk losing more to the vagaries of the ancient bandage code.

Worse, the one thing PCs always go looking for a healer over is the one thing even a maxed-master level bandage can't heal, mortally wounded targets. I've fiddled with every piece of medical item available in the game and have never found a combination that'll let me even attempt to bandage someone in a mortally wounded state. It seems to require magick healing full stop, further diminishing the point of being known as a reliable and talented healer.

Even if you added an NPC with 'advanced' bandaging, no one is going to use it because of the inherent risk of failure even with a maxed-master bandage skill. If you removed sleep healing in combination, all you're going to get is a lot of very, very, very frustrated players -- especially off-peak players.

There are at least three healers in-game right now that are both thematically talented healers and have the coded backing for it if people were really interested in some healer RP. However, my experience is most people would rather have a nap and ignore the three vicious bites to the neck that dropped them to 20~ HP, so they can go back to hunting in the morning or otherwise avoid having to miss out on impromptu RPT events, like riding out to kill yet another mekillot lured to the gates.

Really, I'm fine with it being an opt-in experience and don't think it needs to be changed.

Removing sleep healing and adding in an automated NPC seems like a lot of effort, hassle and frustration for absolutely no gain at all.

If we want to make a change to encourage people to go to PC healers, adjust the bandage skill to only deal damage on a critical failure, rather than every single fail. I'd also look at the consistency of HP healed relative to both the bandage being used and the skill of the person using them. In my experience, I've healed 20-30 HP with a scrap of cloth at journeyman, only to heal all of 8 HP with peak quality bandages at master.

The lack of consistency and reliability of the bandage skill (along with a hefty dose of player disinterest/fear) is the major reason PC healers are so under utilized. Some refinement to the skill will likely entice more interest from players and thus, make being a talented healer as valued as it ought to be.

all the things vwest said

[Yam]

I agree that bandage is pretty screwy. As it stands even someone with master bandage can accidentally kill someone at <10 hp. It's safer in all cases to just sleep it off.

I'd rather see the bandage skill looked at than have NPC bandagers put in game and sleep regen removed.

[nauta]

til Chirurgeon is a real word.

French for surgeon = Chirurgien.

English for chirurgien = Surgeon.

Chirurgien + Surgeon = Chirurgeon.

The more you leeeeeeeearn.

Tell that to John Knox.

[Jihelu]

Pls stop making bandage fails hurt people and just break the bandage.
Same with poison fails.

[Chettaman]

While I have yet to experience all the negatives of the bandage code, I can say that I have run into the problems identified. Especially the mortally wounded thing.

I can agree that a change to the bandage skill in itself would be more important than any other change, even if I would still love to see some more changes to how bandages and healing works.