I'd like to put up some suggestions I had concerning injured colonists and medical care. I like interesting mechanics that are realistic and multilayered while being simple enough to be easy to handle and don't involve too much micromanagement. Also these are just thoughts, not a finished concept. I also think, that RimWorld is too hard in it's current state, so this would be implemented once the game's difficulty is a little more adjustable.
There's one commodity related to this called something like "Medical supplies".
There's two related skills:
Medical skill: this will be disabled on most colonists except those who have gone through medical training in their backstory, like nurses, doctors, veterinarians et al. Leveling up would speed up medical tasks and/or improve the hp gained from performing them.
First aid: all colonists will have this skill. Alternatively this could be tied into some other skill, like Social. Leveling up would speed up first aid tasks.
Colonists can be in a number of injury states. I was thinking maybe five:
100: completely healthy
- Nothing to see here, move along
90 - 99: bruised
- Colonist will heal 1 HP per day.
70 - 89: injured
- Colonist will heal 1 HP per day if untreated.
- Will heal more if treated at least once a day by someone with first aid or medical skill (like randomly heal 1 - 10 HP up to a max of 90 HP)
- Multiple treatments per day will not increase the HP gain for that day.
- Colonists who are lightly injured can treat themselves
50 - 69: wounded
- Colonist will heal 1 HP per day if untreated
- Will heal more if treated at least once a day by someone with first aid or medical skill (like randomly heal 1 - 10 HP up to a max of 90 HP)
- Multiple treatments per day will not increase the HP gain for that day.
- Colonists who are wounded cannot treat themselves
- Wounded colonists are slowed down considerably
20 - 49: incapacitated
- Colonist will heal 1 HP per day if untreated
- Will heal more if treated at least once a day by someone with medical skill but not first aid skill (like randomly heal 1 - 10 HP up to a max of 90 HP). This will require an amount of medical supplies and cannot be done if there are none in stock.
- Multiple treatments per day will not increase the HP gain for that day.
- Colonists who are incapacitated cannot treat themselves
- Incapacitated colonists cannot move
1 - 29: dying
- Colonist will lose 1 - 10 HP per hour if untreated
- Treatment by a colonist with medical skill will stop health loss for 1 day and the dying colonist will regain a small amount of HP. This will require an amount of medical supplies and cannot be done if there are none in stock.
- Multiple treatments per day will not increase the HP gain for that day.
- Colonists who are dying are also incapacitated of course, meaning they can neither move nor treat themselves.
This would just be an idea for the underlying system. Ideally colonists who have the right preferences set would care for patients automatically so the player would not have to concern himself too much with it. I think it would be a decent simulation of reality within the constraints of game rules. Colonists only heal very slowly when untreated, so no miracle recoveries in just a few days. On the other hand it's gamey enough to insure that the player would have their colonists back in running order in a timely manner if they care for them.
TL;DR: have colonists heal only very slowly on their own, but faster when treated. Make so that healing very severely injured colonists would require medical supplies and a medically trained colonist.
Edit: just corrected a few typos
There's one commodity related to this called something like "Medical supplies".
There's two related skills:
Medical skill: this will be disabled on most colonists except those who have gone through medical training in their backstory, like nurses, doctors, veterinarians et al. Leveling up would speed up medical tasks and/or improve the hp gained from performing them.
First aid: all colonists will have this skill. Alternatively this could be tied into some other skill, like Social. Leveling up would speed up first aid tasks.
Colonists can be in a number of injury states. I was thinking maybe five:
100: completely healthy
- Nothing to see here, move along
90 - 99: bruised
- Colonist will heal 1 HP per day.
70 - 89: injured
- Colonist will heal 1 HP per day if untreated.
- Will heal more if treated at least once a day by someone with first aid or medical skill (like randomly heal 1 - 10 HP up to a max of 90 HP)
- Multiple treatments per day will not increase the HP gain for that day.
- Colonists who are lightly injured can treat themselves
50 - 69: wounded
- Colonist will heal 1 HP per day if untreated
- Will heal more if treated at least once a day by someone with first aid or medical skill (like randomly heal 1 - 10 HP up to a max of 90 HP)
- Multiple treatments per day will not increase the HP gain for that day.
- Colonists who are wounded cannot treat themselves
- Wounded colonists are slowed down considerably
20 - 49: incapacitated
- Colonist will heal 1 HP per day if untreated
- Will heal more if treated at least once a day by someone with medical skill but not first aid skill (like randomly heal 1 - 10 HP up to a max of 90 HP). This will require an amount of medical supplies and cannot be done if there are none in stock.
- Multiple treatments per day will not increase the HP gain for that day.
- Colonists who are incapacitated cannot treat themselves
- Incapacitated colonists cannot move
1 - 29: dying
- Colonist will lose 1 - 10 HP per hour if untreated
- Treatment by a colonist with medical skill will stop health loss for 1 day and the dying colonist will regain a small amount of HP. This will require an amount of medical supplies and cannot be done if there are none in stock.
- Multiple treatments per day will not increase the HP gain for that day.
- Colonists who are dying are also incapacitated of course, meaning they can neither move nor treat themselves.
This would just be an idea for the underlying system. Ideally colonists who have the right preferences set would care for patients automatically so the player would not have to concern himself too much with it. I think it would be a decent simulation of reality within the constraints of game rules. Colonists only heal very slowly when untreated, so no miracle recoveries in just a few days. On the other hand it's gamey enough to insure that the player would have their colonists back in running order in a timely manner if they care for them.
TL;DR: have colonists heal only very slowly on their own, but faster when treated. Make so that healing very severely injured colonists would require medical supplies and a medically trained colonist.
Edit: just corrected a few typos