Alcohol as medicine

[ZebioLizard2]

As we know, Alcohol used to be used as a legitimate if crude method of medicinal help back in the older days and in some cases was used specifically due to it's properties.

My proposal for Alcohol within the game as based on older treatments:

Painkiller: As Herbal Medicine cannot be used for Surgery, Alcohol itself is a method for which in older times used for painkiller for surgical methods, this would be worse then standard medicine but would allow for one to create an on demand resource that allows for surgical measures. This could also be used for those too much in pain, able to provide a colonist the ability to "ignore" a specific amount of pain and hobble back around.

Disinfectant: While not as good as typical options, several brands of alcoholic content can act as an Antiseptic and is generally cleaner then standard water supplies and could be used as a wound cleaner to help prevent infections from forming in colonists.

There's likely other uses that Alcohol could be used for, but I currently cannot remember them.

[RemingtonRyder]

Herbal Medicine can be used for surgery, it's not as good as Medicine though - more chance of failure.

[ZebioLizard2]

Really? Must have changed since I last used them.

Though maybe an ability to combine the two for greater success might be a better idea then, or you can use one or the other.

[cultist]

Well... I see a few problems with this. Unless you have a large complex factory, what you're making is essentially moonshine. I'm not sure you'd want to use that stuff for medicine, since it can contain all kinds of impurities, and the alcholic content can vary wildly.
Secondly, alchohol makes a decent painkiller but it's not really medicine. It can serve a crude disinfectant, sure, but medicine is about more than just not getting wounds dirty.

[ZebioLizard2]

Well... I see a few problems with this. Unless you have a large complex factory, what you're making is essentially moonshine. I'm not sure you'd want to use that stuff for medicine, since it can contain all kinds of impurities, and the alcholic content can vary wildly.
Secondly, alchohol makes a decent painkiller but it's not really medicine. It can serve a crude disinfectant, sure, but medicine is about more than just not getting wounds dirty.

Considering how many infections people seem to get from any and all attacks, something to quickly disinfect would be pretty vital, not to mention Medicine typically contains diagnosis, treatment and preventive measures, it technically would be medicine.

Also as for Moonshine it's actually a specific brand of alcoholic content that's made with Corn Mash (Typically), as Hops are being used it's typically not the same thing within the game itself, and while poorly made Hooch can end up impure I think that's what the whole Brewing Skill could be used for as well.

They made plenty of standard Beer and Wine long before modern factories afterall.

[b0rsuk]

Also alcohol makes you lose warmth much faster when it's cold. Drinking then going outside when there's snow is life-threatening.