Additional Bionic Parts

[HaloPi]

I very much like the way injury is handled in this game, it makes fights (especially early ones) feel very realistic and immersive, "Ol' Pete got hit in the shoulder" and all that. But one personal pet peeve I find is when a colonist has a permanent scar with no way to heal it; for example, any injury to an arm or leg can be fixed by installing a bionic limb, and same for most internal organs, but a torso scar is a permanent debuff which can't be healed, ever, and makes me tempted to try to reload the save to avoid that.

So I have a couple thoughts/suggestions about things that could be done to reduce this pet peeve of mine, adding ways to heal any injury given enough money/luck/medical skill, some of which is pretty simple using existing stuff and the rest a bit more involved:


-Using AI Persona Cores to replace a brain
This idea struck me immediately the first time I captured a prisoner with brain damage and had an AI persona core I didn't know how to use yet; I think it would be very awesome (and add more possible depth of story to the game) to be able to (possibly requiring research, and/or a high medical skill, and/or use of Glitterworld Medicine) use an AI Persona Core to replace a Brain just like other bionic limb replacements; given how expensive/hard to get AI cores are, this would be a limited way to help your colonists but I think would add to the game (so that your colonists aren't necessarily permanently gone from a lucky headshot, but that shot does cost you a pretty hard to get item and the colonist might not be the same person existentially if you think about it).


-Additional Bionic Senses
In this I was inspired immediately by Shadowrun and how it handles cybernetics, though I think it also makes sense in any sci-fi universe; if it's possible to understand the nerve structure and install a camera sensor as a bionic eye, it seems logical there should be other sensors used to make Bionic Ears and Bionic Noses; these parts don't seem as essential as eyes to gameplay as it is now, but I think having the ability to replace all the sensory organs would add more completeness to the game both in gameplay and in setting terms.


-Bionic Heads or Torsos
Again, going back to Shadowrun if anyone is familiar with it, that game includes cyber implants for the torso and skull in addition to the limbs. The idea is a cyberskull doesn't replace the brain, eyes, or other organs, it just involves replacing the bones, muscles and skin and involves no doubt very complex surgery; similar thing for cybernetic torsos, it replaces the bones and flesh but not the internal organs.

The idea behind this in game terms would be to allow a way to heal Torso or Head scars, Spine or Rib injuries, and maybe other things like Jaw injuries; internal organ damage should be handled the way it is now still (and with the possible AI core idea for the brain), but a Bionic Torso would replace the Torso, Spine, and any shattered ribs (not that those are a penalty anyway), and a Bionic Skull replaces the Head, Skull and Jaw; that way scars or other permanent injuries like a Bad Back to these parts can be healed, though unlike other bionic parts these ones might not give a stat buff (like how bionic limbs and eyes do).

The one possible downside in this I see is that the surgery to replace a whole limb is a lot less complicated than carefully removing and replacing the torso or head but leaving the organs unharmed (especially the skull where the brain is concerned); personally, I think it would be fine to handwave this though for simplicity of gameplay. However, if it seems like this kind of very complex surgery is beyond realism for the setting, I offer a simpler alternative, which is either adding a new medical item, or adding a function to Glitterworld Medicine, to add new medical operations that use 1 of the high-tech medicine to heal 1 specific body part of permanent injuries (for example, if someone has Bad Back and a scar both on their Torso, you would use a Heal Permanent Torso Injuries operation, use 1 glitterworld medicine, and it gets rid of those).



To summarize, my overall goal with this is that as long as a colonist is not dead, in theory, there is some way to fix any injury they have, though some require very expensive and/or rare components of different types (AI cores, bionic parts, glitterworld medicine, etcetera).

[FridayBiology]

civil war silver has been used for tongues/knee caps/finger stubs.
in theory you'd could use motor joints and things for minor limb function.
Australia medical board is looking at flesh and tissue replacement trials
> given rimworld has space ships maybe we've full organ and tissue surgery?
Neal Asher books you've got prosthetic faces and things.

[JimmyAgnt007]

Tynan said something about not wanting to cheapen death by letting people go too insane with brain surgery.  Though I agree with most of what you say.  We need more surgical options for when minor injuries happen that full limb replacement is overkill or just dont have a solution.

[Sartain]

At the very least, I think the game could do with prosthetic and bionic hands and feet, instead of only just arms and legs (and the Power Claw). Artificial organs would be cool too and if you really wanted to go nuts, improvements like subdermal armor plating or skullplating could be fun as well. Also, on the low-tech end of things, forging basic steel hooks or making wooden hand replacements could be nice, create a broader spectrum of prosthetic technology overall when it goes from peg legs and steel hooks til full Bionic Man with a skullgun

[HaloPi]

Tynan said something about not wanting to cheapen death by letting people go too insane with brain surgery.

Yeah, I can see the merit in that, that's why I was thinking using AI persona cores and not just being able to fix brain damage with brain surgery; you could also penalize it with a mood thing, that this colonist is not the same person they were before because it's now an AI and only a tiny part of their original personality after the brain damage; I'm more interested in the idea of more bionic parts than the AI core idea though, I just think it would be cool.

Also, on the low-tech end of things, forging basic steel hooks or making wooden hand replacements could be nice, create a broader spectrum of prosthetic technology overall when it goes from peg legs and steel hooks til full Bionic Man with a skullgun

I like that idea, having a hook hand replacement would be great, it would be a huge manipulation penalty but would flesh out the low-tech end like you said.

[Sartain]

Also, on the low-tech end of things, forging basic steel hooks or making wooden hand replacements could be nice, create a broader spectrum of prosthetic technology overall when it goes from peg legs and steel hooks til full Bionic Man with a skullgun

I like that idea, having a hook hand replacement would be great, it would be a huge manipulation penalty but would flesh out the low-tech end like you said.

Large manipulation penalty but better than not having a hand at all (although only barely), and in a pinch it'll work as a melee weapon as well.

[Hayhorse]

Have you guys heard of "Extended SUrgery and Bionics"? It preety much does all the crap you guys want. Welp time for my Synthetic Liver transplant! Also the guy making it working on groin mounted guns.

[JRocket12]

I also find it super annoying when one of my colonists loses their nose or something and I can't replace it.

[b0rsuk]

Not everything needs to be a surgery. For example, fixing "frail", "bad back" could be accomplished by purchasing an expensive exoskeleton that wears away over time. It would use one of equipment slots.

It would be nice to have, you know, some science in this sci-fi game. Looks allright for a glitterworld or even midworld tech, considering the above photo is from Korea and the Japanese have their prototypes too.