About the new drugs feature in the game.

[Sybreed]

Hey guys,

So, I saw the drugs update and wanted to register in the forums to give some inputs/suggestions. Long story short, I'm a pharmacist IRL, but I've always wanted to develop games/help in their development even though I have 0 coding skills (hell, I even have my own concept of a game written down, I just can't create it myself). I've been playing Rimworld for almost 2 years or so I believe, and I always thought drugs/medication would fit this game well. I haven't played the new update yet, but what I saw in the patch notes looks promising so far. There's definitely room to add more stuff, like painkillers which can offset chronic pain but cause stomach aches (or stomach ulcers in a worst case scenario) or opioïds which could reduce consciousness in-game and potentially cause addiction.

Btw, because there's already a "filtration" mechanic related to kidneys, some drugs could have more side-effects or last longer because of low filtration capability. This is definitely something that would add depth to the drugs mechanic. Remove a kidney on a colonist to sell on the black market and you're suddenly stuck with someone who doesn't tolerate drugs as well as before. Of course, liver failure is even worse, as most drugs are actually eliminated by your liver (it depends on the drug if it's the kidney or the liver that does most of the job).

On another topic, I always felt the health system could use some new items. Like say, when you got cuts on colonists, instead of using a standard "medkit", you can use bandages that you craft with cotton, or anti-bacterial bandages that you craft with both cotton and silver that also reduce infection risks.

Oh and btw: You can totally cure malaria with medication. I know most games use malaria as an ongoing disease, but IRL it's something you can get rid of. Prevention is always the better option, of course. Do what you want with that info, I know RL and games are different things!

Anyway, Tynan I don't know if you read these threads but feel free to contact me (a fellow Canadian a little bit to the east!) if you ever want advice or got questions on anything related to medication/drugs in general. Eh, I doubt I could help you THAT much with hard recreational drugs, but I took a class about these during university a few years ago.

See ya guys.

[Wex]

Malaria is actually cured by 3 days of quinine, my dad used it in 1970 so it's no news.

[TheDirge]

Give this man a cookie!

[Pax_Empyrean]

Btw, because there's already a "filtration" mechanic related to kidneys, some drugs could have more side-effects or last longer because of low filtration capability. This is definitely something that would add depth to the drugs mechanic. Remove a kidney on a colonist to sell on the black market and you're suddenly stuck with someone who doesn't tolerate drugs as well as before. Of course, liver failure is even worse, as most drugs are actually eliminated by your liver (it depends on the drug if it's the kidney or the liver that does most of the job).

I really like this idea. Interplay between drugs and organs would open up a lot of cool possibilities.

"Alice has a chemical fixation, and we really need to keep an eye on her because her liver's wrecked from years of heavy alcoholism. If the next raid has any survivors, we'll have ourselves an organ donor."

"Bob has a bionic heart, so we can keep him coked to the gills 24/7 without giving him a heart attack. Dude is the most productive guy in the whole colony."

On another topic, I always felt the health system could use some new items. Like say, when you got cuts on colonists, instead of using a standard "medkit", you can use bandages that you craft with cotton, or anti-bacterial bandages that you craft with both cotton and silver that also reduce infection risks.

This part I don't like very much. I don't see any gains from lowering the level of abstraction here; generic "medkits" to represent medical supplies of varying quantities is sufficient.

[Sybreed]

Malaria is actually cured by 3 days of quinine, my dad used it in 1970 so it's no news.

exactly, it's not the end of the world like they portray it in Far Cry 2 for example.

As for bandages and such, the idea is that they let you keep your meds for heavy trauma while smaller injuries or chronic diseases don't necessarily drain all your medkits.