As someone who has just taken a first aid coarse you begin to see the flaw in cataclysm’s damage system as whilst it is very well balanced for the player you do begin to wonder what the point in using healing items is, as when I am injured to the point of bleeding and on really low limb conditions my main thought is not “OH MY GOD I NEED TO RUN AWAY AND HEAL !!!” it is “Well time to go back to the RV or home for a nights rest” which is slightly immersion breaking for me as I don’t know about you but when I am burned severely it takes me more than 1-2 days to heal.
While many player’s find the game a challenge at the moment, most of my current char’s make it beyond winter easily due to the ease in healing within latest updates after reading a few crafting and survival books which is why I would love this but it should be optional for extra difficulty (like the dirty cloths system a while back)
- So I propose perhaps a mod/feature that decreases the heal rate when sleeping but makes crafting and finding medical supplies easier eg. improvised survivor trauma kit can use any high potency alcohol like whiskey,any strong painkiller (which weirdly doesn’t currently ease pain on standard kits for some reason) any antibiotic, any form of bandage and a tourniquet (I will get to the last two) but heals minimal with less than 2 first aid skill
(incentivizes the first aid books and makes it a must have for most players like survival,combat and tailoring books)
2.Bleeding and infections changed up a bit. I propose a…blood meter !!! a meter that kills at bottom (pass out and bleed to death) close to the bottom causes blackouts and decreased stats, when not too low and intrusive decreases already decreased healing and decreases immunity to infection/disease but fret not blood recovers reasonably quickly in comparison to reality, less than two weeks will bring you from near death to back to normal
Venous bleeding: is a slow killer that takes about a hour or two to kill via blood loss while having a risk to infection while bleeding and can be prevented with a pressure bandage and or first aid skill (both having a low chance the lower first aid skill is below 5), can occur due to zombie bites and DOES NOT STOP until treated
Arterial bleed:Kills in 5-25 minutes dependent upon strength or traits chosen and caused primarily by bullet wounds,severe lacerations or deep animal bites and can only be solved by a tourniquet at the cost of most of your limbs durability (technically in reality this is a bit more complicated due to build up of toxic material and cellular death but fuck it) however a limb is nothing compared to a life
3.Infection: as long as a wound is below 75-100% (increased/decreased by traits and blood level) you have a low chance at a wound randomly becoming infected rather than simply having zombies randomly bite you deeply and it getting infected however is balanced out by the ability to make dirty penicillin (High chemistry skill from rotten bread and magnesium powder and potassium phosphate) or find immune system boosting fungi (High survival skill)
Give me a heads up if you think this is flawed as fuck and too hard to implement but I think this would incentivize armor and give first aid a use beyond bionics 