I get turning into anthropomorphic versions of various types of fauna/flora, I get what elf-a is (an elf) and I get alpha (next evolution of mankind) but what exactly is medical? I love the pain nullification and I always use this path of mutation for deadened but… what the heck is it?
Best I can figure is it is just an alternate version of Alpha in that it is suppose to be an another path of elevated human evolution but the post threshold dream messages which say something like: “you dream of being a medical anomaly” and “you dream of throngs of adoring undead and glorious pain” don’t really suggest this.
Deadpool cosplay. A load of mental issues coupled with becoming hard to kill, and essentially the same healing shtick if you get lucky with troglobite mutagen? Might as well find some katanas and carry a teleporter with you.
In all seriousness, my first take on it was that they were trying to make humans immortal or at least capable of surviving one of many possible apocalypses/civilization collapses. You still look like a human, after all.
I think the key is in the threshold title “prototype”, I think medical is the prototype to alpha, the first go at making an ascendant path of evolution without all the animalistic traits that came from all the previous mutation trees.
Elf-a seems to be what some mad genius came up with on their own considering where you find the recipe.
edit: I’ll add that apart from alpha, medical is the only mutation line that doesn’t have the chance of giving you a whole bunch of obvious physical deformities. All the drawbacks are psychology in nature or harder to detect then on other branches.
I’m inclined to agree with Crazykiddeath. Medical is basically a first pass at “Humanity enhanced” type mutations. Even some of the crazier ones like acid blood has the practical effect of making an individual entirely immune to parasites. Having played as a post threshold medical mutant a few times it does seem effective at making you nearly invincible. With the old healing rate and the regeneration mutation you could essentially walk off a car accident and be healed by the time you made it across town.
Yea, I agree with the whole alternate or first prototype next evolution of mankind thing too and that was my first instinct except for the dream messages… they speak more to what Zhilkin was talking about: some sort of half mad, powerful & masochistic body modification freak aka Hell raiser. Like the medical branch is the mad scientist version of humanity, durable and immortal but bereft of true humanity.
It is entirely possible and actually extremely likely that I am overthinking this though at this point.
I think it fits with the psychology drawbacks bit, almost anyone that takes it is going to pick up some and if you go post threshold you’ve taken a lot. I mean, go check the traits, the stuff basically drives you mad.
I’m only hearing positives here. Being a chemically imbalanced, bipolar, drug addict who can sleep through explosions really seems like the way to go in the apocalypse.
Sounds like pretty much every Fallout character I’ve ever made. If you’re not a jet addict you’re not even alive. By that same token, my Cataclysm characters tend to favor cocaine (and weed, and cigarettes. Lots of cigarettes.)
I guess I’m the only one who’s never had a survivor use, become addicted, or start with any addictions to any substance besides mutagen and alcohol. It’s not that I’m against using them, it’s just that I don’t want to deal with the withdrawel mood debuffs.
Crackheads and various other addicts would think of my substance pile as Eldorado or something.
No, you’re not the only one. I simply don’t see much advantage of tobacco and drugs. In fact I installed a mod that disables hard drugs because I found distracting having to sort the drugs out.
Although I have to say I usually play an optimist, so maybe I don’t need that many drugs.
My survivors used to get addicted occasionally to adderall, tabacco and/or meth but that was because of heavy CBM surgery, never been addicted to alcohol that I can recall or any of the other hard drugs, never to painkillers apart from when I was first playing and self installation was the only way to install CBMs and I was figuring out how it worked.
Mostly I just collect it on the off chance I’m going to brew up some medical mutagen.
I always take the “addictive personality” trait so I never do any drugs (outside of mutagens) except for the occasional beer, which honestly I usually drink by mistake because I think it is a cola or chocolate drink and I don’t check before I mash the keys to consume it… Maybe I am missing out on the wider world of consciousness alteration… I drink way more beer in real life than my cdda characters do.
Alcohol is also excellent as a sleep aid for an insomniac character. Since I usually have my characters half prepped as medical mutants from the word go I also find it helps to use it as a very minor painkiller.
