One of the most requested features from players and GMs alike is the ability for NPC doctors to attempt to resuscitate a dead character in an automated fashion in the same way they can heal a player in an automated fashion.
This has always been difficult due to the way things were set up– since players and NPC docs alike used the same resuscitation code. However, I have broken the verbs up and made it possible for players (or NPCs) to ask a doctor to resuscitate someone.
The doc can still fuck up and kill you of course, as I saw in my testing... so it's not fool proof. However you are no longer reliant on a GM or player doc to be available to resuscitate.
to Chow resus Seven
to chow resuscitate Seven
to chow shock Seven
This will start the process and it will end when they are either brought back (and awoken) or when they are DEAD DEAD.
There could be bugs with this. If you die as a result, that's just too bad. Cost of doing business. Please report any issues you have via xhelp (and @bug) so that I can debug!
This is a good addition, and if I have anything to add it's that NPCs should ask for money for this before getting started, with the discount applied if the patient has insurance.
If the insurance perk has to be applicable to the dying person, either the doctor NPC needs to be able to identify the perks of the dying person while still taking money from a saving person, or the doctor has to identify the perk on the dying person and then take the money off of the dying person. I guess the saving person could put chyen on the dying person to act as payment, but that's weird.
Not sure how smoothly it could be coded to not be weird like that, though! Maybe a lot easier on the code-side than I expect.
Sure but people may also just bypass interacting with PCs if they're charging lots of money for something the NPC will automatically do for free and will only sometimes puppet up to charge you.
By Veraat |0
LEGEND1,349 posts
Best of both worlds suggestion?
NPC resus notifies staff, letting them follow up on it on their own time, at which legbreaking (which can be handed over to PCs to do) or such can commence if payment isn't forthcoming
By Euclidat |0
BATA255 posts
Here's an idea:
- Before the Doc does work he scan's the patient's SIC chip and pulls the number.
- The doctor does the work
- The doc then calculates the cost of the work
- The doc tells the healed character how much they owe and that they have X days to pay
- If they are not paid in X days that person is automatically entered into the bounty system for the amount owed
- If that doc has already placed that person in the bounty system than the bounty is increased
The cost of the work might be based on the type of service and be modified by relationships, charisma or whatever. Should be competitive with PC healers.
The time to pay might be based on crate earnings (so something like amount owed divided by the average amount of chyen one can make running crates per day)
Not sure if this really fits in well with the game but it popped into my head so I thought I'd jot it down!
By cnodellat |0
SPLATJOB45 posts
Medics are already sort of underutilized because people ignore injuries, and (at least in Red) have to do a lot of work to be able to generate money via their jobs. Compare this situation to something like an NPC mechanic automatically fixing your car for free. It makes the PC the unfavorable option when they're always supposed to be the favorable one.
Don't like. Seems like it would, similarly, remove a lot of RP out of the equation compared to an in-game follow up by staff or players.
By Euclidat |0
BATA255 posts
Simply taking cash from the rescuer (and more than a PC would charge) before going to work would create that RP. You die in a mugging and wake up with some mysterious stranger standing over you while the doc zaps you awake. He informs you that he paid for your treatment and you owe him. Boom, RP. No need for anything elaborate.
By Veraat |0
LEGEND1,349 posts
That would be fine too. Essentially how it got handled a lot of the time before this feature.
By Euclidat |0
BATA255 posts
When it boils down to it you need an automated moneyed interaction around this automated resuscitation system if NPC docs are going to be charging for it. There's a few ways for that to manifest, but honestly a bounty system seems like a lot of framework for relatively small bounties nobody would lethally or aggressively collect on, which is already a problem elsewhere where this system could be borrowed from/appended to.
If NPC docs should be charging for the service, they should just take chyen for it in the same way they do so for healing. If there's a worry of the automated method being preferable to dealing with player docs, make the cost relatively high to urge people toward players, if available. I have no idea what puppeted doctors did regarding payment before this change was made, so I can't speak on that.
It's a bit running into some character and world opinions to talk about the actual impact of the idea of 'medical bounties', but I'm really not huge on the idea. We have a similar, largely ignored system that deals in chyen values that might be even higher than the charge for a resuscitation, and I don't see making more of it working any better.
Charging the rescuer would also put a CP-appropriate cynical spin on the act of being a good samaritan. You never know if the guy you drag in is going to stiff you on the 2k bill you paid, and since it's a financial risk you'll be more motivated to try to undertake it for reasons that go beyond white knighting. Even better, it puts a burden on people who try to do the decent thing in a world where that's meant to always be the difficult option.
By Veraat |0
LEGEND1,349 posts
Good point Euclid. I think that a solution like the one I proposed should only be a fallback. For example, a note or something would be generated for the GMs saying that character X owes DOC Y some chyen. If the GM chooses to act on it then the automated bit just doesn't happen. If the GM just doesn't have time or doesn't want to act on it, then at least something happens.
By cnodellat |0
SPLATJOB45 posts
I agree being a good Samaritan should be fucking miserable.
I've always enjoyed on past characters the Roleplay that comes from being a rescuer, and then having to 'protect your investment' so that the favour comes back around in the long run. So… yeah.
By Euclidat |0
BATA255 posts
The more I have read the more I think that taking the chy from the rescuer is the best option. At the same time I think it would be important that the potential rescuers are told what the rescue is going to cost them and that they have a chance to back out.
I am thinking of a scenario in which a new player has finally saved up a few thousand chyen just to have it unexpectedly taken from him when he tries to do a good deed by helping some dying mano. If they had known the repercussions they might have opted to walk on by.
By cnodellat |0
SPLATJOB45 posts
But isn't learning from experience one of the most important aspects of Sindome?
Just as you described in the scenario, -insert new player- may have finally saved up -insert amount of chyen- for their fancy new -whatever-, only to come across a dying fellow and tried to do a good deed, then finding that the doc has swiped their hard-earned money for the deed. They learn the hard way that they have nothing to gain from their deed but a clear conscience. They may be bitter about it and decide not to help strangers again, like you'd assume most inhabitants of the city would, or they may actually be a decent enough person to continue helping others, despite knowing it will be their loss.
Just my two cents anyway.
By Stelpherat |0
SPLATJOB58 posts
@Stelpher
RP wise, it could be the birth of a serial killer. You drag this baka in trying to be a decent guy, get your hard earned flash jacked by the doc to bring him back to life, and then find out the baka is more broke than you are. Something snaps and you decide to start killing people while hidden and getting what is owed to you by that baka from their corpses. Maybe whisper, "This is from before they die."
People who are savvy enough to know how to ask NPCs to do very specific things are probably not going to be ignorant of the fact that this often costs money.
By Veraat |0
LEGEND1,349 posts
After a few days of dealing with this I can already say that it definitely makes it less fun to play a medtech. Medical is not a highly rewarding skill to train and automating the one thing medtechs can apply their skill toward to make money harms both income and RP–responding to calls is how a lot of RP starts and that whole step gets skipped if people just drag the dead person to the NPC who will fix them for free.
By Veraat |0
LEGEND1,349 posts
Is it really that much different from the scripted NPC doctor healing?
More than a player charges, less than a corpse clone costs, and lacking the penalties associated with corpse cloning make it still a pretty solid deal money-wise while avoiding it being free. Sounds fine to me.
Consider this, a GM is running plots which involve death. The GM is puppeting 3-10 NPCs. All have distinct personalities. Deaths happen. Now the GM needs to puppet the doc and remember to type resus every 30 seconds for a few minutes while still probably fighting with some of their other NPCs, and engaging in aftermath RP with players. It's a lot to balance.
Or, no player docs are around, a GM is in the middle of some RP and has to pick up a Doc and muddle through the resus procedure while not losing hold of the other RP they are engaged with.
Or, no players and no GMs are around and PvP happens and someone dies and has to be corpse cloned because the doc couldn't resus them automatically.
