Medical

The universe is a dangerous place, and characters who suffer injuries need to seek medical care. This care is provided primarily in facilities like hospitals and medical ships, but also with handheld tools and application of specific drugs. Medical gameplay is one of several non-combat-oriented careers in Star Citizen, involving missions given by either NPCs or fellow players, and requires certain ships, items, and equipment.

Injuries


Characters in-game do not have a single health pool for their entire bodies. Instead, characters receive damage for specific parts of the body that are hurt. These areas of the body that can get affected are the:


 * Head
 * Chest
 * Right Arm
 * Left Arm
 * Right Leg
 * Left Leg

Body part status can be one of four states:


 * Normal: Body parts are fully functional.
 * Minor injury (Tier 3): Decreases the maximum health pool and causes symptoms depending on the location of the injury. Arm injuries increase weapon sway and reduce melee damage. Leg injuries reduce movement speed. Chest injuries reduce stamina and cause wheezing. Head injuries cause blurred vision, muffle audio, and increase stun recovery time. No minor injury requires stabilization.
 * Moderate injury (Tier 2): Causes pronounced versions of minor injury symptoms, results in limping and audible grunts of pain. Moderate injuries to the head or chest require stabilization in any Tier of medical bed.
 * Severe injury (Tier 1): Escalates the effects of moderate injuries even further. A severe injury to a leg will force characters into a prone state, with no ability to stand or crouch. A severe injury to an arm removes the ability to hold objects. Severe injuries to the head or torso will also require stabilization in any medical bed.

Using a limb that is damaged has a chance to increase the severity of an injury, depending on how long the limb is used for.

Healing
When individuals are injured, the level of medical assistance that they need depends on the severity of their injuries. As of Alpha 3.15, injuries experienced by characters are divided into three types, each of which requires a minimum tier of healing facility:

When a player becomes incapacitated, they will collapse, be unable to move or interact, their vision will fade in and out, and a time until death will be displayed. Instant death can be caused by receiving a large amount of damage at once.

If the incapacitation timer expires before they receive a dose of Hemozal, the player will die and regenerate in a Tier 2 or Tier 1 medical bed. The duration of the timer can be shortened by receiving additional damage, and by other actor statuses (bleeding, dehydration, extreme temperature etc.).

Players who are incapacitated see a button prompt to trigger a rescue beacon, which—if taken up by another player—creates a mission for said player to revive the incapacitated player. Other players also have the option to revive the incapacitated player if they have a medical device capable of administering Hemozal.

To be fully healed from the injuries listed above, individuals will need to spend time in medical beds that match or exceed the Tier of care required by their injury. Tier 1 facilities (found only in hospitals and yet-to-be-implemented hospital ships) can heal all severities of injuries, while Tier 3 facilities can only heal minor injuries. Putting an injured individual into a medical bed that does not provide the tier of care needed to fully heal them will still stabilize them, allowing the person to be transported to a facility with the appropriate level of medical technology.

Ships that aren't designed to be mobile hospitals can be capable of providing Tier 3 or Tier 2 care, depending on their on-board equipment. Medical clinics are equipped with Tier 2 facilities, while Tier 1 healthcare services can be found in hospitals.

Field treatment and drugs
When persons do not have immediate access to a medical facility but still require treatment for their injuries, several medical consumables allow their symptoms to be alleviated for a temporary time. Single-use drug pens by CureLife can mitigate a variety of effects:

Any use of a drug (except for Resurgera) or drinking an alcoholic beverage will cause a person's Blood Drug Level to increase. The ParaMed Medical Device is capable of showing an individual's BDL, among other information. Drugs remain in a character’s system for a specified duration, with increased doses resulting in increased durations. As BDL increases, it will affect traversal speed, blur vision, add a weapon sway effect, and cause characters to pilot vehicles erratically. If the BDL reaches 100% of maximum, a character will enter an Overdosed state, resulting in the player collapsing, being unable to move or interact, and their vision fading in and out. The player takes damage while in the Overdosed state, taking increasingly more damage as BDL increases from 100% to 200%. This may result in the player becoming incapacitated and requiring the use of Hemozal to survive. BDL naturally decays over time, so it's possible to exit the Overdosed state without dying and without using drugs.

Drug pens provide a compact and convenient way for any individual to administer treatment for symptoms, but they do not provide any information about a patient's health. They are thus most effective for self-use, since the person using a drug pen will receive their own vitals information from their MobiGlas. Health information information for third parties can be obtained with the ParaMed Medical Device or the LifeGuard Medical Attachment, which provide status information as well as being able to be used multiple times after being refilled (although the LifeGuard Medical Attachment can only be used to dispense Hemozal).

Medical beds are the most efficient at dispensing drugs, so using a medical bed will result the highest duration of a drug's effects. The ParaMed Medical Device and the LifeGuard Medical Attachment in the Multitool provide the next highest duration of drug effects, and drug pens have the shortest duration.

Medical facilities
When a player enters a medical bed in a facility that is capable of healing their injuries, they will be presented with an interface that will allow them to choose specific treatment options. If a player is unconscious when they enter a medical bed, the medical systems in the bed will automatically choose the best treatment option.

Regeneration (respawning)
In the case of major trauma or when medical treatments fail, incapacitated citizens will die and be regenerated. Regeneration is a medical process which enables the total restoration of an individual after death. The process includes getting an imprint created at a local hospital, and in the future, repeated regeneration will eventually result in total death (wiping) when an imprint is no longer viable.

By default, the chosen regeneration location for players is the hospital at their primary residence location (set via the log-in menu the first time they enter the game). A player may set a different regeneration location by visiting any Tier 1 or Tier 2 facility in a hospital, clinic or vehicle, and navigating the UI on a medical bed, medical bed’s end screen, or dedicated regeneration terminal. A player may reset their regeneration location to their primary residence via the same screens.

If a player’s set regeneration location is not available at the time of death (e.g. if a ship is out of range, logged out, or destroyed), the player will respawn at their primary residence instead, and their set regeneration location will remain there until a new location is set. If a player’s set regeneration location is temporarily unavailable due to all beds being full, they will be given the option to regenerate at their primary residence instead, in order to avoid waiting in a queue.

Medical missions
In able to accomplish a mission, players will need a medical ship, or a ship with a medbay of some sort, and to actually accept the mission. There are three types of medical missions given by both NPCs and players:


 * Medical Delivery: Deliver medical supplies, organs, samples, and more. Naturally, this can be done with any ship with cargo capabilities, but a medical ship has the facilities to keep organic and medical cargo maintained for longer.
 * Recovery: Find injured people and heal them, or identify bodies and body parts to help put together clues and uncover a wider story.
 * Rescue: Go to a space station or heavily damaged ship to rescue people in an emergency situation. Survivors may have a variety of injuries, so while any ship with a seat can potentially fulfill the role, keeping patients alive for the return journey is where medical ships have an edge.

Medical pilots can also take a "Search-and-rescue" role by navigating their ships into dangerous locations to seek out, retrieve, and stabilize wounded crew. Such medical ships may be found scouring large and small battlefields involving massive fleets or capital ships to save ejected crew or stranded crew, including pulling scientists out of a destabilized space station before they die of radiation, poisoning or other potential dangers.

Medical ships
There are (or will be) several ships that specialize in medical operations and missions, such as the Apollo and Cutlass Red. Some are designed for small missions involving search and rescue and other small missions, but there will be other ships meant for large-scale medical operations such as operating as a hospital and respawn point, such as the Endeavor. Certain ships can also provide medical care despite not being focused on medical gameplay.

The table below lists ships that are currently in-game and the tier of medical care that they can provide.

History

 * Medical gameplay was described and introduced in Alpha 3.2.
 * Medical gameplay was reworked and improved in Alpha 3.15 with the addition of hospitals, the regeneration system, and more medical tools.