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Robin Chang edited this page Jun 15, 2024 · 12 revisions

Q: Why aren't my pawns using MedPods?

A: Make sure that:

  • The MedPod is supplied with sufficient power
  • The MedPod is not forbidden
  • Pawns have a clear unobstructed path to the MedPod (e.g. doors must be unlocked, or door access permissions mods configured to allow passage)
  • Pawns have their medical care level in the Health tab set to Industrial-tech or Best quality medicines

Q: Why is the MedPod so unbalanced/overpowered/broken?

A: The MedPod is already balanced with respect to:

  • The original MedPod from the Elysium film
  • Other mods from the Lethe: Lost Technologies of the United Colonial Federation series (e.g. Replimat)
  • A typical RimWorld playthrough, where players are expected to take some time before reaching the Spacer/GlitterTech technology level

Players may tweak various settings at their own risk.


Q: Shouldn't MedPods require consumables to operate? (e.g. medicine, raw flesh, biomass)

A: No, the use of consumables is not planned. The original MedPod from the Elysium film did not require consumables, either.


Q: Isn't the MedPod using too little energy to regenerate body parts?

A: No, the MedPod does not convert electricity to tissue/mass, as that would actually require astronomical amounts of electricity to do so (as per the mass-energy equivalence expression E=mc2).

Instead, the MedPod simply stimulates and guides the patient's own healing, albeit at a vastly accelerated rate than is naturally possible, much like Geckos regenerating lost tails.


Q: Why doesn't the MedPod allow surgeries?

A: Several reasons:

  • The MedPod's scanning/reatomizing gantry would smack surgeons in the face
  • Botched surgeries shouldn't be instantly undone by the MedPod
  • This deliberately makes it difficult for those adding bionic and archotech implants to improve baseline humanoid pawns, or those attempting to use the MedPod as a organ/money printer
  • If surgeries were allowed, it would require/support implants as input, and it won't be long before users also demand the implementation of consumable requirements

Q: Why do unconscious patients carried to MedPods from other beds drop their equipment?

A: This is actually base game behaviour, and can just as easily be reproduced without the MedPod mod active by building two medical beds, scheduling an Anesthetize bill on a pawn, allow the pawn to be anesthetized in one bed, dev-mode deconstructing the unconscious pawn's bed and finally allowing the unconscious pawn to be carried to the other medical bed - they would still drop their equipment.

Players concerned about this behaviour are encouraged to install the Non uno Pinata mod, which prevents downed pawns dropping their equipment.


Q: Why doesn't the MedPod allow robot, android or other mechanical races?

A: MedPods work by accelerated cellular regeneration to repair and rejuvenate the living cells and tissue in organic humanoids. Since robots, androids and other mechanical races don't have cells or organic components, MedPods shouldn't be able to treat them.


Q: Could you make a MedPod variant for fixing robots?

A: No. Robot race mods already include their own ways to repair robot pawns. A universal robot repair bed is beyond the scope of this mod, and would go against the wishes of robot race mod authors.


Q: Why doesn't the MedPod allow players to pick and choose which hediffs are allowed/prohibited from treatment?

A: In-universe, the MedPod is designed to fully automate the treatment process, without requiring patient input of any kind.

From a mod design perspective, having a saveable list of allowed/prohibited hediffs would require a large user-unfriendly switchboard of every possible hediff, and given that many third-party mods add their own diseases/injuries/hediffs, players constantly changing their modlist would result in the hediff configuration frequently returning errors from missing references to uninstalled mods.


Q: Why does the MedPod heal Luciferium hediffs in pawns?

A: RimWorld's Luciferium is designed to gradually heal permanent scars/injuries/illnesses and provide buffs to various pawn capacities, at the cost of a "permanent" addiction with lethal withdrawal effects. In-universe, MedPods were developed by a spacer faction that abhors the use of mechanites, and are intended to treat these same permanent health conditions without the associated "Devil's Bargain", and so will intentionally remove the Luciferium hediff.


Q: Why doesn't the MedPod respect Ideology DLC memes/precepts? (e.g. scarring for Pain is Virture, drug use for High Life)

A: In-universe, MedPods were developed by a spacer faction that abhors scarring and recreational drug use, and the medical beds were specifically designed to "revert" a patient to their baseline or "natural" state. Scarring and drug use are conscious individual choices that deviate from this baseline/"natural" state, and since (as mentioned previously) MedPods automatically treat patients without the need for consultation, they are regarded as ailments to be treated.

This is also why MedPods will remove Vanilla Traits Expanded's Lush and Stoner traits from patients - as agreed with VTE's authors, curing a patient's underlying addictions means the traits no longer apply to them.


Q: Why do MedPods increase my colony wealth so much, and trigger larger waves of raiders?

A: This was implemented based on player feedback from Discord and private messaging.

If your colony owns advanced Glittertech/Ultratech facilities such as MedPods, it would naturally attract unwanted attention of other factions, as they will envy your ability to heal nearly all ailments quickly and wonder what other wonderful toys you can afford.


Q: Could you add mod options?

A: No, mod options are not planned. This is meant to be a far less fiddly mod than Replimat.


Q: Could you add all of the preceding suggestions as optional features?

A: No - implementing those features as compulsory requirements is already something I'm not keen on doing; making them optional would require more work, not less.