Simple way to make rose hip/reishi/old man´s beard renewable


Mroz4k

Single bits of medicinal plants could be found in areas where wood spawns as items.  

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Had a random thought just a bit ago.

What if in the woodland locations, where firewood can be found, could occasionally be found the medical plants as well? The idea is simple:
After wood refreshes, there could commonly be found single pieces of rose hips, and rarely a reishi mushroom or old man´s beard as an item as well. This still makes the plants useful because they have a specific location where they can be found, marked by a map, and are quaranteed to be there if not picked up, but this would also make the medicinal plants more plentiful & at the same time, renewable. That would entice people to use the medical plants more for their other benefits, like warming up.

Thoughts? 

My opinion would be, since reishi shrooms require 2 pieces, that the spawn rates of reishi shrooms through this random event would be sparce (or, they could be found growing on a limb, but I think that might be too difficult because it would be a plant (something permanent) linked to a limb of wood (something not permanent). Either way, shrooms would be somewhat rare-to-find (but not too much, which would make them a viable option for simply cooking the tea for warming up purposes).

Beard takes three pieces to craft the binding so it would be somewhat rare too.

Rose hips are tiny and take a lot to craft the appropriate tea, so they would be plentiful. For example, a little bit less common then sticks in my opinion.

This could significantly improve the game by giving players more option to take advantage of certain buffs, and in long term games to not rely on the beachcombing for medical equipment so much.

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8 minutes ago, Doc Feral said:

Good idea. To tell the truth, the only really important ones are lichens (for struggle wounds) and mushrooms (for struggle wounds you forgot to treat) which by the way are the most likely to actually grow back in harsh conditions.

Id guess that comes down to individual style of play, and the difficulty played at. Sometimes it's the painkillers that are a real pain in the behind to get. Even if the sprain system should be fixed in the next update, Im a bit sceptical as to how - I dont think one person can even have enough painkillers, as an option. Rose hips are also fairly hardy plant.

additionally, lichen would find another use as a tinder (right now it would be a huge waste, though, but overall, the beard is used for tinder a lot in normal survival situation), and the shrooms are really just a great pick-me-up as a tea, regardless of its healing possibilities. 

Personally, I have never had so much need for antibiotics because I dont play Stalker at all, so I never really encounter infection affliction or parasites. The only use I see is in treating food poisoning which I encounter rarely. I use the tea for warming up but very scarcely. And I avoid struggles a lot. Cant see myself running out of either of those. Painkillers, on the other hand... still in high demand.

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2 hours ago, Mroz4k said:

What if in the woodland locations, where firewood can be found, could occasionally be found the medical plants as well?

This idea reminds me of another forum discussion of herbal medicine. In the other discussion it was explained that the RL remedy for parasites is a tea made from birchbark...so if birchbark were added as a (4th) medicinal herb in-game, it could respawn with the sticks following a strong wind storm. :coffee:

Edited by s7mar7in
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4 minutes ago, s7mar7in said:

This idea reminds me of another forum discussion of herbal medicine. In the other discussion it was explained that the RL remedy for parasites is a tea made from birchbark...so if this were added as a (4th) medicinal herb in-game, it could respawn with the sticks following a strong wind storm. :coffee:

Birchbark is pretty plentiful in the areas where it spawns specifically, as in the birch groves.

Not really sure if that would be a strong enough remedy for parasites but it certainly is an option. But I dont think it is really neccesary that way - as you would basically make a 3rd antibiotics remedy. Mushrooms are good as-is.

The base point of this topic is how to make the current medicinal plants renewable, and still keep it rather balanced, but make them more accesible so they can be used for their other properties as well, not to mention to give players another type of "task" they can do... as in go berry & shroom picking into the forest, or combine it with a stick foraging as a daily routine issue.

Id love more uses for birch bark, sure, but I think medicine is not that important of its aspects, Id rather see it involved in either crafting, or as a meants to produce more lantern fuel, by basically charring the oils out of the bark.

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4 hours ago, kristaok said:

Why not just grow back on the bushes and stumps? 

Arctic Winter conditions... things do not tend to germinate, sprout, and grow in the middle of Winter, when the air and ground temps are below freezing. Evergreens only, and none of the medicinal plants we have in the game are classified as true evergreens, in any part of the real world. It is a game, it does push the meaning of "reality" in many areas, but having plants actively regrowing in these conditions is pushing it a bit too far, IMHO. We are harvesting dehydrated and partially frozen plants, which are still useful, but how would mushroom spores form and be released, to germinate on/in the wood of frozen, partially decomposed conifer stumps? The rose hips are seeds, produced by rose bushes after a flower forms and is pollinated, the flower dies and the seed (rose hip) forms and matures. How would this happen? No insects or bees to pollinate, let alone completely opposite weather and temperature conditions to form flowers. The idea of plants regrowing in far Northern Canada, during an Arctic Winter that never ends is a bit... far-fetched. Plants, even hardy ones, do need certain conditions to be able to reproduce and grow. And we have conditions opposite of those.

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12 minutes ago, ajb1978 said:

It already is renewable, you just have to check the coastal regions.  These things wash up near the edge of the ice from time to time.

I havent done that much beachcombing as of late, so maybe I am a bit off on what washes up, but I dont believe the medicinal plants do. At least I really dont see how a single rose hip would help if it washed up... unless it washes up as already "prepared" state. I may have seen reishis washed up. I know things like saplings wash up, but I only remember medical items that were "industrialized" to wash up, not the medicinal plants as far as I recall.

And even if they did, the beachcoming is fairly limited and very sporadic source of items. If the idea is to make medicinal plants be more useful, even for their non medicinal purposes, then the rare occasion when one washes up on a beach is just not going to cut it.

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