Remove the Roundstart Syringe Gun from Medbay

[Arthurdentist]

I wanted to start a discussion about this to see how people would feel about it. I think it would be a positive change to remove the syringe gun from medbay roundstart, but I would like to hear what others have to say about it. Its been discussed in the past but I don't think its ever been discussed as an issue on here.

I think it would put an extra barrier between Medical Doctors / Chemists being able to chloral people early into the round. I don't think its a massive issue, it certainly doesn't happen too often as far as I can see but it is something that happens particularly in wizard rounds. Its not uncommon to see the chemist or CMO whip out that chloral the moment a wizard is announced and I think this simple change would help to avoid that without being too obnoxious or over the top.

Please share your thoughts.

[ComicIronic]

You do move the Ret syringe to counter hulk tactic, though.

[d3athrow]

:-1:

[Arthurdentist]

Torpedoed by Pomf, though id still like to hear more thoughts on this.

[Probe1]

I've played a fair amount of chemist, and CMO in my time. I'd go as far to say I'm an expert in medical. But my experience is narrow as I only play a certain way and rarely is it griff or validhunting oriented.

I often grab the syringe gun out of protection for it rather than myself or gain. I know that if I leave it there it will quickly disappear into the hands of an assistant or doctor that wants a weapon. I have never, in the 8 months I've played ss13 on this server and 6 months I've had a thorough understanding of medbay, seen the syringe gun used as a helpful tool to apply medicine to patients. I've experimented with it myself but the loss of a syringe and setup time does not make any sense. It's far more efficient to fill a syringe or a medical belt with emergency pills rather than a syringe gun.

In my mind this establishes the syringe guns use is not for treatment but for protection or aggression. It is there to be obnoxious and over the top in your words.

The question is does medbay deserve an object that has potential for good even if it's seldom used for any purpose except defense or aggression? That same question could be asked of any department. Do engineers truly need black gloves on their table except as a supply of stungloves waiting to be made when times go to shit? Do Researchers need SO MANY THINGS THAT ARE POTENT WEAPONS? Does the chef need a butchers knife when a regular one has almost same functionality, or a bartender a shotgun or so on? How often are these items used for good compared to other intents?

I think that the syringe gun is not there to help medbay treat patients directly. It's there to help medbay deal with early game riots and break ins. It shares a complimentary role and same purpose as the straitjacket. These items are, combined with chemistry, the sword and shield of medbay while security (if it exists) is en route to do the serious pacification.

I'd say keep it and instead focus on the problem as a whole instead of removing singular items - curb abject validhunting that crosses well beyond self defense.

[Kurfursten]

:-1:

Medbay has very little defense in general, and is painfully easy to infiltrate, rob, and wipe out (look at how quickly it gets completely converted in Rev). The cloner is also probably tied for the brig as the most bombed place on the station. Doctors don't need to be even easier to kill.

[ComicIronic]

To be fair, a single Syringe Gun does very little to help Medbay avoid being overrun. It's only useful in a few niche situations.

[Probe1]

you can get close to that @Boxe by filling a medbot with "insidious chem xyz"

[Probe1]

There exists a rapid fire syringe gun @CptWad that serves that purpose. The advantage a syringe gun has over the ubiquitous spray bottles is its ranged. I agree its equally powerful to just dump polyacid (to remove any masks) and your chem of choice into a spray bottle. But there already exists a buffed version of it that RnD can hand out.

[ghost]

I'd like to chip in that people are often extremely resistant and hostile to getting vaccines from virology over >viro always antag meta concerns. Especially when you're handing out a 3-6 out of 13 antibody vaccine from your starter dishes. The syringegun is a great tool for inoculating the resistant against 1/4-1/2 of the random viral disease events so you're ahead of the curve. Doubly so once an outbreak starts and double niggers are running around sneezing, viral sputum, bleeding all over the place with their aids but still wont come get treated.

[ghost]

I don't know where my fucking comment went, but in substance :

I would be fine with moving it the CMO's office so that he decides who it's deployed to, like the RCD for the Chief Engineer

[Arthurdentist]

I've thought about it some more and I don't think this would be a good idea anymore. I guess my problem is with incredibly short non-rounds caused by validhunting twats as opposed to the syringe gun itself. I'll keep this issue open however incase more people want to share their views.