Allow Operations to order more complicated medicines.

[Confused rock]

Right now operations seems to get very little work; there's mind-numbing warehouse sorting and there's bounties, and bounties aren't too motivating when no one orders anything. There would be enough balance implications that I think this deserves a topic, but I think operations should be able to buy rare, synthethised medicines, such as oculine, pneumalin, and arithrazine. The crates could be locked for medical staff, depending on the crate. Ideally these would be expensive enough to keep pharmacists a far more appealing option, such as 1,000 credits for a bottle. Or, better yet, the chemicals could come pre-loaded in autoinjectors and inhalers so that not only is it far more inconvenient than a pharmacist, but also less versatile. Still, this could make a lack of a pharmacist less punishing for medical, while also giving operations one more thing that people might consider actually ordering, making the department just a bit less stagnant. 

[Granodd]

I personally think this is a move in the right direction. Sorting warehouses gets boring after the nth time doing it while bounties serve as the primary gameplay loop for most cargo technicians. Meanwhile in medical the difference between having a pharmacist and not is night and day. Trying to deal with high patient load or even saving people from near death becomes daunting if not impossible without chemicals like alkysine, dexalin plus, adrenaline, and pneumalin. Some of it can be off-set by the presence of a surgeon who can manually fix some of those things at the cost of lowering organ health, but that's not always the case and takes time, which can lead to patient death if the surgeon isn't quick.

Giving higher end medicines to Operations that Medical can order from them would fill the void in medical while also giving more incentive to interact with Operations. But I'd suggest balancing it with the cost of the medicine. Too low and there's no reason for a pharmacist to ever join; too high and there's no point in trying to order it from Operations because it deletes half of their budget. Something around the range of most guns may work. Something in the realm of 3000 - 5000 credits for either a singular bottle or a small crate of supplies may do.

Things like butazoline, dermaline, and mortaphenyl I think can be ignored and left to if a pharmacist actually joins (partially because Medical already starts with some of these) and instead focus on three major chems like alkysine, pneumalin, and dexalin plus.

[Carver]

I like this idea. Lack of a pharmacist can truly hurt, this benefits low-pop quite well and makes Operations more relevant during it.

[IonMage]

Yeah, an alternative way to get these meds would be great.  Full support here.

[Tristan63]

From a mining main I can see this as an absolute win. Medical items could be ordered in bottled or injector form then ops could, ideally with medical input, create upgraded medkits and ship them to various departments.

[NerdyVampire]

I like it too, just make it expensive enough to warrant some forethought and not be a shortcut.

[Confused rock]

Finally got off my ass and made a PR so I can later try to get these added to ops.
https://github.com/Aurorastation/Aurora.3/pull/15031
I'm just thinking of bicard, kelotane, peridaxon, and hyronalin, because that covers most bases, without replacing pharmacist. the first 3 will come in injectors so receiving the meds from a pharmacist is more versatile, and I decided on peridaxon only (not pneumalin or anything else) because peridaxon can substitute for the others, and pharmacists will still be able to work better than these basic drugs, because there are upgraded versions of all 4 being added (if you count specific healing chemicals like pneumalin as upgrades to peridaxon, that is.)

[Confused rock]

ok, it's in now. didn't push my luck, ops can order peridax, bicard, kelotane, and hyronalin now.

[Gem]

suggestion implemented.

locking and archiving.