Medbay Design Overhaul

It's possible that I've bitten off way more than I can chew with this suggestion, but here goes anyway.

This suggestion concerns effectively a complete design overhaul for Medbay, which I've been working on for the last few days after hearing and experiencing a lot of grievances with the current layout of Medical for a few months now. Cutting right to the chase, a lot of criticisms of the current layout are as follows:

- The entrance no longer being connected to the main hall (this has got to be, by far, the biggest issue I've heard).

- The cramped nature of General Treatment and the ICU area. There's a large amount of 1-tile wide walkways, and it's an absolute mess when you're trying to navigate with several wounded and several doctors in a critical moment.

- Lack of a more spacious main hallway. The one large hallway that does exist is tucked along the backside of medical, and is only two tiles wide. While it isn't terrible, it doesn't help much for keeping high traffic areas decongested, because there needs to be a lot of walking through General and the ICU to get around places, unless you want to make more lengthy detours through other rooms.

- Chemistry no longer being accessible to the main hall, or connected to reception. At the moment, the 'public' Chemistry desk is tucked further behind the waiting room and one or two airlocks that have access restrictions on them. There are buttons to open them in chemistry, yes, but I've noticed most of the time, people elect to not even bother, and it feels like it's slightly restricting any social aspect the chemist or pharmacist might get, because they're already a somewhat distant and antisocial role.

- Surgery being up against the main hall. Self-explanatory. There are window tints, absolutely, but it just seems somewhat silly in general that it's connected to the main hall. And it just makes it much easier to smash in to steal tools, which is a huge pain for medical staff.

There are of course a lot of positive things about the current layout as well, such as the larger reception having more room for doctors to sit and socialise, the reception overlook that the psychiatrist has on the interstitial level, and the MediExpress chutes that allows chemists or others to deliver items across medical in a much faster fashion in time sensitive situations, and of course, the EMT Bay now being connected to the main hall for quicker response to calls. Before I started trying to map out a new proposal, I knew I wanted to incorporate many of the new positives, while also trying to combat the negatives. The results I ended up with are below:

As some might notice, I took a decent deal of inspiration from the old medbay's layout, mostly concerning the wide central hallway with each treatment room branching off from it.

- Surgery is also almost a direct copy of the old surgery that we had.

- General Treatment now has a much more open layout, and both body scanners were moved there, giving much closer access to them straight from reception and from the EMT Bay.

- The ICU was moved upwards, and also given a very open entrance, and a connection to storage.

- Storage was made smaller because it doesn't need to be huge.

- Chemistry was given borosilicate windows, because working with liquid phoron is a requirement of the job, and it's a FAR greater fire hazard than Xenobotany, which also has borosilicate windows, will ever be.

- Reception was returned to the main hall, while also retaining a larger area for medical staff to sit together in, and the Chemistry public desk is connected to reception once more.

- Charlie Dove's memorial plaque was not forgotten, and was put inside reception as well, so less people drop cigarette butts on it, and so less blood and dirt is tracked over it.

- MediExpress was kept, however a delivery line to Reception was replaced with a delivery line to Virology, so it's much quicker to deliver things that Virologists might request.

- Cloning was untouched because it was perfect where it was.

- The temporary morgue was expanded slightly, and given proper morgue trays, so we're not leaving body bags on the floor for half a shift.

- A second small autopsy lab was added, connected to Cloning and the Temporary Morgue. People can't see in, so there's little risk of clones seeing their mutilated body being cut open and examined. A small staff break room was added on the main level, because no one uses the sublevel breakrooms.

- The CMO's Office was made a tiny bit more compact.

- The current waiting room and entrance was re-purposed into a joint Consultation and Psych Wing, with no access requirements on the waiting room doors, until you go upstairs, so it's easier for patients to actually get to the Psychiatrist of their own accord. The Psychiatrist's overlook was kept as much as possible, instead overlooking the psych waiting room, so they can see if people are waiting. The examination room was also kept even though it's almost never used.

- The upwards and downwards pipes that go between the main level and the Psych level that are entirely separate from the disposals line have been reconnected to the main line, and the Psychiatrist gets a disposals bin in their office. They also have a sorting junction, if someone wants to send mail to them for some reason.

- The Psychiatrist also has some wider hallways, with each treatment room branching off from it as well, though this is more for aesthetic purposes given that it's rarely a high traffic area.

- Only sublevel change is the new express delivery line to Virology.

Obviously I would appreciate feedback on this, as I'm sure it's probably actually a definite requirement given it's an overhaul of an entire department. Also please notify me if anything looks broken or missing! I did test it locally, it seems to be working fine on that front.

EDIT:

Link to the PR: https://github.com/Aurorastation/Aurora.3/pull/5263

Surgery isn't open to the main hall?

Chemistry hasn't been shoved in a corner?

There's Doctor RP without sitting on tables?

Things that are next to each other SHOULD be next to each other?

My god, this is beautiful.

My only wonder is if it's possible to put an advanced scanner in upper cryopod room as well. Sometimes you need a quick check of a person and heading down to the other room for it seems like a minor annoyance. But it's really the call of someone that currently plays medical rather than me. I just think it looks really nice.

I like how the overall placement of things brings back some functionality from the Medbay we had before the current iteration. Specifically, how the lobby is on the side of the main elevators instead of basically pointed right up at just the security and command wings.

What's the purpose of having the three disposal bins right next to each other on the main level?

Those are the MediExpress lines. The current medbay has three of them next to chemistry. They're single-track lines not actually connected to disposals that work like an inter-department delivery system. Current medical allows deliveries to reception, storage, and surgery. In my version, it's storage, surgery, and virology.

This is amazing. Do we have a guest ID console again?

The whole thing could stand to be more compact, somehow it's even bigger than current med.

By quickly looking over the provided screenshots I noticed a few issues:

• What is the purpose of the second (/third if we count the one in virology) autopsy lab ? -> Why is it needed ?
  
• The second waiting-room between the CMOs office and the examination room seems like its there just for the sake of filling the space. -> Possibly put the psych there instead of their own level.
  
• The pre/post-op rooms have been removed without replacement
  
• The additional break room on the main level is not needed. There is already one the sublevel, and if you dont want to use that, use the kitchen/bar (which should be the preferable option anyway).
  

This is amazing. Do we have a guest ID console again?

Thank you for reminding me, I'll add one!

The whole thing could stand to be more compact, somehow it's even bigger than current med.

The upscaling of halls and treatment rooms was quite intentional. Current med is much too compact in many areas, which makes navigating in busy situations rather troublesome. The more open layout in the halls is to actually give space for doctors and patients to move and be moved around, without people constantly running into each other, at worst, ripping patients off of IVs, at best making things annoying and stressful. Also, everything looks larger in map maker than it feels in-game. I had that thought too while making it. "This seems a little large..." But it felt fine once I actually tested it locally for any hiccups.

By quickly looking over the provided screenshots I noticed a few issues:

• What is the purpose of the second (/third if we count the one in virology) autopsy lab ? -> Why is it needed ?
  
• The second waiting-room between the CMOs office and the examination room seems like its there just for the sake of filling the space. -> Possibly put the psych there instead of their own level.
  
• The pre/post-op rooms have been removed without replacement
  
• The additional break room on the main level is not needed. There is already one the sublevel, and if you dont want to use that, use the kitchen/bar (which should be the preferable option anyway).
  

- The new autopsy room isn't really a necessity, it was just a suggestion I was given by some medical players to save the hassle of going to the sublevel all the time for autopsies. I can remove it and repurposed the space if it's an issue.

- I kept the waiting room there because it's also where the current waiting room is on the live map, and the Psych's overlook on the interstitial level had always seemed like a popular design choice, so I wanted to keep it as much as possible, but shifted over a little bit so the Psychiatrist can actually see if they have patients waiting. Moving the office down does seem potentially feasible however, but the treatment rooms would probably have to stay on the upper level, as there isn't much space for those unless I do a major shift in the floor plan and expand downwards more.

- You're right on that one, that is a mistake, thank you for telling me.

- It's true that a main level break room isn't required, but I added it at the encouragement of a few players, because it gives medical staff a secondary spot to roleplay without having to go far with medical. There's an issue where a large amount of the community just call medical chair RPers because they never leave reception, though whenever doctors do leave medical to try and socialize in the bar, at best, something bad always happens while you're away, or at worse, people tell you to go back to medical because you need to be there if people get hurt. Its a bit of a catch 22. A main level break room gives another spot for medical staff to go and stretch their legs, and have a friendly chat over a cup of tea, while still being within reach of the rest of medical if they're needed, which they generally always will be. No one uses the sublevel break room because of its distance from the rest of medical, and how iffy elevator times can be, it can be a major detriment to anyone that gets injured and needs medical attention as soon as possible. I personally didn't see much issue with adding it, as Engineering also effectively has two break rooms. Sure, the "official" break room is on the sublevel, but it's impossible to deny that the foyer is a bigger and better break room, complete with a vending machine, drink dispensers, and a microwave. Again, I can remove it if its a problem, but I thought it might be a nice feature.

Please remove the second autopsy room, it seems like feature-creep. (Dont listen to everything the department-mains tell you)

As previously mentioned the second waiting rooms seems like a space-filler (its almost as large as the medical lobby)

Imho the space can be better used with (parts of) the psych and the size severely reduced.

(Also remove the food vending machines from it. There is a "refreshment post" right next to it.)

An alternative would be to move the GPs office to the upper level and leave the psych on the main level.

Which might be preferable as this would give anyone in medical another relatively secluded space to do shady things in.

I can see the benefits of the medical breakroom, on the main level, but I believe a closer cooperation with service area would be beneficial.

If you're getting rid of an autopsy room, get rid of the one in the basement, then. The viro one is near it anyway, and we really do struggle to do autopsies when all the forms and the main scanners are upstairs and the table downstairs.

This is surprisingly well done. Good work.

Made a few changes based off of feedback. The surface autopsy room was done away with, but if it's fine, I might actually go back and remove the virology autopsy equipment and put one back on the surface, because you don't really need to do an autopsy on someone that dies from a disease. Autopsy scanners wont even show anything but time of death. Anyway.

I'm glad the surface autopsy room is the one that got axed. Otherwise, there's rarely any reason for players to go to the sub-level. Virology and the morgue and long-term care rooms are seldom-used functions in comparison to everything upstairs.

if the second waiting room is such an issue (which, IMHO it isn't It reminds me of a lobby for the psychiatrist ward. It could easily be scaled down for that.)..

Anyways, if it's such a big issue,move cloning and the temp morgue to equipment storage. Move the main floor equipment storage to old cloning/morgue and make a second medical office where some of that lobby is. Some CMO's... not naming names... like to do fitness and evaluation RP. Having one office slows that down to damn near impossible. Plus, it kinda makes sense for a medical unit to have multiple medical offices.

It helps the flow of cloning. That'd make it near the ward, near a cryo pod and makes it easier to move bodies to forensics for autopsies (if the FT can perform such.)

A secondary office could help Medbay enforce some better RP on extended or slow rounds (something that needs to be done, instead of just sitting around in a lobby fixing booboos. You'd be surprised at the amount of people who come in for medical chair RP if it's opened up.)

It's never made sense to me to put such great Scientific advancement in a corner, practically a broom closet, and forget it exists. You can argue morals. We're a research station.

I wanna second the recommendation to add another eval room for physical evals if you've got space - I've run into the problem where it's stalled on extended rounds. Looks great though, really appreciate the changes to the ORs, and the increased desk space. Nice job!

Wasn't able to find much room to move cloning closer to everything else. However, given that it's not used much, with people having DNCs and traumas being such a hassle to deal with without correct staff, it doesn't particularly need to be shoved into a higher traffic area. I did make another change though.

This is purely from an engineering stand-point, the medical side of me loves it, but could you move the disposal pipes out of the walls? A small explosion cracks a pipe, and you've then gotta take down an entire reinforced wall to fix them.

As a CE main myself, yeah, I know where you're coming from. I'll see what I can do, but I can only get so far when I have three lines of disposals pipes that need to fit through a 2-tile-wide hallway section and sorting junctions to juggle.

I've done what I could to reduce the amount of disposals pipes underneath walls, but there were a few spots where I couldn't avoid it.

Triple posting because oof but I should probably be cataloguing every change I do.

Fixed a couple missing zone tiles that I forgot to replace, added a Guest Pass terminal, also took it upon myself to quickly do an unrelated change as well and added adaptors/pumps to the three airlocks that no one uses on the main level because they're so slow, should stop those from not having enough air.

EDIT: Also added some extra shutters for the Medbay Lockdown in places that made sense, like the external windows on the sublevel and interstitial level. They're all regular shutters, save for virology's, which are also blast doors in the relevant places. Seemed odd that those windows were all left wide open in a lockdown situation.

I'd divorce my husband to marry this new overhaul TBH.

I had something like 10 days to think about what else to do, so I chucked some additional things in that are unrelated to this in particular but concern my last PR about sublevel improvements, but I figured I still need to mention their existence.

Added an extra air vent in each sublevel airlock, because it takes forever for one vent to drain a 2x2 room. Also added some plating around the side of one of the atmos tanks.

I approve double airlock vents, thank.

I’ll send the cookies via ballistic airdrop, what’s your address?

I really do like the overall set up of your idea for the medbay. While I don't play the doctor roles. Certainly I find the set up pleasant during emergency situations in which security needs to come into medical. The lay out I love as it incorporates a generally more wider and open feel to the medical bay. I certainly like the entrance by the holodeck!

One... tiny thing that is easily forgotten:

Enough AI holopads for us to actually be of value RP-wise during a medical crisis. Our current Medbay let's me holo-play maybe... 1/5th of the department. They're un-used and that's sad, since players an also holotalk with them.