Wasteland's Health System

[Lucius]

For those of you who have been unfortunate and not been able to play the original Wasteland, I wanted to write up a breakdown of how it's health system worked. Many of you may have seen people speaking of unconscious or critical condition in the threads talking about character's HP. You may have also seen abbreviations such as UNC, CRT, or MRT. Well here is Wasteland's system explained in detail. This breakdown demonstrates the mechanics of the health system. The actual numbers and ranges may be off but this should still give you a good idea of how HP was handled in Wasteland.

Wasteland had a health system which did not include healing items of any sort. There was a first aid skill and doctor skill. That was it. It featured a system with different condition levels which I have never seen before or since and I find to have been extremely innovative. We will use a character with a MAXCON or max hp of 30 as an example. Here is the health ranges broken down:

30 - 1 = Normal status
0 - -9 = Unconscious (UNC)
-10 - -19 = Serious (SER)
-20 - -29 = Critical (CRT)
-30 - -39 = Mortal (MRT)
-40 - -49 = Comatose (COM)
-50 or less = Deceased (DEC)

As you can see, the system let you go far into negative health before a character would be permanently dead. Outside of combat, health from -9 (UNC) or higher would heal simply by passing time. However anything -10 (SER) or worse would slowly get worse by passing time. You would use first aid and doctor skills to stabilize these characters to an UNC state. You could also pay an NPC doctor to heal and stabilize wounded party members. It would take a significant amount of in game time for a character to go from serious condition to dead.

In combat, I don't think health regenerated with the exception of unconscious characters. Anything worse would slowly get worse same as outside of combat unless treated by a medical skill. Characters below 0 health would be unusable and would have their turn skipped until their hp reached 1.

I hope this guide helps anyone not familiar with the Wasteland system to understand how health was handled originally.

[Drool]

Some other points: if you had radiation poisoning or some kind of disease, normal healing stopped. If UNC, you would stay that way until healed by a NPC doctor. Also, when radioing in for promotions, UNC and worse players were skipped over. UNC and worse characters also couldn't access loot bags (naturally) and they couldn't be disbanded from the party alone. Radioactive squares didn't just give you rad sickness, they also did damage to you; frolicking in the radiation south of Darwin was a sure fire way to die. However, other environmental dangers, like traps or the Vegas land mines, wouldn't further damage anyone who was UNC or worse, which was a small blessing. Finally, dead characters (the PC didn't actually use DEC, it used a little skull picture) couldn't be disbanded at all except to bury them.

Medic was pretty hit or miss once you went beyond SER, and almost useless for MRT or COM. Doctor, even level 1, was exceptionally effective for any condition, but it usually only improved you by about 2 steps. Because of how deadly the game was, and how SER could quickly turn to DEC, I always made sure that every character had at least Medic 1. I still don't understand game guides saying that having 2 people with it was sufficient. With a bit of bad luck, you could easily end up with 3 CRT or worse characters, and if both your medics are in that group, you're gonna die before you reach a doctor.

[Wild_Bill_711]

After 'playing around' for a while, decided good Medics were a NECESSITY ! "Got 'em" and developed "my way" to get them again early !
From Highpool, go to Agriculture Center, gather up the 15 Fruit just inside 'locked gates'... sell Fruit at Highpool store, go to Desert Nomads, train's Trading Car (store) - Sell 45 cal Pistols & 45 cal ammo clips, 'Pool' Cash... "BUY an Engine"... to 'fix' Highpool's Water Pump for 'loot' !!! EQUIP Rangers (and 'recruit'?) with Leather Jackets (the most basic armor there is)... 'fight' the critters at Ag Center & in desert with Crowbars (and maybe knife)... just for 'experience' for 5 'Promotions' !.... At the rank - 'Lance Corporal', a level 6 skill is the highest attainable !!! You're ready to 'play-around' -

IF you kept original Rangers, you need 1 more Medic, probably Hell Razor ?.... IF you created Rangers of your own, hope you have 3 Medics (preferably level 1's.) !
'Trade' the Canteen from the other Ranger (or the 'recruit') to someone else.... wander around the 'hot' desert... let the 'heat' injure that 'character' to SER / CRT condition... 'HEAL' the 'wounded' back to 'UNC' condition.... wander around some more to repeat the 'process' - in 15-20 minutes (real-time) you SHOULD have 3 Medics at skill level 6 ! Having Macros for each Medic to 'heal' the 'victim' speeds up the process.

Before you get your 3 good Medics, just try to avoid 'combat' with 2 characters with weakened/low 'Con'(ditions)...
Focus on killing the adversaries... during 'combat' MIGHT try using Medics once or twice to heal a 'SER' comrade !

Have 'survived' situations where a level 1 Medic was 'UNC' and other Medics were 'SER' or worse..... a series of single 'presses' of the ESC key will return the Medic to conscious condition (minimizing how much worse the others get)... DON'T TRY to go anywhere... 'time' DOESN'T pass while trying to 'heal' with Medics (unless another "encounter round" gets started !)... 'heal' the less severe 'wounds FIRST... saving the most severe wounds for last ! Using Macros IS ESSENTIAL !!! A level 1 Medic CAN 'heal' a 'COM'... but it may take 100+ 'tries to succeed' !

At the first opportunity, acquire Doctor skill for your remaining Ranger... practice, in the desert, on a 'victim' to reach a skill level of '3' !

That should be sufficient for Vegas/Sewers and/or the Citadel... have gone into Cochise with Medics level 10 / Doctor level 5.... coming out with Medics level 12 and Doctor level 6.