ACE3 Medical System

Mostly Updated for ACE3 3.6

That's right y'all, them doctors 'n such are foolin' with their medical stuff and rejiggering the rules. Before one of you jokers tries to slam an IV through my forehead again, y'all better read this and get with the new program.

First off, wounds are bad. Got it? Good. They do things like leak red goo everywhere, make your heart start thumping hard for all the wrong reasons, and sometimes sign you up for unauthorized nap time. That's right, I said unauthorized. Don't expect your squad leader to approve your little siesta after the fact either. Sorry, not 'you', I meant 'your teammates'. We all know you're too damn Operator to let something like a bullet or itty bitty piece of shrapnel damage your designer tactical vest.

In the likely case your poor teammates can't dodge like Neo, you and your medic buddy are left holding the bag, a bag that better be full of authorized medical supplies...none of that 'medical whiskey' shit again. If you're going to screw around, at least bring a proper single malt. Those bandages are all that stand between your bullet absorbent buddy and a body bag. Hell, if you're nice and the medic wasn't juicing before the mission, you might even give your buddy a Quit-Your-Bitching Brand morphine to get some peace and quiet from the whiny bastard. If Mr. I-Forgot-To-Duck needs more help than your stash of Hello Kitty Tactical Band-Aids Black Camo Edition can provide, call over the medic. After all, it's your job to make holes, his job is to fix them.

Now let's take a more direct look into the ACE3 Advanced Medical System (AMS). If you are high-speed-low-drag enough, this information may not apply directly to your well-being; however, please pay attention for the sake of your slow-speed-high-drag brethren.

Bandaging
Leak Plugging 101
The AMS provides four types of bandages to plug up various bumps, scrapes, bruises, and leaky bits you your teammates may accumulate over the course of a mission. All bandages are not made equal for each type of injury. Although it is possible to eventually stop your teammate from leaking all over using any of the bandages, there are faster and more effective choices! Using a highly advanced (my opinion) and proprietary (I'll share it with anyone) system, the following analysis of current (June 28, 2016) ACE3 bandages is made available for Theseus use.

Bandages are assigned four properties in the AMS: Effectiveness, Reopening Chance, Minimum Delay till Reopen, Maximum Delay till Reopen. The following ratings are based on logic so arcane and esoteric, even I cannot fully explain.

The Knyte Effectiveness Index

Note: Sometimes even the best bandage is only moderately effective. It's safe to assume the fourth choice, and usually the third, and sometimes even the second...sucks. This chart is "good enough" for the non-medic user.

Just to make life complicated, wounds now come in 3 sizes, small-medium-large. If you are not the medic, don't sweat the details; your job is to control the worst of the bleeding till the medic can take over. Throw the most effective bandage you have on the biggest red spot and give Mr. Tactical Bullet Sponge over to the medic to clean up.

For now, it's safe to say most of y'all are safe assuming Field Bandages or QuikClot is a good go-to bandage. Elastics are great for patching up a large number of injuries in one go (on a single limb), but expect the blood to start gushing again sooner than later. Medics absolutely need a surgical kit on hand to keep the team moving. Wound reopening is only calculated at the time of bandaging, and may occur at the randomized time. Movement will not affect the reopening chance.

Although your medic's special healing touch works wonders to keep you and your team alive, wounds can reopen when treated with non-optimal bandages, especially those large wounds, they're damned nasty! Therefore, it is imperative both the team medic and each team member regularly check on wounded members. On more than one occasion, I've witnessed fully treated and seemingly healthy team members drop due to wounds reopening without their notice. This wastes additional bandages, blood, and medicines treating old wounds. Reopening is not always unavoidable, but can be mitigated by using the correct bandages for each wound type (mystery grab bag bandage selection is a no-no) and by catching the reopening early enough the wounded does not require blood transfusions. For the high-speed-low-drag among us, you are entirely correct in that "Don't get shot" is truly the best preventative medicine.

Medical personnel can use Personal Aid Kits (PAK) at medical vehicles and buildings to fully heal any and all wounds. Surgical Kits may be (and should be!) used in the field to prevent reopening. Both must be used on a stable patient. The patient may not be bleeding nor in cardiac arrest for the kits to work.

Medicine
How to Juice Responsibly

ACE3 AMS provides several medicines to help keep high-drag team members moving after unfortunate experiments with physics.

Morphine
Morphine provides relief from pain. With the current TAC settings, morphine's effectiveness is approximately 15 minutes (or more bullet holes), Once you start feeling pain again, another morphine should be applied. Avoid using morphine for minor pain; it will eventually go away on its own. Application location does not affect effectiveness unless that limb is tourniqueted. Medication applied to tourniqueted limbs is limited in effectiveness. Applying morphine on a patient not in pain (the wound description will state if they are in pain) is a waste of medicine and risks overdosing the patient. Morphine also acts to slow the heart. Given a relatively healthy individual, one morphine is not enough to adversely affect heart rate. Keep an eye out on the badly wounded though. A beating heart is easier to keep beating than a stopped heart is to restart.

Atropine
Atropine is magic. It affects heart rate. A little slows you down, a lot speeds you up. Unless you've been trigger happy with the epinephrine, Atropine use is uncommon. Eventually, atropin will be used for other purposes. Do not carry at this time.

Adenosine
Adenosine is also magic. It affects heart rate. A little slows you down, a lot speeds you up. Unless you've been trigger happy with the epinephrine, Adenosine use is uncommon. Use to lower high heart rates.

Epinephrine
Epinephrine is synthetic adrenaline (secret recipe Go! juice). If your heart rate is dropping, a shot of epinephrine can do wonders to get the heart back on pace. Too much epinephrine will send the heart rate soaring with bad consequences to follow (internal cardiac explosion). A good rule of thumb is to apply one epinephrine for heart rates dropping below 50 beats per minute (BPM). Keep in mind, not all unconscious people need a juicy kickstart. Check for pain or low blood pressure related unconsciousness before blindly pushing epinephrine. DO NOT USE EPINEPHRINE TO TREAT CARDIAC ARREST.

Blood, Plasma, Saline
At this time, no distinction is made between the three kinds of liquid goodness. For now, just carry blood to keep things simple. Blood can only be applied by a medic to other people. You cannot give yourself the good stuff, so for everyone's sake, medics keep your heads down, or bring along another medic. Transfusion take approximately 1 minute per 250mL to complete. Moving around will not affect the transfusion (as far as I can tell, I'd tell you if I knew). If the patient's heart rate is dropping, odds are a blood bag is needed sooner than later! Pay attention when the AMS says "Lost a lot of blood"...it isn't kidding.