first aid Buff First Aid

[Sir Warock]

Hello there!

My suggestion:
Reduce the chance of zombification from a wound that has been treated by a skilled doctor.
It could go as far as making scratches/laceration completely safe and bites a 50/50 chance of infection, or only contribute as little as 1 or 2% per skill level.
Bites could also stay lethal at all times, as they are far harder to acquire and often times through grave mistakes, and the skill would only safeguard against scratches/lacerations.
It shouldn't be a completely safe way to guard against an infection, but it should be efficient enough to make the skill viable to grind.

Another way would also be to make non-zombie wounds more frequent, and thus making the first aid skill more relevant.
Or make wounds have longer healing time, where a doctor would shine by making quick work of wounds.

For the realistic side, I'd suggest that there would be more tools at hand for a skilled doctor. For example, a blood transfusion? Knotting a rag around the upper arm, so the infection in the blood can't travel to the main body, so the arm can be properly cleaned? You could also add a cure recipe with zombie blood and such, which has a higher chance of working the more levels you got (and if youre level 0, you might as well just infect a totally healthy person with the virus), but since there shouldn't be any cures, this is probably a no.

Background of that suggestion:
I very much enjoy the game and am intrigued by the health system, where you have to apply bandages, sterilize bandages and stitch deep wounds.
That led me to investigate about the First Aid skill, and it's rather disappointing.
First Aid helps you perform medical actions faster, increase the bandage health and reduce the time fractured wounds need to completely heal.

But god have mercy, if you're bitten or getting unlucky with a scratch or laceration, it's over. You could be a level 10 Doctor and still be powerless, so your friend has to die. Although, you absolutely eradicated any signs of the wounds, so your friend can die without any health problems - well, besides the knox infection.
But chances are, you're even getting to level 10 (through normal means, aka not stepping on glas 1000 times). Before you reach that, the wounds you've gained and need for leveling up the skill, you're definitely already dead, succumbed to the knox infection.

Since the devs have given us a hard no on the topic cure, I don't really know how to buff first aid in any meaningful way. I really like the trait, but it's just utterly useless in most cases.
If the patient is infected, then weeks of training that skill are just thrown out the window.
 

[Pandorea]

An overhaul of First aid / Medical system is planned for one of (bigger) future builds. Some of these features are already being considered