More Medical Realism

I am a consultant Emergency Physician working in Western Australia with a background in trauma, toxicology, simulation and ultrasound (as a bedside diagnostic tool) and would love to give any support, advice or consulting that you might think would be helpful for the development of Subnautica 2 and any future games (with all of the references to the tadpole and wakemakers being space exploration devices I am particularly enthralled with the idea of an ‘Astronautica’ type game as well where you explore deep space biomes…).
With my background in general and emergency medicine, trauma, infectious diseases and toxicology I think I would love to give a different perspective or insight into some of the more noxious stimuli on Proteus and how they might impact human (or transhuman) physiology and how they might be more realistically treated/managed. As Subnautica is a survival game it has always struck me that there is no deeper medical aspect other than basic and advanced med kits. There is an absence of medbays, hyperbaric medicine, antibiotics, more nuanced dressings, toxicological antidotes, heavy metal chelation or organ replacement devices. I think even a superficial foray into these domains could really improve the survival aspects of the game world and could improve some of the world building - for instance sourcing medicines, antivirals antidotes and things to counteract bleeding could be fascinating. Dealing with heavy metal poisoning using gene adaptation to sequester heavy metals into bone deposition to strengthen the skeleton at the same time.
I have noted some of the pioneers so far have had their forks or prints killed by blunt/penetrating trauma or suffocation… it would be great to expand on these and delve into particular injury patterns from some of the creatures - i.e. likely suffered haemorrhagic shock from torrential bleeding from their femoral artery secondary to physical trauma from a Marrowbreach bite to their mid-thigh… or suffered obstructive shock from pericardial tamponade from a uranium tipped needle causing penetrating trauma to their anterior thorax… or suffered descending flaccid paralysis and ventilatory failure secondary to envenomation from a bite from a creature analogous to a sea snake on Terra.
In addition to things like this, if you have any plans to have vital signs / monitors / life support machines in game I would love to consult on realistic numbers and waveforms for ECGs, pulse oximetry or capnography.
I also work closely with a colleague who specialises in hyperbaric/dive medicine which is used to treat the bends and other diving related illnesses - I could give more specific advice on these niche areas too.
If I can help with anything or consult on anything please reach out. A personal bugbear of mine is when intellectual properties get the medicine wrong - it really breaks my immersion and I can see how much time and effort you have spent on making such a vivid and realistic world!
I would be happy to contribute completely pro bono as just being involved would be recompense enough.

… I am in awe of this post!! I hope with all my heart that you are welcomed on board as a consultant through development. Your expertise and understanding of the game naturally feeds into seriously formidable game design ideas. They can deepen the entire experience of the world while helping to build the foundation for incredible replay value. I’ve heard the game is more about exploration than survival, but that depends. I truly believe survival IS exploration here. Cheers, fellow Aussie!

As cool as it might sound, I think this idea would lead the developers off-track into designing a marine medical game. I don’t think the larger playerbase as a whole is going to bother too much with medical aid if they can already just reprint if they die.

As cool as this sounds (and the idea of different negative effects like lead poisoning needing some sort of special treating IS cool) if anything too advanced and specialised is required for healing it might be considered too tedious by some players and take away from them being able to enjoy the game.

As for realism and immersion… I mean, we do have 3d printed bodies, so the tech for cure-alls might be there. For all we know the medkits might serve as some form of cure-all in the lore of Subnautica, but they just affect the player instantly (same goes with food, right? No normal human would eat an entire mackarel in one go, and a peeper’s eye is as big as Riley’s head).

Still, this would make a GREAT addition to a future Hard mode (both for normal and hardcore survival as a difficulty setting).