The addition of the Bandage
I want to stress that the Bandage isn’t a novelty I’ve added because having more healing items would be fun, and I haven’t added it to make the game more “realistic”. It’s a solution to a problem that arises from making Stimpaks rarer.

Basically, the reduction of Stimpaks meant I was using other means of healing to pick up the slack, i.e. food. However, it soon became abundantly clear to me that food was woefully unbalanced, and reducing how much food the player can get wasn’t going to fix it. There aren’t any pre-requisites for cooking, most recipes don’t require anything beyond the meat (which is abundant), and the HP return is completely independent of your skill or level, relying solely on which creatures you can find and harvest.

So I instead replaced food with the Bandage, an item that restores a healthy amount of HP at early levels, which can be upgraded with the player’s investment to make it just as effective at higher levels, giving the same effect of low-quality and high-quality food using only one item. Someone who avoids taking lots of damage might be able to rely on the Bandages and Stimpaks they find in the world, while someone who gets up close and personal will want to take several perks in Medic so they can craft their own and increase their effectiveness.

Additionally, this plays on the healing time mechanic that Fallout 4 kind of utilises, by making Stimpaks a valuable quick-fix to use in battle, and Bandages a more common but slower-acting item to use out of combat.

It’s probably possible to effectively balance food and make it work well with the rest of the game, but honestly it would just require too much time and effort, and would be very difficult to get right. It’s my hope that adding one item to act as an alternative to the Stimpak makes healing more engaging without over-complicating it.

TL:DR – Food stupid, Bandage better.

Other notes
Adjusting how healing items work strays a bit far from the goal of this mod, but as mentioned, it’s a solution to a problem this mod creates (even though it was kind of already in the game I just didn’t notice it until now). Depending on how much more work I do on it, if any, I might release an independent version as it does serve a purpose in itself.

Further work might entail gearing it towards people who are looking for a more realistic experience (as realism can of course enforce immersion), work on rad healing items, and more crafting options, like bloodleaf wraps and stuff like that. That kind of stuff strays right into “survival” territory though, so would not be developed for this mod.

I could have removed the restoration effect from food and increased the Stimpaks the player finds – except that makes healing instantaneous and incredibly boring, and it wouldn’t be possible to effectively balance as every player has different playstyles which entail more or less HP loss. I can see where Bethesda was going with food to try and counterbalance this, but it just falls short, which is why I’ve added my own item instead.