Healing is something us devs have had several long discussions about. We have not yet come up with a perfect system. I can say there will be no "casting of healing spells" or any such thing as found in fantasy and sci-fi games. There will be a doctor or healer profession or class as well as ways for players to mend their own wounds in the field.

Injuries, both treated and untreated, should have consequences in the game, as should death. We're definitely open to suggestion from our small, but growing community

Thanks for the response! Very cool to get to interact with developers at such an early stage.

Have you talked about using body part specification when determining damage and then using some type of wound system? As we know, most gunshots in this time frame weren't fatal, it was the resulting infection that did most victims in. It would be interesting to utilize some kind of wound system so that players are challenged by injuries, but not incapacitated by them all the time. An example would be that if someone gets a wound in their left arm and they are a right-handed person, they shouldn't be able to use a rifle and probably wouldn't be able to do much in the way of harvesting/crafting, but they could still shoot a pistol, ride a horse, etc. They might have minor penalties to those skills because of pain, but they would still be able to function.

I do like the idea of someone with first aid training be able to dress wounds so that infection doesn't become an issue. I guess the big issue then is how long do wounds effect you. Of course, that seems to be open to abuse. If you say that someone is wounded and will take 1 week to recuperate, a player could just go afk and wait for time to pass, so it wouldn't be quite the penalty it should be.

We have some rudimentary plans for area-specific damage and wounds. However, in an effort to keep network traffic down between client and server, what form that will take it still unknown. Our main goal is to keep network traffic low for low-end computers and narrow-band connections to still be able to play the game with minimal latency. It's a tall order, but one we're striving for.

As you may be aware, the practice of medicine was very primitive in the 1800s compared to today's technology. Much of the healing system or doctor/medic skill will be based entirely on what was available during the period. It's true that most gunshot wounds were not fatal. However, a lucky head-shot or a projectile striking the heart would certainly be fatal long before medical attention could be administered.