Powermale

Some suggestions: I don't think Hep B should be in the game, as in real life it has a mean incubation period om 3 months. I realize you'd have to shorten the incubation period for most diseases in the game to make them work gameplay wise, but there should be limits to how far you stray from the real disease. Also, Hep C primary infection is usually mostly asymptomatic, and the disease is only apparent after years when chronic liver disease develops, not a very game friendly disease. Hep A has an incubation period of at least two weeks. It would be fun to see jaundiced players running around though. I think you should stick with diseases with minimal real life incubation periods of not more than a week. Cholera, influenza, common cold and meningitis are good choices. I would love to have symptoms that are visible on other players such as rashes or pallor that you'd need another player to spot for you (or 3rd person view). And if you include pooping, the color and solidity of the excrement could give clues to the diagnosis. How about including dysentery as a disease, and have players produce bloody stools! And i.v. fluids should be necessary for a bad case for cholera, drinking a lot is only sufficient in mild cases. And I'd love to see a meningitis sometimes resulting in cranial nerve dysfunction such as facial palsy, hearing loss or balance problems. Also, for giggles you could include a harmless but extremely contagious disease such as "epidemic keratoconjunctivitis" (viral infection of the conjunctivae and corneae of the eyes) which mostly only results in bilateral "pink eye". As for diagnostic aids, how about the ability to check one's pulse (or auscultate another player's heart to make it auditory), and hear one's breathing rate, as well as a thermometer for measuring body temperature? The current definition of sepsis (which is a sign of a serious course of an infection) uses four criteria, and three of them are pulse, respiratory rate and body temperature (all in the resting state, of course, not after running around), so players could use those to see if their infections are getting life threatening. And how about giving epinephrine another use by introducing a very small chance of anaphylaxis when taking a drug?

I'd like there to be a lot of clothes to find, but not to pick to start with. Also, I think it could be fun if clothes found in the game are NOT lootable (like the ghillie). If they were not lootable, then such items would give added value to life in the game, as you couldn't get them back just by finding your own body and looting it.

Hey, dude. I really like your thoughts on this. I've had similar thoughts, and have a couple of suggestions on transmissible zombie virus infection: 1) I would like there to be different zombie virus (ZV) strains with different modes of transmission, risk of human-to-human transmission, incubation times, symptoms and different chance of spontaneous recovery. Also maybe sometimes certain animals could harbor the virus and contaminate when eaten or touched. Maybe sometimes you could get it from the flies around an infected dead player. Or from something recently touched by an infected player (fomite transmission), if the item is not wiped with alcohol first. Sometimes from being hit by a zombie, sometimes only if your skin breaks (bleeding), sometimes just from being near a zombie (airborne virus). All strains would have in common that they lead to eventual zombification if not cured or defeated by the player's immune system. 2) I would like there to be a chance for mutation of the virus, so that on a server there could emerge a new strain (random alteration of one or more of the properties described above), and such. Would lead to interesting epidemiological phenomena. 3) There should also be other more benign (non-ZV) infections such as the current pneumonia (the regular infection, I call it pneumonia as it causes cough and responds well to antibiotics). You should NOT have a notification that says you have ZV infection. The symptoms should speak for themselves. Maybe players on a particular server who have knowledge of the dominant ZV strain on that server need to be consulted (maybe via in game notes or message boards?) in order to know that you have ZV, or if your symptoms could be due to some other infection. Maybe ZV sometimes causes cough and high fever, similar at first to pneumonia, so difficult to distinguish at first (try antibiotics and see if they work?), maybe other symptoms (how about skin symptoms [rashes, tumors] only visible to other players, so you need someone to look at you to diagnose you). Maybe a late symptom could be occasional uncontrollable screaming. Or lack of nourishment from eating regular food. Time to try eating the brains of dead players instead..? Or maybe increased athletic capabilities (as our beloved zombies seem to have), possibly making keeping the infection from progressing further at this point (with antivirals) an advantage (if you can live with the uncontrollable screaming in the presence of other players ;)). 4) There should be a spawn chance of antiviral drugs (such as ribavirin, which is a real drug that has some effect on a variety of different viruses). This should only delay ZV infection (unless maybe there's a chance for a strain that is particularly vulnerable to this drug and can be cured by it). Maybe different antiviral drugs are effective only on certain strains (or sometimes a cocktail of drugs is needed for maximal effect, you would need to experiment!). 5) A real cure for the virus could be made to be a goal of a collaborative effort on a server. Maybe there could be a variety of rare items that need to be found and combined to make a cure. Another idea: Maybe one also would need a virologist in order to make the cure given all the prerequisite items. Perhaps once in a great while a player happens to spawn as a virologist (spawning in a lab coat?), a trait that gives no benefit in game except makes him/her capable of this very special role if that player chooses to use it (in the standalone there will probably be a lot of clothing options, so after changing clothes only you would know you're a virologist). 6) If you've had the virus and been cured, or have a spontaneous remission, you should be immune to reinfection by ZV (unless maybe by a very different strain on a different server). This gives a further incentive to stay alive other than the items you have (which sometimes can be reaquired, not so easy with immunity!). Also, maybe some players are immune to the disease but could be asymptomatic carriers (ala Typhoid Mary) capable of spreading infections. A band of asymptomatic carriers with a wildly transmissible strain could band together and defeat clans by infecting them (imagine asymptomatic carriers of a strain with fomite transmissible virus infiltrating an enemy base and touching everything they can, leaving loads of viruses behind..). Or maybe you could make biological weapons by dipping crossbow bolts in the blood of an infected player and shoot to infect! 7) I think this kind of variability in the features of ZV infection would lead to interesting non-PVP interaction between players (needing to share information [in game and possible on forums?], possibly cooperate to make a cure or to gather medication to delay zombification). Also it could make playing on the same server more viable, as on this server you may know more about the virus (how dangerous it is, how you can avoid getting it, what drugs you will need to cure or delay it, maybe you're already immune to this strain and so on), making server jumping more dangerous. It may sound like I would like the game to be ALL about infection, but if there was great strain variability, then some servers could have more benign infections (less risk of transmission, longer time until zombefication, less symptoms, easy to keep in check with a more commonly available antiviral, and so on), and there the disease wouldn't play that big a role. So if players enjoy the challenges of more dangerous (and interesting) infections, they could go to servers known to be plagued by such (or maybe no one would go to such servers, I don't know!). It would at least vastly ramp up the challenge of surviving, and in an interesting manner (in my opinion, as a guy probably more interested in diseases than most people...).

I still have a lot of graphical glitches. Had them in Stary, Cherno, NW airfield. My friend also had some, but a lot less than me.