Feedback on status of infectious diseases in DayZ

[noblebrutus@live.co.uk 26]

In a large part you are in control in DayZ. If you get killed by a zombie or sniper it's cause you were careless and alerted them. If you run off a rooftop and break a leg, it's cause you did it. If your run out of food, its because you didn't try to carry enough. If you get cold, its cause you spent too much time outside or in the water.

If you get sick from drinking pond water, it's because you were careless and didn't boil it. If you get food poisoning etc then it's because you didn't cook your meat correctly.

[psylnz 34]

Suicide because you're infected, so you can run and pickup your gear - is rather stupid. Because your gear and body will be infected.

If you get sick from drinking pond water, it's because you were careless and didn't boil it. If you get food poisoning etc then it's because you didn't cook your meat correctly.

What about loot piles though - I'm not talking loot from corpses, but if an infected player can spread disease to the loot in his pack, why wouldn't they be able to spread disease to a loot pile they interacted with? Is that rifle on the ground in a loot pile going to carry disease? Do I have cook canned beans now and cook pop? Is that bandaid safe to use? Am I going to get sick from touching the water, or simply if I drink it?

[seddrik 44]

In the near future of Dayz...

Everyone is too sick to hold a gun steady. (Isn't it fun when you can't hit anything you aim at, even zombies?)

Half are too blind to see down a sight anyways. (Playing blind wouldn't that be "fun"? and "realistic"?)

Food has become so rare... you just had to eat that last can of beans you found. And little did you know that it went bad and now adds stomach cramps. You are crumpled up on the floor moaning (attracting zombies) and can't move. (Is this fun yet?)

Finally, you are able to poo... but its too much (hey thats realistic too...) So you are dehydrated now. And smelly... attracting even more zombies.

At this point you realize no player has shot you yet... inspite of being a sitting duck, moaning... because no one else has time for pvp either!!! Why? Only 1/3 of the people are playing it anymore. And the remaining 1/3 are equally incapacitated in game.

About this time, your mom actually checks on you ad decides it is just too morbid for even her to stand and she takes away your computer... telling you to visit your sick uncle at the nursing home if you want to enjoy sickness, poo smells, and similar health issues.

She logs you off and... you get auto killed for logging off while sick (sickness log timer FTW!!!).

You sit depressed in your room knowing that once you died in DayZ, you now have to buy a new CD... because realistically you only get one life... even so, going to visit your uncle in the nursing home doesn't appeal to you even after playing DayZ.

Wasn't that fun?

Edited November 24, 2012 by Seddrik

[mr_chabowski@live.co.uk 2416]

^ Purpose served = none

EDIT:

I'm sure you think your absurd exaggeration is very clever, but it just sounds like you're crying out of fear of the uncertainty.

Either man-up and embrace these new experimental features, for the good of the gaming industry, or go back to your comfort zone and stay there.

EDIT AGAIN:

Edited November 24, 2012 by Chabowski

[seddrik 44]

-edit- I started to reply in a kinder way, but after your rather crass response... forget that.

Chubbs, Let me simplify it for you so you can comprehend.

If Rocket wants to make a game where you have to do medical research in order to play... eh. Theres another game out there thats a zombie apocalypse game, a MMO I was in the beta for but I forget the name now. (No, not that rip-off zombie game.) It was in Beta a year or more ago. Kinda Wow-ish in style (instanced dungeons with groups going in to fight bosses), but from a more FPS perspective. It had some things you had to google online to figure out in game (they even put an ingame browser to accomodate this...derp). It was kinda lame. After the beta I didn't buy the game because it just didn't hold my interest. While no doubt some will like doing such things, not everyone does.

For Arma 2, ace/acre has a level of medical complexity to it that is fun but not so deep you'll get a migraine trying to diagnose mysterious symptoms. Maybe med students will be interested in a deeper complexity though. Chubbs, you want a zombie game or a medical degree?

As for crying... Chubbs, what I hear is you crying about people who see things differently from you. Instead of being such a flammer and foul in your reply, learn to discuss differences. Be clever (if you can) and even be entertaining in your posts if you want. "Man up" to the challenge Chubbs. Show yourself to be a human being instead of a troll. And whats this gibberish about "the good of the gaming industry"? You think that makes you sound smart and cool? lol... We are all looking for DayZ to be fun, not pontificating some vague platitude about the "good of the gaming industry".

Edited November 24, 2012 by Seddrik

[mr_chabowski@live.co.uk 2416]

You don't need to simplify for my sake. It's clearly you who wants things simplified.

If it doesn't hold your interest, fair do's.

I can't picture the devs dumbing things down for the sake of a few more sales. It's not in keeping with the MO

If it's going to be a niche game, like most other BI properties, it won't everyone's cup of tea. It doesn't have to be.

[seddrik 44]

Dayz is a zombie mod built on a military sim engine. I've enjoyed this as a FPS to play with friends. I didn't even own Arma2, except to play Dayz on an engine I've known before (played OFP). Ace/acre has done medical aspects in a decent way. You have to know some things, it adds some specialization & challenge in, but not so much it hinders the game. HOPEFULLY Dayz will follow in a similar direction medically... but with recent posts and comments on defication, and other details, I'm understandably doubtful and suspicious of these extreme & tedious sounding proposals. All the uber sickness stuff just doesn't even sound fun to me. If thats the direction they wish to go, then the Devs certainly are able to do so... but if so, then they should rename the mod to "ER" instead of DayZ.

Whatever the Devs' MO... this is the suggestions forum and so I am suggesting.

Edited November 24, 2012 by Seddrik

[mr_chabowski@live.co.uk 2416]

I can understand where you're coming from, but I think if the development of certain aspects has potential to be detrimental to gameplay, the experimentation needs to go "too far" so the devs know what to dial back if necessary.

[seddrik 44]

I'd hope the Devs are smart enough to see when something goes too far before they actually walk off the cliff. Seems like a lot of games I've played through the years either go too far into tedious grinding, grinding, grinding or too far into boringly simple. I've never said don't add any medical complexity to Dayz. I just don't find any appeal what-so-ever in having to deficate in a game or such like. I mean... really? Even the mere mention of such retarded things by a Dev, much less the main game designer... makes me think this thing is heading in an exceedingly tedious & stupid direction.

Edited November 24, 2012 by Seddrik

[Zarniwoop 1193]

Cholera is going to be a major, major killer. An outbreak of Cholera on a server could well trigger a huge number of deaths.

I love what you are doing with the deseases! But will not an outbreak of cholera on a server incurage server hopping to get away from the desease? Maybe if the deseases happened on all server would be better? Just thinking....

[mr_chabowski@live.co.uk 2416]

Seems like a lot of games I've played through the years either go too far into tedious grinding, grinding, grinding or too far into boringly simple.

Not many games are still in development while you're playing them though.

If you want to know if something complements the way you picture your game working, trial and error is the most viable way to go about it

@Zarniwoop - Server hopping would be helping spread the diseases! *evil laugh*

[Zarniwoop 1193]

@Zarniwoop - Server hopping would be helping spread the diseases! *evil laugh*

Now THAT'S a thought! Cool! Hadn't thought of it like that ... :P

EDIT: The thing is there are always people server hopping so wouldn't all the servers have all the deseases within a few weeks ?

Edited November 24, 2012 by Zarniwoop

[mr_chabowski@live.co.uk 2416]

More than likely. But that's why everyone will be expected to take a little responsibility for their own precautions.

[xtrmsnpr 3]

A lot of people are gonna die by these :D server hopping :P

[goleastro 22]

Liking the disease thing, but I can see that nobody will carry water bottles and they won't drink from external sources, but only sodas :/

[Mini Maracas 37]

Liking the disease thing, but I can see that nobody will carry water bottles and they won't drink from external sources, but only sodas :/

Make sodas rarer then! :D Sodas can be a treat, being able to drink knowing that there's no chance you can get a disease from it ^-^

Or just boil the water then let it cool, to kill of any bacteria on it :)

[logan23 118]

Make sodas rarer then! :D Sodas can be a treat, being able to drink knowing that there's no chance you can get a disease from it ^-^

Or just boil the water then let it cool, to kill of any bacteria on it :)

Drawback from the ALL SODA diet......Rotten Teeth.....You will be alive but have missing teeth ... :o

[psylnz 34]

Make sodas rarer then! :D Sodas can be a treat, being able to drink knowing that there's no chance you can get a disease from it ^-^

Or just boil the water then let it cool, to kill of any bacteria on it :)

Why not go full on real. Loot drops only on a brand new server. It's not like magic loot drops appearing every so often is in any way realistic. Loot drops once in the history of the server and that's it. So when you use up the bandaids, no more. Ever. And when the last bullet is fired you can dump your rifle in the ocean, as it will never fire anything again. When the last can of beans is gone, and the last Animal slain, that's it - no more food. The winner will be the last person to starve to death, as we bludgeon each other with hatchets.

As much as I wrote that sarcastically, there's a part of me thinking that's not actually a bad idea.

[seddrik 44]

"The winner will be the last person to starve to death..."

That sounds like where this is all going. lol

[logan23 118]

Not many games are still in development while you're playing them though.

If you want to know if something complements the way you picture your game working, trial and error is the most viable way to go about it

@Zarniwoop - Server hopping would be helping spread the diseases! *evil laugh*

Actually I think in the future- Standalone.

Players won't be able to jump servers since this creates a major issues balancing the loot and plus having a character stay to one server creates a community which is destroyed by server hoping.

Also by not allowing players to server hope, you can can actually get good data on how diseases spread and at what rate and wither the player community is able to get meds out before the server populations end up all sick or dead.

I really believe the data needed for the final Game Release in the final version, will only come from isolating an individual player character to one server.

Having the server hoping at ease will make it hard to get the data needed to balance the disease feature as well as loot and other mechanics that are based on player to player interactions.

What do you think? (or am i totally wrong?)

[Sonicdahedgie 31]

The main thing I ask is that you don't eschew the user interface on principle of this being a simulator. While I would love to have as little of an interface as possible, I feel that sometimes it is necessary. Such as for the sicknesses. A lot of sicknesses have pretty identical symptoms on paper, but there are actual differences in diagnosis based on descriptions of pain. A patient might describe a "burning" pain as opposed to a "sharp" pain, and get a completely different diagnosis. There should probably be a menu option to see "how you feel" and be given a description of how you feel about your body. After all, it's a video game, we can't ACTUALLY feel it. In real life, we would easily know when we're thirsty. The game shouldn't be made harder because it's NOT real life.

[Kaffarov37 125]

AIDS, you gotta have those too.

[xx_fr0st-w0lf_xx 53]

Which ever direction rocket wants to go, I would support it. Personally I can't wait for diseases, games are way to simple now and days, the are made to get sales and keep things simple. That is where arma 2 stands out from the group. It is complex and its learning curve is unbelievable but in return you have a sandbox like no other. Dayz is also one of the more complex and unforgiving games. It doesn't care that you were unarmed and someone shot you or that you got a disease and there is no way to be cured. The reason why it is so fun is because it is so unforgiving and cruel. I hope Rocket doesn't change his vision because it has brought us this far and there is still a long way to go.

[hoik 415]

"The winner will be the last person to starve to death..."

That sounds like where this is all going. lol

You can't "win" dayZ - :P

[Brew78 27]

The transmission route depends on the disease, and vectors associated with it.

Cholera will spread in game mainly via infected food and water sources. Players can choose how long they boil or cook meat. The longer you boil/cook the more likely it is any disease causing pathogens are killed. Cholera is mainly spread through faeces infecting water and food, so if someone with cholera goes swimming in a water source (pond), or prepares you meal (cooking meat) - then there is a chance they will have infected that food/water. Maybe they pass the food onto you, and you eat it. Or maybe you collect water from the pond after they swam in it. Then you get cholera. Many people are asymptomatic (do not show symptoms) of cholera so this also increases transmission.

Of those who develop symptoms, and don't get treatment, cholera has a 50% mortality rate (mainly due dehydration).

Hep is a bit different, the system I have now has hep C would mainly be transferred during melee combat between players where both get hit. It is also a long term virus, that would only really cause issues for players who have been alive a long time. Whereas cholera has a very short incubation period (in real life, it can kill within 2 hours).

I just cooked a large bird using a probe thermometer to keep track of internal temperature. Way back when I worked grilling burgers, I had to check the internal temp multiple times a day to make sure it was "safe".

Reading this post got me thinking, will there be any way to check or measure food temp? Maybe a battery-powered probe thermometer like the one I have?

Also, battery powered things got me thinking - is there any plan to make battery powered things die over time? And in that vein, are there any plans to recharge batteries? I got one of these and although very slow (especially now that we're heading towards winter) it does work pretty well.