Diseases

[Whyherro123 2283]

So, what kind of diseases would you like to see, or are in the works (Didn't see any other topics about diseases when making this one)

 

For long-term survival, disease is the real enemy, not starvation. This might come as a surprise, but diseases that seem minor to us in our comfy homes will kill you VERY fast when you are cold, hungry, and scared.

 

All of the above factors often (usually) lead to a depressed immune system, making ti difficult to fight off both the disease you already have, as well as any possible others. Disease might also make you disoriented, have slower response time, or pretty much make you more likely to hurt yourself further.

 

So, what could this mean in-game? Simple: those that are well-fed, hydrated, and rested (AKA healthy status) would be the least likely to get sick, while those that are in pain, malnourished, dehydrated, or otherwise stressed would be more likely to get sick.

 

What sort of diseases would you like to see?

 

"Body" infections: basically, infected wounds. I see no other real need to include other ones, as infections cover a pretty broad spectrum. They pretty much result in pain and fever, which could translate into shaking hands, jitteryness, etc. How would you get them? Simple; not keeping wounds clean, especially puncture wounds, like bites, splinters, stab wounds, etc. Wound care should be a major part of first aid (which isn't just stopping bleeding), and it should be relatively difficult in a post-apocalyptic environment, where antibiotics, sterile dressings, and cleaning agents are rare. There are natural antibiotics and dressings available, maybe available through foraging?

 

EDIT: There is also tuberculosis and pneumonia. Both would be relatively common in a post-apocalyptic environment, and especially deadly. TB could be represented by an automatic cough (alerting other beings to your presence), while pneumonia lessens your stamina and removes your ability to sprint. But, how would they be transmitted and treated?

 

"Water-borne" diseases: Well, there are the diseases of Dysentery and Cholera. Both are essentially inflammation of the intestines caused by ingested micro-organisms or another infection. This could be caused by drinking untreated water, as well as treated by rest and drinking clean water (you pretty much have to wait out the inflammation. Rest and rehydrating will keep you from dying of dehydration). Essentially, IMHO, there should be no "perfectly safe" drinking water in Chernarus, with the exception of Pre-TSC bottled water, and the water you treat yourself. Wells will provide water with a MUCH lower chance of contamination, but they should still be treated, just to be sure. Even private wells around where I live have a filter installed at the draw, and we have extremely clean wellwater and good aquifers.

 

"Food-borne" diseases: essentially, food poisoning. Eat raw food, or food that isn't cooked enough, and you throw up, losing a whole bunch of water in the process. One way to get around this is to boil whatever you want to cook. Takes the guesswork out of it, as water at sea level (And Chernarus isn't that high above sea level, even the mountains) will boil at 212 degrees F (100 degrees C), well above the "safe" temps of meat and fish. Best of all, boiling retains all of the nutrients of the food (compared to baking or roasting, where nutrients are lost to heat or the environment), as you can drink a tasty broth after you eat. 

 

Also, certain foods should have a propensity to cause diarrhea, like berries and apples. The high water content and certain compounds found in those plants often cause diarrhea when consumed in bulk.

 

Thoughts?

 

Edit: for food-borne illnesses, you could always eat charcoal in order to purge the body of the offending agents. I've done this in real life, and found it to be more effective if you crush the charcoal to a powder, mix it with a beverage, then drink it. It will taste like the inside of Satan's asshole, and you will puke like you never believe, but if you hold it in long enough, you can get some of the mixture down into your intestines, where it will neutralize the toxins down there. Yes, I've pooped charcoal before.

Edited December 1, 2014 by Whyherro123

[Thumper1999 48]

samonella

[Whyherro123 2283]

samonella

You can pretty much lump that in with food-borne diseases, and treat accordingly.

[Evil Minion 943]

"Air-borne" diseases: As the name says transmitted via air (or mosquitoes etc.). The initial infection might come from being in a certain area or having your immune system weakened too much (like running around in fully soaked clothes for a prolonged time). Then those infections might also spread to others that get into contact with the infected depending on their health status, equipment (some mask might reduce risk) and of course how long and close the contact is. Overall the infection risk should be relatively small requiring conditions to be fullfilled for a longer period of time or getting unlucky.

 

Common cold might be a relatively weak example basically just weakening the body, draining a little bit of water and causing the character to sneeze or cough (not too often). There should be counter-measures to symptoms as well: like sacrificing a rag to clean your nose avoiding sneezing for some time.

 

Different diseases might also be transmitted by:

• touch
• blood transfusion
• cannibalism
• switching clothes

[gannon46 788]

dysentery not a joke i've heard this has dropped a lot of survivors that get stranded on islands an such and it sounds really bad,schizophrenia not a disease but has its place in this game, depression again not a disease but has its place in this game.common cold and flu, i also think we need to be able to catch the zed disease in the game and it should be incurable and you get a week long incubation period with debilitating symptoms till death(project zomboid does this and it adds a huge amount of tension and paranoia because you know just one mistake could end your life just a scratch too deep and its the grave. i'm sure none of these will make it in besides the cold or flu but we need serious diseases mental issues to deal with all this killing and running in the rain  in cold weather with no consequences is getting old if folks want to be a psycho killer then there need to be psycho consequences if they want to yolo run from zeds in towns and fight 5-6 at a time there needs to be the zed plague that shows them other wise. yes play how you want i play how i want but i want serious mental/medical consequences for all action especially on long term survival. most may disagree but oh well i can still dream.

Edited December 1, 2014 by gannon46

[Veniathan 9]

Very very good idea, mainly because at this moment. A lot of people especially kiddies gear up and hoard up, go to elektro/cherno and KOS for days until they die.

 

I think we really need diseases, infections and other ways to stop players from playing artificially and actually worry about their character. Currently all you have to do is bandage yourself, not cool at all. This should improve the survival aspect of the game a lot.

[Whyherro123 2283]

dysentery not a joke i've heard this has dropped a lot of survivors that get stranded on islands an such and it sounds really bad,schizophrenia not a disease but has its place in this game, depression again not a disease but has its place in this game.common cold and flu, i also think we need to be able to catch the zed disease in the game and it should be incurable and you get a week long incubation period with debilitating symptoms till death(project zomboid does this and it adds a huge amount of tension and paranoia because you know just one mistake could end your life just a scratch too deep and its the grave. i'm sure none of these will make it in besides the cold or flu but we need serious diseases mental issues to deal with all this killing and running in the rain  in cold weather with no consequences is getting old if folks want to be a psycho killer then there need to be psycho consequences if they want to yolo run from zeds in towns and fight 5-6 at a time there needs to be the zed plague that shows them other wise. yes play how you want i play how i want but i want serious mental/medical consequences for all action especially on long term survival. most may disagree but oh well i can still dream.

Schizophrenia and depression ARE diseases, just not physical ones. IRL, depression and PTSD would probably be extremely common among survivors, but showing this in-game is difficult, to say the least.

 

The "zed disease", as you put it, has been labelled as a prion disease, which isn't actually a disease at all. Prions are misfolded proteins, and can and will fuck you up, often bypassing the immune system entirely. However, the only way to actually contract a prion disease is to ingest, inject, or inhale the prions.

 

"Kuru" IRL was (it has been all but eliminated) a prion disease, and was passed along by tribal peoples in Papua New Guinea ritually consuming the brains of deceased tribal members.

[Calvin Candie 189]

@Whyhero

A+ for the idea. We need much more different causes of death other than Zeds or other players. Your post pretty much describes how I would like it to be.

[TheHermit (DayZ) 22]

I probably don't like to get that literal in games, but I would like to be able to have to treat food and water, take certain pills for "basic" conditions and status' (I actually already do a lot of stuff just for my own RP).

 

As always with these things it all depends on how they decide to spawn/disperse this stuff. Anything is a great idea until you can't find it forever and die. Actually the entire game depends on those fine balances imo... like I wouldn't want to get sick every playthru. We'll see where the actual 'difficulty' lies when the loot is proper.

[Steak and Potatoes 13480]

Epidermodysplasia Verruciformis :).

[Deathlove 2286]

I would like to see the Steak & Potatoes Disease.

 

It pretty much renders your body useless turning you into a tasty potato with steak for legs and feet. Its quite horribly delicious i must say! 83