Infection Mechanics: Make them more in depth

[amaROenuZ 144]

Currently Infections are pretty black and white. Stay above 36 degrees, and if you get infected, you drop to 6000 blood slowly as long as you're online. However, given that the only way you every get infected is an unlucky smack from a zombie, and how rare infections are, it's basically a wasted mechanic.

Suggested Changes to being infected

• Chance for infection should increase when you're near water or corpses.
  
• Infections should be able to occur at normal, non-heat pack temperatures. They should be rare at this point though. Infection chance should increase the farther below standing temperature you go.
  
• Zombies should infect more often. You're telling me I start bleeding every other hit, but this fetid, spittle spewing bloody husk of a man has a near zero % chance to give me something?
  

Suggested Changes to Infection symptoms

• While heatpacked, symptoms should be reduced to coughing(making stealth hard), an increase in fatigue recovery time, and a decrease in time to become fatigued. Basically you'll have to be a bit more careful about getting into firefights while on the move, and sprinting will be less effective.
  
• At normal standing temperature, in addition to fatigue, your character should lose health up to 10K. Movement speed reduced by 5% if possible.
  
• At temperatures below normal temperature(due to rain, exposure, swimming), blood levels will continue to drop to the current 6000 blood. Shakes should occur at 25% of the intensity from painkillers. Your coughing should increase in intensity to the point where it impairs your ability to sneak around zombies. Using a heat pack will remove these symptoms, but the blood loss will remain
  

Questions? Comments. As a personal note, I've been infected for a few days now, and it's really nothing more than a mild inconvenience. Food consumption has roughly doubled to compensate for the bleeding, but as most players will note, cooked meat is absurdly easy to come by.

[insitv 305]

I agree that infection right now is a wasted mechanic. I would love to see the chance of being infected increased but at the same time, anti-biotics must drop more often. I am playing this game for months now and i've found them two times! Thank god i've never been infected.

I think the temperature mechanic needs to be tweaked. I like the way it works but you should lose temperature way faster. There's no need to carry heatpacks at the moment.

[JoranBerserk 2]

I agree that infection right now is a wasted mechanic. I would love to see the chance of being infected increased but at the same time, anti-biotics must drop more often. I am playing this game for months now and i've found them two times! Thank god i've never been infected.

I think the temperature mechanic needs to be tweaked. I like the way it works but you should lose temperature way faster. There's no need to carry heatpacks at the moment.

Went for a swim out to a boat today and did not even notice a drop in my temp.

Though I also agree that infections hardly seem to occur at all. I don't think a body temp drop should be an auto infection. And looting a recently dead guy would not be either if he weren't already infected before dying. He must be dead for a while before the infection risk from his corpse would take effect.

On a side note: Would be cool if when you die while having an infection from a zombie that a timer would start unless you died from a headshot. And when the timer counts down you get risen into an npc zombie, leaving the gear you had on you behind or some of it on you still.

Think it would be hard to intemperate though with the current system.

[Starkey 5]

My current character got infected a while back, its annoying as hell. My main problem i've found with it is that aside from the annoying cough, it hasn't really affected me in any way. I've learned to play with 6000 blood (avoiding any contact with zombies) and the coughing just makes me jump when im alone in the forrest. Aside from that, its as if i were healthy.

My point is that, i've been ill now for quite a while. I should either ultimately die from it, or fight off the infection and be able to restore my health back to 12k. Especially given that antibiotics are so rare

[amaROenuZ 144]

I personally think infections should manifest and heal off naturally over time. I'm not sure how feasible anything in the thread is though. I'm not suggesting that touching a corpse instantly infects you either, but hanging around a corpse for an hour or so, sticking near the piles at Green Mountain and the Airfield, looting a barracks after shooting down a dozen zombies, those are the situations that I think you should be encouraged to avoid.