Delayed Sickness

[Cipher]

Instead of being instantly sick, I feel that sickness "especially from food" should follow a more normal timeline.  Instead of becoming sick as soon as you eat, it should hit right when you are making that climb up TWM in the middle of a blizzard. Currently if I have some items that I think may make me sick, I will wait to eat them until I know I can wait out the effects.  It would add more realism and uncertainty to the game if we didn't know something made us sick, and it may make us rethink that can of 25% sardines you have left over in your stash.   

Here are some examples of food poisoning timelines; (Courtesy of the Mayoclinic.org)

Campylobacter  - 2 to 5 days -  From Meat and poultry. Contamination occurs during processing if animal feces contact meat surfaces. Other sources include unpasteurized milk and contaminated water.

Clostridium botulinum -12 to 72 hours - From Home-canned foods with low acidity, improperly canned commercial foods, smoked or salted fish. Escherichia coli (E. coli) O157:H7 - 1 to 8 days - From Beef contaminated with feces during slaughter. Spread mainly by undercooked ground beef. Other sources include unpasteurized milk and apple cider, alfalfa sprouts, and contaminated water.

[LucidFugue]

I like this idea, but it would need to be signalled properly so players were aware of the cause of the sickness. I can imagine a player randomly getting hit by an illness would be confused about the cause in this instance. 

[SteveP]

3 minutes ago, LucidFugue said:

I like this idea, but it would need to be signalled properly so players were aware of the cause of the sickness. I can imagine a player randomly getting hit by an illness would be confused about the cause in this instance. 

That is the entire point of the suggestion; as IRL you wouldn't know for certain and the effects would strike later at an inconvenient time.

[LucidFugue]

I'm coming from the perspective of avoiding negative player experiences where there is an endless stream of discussion topics asking what causes random illnesses. 

I'm not saying it's signposted that you are going to get ill (which would defeat the purpose). I'm saying that, once the condition sets in, the player is given enough information to reasonably deduce where they made a poor survival choice. 

[SteveP]

19 minutes ago, LucidFugue said:

I'm coming from the perspective of avoiding negative player experiences where there is an endless stream of discussion topics asking what causes random illnesses. 

I'm not saying it's signposted that you are going to get ill (which would defeat the purpose). I'm saying that, once the condition sets in, the player is given enough information to reasonably deduce where they made a poor survival choice. 

The point is that you could not know with absolute certainty. As in real life, you would have to deduce it. This makes the game harder and more challenging and less like a cake walk in the woods! Not every suggestion is about making the game easier to win; many desire challenge and more challenge. Make sense?

[LucidFugue]

And I'm not saying we give people absolute certainty. I'm just saying something like:

Stomach gurgle sound. Vocalisation - "I think something I ate was rotten" / "Ugh, whatever I that was, it isn't agreeing with me". Alert indicator - new condition "Food poisoning"

So when it hits, players have a pretty solid idea of what they have done that has led to this situation, and can learn from it. I just expressed a concern than without proper care, it could come off seeming like an arbitrary ailment. 

[SteveP]

ok

[Dirmagnos]

Most of those mentioned are caused by improperly cooked/stored foods. So would only apply to raw meat on some occasions.

Irl it is fairly easy to deduce how edible food it, in game its not.

[cekivi]

I like this idea overall. As long as it's communicated clearly (as the OP mentioned).