Additional afflictions

[Wastelander]

Howdy, space people, rough riders, survivors and other forum denizens 

Because I clearly have too much time on my hands between work and my bachelor's thesis and other stuff, I thought - for your entertainment, enjoyment and discussion - of some additonal afflictions that may or may not be beneficial (that is for you to discuss because I'm not doing all work alone) to gameplay. So, without further ado or needlessly convoluting this matter any further, off we go!

• Blisters
  • Cause: Walking an extended period with socks of below 50% condition
  • Effect: Slightly reduced walking speed, low infection risk
  • Treatment: Apply hunting knife, sewing kit, hook or tackle, apply antiseptic. Heals on it's own over the course of a week.
• Constipation
  • Cause: Eating large weights of food in a short period of time
  • Effect: Pain, workspeed and walking speed debuff
  • Treatment: Liberal application of tea and other liquids, heals on it's own after 24 hours
• Shivering
  • Cause: Cold temperatures
  • Effect: Workspeed debuff, higher calorie loss, higher chance of failure when starting fires or mending
  • Treatment: Warm up
• Well-fed
  • Cause: Maintain a 1800+ calorie reserve for more than 5 hours
  • Effect: Workspeed buff
  • Ends: When going hungry again
• Predator smell
  • Cause: Recently butchered a wolf or bear carcass. Works only once per carcass for balancing.
  • Effect: Chance to scare wolves away
  • Ends: ~4 hours after butchering

[ArcherAC3]

Uh, I don't think you should use the Hunting Knife or sewing kit to pop the blisters unless it's getting infected or something. Maybe it can become dirty or go worse, forcing you to pop it, but if you do so (by having it torn up) you'll have to apply the antiseptics and bandage - Also, it would be awesome if we had a medical system like in Metal Gear 3, then you'd have to apply the medical items in the correct order and would have a more complex healing system.

[Wastelander]

Whether or not to open up blisters seems to be the one thing nobody seems to agree on - I usually don't do it IRL, but then again, when I already have blisters I try to refrain from walking too much. My mother always told me to open them, my father told me the opposite and they'd switch opinions every few years, so I don't really know what to believe - popping them may make walking easier I suppose since the pressure's gone.

Totally forgot about the bandage though, good point @ArcherAC3!

I'm not familiar with the Metal Gear series (I think I just signed my own death warrant by saying this), how exactly does the medical system there work and what could be 'borrow' from it?

[Muk_Pile]

+1 to Blisters (though I think it should go away on it's own once you repair your socks)

+1 to Predator Smell

 

I made a similar thread back about a year ago when I was a new guy on the forums.  Here's a condensed version of my own list of ailments:

1. Frostnip
   • Mild affliction that occurs when your extremities get so cold from poor blood circulation that the skin tissue freezes.
   • Occurs in game when you spend more than 30 minutes outside when the temperature is below freezing
   • After 30 minutes, when severity meter fills to 100%, Frostbite sets in
   • Equipping clothing delays when you will contract Frostnip (e.g. boots, socks, scarfs, gloves)
2. Frostbite
   • Severe affliction that occurs when your extremities get so cold from poor blood circulation that they are thoroughly frozen
   • Every 16 minutes, when the severity meter increases by 49%, the chance of developing with gangrene doubles
   • Cured if you spend 4 hours with your felt temperature* above 0 degrees Celsius or if you cut off the frostbitten extremity
3. Gangrene
   • Life-threating affliction that occurs when the tissues within your extremities have been severely damaged and have begun to die off, providing a site for infections to develop and enter your body
   • Occurs only when frostbite has developed
   • Contraction is based upon random chance, which starts out at 1% when frostbite is first contracted and maxes out at 4%
   • Drains your condition by 1% every 3 minutes, so will die within the next 5 hours
   • Once contracted, can only be cured by cutting off afflicted extremity, which will further drain your current health and permanently lowers your condition

If you found this interesting, check out the thread I posted these ailments on here: "More Ailments".

[Wastelander]

Very solid suggestions @Muk_Pile, glad to have you here. Gangrene sounds pretty OP at first, but the relatively low chances of contracting it make it more balanced, very nice. I'll also have to agree to Pats post in your thread - the idea of self-amputation is very "chilling" indeed, as he so eloquently put it  I am unsure how that would work with the game's rating (although I do believe that religiously holding on to the T-rating may, in fact, hurt game development to a more realistic and gritty feel, but that's just my opinion), but I'd like to see that implemented nonetheless, mostly because it gives us permanent penalties for messing up, just as it would in real life. 

[Wormer]

How about walking without boots at all? or without socks? This may cause blisters or corn too. This will treat on it's own if you wear boots and good socks of course. I wish there were degrees of an affliction, so that effects are negligible when it starts but then the disease can develop to a level when some active treatment is required.

Also I can't understand why there isn't such a thing like basic flu and pneumonia.

• Flu
  • Cause: Cold temperatures, exposure to non-blocked wind etc.
  • Effect: Higher fatigue loss, reduced max weight, can develop into pneumonia.
  • Treatment: Heals on it's own when you keep yourself warm (>10% cold meter or so) for 24 hours.
• Pneumonia
  • Cause: Deteriorated flu that wasn't treated in time.
  • Effect: Very high fatigue loss and small health loss, maximum health reduced to 40%, reduced walking speed and max weight.
  • Treatment: Apply antibiotics daily for period of 7 days, keep yourself warm (>60% cold meter) for the period, doesn't expose yourself for the unblocked wind.
  • Note: Health doesn't degrade when active treatment is being applied (all treatment conditions met).

[Wastelander]

1 minute ago, Wormer said:

How about walking without boots at all? or without socks? This may cause blisters or corn too. This will treat on it's own if you wear boots and good socks of course. I wish there were degrees of an affliction, so that effects are negligible when it starts but then the disease can develop to a level when some active treatment is required.

Also I can't understand why there isn't such a thing like basic flu and pneumonia.

• Flu
  • Cause: Cold temperatures, exposure to non-blocked wind etc.
  • Effect: Higher fatigue loss, reduced max weight, can develop into pneumonia.
  • Treatment: Heals on it's own when you keep yourself warm (>10% cold meter or so) for 24 hours.
• Pneumonia
  • Cause: Deteriorated flu that wasn't treated in time.
  • Effect: Very high fatigue loss and small health loss, maximum health reduced to 40%, reduced walking speed and max weight.
  • Treatment: Apply antibiotics daily for period of 7 days, keep yourself warm (>60% cold meter) for the period, doesn't expose yourself for the unblocked wind.
  • Note: Health doesn't degrade when active treatment is being applied (all treatment conditions met).

Welcome to the forums!

Flu and pneunomia are caused by viruses that need a host. Since we're pretty much the only person alive in the sandbox, there's no way of contracting those (flu strains develop in warmer parts of the earth). However, once NPCs and story mode go live, I could see diseases be a very real concern that makes you think twice about talking to people!

[Wormer]

Thanks, @Wastelander! Well, maybe we can name it cold then. Also, viruses often pass from animals to humans, they live within extreme cold temperatures and in the depth of an ocean. It's not solely human related illness, animals and birds suffer too.

I suggest two degrades of this illness:

• Flu (benign form)
  • Cause: Cold temperatures, exposure to non-blocked wind etc.
  • Effect: None, except that it can develop further.
  • Treatment: Heals on it's own when you keep yourself warm (>10% cold meter or so) for 24 hours.
• Flu (worrying condition)
  • Cause: Cold temperatures, exposure to non-blocked wind etc.
  • Effect: Higher fatigue loss, reduced max weight, can develop into pneumonia.
  • Treatment: Heals on it's own when you keep yourself warm (>30% cold meter or so) for more or less than 3 days. Antibiotics may speed the treatment.

Also, I've seen the frostbite in the developers roadmap.

[Wastelander]

Well, you're not wrong about that - swine flu and bird flu are just two recent examples. Still, cold temperatures and such don't cause the illness, they merely stress your body and weaken your immune system (which could actually be an affliction on its own!), to get infected you need to get into contact with infected humans or animals or at least something they left behind (mucus, sweat, feces etc.). 

[Tbone555]

love all of the ideas in this thread! it'd be awesome to have some more afflictions, i dont think theres enough of them as of now.
though, gotta say... dont cut open your blisters. sure, it heals... but if you just leave them alone and let them go away on their own, then that blister hardens and your feet become tougher for it. thats how you get those feet of concrete that every hiker / outdoorsman dreams of having

[Hotzn]

11 hours ago, Wastelander said:

Howdy, space people, rough riders, survivors and other forum denizens 

Because I clearly have too much time on my hands between work and my bachelor's thesis and other stuff, I thought - for your entertainment, enjoyment and discussion - of some additonal afflictions that may or may not be beneficial (that is for you to discuss because I'm not doing all work alone) to gameplay. So, without further ado or needlessly convoluting this matter any further, off we go!

• Blisters
  • Cause: Walking an extended period with socks of below 50% condition
  • Effect: Slightly reduced walking speed, low infection risk
  • Treatment: Apply hunting knife, sewing kit, hook or tackle, apply antiseptic. Heals on it's own over the course of a week.
• Constipation
  • Cause: Eating large weights of food in a short period of time
  • Effect: Pain, workspeed and walking speed debuff
  • Treatment: Liberal application of tea and other liquids, heals on it's own after 24 hours
• Shivering
  • Cause: Cold temperatures
  • Effect: Workspeed debuff, higher calorie loss, higher chance of failure when starting fires or mending
  • Treatment: Warm up
• Well-fed
  • Cause: Maintain a 1800+ calorie reserve for more than 5 hours
  • Effect: Workspeed buff
  • Ends: When going hungry again
• Predator smell
  • Cause: Recently butchered a wolf or bear carcass. Works only once per carcass for balancing.
  • Effect: Chance to scare wolves away
  • Ends: ~4 hours after butchering

I especially like the blisters (though not the option to apply the knife or hooks to them) and "Predator smell".

[cekivi]

11 hours ago, Wastelander said:

Blisters

• Cause: Walking an extended period with socks of below 50% condition
• Effect: Slightly reduced walking speed, low infection risk
• Treatment: Apply hunting knife, sewing kit, hook or tackle, apply antiseptic. Heals on it's own over the course of a week.

Yeah... don't open blisters with a knife!

While a blister can be very carefully drained with a sterilized needle to reduce swelling and pressure (you stab in through the skin to the side of the blister) cutting the actual blister will only risk infection and impair healing. The Long Dark is not a particularly sterile environment and infected feet could be potentially life threatening. Otherwise blisters and being well fed are both great ideas. I'd prefer frostbite to shivering though since hard work tends to generate enough heat to stop you shivering. Constipation just seems bad (especially since there's no "waste management" otherwise in the game) and it'd be debatable whether predators would be attracted or repelled if you're covered in blood. They'd probably just see you as a walking buffet sign

[EternityTide]

3 hours ago, Wastelander said:

Well, you're not wrong about that - swine flu and bird flu are just two recent examples. Still, cold temperatures and such don't cause the illness, they merely stress your body and weaken your immune system (which could actually be an affliction on its own!), to get infected you need to get into contact with infected humans or animals or at least something they left behind (mucus, sweat, feces etc.). 

Actually, the increased number of cases of flu and cold during the winter is not because of the temperature directly, but because people spend more time inside with other people in a warm, relatively humid environment. A flu virion does not survive intact very long outside of a host, several hours at most, and that's when airborne. Its lifetime on surfaces is dramatically shorter, only a few minutes at most [1]. Some sources state that a rhinovirus (family of viruses that are responsible for the common cold) virion can survive for a maximum of 3 hours outside of a human host, however others claim that they can survive for several days.

Whilst it is true that our immune system is reduced in efficacy during cold snaps, it still functions pretty well, and most of the evidence points to proximity to infected individuals in an enclosed environment being the driving factor behind winter flu and colds. Doesn't stop you from getting bacterial infections such as pneumonia though, as bacteria can be a lot tougher than viruses in external environments.

[Tbone555]

now, i know that the wolfskin coat has a chance to scare off wolves. and theres been times that, after freshly gutting a wolf, i scared off a live wolf simply by walking toward it. like a "i just gutted your brother, youre next." sort of thing. i dunno, maybe it was just a well timed coincidence

[Wastelander]

11 hours ago, cekivi said:

Yeah... don't open blisters with a knife!

While a blister can be very carefully drained with a sterilized needle to reduce swelling and pressure (you stab in through the skin to the side of the blister) cutting the actual blister will only risk infection and impair healing. The Long Dark is not a particularly sterile environment and infected feet could be potentially life threatening. Otherwise blisters and being well fed are both great ideas. I'd prefer frostbite to shivering though since hard work tends to generate enough heat to stop you shivering. Constipation just seems bad (especially since there's no "waste management" otherwise in the game) and it'd be debatable whether predators would be attracted or repelled if you're covered in blood. They'd probably just see you as a walking buffet sign

Well, I agree on the needles (IRL, I use a sewing needle dipped in disinfectant, never had any problems although medical professionals reading this will probably get an aneurysm  ). Good point on the shivering as well, didn't think about that one. 

[Fuarian]

Sicknesses like the common cold, fever and the flu should be there. But the flu is a virus meaning it is difficult to heal overtime and will be annoying and I don't think you can find a vaccine anywhere.

[EternityTide]

11 minutes ago, Fuarian said:

Sicknesses like the common cold, fever and the flu should be there. But the flu is a virus meaning it is difficult to heal overtime and will be annoying and I don't think you can find a vaccine anywhere.

fever can be gotten from a bacterial infection. So that's already covered by the present infection mechanic, perhaps with a little tweaking. 
Virus-borne afflictions like the common cold and flu can only be caught from infected individuals. They don't persist for long periods of time in an environment, they require a host to survive. Unless NPCs are added in the sandbox, there is no rational explanation for catching a cold or flu when you are the sole human being for perhaps hundreds of kilometres.

[nicko]

You would only get a flu / cold if someone else gave it to you. but yeah I guess this is related to story mode that has not been released. ha who knows what story it will be.

[Wastelander]

Just now, nicko said:

You would only get a flu / cold if someone else gave it to you. but yeah I guess this is related to story mode that has not been released.

Yep. Could make some interesting choices once NPCs are live. Do I help this guy? He looks sick, and whatever he's got is contageious. Then again, he can probably teach me some valuable skills. On the other hand, I'm really low on medication. What do I do?

That's the kind of choice I want to be forced to make, and I'll give mad bonus points if there's no right or wrong choice.

[EternityTide]

12 minutes ago, Wastelander said:

Yep. Could make some interesting choices once NPCs are live. Do I help this guy? He looks sick, and whatever he's got is contageious. Then again, he can probably teach me some valuable skills. On the other hand, I'm really low on medication. What do I do?

That's the kind of choice I want to be forced to make, and I'll give mad bonus points if there's no right or wrong choice.

Don the mask and get stuck right in:

[Wastelander]

Well, the live action trailer I saw on youtube did show a gas mask, so maybe we're onto something here  

 

[nicko]

ha is this real?

[Wastelander]

The things I'm going to say now, well, I'm not entirely sure of so take it with a grain of salt:

I think this is a fanmade project. But I'd love it to be not  

[nicko]

yeah nicely done but where is it say fan video? and why is a fan showing a video? hrm

[Wastelander]

Nowhere, and I am - I admit - too lazy to look it up now. But, y'know, just for you, I'm gonna do it

EDIT: Look at the comments, it's fan-made.