Infection

[Lokuul]

So, you just got hit with a rusted piece of junk, and nothing happens? Not so fast there lad! You just got thrown into the Infection game! Now, do you get tetanus or some other kind of disease, or maybe nothing at all? The possibilities and variables are endless, and you'll only know after time.

[Captain Deathbeard]

Yes but are any of them actually fun? what would it entail? Just having a tetanus jab after every battle?

[1337]

the only one I see would be fun, is some kind of poisoned state you would get after fighting against a weapon with poison (adds to realism since shinobi used them before).
I can see myself getting poisoned and having to run to the nearest city before it's to late, while my compagnions fight for my escape

ps: for playability you can only get poisoned if you get slashed at a lot or something similar

[methodology]

Having a disease/poison system could be pretty fun.

it could be a nice mechanic to make bed rest and eating/drinking be more valuable than just meeting a need. IE someone that's well rested and maybe well nutritioned is much less likely to come down with a disease or become infected after battle or can fight poisoning better. Also could make bandaging up all wounds very important instead of just heading back to town and resting. Having the player to make sure to bring a dose or two of cure disease/poison items with them shouldn't be too much of a bother either and possibly making them expensive/rare and would make the doctor even more useful or make them a nice loot find.

It's also fun as a mechanic since you can apply it towards enemies, maybe towards the future you could disease their wells during a siege.

[Lokuul]

Yes but are any of them actually fun? what would it entail? Just having a tetanus jab after every battle?

No, there would be a chance, and usually only with rusty weapons, that you could become infected with a variety of disease, ranging from Tetanus, which would require medical attention, to something more basic. It would make medical training near essential and have it be more interesting along the lines of a food system (Need citrus to combat scurvy) and water (I laugh like a retard watching my guys race in the desert without water). No, there would be no tetanus jab after EVERY battle, maybe some, and since this is a sorta post apocalyptic game, you would have to either pay out the arse for medicine, scavenge a ruin or some dead people or, and this could be a new skill, find some herbs in the desert to fix it (with talk of a water and food system, it would make sense for there to be oasis, which would have animals nearby, plants, and water. Which could lead to maps to chart ways there and et cetra). Of course, it would make medical research for a town perfect too. After all, it would suck pretty bad to have 2/3 of the population get wiped out by cholera from a well, or to get all of your livestock destroyed by disease of the animal variety. With severing of limbs, you could (and would) get an infection if you don't disinfect it and bandage it (cauterization would be perfect). Also, as the fellow above me stated, poison would be great too. Make, and take, poison from blades. Also, if sieges are added, scale the walls at night and place some poison or disease in the well, their food supplies, and watch them die. Fun, yes?

[Lorenzo666]

Maybe, as a basic disinfectant you could use alcohol, which might be used as a very basic painkiller aswell but suffering some minus to stats, eg A bottle of Vodka could be used to disinfect a wound or relieve the character of a small amount of pain for 5 minutes while lowering their defense skill by 5%

thoughts?

[Barooney]

Maybe, as a basic disinfectant you could use alcohol, which might be used as a very basic painkiller aswell but suffering some minus to stats, eg A bottle of Vodka could be used to disinfect a wound or relieve the character of a small amount of pain for 5 minutes while lowering their defense skill by 5%

thoughts?

I like all of these ideas but I'm quoting your post because a bottle of vodka shouldn't lower the character's defense skill in my opinion.

Maybe their dexterity and Attack skill by 5% or a harsh -20(20 off of both of these skills) and if/when Perception or battle awareness is implemented, that could suffer a massive cut to it(40% or -50, depends on whichever is higher).

**EDIT** I forgot if it is called Attack chance or Attack skill(Haven't played in some time) but because Attack skill seems like the one which rises above 1 only if hacker/katana/heavy/chopper skills are all above 1 then Attack chance should drop by 5% or 20 points depending on what is higher.

[Lorenzo666]

I like all of these ideas but I'm quoting your post because a bottle of vodka shouldn't lower the character's defense skill in my opinion.

I thought maybe the defense skill would be lowered because alcohol slows your reaction time, making it harder to block an attack and making it easier for your opponents to block your blows.

Jus' Sayin'

[OzyTheSage]

Keep in mind that you're not downing mugs of the stuff, you're using it like you would use hydrogen peroxide. (Unless you think drinking that is a good idea. A side note: it's not).

I believe alcohol does get absorbed through the skin (and through your tongue and the flesh in your mouth, what fun) but as long as you aren't pouring it all over yourself and guzzling it it shouldn't be making you drunk. You only use it to disinfect the wound before you apply a bandage.

[Lokuul]

Keep in mind that you're not downing mugs of the stuff, you're using it like you would use hydrogen peroxide. (Unless you think drinking that is a good idea. A side note: it's not).

I believe alcohol does get absorbed through the skin (and through your tongue and the flesh in your mouth, what fun) but as long as you aren't pouring it all over yourself and guzzling it it shouldn't be making you drunk. You only use it to disinfect the wound before you apply a bandage.

Exactly what I was thinking.

[Felklaw]

Or.....
Failure to treat an infection could lead to having to amputate the limb, thereby resulting in having to purchase an artificial one (probably with a 10%-20% surcharge because of the damage caused by the infection)

[zentermi]

Seems like something best left in the hands of modders.

Adding more behavior and condition flags before the game is effectively done might bog down all the other processing in the game.

Infection or disease only really seem viable as a cumulative condition. If that's the case, then only player characters could really be subject to it, or there would have to be additional condition tracking for potentially thousands of NPCs. The CPU and memory hits could be substantial.

Or they could be nothing. I have no idea. I'm just throwing in my 2 cents.

[henkalv]

Posions sounds like a good idea, but when it comes to diseases I would rather think that they should

1) strike randomly, possibly through contact with other sick individuals in towns. Though I imagine that it would be quite hard to balance and it would also be a pain for the player.
2) be a result of failure to treat a wound

because a random chance to instantly get an disease when hit would not actually make that much sense when you treat the wound afterwards, while if you let it fester it might kill you.

[Lokuul]

Posions sounds like a good idea, but when it comes to diseases I would rather think that they should

1) strike randomly, possibly through contact with other sick individuals in towns. Though I imagine that it would be quite hard to balance and it would also be a pain for the player.
2) be a result of failure to treat a wound

because a random chance to instantly get an disease when hit would not actually make that much sense when you treat the wound afterwards, while if you let it fester it might kill you.

I must not have been clear on that then. Thank you for showing me this, I will make changes accordingly.