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Diseases

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ZeroPants

Radio Bob Approved
Events Lead
Joined
Dec 25, 2020
Messages
727
Suggestion: Diseases

Summary: A system that allows players to contract communicable and non-communicable diseases depending on how they interact with the world.

Diseases:

Players would be able to contract different diseases and illnesses, these different diseases would have different effects as well as different ways of spreading.

Non-communicable diseases:

Once contracted, these diseases won't spread to other people.

Poisoning - This could be caught by consuming spoiled food or unfiltered water. The disease would reduce your strength and agility by three points, it would also give you a blurry screen effect.

Infection - This could be caught should you not disinfect your wounds, it reduces all stats by three points

Communicable diseases:

These diseases are able to spread from person to person, should you get too close to an infected individual without wearing protective equipment, you risk getting infected.

(Because the communicable disease could easily get out of control from an OOC perspective, staff would have to be the ones to introduce the disease into the population.)

Common cold - A very minor disease that reduces strength and agility by one, this disease would have small but noticeable screen effects, like a very light motion blur.

CFLU - A powerful disease originating from Xen that reduces all stats by three points, this disease would give you a dark-greenish vision. This disease would likely only be used in event situations due to how strong it is.

Combatting diseases:

Players would have ways of treating and preventing diseases, the CMU would have a major role in dealing with diseases, but if you arent able to go to the CMU for one reason or another, someone with a high enough medical skill will be able to craft cures and treatments

Vaccines: A permanent cure for diseases like the common cold and CFLU. Because of how useful something like this would be, it would be difficult to craft, requiring a 50 in medicine as well as a few rare crafting ingredients (like nosos hearts) to create. The CMU wouldn't be stocked with vaccines, the CMU staff would need to make them on their own.

Cures: A one-time cure for a disease, these can be crafted with a high enough medicine skill or by going to the CMU.

Protective equipment:

Wearing a hazmat suit can keep you safe from all communicable diseases, while wearing face masks would only reduce your chances of catching diseases.

Disease detection:

Similar to how you can tell what armband someone is wearing, you would be able to see if someone is sick, different diseases could have different descriptions, such as:

Poisoning: “They look rather pale.”
Infection: “They smell awful.” (infected wounds tend to smell bad)
Cold: “They look sick.”
CFLU: “Their skin is covered with hives.”

These are very basic descriptions and would likely need to be fleshed out a bit better.

Misc:

To allow for the poisoning disease, players would need to be able to drink unfiltered water, players would also need to be able to get nutrition from spoiled food at the risk of getting sick, currently eating spoiled food doesn't restore hunger at all.

Making dehydrating and starving lethal could make eating spoiled food and drinking dirty water worthwhile.

Pros and cons for implementing this suggestion:

Pros:


+Adds a good deal of realism to the server.
+Gives the CMU more to do other than treating wounds.
+Allows for server-wide pandemic events.

Cons:

-It would be a pain to script and implement.
-Communicable diseases could get out of control and serious diseases like the CFLU could be a daily occurrence if not treated carefully (like the corrupted blood incident in WoW).
-It would add even more difficulties for rebel/slum characters, having to deal with infected wounds might be realistic, but it isn't really fun.



I have no idea how to do any sort of scripting with Helix or Gmod, but even I am able to see that something as massive as this would be a huge undertaking, I completely understand if this suggestion is denied for that reason.
 
Cures: A one-time cure for a disease, these can be crafted with a high enough medicine skill or by going to the CMU.
It's been said before that Humanity has never really, "Cured" any disease, Safe for maybe Polio and even that wasn't "Cured" it was stamped out through decades of vaccinations. Humanity doesn't have that time whilst under the combine, Onboard with everything but cures.
 
It's been said before that Humanity has never really, "Cured" any disease, Safe for maybe Polio and even that wasn't "Cured" it was stamped out through decades of vaccinations. Humanity doesn't have that time whilst under the combine, Onboard with everything but cures.
Cure wasn't the correct word, Treatment would be more fitting.

players could craft medicines that would remove the disease, but it wouldn't stop them from catching it again in the future.
 
Will there be diseases only xenians/vorts can catch?
It would require much more work, I would assume they would just be able to catch the same diseases humans can unless the devs want to do more work for it
 
I just really want to see a city-wide pandemic event where everyone that is infected is sent to the slums while a cure is worked on, loyalists wouldn't be exempt from being sent there
 
I think it would be better if the majority of these diseases would have no pronounceable effects upon gameplay, being strictly relegated to RP purposes. This might also lighten the load on its scripting as well.
 
I just really want to see a city-wide pandemic event where everyone that is infected is sent to the slums while a cure is worked on, loyalists wouldn't be exempt from being sent there
OTA Reenact the walking dead scene where they murder everyone in the hospital and a hunter chopper air strikes it. destroying the power.
 
I think it would be better if the majority of these diseases would have no pronounceable effects upon gameplay, being strictly relegated to RP purposes. This might also lighten the load on its scripting as well.
I suppose the diseases could only give you annoying screen effects, but that could lead to not taking the diseases as seriously as they should, an infected wound is a really bad thing, being just as physically capable as everyone else while also having a badly infected wound would be unrealistic.

The screen effects let players know if they are infected and they make the disease annoying to have, the stat debuffs make you weaker, you won't be able to run as fast or deal much damage while you are suffering from food poisoning
 
Now I'll have to worry about my character getting aids besides keeping him away from danger. 🧐
 
There was a system like this on Undetermined Gaming and it was legitimately one of the coolest things on the server. Few criticisms on the implementation but I think a disease system could be very cool:

Permanent Vaccine solutions turn any disease system into a bit of a joke mechanic that does not aid the gameplay very much. I'd suggest instead making the vaccines a temporary preventative solution that wears off after a while (I had 3-6 weeks in mind. Element of randomness and you would not be notified when the vaccine has worn off). Some diseases will not have a vaccine, such as the common cold. (Vaccines should be available for the more dangerous/negatively impactful diseases, and not be available for minor ones)

The disease list is lacking a bit (and the xen disease seems like a poorly developed idea). The purpose of the disease system is to make people act more cleanly ICly and to produce a bit more CMU RP, the concept of an event xen disease would be cool as an event maybe but should not be a primary consideration of a disease system as the threat of the disease does not impact on the CMU's treatment plan

Alternate suggestion:
You have a constant but low chance to contract a disease from a large cast of diseases/illnesses based on real diseases/illnesses. These would NOT be visible with an armband-esque mechanic. Instead, the player themselves is prompted with messages such as "You feel [symptons]" and maybe some basic forced /me's of coughing (though this should be kept to a minimum because forced /me's can be very frustrating). In order to get cured, you'd need to go to the CMU and tell them your symptoms, and then they would have to give you the appropriate treatments depending on the disease. Once again, you would not get notified immediately that the disease is gone, just the symptoms stopping and regaining your stats in 30 minutes after the treatment is administered.
Certain actions increase this constant low chance of contracting a disease, such as:

Being around people with the disease
Being in "dirty areas" (dirty areas will be marked as you enter them similar to spore regions)
Being submerged in dirty water (once again, marked similar to a spore zone. I think you could get away with all water being considered dirty since there's not really an instance of clean water on the map to my knowledge)

Diseases should be tuned so that they never go out of control unless players act stupidly, meaning the need for admins to introduce infectious diseases would not be necessary. Furthermore, different diseases will be impacted differently but different factors. EG, being submerged in water may make your chances of getting cholera much higher, but your chances of getting a common cold may not be impacted too significantly.
 
A disease system like this is something that I've been wanting on the server for quite some time, but like you said this is a pain of work even when not trying to incorporate in-depth systems, but I'm thinking that these diseases should start to grow like the viruses but instead of "infected" being replaced with "affected" with the progression of the viruses (the progression of the disease).

So the disease starts as the infected state and transitions to the affected state, which has a progression of stages that will give you specific perks, and then progresses to the diseased state where you gradually get overwhelmed and most likely die, so you have no other option but to either get a vaccine, have your character go for the right treatment, or go gamble your life based on chance.

This way people should be able to have more progression, and it's just the right amount of challenge that should be added Imo, so in theory, it could be used to add to the feeling of a city-state during times of suppression/punishment, but either way, I feel it is important that in a city-state all citizens would have to be well fed, watered and cared for. People who did not do their job well would soon fall victim to hunger, thirst, and disease, bringing back the necessity to eat and drink in order to be fit enough to protect oneself biologically.

But again, I think it is a nice touch if it were to be implemented so that it would bring some meaning into the setting (HL2RP) that can make it more "real", especially in a setting that is already somewhat "lossy", because loss is part of this setting since you should not always be the winner :angrycop: screw you rebels
 
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There was a system like this on Undetermined Gaming and it was legitimately one of the coolest things on the server. Few criticisms on the implementation but I think a disease system could be very cool:

Permanent Vaccine solutions turn any disease system into a bit of a joke mechanic that does not aid the gameplay very much. I'd suggest instead making the vaccines a temporary preventative solution that wears off after a while (I had 3-6 weeks in mind. Element of randomness and you would not be notified when the vaccine has worn off). Some diseases will not have a vaccine, such as the common cold. (Vaccines should be available for the more dangerous/negatively impactful diseases, and not be available for minor ones)

The disease list is lacking a bit (and the xen disease seems like a poorly developed idea). The purpose of the disease system is to make people act more cleanly ICly and to produce a bit more CMU RP, the concept of an event xen disease would be cool as an event maybe but should not be a primary consideration of a disease system as the threat of the disease does not impact on the CMU's treatment plan

Alternate suggestion:
You have a constant but low chance to contract a disease from a large cast of diseases/illnesses based on real diseases/illnesses. These would NOT be visible with an armband-esque mechanic. Instead, the player themselves is prompted with messages such as "You feel [symptons]" and maybe some basic forced /me's of coughing (though this should be kept to a minimum because forced /me's can be very frustrating). In order to get cured, you'd need to go to the CMU and tell them your symptoms, and then they would have to give you the appropriate treatments depending on the disease. Once again, you would not get notified immediately that the disease is gone, just the symptoms stopping and regaining your stats in 30 minutes after the treatment is administered.
Certain actions increase this constant low chance of contracting a disease, such as:

Being around people with the disease
Being in "dirty areas" (dirty areas will be marked as you enter them similar to spore regions)
Being submerged in dirty water (once again, marked similar to a spore zone. I think you could get away with all water being considered dirty since there's not really an instance of clean water on the map to my knowledge)

Diseases should be tuned so that they never go out of control unless players act stupidly, meaning the need for admins to introduce infectious diseases would not be necessary. Furthermore, different diseases will be impacted differently but different factors. EG, being submerged in water may make your chances of getting cholera much higher, but your chances of getting a common cold may not be impacted too significantly.
I completely agree, I'll rewrite the suggestion in a moment with this in mind,

no just RP it ok?
but nobody does, having actual systems in place would encourage people to roleplay it, the only disease people actually roleplay is spore sickness

A disease system like this is something that I've been wanting on the server for quite some time, but like you said this is a pain of work even when not trying to incorporate in-depth systems, but I'm thinking that these diseases should start to grow like the viruses but instead of "infected" being replaced with "affected" with the progression of the viruses (the progression of the disease).

So the disease starts as the infected state and transitions to the affected state, which has a progression of stages that will give you specific perks, and then progresses to the diseased state where you gradually get overwhelmed and most likely die, so you have no other option but to either get a vaccine, have your character go for the right treatment, or go gamble your life based on chance.

This way people should be able to have more progression, and it's just the right amount of challenge that should be added Imo, so in theory, it could be used to add to the feeling of a city-state during times of suppression/punishment, but either way, I feel it is important that in a city-state all citizens would have to be well fed, watered and cared for. People who did not do their job well would soon fall victim to hunger, thirst, and disease, bringing back the necessity to eat and drink in order to be fit enough to protect oneself biologically.

But again, I think it is a nice touch if it were to be implemented so that it would bring some meaning into the setting (HL2RP) that can make it more "real", especially in a setting that is already somewhat "lossy", because loss is part of this setting since you should not always be the winner :angrycop: screw you rebels
HL2 RP isn't about being the main character of the story, it's about having an everyday life in the HL2 setting, I think having a realistic survival system would help make the struggle of living away from the Combine's rule would be great for RP.

In the city you get everything you need as long as you collaborate, free food, free medical care, and cheap housing, but in the slums and outlands, you need to survive on your own.
 
This is great all around, and it will aid the server a lot in taking medical roleplay more seriously, but I see one major issue.

(In my experience) The two parties more candidate to "ignore" medical effects are the Civil Protection and rebel/resistance sided characters (the former because of general mingery, but the latter considerably more, not only because of mingery but unhealthy environment + no access to CMU).

Now, here is the problem:
If we make the solutions to these diseases determinated scripts, the CP have "free script dispensing" (although monitored obv) and the rebel side is notorious for scripthoarding beyond comprehension anyway. What guarantees people use the scripts with the proper roleplay these diseases intend to bring, instead of having a "Bandage 2.0" where people just spam these things with little care in the world until the 'stats' (HP, etc.) are back to normal?

We *could* make it "grantable and removable" by admins, but that would put even more pressure in an already saturated field of work. We *could* give 'medical flags' to characters so they can remove them, I guess, but... Yea.

Ya see, the idea is fantastic 100% and I want it implemented, but the problem is and always will be the fact a lot people don't know how to roleplay, or rather, on second thought, know how to roleplay but ignore it when it's not convenient for them. No matter the depth of systems we add it'll always come down to trying to remedy that. Which is why I partly agree with Kappalist's "just RP it" sentiment.

If such is the case then the only real damned by this system will be the ones trying to actually roleplay properly. But hell, I'm not too against that either. At least a way to log more 'permanent' injuries would work wonders for CMU and medical units; God knows I have done so many surgeries where the guy just goes back to parkouring literally 10 minutes later...
 
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