Illness Engine Proposal

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Kinaed
Posts: 1984
Joined: Wed Jan 05, 2011 8:54 pm
Discord Handle: ParaVox3#7579

Sat Feb 13, 2016 8:12 am

To give doctors and players something more to RP about, would it be worth setting it so that people get random, minor illnesses? A common cold, a rash, etc? These could be minor statuses that have little in-game affects, but if you RP with a doctor for 10 minutes, they can be alleviated, otherwise they'll pass on their own after a few OOC days?

Would you hate your character occasionally getting a random, minor illness?

BlackSoul566
Posts: 116
Joined: Sat Aug 22, 2015 10:17 am

Sat Feb 13, 2016 12:08 pm

Yes! So, here's my additional comments on that. :P

If you go walking around in a marsh, you increase your chances of getting things like trench foot or other foot related injuries. If you are wet, and it's cold, you significantly increase your chances to get sick from the cold. Basically, make this a bit more weather/environment related. Maybe different types of sicknesses, but also different stages of certain sicknesses. If you are already sick, and you get wet again and start walking around in the snow, you are just going to get sicker. If you already have a rash from walking around in a swamp, your feet are just going to get worse. Maybe certain other debuffs come from these sicknesses. So if you walk around with your feet all rashed up and sick, you are going to hurt. It hurts your feet, it slows you down and takes more of your energy. If you have the common cold, you randomly cough and sneeze much more commonly.

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Pixie
Posts: 255
Joined: Tue Sep 30, 2014 1:55 pm
Location: Sol System

Sat Feb 13, 2016 2:01 pm

I love it in concept. It would be great for immersion to know you have a cold, and the stuff BlackSoul posted as a follow-up is complex in a beautifully realistic way. Only worry: Could we make sure you can still walk around and carry out usual RP while ill? So illnesses are status affects rather than mechanical penalties?

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Another
Posts: 52
Joined: Thu Aug 11, 2011 3:19 pm

Sat Feb 13, 2016 5:09 pm

Can Constitution play a part in resisting these effects? Just for that extra little bit of complexity and realism?

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Kinaed
Posts: 1984
Joined: Wed Jan 05, 2011 8:54 pm
Discord Handle: ParaVox3#7579

Sat Feb 13, 2016 8:33 pm

Happy for constitution to play into resisting such things - and yes, I'm thinking that any affects would be minor like most real life illnesses where you just visit a doctor and get a tonic, then walk away (eg, no hospital stays or serious illnesses where you can't RP).

I also think a given player shouldn't see anything more common than perhaps once an OOC month.

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Rabek
Posts: 185
Joined: Thu Jan 20, 2011 4:48 pm

Sun Feb 14, 2016 8:34 pm

I'd prefer to keep that sort of thing in the domain of pvents, otherwise illness may just become a little too routine.

Alternately, give a few coded things for Physicians to do which give minor stat or XP gain boosts, like bleedings, to encourage regular visits without requiring regular sickness.

Applesauce
Posts: 291
Joined: Sat Feb 02, 2013 11:13 pm

Sun Feb 14, 2016 8:40 pm

+1 for sure.

Plus it would give a point to the humoral tea recipes =) How about something like:

- colds: too Phlegmatic, treatment is Sanguine tea
- fevers: too Sanguine, treatment is the Phlegmatic tea
- indigestion or diarrhea (whee!): too Choleric, treatment is Melancholic tea
- depression or general malaise: too Melancholic, treatment is Choleric tea

Untreated maybe they last for 48 RL hours after first symptoms, treated 24 hours from first symptoms (or disappear immediately if you're already past that)? I don't think one or two RL days is too long to deal with a sneeze, especially if it's a limited number of strikes like Kinaed's suggesting.

Edit: For anyone who is about to jump on me for suggesting diarrhea be a thing, remember that you would not have to literally RP shitting or anything, in fact I think there's only one or two privies in the whole game. You can just say you have an upset stomach or whatever.

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Inertia
Posts: 181
Joined: Sun Feb 17, 2013 9:24 pm

Sun Feb 14, 2016 9:06 pm

I'm happy to see this come up again! I think when it's been suggested in the past, people were generally against it but I was and still am all for it.

I agree that nothing coded and likely to catch someone at random should be very serious. Things that are minor enough to use for an RP hook, or that can be safely ignored or treated with minimal fuss if you're just not feeling that hook would be best. BUT, I'd also want to leave open the possibility of new major diseases in the future, if and when they make sense for plots and the like. The Golden Lung plague stuff was pretty cool but it would definitely get old if we had a new contagious disease every month.

I also love the idea of utilizing more of the concoctions that already exist, giving them value beyond RP tools. The more optional something is, the less exposure it tends to get in game and I think we really miss out on a lot of interesting opportunities (which is extra sad when you think about the fact that people put time and effort into designing those things).

So...

I'm on board for coded minor illnesses.
I'd love it if they used existing products wherever possible as part of their cures.
I trust if this goes in that we can request adjustments for the frequency with which illness strikes if it proves to be too excessive.
---Once potentially per OOC month actually sounds quick to me even though ICly it's a season and seasonal illness make a lot of sense. But just like Yule seems to happen ALL THE TIME, it may be too quick to roll around again in play.
I like the idea of constitution potentially influencing a character's susceptibility to illness.
I like the idea of the Health metric influencing the likelihood of a character catching something, too, as a way to get more than one Guild invested in keeping that metric high.

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Jules
Posts: 45
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2014 8:25 pm

Sun Feb 14, 2016 10:36 pm

I'm all for herbalists and doctors feeling useful and getting their time to shine, but I'm not really fond of any coded random system that forces me to react. Especially repetitive ones.

If something like this goes in, however, I like the stuff suggested by Inertia. I'd also like to see preventive measures for contraction and contagion, if possible (e.g. regular bathing, mineral baths, eating a hearty meal, drinking a hot tea), as well as a cooldown representing an active immunity against whatever illness was just overcome, so that people aren't forced to RP being sick with the same thing twice in a row, thrice in a row, etc. That could get old really fast. I'd also prefer that any illnesses do not spam me or the room with constant sneezing or coughing. Finally, I'd like the option for illnesses to go away on their own (though remain contagious or continue to reduce stats in a minor way while active).
-- player of Jules and others

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Kinaed
Posts: 1984
Joined: Wed Jan 05, 2011 8:54 pm
Discord Handle: ParaVox3#7579

Sun Jun 12, 2016 2:40 am

We've got city metrics coming in, and with this, we'll need some illnesses and diseases. Can people make suggestions here of what they'd like to see, how the diseases will work, etc?

We're looking for major and minor illnesses.

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