Diseases and negative effects

[kalifer]

Diseases and negative effects

Main Reasons for Implementation:

Realism — creating a believable world and atmosphere of true survival

Gameplay Complexity — increasing the challenge level and replayability

Strategic Planning — the need to think about prevention and treatment

Emotional Engagement — enhancing tension and anxiety 

Key Benefits:

Depth of Gameplay — additional layers of strategy and tactics

Mechanic Diversity — expanding content development opportunities

Educational Element — introducing survival basics

Social Aspect — enhancing player interaction

Impact on Balance:

Optimal Difficulty — maintaining an interesting challenge level

Monotony Prevention — variety of game situations

Immersion — enhancing the sense of presence in the game

In conclusion, diseases and negative effects are a critical element of survival games. They not only increase the difficulty of the gameplay but also make it deeper, more interesting, and more believable. These elements create additional strategic opportunities and force players to constantly adapt to changing conditions.

[Teh Pizza Lady]

This post reminds me of a very bad pizza I had once. 0/10 do not recommend.

There is enough stuff in Vintage Story trying to kill you already. I think Diseases would be over the top... especially since the last time we had a disease in Vintage Story it didn't end very well!!

[LadyWYT]

1 hour ago, kalifer said:

Realism — creating a believable world and atmosphere of true survival

Realism does not always equate to fun. There was a disease mod that someone made quite a while ago, that I tried, and while it did add a layer of realism it wasn't really fun to be playing the game properly and then get punished for it by catching an unpreventable disease.

 

1 hour ago, kalifer said:

Gameplay Complexity — increasing the challenge level and replayability

Strategic Planning — the need to think about prevention and treatment

And referencing the disease mod that already tried this...if the player was playing at all optimally, most of the diseases would never even be an issue and the player would actively have to sabotage themselves to catch one. At that point...why bother adding the mechanic? The one exception perhaps was the common cold, which outside of being overtuned as to how frequently one could catch it, was incredibly annoying given you really couldn't stop yourself from catching it, or otherwise have a good way to cure it quickly.

 

1 hour ago, kalifer said:

Emotional Engagement — enhancing tension and anxiety

I don't know about everyone else, but I like to relax when playing videogames. That's not to say I don't enjoy some high stakes, but I don't want to have anxiety problems while trying to have fun.

 

1 hour ago, kalifer said:

Key Benefits:

Depth of Gameplay — additional layers of strategy and tactics

Mechanic Diversity — expanding content development opportunities

Educational Element — introducing survival basics

Social Aspect — enhancing player interaction

Impact on Balance:

Optimal Difficulty — maintaining an interesting challenge level

Monotony Prevention — variety of game situations

Immersion — enhancing the sense of presence in the game

Okay, sure...but how does adding such a mechanic accomplish these goals in a way that will enjoyable for most players? Honestly, I don't see it getting added outside of maybe a token status effect or two implemented similar to how Skyrim does it--that is, a bit difficult to catch but fairly easily remedied. But given the experience I had with the disease mod itself, it's an idea that's really best left as an optional modded challenge, in my opinion.

[Ryilo]

I've already commented on a similar thread and as I said, there is already too much stuff to do in the game, and adding such survival elements would be a detriment to the game.

In the case of diseases / getting hurt: do we let the player heal them at the start of the game, or is he doomed if he hasn't advanced in tech?

In both cases it's no fun: If it's trivial to cure the disease/wound, then it's just an annoyance, if not, what is the player supposed to do, start a new world?

Some players already think that Homo-sapiens mode or Wilderness survival mode are too hard.

Luckily Vintage Story is not just a survival game, it's a block game with some "realistic" (or "believable") elements. It has a more strict advancement path unlike the other block game, so it gives more satisfaction when a task is completed. It's fun, can be difficult, and engaging.

[kalifer]

You all hurt my feelings, now I’m going to eat ice cream and watch Breaking Bad

[Echo Weaver]

34 minutes ago, kalifer said:

You all hurt my feelings, now I’m going to eat ice cream and watch Breaking Bad

FWIW, I think it's a good idea, but I'd have to play the game a whole lot more before I felt cocky enough to add a challenge like this.

It's probably related to what you get from the game. I'm really into the immersive homestead survival angle, and that seems short-changed if you can't die of dysentery. That said, dying is different in a game like this, where you respawn with your nutrition set to zero and have to go pick up your stuff. I'm not sure if diseases would give the right feel or not.

[Ryilo]

Let's settle at adding ice cream to the game then!

[Thorfinn]

Search the mods for mod author "Xandu". Pretty sure that was his.

[LadyWYT]

1 hour ago, Echo Weaver said:

That said, dying is different in a game like this, where you respawn with your nutrition set to zero and have to go pick up your stuff.

Actually, nutrition is cut in half and the hunger bar is only filled halfway on respawn. So you don't lose all your nutrition benefits, but it does set you back quite a bit.

 

1 hour ago, Echo Weaver said:

I'm not sure if diseases would give the right feel or not.

In all fairness, I could see maybe one or two added should a status effect/temporary trait system ever be added, but I'm not sure that I would call them diseases as much as I would just negative effects. For example, a player could receive a broken bone penalty and suffer a loss of movement speed for several in-game days until the injury heals. To help the injury heal faster and restore some movement speed, apply a splint. Broken bones could be suffered by either falling too far of distance(but not enough to kill) or getting hit by very strong enemies; both of these are only chances though, so it's still possible to suffer a big hit or fall and not break anything. Broken bones via falling can be avoided simply by being more careful when climbing around, and broken bones via combat can be heavily mitigated by wearing more protective armor like scale or plate.

For a disease effect itself...I think just have an injury be one of the negative status effects you can get from combat, and then if you leave the injury untreated(ie, you didn't bandage or apply medicine) then it can become infected and require extra care to recover from. Depending on the enemy, some enemies could have a chance to apply infected injuries up front(such as getting hurt by a high tier shiver). To make it more fair, infected injuries can still be treated with low level medical supplies like horsetail poultices, however, they will heal much faster with better medicine.

As to whether that kind of implementation is fun though...I'm not sure. I'd still be inclined toward skepticism.

[Kyassady]

16 hours ago, kalifer said:

Diseases and negative effects

Main Reasons for Implementation:

Realism — creating a believable world and atmosphere of true survival

Gameplay Complexity — increasing the challenge level and replayability

Strategic Planning — the need to think about prevention and treatment

Emotional Engagement — enhancing tension and anxiety 

Key Benefits:

Depth of Gameplay — additional layers of strategy and tactics

Mechanic Diversity — expanding content development opportunities

Educational Element — introducing survival basics

Social Aspect — enhancing player interaction

Impact on Balance:

Optimal Difficulty — maintaining an interesting challenge level

Monotony Prevention — variety of game situations

Immersion — enhancing the sense of presence in the game

In conclusion, diseases and negative effects are a critical element of survival games. They not only increase the difficulty of the gameplay but also make it deeper, more interesting, and more believable. These elements create additional strategic opportunities and force players to constantly adapt to changing conditions.

 

I was looking at modbd and found this here.... I think you'll be interested......XD

https://mods.vintagestory.at/show/mod/11954

[kalifer]

Just now, Kyassady said:

 

I was looking at modbd and found this here.... I think you'll be interested......XD

https://mods.vintagestory.at/show/mod/11954

Thanks, I’ll definitely check it out.

 

[LadyWYT]

6 hours ago, Kyassady said:

 

I was looking at modbd and found this here.... I think you'll be interested......XD

https://mods.vintagestory.at/show/mod/11954

Incidentally, this is the mod I was referring to earlier. 

[ribbbbbs]

I don't want to have diseases just for the sake of having them. Illness and disease should be integrated into a broader damage/healing mechanic. I also think sources of disease could come from nutrition deficiencies, eating spoiled food, fall/crush/burn injuries, etc.

Most diseases should mainly cause debuffs that might EVENTUALLY damage/kill the player if left untreated for long enough.