Regarding Status Effect System to come... (Diseases, Illness, Infections, Injuries & Remedies)

[Emeal]

Hi, So I was watching the interview by Mahjong Blonsky of Tyron and Saraty (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_agbJN9Fro&t=890s) and about upcoming features. And Tyron mentioned work in progress on a status effect system and the Intention to add diseases, illness, infections, injuries & remedies etc. An absolute banger, I cant wait to die from dysentery.    So I wanted to throw my ideas out here as well to catch some eyes, so here are my suggestions:

1. Toggle On/Off - Its no secret when I told my friends, some don't share my enthusiasm of dealing with such a system. Vintage story is often said to be Minecraft for Adults, but I think we all set the boundaries of how adult we want this game to be and we are all different players, while some see hinderance, others like me see a story, the option to toggle this system on and off is a must.

2. Ample and Fair Warnings = A Body Message System - I think a feature I request the most regarding all this is to know when something feels off. Ideally something that works on a Timer, giving you a body update when something isn't right. An example would be "My hands feel cold" as a warning that Mild Frostbite could be coming or "I feel every stone through your thin soles" as a warning that your shoes are wearing down. Its an option to ignore your body ofc, but like in real life its unwise. I really think to make all these things fair we need a body warning system to know things in advance, but not only in advance, but also as an immersive story telling of what is happening to my Seraph. (me) I realize that such a system would be an insane task to develop, but it seems to be the most fair balance wise and most immersive solution to having status effects in any game without feeling like, any other game. Either way I cannot not suggest Tyron to do this.

Even a vague message for a problem: "Something is not right" tho cryptic could make the player realize something is coming.

More examples for a Body Messages System:

Spoiler

"My wound burns and throbs" - Wound has become infected.
"My stomach has turned against me" - Food Poisoning.
"My fingers have lost their feeling" - Frostbite imminent.
"My guts feel restless" - Intestine Parasites possible.
"My breathing feels heavier" - Tuberculosis or Pneumonia.

Honestly a game with a system like this, Would be the most epic survival game I could ever imagine.

3. Realistically all status effects are Chains of Events - As a continuation of the above point I think it might be important to remember that diseases, illness, infections and injuries are not like we are used to in videogames, a debuff. No they work over time and have stages, they are in almost all circumstances Chains of Events, therefore I think it would be very realistic to depict and program status effects as such. Prevention is doing things to prevent the exposure or disease events from happening.

Prevention => Exposure Event => Hidden Development (Optional) => Early Symptoms => Active Illness => Severe Stage Illness => Outcome (Recovery, Chronic Injury or Death)

Hidden Development could be optional for some diseases, illnesses and Outcome of Diseases could come sooner or later dependent on choices.
Exposure Event would be determined by random chance once prevention measures are not followed.

Prevention is key, therefore Tailor is Objectively the Best Class because Shoes, Gloves and Clothes prevent out exposure to Heat, Cold and Wet.

4. Time to bring in a new Class: Plague Doctor - You know you want to see it. Here are some ideas for their Traits.

Spoiler

Medical Knowledge: Healing Poultices heal for 30% more and are 50% more likely to be sterile.
Herbalist: +10% Herb loot, +25% Herb/ Berry harvesting speed.
Anatomical Knowledge: 10% critical chance vs biologicals below 50% HP.

Sheltered Academic: -10% mining speed, -15% wood chopping speed.
Unsettling Presence: Nobody likes you. Trader prices are higher and sales are lower.

                             

Look I may be a madman to encourage this but I was inspired to share my thoughts to the Team and well its a fun to empty my brain on this to see how it could be done.
Thanks for reading and I hope this sparks your creativity too.

[LadyWYT]

11 minutes ago, Emeal said:

1. Toggle On/Off - Its no secret when I told my friends, some don't share my enthusiasm of dealing with such a system. Vintage story is often said to be Minecraft for Adults, but I think we all set the boundaries of how adult we want this game to be and we are all different players, while some see hinderance, others like me see a story, the option to toggle this system on and off is a must.

I mostly disagree here. Maybe parts of the status effect system could be toggled on and off, like diseases, but the status effect system itself is likely to be too integral to the game to be something toggled off entirely. 

Overall, I expect the status effect system to be something without a toggle, and rather an option to determine how intense the negative effects can be, with mods to further tailor exactly how the system behaves.

15 minutes ago, Emeal said:

2. Ample and Fair Warnings = A Body Message System - I think a feature I request the most regarding all this is to know when something feels off. Ideally something that works on a Timer, giving you a body update when something isn't right. An example would be "My hands feel cold" as a warning that Mild Frostbite could be coming or "I feel every stone through your thin soles" as a warning that your shoes are wearing down. Its an option to ignore your body ofc, but like in real life its unwise. I really think to make all these things fair we need a body warning system to know things in advance, but not only in advance, but also as an immersive story telling of what is happening to my Seraph. (me) I realize that such a system would be an insane task to develop, but it seems to be the most fair balance wise and most immersive solution to having status effects in any game without feeling like, any other game. Either way I cannot not suggest Tyron to do this.

Even a vague message for a problem: "Something is not right" tho cryptic could make the player realize something is coming.

While immersive cues and messages are nice, I think it generally works better to have more obvious feedback, similar to how the player has the hunger bar and health bar to tell them how much energy they have to work with. Those meters do still come with some additional cues to alert players to problems, but the player isn't having to rely exclusively on sound cues and visuals to determine exactly what state they're in. I will also note that my friend and I developed a mod to overhaul the game's hunger system, and while we initially went with immersive messages to keep the player informed on their status, we eventually opted to add a visual meter as the default tracking and keep the immersive messages as an optional setting. It's just much easier to tell what's going on when actually playing the game.

As for diseases...there was a disease mod for VS a couple of versions ago, that I tried, and...it wasn't very fun. The common cold was overtuned, to the point the player would essentially take days to recover from a cold only to immediately catch another the next day, even if doing everything possible to prevent said colds. The other diseases weren't likely to be encountered at all unless the player deliberately sabotaged themselves by playing in the worst ways possible(leaping off cliffs, eating obviously rotten food, etc).

Personally, I'd prefer something more similar to Skyrim, or rather how I modded Skyrim. In the vanilla game, the player can contract diseases occasionally by stepping on traps or getting attacked by certain creatures, and the general result is a flat debuff that persists until the player drinks a potion/prays at a shrine to cure themselves. I used mods to tweak the system so that the first stages of a disease aren't really noticeable, and when the symptoms are noticed the player needs to do some guesswork as to which disease it is, unless the disease had progressed enough for the character to figure it out themselves. While praying at shrines can still instantly cure the disease, the player otherwise needs to treat the disease with medicine or a "cure disease" potion to increase their resistance, then spend some time resting in a clean area to recover. I think a similar system could work for Vintage Story, at least with the medicine, rest requirement, and disease stages, but overall diseases should be conditions that are relatively rare and mild when they occur if the player is playing decently well.

28 minutes ago, Emeal said:

4. Time to bring in a new Class: Plague Doctor - You know you want to see it.

Nah, I'd rather see Herbalist. It seems the kind of class that would have broader utility than Plague Doctor(which seems a little too niche).

[Emeal]

On 3/23/2026 at 5:20 PM, LadyWYT said:

While immersive cues and messages are nice, I think it generally works better to have more obvious feedback, similar to how the player has the hunger bar and health bar to tell them how much energy they have to work with.

I can see why some would not like it and prefer more obvious. I don't like the idea of the player being a medical expert and able to diagnose themselves and...
I prefer the drama, "Oh woe is me I hathst becameth Ill."

On 3/23/2026 at 5:20 PM, LadyWYT said:

As for diseases...there was a disease mod for VS a couple of versions ago, that I tried, and...it wasn't very fun. The common cold was overtuned, to the point the player would essentially take days to recover from a cold only to immediately catch another the next day, even if doing everything possible to prevent said colds. The other diseases weren't likely to be encountered at all unless the player deliberately sabotaged themselves by playing in the worst ways possible(leaping off cliffs, eating obviously rotten food, etc).

From my understanding its uncommon to get ill again with the same cold in real life, idd have to look it up, if its realistic then thems the cards we play with imo.

A Hermit should almost never catches a cold because colds rely on exposure. You could spend months or even years without getting it. Ergo the Trader did it.

On 3/23/2026 at 5:20 PM, LadyWYT said:

Nah, I'd rather see Herbalist. It seems the kind of class that would have broader utility than Plague Doctor(which seems a little too niche).

[Bruno Willis]

2 hours ago, Emeal said:

You could spend months or even years without getting it. Ergo the Trader did it.

Imagine rocking up to your favorite survival goods trader, only to hear a cough from behind their door. Is it worth going in? Do you want to buy salt, and get the flu for free? Do you have enough honey and thyme to make warm drinks for your recovery?