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:
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.
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.