Illness Engine Proposal

[Snefru]

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).

I like the idea of preventive measures, perhaps along with the constitution idea mentioned earlier. Also, a cooldown immunity sounds awesome.

I also support that illnesses should go away on their own but a noticeable time period more than if they're treated. Noticeably more doesnt have to mean mean long on an absolute scale, though variance depending on the illness disease would be nice, just longer than if no treatment were applied.

Finally, I think it's imperative that there be a coded effect to the illness or disease. Affecting movement, stats, others things, all of them etc. I am new on this MUD but my experience for the past (almost) 17 years has been that if it isn't coded in, a minuscule minority of players will heed it and only when they feel like it.

And someone had mentioned previously that diseases/illnesses introduced should be in-line with available cures. I strongly agree with that.

[Annalesa]

Any diseases we do should mimic real-world stuff imo.

I'm not going to throw nasty stuff like smallpox out there, but perhaps some interesting little bits would be picking a disease and having it do a natural progression. For example:

When the health metric hits a certain percentage, this should trigger the roll of a dice to pick a minor ailment that a random (or random couple) of NPCs catch. Off the top of my head, this should be 1D3 and roll for either rash, stomach bug, or cold.

As the health metric goes down, if it goes down, this disease should get spread to more and more random NPCs on-grid, triggering X more catching it for every X it goes down until it hits a certain point and then it starts infecting PCs. Once a certain threshold is hit, the disease progresses to a moderate level.

Example:

Let's say that the metrics are from -50 to 50, with -10 to 10 being stasis. Once health hits -11, the game would automatically roll a 1D3. In this example, let's say that this came up as 'cold'. One non-player owned NPC on grid would be infected with the cold. Once it hits -13, two more will be infected with the cold. When it hits -15, three more will be infected. So on and so forth until we get to near the threshold.

I am assuming in this example that the threshold for moderate disease is -25 and that the threshold for severe is -40: when we get five away from a threshold, the game starts infecting random PCs. So, if it hits -20, the cold in this example will infect a random PC. When it hits -21, it will infect one more random PC. The random infection will stop at -25, but the disease will morph into the moderate version of itself and infect 1 non-player owned NPC.

This process will be much the same as things get worse. At -27, the disease will infect two non-player owned NPCs; at -29, three. Once health hits -35, the moderate disease will infect a random PC. At -40, it turns severe and starts spreading.

I realize that this may be overly complicated, but I think one could use the framework at least. Anyways, that's my idea.

[Kinaed]

I like the idea of progressive diseases. Mob populations getting sick is probably a bit problematic, but maybe if we demonstrated pools of NPC population or something... I do think the gold in terms of RP is PCs getting sick though - I just want it to be RPable rather than a heinous game addition (small pox...o.O;)

[Silrie]

I love this idea for several reasons. One, it will give the physicians something more to do on a more consistent scale. Two, it is realistic. Three, I'm so on board for more of the concoctions we have being more useful in coded ways.
I, personally, think once an ooc month is very reasonable. I realize people don't want coded illnesses at all, so preventative measures would be nice as well as mentioned, to limit the risk, but realistically, nobody wants to get sick. The fact that is might annoy some people to get sick just makes it more real. Don't want the risk? Then use the preventative measures if they are implemented. Diseases and sicknesses were far more common, to my knowledge, than they've been depicted so far.

On a personal level, pvents suggesting illnesses are all well and good, but in my mind, if I'm just making up an illness, it screams, "I want attention! Me me me!" Whereas if it's coded, I can play up the coded illness without making people go, "Really? Her again? Why is it always her?"

Will research some medieval illnesses!

Sil

[Zeita]

I think I'm on board with the idea. I'd probably suggest that as well as constitution playing a role, for one's class to influence matters as well, to reflect a general 'behind the scenes' lifestyle and so on as well as gentry/nobs being somewhat insulated from the poor sanitation or whatever is causing the issue.

[Temi]

I think I'm on board with the idea. I'd probably suggest that as well as constitution playing a role, for one's class to influence matters as well, to reflect a general 'behind the scenes' lifestyle and so on as well as gentry/nobs being somewhat insulated from the poor sanitation or whatever is causing the issue.

This is really interesting and makes for a balance reason why leadership may want to sometimes ignore health - it's not like it hurts -us- unless it gets -really- bad. Though we don't want to make playing a freeman suck.

[Gerolf]

As for specific diseases, I would throw out the following as a starting point:

Low Impact:

• Common Cold
• Common Flu

Medium Impact:

• Farin Flu
• Yaws
• Tubori Fever

High Impact:

• Measles
• The Pox
• Consumption

A couple of these are real diseases, some I made up to be themely. I can provide descriptions of what happens, or what I think should happen, when a character contracts these diseases. I -do- think we need a pox of some sort, a long lasting illness characterized by lesions, though I agree it shouldn't be fatal. Unless you want it to be.

I think having diseases which in fluff are fatal may give players a chance to RP out the illness as a way of liquidation rather than just having the character disappear one day.

Further I like the idea of diseases that in the real world have a chance of lingering effects. That gives the character a chance to RP it some. Consider a noble that had Tubori fever and now has difficulty exerting himself. I think if could be fun to RP.

[Rothgar]

I'd be absolutely on board with this idea. I think it not only gives Physician's a new breath of life, but also allows for some interesting RP down the road for those 'rough and ready' types that prefer to treat themselves, or completely avoid the doctor. I played one for years, and since wounds heal themselves over time after binding, I never really had a need for one - it also gave me the appearance of being damned near invulnerable, lol.