Alpha 8: New Status Effects / Diseases

I agree with this -- heavy armor should be more like Combat Steel for your body, and the armor buffs should also protect from creatures and injuries.

 

Debatable if Open Wound is less serious but good point. Only the Dermal Parasite and Radiation Burn Tier 1 injuries have this situation where they create an additional Tier 1 injury 100% of the time.

Others, such as the progression on compound fracture from Tier 1 to Tier 2 (Compound -> Open and creates Open Wound) make medical sense, where an untreated condition creates additional complications.

I think if you get right on a Tier 1 injury you should be able to avoid complications. At least some % of the time.

 

I can see that. In my minds eye the burn is treated first with ointment, then a bandage. A quick heal might save you the extra trouble.

 

I can see the parasite creating an open wound because maybe you need to cut out the alien eggs or bug under your skin. The problem is the cute is a pill or ointment, though I guess the pill could make it burst out of your skin or crawl out of your ears leaving your bleeding.

Not sure while a radiation burn would leave an open wound though that one does not make sense to me. I would also like to see preventative radiation pill that increases radiation resistance which along with suits is how people deal with things now, treatment after the fact being much harder.

I also don't think all conditions should advance at the same speed. For example the broken leg if someone is running or jumping should advance to the next stage much faster than if they are just walking.

 

Yeah, I'm not sure I like this either. First time it happened I thought it was a bug or that something else attacked me, I guess in a way it makes sense that after treating a burn in real life, it has to then be cared for like an open wound, but in a game I'm not sure that is the best way to do things.

 

I have tried to force myself to get past the new meds system over the last couple days and I just can't do it. Hopefully at a later date a more simpler system returns. The idea that you have a cure for one thing, think you are good to go and now there is a second stage . Then 20 seconds later get attacked again and have to use even more meds to again cure the first stage, then the second stage. Na, no thanks. Not trying to be sarcastic or too harsh, just pushes me from having any inclination whatsoever to visit POI's. (POI's are actually what broke me by the way) Unfortunately I haven't even logged in to play in the last two days which is saying a lot given my addiction every time a new version gets released.

I am sure others love the new system and that's awesome. It's why there are so many games, so many to choose from. Hopefully this one becomes my chosen game again at a later time.

 

The progression of: "Literally anything ==> death" is just plain bad. Losing HP from statuses sucks, and when every alien and bit of uncooked food gives a status it seems it's just a death sentence to eat in a survival context or take a single hit.

Given the resource cost of high power healing items, it's much more economical to use the least powerful one which means a cluttered inventory and no leaving what you need in your vehicle.

 

I practice medicine irl and I love the new system

My only issue is how quickly you can be killed by advanced ailments, getting an endo parasite that eats my food bar and starves me in 20 seconds is a little OP. I should have time to get back to my vehicle and use a medkit at least.

But there is something to be said for being prepared, too.

 

While I really appreciate the new staged status effects and diseases I see a little bit of a problem with their significance overall. If you die you just respawn nearby, and if you don't bother searching and crafting medicine you can simply kill yourself and respawn nearby. In other words, it is easy to bypass the system.

For me that is a little immersion breaker, being able to respawn so easily and in the same place with no impact on the player. An impact could be for instance a lowered max hp/stamina bar per respawn, which would regenerate only over time thereby discouraging frequent respawns.

Currently it is not hard to get killed so I would suggest making it both harder to die (currently most of the time one-shot kills even with heavy armor) and harder to respawn. Fights are too much dying and respawning at the moment.

Personally I would be very happy with an option to disable nearby respawns on the server side. If one doesn't have a clone chamber, one would have to re-drop with a new escape pod. Please consider.

 

The staged effects are enragingly dumb. Ok, so I need to carry around bandages, and two kinds of ointment. Except I don't, because I get enemies that go straight to stage two diseases. Except I don't, I get aliens that go straight to stage three diseases, which then kill me in about 45 seconds.

About the only thing to do is to carry around the stage 3 kits at all times, or just dying, respawning, and going back. All because one creature hit you once.

Please have monsters deal stage 1 effects, that don't kill you, instead, progress. So that hey, you can walk around with a parasite at least for a bit before getting critical existence failure.

 

Some thoughts:
It seems too complicated, since many names to remember, to know what stage something are in, then what type of treatment to use.
Could be eased by having one name for each group and then only stages, like Parasite 1, Parasite 2, Parasite 3.
Or in a naming have Ps/Bs/Ts/Rs/Fs (the classes of Parasite, Biotics, Toxic, Radiation, Flesh), Eg.: P1 Dermal Parasite, P2 Endo Parasite, P3 Alien Parasite.
The color coding ought to match the classes, so can identify treatments fast that way.
Keep current stages symbol represented as S1 jars (ointments), S2 pills (rename to "caplet", "pill" is mostly round), S3 injections.
Bones have no common symbol for stages, but might not need one. "Bones" starts with "B", used by Biotics, so maybe Flesh or Other. Or use "A" for Antibiotics, and B for Bones/Body. So F1 is the "duct-tape", F2 could be a splinter, F3 nails - all dark grey.

The class Temperature is OK, do not need much explanation on how to fix that, too cold or too hot, environmental or disease.
Shower and WC as is (missing a "fancy" WC matching the fancy shower).

There are some balancing issues too, do not remember all.
Only 1 Medkit that cure all S2, but can have a second type that also give health&stamina&food. Takes time and some resources to make.
S3 also cured with medic station types matching the 5 classes.
Missing a jar for P1 (yellow), move from R1.
Bad Trip and Hangover as T1?
Indigestion is in a way T0 with a T2 shape, currently belonging to F. So ought to change color and shape, blue pill maybe.

Not sure if it should be so can only get stage 1 when fighting something or injure yourself, that 2 and 3 have to occur if no treatment at all, where S1 should give you OK time to continue fighting before need to apply treatment avoiding S2, or S3.

EDIT: This was before 8.2, changes to icons, but not so much else.
Also instead of "P2" in the name, graphical presentations could be used in icons so easily recognized what you need (or I have not gotten enough injuries to recognize any patterns).

 

Slot me into the "be prepared column". I like the system. But then I always carry what I need with me, and 3-5 slots for medical supplies depending on whether you carry kits is not a lot to ask.

Personally, I think the pack that drops when you die should never respawn and you should not be able to respawn "nearby". Nearby should only be an option if there are no other spawn points available.

So I'd like to see the complexity remain.

-Forjo

 

I am very unhappy with the current iteration of medical treatment.
If you use pills or ointments, then the stuff it can cure, will be cured and nothing more happens.
If I use any of the injections (except red) then, I immediatly get an open wound upon usage even though injections are supposed to be stronger! They may cure more things, but also cause an open wound, for which I need a seperate treatment.

And the medikits are the worst. Everytime I used a decontamination kit to cure an alienparasit, I would immediatly get another parasite and an open wound! Similar with detox and trauma kits, while they heal you from a dangerous illness, they cause 2 others.
In terms of preparation this means, that I need more medicine for my medicine than I need for the POI which is super dumb!

 

In the current Version i get very easy Radiation Burn. Going outside in an Radioactive Storm with light Armor causes immediately RB, which i can accept, cause Radiation was higher than the Armor protection. Then later i explored an POI, the abandoned Drone Factory, and i got Radiation Burn. So i walked away from the radiated Area and try to Cure it but it immediately came back, i dont know why this happend cause the Radiationmeter says 0 Radiation at my Position. I tried 4 TImes to cure it, then traveled to my Base to heal me there at the Med Stations which worked. I got Radiation Burn in my Base from eating a Ham which i found in the Fridge at the Titan, at least i think this was the cause, nothing else could do this at this time. Currently i get Radiation Burn every Time when i try to explore the World, which is bad cause medium or heavy Armor or something else to better protect me is only found in POI's. I think it would be nice if we can make medium Armor in an Large Constructor, mabye with Cobalt or something. Or at least Radion Protection Boosts.

 

This happend in the Game i started with Version 8.2.2 1780. It felt very strange cause i never had such things happend before, i thought that maybe some changes happend to Radiation Burn in the Updates. I continued that save Today and did not experienced any of this since then. If this happens again and i can reproduce it i will report it.