Infections

[EvilBrage]

Let's talk about infections. Specifically, removing them.

First of all, there's enough accidental ways to die in this game without having to rub ointment on every single wound I take - it's a bit unnecessary. Far more unnecessary is the way infections go wildly out of control if left unchecked for too long, with almost no sign that they're doing so until you need spaceacillin injections (and in my experience, it's been surprisingly difficult finding a doctor who actually knows how to respond to infections.)

Second, from a realism standpoint, there's no way any sort of infection known to man would spread so fast.

[Frances]

As far as I'm informed, infections were added by Bay to stop people from shrugging off injuries and waiting for natural regen to kick in.

The realistic option here would be to drastically reduce the speed of natural regen, or to prevent brute/burn past a certain threshold from healing without medical aid. In the end, however, if Baldy McEngineer fucks up hacking a door, gives themselves 40 points of burn, and decides to wait it out instead of visiting medbay, that's pretty much on them. I don't see why we need to force them to see medbay or die.

[Jboy2000000]

I don't see the problem with how it is now, except for how fast infections spread. Id say keep everything how it is now, but slow the infection down so it doesn't spread to your heart in 2-5 minutes.

[TechnoKat]

Agreeing with what Frances said. Many people would shrug their damages off and go hunting still. Every time you're shot at, ALWAYS patch yourself up or flee to somewhere safe.

If we slowed process of regen however, I think we'll be having issues then with staying in medbay majority of time, taking your round out almost.

[Nogo3]

Well, there's a number of servers that have alternatives to removing infections in the body by the use of surgery. By using a scalpel and a cautery on the affected limb, it removes infection. The only issue with this is once organs get infected then you require the use of spaceacillin, but wouldn't that 'cut out' (Teehee) most of your problems?

[Frances]

If we slowed process of regen however, I think we'll be having issues then with staying in medbay majority of time, taking your round out almost.

We could keep healing the way it is, then reduce it if, say, past a threshold of 30 burn/30 brute. Even if we didn't, small injuries could be treated with bruise packs and ointments (which used to be easy to find, now I think they'd need to be added back to the new civilian area). There wouldn't be any more of a need to visit medical, unless you get moderately injured, which is what I think the goal of infections was anyway. (And I dunno who said "let's just make people who don't visit medical die" but it's... well... it's a really weird solution they implemented.)

[Garnascus]

Nah, not much for me to say that others havent said. I think its an important risk to engaging in combat and another layer you have to consider when you go hacking doors or get into lasers fights.

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

I once had justification to maul someone as Houssam, using harm intent claws. They refused medical aid, made a snarky comment, then walked off all tsundere, ignoring the bleeding wounds like an anime hero.

They later died of their infections. It was hilarious.

Infections add a level of urgency to getting first aid that makes sense. There are consequences to going without first aid or medical treatment.

When I work in medbay, there are droves of people (usually engineers (stereotypes are bad kids)) that refuse to come in to get treated, even when it's just ointment, because they "DON'T HAVE TIME HOLY SHIT THE STATION IS IN TROUBLE DOC I GOTTA GO FAST"

These same people end up crawling back begging to get spacecillin, or end up going at it for so long that it's too late.

If you want to ignore your wounds, you need to have a mechanic to punish you for short-sightedness or 'toughing it out' in dumb situations. I've also died from infections because Mcantag shot at me, took me hostage, then refused to let treat myself or treat me themselves. Which was fun, kinda. (even though in one instance with a nuke op it was the crew that was refusing to get me anything)

[Guest Menown]

How about if you wash your hands at a sink it gives you an option to clean the wound, and applying a bandage afterward handles the same effects of applying ointment, preventing infection.

[Damarik]

How about if you wash your hands at a sink it gives you an option to clean the wound, and applying a bandage afterward handles the same effects of applying ointment, preventing infection.

 

I can get behind this one.

[jackfractal]

What about the old kiss of fire thing? In the event you have no ointment or bandages, use a lighter or welder to cauterize your wounds. You'd take some burn damage but it would clean the wound and stop bleeding.

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

What about the old kiss of fire thing? In the event you have no ointment or bandages, use a lighter or welder to cauterize your wounds. You'd take some burn damage but it would clean the wound and stop bleeding.

 

You can still get infected from the burn damage.

[jackfractal]

This would be coded to specifically avoid that.

EDIT: Ah, I forgot to mention in my first post. The addition of infections hugely swung the balance in favour of the crew in hostile interactions with antags. Without infections, nuke ops and wizards who fought the crew could keep up a running battle for some time without immediately fatal consequences.

I see a whole lotta nuke ops die to infections.

[Guest]

This would be coded to specifically avoid that.

EDIT: Ah, I forgot to mention in my first post. The addition of infections hugely swung the balance in favour of the crew in hostile interactions with antags. Without infections, nuke ops and wizards who fought the crew could keep up a running battle for some time without immediately fatal consequences.

I see a whole lotta nuke ops die to infections.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but a while ago someone asked for medical supplies and anti-biotics to be added into the nuke shuttle, which most players responded to by saying that Nuke Ops are OP as it is. Delicate balance shouldn't be touched and all that crap.

Either way, I think we really need to clear up if nuke ops need a buff or not. Honestly, from what I've seen antags have showed shit performance lately with most players exploiting and openly going for an attrition fight with them. The entire dreadful, repeating antag scenario circles around meta of who will do what. This needs to be broken in some way, so, I'm outright for slowing down infections.

[jackfractal]

To be fair to the players, infections have been in the code for over a year now iirc. The metagame has long since adapted to consider this state of affairs to be 'baseline'.

The original design of the wizard was a single character who could solo not just a fully staffed and organized ten man security department but the entire rest of the crew while having reasonable odds of winning and not having to sneak or hide like a changeling or a ninja.

[Guest]

Yeah, it's understandable, but under current ruleset, where excessive gank and force are moderated, Wizards aren't expected to solo the entire station. It seems to me that it's kind of not needed here. You either want to encourage longer combat or discourage violence against the antags. My assessment is that toning down the infection progression rate will go a long way towards achieving both goals because, again, security's fighting chance against the wizard and nuke ops consist of simply making that one wound which will kill them. It encourages security to engage forcefully in the first place.