Random Viral Event Rework

Random viruses are shit. We can all agree on this, however they should be just a right amount of shit and not be absolutely garbage.

I looked at virus code and random viruses and I found out that there is about a 10% chance for a random virus to be lethal. This seems a bit ridiculous considering how new players tend to like spreading diseases round. The way it works is that it grabs 4 random effects from a list and then assigns them to a stage. Some viruses have a "stage cap" where only certain effects can be triggered at stage 2 or higher, or 3 or higher, or stage 4. I think this is silly and an inappropriate use of RNG.

I propose that viruses are pseudo randomly generated, and by that I mean that it will select a virus stored in code instead of it being completely random. The viruses themselves will be annoying but not ruin ending, like lethal toxins damage or narcolepsy. Most of the viruses will also be self-curing, like a passing virus like the flu or the cold so people don't have to rely on a non-existent virologist every shift.

I like viruses cause they put an end extended rounds

EDIT: They add something to boring rounds, they do not appear that often and well, you would be removing a good part of the Virology job if many of them are self-curing. It's cool to be a Virologist and encounter a lethal or at least severe virus outbreak

Still -1

I don't like the idea of viruses curing themselves, but I definitely support them not being round rending.

I decided not to go for self-curing viruses, but instead only lethal viruses exist if there is a virologist on board.

Virologist players are rare, stupidly rare even. Touching the random virus event in anyway would be bad due to the lack of any general interest in the sub-department. Rather focus on making Virology actually appealing before trying to fix the events bound to it.

I'm sorry but I do not agree with your philosophy on game design. If an under-maintained and near useless role has very little players, then the consequences of not having players in that role should be removed.

Are there any actual reasons for virology and the virus event to stay? Honestly, I'd just remove them both. They contribute nothing to RP, and all that viruses can do is, basically, kicking you out of the round for 10 minutes if a virologist is present. Why cling to it? Virology isn't really appealing even on /tg/, where it has beneficial viruses and other "fun" stuff. If anything, this job is just a way for traitors to create brain rot or something. Aside from that, virology never contributes anything to the round or to RP. It exists solely for this event, and this event is very boring for everyone involved.

No, but it's harder to remove something than it is to improve it because of developer and community opinion.

With that being said, the PR is up: https://github.com/Aurorastation/Aurora.3/pull/5615

Are there any actual reasons for virology and the virus event to stay? Honestly, I'd just remove them both. They contribute nothing to RP, and all that viruses can do is, basically, kicking you out of the round for 10 minutes if a virologist is present. Why cling to it? Virology isn't really appealing even on /tg/, where it has beneficial viruses and other "fun" stuff. If anything, this job is just a way for traitors to create brain rot or something. Aside from that, virology never contributes anything to the round or to RP. It exists solely for this event, and this event is very boring for everyone involved.

We have a few regular virologists these days (I can think of two). We use virology all the time for chemical testing and as a safe place to hide from cults. It definitely has its merits, especially as I’ve let my virologists do human testing, which has absolutely contributed to some extended RP.

No, but it's harder to remove something than it is to improve it because of developer and community opinion.

With that being said, the PR is up: https://github.com/Aurorastation/Aurora.3/pull/5615

Could you take a step further than this and remove all procedurally generated viruses from the mix, and brainstorm a bunch of standardized viruses that all have predictable symptoms, and simply make it that the only RNG that exists is what established disease gets rolled? In this way there's more interesting world-fluff involved that people can talk about in regards to the diseases that exist in the game world, i.e., Cannibal Fever.

I can understand if "outside of the scope of the PR" is the response, though.

No, but it's harder to remove something than it is to improve it because of developer and community opinion.

With that being said, the PR is up: https://github.com/Aurorastation/Aurora.3/pull/5615

 

Could you take a step further than this and remove all procedurally generated viruses from the mix, and brainstorm a bunch of standardized viruses that all have predictable symptoms, and simply make it that the only RNG that exists is what established disease gets rolled? In this way there's more interesting world-fluff involved that people can talk about in regards to the diseases that exist in the game world, i.e., Cannibal Fever.

I can understand if "outside of the scope of the PR" is the response, though.

that's already implemented, please read the PR

o-oh... got it, thanks. my bad.