I have an idea for new handling of poison effects and addition of diseases to the game. Looking for some ideas/feedback on how we can make poison damage more dangerous, and what types of diseases might be good to add. In general, I think that the FO world was not dangerous enough from poison and radiation. Poison has never been something you panic over, and there really is no need to have antidote. The thing that really bugs me though is that critters in FO2 don't have poison counters (only the player does). So you can be poisoned and radiated, but nobody else can.
I can't change the engine code handling of poison and radiation but a lot can be done with scripting. So basically I'm thinking about adding a poison counter to all of the critters (where it makes sense, poison won't hurt a robot). Then its possible with scripting to determine whether a character is wielding a poison weapon, and apply poison hits (to the new counter) on successful hit. Poison might also be introduced through food and environment. This should not be too difficult to implement other than it will require a lot of script changes. It would also give the new environmental armor a reason for existing. There could be some very toxic areas that require enviro armor.
Just as a rough idea, let's say the critter is hit for 20 poison points. The actual damage applied will be spread out over multiple combat turns. I can count those turns by listening to COMBAT_SUBTYPE_TURN in critter_p_proc. So picking a rumber, let's say poison damage lasts for five combat turns. Each turn a script checks the poison level, reduces it some (based on endurance?) and applies some HP damage. It may also apply some temporary negative modifiers to other stats (action points, perception, etc). Maybe the secondary effect is determined by a random roll.
Diseases could be implemented in a similar way, but with more of a long-term effect. It should be possible to model a variety of diseases using a single code model. Any ideas as to what kind of diseases could be added?
Seems to me a post-apocaltypic world is a dangerous place and things like poison, disease, and radiation should be a big concern. If you get poisoned it should at least make you worried, and if you have no antidote, you should probably get to a town and see a doctor. Same idea for diseases but with more long term effects. Maybe if a disease isn't treated it could eventually do permanent damage to stats.
I have a related idea for using those fancy popup window script commands that were recently discussed. The idea is to make a new medical device item, a medical scanner sort of like the tricorder in star trek. When you "use" the item, a popup window shows up and there you interact with the device. The scanner can give you detailed info on poison, disease, and other stats, both on you and on others.
The radiation issue bugs me too, but not as much as the poison. I remember trying to get ian and dogmeat to take radx before going into the glow in FO1. Does it make sense that you'll die but nobody else will from the radiation? Maybe this could be worked on too later (might even roll for random mutations) but I think new poison effects and diseases would add some interesting new twists to the game initially.
I can't change the engine code handling of poison and radiation but a lot can be done with scripting. So basically I'm thinking about adding a poison counter to all of the critters (where it makes sense, poison won't hurt a robot). Then its possible with scripting to determine whether a character is wielding a poison weapon, and apply poison hits (to the new counter) on successful hit. Poison might also be introduced through food and environment. This should not be too difficult to implement other than it will require a lot of script changes. It would also give the new environmental armor a reason for existing. There could be some very toxic areas that require enviro armor.
Just as a rough idea, let's say the critter is hit for 20 poison points. The actual damage applied will be spread out over multiple combat turns. I can count those turns by listening to COMBAT_SUBTYPE_TURN in critter_p_proc. So picking a rumber, let's say poison damage lasts for five combat turns. Each turn a script checks the poison level, reduces it some (based on endurance?) and applies some HP damage. It may also apply some temporary negative modifiers to other stats (action points, perception, etc). Maybe the secondary effect is determined by a random roll.
Diseases could be implemented in a similar way, but with more of a long-term effect. It should be possible to model a variety of diseases using a single code model. Any ideas as to what kind of diseases could be added?
Seems to me a post-apocaltypic world is a dangerous place and things like poison, disease, and radiation should be a big concern. If you get poisoned it should at least make you worried, and if you have no antidote, you should probably get to a town and see a doctor. Same idea for diseases but with more long term effects. Maybe if a disease isn't treated it could eventually do permanent damage to stats.
I have a related idea for using those fancy popup window script commands that were recently discussed. The idea is to make a new medical device item, a medical scanner sort of like the tricorder in star trek. When you "use" the item, a popup window shows up and there you interact with the device. The scanner can give you detailed info on poison, disease, and other stats, both on you and on others.
The radiation issue bugs me too, but not as much as the poison. I remember trying to get ian and dogmeat to take radx before going into the glow in FO1. Does it make sense that you'll die but nobody else will from the radiation? Maybe this could be worked on too later (might even roll for random mutations) but I think new poison effects and diseases would add some interesting new twists to the game initially.
