PC Illness Question - Bug or Mechanic I dont understand

B

BeardedProtagonist

Refugee
so I am on the latest experimental. Couple times now this situation has happened.

I get hit by a zombie and get the "you feel something coming on" debuff. Now if I die in that state, when I re-spawn I have the near-death debuff as well as the illness debuff. and the funny thing is the illness debuff timer ticks UP instead of down. It is not affected by antibiotics either. the only way I found to remove was to eat something that would normally give me food poisoning (like rotten flesh) THEN use antibiotics, and it will go away.

EDIT ADDITION: for clarification, I am not saying my death was caused by progression of the disease, but due to some other trauma, like mauled to death by a bear:) this while at "you feel something coming on" stage of illness.

 
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Disease system feels more decorative than threatening atm. From my experience the "illness" debuff seems to go away on its own every time (no perks) so I've just learned to ignore it. Except one time I ate a rotting flesh for testing purposes, I haven't managed to get food poisoning by abusing yucas/eating cans in multiple playthroughs. Dysentery is quite rare as well. Seems like the 20% chance in murky water is applied to getting the inconsequential "illness" debuff and later another % is applied for dysentery to actually set in - which makes it way rarer than it should be imo. Same with infection - me and everyone else in the team keep getting the "illness" debuff, but it never sets in except if the offender is a hazmat suit zombie. Things are better than in A16 obviously, but antibiotics still remain mostly unneeded.

 
I don't remember exactly what someone said in a different thread, but basically this is how it works at this moment.

You can get illness from a variety of sources, including being hit by a zombie. At constant intervals you will have a check performed if you "won" against the illness and it can go away, but otherwise will persist and make you feel worse and worse. This is why it counts up not down - to the moment of being cured.

I think TFP is aware of this problem and someone already posted a solution just like you mentioned - getting food poisoning and then using antibiotics or something. I did get food poisoning a number of times from Yucca, but even getting rougher consequences, i generally just ate enough to regain food/water and used bandages.

 
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well like I said, this debuff status did not go away. after perhaps as much as an hour real time. it wasn't critical but annoying. food and water ticks down slightly faster under the debuff. constant dosing of antibiotics did not cure it.

I am still guessing this is a bug of some sort.....

 
I'd clearly consider that a bug.

All in all, the whole disease system should be reworked. If you get infected and take antibiotics there is no information whether the antibiotics work or not. You just stand around for several minutes waiting to see if the infection will go away or get worse. And if it gets worse you can only sit it out because you don't want to waste any more antibiotics.

I saw this in a stream on the weekend, for example. The player was infected but had antibiotics with him. Still at stage 1 he took antibiotics and waited if the infection would go away but it got worse. After stage 3 the course of the disease was completed.

Until then he could only stand on the street and wait for about 15 minutes. After the course of the disease had been completed, he had only 20 Max HP left. After that he healed up with bandages and tablets and went back into the building to get infected again shortly afterwards. Needless to say that his mood had reached a low here.

Generally, I find that antibiotics should always cure a stage 1 infection. Currently the antibiotics do not differ much from the herbal antibiotics which were a weaker alternative in Alpha 16 and before.

 
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You can get illness from a variety of sources, including being hit by a zombie. At constant intervals you will have a check performed if you "won" against the illness and it can go away, but otherwise will persist and make you feel worse and worse. This is why it counts up not down - to the moment of being cured.
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So, I am at work so going from memory, but all other debuffs have counted DOWN for me from what I remember. "You feel something coming on" for 4 mins, counts down and at 0, you either get the next stage or it drops off. if you get the next stage, you get a fresh counter ticking down before you progress to the next stage, etc. Taking antibiotics gives you a 10 minute countdown till 0 and it wears off. etc.

this one was different, dunno, maybe I am remembering wrong:)

 
Antibiotics does not work as in A16, where gulping them down would instantly cure the infection. Currently they work in a manner of increasing the chance of curing it each check. At least that's how i see it and experienced.

At least with food poisoning, the status will go into various stages and after the most severe it will all go away. Don't know about infection, haven't had it many times.

 
Antibiotics does not work as in A16, where gulping them down would instantly cure the infection. Currently they work in a manner of increasing the chance of curing it each check. At least that's how i see it and experienced.
At least with food poisoning, the status will go into various stages and after the most severe it will all go away. Don't know about infection, haven't had it many times.
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Even the infection is not fatal.

You only have a few HP left in the end but everything else is fine. If you are at home in the base you have no problem with it but if you are clearing a POI an infection is of course problematic. Already at stage 1 the stamina regeneration is affected and in further stages it gets even worse. Melee combat is not to be thought of in such a situation.

It's just annoying just waiting to see if something happens or not. No indication of whether an effect is on or off. For example, the FP could just color the icon green to show that the infection is fading.

 
so I am a new player as of A17, so not comparing to A16 (no experience with it) I do understand the antibiotic mechanic. essentially you get a 10 minute buff to increase chance of shrugging off a debuff. I would assume that different types of "antibiotics" have a greater chance of success, when they are checked, IE honey is small, herbal antibiotics is med, and the full blown blue pill anti is greatest.

for over 45 minutes this "illness" debuff persisted, and I kept the blue pill antibiotics running the entire time. nada.

 
so I am a new player as of A17, so not comparing to A16 (no experience with it) I do understand the antibiotic mechanic. essentially you get a 10 minute buff to increase chance of shrugging off a debuff. I would assume that different types of "antibiotics" have a greater chance of success, when they are checked, IE honey is small, herbal antibiotics is med, and the full blown blue pill anti is greatest.
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In A16, the blue pill healed all stages immediately.

The green herbs antibiotics and honey only cured stage 1.

The healing took place immediately.

It's the waiting for a possible reaction that annoys people.

In addition, sometimes you just get rid of the infection without taking anything. Then you might see the sacrifice of antibiotics as a waste because you can't make a direct connection between healing and taking the antibiotics.

for over 45 minutes this "illness" debuff persisted, and I kept the blue pill antibiotics running the entire time. nada.
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This is a bug

 
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so only speaking as a new player, I find the mechanic interesting and accurate. Taking a drug improves your chances of shrugging off an illness, not guarantee it. Same with not taking anything at all. You can get the flu and shrug it off fine with nothing taken. you can get a flu shot and raise your resistance, but no guarantee (I feel like I catch it more often WITH the shot....but stats don't lie...I guess...).

So to me this is current mechanic is an interesting and fairly accurate way to handle it. just my two cents. Though I can understand the salt level if you were used to a different way. And so far (maybe a couple hundred hrs playing) I still carry a blue pill with me whenever I go scavenge, because it DOES make a difference in my chances, and that good enough reason for me:)

 
so only speaking as a new player, I find the mechanic interesting and accurate. Taking a drug improves your chances of shrugging off an illness, not guarantee it. Same with not taking anything at all. You can get the flu and shrug it off fine with nothing taken. you can get a flu shot and raise your resistance, but no guarantee (I feel like I catch it more often WITH the shot....but stats don't lie...I guess...).
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It may be more realistic, but in a world where you can harvest your garden every 2 days, realism is not necessarily something you would expect. :)

It's just frustrating for the player when he's hanging in the air and doesn't know what to do.

You should have seen the rage from the streamer after he got infected again. The poor viewers who wore headphones. :)

So to me this is current mechanic is an interesting and fairly accurate way to handle it. just my two cents. Though I can understand the salt level if you were used to a different way. And so far (maybe a couple hundred hrs playing) I still carry a blue pill with me whenever I go scavenge, because it DOES make a difference in my chances, and that good enough reason for me:)
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I usually have honey with me when I do a bigger quest. At the first sign I use this and it works immediately.

If I am on the road normally then I risk it mostly that it becomes an infection but this happens rather rarely.

 
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