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IDProjectCategoryLast Update
0017619Stars Beyond ReachSuggestionOct 2, 2015 2:11 pm
Reporterptarth Assigned ToChris_McElligottPark  
Status resolvedResolutionfixed 
Product Version0.913 (Hotfix) 
Fixed in Version0.914 (The Diseased, The Unemployed, And The Balanced) 
Summary0017619: Thoughts on Disease in SBR v3
DescriptionDisease modeling in SBR has change many times over the versions. In SBR v1 diseases were something you suffered through, if you had prepared it was better if not, it usually meant the end for you. SBR v2 introduced the disease controls which offered some ways to manage diseases once you got them, but they have been removed in SBR v3. This returns us in many ways to the SBR v1 era.

Currently our only option is preventative, trying to build more treatment facilities takes too long and the disease will stabilize before any new control efforts can be finished. In the case of efficiency impairing diseases with even a moderate infection rate your game is effectively over. With lethal diseases, your game is over.

Several methods were pursued to fix this, the addition of the v2 controls, the proposal of the liquidate injured button, and redeveloping the disease characteristics. However, we still don't have a good solution.

My proposal then is to simplify the problem while making it a more realistic portrayal of an imaginary futuristic society. When infected with a disease the player is not told. Instead there is some chance for a disease to be discovered each turn, based upon relatively frequency of hospital services to population, the severity of the disease, and infection rate of the disease. Once a disease is discovered it immediately stops spreading (or at least can only spread very, very slowly).

In the worse case scenario your new citizens will be born without it and will slowly renew your society. In a normal case your hospitals will clean things up while being boosted by clean citizens. In a best case scenario it is discovered early and citizens are rapidly cured without impairing progress.

In effect what is happening is that your doctors become aware of large scale impairment in citizen function and health, and then act to stop it. They detect the pathogen, devise methods to detect it, test all the citizens, put the infected citizens in hazmat suits, and sterilize the environment. This is why the pathogen spread stops. After that infected citizens either die or are eventually cured.

I believe this would address the problem of disease being something that a player cannot do anything about. A prepared player will only suffer a little due to disease. An unprepared player will still suffer a tremendous loss, but would be able to recover.

Examples:
Highly impact disease - It hits, wipes out 25% of your population (via death or impairment), but then is quickly detected. It burns out without further damage.
Low impact disease - It hits, infects 80% of your population before being detected. It drops production by 5%. You'll be slow until your citizens are cured, but it isn't end game.
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Chris_McElligottPark

Oct 2, 2015 2:11 pm

administrator   ~0043225

Okay, I'm going to mark this as resolved for now, because the situation that you're specifically describing should be resolved by this. But if a further discussion of diseases needs to happen in 0.914 or after, by all means please make another topic about it. I think the circumstances will have changed drastically enough that the discussion will be a bit different, though, one way or the other.

* The three disease-warding buildings have been moved forward from act 4 to act 1 instead. This lets you actually defend against diseases in a timely fashion. This was coming way too late, previously.

* In act 1, you now cannot be struck by diseases of severity greater than 10 (that's most of them).
** In act 2, it's 20 as the cap.
** In act 3, 50 is the cap.
** After that, be ready for anything.
** This keeps you from getting hit with deadly plagues early in the game, while still letting you potentially deal with some milder diseases that you now should have the tools to fight off. But it keeps the potential of mega-outbreaks later on in particular. And for those players who don't take proper notice of the early diseases and prepare themselves at least some, the results could be catastrophic.


Thanks!

Issue History

Date Modified Username Field Change
Oct 2, 2015 1:50 pm ptarth New Issue
Oct 2, 2015 2:11 pm Chris_McElligottPark Note Added: 0043225
Oct 2, 2015 2:11 pm Chris_McElligottPark Status new => resolved
Oct 2, 2015 2:11 pm Chris_McElligottPark Fixed in Version => 0.914 (The Diseased, The Unemployed, And The Balanced)
Oct 2, 2015 2:11 pm Chris_McElligottPark Resolution open => fixed
Oct 2, 2015 2:11 pm Chris_McElligottPark Assigned To => Chris_McElligottPark