TriadCity Message of the Day
2010-02-17

Server version 0.85.0.0 introduces Illnesses into the City.

A rich infrastructure enables a considerable variety of symptoms, with varying severity and levels of communicability. An equally elaborate system of diagnoses, treatments and cures is also enabled. Here's a quick-and-dirty overview:

TRIADCITY ILLNESSES ARE LIKE VIRUSES

TriadCity illnesses behave similarly to real-life viral infections. They "invade" a host, which has a certain quantitative ability to fight them off. If infection occurs, the host experiences one or more symptoms for some period of time, which may include sneezes, coughs, runny noses, drowsiness, vomiting, dizziness, spots, sores, convulsions, comas, and a strong inclination to vote right-wing. Just like real life, you can even die if you get sick enough - although we promise not to introduce exceptionally severe illnesses into the game world until a strong and experienced cadre of Healers, Physicians, Witch Doctors and so on exist to treat them.

Every TC illness has a certain virulency, determining how often symptoms occur, and also impacting characters' Health, Energy, and other attributes. Naturally, the more virulent the illness, the more severe the impact.

Your body will eventually "fight off" the infection, which, over time, will grow weaker and eventually disappear. If you allow an illness to run its course this way, you'll be forever immune to future infection by that particular strain.

While you're sick, the symptoms are treatable. Coughing can be suppressed with herbal treatments, cough drops, etc. Note the distinction between symptoms and underlying illnesses - effects and causes. While symptoms may be suppressed, the sufferer is nevertheless still sick. Health, Energy, and other attributes will still be impacted.

COMMUNICABILITY

Every TC illness is communicable, and any character, PC or NPC, can get it. Species doesn't matter. People, pigeons, arachnids and fleas can all share the same cold.

Every illness has a greater or lesser degree of communicability, and every individual a greater or lesser ability to withstand infection.

MUTATIONS

Here's where it gets interesting. TriadCity illnesses can spontaneously mutate into new strains with varying communicability, virulence, and ease of diagnosis. You might be immune to a previous strain, but knocked off your feet by a new mutation. Illnesses don't mutate often. But, they do mutate.

CURES AND IMMUNIZATION

Many illnesses are curable. Swallow the right pill: zap! Gone.

Others, like common colds, can be treated but not cured.

Some illnesses, like seasonal Influenza, can be immunized against. As we add illness and medical infrastructure, new immunizations will be added at the same time.

DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT

Healers have a new command: DiagnoseIllness. Depending on Skill level and on a specific mutation's inherent difficulty to diagnose, Healers may or may not be able to learn exactly which illness and mutation infects a patient. Once that info is known, Healers can draw that illness from the patient into their own body using the DrawIllness command. If successful, the patient is no longer infected. The Healer may or may not be, depending on prior immunity. Note that drawing an illness this way relieves the sufferer - but does not provide them with immunity against future infection. These new commands are major sources of potential Experience for the Healer Role.

Additionally, the Actuate command has been expanded to enable herbal teas. These teas, along with over-the-counter medications can be effective in suppressing many symptoms. This gives the Herbalist Role a substantial new source of experience as well.

In the future, new Roles will enable contrasting approaches to diagnosis, treatment, and cure. As of today, Healer and Herbalist are it.

EPIDEMIC

In testing, we've found that spread of illnesses follows an interesting pattern. After an illness infects one or two initial hosts, it spreads quite slowly to new victims. After several hours real time, there may be two or three victims. If this illness isn't very virulent, it might possibly disappear spontaneously as victims' own immune systems fight it off before it spreads.

However, as time goes on, particularly with virulent strains, more and more individuals become infected, until a kind of "critical mass" is reached, and the illness sweeps the entire City rapidly. The more victims, the faster it spreads.

This presents you Healer and future doctor types interesting challenges. Identify, treat and immunize quickly enough, and epidemics may be prevented. Move too slowly, the whole City gets a head cold. Maybe you want them all to get colds: more exp for you. Or maybe you take a more altruistic view. Up to you!

PERSISTENCE

Illnesses which Players experience are persisted between logins and server reboots. If you log out sick, you'll still be sick when you return. This applies to immunities, as well. Once you've developed an immunity, whether by letting the illness run its course or by inoculation, you'll never become infected by that strain of the illness ever again. (You might become infected with future mutations.)

NPCs do NOT persist illnesses. Dead ones do not respawn with the immunities they gained before being killed. Server reboots wipe out all immunities: the game world begins from its original state. This means that there's considerable variation in epidemiology between a recently booted game world and one which has evolved for two or three weeks.

THAT'S NOT ALL, FOLKS

There's more, but, hopefully, this gets you started.

With server 0.85.0.0, just two illnesses will circulate: head colds and chest colds. Nothing too serious. We'll allow Healers plenty of time to update their Skills and get used to these two simple, not-so-virulent illnesses.

In the future there will be many more illness types, along with multiple Roles able to diagnose and treat them. Plus, a rich infrastructure of hospitals, clinics, physicians, bots, drugs, herbs, rituals and so on. These initial two colds will get us started.

Holler with questions!

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