space rabies

[LinkDaWolf]

rabies, basically. can be given to monkey or players.

it can be spread by naughty pathologists, one of the disease random events, critters that spawn VERY rarely with a "rabid" prefix, or by admins. monkeys or players can spread it with attacks when in the final stages of infection. exosuits would help protect from it being spread, but they aren't an immunity.

people with this disease could, after a very long time, turn into npcs that bite/attack people. similar to rajaijah. monkeys would just be auto-aggressive, with a significantly lower chance to pick up any items on the ground. they'd prefer to bite. bites would give a chance to spread the disease.

as for symptoms prior to that final stage, here are a few that occur from REAL rabies and also fit in with existing game mechanics. small notes for each one. they dont all need to be in, they're just a bunch of ones that work.

Spoiler!

first few stages:
excessive movements or agitation (similar to beserker?)
confusion (stumbles around?)
hallucinations (same as the ones caused by drugs)
aggressiveness (again, like beserker)
bizarre or abnormal thoughts (same messages that are caused by drugs, maybe? or maybe specifically violent thoughts)
muscle spasms (infected person shaking/twitching)
seizures (yep)
weakness or paralysis (lower stamina?)
increased production of saliva or tears (basically, red text about runny eyes or drooling)
difficulty speaking (one of the speech impediments maybe)

In the advanced stage of the infection, as it spreads to other parts of the nervous system, these symptoms may develop:
problems moving facial muscles (messages about a droopy face/facial twitching?)
abnormal movements of the diaphragm and muscles that control breathing (red text about the person wheezing, very occasional 02 damage?)
difficulty swallowing and increased production of saliva, causing the "foaming at the mouth" usually associated with a rabies infection (red text about foaming mouth)

and then they would go into the "npc mode" where they attack people. maybe after a while they automatically die too? so people can set up a quarantine or something where they leave the infected to die

as for a cure, i dunno! it shouldn't be TOO difficult bc it wouldnt be fun to be unable to cure a disease that forces you to stop playing. maybe an underused medical chem? something that the chemists or anyone who can get to a chem dispenser can whip up. i took a peek at the ones i've got in the recipe manager but nothing stuck out at me.

its basically extreme beserker i guess, in that it potentially forces people into being rabid npcs. i mostly wanted to come up with an idea for something that would make monkeys auto-aggressive i guess, because being mobbed by monkeys is always fun.

ALSO just as a final note, monkeys would NEVER spawn with this. never. they could get it through a disease random event, or from other players/monkeys, but they won't start out the game as rabid.

[BaneOfGiygas]

as for a cure, i dunno! it shouldn't be TOO difficult bc it wouldnt be fun to be unable to cure a disease that forces you to stop playing. maybe an underused medical chem? something that the chemists or anyone who can get to a chem dispenser can whip up

Spaceacillin. It's the go-to "fixes a few oddly specific stuff" medical chem.

As for the rest of this, I think that list of symptoms is a bit excessively long, but I do like the idea of a disease that basically wrenches control from the player. Rajaijah-mode is kind of legitimately terrifying, and it's something I'd like to see taken advantage of in more instances.

[LinkDaWolf]

as for a cure, i dunno! it shouldn't be TOO difficult bc it wouldnt be fun to be unable to cure a disease that forces you to stop playing. maybe an underused medical chem? something that the chemists or anyone who can get to a chem dispenser can whip up

Spaceacillin. It's the go-to "fixes a few oddly specific stuff" medical chem.

As for the rest of this, I think that list of symptoms is a bit excessively long, but I do like the idea of a disease that basically wrenches control from the player. Rajaijah-mode is kind of legitimately terrifying, and it's something I'd like to see taken advantage of in more instances.

yeah the list of symptoms is pretty long but i figured i'd just list all the ones that work with the game mechanics. more options that can be picked from if it's implemented, they don't ALL have to be in the game or anything :shrug

rajaijah seems SUPER cool but i've never seen it used in-game, so this is kind've a two birds with one stones suggestion i guess. gives another way for the rajaijah effect to be seen in-game as well as a way for monkey hostility to be used as a mechanic.

[LinkDaWolf]

hi im gonna bump this bc i still think this is a kinda neat idea

[BaneOfGiygas]

And I'm going to once again put in my support, if only because we need more ways to sic pissed off monkeys on other people.

[Vitatroll]

I love raj, but that last time I got hit with it from a player it didn't last too long. Given it's difficulty and limited duration I just can't think of it as anything other than an 'hey look what I can do' chem. A real shame for such a kickass effect. I dunno. Maybe I just had a bad experience with it.

That being said, I'd love to see more of the raj-AI being used. The main problem I see with this, though, is people would willingly throw themselves to the wolves to become one. A harsh deterrent, like (the aforementioned) inevitable death (through violence and/or brain damage) and the inability to be cloned (a bad brain), would definitely be needed as a countermeasure.

[Frank_Stein]

Well, I think forcing people to become NPCs at the violent stage might be a useful deterrent. Most people willingly became zombies or aliens because they could play afterwards and have fun as an antag.

[babayetu83]

Well, I think forcing people to become NPCs at the violent stage might be a useful deterrent. Most people willingly became zombies or aliens because they could play afterwards and have fun as an antag.

god please no

that's the absolute worst thing

"what's that? you got hit by something incurable and will wrest control of your character from you? better have something else to do for the next 20-40 minutes, fucker"

instead of punishing people why not give an incentive to fight back and hold the line

[Frank_Stein]

Well, I think forcing people to become NPCs at the violent stage might be a useful deterrent. Most people willingly became zombies or aliens because they could play afterwards and have fun as an antag.

god please no

that's the absolute worst thing

"what's that? you got hit by something incurable and will wrest control of your character from you? better have something else to do for the next 20-40 minutes, fucker"

instead of punishing people why not give an incentive to fight back and hold the line

Did you even read the thread? They outlined NPC conversion, as well as a cure in the OP.

Tell me how twenty people lining up to get bit as an excuse to grief and kill other players would be a better alternative.

[Vitatroll]

I assumed the 'NPC conversion' was basically injection of the raj AI. You'd still be 'alive' and (as of last time I was raj'ed) have a tiny bit of control (if yoy move in the opposite direction you start yo-yoing with the AI, and you can also still talk), but you'd still be 'you'.

Honestly, it's more likely to be a fight between those who want to have fun killing the infected and those who want to be infected. All of this would be happening with that one guy in the background screaming "Wait! Wait! I can cure them!" -- it's a playerbase thing. It's not a bad thing. It's just a thing. It could still work well, given this. It just needs to be balanced with this in mind.

Given that spaceacillin would probably be the fix, all you would need to do is drop by a medbot to counter the disease. If it's made harder than spaceacillin then it's just not getting cured ever, probably.

[Paineframe]

Critter bites can already give you the berserker disease, which is a much better way of handling this in that it doesn't completely disable the player and essentially turn them into a spectator, nor does it have a pretty good chance of getting them executed and disposaled over a completely random event.