New book: Curing Diseases for Dummies

[Studenterhue]

I just really like the way that guide is written. We could use a lot more of that for the more complicated systems, something short and sweet that barely touches on how to do things without explaining the how or why, leaving that for those that want to experiment

I second this notion, especially for urgent things like disease curing. If I was infected with a horrible pathogen and was looking through this book for advice (not theory, as the title's suggesting) on curing it (which is what most people would be reading this book for), a big slog of theory with a single practical tip hidden in some obscure detail somewhere is last thing I'd want. Which is why I heartily disagree with Erev's argument.

From what I've been hearing, one of the major frustrations with curing diseases is the annoyingly vague suppressant hints, particularly the "medical" and "gastronomical" hints. I think it's a valid concern, not a complaint from lower-skilled or less knowledgeable or uncreative people, because discovering suppressant yourself involves none of those aspects. Unlike tweaking engine setups, it's doing the same general thing, over and over, with only slight variation, and unlike, finding plant splices or discovering secret chem recipes, nothing interesting happens along the way. The fact that "medical" and "gastronomical" are such broad categories only exacerbates it.

A book that just reiterates or restates hints can't help with this, because again, people find the current ones too vague. We could, perhaps, avoid name-dropping chems. Instead of a key, we could do something like "past studies have highlighted the pathogen-suppressing qualities of soybean extract" or "certain pathogens are intensively sensitive to radioactive elements". This is probably what Erev wants, but I doubt these hints are suitable for something that really has little player agency or experimentation involved.

Anything that makes pathology nerds mad is a good idea 10/10 add immediately.

I almost agree, but the three pathogen nerds I know (King Midas, Barry Bluejeans, and Lamar Roth-something) are Actually Pretty Decent People, so I really can't, as much I love this post.