Critters and radstorms

[phyvo]

Currently birds and such are mutated in radstorms and also get the weakness and knockdown debuffs, but take no toxin damage.

Honestly, after experiencing this once, I would rather just flat out die. I was barely able to do anything myself due to constant mutations, weakness triggers, and knockdown triggers. I got stuck mute for half of the ordeal. Once I became un-mute (I had a lucky reset mutation roll) I did manage to get a bit of help from a doc, but the doc who did try to help me a bit was only average and gave up on trying to help me when he got irradiated from my new glut of mutations. I then spent the next 5-8 minutes trying to help myself but I needed pent acid and could not get myself under control to use the chem dispenser properly. Eventually I kicked myself or whatever and finally died. It was not fun at all. At least humans get to die quickly when in the same situation.

Either change it back to the way it was before or just kill critter players the way you kill humans, please. It's also kind of silly to give critters mutations when they can't do things like use the gene booth or be gene scanned, or use powers, but whatever.

Note, in the incident that inspired this thread I did not purposefully stay out in the radstorm going "hahaha I am immune" like critters used to be. I got locked in sec and couldn't get out, so I just had to sit there the whole storm while everyone else took cover. It was not a good experience.

[UrsulaMejor]

I end my case

[phyvo]

I will be honest, I don't know what your case is, exactly.

[THISISANICEGAME]

Just jump in a chute or a locker if you get locked out? This thread is asking for the removal of a feature without making any point other than "it killed me", consider stealing mutadone from genetics, consider vending yourself some mutadone with a mech comp button. Sorry if this sounds harsh.

[Rilor]

i think its not too unreasonable to not change how critters are irradiated... wait i thought critters didn't have genes because they're simpler (don't take oxy or tox damage, don't have genes, cant have chems inside them, dont need to breath, ect.), I know chickens are mobs (like humans and monkeys) and thus have genes and can be irradiated and suffocate. But im pretty sure most non-chicken and non-monkey animals in game are critters.

[UrsulaMejor]

i think its not too unreasonable to not change how critters are irradiated... wait i thought critters didn't have genes because they're simpler (don't take oxy or tox damage, don't have genes, cant have chems inside them, dont need to breath, ect.), I know chickens are mobs (like humans and monkeys) and thus have genes and can be irradiated and suffocate. But im pretty sure most non-chicken and non-monkey animals in game are critters.

all playable critters are mobcritters, and they can be mutated

[phyvo]

@THISISANICEGAME: I don't think you sound harsh, I think you just have no idea what I'm talking about. I am not asking for rad storms to be "removed". I am asserting that when a critter player is exposed to a rad storm (for whatever reason), their next 10-20 minutes of playing the game is hell. The rad storm does not kill the critter but it makes playing the game absolutely horrible. You know those people who try to automend themselves while they're in deep crit but they keep falling over? Trying to get myself meds was basically like that for 10+ minutes straight.

For the 10+ minutes after the rad storm ended I never got below Rad level 4 and I only got to 4 when I had Potassium Iodide in my system (which promptly jumped by up to 5 afterwards because of the radiation mutation). This means that I was almost constantly weakened and stunned by radiation sickness. I actually successfully got mutadone pills several times. But mutadone simply could not keep up with the new mutations. At that level of radiation it does not remove them faster than radiation adds them.

So there was no simple solution and I struggled to do anything at all. I realized that Pent Acid was the only way I'd be able to get the rads under control but it took me so long to do the most basic of actions that, finally, I died before I could finish it (although if I had realized how close I was to death I could have prevented it with styptic). The point is that whole process took an inordinate amount of time because of how handicapped I was.

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TLDR: There is a reason why when humans get caught out in the rad storm we just kill them. Because killing is a sensible consequence and playing a dying person who can barely do anything for more than 2 minutes is not fun for anyone. As a player, I can keep in mind in the future how to avoid getting stuck where I cannot find cover (yes, I know what lockers and chutes are). "get gud", whatever, I can do that. But that doesn't mean that this aspect of rad storms on critters is not flawed. Under no circumstance should players get stuck in a handicapped not-quite-dead state for 10 minutes like I was. Basic medicine did not help.

@Rilor: Critters are not immune to TOX. I've been killed by TOX plenty of times via miasma and chems. Unless that is another thing that changed since I came back.

[THISISANICEGAME]

Mmm, the radiation status effect doesn't deplete naturally in critters? That sounds like a bug, rad storms really shouldn't be messing you up 10 minutes after they happen, they don't do that with humans ime.

[UrsulaMejor]

. Under no circumstance should players get stuck in a handicapped not-quite-dead state for 10 minutes like I was. Basic medicine did not help.

suicide succumb

[phyvo]

Mmm, the radiation status effect doesn't deplete naturally in critters? That sounds like a bug, rad storms really shouldn't be messing you up 10 minutes after they happen, they don't do that with humans ime.

I actually had not considered that it could be bugged, I thought that I was stuck with the radiation mutation and it kept on making things worse. But perhaps it's bugged too? Hard to tell since I didn't have a health implant.

. Under no circumstance should players get stuck in a handicapped not-quite-dead state for 10 minutes like I was. Basic medicine did not help.

suicide succumb

If you consider /suicide /succumb to be an acceptable game design solution to the problem, then would you also be fine with all humans in radstorms being subject to the same treatment, that is, spending an inordinate amount of time helpless but not really dead unless they type /suicide /succumb? Because that's the implicit logic that you are using.

If all I wanted to do was solve my own personal issue then suicide succumb would be an acceptable solution. But from a design perspective it's a band-aid at best. Players routinely play antag critters or become critters by other means and I feel that it is the responsibility of the game to not put these players in this kind of extended handicapped situation, especially when that situation is caused by a random game event (rad storm) rather than something that was crafted by a player intentionally to be as crappy as possible (like nuggeting people).

[Frank_Stein]

If you consider /suicide /succumb to be an acceptable game design solution to the problem, then would you also be fine with all humans in radstorms being subject to the same treatment, that is, spending an inordinate amount of time helpless but not really dead unless they type /suicide /succumb? Because that's the implicit logic that you are using.

Not to comment on the merit of this idea or anything, but that scenario can occur multiple ways for humans, such as being stunned by N20 or having a sugar overdose.

My personal take is, if you're in that situation death is an option if you don't want to wait out having someone save you. Defaulting to death means taking away an option from players, actually giving them less freedom of choice.

[MomoBerry]

This isn't completely in the same vein, but I would like for radiation to have more varied statuses. The fact you can roll and stack weakness and knockdown constantly is really just the worst. Kind of the same vein as how all the addictions are just 90% puking, it feels like if you don't get mutated, you get weakness and stunned/knocked down.

Also i'm a little bit confused on the suicide debate, considering there are many mechanics that just stop you from suicide if you're actively apart of them. I would prefer that the mechanic just instantly happens if I suicide vs being forced to deal with the wait, honestly.