Rant on viruses.

[[UA]Ramiel]

My biggest problems with viruses are as follows:
1. Too easy to cure.
Got bitten by cricket? No problem, grab a patat from a farm pod nearby, cook it, eat it and you're fine. Photofobia? Just catch any moth, boil it, eat it and you are fine. Or just don't look at the sun, you are not looking up anyway.
Viruses are complex deceases, they should take a lot of time to cure, not being wiped out in the split second, and a cure itself should be harder to obtain and craft.

2. Viruses are too easy to manufacture after virus analysis is completed once. You just create a virus sample out of two components. Virus sample recipe should include more components, at least some glass 'cause you put it into a glass vial. right? Continuing with recipes, each booster just require one virus sample to be crafted, it's too simple for such item. The idea behind crafting something that is not a basic necessity item is to put together several components which were also crafted beforehand. With boosters we just directly transform one item into another. Booster looks like a big bottle was used as a housing, so it make sense to add a large bottle to the recipe or make it more complex in any other way.

3. Symptoms are very light and not affecting gameplay in a meaningful way. Visual glitches, gibberish instead of normal suit AI voice and ringing in the ears are good for the first 10 minutes, but are not affecting player's behavior.
Photofobia can be extended to affect player during the whole day just because daylight exist, so player will be incentivised to live a night life and hide inside their airship during the day or take a risk and go under the sunlight and suffer damage to heath over time.

And of course, I don't know how devs have planned to use viruses in the game and to what extend. I don't know what they are doing about this mechanic right now. chances are that viruses in 1.0 will be working completely different. But I think this topic should be discussed 'because it didn't receive enough attention before.

I'd like to hear what you guys think about viruses and how they can be improved to provide better experience for us.

[Wendigo]

Originally posted by UARamiel:

My biggest problems with viruses are as follows:
1. Too easy to cure.
Got bitten by cricket? No problem, grab a patat from a farm pod nearby, cook it, eat it and you're fine. Photofobia? Just catch any moth, boil it, eat it and you are fine. Or just don't look at the sun, you are not looking up anyway.
Viruses are complex deceases, they should take a lot of time to cure, not being wiped out in the split second, and a cure itself should be harder to obtain and craft.

2. Viruses are too easy to manufacture after virus analysis is completed once. You just create a virus sample out of two components. Virus sample recipe should include more components, at least some glass 'cause you put it into a glass vial. right? Continuing with recipes, each booster just require one virus sample to be crafted, it's too simple for such item. The idea behind crafting something that is not a basic necessity item is to put together several components which were also crafted beforehand. With boosters we just directly transform one item into another. Booster looks like a big bottle was used as a housing, so it make sense to add a large bottle to the recipe or make it more complex in any other way.

3. Symptoms are very light and not affecting gameplay in a meaningful way. Visual glitches, gibberish instead of normal suit AI voice and ringing in the ears are good for the first 10 minutes, but are not affecting player's behavior.
Photofobia can be extended to affect player during the whole day just because daylight exist, so player will be incentivised to live a night life and hide inside their airship during the day or take a risk and go under the sunlight and suffer damage to heath over time.

And of course, I don't know how devs have planned to use viruses in the game and to what extend. I don't know what they are doing about this mechanic right now. chances are that viruses in 1.0 will be working completely different. But I think this topic should be discussed 'because it didn't receive enough attention before.

I'd like to hear what you guys think about viruses and how they can be improved to provide better experience for us.

Welcome to a game thats pretty much in both the future with advanced tech breakthroughs and a different reality.

If you want something more realistic, then go do something better with your time in real life.

[Tanyon]

I agree but it might just be how the game is for now.

I could totally get behind them taking longer and being more complex to cure but I think maybe we should just see if maybe Greg sees this post and can clarify IF they will be changing the system in the future.

Overall.. yup agree as for now they are a non issue super easy to cure.. and honestly hard to get. In my 50 hours I have only had a virus like 3x maybe.. ?

[william_es]

I kind of agree with the OP.

The viruses are supposed to be the Big Bad that rendered the planet uninhabitable, wiped out the humans that remained, and drove some survivors off planet. Finding pure samples of the viruses is why the first expedition was sent, and why the player was sent down later on after the expedition stopped responding to contact. The people on the "The Ark" need the cure.

This "ark" is possibly the last surviving humans, and the virus cure is the maguffin we're all supposed to be looking for.

But the OP is right, so far they're pretty weak threats, even just as a plot points.

How about photophobia so bad that you can't even look at the entire 180 degree side of the screen where the sun is, and at noon, you can't look anywhere. Complete whiteout. Maybe just enough vision to allow you see the outline of rooms and doorways on your ship.

Vertigo virus that makes you have a panic attack (vision turns red, with red "veins" covering your vision", pulse thumping in your ears, etc) if you try to go above a certain height. No more visiting greenhouses, or other high POI's until you get it cured. You'd have to make a mad dash to an underdust elevator and a made scramble to the elevator down, with the cure being plants from the underdust. The hilarious punchline being that underdust elevators are one of the highest POI's in the game currently.