Too many too long diseases in too quick succession

[Harun]

So I started the Rich Explorer mode on Rough. Quickly some chick joined and shortly after her father. Out of nowhere daughter and dad get sleeping sickness(even though the only cannibal in the group is the guy I started out with). Daughter simultaneusly gets Fibrous Mechanitis. Shortly after she AND the original guy get gut worms(only having freezed fine meals at the time). So she's there with 3 sicknesses. Her dad with one. My original guy with one. Which is bad enough.

So a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of time passes and the gut worms(which usually die in frozen food, just saying) pass, leaving the original settler healthy, albeit only for a bit, and dad and daughter with the sleeping sickness, which is a sickness you don't just get. Daughter has the Mechanitis on top. I get it it's a random future affliction. Whatever.

One day later the original guy gets the Flu. WHAT THE ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

Stopped playing. Give me challenges I can fight. The sickness system is too random and it's not a fun mechanic to begin with. Immunities build up really slowly, taking weeks actually. And there's nothing to be done about it except have enough medicine in stock. It doesn't make the game better IMO.

[Lawlzer]

Where do your make your base? If you make it on the tropical forest, the chance of getting diseases is raised, whereas on sea ice, the chance is virtuall never

[Harun]

Small hills near equator for that all year round growing period.

I just think, even on rough, 6 disease outbreaks, 3 on the same person simultaneously, in the first 10 days is too much.

[Stormsong]

I forget where someone posted the numbers..maybe someone can dig it up and cover my back. However, somewhere a small while ago the math for the difficulties was posted in regard to something else. Going from Some Challenge to Rough is nearly a 2x jump in "bad events." On top of that it sounds like you're in a rainforest.

It's a counterbalance for having the all year round growing (the sickness that is). Which is a significant benefit, as I'm sure you know which is why you chose the spot.

[Tomdroid]

Originally posted by Harun:

Small hills near equator for that all year round growing period.

I just think, even on rough, 6 disease outbreaks, 3 on the same person simultaneously, in the first 10 days is too much.

Small hills isnt the biome, its the terrain.

[Brassqund]

Did you pick randy as story teller?
That would explain.

[Harun]

Originally posted by Brassqund:

Did you pick randy as story teller?
That would explain.

No, took the "long time between incidents"-chick.

Originally posted by Tomdroid:

Small hills isnt the biome, its the terrain.

Well it was the dark green area in the south of the planet. The part with the all year round growth period.

Originally posted by Stormsong the Fallen:

It's a counterbalance for having the all year round growing (the sickness that is). Which is a significant benefit, as I'm sure you know which is why you chose the spot.

I get the counterbalance part. But spamming sickness shouldn't be the way to go. Maybe make terrain less passable or have more frequent attacks by jungle monsters/tribes. Sickness in general is just not fun to deal with. Especially since some patch where it now takes 30 medicine to overcome one disease. Also how every disease seems to lead to death untreated. Also how you can't treat yourself. Also how it just stops your progress and makes the game slow down to a halt where you simply wait for that ♥♥♥♥ to be over, staring at the screen and keeping an eye on the meters.

[Tomdroid]

Originally posted by Harun:

Originally posted by Brassqund:

Did you pick randy as story teller?
That would explain.

No, took the "long time between incidents"-chick.

Originally posted by Tomdroid:

Small hills isnt the biome, its the terrain.

Well it was the dark green area in the south of the planet. The part with the all year round growth period.

Originally posted by Stormsong the Fallen:

It's a counterbalance for having the all year round growing (the sickness that is). Which is a significant benefit, as I'm sure you know which is why you chose the spot.

I get the counterbalance part. But spamming sickness shouldn't be the way to go. Maybe make terrain less passable or have more frequent attacks by jungle monsters/tribes. Sickness in general is just not fun to deal with. Especially since some patch where it now takes 30 medicine to overcome one disease. Also how every disease seems to lead to death untreated. Also how you can't treat yourself. Also how it just stops your progress and makes the game slow down to a halt where you simply wait for that ♥♥♥♥ to be over, staring at the screen and keeping an eye on the meters.

Well, thats how jungles in real life work. Tons of bugs which spread diseases, but hot year round. Yeah, you picked a jungle. I reccomend that temperate forest is the way to go.

[Harun]

Originally posted by Tomdroid:

Well, thats how jungles in real life work. Tons of bugs which spread diseases, but hot year round. Yeah, you picked a jungle. I reccomend that temperate forest is the way to go.

See I waited for someone to come to me with the "realism" argument. Getting the flu, sleeping sickness and that mechanitis-thingy AT ONCE isn't realistic. Realistically you get one sickness, then your immune system is at 110% to prevent you from getting other sicknesses and to fight the existing one. What happened in my colony wasn't realistic, it was RNG ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

Also my point this whole time is that while some sickness system in a colony sim is surely a valid mechanic it is implemented in this game in such a not-fun and lazy way.

Constructive criticism/ Change idea: Every sickness has a certain cure. Make it dependend on the level of your doctor to know what the cure is. Make this information available to the player somehow. Have the colonists gather the necessary ingredients for a cure. Maybe the higher the doctor's level is the more possible cures he knows for one sickness. (To avoid things like unavailable ingredients.) That's just the basic idea. I'm sure it has its problems but it damn sure is more fun to actively help your patients then to just pump them with generic medicine that takes weeks to cure the dude. I get it, it's harder to implement then the current solution, but then again, why did I purchase the Alpha if not to make constructive criticism.

[Tomdroid]

Originally posted by Harun:

Originally posted by Tomdroid:

Well, thats how jungles in real life work. Tons of bugs which spread diseases, but hot year round. Yeah, you picked a jungle. I reccomend that temperate forest is the way to go.

See I waited for someone to come to me with the "realism" argument. Getting the flu, sleeping sickness and that mechanitis-thingy AT ONCE isn't realistic. Realistically you get one sickness, then your immune system is at 110% to prevent you from getting other sicknesses and to fight the existing one. What happened in my colony wasn't realistic, it was RNG ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

Also my point this whole time is that while some sickness system in a colony sim is surely a valid mechanic it is implemented in this game in such a not-fun and lazy way.

Constructive criticism/ Change idea: Every sickness has a certain cure. Make it dependend on the level of your doctor to know what the cure is. Make this information available to the player somehow. Have the colonists gather the necessary ingredients for a cure. Maybe the higher the doctor's level is the more possible cures he knows for one sickness. (To avoid things like unavailable ingredients.) That's just the basic idea. I'm sure it has its problems but it damn sure is more fun to actively help your patients then to just pump them with generic medicine that takes weeks to cure the dude. I get it, it's harder to implement then the current solution, but then again, why did I purchase the Alpha if not to make constructive criticism.

Well, Fibrous Mechanites and Malaria are not the exact same diseases, so i don't see how exactly your immune system would be prepared for the other. Also, there is a "cure" its called Penoxyline, have a colonist take it once every 5 days, and they should be mostly immune to most diseases.

[corisai]

Originally posted by Harun:

Also my point this whole time is that while some sickness system in a colony sim is surely a valid mechanic it is implemented in this game in such a not-fun and lazy way.

That's how real jungle work. Without dedicated doctor and enough medicines - they're very deadly for non-natives (and same in Rimworld). Read about Amazonia expeditions - a lot of peoples from Europe died here.

[PhotriusPyrelus]

Every time I see the "realism" argument (in pretty much any game), I'm reminded of the developer's response to this post:

https://www.reddit.com/r/RimWorld/comments/54gu1h/time_to_rebalance_backstories_and_traits/

In the end, this game is a fair amount of "RNG Blue shift" (though aren't we given 'base building' mode to avoid this?). You shouldn't go into this game expecting to win. You should approach this game hoping to do the best you can with what you get. It's kind of like Darkest Dungeon but without all the Lovecraftian overtones. This really is a game where the playing is itself the goal, not the winning.