Epidemics mechanism is a total failure

[wc901107]

The epidemics mechanism has become the worst features to me.

It doesn't challenge the management of your hospital. Instead, it punishes you for having a big successfully hospital. When you have a high reputation, get a lot of patients, be kind enough to give seats for everybody and manage all your staffs to focus on their jobs, you will find out it is extremely difficult to find out the infested patients. At the end, the reward is only 2500 dollars, while the penalty is just -10 reputation. I couldn't think of a reason not hit the cross.

And let's take a step back to see how the theme hospital beats it in every single aspect:
1. You have to heal the infected patients to get rid of the epidemics, it urges you to have an efficent hospital
2. You need a nurse to stop the contagion, so you are required to have high skills nurses to vaccinate everyone asap
3. Infected patients have signs on them! Guess what? It is not a d finder game!

[TheGreenman]

I get it's not an aspect that every single player likes, but a failure?? That's a bit hyperbolic.

[OldGamer]

Unless you are in Blighton.

But for those I just camp outside the entrance/exit of the hospital and catch anyone wierd.

If I have a few left, I know they have to be staff.

If I fail, who cares? as you say its non exsistent penalty. But you would be complaining more if by failing the epidemic you had to restart the level or something.

So count your lucky stars.

[inge]

I wouldn't regard that as punishment. It's a realistic consequence. What I like about this game is that it's modelled on realistic consequences rather than arbitrary penalties and rewards (apart from being able to buy and spam a certificate of merit).

[OldGamer]

Originally posted by inge:

I wouldn't regard that as punishment. It's a realistic consequence. What I like about this game is that it's modelled on realistic consequences rather than arbitrary penalties and rewards (apart from being able to buy and spam a certificate of merit).

Theres nothing realistic about this game....and its not trying to be.

If there were real epidemics in the world (and there has been in the past), they lock down the area where they think patient 0 is in, and not allow anyone else in that zone.

Whilst in game you still get patients through your hospital when the apparent epidemic is going on. That just wouldn't happen in real life.

[inge]

Actually I disagree. Our hospitals are a shambles and they can't seem to control where patients go at all (see my previous comments about whether you can tell patients which cafeteria to use according to what clinical room they are waiting for) . I am sure in a small private hospital that could be done but I can't imagine it in one of our huge NHS combos

[Nimir-Raj]

Ironically, that argument of not being realistic, is contradictory as to why GP queues happen.

GP queues happen because they have replicated the system where by if the patient needs further diagnosis, even if the diagnosis is 100% certain, they still have to return to the GP.

In real life you would have to return to a a qualified doctor to get a diagnosis. It doesn't matter if the nurse diagnosing you knows 100% you have pnuemonia, the nurse isn't qualified to make an official diagnosis and suggest treatment and you must see a doctor who is.

If they didn't want some level of realism then could simply remove that requirement and just have the auto-diagnose after X % that some people keep asking for, in fact they'd probably have done it like that originally.

Sure it's not trying to be real, it's intended to be fun. But that doesn't mean the founding basis isn't based on real hospital functionality.

[inge]

This is where mods come in. Even though I applaud the frustrating realism I also understand how some things just become tedious to manage on a repetitive basis, and so I have no problem at all with the idea of having these things configurable - or as mods (provided the mods are not going to be rendered "broken" with every patch like you get in The Sims)

[Maki]

It only becomes an issue in Blighton, since it occurs so frequently and you're expected to do it as part of your Star level and as a funding boost early on. Otherwise, it's mostly a harmless diversion, like shooting Monobeasts.

My problem with it is that it, every now and then, it seemed bugged. For example, I'll run into a situation where the challenge was to vaccinate 6 people and I'm given 24 vaccines, but after curing some, I will fail out of the blue because I'm told there were actually 17 people and now I don't have enough vaccines. Likewise, the "detected leaving the hospital" warning is a bit misleading as they aren't walking out of the hospital when it occurs. I think it happens the moment they decide to leave (they can still wander the hospital for a while), but if we have the power to "detect" their infection, why aren't we vaccinating them automatically?

I also agree with OP that the challenge doesn't scale to a larger hospital. By that point, I'm flush with cash and I'd rather take the hit than scour a 100 patients. It's nice to have that option, but it does feel inelegant.

[Montiness]

This discussion is a joke. Perhaps instead make a Suggestion: Epidemic post to suggest making the rewards and penalties greater.

Everything else you've written is .... pathetic.

If your hospital is efficient, it is easy to find the infected. If you don't know how here are some tips.

1. Use pause.
2. Work through wing by wing. Erradicate it from one wing (start with the farthest from the entrance) and move on to the next.
3. I don't know what you mean by signs. If you mean symptoms, then duh... if you mean signs over their heads, they do not.
4. Don't put Energy Drinks machines anywhere on maps that run epidemics. Luxuries are better anyway.
5 as for 2500 reward? That's very, very low, and you can do much better.

[Unknown Error]

I hated it in theme hospital and I still hate it now although I'm thankful that the consequences for rejecting it is far more forgiving.

[O_o]

its " okay", but not a gameplay element which i rly like

[Giblets]

They were a great money boost in theme hospital and made it quite fun as they game was a bit limited, the problem here to trying to find the correct patients.

[drozd_master]

Originally posted by Montiness:

This discussion is a joke. Perhaps instead make a Suggestion: Epidemic post to suggest making the rewards and penalties greater.

Everything else you've written is .... pathetic.

If your hospital is efficient, it is easy to find the infected. If you don't know how here are some tips.

1. Use pause.
2. Work through wing by wing. Erradicate it from one wing (start with the farthest from the entrance) and move on to the next.
3. I don't know what you mean by signs. If you mean symptoms, then duh... if you mean signs over their heads, they do not.
4. Don't put Energy Drinks machines anywhere on maps that run epidemics. Luxuries are better anyway.
5 as for 2500 reward? That's very, very low, and you can do much better.

sounds like you find this mechanic fun? first few ocurences were ok (with my starting hospital), just barely ok but not fun even then ...but with full hospital with almost 300 patients + about 100 staff? scanning such hospital for 6-8 people showing signs of epidemic only when they move? and a lot of the people (especially the staff) are sitting in one place for quite some time .. and doing it about every 30 minutes...i find that to be more of a tedious and boring job than a fun game mechanic, so after the first few i started to skip them all the time (other than the ones needed for stars).

if you compare it to the original epidemic mechanic from theme hospital (described briefly in the original post) than you get a where is waldo vs interesting mechanic that requires you to have a finely running hospital ( and that can get you nice bonus for that/or cost you a lot money if you tried to cover up the epidemic and failed.

Last time i played theme hospital was about 8 months ago and the epidemic mechanics was a real and meaningfull part of the game (sometimes got me so much needed money boost, other time ruining me for failing to cover up several epidemics in a row) ....here its just more of an irrelevant nuisance

[Doc Savage]

Originally posted by Mohegan Moh1336:

Ironically, that argument of not being realistic, is contradictory as to why GP queues happen.

GP queues happen because they have replicated the system where by if the patient needs further diagnosis, even if the diagnosis is 100% certain, they still have to return to the GP.

In real life you would have to return to a a qualified doctor to get a diagnosis. It doesn't matter if the nurse diagnosing you knows 100% you have pnuemonia, the nurse isn't qualified to make an official diagnosis and suggest treatment and you must see a doctor who is.

If they didn't want some level of realism then could simply remove that requirement and just have the auto-diagnose after X % that some people keep asking for, in fact they'd probably have done it like that originally.

Sure it's not trying to be real, it's intended to be fun. But that doesn't mean the founding basis isn't based on real hospital functionality.

Ironically in every hospital I have been in, the Doctor makes the rounds, not the sick patients.

The entire system is bass ackwards, but needs to be. I wouldn't want to play a game where I had to make 154 patient rooms and a staff room, espeically before we had copy-paste.

Patients would be taken to all the treatment rooms via wheelchair or gurney, requiring a nurse. You would need many, many more nurses for anything of consequence to happen in a hospital of any decent size.

So, yes, it's hardly trying to be real, it's intended to be fun. But the founding basis is no where near what it actually is IRL; aside from the GP having to make treatment decisions. (which actually is only sort of correct, specialists make treatment decisions and report back to GPs what they're doing with a patient)

Concerning the OP... Definite love-hate thing with the epidemics. Early small hospital it's OK, later on with hundreds of people it's the very definition of PITA.

Cheers..!

[druegan2001]

I find the epidemics to be largely just a nuisance. Reputation means practically nothing and while there's a couple maps where they can be of minor benefit.. meh..

But no.. this game doesn't even remotely attempt "reality".. You'll never in your life see a person with a broken leg being sent to psychiatry to diagnose it. lol

And as far as "actual hospitals" go, at least here in the US.. there really aren't "GP's".. all those are off-site. Either you wind up in hospital through the Emergency Department, or you have been through a bunch of offsite doctors, specialists, or other mess, had a gazillion tests done, and only wind up in hospital with an appointment for some procedure..

Either way, most of your GP's here are just listening to what you say for a few minutes, poking a few things, asking the same questions you already answered 3x to other staff, not reading any of that information, and then just plugging your symptoms into an insurance company provided version of WebMD to decide what to do to you based on what the insurance company says it will pay for.

Which does not make for a fun sounding game.