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Communicable Diseases [1.4]

Diseases are now communicable. Added challenge of containing epidemics.

When it comes to disease, the Vanilla experience is very basic: The game triggers an event and a random handful of colonists are infected with the disease of choice. The colonists initially affected by the event are then the only colonists you have to worry about taking care of. With Communicable Diseases, dealing with diseases is no longer so simple. You will now have to worry about certain diseases being transmitted between your colonists. If you aren't careful, your entire colony can become affected by the flu or plague. Animals will also spread animal flu and animal plague.

When a colonist becomes infected with either the flu or plague, they will begin to drop germs. These germs then get on your colonists as they interact with the same surroundings as the infected individuals. Finally, the germs cause your colonists to contract the disease in question.

If you are unfortunate enough, you may experience a mosquito or tsetse fly season while someone in the colony has malaria or sleeping sickness. These insects are too small to see/kill, and will bite anyone who is outside and not using Penoxycyline. Bites have a very small chance of spreading the disease which increases with how many people are infected in the area. Bites do not cause negative thoughts and do not need tending. Insect seasons will not happen in certain regions of the world due to elevation, rainfall, and temperature.

The initial infection remains the same - random and out of nowhere - as I have not yet found a good way to introduce disease to the colony without it being even more annoying than it already is.

Mechanoids are not affected by diseases.

Germs are almost identical to any other form of filth in the game. Colonists assigned to the cleaning job will be able to clean these germs off of the ground just as they would be able to with dirt. However, the germs will accumulate much more quickly than any other form of filth, given time. Keeping sick colonists isolated, and having a designated cleaner zoned to your hospital is going to be crucial for mitigating germ spread.

Investing in sterile or metal flooring for your hospital will help you mitigate the spread of diseases, so long as you stay on top of keeping those tiles clean. Tracking dirt or allowing other filth to build up in your hospital will negate the positive effect of your sterile/metal flooring.

You are going to want to invest in PPE for your colonists, as it will allow them to move about the colony while sick and not spread as many germs. Wearing PPE also reduces the chance of germs that do get on your colonists actually infecting them. PPE is slowly being added to this mod, so keep an eye out for updates.

Current PPE Available
- Plague Doctor Mask (80% protection)
- Dust Mask (50% protection)
- Respirator (70% protection)
- Full-face respirator (80% protection)
- PAPR (95% protection)
- Gloves (5% protection)

Any other mods with apparel that give toxic sensitivity buffs will also help prevent the spread of disease. There used to be two custom stats in this mod that determined how protected a pawn was and I would have to patch them in for other mods that added apparel. That became tedious, to say the least.

Vanilla Apparel Expanded
Vanilla Armour Expanded
Darkest Rim
FashionRIMsta
Rimmu-nation - Clothing
Rimatomics
Plague Doctor's Suit
Equip Gas Masks

RimOutbreak
Diseases Overhauled
Ebola by TheSamuraiKenshi[ludeon.com]
COVID-19 by TheSamuraiKenshi[ludeon.com]

Pen Config

Occasionally, an event will occur where some of your animals are infected with the animal flu or animal plague. It is important to understand that animals cannot be equipped with the same protective gear as humans. You will need to quickly decide how you are going to handle the infected animals (quarantine or euthanasia) before the disease spreads. Animals can only transmit diseases to members of the same species.

As the severity of the disease increases, so does the drop rate of the germs. Because of this, it is highly recommended that you quarantine sick colonists, animals, and prisoners as soon as possible. This is best accomplished by using Zones. By keeping the germs in one spot, you can mitigate the spread of the disease throughout your colony.

Setting infected pawns to self-tend is not ideal for a quick recovery, but might be a better idea than having your best doctor tending patients; It all depends on your specific situation.

Prisoners are often kept in a single holding cell by most players. Disease events CAN and WILL select prisoner pawns for initial infection. It is highly suggested that you keep prisoners who are meant to be recruited separated from other prisoners. You may end up having to release your prisoners in order to avoid the incredibly high medicine cost of keeping everyone alive after the disease spreads.

There are various mod options available, and I hope to continue to expand upon them over time. They include:

Toggle: Immune pawns drop germs
Toggle: Notifications for non-colonist humans
Toggle: Notifications for non-colonist animals
Toggle: Diseases spread between humanlike alien races

Slider: Germ drop rate factor [0.1x - 10x]
Slider: Mosquito bite rate factor [0.1x - 10x]
Slider: Tsetse fly bite rate factor [0.1x - 10x]

Q: Can I add this mod to an existing save?
A: Yes.

Q: Is this mod safe to remove from a save?
A: Yes. You will get some initial errors about things not being set to an instance of an object. After those initial errors, you will not see more from this mod, and your save will be intact.

Q: Does this mod automatically cause other mod diseases to spread?
A: No. For each disease to spread, a patch needs to be applied to the Human hediffgiverset, and germs need to be added to the FilthVarious xml file. I do not have the C# knowledge to automate this sort of thing, and automating it might actually cause issues. What if someone else's disease isn't something that would normally be transmittable? These are important things to consider.

Artists
Shakesthespeare
- Plague Doctor Mask
- Dust Mask
- Respirator
- Full-face respirator
- PAPR

- Currently no new content planned due to personal work/life balance

Celestials