Common cold lasts really damn long (build 6085)

First and foremost, this game is a true gem. Seems like every survivor discovers something new that his or her unlucky predecessors didn’t know! Such as the fact ordinary illnesses still exist. My sincere thanks to all the developers who put their time and energy into constantly making this game better.

I caught a cold at the beginning of winter - poor timing since I was making preparations for a multi-day spelunk into a frozen science lab. Little did I know that I’d still be fighting that cold two weeks later… it’s now ~13th of winter (default season lengths of 14 days) and I’m still down for the count. In the meantime I’ve hung out in my makeshift house-van just outside the lab, consumed most of the food stores I’d built up in the year prior, and put my down time to good use reading my way to expertise in electronics and compsci.

Now, it’s understandable that minor diseases might tend to be more difficult to combat in the harsh post-apoc world and for gameplay purposes they should be a noticeable detriment, but two weeks in game time feels a bit too harsh (I’ll consider reporting again once I’ve actually recovered) - it’s the equivalent of fighting a head cold for three months. For the record, I did use the debug menu to check up on my health and while it’s not fantastic, I have at least remained in the positive for the duration.

Thoughts?

Mine just went away 20 ingame days. Wich is fucked up considering that a cold last 3~4 days even with people who has bad…nvm just googled that shit, it can last up to 2 weeks irl. Wich is weird because I never had a cold (or if i did it only lasted so little it didnt affect me.).

I just think it is something that detracts from the fun of the game when it last for so long. Cmon guys nerf it down in the name of fun. (To something like 6~8 days top).

[quote=“Charlesilv4, post:2, topic:13202”]Mine just went away 20 ingame days. Wich is fucked up considering that a cold last 3~4 days even with people who has bad…nvm just googled that shit, it can last up to 2 weeks irl. Wich is weird because I never had a cold (or if i did it only lasted so little it didnt affect me.).

I just think it is something that detracts from the fun of the game when it last for so long. Cmon guys nerf it down in the name of fun. (To something like 6~8 days top).[/quote]

In the name of fun? I think you already made a pretty good case that the common cold rarely if ever lasts as long as it does in-game.

My colds last about 2-3 days tops. Most people I know will be sick for about 2-7 days at the most. 20 sounds very excessive, probably something to get hospitalized over. It shouldnt be much longer than 7 days ingame, so perhaps a random draw from 3-7 (+/-2) should occur and factor in the users current hidden health stat to weigh it one way or the other.

IIRC how long it lasts, as well as catching it in the first place, is highly dependent on your characters health stat. Gammaglobulin shots, flue shots, multivitamins, and eating right will all help raise your health stat making you less likely to catch it and making you get better faster if you do. Eating junk food, smoking, drinking alcohol, doing drugs, and some failed bionics installs will all lower it making you more likely to get sick and making it last longer when you do. Neither is an exhaustive list and if you haven’t modded out the vitamin update taking too many multivitamins is also bad.

Remember, your cold doesn’t last that long in real life but you’re also probably not constantly running from zombies eating only what you can scavenge with no central heating and only the clothes you can scrounge or make yourself to stay warm.

IIRC how long it lasts, as well as catching it in the first place, is highly dependent on your characters health stat. Gammaglobulin shots, flue shots, multivitamins, and eating right will all help raise your health stat making you less likely to catch it and making you get better faster if you do. Eating junk food, smoking, drinking alcohol, doing drugs, and some failed bionics installs will all lower it making you more likely to get sick and making it last longer when you do. Neither is an exhaustive list and if you haven't modded out the vitamin update taking too many multivitamins is also bad.

Remember, your cold doesn’t last that long in real life but you’re also probably not constantly running from zombies eating only what you can scavenge with no central heating and only the clothes you can scrounge or make yourself to stay warm.

Thats why I said in the name of fun, 20 days is too fucking insane. It also should be considered the lifestile that a survivor used to have before the apoca. IIRC a survivor starts with a zero health stat, wich could be the case if it was one of the bad scenarios (drug addicted, etc). Also even with prolonged rest and staying in the shelter just reading did not help at all (note; it did help that i started eating MRE and taking protein juice and vits but still…). Theres a limit to wich realism should affect the fun.

IIRC how long it lasts, as well as catching it in the first place, is highly dependent on your characters health stat. Gammaglobulin shots, flue shots, multivitamins, and eating right will all help raise your health stat making you less likely to catch it and making you get better faster if you do. Eating junk food, smoking, drinking alcohol, doing drugs, and some failed bionics installs will all lower it making you more likely to get sick and making it last longer when you do. Neither is an exhaustive list and if you haven't modded out the vitamin update taking too many multivitamins is also bad.

Remember, your cold doesn’t last that long in real life but you’re also probably not constantly running from zombies eating only what you can scavenge with no central heating and only the clothes you can scrounge or make yourself to stay warm.

Like I said, I stayed hunkered down in my vehicle taking multivitamins for the duration, which did end up recovering after about 14 days. I used the debug to check my health stat and it was slightly above 0 for the whole duration (0 is “neutral”, anything above that is good health, anything negative is bad). I just think two weeks, while plausible for the actual world if you assume no medical care and running from zombies, is simply too much in a game where the seasons are compressed as much as they are. Remember, by default, 14 days is equivalent to one season, or three months.

Good point; this by itself refutes proxiehunter’s argument.

Maybe the cata earth just revolves around its sun much faster :stuck_out_tongue: One day is still one day.

Unless if 14 days represent one season one day should be around 150+ hours long.

Maybe the cata earth just revolves around its sun much faster :P One day is still one day.

Unless if 14 days represent one season one day should be around 150+ hours long.

14 days are the default for seasons ingame, although I do use 30 days seasons for roleplay.

If you can, debug yourself in Self-Aware, and see if you cant check your hidden Health-stat, that make a huge difference in how stuff affects you, the lower it is the worse illnesses are/the longer they last. You can debug it back out later.

I’ve found sticking to a diet of Deluxe beans and rice, and the occasional bit of granola and i never really have problems, up to day 2 in Autumn (31 day seasons, so a grand total of 60-90+ days survived i think) and im at Health 30+ after figuring that out, i regulary get wet without rain-resistant gear and ive yet to get sick.

Alternatively, wear a gas mask at all times and literally never get sick. Apart from the slower stamina regen there are no drawbacks to keeping it on at all times, and that’s exactly what I do with all my survivors. It provides decent bash/cut protection too. It’s almost as if we need to get a filter-change requirement to nerf it.

Alternatively, wear a gas mask at all times and literally never get sick. Apart from the slower stamina regen there are no drawbacks to keeping it on at all times, and that’s exactly what I do with all my survivors. It provides decent bash/cut protection too. It’s almost as if we need to get a filter-change requirement to nerf it.[/quote]

I do constantly wear my light survivor mask… maybe that helps too.

Does getting wet increases the chance of catching cold? Does being chilly or warm do so?

Does getting wet increases the chance of catching cold? Does being chilly or warm do so?

I dont think so, most of the time I played I was constantly cold or chilly and it was rare when I got sick.

That’s good. I will keep hiking in the rainy spring until a working car is found.

A Leukocyte Breeder System implant might also help, since it does talk about white blood cell count in its flavor text.

One of those literally solves the problem nearly forever, you will almost never get sick once you’ve run a Leukocyte Breeder for a few days.

After about a week you can have a health value of 20-30, and it drains power slowly enough you can basically run it off solar even when the weather is bad like 90% of the time.

One of those literally solves the problem nearly forever, you will almost never get sick once you’ve run a Leukocyte Breeder for a few days.

After about a week you can have a health value of 20-30, and it drains power slowly enough you can basically run it off solar even when the weather is bad like 90% of the time.[/quote]

Considering at this point from butchering ever shocker/shocker brute/scientist zombie, i have like… 1010 power? I’m fine, only have the movement based power generation one, and it works fine, i don’t even lose but maybe 10power while sleeping with it on, and its been like…3 in game years now? Is there a way to tell how long you’ve survived? Since the Day counter keeps resetting with the season.

Solar Panels are actually worse than the Joint Torsion, which was why I brought it up. The Leukocyte Breeder System is just really cheap to run and basically makes you completely immune to sickness and disease that doesn’t come from parasites or fungaloids or whatnot.

As for how long you’ve survived, you can probably check the save file and find out, but I’m not at a computer where I could look at mine to see where it’d be.