The dev team might not be too into drug culture, which I respect, but I had a pretty significant partying phase as a teenager.
Seeing prices for drugs that are so wildly far-off from reality kinda bugs me.
I don’t think I’d play as a drug dealer, but I think that once factions have a more comprehensive purchasing system, realistic drug prices should be implemented (“Drug Addict” quasi-faction?)
My reasoning being, people are still wanna get trashed in the apocalypse.
Probably moreso.
I know it’s kinda dumb, and probably not the vibe you’re going for, but as someone who’s known a lot of drug addicts, it’s immersion-breaking to not see a few people here and there hurting bad for a fix.
(A few NPC tags, like: junkie, tweaker, dealer, gettingfuckedupenthusiast; could be useful for determining what kind of drugs someone might be interested in purchasing.)
Might even be an easy way of getting some devoted followers.
Less regulation would drop the prices, but new drugs aren’t coming in as often, so you lore guys can be in charge of whether the price is higher or lower than street value.
But please at least do something that resembles a realistic price.
Apocalypse isn’t exactly the best time to do drugs.
The biggest drop in price would be due to the fact that those who were junkies, hobos and fiends are now most likely spitters, smokers and hunters.
In the few first game years (or just seasons?), the supply of drugs will greatly exceed the demand.
And now drugs have to compete with essential goods that were dirt-cheap before the cataclysm (nutritionally dense food). Those junkies which chose to buy drugs over food are now dead.
Junkie NPCs do exist, but the effects of their “junkiness” are quite subtle - just a modifier on price of addicting stuff.
That said, the price and barter system isn’t exactly the most finished part of the game.
If someone could create a good list of proposed prices of drugs, we could update the prices.
Of course post-cataclysm drug prices will have to change to be more practical:
[ul][li]Tripping on hallucinogenic drugs can kill you far easier than it could before zeds, so big price drops here[/li]
[li]Anything that could cause severe problems in short term also gets a price drop, because no medical help means much higher risk of death[/li]
[li]Painkillers could get a price increase, even though they aren’t hard or expensive to produce, because they are now useful and not just convenient or fun[/li]
[li]Stimulants aren’t combat drugs, but they would probably get a less severe price drop than most drugs. Unless we want to reflect the “potion of speed” effects of meth and the like in the price, in which case they should be treated as combat drugs.[/li]
[li]Drugs used mostly in treatment of illnesses would get a big price drop, because natural selection would eliminate most of the people who need hard to acquire substances[/li][/ul]
Excellent points, but I’ve known quite a few people who would prefer to forage for viable trash just to fund their addiction.
These people are survivors, used to being in constant danger.
The addicts I’ve known would do better than a lot of people in a post-apocalypse scenario, because they live so close to it anyway.
Main thing, lots of currently-illicit drugs have terribly unrealistic bonuses attached to them that are left over from the original game author using them as “post-apocalyptic potions”, realism of any kind is pointless unless those effects are removed, at which point they become mostly pointless (except the painkillers, and some that may have medicinal effects). When that happens, yea sure the main purpose of having them would probably be to sell them to junkies.
I could see some drugs having beneficial effects even if they were brought in line with more of their real life effects. Amphetamines could boost the focus pool and make it drain much slower, could extend stamina for a short time, could help you stay up several days at a time (if you wanted to do that for some reason), and could possibly result in reduced pain effects, though you’re probably in a state of pretty severe psychosis at that point. This should have pretty serious drawbacks once the drugs wear off though. Hallucinogens would probably be worthless, but they would give a probably long lasting morale boost if you were in the right mindset, but encountering a zombie or getting injured or something while tripping should probably result in some weird breakdown with long lasting negative effects. Steroids might be an interesting thing to have if they were in the game. The drawbacks would probably be outweighed by the benefits in the context of zombie survival. Disassociatives might be worthwhile as an anesthetic if we implement an advanced medical system with some injuries requiring surgery, otherwise they’d probably behave a bit like hallucinogens mixed with painkillers. Benzos could be used to help sleep, especially when paired with other drugs, to stop or slow hallucinations, or to mitigate negative morale to a small extent.
Old post I know, but recently in game I sold quite a few illicit drugs for very little. I was wondering if there are any plans for the prices to raise. Cigarettes even, should be worth much more, considering that they are a limited resource that are only going to diminish in supply. I believe its a little over one in ten people that smoke in the us. I dont think in game these drugs currently have the bonuses beyond Joy, in the newest stable (0.G) atleast. If youve ever met a heavy addict, you’ll know theres very little they wouldn’t do for their drug of choice.