The Common Cold

grisamentum · 2013-06-13T03:21:08.000Z

So I mean, it seems pretty common (haha) to get the “common cold” debuff in this game right now, if you spend a lot of time outside.

The problem is that you don’t get colds from being outside. You don’t get them from being wet. The common cold is a virus. You get it from other people.

As a lone survivor, the chance you’d get the cold is pretty much 0. Maybe from zombies if you’re actual fistfights with them or butchering their corpses A LOT, but even then wearing gloves would pretty much nullify it. Even without gloves, it’s sort of ridiculous that you can’t wash your hands at the sinks that are in every house.

In sum, getting a cold in this game is pretty much as bizarre as getting herpes. It just shouldn’t happen given what the character is actually doing. Rhinoviruses can’t even survive 24 hours on a random object.

AerialK7 · 2013-06-13T09:55:48.000Z

Wikipedia:

The common cold virus is typically transmitted via airborne droplets (aerosols)

Zombies tend to salivate alot no? So, chances are by the number of zombies around in towns youd be walking around in zombie spit, close encounters would also probably have them salivate on you if they got too close.
But meh. Stoopid logic over

Jack_Slinger · 2013-06-13T10:54:30.000Z

I’ll admit now that I’m no expert on how viruses work, the way i understand it getting cold and wet lowers your immune system making you a target for viruses. I wonder if its possible to harbor low level viruses that don’t affect you until you immune system crashes?

Bladerock · 2013-06-13T11:02:15.000Z

grisamentum:

As a lone survivor, the chance you’d get the cold is pretty much 0.

You are not a lone survivor. The NPCs just aren’t in yet.

Anyway, last time i checked, the “cold” you get in the game is a generic infection from bad nutrition (weakened immune system). Not specifically any particular disease. So, you could very well be catching something from all those squirrels around.

Slax · 2013-06-13T11:24:45.000Z

grisamentum:

As a lone survivor…

Zombies don’t carry illnesses?

system · 2013-06-13T11:59:04.000Z

It’s future rhinovirus, it is a lot more hardy due to hightened immune systems from better nutrition.

So it could last on most surfaces for days, weeks, or months. Or it could be transmitted in the air.

Alistaire · 2013-06-13T15:35:02.000Z

gtaguy:

it could be transmitted in the air.

They’re in the walls! bababababa

It’s of course a bit ironic to get the common cold in a zombie-filled post-apocalyptic landscape.

DeadWeight · 2013-06-13T16:06:22.000Z

Name it the “un-common cold”?

DWC · 2013-06-13T18:00:48.000Z

Well, the disease system right now is sort of a placeholder. There should be all kinds of diseases your survivor can contract one way or another. How about tetanus from cutting yourself on metal wreckage? 75% mortality rate! Epic! That’d be really common in a survival situation, assuming your survivor wasn’t vaccinated, which I guess everybody in the western world should be since immunization lasts a long time.

Also infections should probably be more serious in the game. Cauterization actually increases the risk of a serious infection after all.

system · 2013-06-14T04:31:01.000Z

I once had a food infection (fucking nails in the scrapyard) and poured some battery acid on it after a very drunk ordeal with some friends. It burned out a good chunk of skin but the infection dissipated. So maybe this should be another way to treat infection by damaging yourself with acid?

I demand space aids be an contract able disease, with the same effects of teleportitus without death.

grisamentum · 2013-06-15T16:48:28.000Z

Jack Slinger:

I’ll admit now that I’m no expert on how viruses work, the way i understand it getting cold and wet lowers your immune system making you a target for viruses. I wonder if its possible to harbor low level viruses that don’t affect you until you immune system crashes?

Sort of - begs the question of where it came from in the first place though. And even then, it’d become less likely to affect you over time.

Slax:

[quote=“grisamentum, post:1, topic:1750”]As a lone survivor…

Zombies don’t carry illnesses? :P[/quote]

But as I already said, that’s not how it’s transmitted in the game. If I hang out in my scrapyard without contacting a single zombie, but outside, I’ll get the illness.

Same thing with the “there are NPCs they just aren’t in” and aerosol transmission. The game does not do it that way.

To me this is basically a cart-before-the-horse thing. If we don’t have NPCs we shouldn’t have the regular diseases yet, either. (Or traits like Ugly/Pretty/Truth Teller/Liar, but w/e).

Bladerock · 2013-06-15T19:43:10.000Z

The debuff is directly linked to your character’s diet, it really doesn’t matter how much you want to insist that since it’s called a “cold” it has to be contracted from other people. There’s more than enough bacteria and viruses for you to get sick out of any of them. And since cold medicine like dayquil is designed to relief the individual symptoms, it would relief them just as good regardless of the cause.