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Disease Mechanics.


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All settings are based off of default world settings.

Try disease:
it takes 30-70 days for any diseasable entity to "start diseasing"

Start diseasing:
There is a 10 percent chance of actually becoming diseased, if it fails this check, it goes back to try disease.
If its asleep(not loaded by the game currently), it doesn't become diseased, but redoes the try disease with a 1-5 day(instead of the 30-70 day) delay(this also causes the disease chance check to be re rolled).
If it passed all previous checks, its in the warning phase, which is 4-6 days long, after those 4-6 days, it becomes diseased.

Warning phase:
Once a single entity gets into the warning phase, it does a series of checks, for other diseasable entities.
The first check is finding other diseasable entities inside the DISEASE_SPREAD_RADIUS(which is 4(4 in a straight line is one whole game tiles width or height), for comparison the ice flingomatics range is 15).
If it finds at least one other diseasable entity inside that range, it does a second range check of DISEASE_SPREAD_RADIUS * 2(8).
If there are more diseasable entities inside this second check than the first check, it does a third range check of DISEASE_SPREAD_RADIUS*3(12).
Lastly for every entity inside the aforementioned check(whichever check had the most diseasable entities), it resets to the try disease phase(the 30-70 days) for each diseasable entity that was in the check.

Once an entity is diseased:
Every 1.5-2.5 days, it spreads, finding the closest entity inside the DISEASE_SPREAD_RADIUS.
If the 1.5-2.5 day timer ends, and its asleep(not loaded by the game currently) it restarts the spread timer(1.5-2.5 days).

Transplanting:
Every time you transplant(dig up from somewhere then replant somewhere) a diseasable entity, it restarts the spread timers(1.5-2.5 days) of every entity inside the DISEASE_SPREAD_RADIUS.

Other settings(on the world gen menu):
The try disease(what was 30-70 days) is the only thing that changes:
Random: 10-90 days.
Long: 60-100 days.
Short: 20-40 days.

Final notes:
Entities generated by the world, are not diseasable, even via spreading.
Disease sucks, its a stupid mechanic with nothing interesting, heck even its prevention is boring.

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Just now, YouKnowWho said:

Nice research! It’s pretty interesting to see everything going on under the hood in a way that doesn’t immediately fly over my head. 

What’d you think could make it better?

It not existing. In all seriousness, I'm really not sure, game mechanics need to be a balance of realism and fun, and I don't feel like this mechanic is any good without serious overhauls.

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I'd say disease just discourages the set-it-and-forget-it playstyle from Don't Starve and instead encourages the many other forms of collecting these materials. Players can just go for either just not digging stuff up and just harvesting them from their original spawn point, going to the desert to harvest tumbleweeds, or going for the two more superior methods: grass gecko and twiggy tree farms or the Wickerbottom + lureplant combo.

I've gotten so used to these methods that when I went to Hamlet and built the old school grass tufts, twig sapling & berry bush area that every player does, it just felt weird ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

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2 hours ago, lakhnish said:

I'd say disease just discourages the set-it-and-forget-it playstyle from Don't Starve and instead encourages the many other forms of collecting these materials. Players can just go for either just not digging stuff up and just harvesting them from their original spawn point, going to the desert to harvest tumbleweeds, or going for the two more superior methods: grass gecko and twiggy tree farms or the Wickerbottom + lureplant combo.

I've gotten so used to these methods that when I went to Hamlet and built the old school grass tufts, twig sapling & berry bush area that every player does, it just felt weird ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

Grass gekkos and twiggy trees are even more "set-it-and-forget-it" then the default resources. They're generally more productive then the default resources, and quicker to gather too. That alone should be enough to encourage their use.

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40 minutes ago, Namelessgamer said:

Is there is any warning before something become diseased?

Yes,
the character tells you that it's about to become diseased when harvesting or inspecting the plant so you'll be still able to dig it up and plant it back in to prevent it from becoming diseased.

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A friendly reminder that this disease mechanic reduces resources instead refreshing it. Twiggy trees are an exception as it is included in the regrowth mechanic. The old disease system refreshed the affected basic resouces. Could we get an item or turf to prevent this annoying mechanic?

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5 hours ago, axxel said:

A friendly reminder that this disease mechanic reduces resources instead refreshing it. Twiggy trees are an exception as it is included in the regrowth mechanic. The old disease system refreshed the affected basic resouces. Could we get an item or turf to prevent this annoying mechanic?

THIS. but yeah, digging and replanting something should hardly be the solution, especially if you have a large field of stuff, it could take awhile to find it all, some sort of item, that you could "spray" on all the diseasable plants to prevent disease for x amount of days, rather than having to examine/harvest them all to find which ones are in the warning phase, would seem better.

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15 hours ago, Zarklord said:

It not existing. In all seriousness, I'm really not sure, game mechanics need to be a balance of realism and fun, and I don't feel like this mechanic is any good without serious overhauls.

Every time a newer players asks me about Disease, I always tell them to turn it off. We can all agree it's not a fun mechanic, but I don't think it's very realistic either. When is the last time you've seen a diseased plant out in the wild? 

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Nice research and Summary of the Disease mechanic. While I agree that as of now

18 hours ago, Zarklord said:

Disease sucks, its a stupid mechanic with nothing interesting, heck even its prevention is boring.

I think it has potential though. Imo it'd spice things up if diseased and died plants would regenerate across the map once again over time, so the recources aren't lost and instead just need a little work to be maintaIned properly.

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For those who do not like disease:

Spoiler

 

image.png.8e7358b960e736774e1deee81a3c8e6e.png

in game console:


TheWorld.topology.overrides.disease_delay = "none";

 

 

For those who like to follow the game's standards:

Spoiler

 

image.png.65fb510d6c508346dcfe2292e353c405.png

in game console:


TheWorld.topology.overrides.disease_delay = "default";

 

 

For those who have some problem (It is not my intention to offend anyone :wilson_vforvictory:):

Spoiler

 

image.png.e1650d45755ce01394acb10dfb15975d.png

in game console:


TheWorld.topology.overrides.disease_delay = "fast";

 

 

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disease exists because never having to go out in the world to collect basic ressources is a very strong ability. 

disease is the contract you sign when you decide to shovel out a bush, instead of having to travel and visit it each time.

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On 17.01.2019 at 3:42 AM, Hell-met said:

disease exists because never having to go out in the world to collect basic ressources is a very strong ability. 

disease is the contract you sign when you decide to shovel out a bush, instead of having to travel and visit it each time.

It works in survival mode or in hosted mode as hard filter of having constant need to go for basic recources. But most play on dedicated servers for stable connection and to be able to join different communities.

By the 70th day resources in starting zone are being dug out by everyone if server has 15+ constant players + rotation of randoms. And then plague hits forcing them to destroy their infected fields and look for basic recourses, needed for newcomers, in wider area, slowly turning world around starting portal into desert.

We have for some reason pig and bunny men, spiders and even hound farms with infinite recourses, but basic recouces become scarce because we have no means to treat our plantations. It is interesting mechanic, making forgotten bases look deserted and player carong about base unkeep, but currient state just doesn't fit endless or dedicated server modes.

And about switching desease off if you don't like it... We are mostly playing not on our servers. Lot of Admins like "everything default" settings, desease including, not to upset anyone with lower or higher difficulty.

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On 1/16/2019 at 8:42 PM, Hell-met said:

disease exists because never having to go out in the world to collect basic ressources is a very strong ability. 

disease is the contract you sign when you decide to shovel out a bush, instead of having to travel and visit it each time.

Which would work; if it wasn't for the fact that you could easily replace grass and twigs with grass gekkos and twiggy trees. 

and by the time you hit summer, food wouldn't really be that much of problem. (Monster meat + eggs = meatballs).

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