Trying to understand how slimelung works

[KittenIsAGeek]

On 5/23/2019 at 8:10 AM, DyingCrow said:

I'm trying to understand how the current mechanics work, or if they're out of control.

- Will dupes get infected if they come in contact with something random that only has < 1000 germs?

- Will dupes 100% get infected if they handle slime without a suit?

- Will dupes get infected just because they handle suits that could have germ left overs?

- Will dupes get infected by topping off the hatch feeders with stuff that has not been through an ore scrubber?

- Will dupes get infected just by existing? I've seen dupes getting infected while getting off bed. Makes me think of some obscure incubation period, but i'd never think there is such thing. (this is what methinks...)

With all that, i'm trying to figure out how to avoid all this without having to set up a black project-esque decontamination apparatus. I'm, certainly not willing to constantly churn out med packs or vials, it'd be just crazy. Or just completely ignore it.

Or did Klei overdone the new disease system a bit too much on the hardcore side?

 

Dupes will get EXPOSED to slimelung if they breathe contaminated air.  Exposure does not equal infection.

After EXPOSURE, there is a chance the dupe will become infected.  This chance is modified by things like "Biohazzard."  It is also modified by repeated exposure.  So if  a dupe spends 3 cycles mining slime, they are more than likely going to become infected.

Dupes will NOT get exposed by handling suits with slimelung germs on them.  They ONLY get exposed by breathing contaminated air.

Personally, I haven't observed this, but I've read posts that suggest that MULTIPLE dupes getting exposed during a single cycle will guarantee that at least one dupe gets sick.  My personal observation is that each dupe is their own, so six dupes mining for one cycle, then taking two cycles off, will likely result in none of them getting sick -- EXCEPT if one has biohazzard.  Then that biohazzard one will likely get sick.

Dupes will ONLY become infected after they wake up following the cycle where they became exposed.  Exposure =! Infection.  There's an incubation process where the dupe (with a normal immune system) will likely fight off the germs and not become sick.  However, repeated exposure increases the chance that the dupe will get sick.  I've found that one cycle of exposure will almost never get a dupe sick. Three consecutive cycles of exposure will almost always get a dupe sick. 

[DyingCrow]

 
 

3 hours ago, KittenIsAGeek said:

Personally, I haven't observed this, but I've read posts that suggest that MULTIPLE dupes getting exposed during a single cycle will guarantee that at least one dupe gets sick.

It looked like so, yes. Even more then one. I'm fairly sure i had a situation where at least 3 got sick in the start of a new cycle, but about 3/4 had been exposed.

Best is to just not take chances, and lock up all the exposed. One (or more) waking up sick will sneeze, and get a bunch others exposed as well, making the problem much worse. From now on, i will certainly build a quarantine room, instead of a simple med bay. Prevention is the best way to deal with it. Because no matter what, dupes are extremely stupid, and will screw things up sooner or later.

[KittenIsAGeek]

Just now, DyingCrow said:

 One (or more) waking up sick will sneeze, and get a bunch others exposed 

I've seen other say this, but again, I haven't been able to replicate it in any of my normal bases.  I let Mi-ma run around the base with slimelung for the full duration -- twice -- and never once had another dupe get sick because of her.  Except Bubbles.  Who... strangely.. got sick while treating Mi-ma the third time I forced her to get sick so I could test out the med bay.  Bubbles had.. issues.  But we're not going to talk about Bubbles...

The only time I was reliably able to expose slimelung from one dupe to another was when I had a large area of my base filled with polluted oxygen.  The sick dupe would sneeze in the polluted oxygen and the slimelung would multiply and some time later, suddenly everyone in the base is getting sick.

[DyingCrow]

1 hour ago, KittenIsAGeek said:

The only time I was reliably able to expose slimelung from one dupe to another was when I had a large area of my base filled with polluted oxygen.  The sick dupe would sneeze in the polluted oxygen and the slimelung would multiply and some time later, suddenly everyone in the base is getting sick.

Dont need to go very far. Fire up a test scenario in a 4 tall room, spawn a couple packets of po2 with about 1000 germs each (lowballing) and have the dupes run through them like it is a well traveled area. If they don't get exposed, then my game is broken.

I am playing with normal immunity, and none of my dupes have negative immunity traits.

[KittenIsAGeek]

3 hours ago, DyingCrow said:

Dont need to go very far. Fire up a test scenario in a 4 tall room, spawn a couple packets of po2 with about 1000 germs each (lowballing) and have the dupes run through them like it is a well traveled area. If they don't get exposed, then my game is broken.

I am playing with normal immunity, and none of my dupes have negative immunity traits.

My bases almost never have polluted oxygen in the traveled areas.  I get some occasionally near where I connect to a slime biome, but otherwise there is little within my base.  So, under normal play, its really hard to get 1000 germs of slimelung within the traveled areas of my base.  A single dupe sneeze will produce some slimelung -- which promptly starts to die out because its in oxygen and not polluted.  So, as I said above:

The only way I was reliably able to expose slimelung to my dupes was when I had a large area of my base filled with polluted oxygen.

Your test scenario matches what I said I had to do to expose my dupes.

[natanstarke]

After reading it all making lone bedrooms for each dupe may solve the problem of internal reinfections. As for external spam buddy buds next to exosuit docks. And more internal protection more buddy buds next to mushroom farms. I will test what i can in this regards.

[DyingCrow]

8 hours ago, natanstarke said:

After reading it all making lone bedrooms for each dupe may solve the problem of internal reinfections. As for external spam buddy buds next to exosuit docks. And more internal protection more buddy buds next to mushroom farms. I will test what i can in this regards.

I actually failed to notice that sleeping quarters buffs had been changed to single room only, instead of the commons we used to be able to get away with. That could certainly help reducing the amount of exposure in the case one dupe got sick.

I haven't had a single exposed or sick dupe for some 40+ cycles, after i corrected all the mistakes i had made. Needless to say i won't make the same mistakes again

[KittenIsAGeek]

2 hours ago, DyingCrow said:

I actually failed to notice that sleeping quarters buffs had been changed to single room only, instead of the commons we used to be able to get away with. That could certainly help reducing the amount of exposure in the case one dupe got sick.

I haven't had a single exposed or sick dupe for some 40+ cycles, after i corrected all the mistakes i had made. Needless to say i won't make the same mistakes again

No, commons still work.  And if you have a med bay, a sick dupe will quarantine themselves (mostly).

[DyingCrow]

5 hours ago, KittenIsAGeek said:

And if you have a med bay, a sick dupe will quarantine themselves (mostly).

This only happened if i actually had supplies for the sick bay, which i completely got fed up with manufacturing. Sick dupes would "eventually" go get treated, go out and get sick again after 1 or 2 cycles. It was just a waste of materials and dupe work time. Doing it on an open, walk-in sick bay provides no fine control over possible outbreak situations.

You know, a lot of times i'd wish we had wall mounted deodorizers for indoors spaces. It would be so good for cleaning up po2 emitted by sick dupes, instead of having to waste a lot of space dropping them on the floor.