Balance and difficulty.

[cyberwarlord]

Rebalance concepts: List is entirely based on my opinion and gamer sense and how ONI plays.

(I'll be editing a bit)

Ie. (Wash basins and showers, using germ water infects dupes.)

Oxygen temperature sent too atmosuits effects dupes

Atmosuits can be refilled with oxygen canisters while worn. 

Dupes don't wake up from lack of oxygen while sleeping. (Critical failure)

Fall damage, injury.

Higher thermal conductivity for dupes. There a bit too resistant to cold maybe.

Rockets determine weight by all mass in cockpit.

Digging and construction underwater as part of a skill tree.

 

Unlikely but interesting concepts:

-Standard Pacu-(All critters?) produce minor germ waste. Most die on solids.

Wire breaks in water cause shocks aoe. Bypasses suit protection. 

Sickness stage progression similar to radiation sickness. 

Aggressive critter variants that can hatch from mutations. (Egg stealing vole variation. Porcupine dreco, drops a shell?)

Variable geyser temperature or behavior. (world trait)

Non-standard day/night light cycles. (Planet trait)

Plant, animal disease chance. (Germs on food or fertilizer.)

Poisonous plants and animals. Those that need to be handled with suits or by machines. (Scorpion plant, stinging nettle)

Printing pod can't be reloaded on saves? Reject all gives a 50-60% recharge. (Or? Request a skill requirement for all dupes on the next print) both good options imo.

Printing pod only produces found items. setting? Including seeds and critter eggs found on world's with printing pods so if something does not spawn you can get it. Requires power to charge and use light.

Combustible gases ignite at ignition temperature, destroying the mass and creating heat based on volume and elements. Effectively causing a chain reaction in any system, could be a great visual. Do it once on purpose just for fun. (Unlikely but interesting)

 

 

 

Bad ideas-

Debuff in the dark.

Random events without cause and effect.

Edited September 16, 2025 by cyberwarlord

[Einherjar]

Interesting idea, but as I'm still only on my first playthrough that didn't end in disaster in 100 cycles I don't have much to add. I'm almost to 800

It seemed to me in this version of the game dupes rarely get slimelung, even though the symptom of having a low oxygen capacity is easily mitigated. During the process of cleaning out the biomes only 0-1 dupes ever got sick. 

Speaking of the printing pod I noticed there is a setting that disables care packages. I think that would make things significantly harder all-round, at least for me. The pod is an endless source of useful items. 

 

 

[cyberwarlord]

On 9/13/2025 at 3:46 PM, Einherjar said:

Interesting idea, but as I'm still only on my first playthrough that didn't end in disaster in 100 cycles I don't have much to add. I'm almost to 800

It seemed to me in this version of the game dupes rarely get slimelung, even though the symptom of having a low oxygen capacity is easily mitigated. During the process of cleaning out the biomes only 0-1 dupes ever got sick. 

Speaking of the printing pod I noticed there is a setting that disables care packages. I think that would make things significantly harder all-round, at least for me. The pod is an endless source of useful items. 

 

 

No care packages is not so bad once you pass about 30 days, though its a bit unusable as well.

Turning up difficult modifiers makes it anywhere from challenging too labor intensive. 

Think my first run ended with a co2 filled barracks at night. At least it was peaceful I guess..

Edited September 15, 2025 by cyberwarlord

[Charletrom]

Higher oxygen consumption, lower health, no self-curing diseases, reduced generator wattage, and reduced geyser output. All pretty simple to implement.

[cyberwarlord]

2 hours ago, Charletrom said:

Higher oxygen consumption, lower health, no self-curing diseases, reduced generator wattage, and reduced geyser output. All pretty simple to implement.

That's not exactly what I had in mind. 

 

[axxel]

You forgot [only one save at time/no possible save scumming] like the iron mage mode in Mind over Magic.... The current mod is unusable and not up-to-date.

[Pproy]

Well, I still wish for the disease system to be reworked so there actually consenquences for dupe being sick and untreated...

 

Otherwhise:

-plagues that can affect crops and/or critter.

-Drought peroid where water geyser goes dormant for mutch longuer than expected.

-Meteor showers that last a couple cycle.

- Clogged volcano that explode after a while.

-If we want to be really mean, 

22 hours ago, cyberwarlord said:

Combustible gases can ignite at ignition temperature destroying the mass and creating heat based on volume causing a chain reaction.

Make those gas invisible, and digger dupe have to bring a cage witha shine bug to detect the gas pocket. Digging in those area could cause a explosion if not carefull.

[cyberwarlord]

18 hours ago, axxel said:

You forgot [only one save at time/no possible save scumming] like the iron mage mode in Mind over Magic.... The current mod is unusable and not up-to-date.

This is one I'm always on the fence about. It does requir near perfect gameplay.

On the other hand much like DST, I stop playing after loosing hundreds of hours in a matter of minutes when I could just reload 30min.

I simply don't have time to restart a game that takes so much time to progress. 

11 hours ago, Pproy said:

Well, I still wish for the disease system to be reworked so there actually consenquences for dupe being sick and untreated...

 

Otherwhise:

-plagues that can affect crops and/or critter.

-Drought peroid where water geyser goes dormant for mutch longuer than expected.

-Meteor showers that last a couple cycle.

- Clogged volcano that explode after a while.

-If we want to be really mean, 

Make those gas invisible, and digger dupe have to bring a cage witha shine bug to detect the gas pocket. Digging in those area could cause a explosion if not carefull.

Makes me wonder if a world generation setting for turning off 'heal over time' would be enough to make sickness a concern over am inconvenience.. though I guess it's inconvenient either way.

Edited September 15, 2025 by cyberwarlord

[Henlikuoth]

I like many of the ideas mentioned in this thread.

However, based on my observations over the last few years, Klei has (almost) never implemented any of the community's suggestions.

For example, I have been waiting for a long time for a DLC dedicated to germs and diseases, which would overhaul their mechanics and make them considerably more dangerous and menacing. It could even be tied to the disease difficulty setting.

Sadly, it looks like Klei mostly ignores threads like this.

[cyberwarlord]

8 minutes ago, Henlikuoth said:

I like many of the ideas mentioned in this thread.

However, based on my observations over the last few years, Klei has (almost) never implemented any of the community's suggestions.

For example, I have been waiting for a long time for a DLC dedicated to germs and diseases, which would overhaul their mechanics and make them considerably more dangerous and menacing. It could even be tied to the disease difficulty setting.

Sadly, it looks like Klei mostly ignores threads like this.

Yeah maybe so, but I remain hopeful. 

If nothing else maybe a future mod pack.

21 hours ago, Pproy said:

Make those gas invisible, and digger dupe have to bring a cage witha shine bug to detect the gas pocket. Digging in those area could cause a explosion if not carefull.

There was a suggestion I loved a while back, being able to keep shinebugs as pets or a critter backpack.

Allows a movable light source.

[asurendra]

4 hours ago, Henlikuoth said:

For example, I have been waiting for a long time for a DLC dedicated to germs and diseases, which would overhaul their mechanics and make them considerably more dangerous and menacing. It could even be tied to the disease difficulty setting.

Its really hard to maintain different versions of game. Like we already has base game and SO, with germs DLC we will have 4 combinations, each one acting in its own way... Thats a pain in the head, you know. So no, its highly likely that we will never get DLC that changes mechanics. When KLEI added FPP, they changed heat mechanics in all versions, for consistency

[cyberwarlord]

5 minutes ago, asurendra said:

Its really hard to maintain different versions of the game. We already have base game and SO, with germs DLC we will have 4 combinations, each one acting in its own way... Thats a pain in the head, you know. So no, its highly likely that we will never get DLC that changes mechanics. When KLEI added FPP, they changed heat mechanics in all versions, for consistency

That's why I considered minor changes and additions to basically use what's already there so it would be for the base game.

As for making it an entirely different difficulty settings, I highly dought it would be worth the effort. If anything survival mode gets a bit more game mechanic depth in challenges in a few minor ways.

People have been asking for a germ mechanic update for some time. Personally a world setting under germ severity (disease severity  duration) would be enough. Such as no passive healing.

Sickness stages similar to radiation poison would also be a welcome addition. Imo.

[gigamoi]

I don't really see such changes coming to main line,... nor personally desire such changes coming to the main line. That being said, many of your suggestions seem modable.

[cyberwarlord]

6 hours ago, gigamoi said:

I don't really see such changes coming to main line,... nor personally desire such changes coming to the main line. That being said, many of your suggestions seem modable.

Mods are always an option. 

I was thinking more minor balance tweak and maybe some odd ideas.

Can you be more specific?

[MiniDeathStar]

I don't really like challenges that only impact the early game. A lot of those just make the survival stage annoying and stressful, and then they get completely trivialised with research.

A better challenge I think is something that affects the way you build your base. Relica and the flipped asteroid are good examples. Germs transferring from germy water in sinks is another good example, assuming dupes can still get food poisoning if they eat in contaminated suits.

One thing I would like to see is natural disasters. Say a solar eclipse makes it night time for 10 cycles in a row and temperatures everywhere drop drastically, so you'd need to have a heating loop on the ready or your base will freeze. Or an earthquake that spawns a random blob of magma somewhere. Fixing disasters can be fun. 

[cyberwarlord]

6 hours ago, MiniDeathStar said:

Fixing disasters can be fun. 

I do like the concept of the dlc challenges that can be switched on. Asteroid impact was a fun dlc.

Solar flares and eclipses could work as planet traits, disruptive chaos without any real threat of destruction. 

The tech tree probably should trivialize some minor inconvenience. Sometimes I just feel the mechanics are too lenient in the players favor. Such as germs not effecting sinks or oxygentemps not effecting suits..

Player created destruction from cause and effect feels fair where always on random events can get excessive. Though sometimes you just feel like watching the source of your stress burn for a few cycles..

I opened that airlock, meep peed in the drinking water for the last time.

[Einherjar]

Imo Iron-man mode would be a perfect addition to the game, if "survival" is in its description. There are quite a few reasons to save-scum besides catastrophic failure too. But then maybe they don't because even if they did, people would end up copy\pasting files, and at that point you might as well get some self control instead... It would definitely encourage a lot of people to play the game a bit differently though.

Edited September 17, 2025 by Einherjar

[Cmagik]

What do you mean dupes are heat resistant? Walking in lava makes perfect sens.

[Charletrom]

Diseases that don’t auto-cure and get worse over time + a mechanism for germs to still be dangerous after atmosuits

That would be enough to inject a bunch of fun challenge into the game

[cyberwarlord]

On 9/18/2025 at 9:42 AM, Charletrom said:

Diseases that don’t auto-cure and get worse over time + a mechanism for germs to still be dangerous after atmosuits

That would be enough to inject a bunch of fun challenge into the game

This but also some use cases for the germs.

Slime lung germs in a compost bin causing it to off gas natural gas or something. Idk. Something.

[speckle21]

As a slow player, germs are either a non issue, or totally fatal. I almost never try to cure them. I usually just outlive the germ, even the zombie spores.

The reason being is once i see the sick dupe, if i go about building the infrastructure to make the cure, the dupe is no longer sick by the time its ready. So i have to make and stockpile cures before they get sick. But i've usually got 30+ things to do like power generation, food production, and building out my spaghetti pipe system. By the time i have the breathing room to make non-critical projects like stockpiling cures, my base is already so well-developed that my dupes no longer get sick. So the cures are wasted space.

The only one worth doing is the curative tablet, since its super easy to make and stockpile. The zombie cure is useless since it takes so long building out the ranching and sun bug morphing project. If i'm going to put in THAT much effort to stockpile a zombie cure, my effort is better spent building airlocks and atmo-suits and preventing the dupe from getting spores in the first place.

... or i just let the dupe go zombie for 18 cycles. My mid game dupes with +1000 athletics barely notice they're zombies.

There needs to a greater incentive to build cures. Since dupes get over their sickness on their own, it's almost pointless other than achievement hunting.

For example Maybe for zombies the dupe should be totally disabled. Not dead, and not barely functioning, but totally down for the count. And it lasts much longer, like 50 cycles. This forces the player to build out the cure infrastructure. To make it fun have the dupe still walk around, but do no work. And they shamble about like actual zombies.

The reason why we ourselves want to be healthy is because being unhealthy sucks, we feel pain. But we don't feel dupe pain, we're corporate slave drivers. We only worry about our employees if it affects productivity. Otherwise they can suck it up. So for ONI, dupe sickness needs to actually affect the game play enough that we want to do something about it otherwise its just amusing flavor.

ngl, im actually more amused by my zombie dupes, i just let them go about like the walking dead rather than want to cure them. 

[axxel]

@speckle21I don't agree fully. Dupes are your lifepoints. If they are all dead you basically lose the game if you accept a fair defeat. If your dupes are still getting sick you can still consider to build cure measures. 

 

[cyberwarlord]

On 9/20/2025 at 1:04 PM, speckle21 said:

The only one worth doing is the curative tablet, since its super easy to make and stockpile. The zombie cure is useless since it takes so long building out the ranching and sun bug morphing project. If i'm going to put in THAT much effort to stockpile a zombie cure, my effort is better spent building airlocks and atmo-suits and preventing the dupe from getting spores in the first place.
 

The reason why we ourselves want to be healthy is because being unhealthy sucks, we feel pain. But we don't feel dupe pain, we're corporate slave drivers. We only worry about our employees if it affects productivity. Otherwise they can suck it up. So for ONI, dupe sickness needs to actually affect the game play enough that we want to do something about it otherwise its just amusing flavor.

ngl, im actually more amused by my zombie dupes, i just let them go about like the walking dead rather than want to cure them. 

Medical items that give temporary traits or cures them would be excellent imo. Something worth the effort for extra customization. 

Especially some of the challenging recipes.

[speckle21]

On 9/21/2025 at 2:25 PM, axxel said:

@speckle21I don't agree fully. Dupes are your lifepoints. If they are all dead you basically lose the game if you accept a fair defeat. If your dupes are still getting sick you can still consider to build cure measures. 

 

That's the issue though. Building the cure takes longer and more effort than waiting out the disease, That's the flaw in the gameplay loop. 
 

 

On 9/22/2025 at 2:42 AM, cyberwarlord said:

Medical items that give temporary traits or cures them would be excellent imo. Something worth the effort for extra customization. 

Especially some of the challenging recipes.

That is an AMAZING point! Have the items also have additional benefits, so you'll WANT to build them just for those traits, and then use them for cures as a bonus. That's a fantastic idea!

We already sort of have it, some of the foods gave radiation resistance. it's not a "cure", but it gives an incentive to build that food over just dealing with radiation the hard way. 

 

 

I realize that we need to have self-curing dupes because we can't soft-lock the player if they don't have the cure ingredients. It would REALLY suck if the zombie spores were permanent, but you also killed all the shine bugs so you destroyed all chance of making zombie cures. The self-curing mechanic must remain.

 

But having alternate uses for the cures would solve the game play loop. You'll have an incentive to make and stockpile cures, you'll be able to quickly cure your dupes when they get sick. And if you somehow soft-locked yourself out of the cure, you'll still be able to play anyway, you just have a sick dupe for longer. 

 

[cyberwarlord]

On 9/23/2025 at 10:32 AM, speckle21 said:

That's the issue though. Building the cure takes longer and more effort than waiting out the disease, That's the flaw in the gameplay loop. 
 

That is an AMAZING point! Have the items also have additional benefits, so you'll WANT to build them just for those traits, and then use them for cures as a bonus. That's a fantastic idea!

We already sort of have it, some of the foods gave radiation resistance. it's not a "cure", but it gives an incentive to build that food over just dealing with radiation the hard way. 

 

 

I realize that we need to have self-curing dupes because we can't soft-lock the player if they don't have the cure ingredients. It would REALLY suck if the zombie spores were permanent, but you also killed all the shine bugs so you destroyed all chance of making zombie cures. The self-curing mechanic must remain.

 

Excellent points.

 

For self recovery of disease you could have a check box setting if dupes need cures for treatment to reduce recovery timer, Similarly with health damage.

So even simple food poison needs time to rest and recover. 

But as a standard have multiple things that tend to the dupes recovery timer. From resting in bed from food poison. To needing pure oxygen in the disease clinic for slime lung. 

Then the cures themselves just instantly treat the problem with say a 3 day immunity boost against it.

With the additional traits and behaviors, I would also add them to entirely new medical crafting recipes as well or things that offset bad traits like snoring or allergies. 

The shine bug syrum could make dupes glow, 10% work bonus is not bad, just a thought.

I see germs and medical skill / buildings as something that's not a fully developed system but with all the potential to be a great. Just needs more use cases.

I hope we get small changes to things germs effect as well. What if I contaminated a composter on purpose with slime lung? Will it now produce slime as an alternative or what if you transfer floral germs to food or water for showers.

Edited September 24, 2025 by cyberwarlord