Disease is currently too easy to manage

[UncleSlim]

I'm not claiming to be an expert at this game but I've had 4 playthroughs now and none of my problems have ever been people getting sick (minus the occasional heat stroke or hypothermia). Germs are so easily managed you don't even have to pay attention to sickness.

A few suggestions:

 

1. Make dupes that go into germ infested water, come out with germs on them! Seems simple right? Why can my dupe walk into my 1.4mil germ sewage tank and come out basically germ free...? He should be covered in germs!

2. Nerf the immune system! I barely ever look at the immune system meters but the only times I have, they're all at 100%. Again, maybe I'm just playing well, but it just seems too easy to manage. I built an apothecary once just to see what it did, but I can't imagine anyone ever actually needing it.

3. And lastly, which I'm sure you have planned, we need more types of germs! More ways they could get sick or more things to be afraid of. Slimelung is very daunting because once it's in your base it can spread, but it isn't actually that threatening (at least from what I've experienced).

[Coolthulhu]

IMO the biggest problems with the germ system are:

• It's very easy to get germs off a dupe - just wash hands. If some germs were unwashable with water, it would make bleach stone useful and food poisoning more in line with slimelung (rather than being completely trivial).
• Germs can only get into a dupe by breathing or eating. Hard-working dupes should be assumed to breathe in dust, get cut by hard surfaces and so on - some passive transfer from skin to system would be expected.
• Germs are very localized. Slimelung in pO2 pockets, food poisoning in sewage. There are no germs that survive on solids (ladders) or on oxygen. They wouldn't even need to breed there, just survive, similar to how food poisoning survives in clean water.
• Immunity system is all or nothing. It either hits hard or not at all. There are no minor or major infections.

[AileTheAlien]

+1 to minor / major infections. Maybe something like "Slimeling: initial infection (-3 to strength and athletics) or "Slimeling: large infection (-7 to strength, athletics, and +30% stress)".