Mind Leech Parasite

[ImpalerWrG]

Our current disease model is built around microscopic germs and infection.  While that system needs to be beefed up a lot I think their is a second track that should be explored, ALIEN PARASITES.  Unlikely germs parasites are more like animals and are singular visible entity which can exist out on the map, they have some means of attaching themselves to dups and have negative consequences as a result.  They have means of reproducing and spreading and they can be removed by medical intervention.  Parasites are generally debilitating rather then lethal and they can circumvent a dups normal immunity value.

 

The first and most class is parasite I'm proposing is called the 'Mind Leech' and is a reference to the Futurama Brain Slug and the even earlier Puppet Masters by Heinlein.  The mind leech would appear a purple slug like thing on the dupes forehead wrapping around to their ear, some cute eyes on stalks might be included too, and infected dups eyes are dilated or altered in some way.  The Leeches are found swimming in the polluted water of the Swamp biome as well as randomly within the cracked tiles of the biome where fungal spore and reed seeds are found.  The leech will attach itself to any uninfected dup that is not protected by an Exo-suit, this includes jumping out after a cracked tiles is mined, so their is always a chance one could appear.

The effect of a brain lee are not surprising mostly mental.  First a Dups can't gain any skills, and they periodically lose skills as they are drained, if they go to all zeros the Leech will try to change hosts or else it will die.  Also the Dup is unable to perform any Care jobs mush like they had the squeamish trait, this means an infected dup will never cure another infected dup.  Lastly leeches will periodically divide and try to infect a new host with the infected dup actually being mind controlled to travel to the victim zombie like, this may necessitate quarantining the infected to keep the leechs from taking over.  The only positive benefit of a leech is that a Dups stress level will be frozen while they are infected.  Otherwise they obey orders and do work as normal

Removing a leech requires a certain level of doctor (new job at least level 3), is performed at some kind of surgery table and is then followed by a convalescing period in bed, their is a hefty stress hit too.  Leech removal surgery needs to be researched before it can be used as well maybe folded in with the surgery table which is used for the removal of other parasites too, the leech being the most benign type of Parasite (think chest bursters and Dead Space for the nasty end of the spectrum)

[BlueLance]

I totally approve of this.

[Alfons100]

I had an idea for 'Thermites', the name is a pun on some things about it, but thermites is an alloy as well... whatever, the joke stays

Unlike most germs, this bacteria will interact with the tiles, instead of the duplicants. It will duplicate on buildings, and die from contact in water/chlorine. It will slowly die in organic and plants too. However, you cannot disinfect this germ away from tiles and structures

When it is a concentration of 30k bacteria on a tile/structure, it will start to emit a faint amount of eat. 3W lets say. Very small. At 60k it will emit 9W, now it will start wreaking havoc by either overheating things or messing up your farms. And at 100k, it will start to damage the tile/structure, and eventually break it. And then asking it to be repaired.

It can't make a duplicant sick, even from consumption, so it only bothers tiles. However, if it is airborne or in water, submerging yourself in it will make you get some germs on your skin.

This way, it will add a plague that can mess up your buildings, but still has a counter to it where it dies quickly from contact with water. 

So if you use water to insulate your base away from this bacteria, or water-drip cool your machines, you should be safe, but taking in a whole ton of thermite riddled bacteria may become your demise with poor planning.