Alright, you all know by now i’m the person who does virology code. I’ve spent two years making bee’s virology distinct and fun.
sentient disease, however, hasn’t recieved any of that love. And, given that the last few beeviro PRS are open on the github, i am going to be reworking it soon
sentient disease has one big, glaring issue for its players: it relies on viro mechanics. if the sentient disease is not at least decently familiar with virology, it will not do well, at all. I want to hear your opinion- i plan to somewhat divorce sentient disease from robust viro knowledge (though i want to let that remain an advantage for experienced virology players.) does anyone have any input on what they want for the antag?
The Sentient disease perhaps being able to choose what it mutated from, determining its starting traits/bonuses?
I.E. Retrovirus(Particularly interesting if the virus is changing the fundamental DNA of the host, perhaps symbiotic/parasitically), Bacteria, Fungus… plague inc style.
Most diseases evolve to try and limit actual fatalities in their hosts, but perhaps it can get varying objectives of either Fatalities, Helping the Crew, or just staying hidden?
It’s kinda obv, I’m throwing my shitty ideas at the wall here to see what sticks
Sentient disease currently suffers tremendously at lower population to the point of being nearly unplayable since there just aren’t enough points to do anything with.
I’m not suggesting that they should be able to kill an entire low pop station on their own.
But they shouldn’t be completely pointless either.
Not sure how that could be fixed.
Perhaps having a pop requirement for the event to trigger? Only issue I see with that is the fact that Dynamic doesn’t really enforce population requirements from what I’ve gathered (wizard at 15 pop).
i was definitely planning to add ways for a sentient disease to do this. sentient disease needs more gameplay than just “face on medhud, apply cure” and “rush stealth dont get seen”
||you just gotta take care of my other viro prs before i start on this :^)||
anyways, on the topic of pathology-style sentient diseases: Giving each “type” an effect exclusive to it. Something like “Viruses can respec on the fly far more often, bacteria can integrate dormant disease DNA to unlock symptoms from said diseases at no point cost, protists can consume host nutrients to gain [the point pool used to make use of disease abilities]”, etc.
also, i had wanted sentient diseases to have a special symptom that they can “point buy” the effects of. if sentient disease type affected a symptom, itd be that- some may have cheaper buying in certain stats, etc.
Point progression should be similar to nanite research. The more hosts, the faster the points generation that you can use. this can make diseases a bit more viable in lower pop
Cure should always require complicated recipes. No random water and sugar. Maybe even incorporate bar drinks
Current symptoms are just copy-paste from virology, and just don’t work well with a sentient disease, with specific regard to stat brackets. What if you could spend your research points on stat points without relation to the symptoms you choose?
When a cure is found, perhaps you could purchase a reshuffle of the necessary two chemicals. Each consecutive purchase is significantly more expensive and there’s a cooldown.
Perhaps some of these suggestions can be incorporated into disease types, like only viruses being able to reshuffle cures, and only bacteria being able to purchase disease stats, and microscopic parasites being able to research faster and start invisible.
cures can be rerolled, so that a vaccine made when you were found 3 seconds in isn’t instantly used to cure your shit when everyone suddenly realizes you exist.
Really annoying to have parameds see the virus when it spawns, instantly cure it with water and proceed to stockpile the chemfridge with 30 pounds of vaccine, despite the cure for the virus having long changed since the vaccine was made.
Virus UI is horrible, it would be nice if you can see the stats by just hovering the mouse over. As well as a table that shows all the stat changes from the symptoms you have purchased.
Also, more beneficial symptoms would be nice especially on lowpop.
Alright, a bit of followup on this:
I’ve realized sentient disease is fundementally flawed. Its not engaging for the crew at all, and just exists as an annoyance. I’m not gonna rework it till i know how to fix this issue… perhaps give it a “patient 0”?