Better diseases simulation has been unlocked!

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5

To be completely honest, this is the goal that I was less looking forward to, but this may be because of how poor disease gameplay turns out to be in other management games. In the games I’ve played (Anno series, Grand Ages series, Banished, Cities Skylines), the disease is always fatal and can go two ways:

  1. Either you build a hospital/apothecary/doctor’s office and nobody gets sick, ever
  2. Or you build said buildings after the disease outbreak, people visit them and become healthy

This of course is the better outcome, if you don’t have enough ressources to build the hospital or you can’t recruit doctors for some reason, you see your population completely wiped out or drop at a ridiculous level, uncapable of getting your settlement on the right track, which is the most frustrating thing of all: it’s not game over, but if you keep playing the game is not going to be fun for quite a long playtime (looking at you, Banished).

Maybe what could be infered in some way is where the plague is from, deteriorate relations with the settlements the disease comes from, ban immigration or overly defend your settlement for fear of the illness…
Maybe on the contrary you happen to know another tribe has a remedy, so you go visit them and they help you (out of kindness if you have good relations or payment if they don’t like you that much).
The spread could be linked to the environment the virus/bacteria are from: is the disease transmited by blood (sexual relations, accidents, childbirth), by saliva, by sheer contact ? Is it in the air, in the water your people drink, in the food they eat, carried by your livestock ?

On a side note, could lice, fleas and other parasites (on animals as well !) be considered as these “better” diseases with simulated spread and AI reaction to them ?

Do with these ideas as you wish :slight_smile: My main fear is that disease managements get too complex and/or difficult, mostly because of my bad experiences with previous games, because it supposes a huge stop in your city building experience. There’s another idea: maybe a disease could be less harsh, and just something to slow down your progression. Potent enough to make you take interest in solving this situation but not punitive enough to wipe out your settlement all at once.

20 Likes
6

If they want to simulate the plague, then I’d ask for them to make it realistic. So there isn’t a 100% chance of death. And not everyone will get sick. Have some people develop immunity and/or resistance. And then let them pass that immunity down with their offspring. But that’s probably going way too in-depth.

Apart from that, I really like Gal2’s ideas.

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7

droughts ? pestilence ?

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Which means not only what diseases you would like to see, but also what game mechanics would you like to see implemented.

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Generally go with @Gal2. On the other hand, I would find a strand of development medicine essential. Herbology and anatomy learning to surgery could make a certain appeal. Is probably realistic too.
Bringing an injured person into the village, a bit of excitement and then the “first aid”, that would certainly look good. Maybe also the topic “birth / obstetrics” could enrich the village life. Inclusive of a small party …?

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10

Let’s not forget about trepanation ! :wink:

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11

… and the dental problems that are also increasing with increasing plant nutrition. Abrasion, tooth decay, etc.
I think, however, that in-game maladies tend to have a real entertainment value with a very small group at the beginning. In the later stages, I think more of job descriptions, much later of science and schools. Presumably, “little or no illness” will be a reward for having medical care installed in his village.

1 Like
12

Maybe you’ve missed it, but there’s also been this article about a trepanation test made on a cow skull:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-23914-1#author-information

The original source is in English, which is quite easy.

To my great surprise, I always thought if confronted to such a case I’d try to punch the skull to make the job as fast as possible. But (maybe after several tests?) it seems they scraped the skull. This means they had to open the skin and flesh, have a sufficient area of bone being made visible, then start scraping, and scraping, and scraping, and scraping again until the bone is pierced.

Realism DLC? :fearful:

(also this one is necessary: :exploding_head:)

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Practice makes perfect - so to speak … BRRR.:smirk: But somehow and sometime it must have started. Anyway, our ancestors were not troubled by scruples. “Come, we’ll open a hole and see what’s underneath …”:hammer_and_wrench: From handyman to brain surgeon.

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For diseases I’d like to see a good selectionnof early diseas, mid game diseases and then late game diseases as your civilization grows so dondiseases.

Smallpox would be nice early game fit. Veriola Virus having a high mortality rate. First recorded case of the veriola virus is from Egypt, Ramses V.

Tuberculosis predates early human setlments, great fit for the early game and persists throughout the rest of the game. Any form of sanitation would help reduce the infectivity rate.

Influenza has been around for over 6,000 years and would also fit with the early settlements. Though due to the adaptive nature have it be weak one year and strong at random years.

Typhoid would be a mid to late game issue where sanitation issues arise. Contaminated food and water would be a great means of transmition.

Pneumatic plague or Yersinia pestis maybe a late game disease as earliest account for it is around 540 AD.

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You can introduce new mechanics such as:

  • infectictios due accident or combat wounds which are not well cured
  • differents infection ways such as dirt, decomposing remains or ponds where bacillus grow
  • broken bones
  • food poisoning due rotten food
  • poisoning due certain animals and plants
  • freezing in winter
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I like the poisoning idea. Perhaps individuals who work as food gatherers would occasionally gather poisonous/harmful food items when they are inexperienced/low ability. If their ability is high the chance of this occurring is significantly reduced.

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I want to see “bleeding” to cure maladies lol

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How about this for a scenario:
person accidentally gets hole in skull, slight brain injury causes personality change (for the better maybe in this case) so somebody deduces that trapped demons were released through the hole. So next time someone has a psychotic incident, or otherwise misbehaves, they give it a try. After all, it might work as often as not - like some modern psychiatric treatments!

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That would just be trepanning wouldn’t it? It was used during neolithic times and I think up until relatively recently so that would be an accurate treatment for some things. Although it does have a high mortality rate…

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20

macabre, but not unthinkable. Whether these “tests” took place until the Neolithic or were already completed, no idea. In 8000 years is much time for all sorts of experiments … :smirk:

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What about tooth decay due to having no/very limited dental care…
maiming due to combat with other tribes, animals, infections etc.
Injuries due to building, exploring, etc.
Thoughts?

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Tooth decay is an extremely important component to add. Tooth decay and braces with ingestion of cereal crops, a primary component of the Neolithic. Tooth decay is also unreasonably common killer of people due to secondary infections.

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23

unlock bleeding…for the cure

could not resist

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Sanitation issues could start to affect citizens’ health as soon as they build permanent settlements - if they don’t build proper latrines or build them too close to their water supply they will get ill. Or if settlements upstream or your own domesticated animals foul the water. The old and the very young would be most likely to die, or those weakened by poor nutrition.

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