Allow counterplay to Viruses

[Helios]

The problem with viruses is that players cannot really counter the virus, beyond going to the medbay and getting the cure.
There was/is a counterplay to the cryosting of Changeling, which was drinking a lot of coffee.
What I would suggest is adding items like cough drops and forehead cooling patches, which can be bought from vending machines. Players knocking down cough drops and coffee to overcome being sick makes intuitive sense, and would make people less angry about virology

[Farquaar]

The counterplay to viruses is to avoid getting infected. This can be accomplished by wearing various PPE items scattered throughout medbay, by switching on internals, or by avoiding touching other crewmembers.

[Helios]

And the counterplay to various injuries caused by weapons is don't get hit. So it doesn't matter how bad those injuries are, or if they require someone else to heal them?
Yeah, yeah. I see how it is.
Just don't lose. ez

[Farquaar]

And the counterplay to various injuries caused by weapons is don't get hit.

[datorangebottle]

Viruses as they stand are incredibly boring, because the only solution that guarantees you won't get infected(which is necessary at times, because some viruses are outstandingly lethal or obnoxious) is "wear a full biosuit and internals and stand in an empty, secluded room alone and away from everyone else" in a game about roleplay.
There's got to be some sort of counter to this.

[massa]

random viruses are fine but virology aids is just atrocious, but i like virology and thing it is soul

mostly and explicitly and entirely the department itself, nothing about its effects on the game.

[Pandarsenic]

Simple vendor stuff to ameliorate the symptoms until medical gets their shit together and gets a cure? Sign me up.

[Striders13]

Viruses as they stand are incredibly boring, because the only solution that guarantees you won't get infected(which is necessary at times, because some viruses are outstandingly lethal or obnoxious) is "wear a full biosuit and internals and stand in an empty, secluded room alone and away from everyone else" in a game about roleplay.

Yeah, and that can make a good story. Hearing crewmembers beg to put them out of their misery on comms as the virus husks the last person working in medical is great. You don't have to stick yourself in every single thing that happens in a round for it to be considered "roleplay".

[datorangebottle]

Yeah, and that can make a good story. Hearing crewmembers beg to put them out of their misery on comms as the virus husks the last person working in medical is great. You don't have to stick yourself in every single thing that happens in a round for it to be considered "roleplay".

A great story? Maybe. A great experience? Fuck no. "Playing" the game while there's a supervirus rampaging around the station is miserable and it makes me want to play something else. Sometimes I do.

[cacogen]

Certain symptoms already can be managed, coffee works for narcolepsy and chills for example.

Would be good if there was more stuff like this, particularly for annoying symptoms like catching on fire. Not sure if repeatedly putting the fire out counts, given it basically prevents you doing anything else.

[Shadowflame909]

Stuff that temporarily cures specific symptoms and not the whole virus would be cool

It'd be like an expansion of cobby med. Take this pill that cures your virus's random Flaming Hot Body death BS in exchange for one that makes you drowsy. Or a pill that cures the random KO part of the virus, in exchange for being so amped up that you cannot hold weapons at all and are just dropping stuff randomly

[Pandarsenic]

Give us one that fucking stops coughing temporarily, I don't CARE what the downside is, I'll take it

[FantasticFwoosh]

Players knocking down cough drops and coffee to overcome being sick makes intuitive sense, and would make people less angry about virology

Give us one that fucking stops coughing temporarily, I don't CARE what the downside is, I'll take it

Stuff that temporarily cures specific symptoms and not the whole virus would be cool

It'd be like an expansion of cobby med. Take this pill that cures your virus's random Flaming Hot Body death BS in exchange for one that makes you drowsy. Or a pill that cures the random KO part of the virus, in exchange for being so amped up that you cannot hold weapons at all and are just dropping stuff randomly

They feed us poison (viruses)

So we buy their medicine (random medbay compounds)

But they ban our cure. (enclosed)

► Show Spoiler

Off Topic

Ok for real, flavor of the month yadda yadda, this is a joke but it still has cough syrup coidine with it, it might be yucky as a chemical on its own but the brewed drink is to appeal to alcoholic perk'ers.

[cSeal]

Yeah, and that can make a good story. Hearing crewmembers beg to put them out of their misery on comms as the virus husks the last person working in medical is great.

This is a videogame I play to have fun. sitting in a room alone while people complain over comms that medical is full of morons so the super epic death virus someone released 10 minutes into the shift doesnt have a cure yet isnt fun

The problem with viruses is that players cannot really counter the virus, beyond going to the medbay and getting the cure.
There was/is a counterplay to the cryosting of Changeling, which was drinking a lot of coffee.
What I would suggest is adding items like cough drops and forehead cooling patches, which can be bought from vending machines. Players knocking down cough drops and coffee to overcome being sick makes intuitive sense, and would make people less angry about virology

A lot of the super gamer death viruses people make will kill so quickly you literally cannot react, or will have additional effects like confusion, sleep, etc so that you already cant get help. Adding these counterplays would only be useful for intentionally low lethality viruses or random diseases. the only real counterplay to competent virology is to remove the entire subdepartment and permaban anyone with over 100 hours in it for being a confirmed shitter

[Nabski]

I feel like cyan is mad at me for making him blind the other day. I guess I need to adminwho to make sure he's not online so he doesn't try to come up with ways to permaban me for playing a job he doesn't like.

[Nabski]

Okay more serious post on virology from the guy with too many virology hours.

I typically don't bother to vaccine myself before spreading a virus, because that's not as fun. If I catch it then I need to rush for a cure too.

How to avoid getting sick.
1. If it's airborne, you're going to get it but that means the cure is going to be something stupid easy like oil. Just walk to chemistry and get oil, then murder the virologist.
2. If it's spreading quickly, but people aren't having symptoms in a timely manner, good chance of on-contact. Don't fucking touch other people. No hugs, no handshakes, no shoving, no punching.
3. Otherwise (aka 95% of the time) practice Social distancing. No seriously, social distancing is your friend. Sneezing is cone based, so don't stand with people staring at your ugly mug. Coughing is a short radius around the person, so don't stand right next to them.

[Farquaar]

I typically don't bother to vaccine myself before spreading a virus, because that's not as fun. If I catch it then I need to rush for a cure too.

How to avoid getting sick.
1. If it's airborne, you're going to get it but that means the cure is going to be something stupid easy like oil. Just walk to chemistry and get oil, then murder the virologist.
2. If it's spreading quickly, but people aren't having symptoms in a timely manner, good chance of on-contact. Don't fucking touch other people. No hugs, no handshakes, no shoving, no punching.
3. Otherwise (aka 95% of the time) practice Social distancing. No seriously, social distancing is your friend. Sneezing is cone based, so don't stand with people staring at your ugly mug. Coughing is a short radius around the person, so don't stand right next to them.

no way man that’s too complicated i’m just gonna ignore all the sneezing coughing and radio chatter and then complain when I get sick on the forums

[FantasticFwoosh]

If we really are being serious now, devils advocate on a virus related current role i have played (Sentient Virus), curing a disease from a disease's perspective and not virology is that any silver bullet compound is a game over in due time, as the disease is expunged from the body rather than in real life, vaccines curtail a array of symptoms (usually penultimate one that allows the disease life cycle to continue, like leprosy being infectious from open sores caused by the disease.) from occuring.

I suppose this is also relatable to what kind of disease it is, you might not be immune from spreading it after first treatment if you've hardened your initial disease to require timed installments of vaccine, which is good for the antagonist who need to maintain driving goal-objectives, and likely the virologist who can plan a second disease to build upon the first as co-morbidity (first's inactive for coughing, but the violent top heavy second disease has no innate coughing to spread.)

[Itseasytosee2me]

We already have a cough suppressing reagent, don't we? Could just bundle those up into drops and put them in the smoke vendors.

[Pandarsenic]

We already have a cough suppressing reagent, don't we? Could just bundle those up into drops and put them in the smoke vendors.

Not seeing any sign of it in the wiki, at least not under Ctrl+F "Cough"

[Itseasytosee2me]

We already have a cough suppressing reagent, don't we? Could just bundle those up into drops and put them in the smoke vendors.

Not seeing any sign of it in the wiki, at least not under Ctrl+F "Cough"

I was thinking of the "uplift smooth" cigs, which suppress coughing while smoked.

[Valorium]

We already have a cough suppressing reagent, don't we? Could just bundle those up into drops and put them in the smoke vendors.

Not seeing any sign of it in the wiki, at least not under Ctrl+F "Cough"

I was thinking of the "uplift smooth" cigs, which suppress coughing while smoked.

Menthol?

[Itseasytosee2me]

We already have a cough suppressing reagent, don't we? Could just bundle those up into drops and put them in the smoke vendors.

Not seeing any sign of it in the wiki, at least not under Ctrl+F "Cough"

I was thinking of the "uplift smooth" cigs, which suppress coughing while smoked.

Menthol?

think so

[ArcaneDefence]

https://github.com/tgstation/tgstation/ ... s.dm#L1000

https://github.com/tgstation/tgstation/ ... ugh.dm#L61

[Pandarsenic]

Wait, are we able to just dispense this shit raw from the bar?

[Longestarmlonglaw]

Holy shit just play plasmeme lol

[Pandarsenic]

Wait, are we able to just dispense this shit raw from the bar?

Update, yeah you can just poop this shit out of the dispenser or vend entire bottles of it.

In which case, I say HELL YEAH let's get Cough Drops that are just a few units of menthol and maybe some other ingredients for flavor or fun?

[Super Aggro Crag]

i dont know where the biosuits are on half the maps. make them easier to find

[Farquaar]

i dont know where the biosuits are on half the maps. make them easier to find

They're in viro or right outside viro

[datorangebottle]

Wait, are we able to just dispense this shit raw from the bar?

Update, yeah you can just poop this shit out of the dispenser or vend entire bottles of it.

In which case, I say HELL YEAH let's get Cough Drops that are just a few units of menthol and maybe some other ingredients for flavor or fun?

I want a round where chemistry and the bar band together and make a shitton of cough drops of various flavors. Lemon, lime, etc.

[Pandarsenic]

"But there's no virus out there yet"

"Don't worry, we already have virology working on it"

"Wait no--"

[ArcaneDefence]

Wait, are we able to just dispense this shit raw from the bar?

I say HELL YEAH let's get Cough Drops that are just a few units of menthol and maybe some other ingredients for flavor or fun?

I have no intention of coder spriting that