Infections are a little too harsh on noobs

[Sevenless]

I like the mechanic, but there's a problem. Noobs are the most likely to get infections because A) They're new to the game and don't really understand the mechanics of wound healing/combat and B) They have the least access to slapping healing remedies on quickly which is required to avoid infection and C) Ancient windthrows and camomile (which I'm just assuming helps) are not likely to be within their reach.

My neighbour to the south got koed by a bat, and got 6 infections. By the time RNG was let loose, that was 50 hhp worth of damage on a 100hhp character. After giving some advice, basically the best option was to use that character to birth a new spawn so that the newspawn could get better stats than her anyway via the FEP system because of course she'd already trashed her character's hunger/satiations while playing around. Mechanics that make a week old player say "welp gotta undo most of my last weeks work, time for a swim" aren't really a good thing in my book.

Suggestion:

Make infections more relevant to all tiers of gameplay by having wounds at a low chance get infected whether or not they've been treated. Infections for untreated wounds remain the same, infection chance for a wound increases the more severe it is.

Include a minor infection prevention accessible to everyone by "cleaning the wound" with water. This could extend untreated infection time allowing you time to source medicines if you ran out of stock (trying to leech an infectible wound right now is risky since it doesn't count as treated), and/or decrease the chance of infection after treatment. If we're including the "all wounds can get infected", honeyed poultice is a historically accurate antibiotic that could be included as a pre-treatment to significantly reduce infection chance on large wounds.

Include a minor infection healing buff (pushes RNG towards positive rather than net neutral) via willow bark tea. People have been asking for it for a while, it was actually used this way by native americans, and it's more accessible to beginners.

[shubla]

Or just make diseases not-so-harsh for new characters.
Like within first week you dont get infected so easily.

[Sevenless]

Or just make diseases not-so-harsh for new characters.
Like within first week you dont get infected so easily.

Ehn, that's another option. You run into issues with things like "What about casual players who don't play much?" etc.

Thing is, noobs are really the only ones that this healing mechanic hurts once the community adjusts to needing a medecine cabinet stocked 24/7. Everyone else will have medicines available instantly.

[Seirai]

Might be a bit of a necro but I agree with the thoughts here; in terms of game design, I believe it's a rather difficult mechanic for new players to deal with and adds onto the anxieties a newbie experiences trying to get settled with the game especially since their inexperience will lead to greater exposure to wounds and an inability to acquire the methods of treatment.

I'm guessing the counterargument might be realism and trying to impose the harshness of reality to how wounds work in real life. My friends and I when we started just left our deep cuts and stuff completely untreated and just weathered the HHP penalty (and even that was bad) but now that infections are in the picture I'd imagine it's even spookier.

I think it would make sense that minor wounds would have a very low chance of infection and even with the chance it gets infected, your body's immune system or something fights it off easily. This sort of gradient from minor wounds to more severe ones would allow infections to be relevant in the early game (but still bearable) and a very terrifying threat in the late game especially if it scaled.

For example, if you've some grievous wound, your wound would infect very quickly if left untreated (within hours-- maybe even minutes after acquiring it) and could potentially kill you or leave you with an amputated limb as it catches on and ramps up.

[Cajoes]

Its not really a necro if its still relevant.

Would just like to weight in with some ideas, like maybe a hidden immunity bar that helps fight off infections, loosely tied into your satiations (good varied diets giving you a bonus, while monotone or even starvation leading to diseases) Maybe some bonuses from drinking teas or eating certain mushrooms..? I don't pretend to assume to know how Hearthling biology works.

Some more options beyond the chamomille poultice, like rinsing your wounds in vinegar (the go-to antiseptic besides straight alcohol). Honeyed bandages like mentioned previously. Or for a more brutal option, just rub it with a firebrand (which gives you a severe burn wound instead that needs some other treatment) or tar stick.

Would also like to see a few more diseases and a plague doctor mask in the novelty hat shop on the front-page.

[iamahh]

every other game has excruciating mechanics of annoyance, IMO it's such a cheap way to interact with the world... what made me stay in HH was the more chill mechanics, I felt immersed in the world by the art style and the feel of the game... you still have to work to access content, but it feels very rewarding, while not being annoying... these mechanics of disease, infection, seem a bit going in the cheap direction every survival goes... i might be tripping balls here tho

[ven]

Stockholm, 2020

First they came for the happiness bar, and we said nothing.
Then they came for the 12 beliefs, and we said nothing.
Then they came for null inheritance, and we said nothing.
Then they came for permadeath and meaningful combat, and we said nothing.
Then they came for wounds, and we said nothing.

Now we're playing in w12 and can't say anything anymore,
because even the chat feature has been nerfed.

Actual game footage: http://moomoo.io/



More seriously though

Some more options beyond the chamomille poultice, like rinsing your wounds in vinegar (the go-to antiseptic besides straight alcohol). Honeyed bandages like mentioned previously. Or for a more brutal option, just rub it with a firebrand (which gives you a severe burn wound instead that needs some other treatment) or tar stick.

Would also like to see a few more diseases and a plague doctor mask in the novelty hat shop on the front-page.

I think those are interesting solutions. The idea of trading certain wounds for a severe burn is particularly interesting: the total damage would be higher, but it wouldn't have the possibility of infecting. There's also the gamble of risking doing that without knowing if the wound would, in fact, develop into an infection. And it would be available to everyone since fire is easily accessible.

[loftar]

I don't want to dismiss the issue entirely, but I don't think it's entirely unreasonable that noobs are worse affected by wilderness conditions. It makes sense that the reason you progress through the tech tree is in order to handle unforeseen issues and harsh conditions better.

[Cajoes]

Would searing a infected sore actually work or just make things worse..?

[Sevenless]

I don't want to dismiss the issue entirely, but I don't think it's entirely unreasonable that noobs are worse affected by wilderness conditions. It makes sense that the reason you progress through the tech tree is in order to handle unforeseen issues and harsh conditions better.

Unforeseen problems (from a noob's point of view) leaving beginners in a situation that they are effectively helpless without community support seems unreasonably harsh. Wandering into a boar is pretty much something every beginner will do, and it's extremely unlikely they'll have the materials on hand to heal themselves before infections set in. That's why I was attempting to make my suggestions work, but at the same time be far inferior options compared to endgame healing medecine. Needing to constantly drink a tea in order to keep a wound healing is far more of a nuisance than slapping a camomile compress on it. Or constantly bathing it in water simply to hold off infection until you find the medicine required (assuming you're able at that stage). Both of those reward tiering up the tech with convenience.

Also I do think if we're going to have infection mechanics, that it should actually impact endgame players. It's quite easy to set yourself up in such a way that infection will never be an issue with a stocked medical cabinet.