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[weenog]

When/if syndromes become genuinely contagious (as opposed to just being caused by substances that can be spread around), maybe they should persist after a creature leaves the fortress map with them.  You could leave sick infants unattended and easily accessible.  Then when the snatchers come, they grab the little disease bombs, take them home, and a plague ravages the goblin community.

It would also be nice if we could leave out a Free Kittens cage and inflict catsplosion on other civilizations.

TBH the Free Kittens idea came to me first.

[CaptainLambcake]

i like this idea, hopefully it'll be possible after the world persiststs even after embark.  the idea of a siege coming in, already tired and wounded from whatever disease you managed to send to their fort really makes me happy.

[NW_Kohaku]

Keep in mind that kittens are only a metagame problem.

The dwarves see no problem with letting a bunch of cats run free, and many of them even happily adopt them because they like cats.

Goblins would see free kittens as a great source of self-perpetuating snacks.

WE don't like cats because of the FPS drain, but to the characters in the game, they can't understand that the computer that calculates every event in their world is slowing down due to a large number of pathing creatures.

[Bumber]

WE don't like cats because of the FPS drain, but to the characters in the game, they can't understand that the computer that calculates every event in their world is slowing down due to a large number of pathing creatures.

I think you mean time dilation due to increasing cat density, which they can't witness because it affects their entire universe (due to the omnipresent nature of cat powers) leaving them without a frame of reference.

[NW_Kohaku]

Yes, basically.

But for the main part of the suggestion, I actually remember playing a lot of Medieval II: Total War, and using spies all the time, just because I could.  (All my leaders had the spymaster trait within just a couple turns, and would go from pure good to pure evil just from what I ordered in short order.)

When I wound up getting spies catch the plague because I snuck into a city that turned out to be plagued, I would always just... walk around to the next town, or spy on that military encampent over there, or otherwise mingle around as much as possible in enemy territory. 

The way the plague worked, if the quarantine was broken, it reset the counter for how long the plague would last, so you could keep a plague going forever in an enemy city by constantly entering and exiting a city by sneaking.

... I wonder why my leaders were always considered evil?

In any event, leaving smallpox blankets out for the kobolds or the keas to find might be amusing, but I wonder how well such things will actually be simulated off-map.  It's not like there's such a thing as disease even in worldgen right now, much less continuing worldgen for that to happen when a player has any control over worldgen population from Fortress Mode.

[weenog]

I agree it's a long time coming, if ever, the game just isn't ready yet, too many things are missing.  But if there's enough interest in it maybe better minds than mine will figure out some of the details ahead of time, so it's less hard on Toady when it comes time to add proper epidemic behaviour to his world simulator.  Or maybe he'll just bump it up in dev priority.

This could be a lot of Fun, too, particularly if different species get resistance or immunity to different syndromes.  Suppose the elves bring you those giant tigers you've been wanting... not just one, but a male and female pair.  The female is infected with Limpclutch, a mildly contagious (say 2% chance of infection with each direct contact) but devastating disease that causes permanent paralysis in the hands.  Elves are immune, giant tigers ignore it because they have no hands, but dorfs are susceptible.  Do you risk buying the pair and trying to isolate it?  What if you don't have a medical or animal handling professional around who can tell that they have this disease, and your only clue that something is wrong is when dorfs start turning up with non-functional hands?

[fractalman]

I agree it's a long time coming, if ever, the game just isn't ready yet, too many things are missing.  But if there's enough interest in it maybe better minds than mine will figure out some of the details ahead of time, so it's less hard on Toady when it comes time to add proper epidemic behaviour to his world simulator.  Or maybe he'll just bump it up in dev priority.

This could be a lot of Fun, too, particularly if different species get resistance or immunity to different syndromes.  Suppose the elves bring you those giant tigers you've been wanting... not just one, but a male and female pair.  The female is infected with Limpclutch, a mildly contagious (say 2% chance of infection with each direct contact) but devastating disease that causes permanent paralysis in the hands.  Elves are immune, giant tigers ignore it because they have no hands, but dorfs are susceptible.  Do you risk buying the pair and trying to isolate it?  What if you don't have a medical or animal handling professional around who can tell that they have this disease, and your only clue that something is wrong is when dorfs start turning up with non-functional hands?

does the average DF player REALLY need another reason to hate elves?

[weenog]

does the average DF player REALLY need another reason to hate elves?

Fine, what if it's your home civilization?  That animal you want (cats for pest control, poultry for egg production, whatever) is infected with something nasty, but won't die of it.  Do you take a risk and bring some along at embark and/or request some from the dwarven liason?  Do you try to catch them wild instead?  Or do you just do without?  What happens if you don't know about it when you invite it inside the fortress?

[Psuedonym]

does the average DF player REALLY need another reason to hate elves?

This person's words shall be stricken from the record, it is not optional to hate the elves, and all players who do not already must learn to. Vast quantities of fun generated from sick pets purchased from the elves would aid many players in this endeavour.

[fractalman]

you misunderstand my stance.  I simply cannot afford to have my dwarves lash out at the elves before we are ready...
see.  we're in a haunted land.  we are studying the undead.  They are the only ones who can maintain the shrine preventing the undead from getting up while within the fort proper.

once we can controll the undead-or when a dwarf turns out to be immune to the shrine, and doesn't get turned into a tree upon gettig too close-then...then the elves will die to a thousand parasitic yak hairs, and spend eternity as an ever-rotting servant of the dwaves. far, far more pleasing to armok.



on a sligtly more on-topic note:hm.  Take a cat, and risk an infection, or take no cats, and deal with rats...
Oh. that's an easy enough answer. leave the cats behind, and be extra sure to keep all the food in rock pots, or nethercap barrels.

I'm in the habit of buying anything that weighs as much as it's worth-a habit I will reasses now that I've figured out that wagon's can't crawl over cage traps properly. 

[CaptainLambcake]

fractalman has become Novice Necromancer.

[weenog]

Oh man, undead+disease has a lot of potential for fun, especially in Adventurer mode and after the world is brought to life.  A zombie problem that grows because zombies reproduce via infection would grow a lot differently than a zombie problem caused by a necromancer, evil weather or just plain being in the wrong area.  You could have a proper zombie outbreak that starts small and spreads from the center, slowly and inconsistently in wastes and other low density areas, and like wildfire in cities and other densely packed places.  Eventually you might wind up with an undead world, where the only survivors are in isolated pocket communities, and trade simply doesn't happen.  Or certain specific caverns which are fully infested, spewing out zombies at any point they're breached, needing to be sealed or cleansed to avoid unleashing the zombie apocalypse.

[Loud Whispers]

on a sligtly more on-topic note:hm.  Take a cat, and risk an infection, or take no cats, and deal with rats...

Vermin spread diseases. Yes.

[Bohandas]

If we're going to do dwarven bioterrorism I think a more apt place to start would be the period accurate flinging of plague ridden corpses over battlements.

[sweitx]

on a sligtly more on-topic note:hm.  Take a cat, and risk an infection, or take no cats, and deal with rats...
Oh. that's an easy enough answer. leave the cats behind, and be extra sure to keep all the food in rock pots, or nethercap barrels.

In my fort, I butcher ALL cats, but managed to cage and train a breeding pair of peregrine falcons. Chained 2 females next to a nest-box (plus a male somewhere else), I got myself a perpetual source of flying vermin hunters.
My fort now has about 10~20 falcons flying around constantly, murdering every vermin they could get their claws on. Even better! Since they fly, they frequently path outside of the confine of my fortress and reveal ambushes.
So in short, lot of falcons...
1. No living vermin anywhere.
2. Free ambush patrols.
Down side, of course, is that I'm getting a LOT of dead vermins outside.