I've been reviewing the drug feedback threads and talking with players on OOC-Chat. I took a deep dive into the drug system on Sindome today and made some pretty large changes.
1. We had two systems for drugs.
One was the old system from literally 20 years ago (1999) and that was managing your addiction state, and it used to manage withdrawals and hallucinations and a bunch of other stuff. This was the thing that decided if you were an addict, for how long, and fed data to @stats and a bunch of other things. The code was old, hard to understand, and annoying to deal with.
The new system which I wrote about 10 years ago and have been updating since (with Johnny's help), which manages your withdrawals, experience scripts, overdosing and was also tracking addiction in its own way.
We now have one system. The new system. It manages everything it used to like your very recent hits (the kind that make you OD) and your overarching addiction (the kind that makes you get withdrawals). I removed 20+ verbs and several props from the old system that were so old. Some of them were being called but doing nothing (old hallucinations). The code was overly complex given what the system was currently doing and it really didn't need to be that way. So it's now completely gone-- or so I hope. It's possible I missed a reference here or there so if that's the case please xhelp if you encounter a bug or traceback.
2. Addiction was supposed to expire over time the same way withdrawals do, but the code that was expiring it wasn't working right. As such, some folks were addicts that shouldn't have still been addicts-- forever. Everything is using the new system now which meant I had to basically clear addiction records so everyone is starting from scratch addiction wise. That does NOT mean you won't get addicted on your next hit. More on that later. Suffice to say, moving forward, if you become addicted to a drug, and STOP using it completely, after a period of time (could be a month, could be less, could be more, depends on the drug as it's configurable) you will no longer be addicted. You will be like you never took a hit of a drug-- free to use it a little bit without becoming addicted again, but heavy use will put you right back into addiction. If you are addicted and take another hit, you are just extending your addiction, resetting the timer as it were.
3. Every drug had a certain amount of 'free uses' before you would be eligible for addiction. These numbers have been updated to be a bit more realistic. Instead of your first puff of TH-2c, maybe you get addicted on your third joint. You will still get addicted fairly quickly to drugs, depending on what kind of drug it is, but generally speaking you can expect to have to use a few joints, or a few vials of v202 or a few full packets of mRc before you're straight up ELIGIBLE to be addicted.
4. Despite what many think, there is a roll to decide if you get addicted to something. This roll has been updated slightly, but it is and has always been a roll of certain stats, against an ever increasing difficulty the more of a drug you do. Now I mentioned 'free uses' these are like the lead in, you get to use the drug a certain amount before your body starts to develop the potential for addiction. These won't count toward your possibility of being addicted. Still, after your free uses, it's totally possible to get addicted right away.
5. Addiction and withdrawals are now cleared when you go through detox. Previously, only withdrawals were cleared. In the interest of balance, and preventing people from abusing the detox code to completely negate addiction and withdrawals, the price for this at a doctor has been raised SIGNIFICANTLY. Sorry not sorry.
6. Everyone is now 'not addicted' to anything. If you check @stats you will see this. However, I didn't reset the counter on how many of a drug you've taken-- that was part of the new system, and the new system is now governing addiction. That means if you are a regular user of a drug, your next hit could very well addict you. That seems fair.
This should put to bed some of the issues and concerns of drug addiction that were brought up in other topics and on OOC-Chat.
At this point, what we need to do is wait and see how this plays out. Maybe the updated numbers and rolls and free uses are an over correction that will need to be scaled back-- it'll take a few weeks for us to see, as people begin using drugs and getting addicted and such. Maybe folks will begin using drugs more now that the system is a bit more rational.
7. Drugs are still VERY addictive. I've tweaked the numbers a bit, and cleaned things up, and also made them clear out over time and reset, but you'll still be getting addicted if you use drugs a fair amount. However, the casual person who takes a hit from a joint every now and then will probably have a better experience in that they won't become addicted RIGHT away.
My goal here is to get people using drugs, becoming reliant on their bonuses, and then for drug addiction to take place, after people are used to using the drugs and have come to rely on them. This is more like an accelerated version of what happens in real life-- giving you the benefits without the cost for a period of time, then hitting you with the back taxes of your new addiction.
Go out and buy some drugs in game, mess around with them, enjoy the various things they offer, mix and match, experiment, and have fun with the consequences.
As always, please report issues or discrepancies.
-- S