Spice addiction code

[Hauwke]

Anyone who's ever overused spice knows exactly how horrendous it handicaps your PC, truly properly terrible.

I say that something really needs to be done about, there should be consequences to over use of spice and complete removal of addiction is dumb.

However, losing all your health and being basically unable to play for many hours is even dumber, it's compounded by the fact that seemingly, it doesn't tick up, off or away while not logged in.

I'd say the worst part about it even, is if ICly you are only moderately using spice, say, every couple of play sessions but you are a casual player who really only logs in for a few hours at a time, you aren't actually better off than mister mad spice user who logs in 6 hours a day every day and smashes 5 pinches up their nose every other play session because their spice meter gets ticked back down.

As far as what to do about it, frankly the only solution I've come up with in my head is make it so spice ticks down while logged off. Maybe make it a teeny, tiny fraction of the same number as while logged in, but something needs to give after all these years of people complaining about it.

Thoughts?

[dumbstruck]

Yes please.

If you're talking about the addiction code that I'm thinking of... yeah, that was one of the worst, most unplayable experiences I have had with this game. It was about 20% of the ultimate decision to end a character that was 9 rl months and 30 days played fully maxed wind elementalist I had back in the day, because it felt impossible to cope with or get around. And the worst part is that it's not even the addiction code for all spices that do that when you get addicted, just the one, as far as I can tell. Others have other impacts as far as I can tell, all of which were more playable than that one.

[DesertT]

If we can have a hangover expire while logged out, the same should be for spice usage.

[Kestria]

If we can have a hangover expire while logged out, the same should be for spice usage.

^ This.  +1

[Riev]

I have known the actual addiction (like the REAL harsh addiction) code to hit less than like 3 Player Characters in a very long time and one of them was a mul.

Yeah, it can be terrible. There are ways around it, like not just constantly snorting fantasy-drugs every single chance you get.

HOWEVER, I am down for it having a countdown while you're logged off, because I've had the effects linger for well over 8hours of gameplay and for someone who might only get an hour or two a night, thats still a RL week of my playtime that is being affected.

[Krath]

If we can have a hangover expire while logged out, the same should be for spice usage.

Yes!! Can staff chime in about their willingness to support this?

[Yelinak]

The addiction code is ridiculous. It basically ends your character unless you're willing to sit in an apartment and roleplay withdrawal for what could, depending on your hours per day, amount to RL weeks. I once got a character addicted from smoking less than one full brick and he ended up with 1/1 hp and stun. After something like three days of play over the course of two weeks, he hadn't recovered and I let him die by walking into a one-room fall that killed him. Just didn't want to try and find out how much longer it might take before my character could do anything again. It was very discouraging. If it only reduced health, I could have played out the sickness; but with 1/1 stun, I couldn't even use the Way and decided not to bother with the whole thing. This was before focus, granted.

[dumbstruck]

The addiction code is ridiculous. It basically ends your character unless you're willing to sit in an apartment and roleplay withdrawal for what could, depending on your hours per day, amount to RL weeks. I once got a character addicted from smoking less than one full brick and he ended up with 1/1 hp and stun. After something like three days of play over the course of two weeks, he hadn't recoveredI let him die by walking into a one-room fall that killed him. Just didn't want to try and find out how much longer it might take before my character could do anything again. It was very discouraging.

Yeah. The addiction code to that spice more than the actual story was what killed my longest lived character. How many RL weeks of watching bloodburn code from hell but uncurable without doing more spice (not curable, really only just worsening and prolonging it) can you watch a character and not play them. Once it gets below 20/20 on your pools, you literally cannot even use the Way. What does this possibly add to anything for anyone? It's terrible and unplayable.

[Pariah]

If we can have a hangover expire while logged out, the same should be for spice usage.

Yes!! Can staff chime in about their willingness to support this?

It takes coding, so unless Halaster or Zorkbob get a bug up their ass, it ain't happening.

[BadSkeelz]

In their and the other coders' defense, they have been doing a lot of that recently and it is on the Road Map.

Long term  (6+ months??)

Spice Overhaul (Halaster)

[Hauwke]

Well that's great to know, actually.

[mansa]

A long time ago,

I played a Kadian Merchant named Oseres Kadius, who was addicted to spice.  He lived over a real-life year, and about 4 real-life months of that being addicted to spice.  I took it as a roleplaying queue to shift further into a character who would do anything for spice, just for the feeling of being normal.  It changed the direction of his life.

I felt that being cured would be inappropriate to be resolved by cold turkey, being that spice is mysterious and mind-altering, and I still feel that way.  Perhaps those characters never reached out to Kurac and asked for a cure.   I know that Oseres spent the last years of his life convinced that the Tan Muark, and Veddi in particular, knew the cure and traded everything in his world for the cure.



I always thought that being locked up in an apartment building, idle, waiting for some detox, was a "cheap way to avoid roleplaying tragedy".   But, in the end, everybody plays the game differently for different reasons.

[dumbstruck]

A long time ago,

I played a Kadian Merchant named Oseres Kadius, who was addicted to spice.  He lived over a real-life year, and about 4 real-life months of that being addicted to spice.  I took it as a roleplaying queue to shift further into a character who would do anything for spice, just for the feeling of being normal.  It changed the direction of his life.

I felt that being cured would be inappropriate to be resolved by cold turkey, being that spice is mysterious and mind-altering, and I still feel that way.  Perhaps those characters never reached out to Kurac and asked for a cure.   I know that Oseres spent the last years of his life convinced that the Tan Muark, and Veddi in particular, knew the cure and traded everything in his world for the cure.



I always thought that being locked up in an apartment building, idle, waiting for some detox, was a "cheap way to avoid roleplaying tragedy".   But, in the end, everybody plays the game differently for different reasons.

I could see that perspective a little more if things didn't literally keep you from walking a single room at some point. Like that literally becomes a question of 'you're chained to endlessly procuring this shit or you literally start into the detox which ends with you unable to walk a room, use the Way, or god forbid try to use magick'. Although I have to ask, at what point is it that, and if someone had 1/1 hp due to bloodburn they couldn't cure ever, do you think it would be realistic for someone with 1 hp to walk around outside a room, even if they codedly didn't have to worry about stamina costs for movement being more than 1 movement in many cases? And after how many RL months are you expected to deal with this albatross before you're allowed to do something else without it being "cheap". I would instead contend that being so sick you're literally dying slowly about it and moving around like you're okay seems more unrealistic to me.

Especially now with spice decay making it harder to get and keep that spice to roleplay that out.

[Inks]

It does wear off just super slowly man. Winners don't do drugs. But I do.

I've played a bunch of codedly addicted PCs (most on purpose when for IC reasons my character is on a downward spiral, or when inconsiderate people teach a giant drugs are good without teaching them they are a sometimes food). I don't mind it but the stat drop timers should be half of what they are now, for sure, they are obscene at the moment.

Muls should also have a resistance to tho addiction bred into them, and the stat drop from tho addiction should only last a quarter of the current time, for muls. If ordered to take spice slave mul PCs generally do so, and end up addicted, so this would alleviate a big pain of these already difficult roles.

Massive shoutout to slave mul PC players past and present, you are all real ones.