Seminar: Health/Healing/Death/Dying
Host: Towint

Therengian archivists have uncovered old imperial records in Throne City: "...famous Ranger of the time [c. end of Empire], named Reolur Jadys, working closely with one of the most brilliant Alchemists to ever live, Sebii Hissan, travelled over all the known world, planting special seeds that promised to provide miraculous cures for many ills. What this means is that a lot of the herbs we have aren't natural; they were created.

Dying is coming out on Thursday, and at 12:01am ET it will be implemented in at least one instance, probably Prime, and all instances by the end of the day. So what is Dying? It's a "buffered death." Normally, there are two main ways to die: a critical wound, or a loss of general health and vitality. The latter case is where Dying aplies. There will be a dying buffer of varying length--Towint isn't saying what factors can increase it. If your vitality is velow 0 but above the buffer level, you are unconscious and dying, instead of just dead. You will not necessarily know if a person is Dying just by looking at them; there is a skill check involved, and Empaths can see the Dying state more easily. If someone is providing you with the appropriate assistance, you health will gradually recover. You will have at least 15-30 before death occurs, going up to minutes if you have the right skills/stats/whatever. While Dying, your ability to defend yourself is severely diminished. As a result, if you are Dying while still in combat, your wounds are likely to ultimately be worse than if you had simply dided. This is the sole downside to the new system. In essence, Dying is what the body does to prevent death. You can't do it again until you have fully recovered. When DR2 comes around, creatures may also wind up Dying. Towint reiterates that *Dying* is going *live* (get it?) on Thursday. In DR2, it may be going *undead*. If the skill check agrees, you will see that a person is Dying by LOOKing at them. Dying will also be evident in the health command and from Empathic touch. An Empath will be able to sense if their spouse is Dying. Any relationship Dying might have to Contingency will have to be determine by the Moon Mage Guild. Overall, the new system brings a much greater benefit to hunting with partners or in parties.

In September, Towint is being put on DR2. There will be a complete revision of the health system. For example, if you keep getting in the arm, why should the same cut just keep getting deeper? You will instead be able to get multiple injuries to the same area. Many aspects of this are still in the design stage, such as how transference will work with the new arrangement. Tails will be damageable and healable. Your hand will not be bleeding if your arm is gone. Injuries will have an impact on your ability to do all things in the game. You won't be able to walk without legs, but there will be a crawl verb. You might leave a trail of blood, and there will be a roundtime. You will no longer be able to cut off the same arm from a critter twice. Your missing arm may affect spellcasting if you use your arms for it. Cauterization will be possible, but it will result in greater damage to the area.

Changes are coming to disease and poison. You might ask yourself, why is there a bruise spreading across my leg? It's a disease, but it has a resistance to detection. More skill, or being an Empath, will make it easier to detect. A new health-related skill was to be announced the day after this seminar occured [I believed that turned out to be Empathy]. Some diseases will have different durations. Leprosy is forever. DR2 will have mental diseases and damage, but there will never be an Empath hunting ground. Mental disease might be treated by Moon Mages, it remains to be seen. There will be resistance to healing certain diseases; Heal Disease won't work on everything. Just because you can transfer it doesn't mean you can heal it. Everyting can be a substance in Substances 2.0. The alchemy career will depend on substances, some of which will have applications with diseases. Remember, healing herbs were actually created by an alchemist. Poisons and diseaes will resist transference. A limb can be amputated to prevent the spread of a disease. Blasword asked if you can cut off your arm even if you don't have a disease. He followed up with the question of whether or not you can cut off your arm or a critter's arm, and then beat the critter with it. Towint said that that is someone else's release to talk about [This could have been a reference to Empathic manipulation, or to Necromantic grafting.]. There will be multiple levels of poison and disease in DR2, including delayed results and combined effects.

There will be bandages, crutches, and tourniquettes. But crutches won't make you faster than those who are on foot.

In DR2 there will be more feature slots, and permanet scars will be possible.

There will be race-specific diseases. Have you ever seen a Pyrdaen without fur? A Rakash who can't change into moonskin? A Gor'tog with hair? An Olvi without hair on its feet? And one race could carry a disease that affects another race. It was asked if there would be sexually transmitted diseases. Yes, but only in The Fallen.

The apprentice Empath [Kaisa?] in the Corssing will be going away. She's been an apprentice for 20 IG years! Maybe she's going to P5? The Autopath prices are going up. Prices will be scaled to depend on the same factors that affect all merchants, as well as citizenship, race, and maybe gender. Fraethys [Don't blast me for spelling...] will be retiring. PC healers will always be better, assuming player competence. NPC Empaths will be wrewritten to be more realistic. They might incorporate some first aid into their routines. Health insurance might be available. If you've wondered why the Martyr's room seems to have poor mana, you need to consider what someone might see in there with four digits of power perception skill.

We [the players] are going to hate this. Don't panic. Healing herbs are likely to change with the release of DR2. There will be "natural healing." Right now, herbs act directly on the body. In DR2, the body will naturally heal. A wound may not even leave a scar. A deep cut might naturally be gone after 1.5 to 2 weeks. Healing herbs will affect the rate of natural healing. Herbs may increase that rate by a factor of 1,000 or 10,000--but what does that mean for limb regeneration [Think now, what's the natural rate at which your body regenerates a missing arm? Now multiply that by 10,000.]. Races will have different rates of natural healing.

Will alchemists be able to create magical healing herbs? Well, it's been done before. You may need help from a Ranger, an Empath, a Mage, who knows? Cultivating a plant and replanting it to make more might be possible.

Will some races resist herbs? Some races may even be immune to herbs. There are reasons that certain races are longer lived.

They hadn't quite adjourned yet when I left to go to the next seminar.

--David (Jolebin Swordstaff, Elemancer of Riverhaven)


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