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Smoking withdrawal needs work


bpdlr

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I'm trying out the Smoking trait on my new playthrough and as a smoker I have to say it's not very realistic.

 

First of all, I've read that you can't quit - not sure if this is still true, but that seems a bit harsh. At a minimum, a player who hasn't smoked for a month should gain the "Ex-Smoker" trait, giving them random, occasional but mild symptoms for at least another 3 months, maybe 6. At least put a limit on it!

 

Now let's talk about the current "symptoms", which consist only of Stress, which climbs up to "Terrified" if you don't smoke. This does cause mild unhappiness as well, which should be part of the symptom set, but I don't think while trying to quit I've ever felt more than "Nervous and Jumpy".  Sadness should be added as another symptom, but again only mildly.  Fatigue and hunger should be increased, with maybe some nausea and pain from a random headache. These mild symptoms should occur at random times, with a chance of more than one at a time. In this way, the player might find their stats greatly reduced by an unfortunate combo of symptoms, such as Hungry and Nauseous at the same time while they are wounded, or Pain and Agitated when faced by a horde. Being hungry and nauseous at the same time is perfectly normal when quitting smoking, as are "stress headaches". If the symptoms stack up and the player is in danger, finding some cigarettes might be a tempting way to fix the problem! Having a cigarette should put back any progress in quitting by two weeks.

 

As for relieving these symptoms, I think there should be an alternative to having a smoke, and the obvious one is eating. Ask any smoker and they'll tell you they put on weight when they quit.  Eating does relieve the symptoms, but only mildly. If possible, the game could reflect this by removing some symptoms but leaving others - a snack will relieve any stress, sadness, fatigue and (natch) hunger, but a headache would still remain and nausea might get worse.

 

In this way, you could quit smoking by eating more, running the risk of getting overweight (and depleting your stores quicker) but you'd still have some mild effects for a long time that you'd have to deal with.

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