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A Smoking Overhaul - From an ex-smoker


GG Cannon

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I posted this suggestion on the Steam suggestions as well, but thought I maybe should share it here as well.
 

There are three things I'd like to say about the Smoker negative trait.
 

1- It should be possible to plant Tobacco, dry it, treat it and craft your own cigarettes.
There should also be "smoking paper" and "cigar filters" which should also be a craftable out of wood with specific tools for it and cotton(which should also be farmable), respectively.
In a big base very late game or even in a server with friends, those are things that are needed for there to be a production of cigarettes instead of relying on finding cigarettes in the world.
Imagine a game with 20 people all 20 having the smoker negative trait. The number of cigarettes per day will be pretty high and just finding them in the world by scavenging will not be enough for their characters needs, but they could have a tobacco farm and produce cigarettes in high amounts.
 

2- Smoking should have negative effects on your character as well and not just be about having to smoke and finding cigarettes in the world.
There should be a hidden counter of how many cigarettes your character has smoked and for how many days they have been a smoker.
After a while of smoking, a few weeks to a few months or after a certain number of cigarettes, there should be a % chance that you character develops a temporary version of the "asthmatic" trait after every cigarettes they smoke. After a year, there should be a small chance they develop it permanently.
After 2 years there should be a chance to develop a temporary "out of shape" after every cigarettes. After 3 years a chance to develop it permanently.
After 5 years a chance do develop a permanent version of "prone to illness" and after 10 years a % chance to develop a sickness that doesn't go away, may randomly cause "pain" status and can grow until it kills your character (cancer).
This percentage chance should start low but grow a tiny little bit every in-game year after that.
 

3- It should be possible to lose the "smoker" trait by not smoking for over 1 year in-game and dealing with the stress and negative effects of trying to not smoke.
There should be an invisible counter of how many days your character has not smoked.
After a few days, you would develop a temporary "Hearty Eater" that comes and goes every few days.
Then after a while a temporary "Restless Sleeper" that lasts until close to the end of that 1 year period. After a few more days, develop "Sleepyhead" as well.
So your character is stress eating, resting little and feeling tired all the time.
You should also randomly receive high amounts of stress.
And sometimes receive a temporary "High Thirst".
If you already had any of these negative traits, it should temporarily increase their effects.
After that one year period has ended, you'd have lost these temporary versions of the negative traits and lose the "smoker" negative trait. If you smoke a cigarette, you'd also lose the temporary version, but reset the marker back to 0.
If at any moment your character smoke a single cigarette after losing the smoker trait, they should immediately receive the smoker trait back again.
Even without the smoker trait, there should be a random low % possibility of your character receiving the first stage of stress due to the smoker trait which the percentage shrinks lower every passing year until it reaches 0% after several years.
The permanent negative traits you gained due to smoking in suggestion 2 should also be lost gradually every few years after your character stops smoking. (With the exception of the sickness)
 

It only uses mechanics already present in the game, is much more realistic to the effects of cigarettes (coming from someone who smoked for years and has stopped for over 10 years) and doesn't rely solely on scavenging for cigarettes.
Smoking in the game is currently not much more than a small scavenging hassle when it should have long-term issues to that short-term bonus 4 points.
Both keeping smoking and stopping to smoke should be a hassle, if you keep smoking you get long-term issues, if you stop smoking you get one very bad in-game year.
This not only make the smoker trait something you really have to think about but portrays cigarettes as they actually are.
Also, cigarettes should reduce your boredom a tiny bit. They don't only reduce stress, but smokers also actually like to smoke and smoke when they are bored as well, I can assure you of that..

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