Salem

Disease should be able to spread through infected items to anyone that uses that item in a similar way that it spreads though infected people.
Rats would be still be infected after you killed them.
Any item that is crafted with an infected item is infected.
If an infected item is composted the compost bin becomes infected and all humus it produces is infected.
Anything grown with infected humus or fertilized with a infected item is infected.
If turkeys are feed infected items they will become infected and so will their eggs, offspring, and droppings.
If bugs are fed infected items they become infected.
If worms are fed infective items they become infected and any humus or worms produced in their bin are also infected.
Any item left in a container next to an infected item becomes infected after a random number of hours.
Infected artifacts that are slotted into clothing infects the clothing.
Any infected food eaten, inspirational studied, or clothing worn will infect the character, if you have the berry juice buff then there is a chance you will not be infected.
Infected items should be able to be cleansed through washing with soap, cooking or boiling.
Diseased should not show up intermediately but only after 6 to 48 hours.

We do have 'fleas' that come from rats. They didnt' make it in this last patch. I must admit though, we didn't have the mechanic nearly this harsh.

Omg, fleas. I love eeeeeeet!

This is harsh as *****.

This is harsh, but I like it!

pistolshrimp wrote:This is harsh as *****.

Not if you kept all your stuff clean and made sure that those you traded with do too. All you really have to do is not keep plague rats with your other stuff and not use them for compost or turkey food any you will be fine, that seems reasonable. Plague rats should be handled with care anyone feeding them to their turkeys, using them as compost or storing them with items that should be kept clean deserves to get the plague.
Also disease is way to straight forward, you get bit by a rat or stand next to some one that is clearlly infected too long and you catch it, immediately no question where it came from, there should be some mystery at least for those that have a lot of contact with less careful groups, but it also should be something that you can manage through being careful and clean. If you suddenly find you self infected you should be asking yourself, if you should have washed the clothes you bought from a questionable person or if you should have sterilized the food you found abandoned in a barrel before eating it.

Flea circus inspirational?

I don't know. Many diseases don't spread off surfaces. Those that do really only tend to stay viable for a few hours to a few days. Very few illnesses are going to travel in the way you're describing here.

TotalyMeow wrote:I don't know. Many diseases don't spread off surfaces. Those that do really only tend to stay viable for a few hours to a few days. Very few illnesses are going to travel in the way you're describing here.

Yeah its not quite accurate to reality and its probably excessive to implement everything I listed, but it would make diseases more interesting. The main thing I think should be added is the Dead Rat --> Humus/Turkeys --> Food --> Character chain. All though I think at least the infected clothing would be interesting too and we do have infected blankets so the diseases in Salem must be spreadable through contact with infected object.
It could also be interesting if different disease where spread in different ways.
Diseased food or other objects could also be used as a thing for witchcraft allowing witches to infect things with harsher diseases that are worse then just a periodic stun and are harder to diagnose, with significantly more exotic cures, that have strong negative effects(or negative effects when used close together) so that spamming all the cures would not only be expensive but painful for the character.

Are you a masochist? Next you will be wanting toilets. Realism is not fun real life is realistic and we play games to get away from it. Real life hunting is boring and cold and scratchy snd uncomfortable and thats with a gun doing it with a spear was 100 times worst. Real life fishing is waaay boring and takes hours. Real life farming when done the subsistence way is back breaking soul crushing crap. What I'm saying here real life is crap, yiu want realistic fine just stick to the fun parts. Disease is not fun unless you don't actually play the game and hope others do. And this will also hurt trade and like I said before trade is the only non negative player interaction between people in the game. Don't mess with it. Boiled or rebaked trading pie sounds fun riiiiiiiight?