Radiation Overhaul

[pra]

This is mostly something I thought of in regard of the overpowered decontamination arch.


Basically: in order to "decontaminate", you first need a "contamination"!

"Contamination" describes the amount of radioactive material ON your body, as opposed to the regular rads, which describe radioactive matter IN your body. This could be implemented via a new, scripted magical effect (or several).

Most things which would irradiate you, like swimming or ghouls, should now instead give you contamination.

Contamination comes in several levels:

• clean. Obvious. Of course, when being out in the wasteland, you won't stay clean for long
  • automatically increases to "very low" after 4 in-game hours
• very low. Does not harm you yet, but it can get into wounds, or onto your food. Not much, mostly to remind you that it's still there.
  • For each HP you lose, you get 0.05 rads. That means 1 full rad for 20 lost HP. This is capped at 5 rads per attack.
  • Each time you consume (=eat, drink, or inject) something, there is a 50% chance to get 0.1 to 0.5 additional rads.
  • automatically increases to "low" after 12 in-game hours
• low. Does harm you a little, even more of the stuff is getting into your wounds and onto food.
  • each 10 seconds, there is a 10% chance to recieve 0.5 rads. This effect stops when you have at least 25 rads.
  • For each HP you lose, you get 0.5-1 rads, up to a cap of 15 rads per attack.
  • Each time you consume something, you have a 60% probability to get 0.5-2 rads.
• medium. The nuclear material on your skin is slowly cooking you.
  • You are getting constantly irradiated with 0.1 rad/s.
  • For each HP you lose, you get 1-2 rads, up to a cap of 20.
  • Consuming now gives you 2-5 rads.
• high. The constant irradiation is getting worse, but the other effects are reaching saturation. Also, only that much fallout can get stuck to you, with time, it will get rubbed off.
  • Constant irradiation with 1 rad/s
  • For each HP you lose, you get 2-5 rads, up to 20
  • Consuming is 3-6 rads
  • automatically decreases to "medium" after 1 in-game day
• very high. Dangerous, but with so much sticking to you, some of it just has to crumble off.
  • Constant irradiation with 5 rad/s
  • Irradiation for HP loss and consuming stuff stay the same
  • automatically decreases to "high" after 12 in-game hours

Contamination is not cumulative, but rather uses the higher level. That is, if your current level is "low", and you get exposted to a "medium" source, your new level will be "medium". If your level is "medium" already and you get exposed to "low", you will still stay at "medium".
The only exception is swimming in dirty water. That automatically sets your level to "low", no matter what it used to be.


Sources for contamination:

• Feral ghoul melee attack: 10% chance of medium, otherwise low
• Glowing creature melee attack: 20% chance of high, otherwise medium.
• Other creatures: 50% chance of low
• Rain: gives you low
• Radstorm: gives you medium
• Being in the glowing sea without protection gives you high
• Surviving a Mini Nuke or Nuke grenade explosion gives you very high

Decontamination:

• The Arch, of course. It no longer removes rads, but sets your contamination level to "clean".
• Add a new option to water faucets and showers to wash yourself. If it dispenses dirty water, then it reduces you to low at best, otherwise to clean.
• Doctors should heal both rads and contamination.
• Swimming. Water still irradiates you while you are in, but at the same time sets your level to "low". Water sources at the Institute could set you to "clean", at the glowing sea to "medium"
• On the go: Turn soap into a consumable. Or make a craftable "cleaning kit", crafted from one soap and one brush/piece of cloth? It doesn't get used up, but using it requires 4 units of water, either dirty or clean. It shows a dialog box if you have both. Dirty water gets you down to "low", but clean only to "very low".

Protection: realistically, fallout should stick to your clothes and require you to wash them, but, that would be absurdly difficult. Instead, I propose that protective clothing, like Power Armor and Hazmat Suits, simply make you immune to contamination level changes. That is, if you are "clean" and put on a hazmat suit, you stay clean until you take it off. If you put it on while "medium", then you can't get clean, either. This overrides the automatic level changes as mentioned before.

For the broken hazmat suit, or for when you are lacking PA parts, it could still let contamination up to "low" through. That is, if you were "clean" or "very low", your level can still go up to "low", but not higher. Maybe up to "medium", if you are wearing only a few power armor parts. You still can't get cleaner, though.

Edited December 26, 2017 by pra