So let's talk drugs in A17 [b208]

[FMK]

Just a few preliminary notes before I dive into it, these observations are based on default-everything, as one tends to assume that's what everything is/supposed to be balanced around. Also, crafting Recog/Fort Bites is currently broken because recipes.xml has their crafting requirement as "craft_area="campfire" craft_tool="chemistryStation"" instead of "craft_area="chemistryStation"", whoops.

 

Steroids

Relatively common lootable from anything medical

Craftable by level 50 with Gas x1, Grain Alcohol x1, Testosterone Extract x1

Removes encumbrance and gives +3 Strength for -50 water

Lasts for 10 minutes

Potential Addiction: -1 Strength for 10 minutes

 

These things are great early on, they're common enough that you'll almost always have a few spare to use, and they allow you to transport full inventories of loot around at full speed prior to having access to a vehicle. Even if it wasn't for the fact that alive bears are like unicorns, by the point you're able to craft them you'll easily have 25+ steroids if you've looted some med stores.

 

Overall, a quite useful drug early on, but no reason to ever craft it and its usefulness falls off pretty heavily once you have a vehicle and some inventory upgrades. Pretty balanced where it is, but might need some sort of late-game buff to incentivize use, especially if you're 10/10 Strength.

 

 

Recog

Quite rare lootable from anything medical

Craftable by level 60 with Acid x5, Grain Alcohol x1, Scrap Polymer x5, Vitamins x1

Increases ranged weapon damage by 500% and gives +2 Perception for -30 water

Lasts for 30 seconds

Potential Addiction: -1 Perception for 10 minutes

 

So I can't really see where this would be useful, aside from maybe pulling an entire town's worth of zombies and then murderstomping them into oblivion. They're way too rare to ever really have a handy supply of, and by the point you can craft them you'd be able to 1 to 2 tap most zombies anyways, on top of which 5 acid is still extremely expensive and limiting on top of being competed for by wheels for vehicles. 7 day hordes, where it'd have the highest potential, is basically useless because of how short it lasts combined with how limited supplies are.

 

This straight up needs a buff, at least make it last for 2 minutes and 30 seconds, even if it means increasing withdrawal chance and making the withdrawal harsher.

 

 

Fort Bites

Quite rare lootable from anything medical

Craftable by level 80 with Blood Bag x5, Grain Alcohol x1, Rotting Flesh x20, Vitamins x1

Increases armor, heat, and cold resistance by 50, gives +2 Fortitude, and heals 20 max health damage for -30 water

Lasts for 30 seconds

Potential Addiction: -1 Fortitude for 10 minutes

 

30 second duration + rarity and late game craftability means you'll almost only ever be using it re-actively rather than pro-actively. So in theory, a good 'oh ****' item that you can pop if you're ever in a highly threatening situation. You'll only ever have a handful of them at most prior to being able to craft them, which is going to be a long time away. Recipe isn't too expensive, and your limiting factor will almost certainly be rotting flesh, which is perfectly fine. Problem is, it's only in theory -- if you're ever in a situation where you need to pop it, chances are that in the time it takes to use it, you'll be half dead with multiple levels of bleeding on you, which armor does nothing to help against.

 

Make it cure bleeding and give bleeding resistance for its duration and it'd be perfect for what seems to be its only use case.

 

 

My 2c on the new drugs in their current state.

[Zourin]

the Self Medicated perk also doesn't work as advertised. It doesn't seem to 'enhance' the effect, it only seems to reduce the water costs.

 

These meds only last 30 seconds, which really isn't much. Unless you open the gates of hell and boost the number of simultaneous zombies in BM hordes, 30 seconds is maybe 1 wave.

 

Fortbites is a good BM horde item if you've built for melee. You can easily hit 90-100% DR for the duration, which can either save your bacon if you fall off your rig, or if you have a stack, walk on the ground like a god for 30 seconds before crumpling in a bloody heap. Considering you'll need to combine this with painkillers and medkits, it's an expensive proposition that will probably kill you from instant dehydration if you try to extend that duration.

[fazi]

Steroids are useful early game, and easy to find.The rest, are useless for solo/coop , but can make a difference in pvp. Recog and Fort bites should be balanced for horde night usage.Lower cost, lower bonus higher time. 500% weapon damage is only usefull for bears/iradiated zombies, but the 30 sec makes it hard to take advantage of it.

[ArcticPrism]

The problem I have with drugs like Recog is that they're too powerful. Recog is so powerful that it has it has to be incredibly rare. This means that it's extremely expensive for a relatively small benefit. I'm prevented from using the 1 or 2 I've found because there is never any situation worth using them in and I don't want to waste them. Dying doesn't really matter even with the new Near Death Trauama debuff since all it is is an inconvenience unless you die multiple times before the buff is gone.

[Zourin]

The problem I have with drugs like Recog is that they're too powerful. Recog is so powerful that it has it has to be incredibly rare. This means that it's extremely expensive for a relatively small benefit. I'm prevented from using the 1 or 2 I've found because there is never any situation worth using them in and I don't want to waste them. Dying doesn't really matter even with the new Near Death Trauama debuff since all it is is an inconvenience rather than having any permanent consequence.

 

They're too use-specific to simply carry around everywhere, and when you DO end up needing one (bears, voodoo pigs), of course you don't have it. This wouldn't be as much a problem if pocket mods were more common, but it's not like you can count on having the mods you need.