1800 pop city here, a very unfortunate series of events just happened: a smallpox epidemic started in a sand mine outside my city. Ok, no panic, my city just won tens of smallpox epidemics and is well stocked with medical potions and has 3 hospitals.
Yeah, problem is that this time all the sicked people are drunk…so instead of going to hospitals they just collapsed drunk in the main street where hundreds of people walk doing their work.
Here is the result:
It’s over…approximately 650 infected, 215 died by smallpox, 17 killed by raiders that also sacked about 200 cheese from my cellars. I really hope that the few raiders that survived and managed to run away will start spreading smallpox wherever they have their camp!
Only positive note: I was experiencing a food shortage and now I have 230 fewer mouths to feed…
It’s great that epidemics can happen. Realistic, too!
I had a single(?) drunken soldier go on a rampage and kill nearly 20 villagers a couple of days ago. I was not impressed, to say the least. I demolished the Brewery and Pub after the incident. It took years for the population to recover.
That said, IMHO drunkards shouldn’t go around mass-murdering villagers. A more realistic thing would be for them to start a brawl that results in a number of villagers needing to seek medical attention at a hospital, or recuperate at home if they cannot get said medical attention.
I definitely had something like this happen to me once, too! In fact, IIRC, the cavalry were smallpox superspreaders as they ran around from hot spot to hot spot.
I would have preferred 20 killed in a rampage rather than 215 killed by smallpox!
But honestly when a drunken soldier or citizen goes on a rampage (and happens rarely and often right after a bad performance against raiders) I send the mad one far away in the middle of nowhere to recover his mind, usually it works otherwise if he gets devoured by wolves it’s a right punishment for killing people in my city…
Yeah cavalry moves so fast that it’s the ideal spreader of illness
But even drunkards puking collapsed in the main street are very good at that…
BTW my military got infected too but fortunately only a single heavy infantry died of smallpox!
I totaly agree with you. Thats why i never use pubs and brewers. I hope the devs reworks this that they dont kill anymore. Thats way better and more usefull to start using the pubs and brewers again.
The pub could be a positive building where villagers can bond and find community.
Instead it is a spawn point for alcoholics and psychopaths and has basically only negatives to it.
I still hope it will be fixed at some point.
I’ve made a habit of showing up on each of the perennial “why is alcohol so horrible?” threads to suggest a solution, with the hope the devs might consider it:
Pubs need an upgrade that makes them more worthwhile and less punishing. I think they should start out like they do, which is kinda bad, but that you should be able to upgrade them to Tier 2 Taverns that can serve food and increase their income stream, and as a result reduce intoxication time and propensity for violence.
From there, it’d be cool to make them into Tier 3 Inns which also unlock some passive benefits like added immigration and more frequent or longer lasting trader visits, and maybe some other kinds of visitors.
It’d solve this problem and add some thematic depth to a system that players currently avoid engaging with at all.
Others have suggested the addition of a justice system also, and I don’t mind that idea either: the Vault could upgrade to a Tier 2 Jail that allows you to recruit City guards and deploy them to break up fights. Or some other iteration like that.
It bothers me that pubs which historically have been centers of public and communal life, have such a deeply negative outcome. I know they also increase some happiness but that’s a passive effect. The killing sprees are tangible actions we can witness. Why can’t we also see happy drunk patrons dancing together through the streets or something? Hopefully we get some nice villager animations like this in the next patch.
when my town was about that size I lost 267 people to smallpox - no drunkedness involved. I don’t really know why it hit so hard that time. had plenty of soap and no notifications for build up in garbage.
Smallpox hits hard when the route to hospital the infected people take is really busy.
Today at T3 I had no medical potions and only a healer’s house when smallpox infection happened. A single farmer got it and infected another 10 people just walking right next to them in the main street. From there the chain effect overwhelmed me.
Decided to reload and micromanage the movement of infected farmer to the hospital: no other people got smallpox.
I’m not sure if it was cheating or only legit micromanagement
Realistic, too!