Suggestions?

[arc_zec65]

Hi,

After dumping some more hours into destroying the world, here are some more ideas - some are far fetched, but may mutate into some nifty scenarios...

1) The previously mentioned alien virus, but not an actual virus. I'm thinking more along the lines of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers". It 'infects' by replacing the host (a time-consuming process) - so the virus wouldn't 'kill' in the usual sense, just replace people.

2) Killer Vegetation. Plants that eat people - like a fungus infecting plants, making them carnivorous in some way, or perhaps a nastier version of this. It would be a very slow virus, and very hard to pin down, but quite serious. Again, "Day of the Triffids". (Note to self: stop watching old horror movies...)

3) A virus from the deep ocean, since there are thousands of them that do unspeakable things to the things they infect. This virus would only spread via water, and would hopefully have a whole assortment of nasty lethalities...

4) Rabies...or something like it - very long incubation time, only spread via blood-to-blood or mucous contact, and exceptionally difficult, if not impossible to cure. As a point of reference, we still can't cure Rabies; just place the patient in an induced coma and wait until the virus burns itself out, which usually causes irreparable brain damage. So, in this case the infection would be very challenging to spread, but you could win even if the scientists produce a cure - since everyone left would have severe brain damage. What a sobering thought...

5) Bacteriophages. A virus that infects only bacteria and turns it lethal in some way. This would involve a two-step infection - first spread a benign, easily transmittable bacterial infection through the population, and then create a separate virus to infect this bacteria and make it turn lethal. The first part would be easy, or in the terms of the game (since it only does a single disease at this time), even involve bacteria already found in the human digestive system. Now infect those bacteria with something that makes them turn lethal, and voila.

6) A viral mutation path that targets mitochondria, instead of normal DNA. Makes human cells incapable of producing energy (Or something... I'm no biologist). Basically throws a spanner in the works of the bit of the cell that the rest of the cell relies on. Since it indirectly infects human cells, it's much more difficult to detect, but also harder to spread.

7) Bats. They're also pathogen carriers and reservoirs, and, like birds, cause mutation. Having another mutation-enhancing vector would be nice. Maybe bring all of them (including insects and blood-borne) together in one massive transmission armageddon?

8) Separate the viral/bacterial/fungi/nanite symptoms - These are separate pathogens, each with unique abilities - why give them all the same mutations? It would be nice if the higher-order (ie. more lethal) symptoms were different for these types - ie. let them start the same, but evolve with unique traits. I'd love to see Cordyceps-style traits (mentioned elsewhere in the forum as well) for the fungus... But seriously, don't image-search it if you have a weak stomach...

9) Gameplay-wise, a less aggressive research speed/start delay at the beginning of the nanovirus on Brutal and Mega-brutal difficulties. Maybe ramp up the country-involvement as the infection spreads/becomes more serious? Sometimes I don't even have enough time to get to another country! Also, since it's a non-natural virus to start with, as mentioned above, why not give it non-natural symptoms and infection vectors? Maybe mix it in with the already suggested digital/cyber viruses to create a virus with different lethality mutations (like the Neurax worm's branching tree). Also, the combustion mutation (as suggested by Ajube) would be very cool to have, since I'm one of those people that really just want to watch the world burn...

10) Please compress the savegames! Since I use Steam's cloud saves the huge filesizes are killing my connection!

ALL PRAISE TO THE NEURAX WORM