Dinosaurs Diseased Dinosaur Behavior

[RadicalEdward2]

For a game that went out of the way to detail the symptoms of diseases and infections, there sure isn't any real sign of them occurring in-game beyond text and notifications.
I know there's like a trillion dinosaur AI posts but, if we could get differences in behavioral patterns when they're infected, that would be great.

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For example:

RABIES​

Dinosaurs with rabies should...
♢ Lash out at their own kind (regardless of whether their herbivores or carnivores)

♢ Become introverted and outright avoid social adjacency to all dinosaurs while also engaging in combat with them if they get to too

♢ Perform attack animations on nothing.

♢ Avoid drinking water and/or traversing through water sources to an extent that actually sends the host into panicking mode.

♢ Suffer from seizures by looking upward or bobbing of the head (when applicable) while also sidestep walking or walking in reverse (sometimes in circles) as well as convulsions.

♢ Doing the latter while ragdolling on the ground.

♢ Evidence of self-harm.

♢ Attempts to bite (and successfully) infecting other enclosure occupants.

♢ Increased likelihood of entering 'Panic' or 'Agitated' modes.

Some examples of rabid animals (GRAPHIC) :

Spoiler

Hookworms​

♢ Dinosaurs should assume the resting or malnourished positions more frequently.

♢ Implement the inclusion of stool and the necessity to clean said stool (Rangers).

♢ Could be contracted by eating decaying feeder supplies before its replaced.

Ticks​

♢ Could be contracted by staying in wooded areas for too long.

♢ Hosts would twitch/fidget more frequently.

♢ Hosts may suffer from paralysis.

♢ Hosts may become lethargic and refuse to eat.

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These are just some examples of how diseases could/should be handled.
Rabies has the most detail because I've had first hand experience with animals suffering from it and have been attacked by animals infected with it (which I was then treated for).

So far, I think the Common Cold is the only disease with any visible symptoms in-game. When I first played the game, I recall seeing a Struthimimus sneezing when it contracted the Common Cold.

Hopefully at some point, we can see more apparent signs of disease in-game.

 

[RadicalEdward2]

Bumping this cause I somehow lost track of this thread when the forum layout was updated.

 

[Flint2025]

Great ideas

 

[Aramus418]

Wow, I'm surprised I missed this the first time around. This would be pretty cool ideas for creating depth. I wonder if something like it will end up in Planet Zoo.

 

[RadicalEdward2]

I feel like at the very least, sneazing animations and splash effects onto other dinos to create a contagious implication could be possible with aspects already in the game so far.
Even though its never actually acknowledged gameplay-wise, the Dilos actually spit onto other dinosaurs and leave residue that currently doesn't affect dinosaurs at all (not even with temporary blindness).

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This projectile effect could potentially be used by any dinosaur to sneeze onto adjacent dinos to be infected with the Common Cold; similar to how the Troodon's infect dinos with "poison" (but it doesn't do anything actually apparent).

I feel like this could honestly be one of the first ways to implement infectious behaviors for the billions of diseases currently in the game and work their way from there.

And to build off of the rabies idea I proposed, the comfort level of the dinosaur could start decreasing the moment they contract it. If the seizures and stuff is a bit too much work, they could honestly just add the comfort degradation to it and call it Rabies because of how aggressive they get.

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[LordTrilobite]

It would definitely be nice if the diseases were more unique and had some specific effects. But I think it would be very annoying if sick dinosaurs start to become more agressive. The diseases are already enough of a problem on their own.

 

[Flint2025]

It would definitely be nice if the diseases were more unique and had some specific effects. But I think it would be very annoying if sick dinosaurs start to become more agressive. The diseases are already enough of a problem on their own.

Yeah but they could make them less common to counter act that. Only 1 or 2 dinos get the disease and it takes longer to spread, for symptoms to amp up, and to kill. Instead of the current system where 12 dinos spontaneously get diseased at once.

 

[Player 99234567]

Yeah but they could make them less common to counter act that. Only 1 or 2 dinos get the disease and it takes longer to spread, for symptoms to amp up, and to kill. Instead of the current system where 12 dinos spontaneously get diseased at once.

yeah currently it isnt fun or interesting having to go tranq 12 dinos for the sake of it. Would be more interesting to make a quarantine area to place diseased dinos and medicate them over time.

 

[Flint2025]

yeah currently it isnt fun or interesting having to go tranq 12 dinos for the sake of it. Would be more interesting to make a quarantine area to place diseased dinos and medicate them over time.

It sure would. It would also make for an interesting experience... You could just watch a diseased dino to see how it progressively got worse... Getting more agitated... Killing it's own herd.. Maybe fighting with one but not killing it so it spread the disease... Starting to sporadically sleep... Sneezing... Attacking the fence... Maybe walking or running in circles.... It would be fun to see what different disesses did..... Then you could cure it.

 

[RadicalEdward2]

As a follow-up to this post, I recently obtained a copy of Operation Genesis and it opened my eyes to how much these symptoms could be worked into the game (and the lack thereof in Evolution).

In JPOG, I discovered that on top being able to use medications to immunize dinosaurs (completely nullifying the possibility of them contracting certain diseases), you could revive them from seizure induced comas (namely when dinos contract Rabies in the game and go prolonged periods of times without treatment).

Additionally, in Genesis, dinosaurs that contracted the flu or the common cold would have sneezing fits that tired them out.
Currently these, are just some of the few things I discovered while playing Genesis but, I will keep everyone posted the more I play. I also added this thread to my post on Quality of Life Improvements that could be made to the game.

 

[gabeluna27]

You know, if you want physically visual diverse diseases in-game, there were two that I thought of for a while. These would be fairly easy because they probably won't need the use of animations or model changes, which they said was a pain when they reworked the sizes of four carnivores to mesh properly almost two and a half years ago.

These visuals are just sprite or small separate molded appearance occurrences for two specific diseases.

1. Rabies can have dinosaurs foaming from the mouths in the form of sprites, like what I found from the viral in-universe Dinosaur Protection Group (DPG) website.

2. Foot and Mouth can have appearances of sprites or separate models (with transparent bases) spawn on the dinosaur models without having to change the models themselves, because that can be a pain in the butt to get done properly in time when you have other stuff going on with the game to develop on. This was really inspired by a piece of artwork that I found, also from the DPG website with a Suchomimus, and another picture similar to the one above

 

[RadicalEdward2]

You know, if you want physically visual diverse diseases in-game, there were two that I thought of for a while. These would be fairly easy because they probably won't need the use of animations or model changes, which they said was a pain when they reworked the sizes of four carnivores to mesh properly almost two and a half years ago.

These visuals are just sprite or small separate molded appearance occurrences for two specific diseases.

1. Rabies can have dinosaurs foaming from the mouths in the form of sprites, like what I found from the viral in-universe Dinosaur Protection Group (DPG) website.

View attachment 163530​

2. Foot and Mouth can have appearances of sprites or separate models (with transparent bases) spawn on the dinosaur models without having to change the models themselves, because that can be a pain in the butt to get done properly in time when you have other stuff going on with the game to develop on. This was really inspired by a piece of artwork that I found, also from the DPG website with a Suchomimus, and another picture similar to the one above
View attachment 163532View attachment 163533

That would be one way of executing it.
I was actually thinking of Operation Genesis. I recently started playing that and discovered that they had some visible conditions for Rabies.
If the Rabies is left untreated for too long, the infected dinosaur would suffer a seizure and enter a coma that would require a ranger team to revive it so it doesn't die during the coma and while the cure is being researched, the dinosaur would continue suffering from seizures and going comatose until its properly treated.
They could probably "fake" seizures by applying the eating/gulping animation that carnivores use while eating meat as a placeholder for the symptom because it looks similar to how animals tilt their heads back in seizures.

Basically, Genesis had the symptoms that I discussed in the initial post.

The sprites are cool but, I'm looking for actual visible signs of disease on the dinosaurs beyond text and graphics in the UI.