Just an idea... If I do start working on it, it won't be for a long while as I currently have 2 other projects going. But I thought I should post the shiz here and see what you folks think.
Mind you, this is all based on real life exposure cases, so I really don't know how this would affect gameplay... but merged into me RFP and other mods like AMK or SmP, I think it would make things very interesting... Also, another thing to note is that the lack of medical treatment in the zone would REALLY affect your decisions when it comes to exposing yourself to radiation... One last thing to take into consideration is that the game is fiction, but based on the movie, I would say that it is safe to assume that STALKERs have been gifted by the zone with a resistance to background radiation or internal exposure, as they are constantly eating radioactive animals, yet they aren't dying wholesale from the amounts of contamination they just swallowed... (Caesium137 is found in the muscle structure of indigeonous life in Chernobyl today, which is a radioactive isotope of Caesium formed by fission.) Anyways, more on the different isotopes later...
Anyways, onto the shiz that I was thinking about...
*Different types of radiation, ie, alpha, bete, gamma, and infrared.
*New measurements: I am assuming the default system of radiation density measurement is rads, the roentgen system is more pertinent as it pertains to radiation exposure to organisms.
*Fractionized exposure vs. prolonged exposure: If you are in garbage, for example, and decide to loot the heaps, it would be safer to run atop them to grab an artifact, then turn around and run, only to come back later. But if you were to walk up there, and spend some time looking around, your chances of fatality would drastically increase... even if you got a smaller total dose. This is because when an organism is exposed to radiation, cell fatality is at a near 90% in severe cases, and more or less half in moderate cases. But if you recieve a larger dose, but it is broken up over different times, your cells have a moment to recover and regenerate.
*Dosimeter built into PDA, tells you your current exposure levels...
*Different effects from different levels of exposure: This would be measured in "Levels" where your total radiation expsoure over the course of the game is measured. Yes, this means that each time you get irradiated, you are essentially increasing your chance to randomly die in the middle of the game. Hence why I say this will really affect your decisions... game symptoms will be based on real life symptoms but adjusted for the purpose of gameplay, while real life symptoms will be in (parentheses).
-Level 1: 15rem prolonged, 20rem fractionized... No effect
-Level 2: 40rem prolonged, 50rem fractionized... No effect (white blood cells count goes down)
-Level 3: 85rem prolonged, 100rem fractionized... Slight health loss, dizziness, and slight nasuea 6 game hours after exposure [oh yes, that means you'll be hearing marked one gag...] (increased chance of infection, possible sterility)
-Level 4: 180rem prolonged, 200rem fractionized... Slight Health loss, dizziness, occasional vomiting, and fatigue for those sleeping bag mods [yep, I want to animate stalkers vomiting!] 6 hours after exposure, followed by a period of ten days without symptoms... only for them to return in a more mild case. (fatigue, infection, sterility
-Level 5: 275rem prolonged, 300rem fractionized... Moderate healthloss, mild vomiting 4 hours after exposure, 30% chance to randomly die in 30 game days, 8 day latent period (hair loss, fatigue, infection and illness, spontaneous sterility)
-Level 6: 370rem prolonged, 400rem fractionized... Moderate health loss, bleeding orifices, mild vomitting 4 hours after exposure, 6 day latent period, 40% chance of dying in 30 days (same as last level, but with bleeding)
-Level 7: 565rem, 600rem... Moderately severe health loss, bleeding, common vommiting, dizziness 2 hours after exposure and lasts 2 days, 3 day latent period, after which level 6 symptoms return for short time, 80% chance to die in 30 days (infection, bleeding orifices, internal bleeding, sterility)
-Level 8: 700rem, 1000rem... Severe health loss, vomiting, bleeding, inability to move, severe dizziness 30 minutes after exposure lasting 2 days, 5 day latent phase followed by death by bleeding. 100% chance of death after 14 days. (pretty much the same)
Level 9: 3000rem, 5000rem... Spontaneous projectile vomiting, severe dizziness, profusely bleeding orifices, internal bleeding, burning immediately after exposure. Latent phase of 7 days, followed by death by projectile diarrhea, bleeding, urination, intense pain, and coma... Chance of dying after 7 days is 200%... You will not survive this level of exposure. (pretty much the same)
-Level 10: More than 5000rem... Death within 24 hours by combination of all above symptoms... except way worse. This level of exposure will be very brief, but high in density. If you thought level 9 was bad, you'll probably find yourself exposing yourself to this level of radiation for the sole purpose of seeing how horrible this is...
Unfortunately, I have to cut this off here. Gotta run to work. When I finish my homework on radioactive isotopes, I'll come back and update this....
Cheers!