Seeing as the majority of people are okay with drugs in U2, heres a post.
PSA: The entire painkiller section is assuming that there wont be an extensive pain system in U2. I hope there will be, but its not on the trello, nor have I seen nelson saying anything about one, so I am assuming there wont be one.
Looting
Medicine Cabinets: Found in bathrooms, with common civilian medications in side of them, with cabinets that have rarer loot in them being locked. This would require them to be smashed open (making noise to attract turned) or to be picked open.
Pharmacies/Doctors Offices: Have rarer medications in them, typically locked away similar to the cabinets, but with a decent amount of drugs being out in the open ripe for the taking.
Hospitals: Lots of rare medications, this is where one would find adrenaline and opioids, along with other high tier medical tools.
First aid kits: These would be small containers with a few drugs, bandages and other things inside.
When you find medication, it would either be very small amounts (one or two) found in the open, or pill bottles with a handful of them.
Ambulances: Ambulances would have medical loot in side of them, or in the “trunk” space.
Mechanics
Nausea
Nausea would be a status given during bad withdrawals and eating completely spoiled foods, impure water or raw meats. Nausea would last a few minutes, and when you sprint, eat/drink more or jump, it would have the chance to cause you to vomit, which would only occur after you stand still for about 3 seconds, prompting a quick animation, emptying your stomach and increasing your hunger and thirst. If you dont stand still, it would eventually happen no matter what, so if you see that you are afflicted with the status, you have time to find somewhere safe.
Overdose
Overdose would occur after taking too much of a drug, where you over a minute you would become slower and slower, over the course of a minute, before passing out for another minute. When you are unconscious you would be able to press a “give up” button to die, or could wait for someone to help you out. After the minute of unconsciousness is over, you would die.
Withdrawal Tiers
Light - Shaking and increased weapon sway, 10% speed debuff
Medium - Shaking, 30% speed debuff, nausea and you deal 30% less melee damage.
Heavy - Very bad shaking, 40% speed debuff, 50% less melee damage and long lasting nausea.
Now to the actual drugs
Painkillers
Asprin
Found in houses and medicine cabinets. If a minute passes after taking a pill, diminishing returns dont occur from taking another pill, Example, Take 3 and heal 9 health, wait 3 minutes take another you heal 5 health. This, along with the withdrawal system prevents spamming medications.
First use: Heals 5 health over 10 seconds.
Second use: Heals 2 health over 10 seconds.
Third use: Heals 2 health over 10 seconds.
Fourth and up: No effect.
Codeine
Found in medicine cabinets and pharmacies. If 3 minutes pass after taking a pill, effects dont increase.
First use: Heals 30 health over 30 seconds.
Second use: Heals 20 health over 30 seconds. 5% speed debuff.
Third use: Heals 10 health over 30 seconds. 10% speed debuff.
Fourth use: Heals 10 health over 30 seconds. 20% speed debuff 10% of damage is applied as DOT. Light withdrawals.
Fifth and up: Vomiting, 30% speed debuff.
Morphine
Found in pharmacies and hospitals. If 5 minutes pass after taking it, effects dont increase.
First use: Heals 50 health over 60 seconds. 20% speed debuff.
Second use: Heals 40 health over 60 seconds. 30% speed debuff. 20% of damage is applied as damage over time over 20 seconds.
Third use: Heals 30 health over 60 seconds, 40% speed debuff, vomiting 30% of damage is applied as DOT, edges of vision become dark, sound is muffled. Medium withdrawals.
Fourth use: Heals 30, vomiting, 40% speed debuff overdose on 6th.
Fentanyl
Found in hospitals and medic tents. If 20 minutes pass after taking it, effects dont increase.
First use: Heals 120 health over 120 seconds. 30% speed debuff. 30% of damage is applied as DOT, 10% is ignored. Edges of vision become dark, sounds are muffled.
Second use: Heals 90 health over 120 seconds. 50% speed debuff. Vomit after it runs out, Terrible withdrawals once it runs out. 40% of damage is applied as DOT, 20% is ignored. Edges of vision are black.
Third use: Heals 60 health over 120 seconds. 60% speed debuff, Tunnel vision.
Fourth use: Overdose.
Poppy Painkiller
Crafted from poppy flowers picked in the wild or grown. If 10 minutes pass after taking it, effects dont increase.
First use: Heals 40 health over 60 seconds.
Second use: Heals 20 health over 60 seconds.
Third use: Heals 10 health over 60 seconds. Light withdrawals.
Panaceus
Found in end game military labratories. No effects if taken before 30 minutes after first dose.
First use: Heals 240 health over 120 seconds. 50% speed debuff. 40% of damage is applied as DOT, 20% is ignored. Tunnel vision.
Second use: Body rejects it, causing you to vomit.
Stimulants
Caffeine Pill
Found in houses and medicine cabinets. Each dose lasts 3 minutes, if taken 5 minutes apart effects do not increase.
First use: Reduces weapon sway when ADSing, and speeds up crafting times (assuming these exist) by 5%.
Second use: Reduces crafting times by 10%, but not reducing weapon sway,
Third use: Increasing weapon sway with a 15% speed up
Fourth use: Causes some minor shaking, similar to the low health shivering, and a 17 percent crafting increase.
Fifth and up: Crafting speed increase gives diminishing returns, with a cap at 20% and shaking effect becomes worse. Edges of view become slightly blurred, increasing with every extra pill. No overdose (outside of vomiting once high runs out)
Inhalers
Found in houses and medicine cabinets, dose lasts one minute, effects dont increase if taken 3 minutes apart.
First use: Stamina regen increases by 20%
Second use: Stamina regen increases by 30%, sprinting is 5% faster, edges of vision are blurred
Third use: Stamina regen increases by 35%, sprinting is 10% faster, blurring gets worse, shaking occurs.
Fourth and up: Stamina regen begins diminishing returns, 40% on 4th, 42% on 5th, etc. Sprinting has similar returns, capping at 20%, edges of vision and blurred further for every extra dose. Overdose occurs at 6th dose, vision turns grey after 30 seconds, with vomiting (if added)
Adderall
Found in medicine cabinets and pharmacies, dose lasts 3 minutes, effects dont increase if take 10 minutes apart.
First use: Reduces weapon sway, speeds up crafting time by 10%
Second use: Reduces weapon sway further, speeds up crafting time by 20%
Third use: Reduces weapon sway even further, practically none at this point, vision is sharpened, some sounds are slightly louder (footsteps and other quiet but important noises) movement speed increased by 10%
Fourth use: Shaking effect, vision is sharpened further, edges of vision are slightly blurred, important sounds are even louder, movement speed increased by 15%, you lose hunger 25% slower, but light withdrawals occurs once adderall runs out.
Fifth use: Very bad shaking effect, vision is incredibly sharp, edges of vision are considerably blurred, and a heart beat sound effect is audible. Movement speed increased by 20%, lose hunger 50% slower, thirst 25% slower
Sixth and up: No more positive effects, shaking gets even worse, vision is even more blurred, heart beat becomes louder, obscure quiet noises. Medium withdrawals once high runs out.
Speed
Found in some houses, cars and in evidence lockers of police stations. Dose lasts 5 minutes, effects dont increase if take 20 minutes apart.
First use: Slight shaking, speeds up crafting time by 15%, movement speed increased by 15%, 10% of damage is ignored and instead applied as damage over time, similar to bleeding due to amount of adrenaline letting you ignore the wound. The damage ignore is spread out over 20 seconds, so if you take 100 damage and ignore 30 of it, you are taking 1.5 damage per second, and it would round up for decimals.
Second use: More shaking, vision is sharper, crafting time up 20%, movement speed increased to 20%, 15% of damage applied as DOT
Third use: Even more shaking, important sounds are louder, movement speed increased to 30%, once high runs out you experience withdrawals. 20% of damage applied as DOT
Fourth use: Incredibly bad shaking, vision is very sharp, edges of vision and blurred, movement speed at 40%, heart beat obscures lots of noises. Terrible withdrawals once you run out. 25% of damage applied as DOT
Fifth and up, shaking gets even worse, tunnel vision takes over, movement speed no longer increases, heart beat becomes louder, you vomit randomly. 30% of damage applied as DOT
Adrenaline
Found in hospitals and medic tents. Lasts 1 minute, effects dont increase if you wait 20 minutes.
First use: Slight shaking, very sharp vision with edges blurred, Sounds are muffled. Movement speed increased by 40%, 20% of damage is applied as DOT, you will vomit and suffer light withdrawals once it runs out.
Second use: More shaking, edges are considerably blurred, heart beat effect is loud and combined with muffling, you can barely hear anything other than gunshots. Movement speed increased by 60%, 40% of damage is applied as DOT, worse withdrawals
Third use: Terrible shaking, absolute tunnel vision can pretty much only see what you are aiming at, can only hear heart beat and the loudest of gunshots, Movement speed at 65%, DOT at 50%. Terrible withdrawals.
Fourth and up: Random vomiting, overdose at 5th dose.
Alcohol
Beer
Found in houses, bars and restaurants.
First drink: Just normal food, no effects. Gives back a little bit of hunger and a decent amount of thirst.
Second drink: Same as first.
Third drink: Restores 5 health, gives a 5% movement speed debuff, blurs vision slightly.
Fourth: Restores 10 health, gives a 15% movement speed debuff, blurs you vision a decent amount. You take 5% less damage.
Fifth: Restores 20 health, gives a 30% movement speed debuff, blurs your vision quite a bit, hard to make out far away details. You take 10% less damage.
Sixth: Restores 30 health, gives a 40% movement speed debuff, you are absolutely trashed at this point, incredibly hard to see things and vision has long exposure, with lights “trailing” You take 15% less damage.
Wine
Found in houses bars and restaurants. Effects dont increase if you wait 2 minutes.
First drink: Gives a decent amount of thirst.
Second drink: Restores 10 health, 10% movement speed debuff. Same vision as third beer.
Third drink: Restores 20 health, 20% movement speed debuff, You take 5% less damage. Same vision as fifth beer.
Fourth drink: Restores 30 health, 40% movement speed debuff, You take 15% less damage. Same vision as sixth beer.
Liquor
Found in houses and bars. Effects dont increase if you wait 2 minutes.
First drink: Restores 20 health, 20% movement speed debuff, Take 5% less damage, same vision as fourth beer.
Second drink: Restore 30 health, 30% movement speed debuff, You take 15% less damage. Same vision as sixth beer.
Third drink: Restore 40 health, 50% movement speed debuff, You take 20% less damage. Pretty much blind.
Fruit Wine
Crafted with yeast, sugar and what ever fruits you want. When you first craft it it starts out as a must, taking a few ingame days to ferment. This process would be sped up by using a still, a heat source or a fermenting vat.
Exact same statistics as wine.
Miscellaneous
Peptobismol
Found in houses and medicine cabinets. Lasts 1 minutes.
First use: Stalls vomiting for 1 minute, with a 30% to completely stop it, but if it doesn’t you resume vomiting after pepto runs out.
Second and up: Multiple uses of pepto stack, with second usage giving you 2 minutes of no vomiting and a 60% chance to stop it.
Mushrooms
Found in forests, with some being edible and some being poisonous, which would cause nausea and vomiting, and others being edible and cookable.
Berries
Same as 3.0s, but none that increase your health.
Melatonin
Found in houses and medicine cabinets. (This would rely completely on a sleep system where you actually sleep.)
First use: Regen 10% more health during sleep.
Second use: Regen 10% more health during sleep.
Third use: Regen 10% more health during sleep.
Fourth and up: No effect.
Narcan
Can be taken before overdose to prevent it, or can be administered to a overdosing survivor when they are passed out to resurrect them. Found in hospitals.
And as a finale:
Meta
In the end, this creates a risk and reward meta where yes you can use a drug to get a small advantage, but once it runs out you are in trouble, and have to make a decision whether or not you do another hit, making every drug you pop a massive gamble.
The damage over time system is one that I was very conflicted on, as it seemed interesting when I thought about it, but if there are damage “breakpoints” like there are in 3, it would be a pretty big nerf to snipers. I dont think everyone would be running around on drugs though, and you would still be able to kill someone with a secondary shot, so I dont think it would really be that big of a deal.
Another reason I wanted the stimulants section was to make a the gap between end game players who have access to them and not so geared players wider than it is in 3.0, is in 3.0 its far too easy to kill a end game player when you are complete naked.
I didnt include psychedelics or generally recreational drugs, because I think that should be reserved to berries. There were also a lot of other useful drugs that werent included because I doubt there is going to be a “stress” bar in the game.
Also yes I know this was probably a grammar/formatting disaster but bear with me
Thanks for reading 