v0.31:Syndrome

v50.14 · v0.47 · v0.34 · v0.31.25 · v0.28 · v0.23 This article is about an older version of DF. More Info · V

A syndrome is a disease or effect that a poor hapless creature might get through encountering certain creatures, extracts or vindictive modders. They generally cause unpleasant and frequently fatal Template:L over a short to long period of time, but some will clear up over time or with the assistance of a Template:L. A Template:L is required to diagnose and potentially treat the syndrome.

An example of a syndrome in effect. This hippo did not ultimately survive the encounter despite one bite being the only injury sustained.

List of syndromes in Vanilla¹

Syndrome	Accquired	Short-term Symptoms	Long-term Symptoms	Chronic Symptoms
Blob blisters	Direct skin contact with a Template:L	Mild pain Mild blisters	None	None
Cave floater sickness	Expelled from a Template:L.	Mild nausea	Fever Strong drowsiness (delayed) Strong dizziness (delayed)	None
Cave spider bite	Being bitten by a Template:L	None	None	Very mild dizziness
Giant cave spider bite	Being bitten by a Template:L	Complete paralysis Being eaten by the GCS	None, not that it really matters.	None
Gnomeblight	Touching, breathing or injecting Template:L Gnomes only.	None	Severe systemic necrosis Death	None
Giant desert scorpion sting	Being stung by a Template:L	None	Necrosis of the brain and nervous system Permanent paralysis, likely followed by death	None
Helmet snake bite	Being bitten by a Template:L.	Minor bleeding	Fever Nausea Dizziness Localized swelling Localized oozing Localized bruising Strong pain Intense localized necrosis Possible loss of limb	None
Iron Man Cough	Expelled by Template:L	Severe cough Bleeding (from the cough)	None	None
Serpent man bite	Being bitten by a Template:L	Complete paralysis	None	None

1. Titans have a chance to have a randomized syndrome. These range from pointless (mild blisters from inhaling boiling blood) to instantly deadly (Severe necrosis from a contact poison attached to a breath weapon/titan made of blood.

The anatomy of a syndrome

Mechanically, syndromes are bundles of tokens attatched to a material - they're confined to creature materials in vanilla DF, but it's a simple matter to add them to inorganic materials. When the material is injected, touched or inhaled (depending on the syndrome), the creature suffers the predations of a nasty disease or poison. Here's an example syndrome, taken from the Giant Cave Spider raws.

   [USE_MATERIAL_TEMPLATE:POISON:CREATURE_EXTRACT_TEMPLATE]
       [STATE_NAME:ALL_SOLID:frozen giant cave spider venom]
       [STATE_ADJ:ALL_SOLID:frozen giant cave spider venom]
       [STATE_NAME:LIQUID:giant cave spider venom]
       [STATE_ADJ:LIQUID:giant cave spider venom]
       [STATE_NAME:GAS:boiling giant cave spider venom]
       [STATE_ADJ:GAS:boiling giant cave spider venom]
       [PREFIX:NONE]
       [ENTERS_BLOOD]
       [SYNDROME]
           [SYN_NAME:giant cave spider bite]
           [SYN_AFFECTED_CLASS:GENERAL_POISON]
           [SYN_IMMUNE_CREATURE:SPIDER_CAVE:ALL]
           [SYN_INJECTED]
           [CE_PARALYSIS:SEV:100:PROB:100:RESISTABLE:SIZE_DILUTES:START:5:PEAK:10:END:20]

The first line, USE_MATERIAL_TEMPLATE, is creating a new material, called POISON, using the CREATURE_EXTRACT_TEMPLATE as the basis. After this, the STATE_NAME and STATE_ADJ tokens are used to define the names and adjectives assigned to different states of the material - GAS, LIQUID and ALL_SOLID, in this case, though ALL is also a valid token. At this stage, you can use any material tags like MAT_FIXED_TEMP or similar to set further material properties, though this usually isn't necessary.

 ENTERS_BLOOD

This tag determines whether a poison enters the blood or not. If it is not included, the poison will splatter (if liquid) or flow (if gas) over the affected body part instead when injected. If you're using a contact poison, leave this out. Necessary for injected poisons.

 SYNDROME

This tag ends the material details and begins the definition of the actual syndrome.

 SYN_NAME

This one is self-explanatory - the name of the syndrome as it will appear in-game.

 SYN_AFFECTED_CLASS

This token defines what CREATURE_CLASS will be affected by the syndrome. Most creatures are classed under GENERAL_POISON. Multiple tokens can be used in a single syndrome.

 SYN_IMMUNE_CLASS

As above, but makes class immune.

 SYN_IMMUNE_CREATURE

This token defines which creatures CANNOT be affected by the syndrome - useful for addressing specific instances within a population, such as a specific caste or an individual creature that falls under GENERAL_POISON. Syntax is [SYN_IMMUNE_CREATURE:creature:caste]. ALL can be used for the caste.

 SYN_AFFECTED_CREATURE

As above, but makes creature or caste susceptible.

 SYN_INJECTED, SYN_CONTACT, SYN_INHALED

This token determines the method of infection - injected syndromes must be injected via a creature attack, while contact syndromes result from any contamination of a creature by material splatter (such as blood) and inhaled syndromes must be inhaled in gaseous form, such as from boiling or a creature breath attack. Any combination of these tags can be used. A fun variation on the usual creature injection routine is to create a material with a SYN_CONTACT syndrome and have a creature use it for blood - this tends to end poorly for any predator that chooses to attack them.

CE_X, or creature effect tokens, are the real meat and bones of your syndrome. They're detailed below.

Creature effect tokens

Each and every syndrome has a number of creature effect tokens, represented by CE_X - these lovely little beauties determine exactly how the poor creature suffering from the syndrome is affected. An example CE token is as follows:

 [CE_NECROSIS:SEV:100:PROB:100:LOCALIZED:VASCULAR_ONLY:RESISTABLE:START:50:PEAK:1000:END:2000]

In this example, we have an effect that will always cause severe necrosis in whichever bodypart it touches, so long as that bodypart is vascular and that the creature is not able to resist it in some manner. The effect begins shortly after the syndrome is contracted, peaks 1000 time units afterwards, and finally ceases another 1000 time units later.

As a general rule of thumb, so long as CE_X starts the string and START/PEAK/END end it, the order of the intervening tokens isn't important.

 CE_X

The effect type. This can be a number of different tokens, as detailed in the table below this list.

 SEV:X

The severity of the effect. Higher values appear to be worse, with SEV:1000 CE_NECROSIS causing a part to near-instantly become rotten.

 PROB:X

The probability of the effect actually manifesting in the victim, as a percentage. 100 means always, 1 means a 1 in 100 chance.

 LOCALIZED (Optional if the BP:BY_CATEGORY/BY_TYPE token is present)

This tag causes the effect to be restricted to the limb that came into contact with the contagion - ie. the part that was bitten by the creature injecting the syndrome material, or the one that was splattered by a contact contagion. It's unclear how this tag functions in syndromes contracted by inhalation.

 BP:BY_CATEGORY/BY_TYPE:BODYPART:TISSUE (Optional if the LOCALIZED token is present)

Specifies a target or range of targets for the effect to manifest in. For example, if you wanted to target the lungs of a creature, you would use BP:BY_CATEGORY:LUNG:ALL. The syndrome would act on all bodyparts within the creature with the CATEGORY tag LUNG and affect all tissue layers. For another example, say you wanted to cause the skin to rot off a creature - you could use BP:BY_CATEGORY:ALL:SKIN, targetting the SKIN tissue on all bodyparts. This is one of the most powerful and useful aspects of the syndrome system, as it allows you to selectively target bodyparts relevant to the contagion, like lungs for coal dust inhalation, or the eyes for exposure to an acid gas. Not everything takes a target!

 VASCULAR_ONLY (Optional)

This syndrome only affects tissue layers with the VASCULAR token.

 MUSCULAR_ONLY (Optional)

This syndrome only affects tissue layers with the MUSCULAR token. Are you seeing a trend here?

 SIZE_DILUTES (Optional)

This token presumably causes the effects of the syndrome to scale with the size of the creature compared to the size of the dose of contagion they recieved, but has yet to be extensively tested.

 SIZE_DELAYS (Optional)

As above, this token has yet to be tested by presumably delays the onset of a syndrome according to the size of the victim.

The details of this table are still being thrashed out by modders, so if you have anything to add, please don't hesitate to hit the edit button!

Token	Accepts Target	Description
CE_FEVER	No	Causes the Fever condition.
CE_NAUSEA	Yes	Causes the Nausea condition, and heavy vomiting. Can eventually lead to dehydration and death.
CE_DIZZINESS	No	Inflicts the Dizziness condition, occasional fainting and a general slowdown in movement and work speed.
CE_SWELLING	Yes	Causes the targeted bodypart to swell up.
CE_OOZING	Yes	Causes pus to ooze from the afflicted bodypart.
CE_BRUISING	Yes	Causes the targetted bodypart to undergo bruising.
CE_BLEEDING	Yes	Causes the targetted bodypart to start bleeding, with heavy enough bleeding resulting in the death of the sufferer. Some conditions seem to cause bleeding to be fatal no matter how weak.
CE_NECROSIS	Yes	Causes the targetted bodypart to rot, with associated tissue damage and miasma. Badly necrotic limbs will require amputation and heavy rot will eventually result in bleeding. Necrosis has some strange behavior involving bleeding to death that isn't fully understood; a 100% necrotic creature can survive fine with no non-yellow bodyparts but will die of bleeding as soon as they end a round of combat, even if they never take a hit. Because of this, fairly useless unless targeting the lungs or eyes.
CE_DROWSINESS	No	Causes the Drowsiness condition.
CE_PAIN	Yes	Afflicts the targetted bodypart with intense pain.
CE_BLISTERS	Yes	Covers the targetted bodypart with blisters.
CE_COUGH_BLOOD	No	This effect results in the sufferer periodically coughing blood, which stains the tile they're on and requires cleanup. It doesn't appear to be lethal, but may cause minor bleeding damage.
CE_VOMIT_BLOOD	No	This effect results in the sufferer periodically vomiting blood, which stains the tile they're on and requires cleanup. It doesn't appear to be lethal, but may cause minor bleeding damage.
CE_IMPAIR_FUNCTION	Yes	An organ afflicted with this CE is rendered inoperable - for example, if both lungs are impaired the creature can't breathe and will suffocate. This token only affects organs, not limbs.
CE_UNCONSCIOUSNESS	No	Renders unconscious.
CE_PARALYSIS	Yes	Causes paralyzation in the affected body part. Paralysis of the legs causes sluggishness and significantly reduces speed. Untargeted paralysis is 'complete paralysis' and can cause suffocation.

Inorganic syndromes and you!

It's perfectly possible - and quite simple - to add a nasty syndrome to a type of rock or metal - you simply add the syndrome tokens to the material definition in the same manner that you would add them to a creature material definition. The only catch is that since your hapless dwarves will only normally encounter the material in metal, gem or boulder form, a bit of creativity must be used to actually get them inside your citizens - that is, you need to make them 'explosively boil' as soon as they're mined or produced. This has the sad side effect of destroying the actual item - sorry, no highly radioactive uranium this release.

The easiest way to accomplish this is to assign the material a low boiling point, usually just under room temperature, and make sure its temperature is fixed to a point above it.

 [MAT_FIXED_TEMP:9001]
 [BOILING POINT:9000]

Now, as soon as this substance hits the open air - by being mined, smelted or reaction-produced at a custom workshop - it will EXPLOSIVELY BOIL, flooding a small area with delicious syndrome-rich gas. Creatures who inhale the gas will be immediately hit with the syndrome you thoughtfully attatched to the material definition earlier!

There are a number of other tokens you can use to control the colour and naming conventions of your syndrome material, referred to as MATERIAL tokens.

Breath attacks

If you want to really make a creature deadly, you can give it a breath attack to shoot your neurotoxin at your hapless dwarves from range. Some of these attacks have the unfortunate side effect of preventing a critter from using its regular attacks unless the enemy is on the same tile. You decide if it's worth it.

To use a breath attack, place something like the following anywhere in your creature entry:

 [MATERIAL_BREATH_ATTACK:LOCAL_CREATURE_MAT:SPITTER_SPIT:SOLID_GLOB]

The second token, LOCAL_CREATURE_MAT, references the fact that the material is defined inside the creature entry. SPITTER_SPIT is the name of the material, not the syndrome.

Breath Attack Types

Token	Description
TRAILING_GAS_FLOW	Shoots a trail of gas substance at the creature. Fairly easy to dodge. Creature will attack as normal.
TRAILING_VAPOR_FLOW	Similar to the trailing gas, but easier to breathe in, and condensed, so it will collect on creatures. Creature will attack as normal.
TRAILING_DUST_FLOW	Lets out a cloud of solid dust. Buggy(?) physics cause this to fling around anything it comes in contact with, making it capable of smashing creatures into the ground and flinging them over walls. Creature will attack as normal. Not an effective trail. Substance will collect on creatures.
SOLID_GLOB	Shoots a solid glob of spinning substance at the creature, leaving symbols similar to broken arrows. Essentially a projectile weapon. Creatures with this breath attack will not move, preferring instead to stay and shoot globs at you, even when you are literally right next to them.
LIQUID_GLOB	Shoots a liquid glob of spinning substance at the creature. Essentially the same as SOLID_GLOB. May do less damage.
UNDIRECTED_GAS	Creature occasionally releases a cloud of substance. Similar to TRAILING_GAS_FLOW, but undirected, thus affecting a larger area but losing the distance. Creature will attack as normal.
UNDIRECTED_VAPOR	Creature occasionally releases a cloud of substance. Similar to TRAILING_VAPOR_FLOW, but undirected, thus affecting a larger area but losing the distance. Creature will attack as normal.
UNDIRECTED_DUST	Creature occasionally releases a large cloud of substance, which will spread and dissipate. Similar to TRAILING_DUST_FLOW, but undirected, thus affecting a larger area but losing the distance. Creature will attack as normal. Substance will collect on creatures. DO NOT USE THIS TAG UNLESS YOU WANT TO KILL THE CREATURE AND EVERYTHING NEAR IT AND SEND PEOPLE FLYING.

Keep in mind that you can use multiple breath attacks, which appear to be used at the same time. Using LIQUID_GLOB and TRAILING_VAPOR_FLOW will shoot a glob of liquid, with a trail of vapor marking the path. Combine and experiment!