Um..no...the devs simply didn't include them..there are no universe excuses for it.. the disease "system" svcks.

The way I see it, just another excuse to cut corners for Bethesda..

I don't think it's cutting corners. They probably just didn't think weakened Skooma would be that important to the majority of players, which is probably true. I was disappointed with it though.

What I was really down about was the fact speed was left out of the game, or athletics (whatever running speed was named).. That was the great thing about Skooma in Oblivion, you could zip about after gulping it down like an athlete, it made it really feel like a drug and it was so powerful, however even in Oblivion there wasn't an addiction disease with it sadly.

Nah nords are more healthy then other races still diseases are only good for one thing, annoy you.

Oblivion had less diseases than Morrowind? Are you sure?

Yes more diseases would be nice, of course. What I don't understand, however, is why some of the disease effects, and while we are at it potion effects (the scripts are already there), aren't available as spells. Rattles, rockjoint, witbane, slow poisons, would be nice additions to the mages' armoury.

It frustrates me to no end to see some of the replies to this thread. Don't like something in the game? Clearly Bethesda were 'too lazy' to put things in the game the way you like them. Clearly the game is 'too streamlines' to include your ideas. We have no idea why Bethesda make their decisions, but we do know that they know TES better than anyone and will have their reasons for any decisions the make, past, present and future.

Rant over. Back on topic: There are actually multiple 'strains' of each disease. They each have the same effect, but a trap can give you a different version of a disease to an animal. Just something to think about.

Then why do hot, tropical regions seem to be more ravaged by disease than cold ones?

The fact is while bacteria/viruses may be able to subsist in colder climates, they can absolutely thrive in moist, hot ones.

That said though, more diseases would be better. As well, diseases should be harder to get rid of. Perhaps specific cures or rituals should be needed, or it should take a certain amount of treatment (1 potion a day for 3 days or pray every day for a week) to recover from a severe disease.

The diseases don't have to fatal. I can see how that could be annoying. But make it a bit more potent. Like it stops all regeneration until you get it healed or it puts a few of your skills at zero until you get it healed.

Too lazy and too streamlined, i think i remember seeing a post like that.. oh it was mine.
It was the only explanation for taking things out of the game which they had much better variety for in previous installments.
And i think its easy to see that recently whenever any sequels say they are more streamlined or something along them lines then they seem to of been repeatedly hacked by butcher with Cataracts.

Potent. thats the word i was thinking of. Not fatal in a Dark Souls way, that will kill you in seconds, but rather the effects becoming more severe if not cured.

Yeah, Morrowind had a lot of diseases, but to be honest, I never really noticed having a disease unless it drained my strength. Same thing with Skyrim. What I want is for diseases to be a more active part of the game and more real differentiation among the diseases.


Not sure how. My interpretation was that the Divine Disease was actually caused by Dagoth Ur himself, and that the infection was too difficult to spread to survive on its own.

they have no idea, so they make their own. Makes sense since there's little explanation to why Bethesda made these decisions. which is the reason for the replies born from frustration and confusion.

Yes absolutely. Like every 3 days your fatigue is drained by 10 more points than the disease originally drained you of.

Isn't that due to the fact that fewer people live in colder climates ? And that in the colder parts of the world, humans are generally more advanced medically.

Also this isn't our world, it's the ES, there's no reason Skyrim can't be rife with diseases unique to that particular part of Tamriel.

We don't have dragons.

Yeahhh i know *sigh* , but i guess a few corprus infested rats might of still been spreading the disease around for a few generations and they spread out and fled from the eruption... i should point that this is just wistful speculation as im aware it probably wouldn't of survived

Most bacteria do much better in warm moist environments. That's why you keep your food in the refrigerator. The thing is that a human is by nature a warm and moist environment though, so any relationship between climate and disease is more or less a relationship between mosquitoes and disease.

It is very true that ES doesn't have to take after our own world, and I honestly don't think that Bethesda sat down and said "Less diseases because Skyrim is cold".

It's true that bacteria do thrive in warm and moist environments, but it doesn't at all mean that colder climates are anywhere near disease free. Here in Sweden, being sick isn't at all uncommon, and a huge part the population died during the plague (I believe the plague was during the 12th century), just like the rest of Europe.

Logically, being in a cold country would only give you another reason to become sick since getting cold lowers your immune system, which will eventually make you sick easier.

There was a really good opportunity to add in unique diseases in Skyrim. Like for example "Frostbite - 50% weakness to Frost attacks", "Chillbone - 25% weakness to normal attacks".. Just off the top of my head.

Real life diseases??? Which ones were you thinking of? They don't really use real diseases as they need legitimate ways of them passing. EG flu wouldn't make sense in Skyrim as it would hard to implicate because it is passed mostly in sneeze droplets.

that would certainly add a fun dynamic to the game... running around cities with you hands over your mouth trying to avoid everyone.

Prepare to be bored.

For every human cell we have in our body, there are 10 bacterial cells present on our body surfaces. Our body "surfaces" in this case also means our entire GI tract, from oral cavity to anus. So in a sense we are more bacteria than we are human.

Now, among the bacteria that live on us, most are either neutral, doing no harm to us but no good. Some are good; they live on us and due to content of the chemicals they release, they provide an environment that prohibits transient bacteria from surviving for very long. However, many of these are also opportunistic, meaning that if they get into our cells, they can cause disease. For example, we have billions and billions of E. coli living in our colon. They help protect against other normally pathogenic species but if they make their way into somewhere like the bladder, they can cause infection. The same goes with a host of other microbes that live on our skin. They're fine as long as they don't get into a cut, but if they do, infection can result.

With that in mind not all of us carry the same potentially pathogenic (disease causing) microbes. Each person's bacterial content is more or less unique to them. So say for example you scratched by some Khajit. His microflora is almost certainly different from yours and were the game accurate about diseases, our non-Khajit characters would probably come down with some pretty radical infectious diseases. The same goes with Argonians. I am not an expert on reptile microbiota but I do know that iguanas often carry salmonella.

All that said, if more realistic diseases were present in Skyrim we could do some pretty nefarious things. Sick of the population of Whiterun? Gather several gallons of the fetid standing water that's present throughout Tamriel and pour it in the well. Severe cholera can kill within days. Personally I'd just like a Dagger of Raging Diarrhea to nick Nazeem with.

"If you're looking for my husband, Nazeem, check the bathroom. He hasn't come out for three days."

Less diseases = less risk = more time for the new target audience to play hero and be happy with their simplified, streamlined game. Expect the next TES game to have even LESS of them, if any at all.

Sorry to burst your bubble but this is Nirn, not Earth.. Lifeforms follow a completely different set of rules there. When was the the last time you seen a dragon outside your window ?

My theory is that Bethesda were streamlining the game and making it simple for idiots. I prefer anthropology to biology.

That is one explanation I guess.