Overdose
Overdose
Overdose is not per-substance and it is not random. It is a body load that every active dose contributes to and that decays in real time, one point per second.
How the load works
Each substance has a cost, set in the editor. Taking it adds that cost to the player's load. The load then decays on its own. Take one thing and wait, and nothing happens. Take four things in ten minutes and the load never gets a chance to fall.
When the load crosses Config.Overdose.Threshold — 100 by default — the character goes down.
This is why the system punishes speed rather than quantity. A player can use all evening and be fine; a player who stacks three doses in five minutes is on the floor. That is the behaviour you want to teach.
What collapsing looks like
| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Collapse | The character ragdolls where they stand |
| Blackout | The screen goes out |
| Bleed out | Seconds before it is fatal, per substance, falling back to Config.Overdose.BleedOut |
| Lethal | Percent chance of dying outright with no window at all |
| Hospital | Where they wake up if nobody comes |
| Rescue item | An item another player can use to pull them back |
| Rescue window | How long that item works for |
Set Hospital = false on the substance and leave Config.Overdose.Hospital alone if you would rather hand the downed player over to your ambulance script than move them yourself.
Rescue
If Config.Overdose.AllowRescue is on and the substance names a rescue item, any nearby player holding it can use it within the rescue window. That is the naloxone mechanic, and it is worth building an item economy around — it gives non-medics a reason to carry something, and gives an overdose a chance of ending in a story rather than a respawn.
Mixing
Mixing is what actually kills. Taking any substance while another is still active multiplies the load the new dose adds by Config.Overdose.MixMultiplier. Certain category pairs are worse still — an opioid on top of a depressant, or the classic stimulant-plus-opioid speedball — and spike the load by their own multiplier from Config.Overdose.DangerousMixes. A player who sticks to one thing at a time is far safer than one who stacks.