Addictions & Overdoses
Painkillers have consequences. So do street drugs, if you connect them.
📈 How dependence builds
Every dose of an addictive drug adds points.
| Drug | Points per dose |
|---|---|
| Fentanyl | 35 |
| Morphine | 22 |
| Vicodin | 12 |
| Tramadol | 10 |
| Dependent at | 60 points |
| Maximum | 100 |
| Decays | 8 points per hour |
So two doses of fentanyl makes you dependent. Three of morphine gets you most of the way there.
😰 Withdrawal
Once dependent, going 30 minutes without a dose starts withdrawal, and it escalates.
| Stage | After | Symptoms |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | immediately | Sweating, shaking |
| 2 | 20 minutes | Shaking, nausea, fatigue, panic |
| 3 | 50 minutes | Nausea, badly reduced stamina, steady health loss |
Relief
Any opioid-class medication relieves withdrawal instantly.
Which is the trap. Relieving withdrawal with another dose pushes the addiction score back up. The only real way out is riding it out while the score decays.
☠️ Overdose
An overdose happens when too many doses land in a short window.
| Drug | Overdose at |
|---|---|
| Fentanyl | 2 doses in 10 minutes |
| Morphine | 3 doses in 15 minutes |
| Tramadol | 4 doses in 30 minutes |
| Vicodin | 4 doses in 30 minutes |
What it looks like
| Stage | After | Symptoms |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | immediately | Pinpoint pupils, drowsiness, breathing rate −8, oxygen −10 |
| 2 | 3 minutes | Pinpoint pupils, passing out, steady health loss |
4 minutes after the overdose starts, the patient collapses into last stand.
The cure
Naloxone. One nasal dose reverses it instantly.
- It also reverses sedatives, so it wakes up a propofol-sedated patient.
- It is self-usable, a drug user can carry their own Narcan.
- $60 at the medical supply shop, available at rank 0.
Diagnosing one
A penlight shows pinpoint pupils. A pulse oximeter shows the crashed oxygen saturation. Together they identify an opioid overdose in the field, with no lab test needed.
🔗 Connecting your own drug items
If you run a drug script, you can hook its items into this system. Two calls.
Register the drug, once, when your resource starts
exports['kartik-ambulancejob']:RegisterAddictiveDrug('oxy', {
class = 'opioid',
addiction = { type = 'opioid', gain = 20 },
overdose = { doses = 3, window = 900, disease = 'opioid_overdose' },
})| Field | |
|---|---|
class | Naloxone reverses it, and opioid doses relieve its withdrawal |
addiction.type | Which addiction it feeds |
addiction.gain | Points per dose |
overdose.doses / window | Doses within this many seconds triggers an overdose |
Record each use, every time the player uses the item
exports['kartik-ambulancejob']:RecordDrugUse(source, 'oxy')That is it. Your drug now causes real dependence, real withdrawal and real overdoses, treated by real medics with naloxone.
Your own addiction type
exports['kartik-ambulancejob']:RegisterAddiction('meth', {
label = 'Meth Dependence',
threshold = 50,
withdrawal = { { after = 0, symptoms = { 'shaking', 'panic' } } },
relievedBy = { 'stimulant' },
})Reading and clearing
exports['kartik-ambulancejob']:IsAddictiveDrug('oxy')
exports['kartik-ambulancejob']:GetPlayerAddictions(source)
exports['kartik-ambulancejob']:ClearPlayerAddiction(source, 'opioid') -- nil clears all
exports['kartik-ambulancejob']:IsPlayerOverdosing(source)Events
'kartik-ambulancejob:server:overdose' -- (source, 'start' | 'ended' | 'collapsed')
'kartik-ambulancejob:server:addictionChanged' -- (source, type, level)🛑 Turning it off
Config.DiseaseSettings.addictions = falseMedications never cause dependence. Overdoses still work, they are part of the disease system.