Major Miseries

PLEASE READ THIS README PLEASE READ THIS README PLEASE READ THIS README PLEASE READ THIS README

I know this Readme is very long, but it's crucial to read it because it will be very easy to lose a save file by dying stupidly because you haven't read what's written here.
Now that you've been warned, it's your fault, not mine.

PLEASE READ THIS README PLEASE READ THIS README PLEASE READ THIS README PLEASE READ THIS README

Major Miseries is a mod for The Long Dark that adds severe, long-term afflictions, escalating survival pressure, and consequences that can follow you for days, weeks, months or even an entire save.

Survival should leave marks. Time is only an issue if you are not prepared, but are you prepared enough...?

ALSO A HUGE THANK YOU TO FLOWER FIELD FOR THESE MAGNIFICENT ICONS!

Overview

Major Miseries is built around long-term consequences.

Instead of only punishing one bad moment, many systems track what the survivor has been doing over time:

• Spending too long in coal mines can slowly build Black Lung exposure.
• Living near unsafe indoor fires can create Carbon Monoxide danger.
• Repeated sprains on the same joint can escalate into severe injuries.
• Neglecting fatigue, hunger, thirst, warmth, or condition can weaken the Immunity Shield.
• Internal body temperature can drift into fever, sweating, overheating, or severe cold pressure.
• Spending too much time under the aurora can slowly damage the survivor's mind.
• Killing predators can make the world more hostile.
• Remaining away from home, or trapped in a hated region, can wear you down.
• Repeated severe lacerations will permanently scar your body.

Major Miseries aims to make each game more demanding and complex, so this mod is not recommended for beginner players.

Main Systems

Major Miseries currently includes:

• Requiem Stages
• Scurvy and Vitamin C Drain
• Predator Hostility
• Broken Arms
• Broken Legs
• Predator Blood Loss conversion
• Scarred Flesh
• Sepsis
• Immunity Shield
• Body Temperature
• Fever Response
• Aurora Influence
• Black Lung
• Carbon Monoxide Exposure and Poisoning
• Corpse Sickness
• Severe Wrist Sprains
• Severe Ankle Sprains
• Home Comfort
• Home Sickness
• Regional Distress

Most systems can be enabled, disabled, or tuned through ModSettings.

Requiem Stages

Requiem Stages are the backbone of Major Miseries.

As the survivor lasts longer, the world begins to weigh harder on them. These stages are based on days survived and apply increasingly severe pressure.

By default, the stages are:

Stage	Default day survived	Max condition penalty	Locked gauges	Base Predator Threat
Omen	10 days	-10 max condition	Hunger	1
Dirge	20 days	-20 max condition	Hunger, Thirst	2
Knell	35 days	-30 max condition	Hunger, Thirst, Fatigue	3
Requiem	50 days	-50 max condition	Hunger, Thirst, Fatigue, Freezing	4

These thresholds can be customized in the mod settings. The customization toggle only shows or hides the sliders, the stage logic always uses the configured threshold values.

Requiem Stages are not meant to represent a single illness. They represent the long-term degradation of the survivor after too much cold, hunger, trauma, exhaustion, and exposure.

The stage afflictions do not stack with each other. The current highest stage determines the Requiem Stage penalty. Scarred Flesh stacks separately on top of the stage max condition penalty.

Omen

Signs is the first stage. Omen is the affliction.
Omen is a harbinger, here to announce the arrival of the end times.

Effects:

Effect	Value
Starts after	10 survived days
Maximum condition	-10 max condition
Hunger	Max hunger reduced to 75%
Sleep fatigue recovery	-50%
Maximum sleep duration	Vanilla maximum sleep hours -4 hours
Base Predator Threat	1
Predator Hostility	Can start contributing if Predator Hostility mode allows it

Dirge

Advent is the second stage. Dirge is the affliction.
The end times have begun.

Effects:

Effect	Value
Starts after	20 survived days
Maximum condition	-20 max condition
Hunger	Max hunger reduced to 75%
Thirst	Max thirst reduced to 75%
Sleep fatigue recovery	-50%
Maximum sleep duration	Vanilla maximum sleep hours -4 hours
Body temperature	-5°C
Base Predator Threat	2

Knell

Collapse is the third stage. Knell is the affliction.
Bells toll to signify the arrival of the end.

Effects:

Effect	Value
Starts after	35 survived days
Maximum condition	-30 max condition
Hunger	Max hunger reduced to 75%
Thirst	Max thirst reduced to 75%
Fatigue	Max fatigue reduced to 75%
Sleep fatigue recovery	-50%
Maximum sleep duration	Vanilla maximum sleep hours -4 hours
Body temperature	-5°C
Movement speed	-10%
Sprint speed	-25% speed while sprinting, unless vanilla Weak Joints is already active
Base Predator Threat	3

Requiem

End of Times is the final stage. Requiem is the affliction.
The end has passed and leaves behind a grim and desolate world, survival is only temporary.

Effects:

Effect	Value
Starts after	50 survived days
Maximum condition	-50 max condition
Hunger	Max hunger reduced to 75%
Thirst	Max thirst reduced to 75%
Fatigue	Max fatigue reduced to 75%
Freezing	Max cold reduced to 75%
Sleep fatigue recovery	-50%
Maximum sleep duration	Vanilla maximum sleep hours -4 hours
Body temperature	-5°C
Movement speed	-10%
Sprint speed	-25% speed while sprinting, unless vanilla Weak Joints is already active
Natural condition recovery	Disabled
Willpower condition recovery	Disabled
Incoming condition damage	2x
Predator Blood Loss conversion	Enabled by default for Requiem, unless changed in settings
Base Predator Threat	4

Note : Requiem is not meant to be fair. That's precisely what I want.

Scurvy and Vitamin C Drain

Major Miseries can make the vanilla Scurvy system more dangerous by accelerating Vitamin C drain.

Vitamin C Drain can be configured in the Requiem Stages settings.

Setting	Behavior
Only with Requiem Stages	Vitamin C drain is accelerated only once at least one Requiem Stage is active. This is the default mode.
Always	Vitamin C drain is accelerated even before Requiem Stages begin or are disabled.
Disabled	Vitamin C drain is not modified by Major Miseries.

When Vitamin C Drain is active, the selected preset multiplies the vanilla Vitamin C loss.

Preset	Vitamin C drain multiplier
Forgiving	1.5x
Standard	2.0x
Harsh	3.0x
Brutal	4.0x
Who Wants to Play Like This?	5.0x

The default preset is Standard, so by default active Vitamin C drain is doubled.

Scarred Flesh and Maximum Condition

Scarred Flesh stacks with Requiem Stage condition penalties.

Source	Max condition penalty
Omen	-10
Dirge	-20
Knell	-30
Requiem	-50
Each Scarred Flesh history stack	-2

Scarred Flesh is not a temporary injury. It records healed Severe Laceration trauma and keeps applying its penalty through the save.

Predator Hostility

Predator Hostility is a persistent threat system linked to predator kills.

When enabled, killing predators increases a hidden hostility value. This value contributes to Dynamic Predator Threat, making predators more dangerous over time.

Default hostility gains are:

Predator killed	Hostility gained
Wolf	+1
Moose	+2
Bear	+3
Cougar	+4

This means killing a cougar has a much larger long-term impact than killing a wolf for... Obvious reasons.

Predator Hostility contributes to Dynamic Predator Threat as follows:

Current Predator Hostility	Dynamic Predator Threat
0 to less than 3	0
3 to less than 6	1
6 to less than 9	2
9 to less than 12	3
12 to less than 16	4
16 to less than 20	5
20 to less than 25	6
25 to less than 30	7
30 or more	8

Total Predator Threat is:

Total Predator Threat = Base Predator Threat + Dynamic Predator Threat

Base Predator Threat comes from the current Requiem Stage:

Stage	Base Predator Threat
No stage	0
Omen	1
Dirge	2
Knell	3
Requiem	4

Predator Threat scaling uses this multiplier:

Threat multiplier = 1 + (0.2 × Total Predator Threat)

Examples:

Total Predator Threat	Multiplier
1	1.2x
2	1.4x
4	1.8x
6	2.2x
8	2.6x
10	3.0x
12	3.4x

Predator Threat alters the overall behavior of predators: they will smell you, stalk you, and attack you up to the multiplier's range.
For example, a bear can sense you from over 500 meters away and attack you from 85 meters away at the maximum Predator Threat level.

Predator Hostility decay:

Behavior	Value
Delay before decay starts	168 hours / 7 days after the last predator kill
Decay rate	-2 hostility per day
Decay rate per hour	About -0.083 hostility per hour

The result is that all scenes will become increasingly dangerous if you systematically resolve every encounter with a predator through violence.

Predator Hostility Modes

Predator Hostility can be configured to work in different ways:

Mode	Behavior
Only with Requiem Stages	Predator Hostility only matters once at least one Requiem Stage is active. If no stage is active yet, predator kills do not build hostility.
Always	Predator kills can build hostility regardless of Requiem Stage.
Disabled	Predator Hostility is disabled.

The intended default experience is to connect Predator Hostility with the long-term pressure of Requiem Stages.

Broken Arm

Broken Arm is a severe predator-related injury.

It can occur after major predator trauma, especially from large predators.

Default trigger values:

Source	Default chance
Bear struggle	20%
Moose struggle	30%
If player fatigue is 40 or lower	+10 percentage points
If double broken limbs are disabled	One random broken limb is applied
If double broken limbs are enabled	One broken arm and one broken leg are both applied

Broken Arm duration:

Duration mode	Duration
Realistic	1008 to 1344 hours / 42 to 56 days
Unrealistic	100.8 to 134.4 hours / 4.2 to 5.6 days

Keep in mind that Broken Arm is designed to use the Realistic preset.

Effects:

Effect	One broken arm	Two broken arms
Rope climbing	Blocked	Blocked
Crafting time	1.5x	2.0x
Aim sway increase speed	2.0x	3.0x
Aim sway decrease/recovery speed	0.65x	0.45x

A broken arm does not just reduce condition. It changes what the player can safely do afterward. Rope routes become unusable, crafting becomes more expensive in time, and combat becomes less reliable.

Broken Leg

Broken Leg is one of the most punishing injuries in Major Miseries.

It can occur after predator trauma or a hard fall.

Default trigger values from predator struggles:

Source	Default chance
Bear struggle	20%
Moose struggle	30%
If player fatigue is 40 or lower	+10 percentage points
If double broken limbs are disabled	One random broken limb is applied
If double broken limbs are enabled	One broken arm and one broken leg are both applied

Broken Leg from fall damage:

Fall condition loss	Result
Less than 15% condition lost	No broken leg roll
15% to less than 25% condition lost	35% chance to break a leg
25% condition lost or more	Guaranteed broken leg

Broken Leg duration:

Duration mode	Duration
Realistic	1008 to 2016 hours / 42 to 84 days
Unrealistic	100.8 to 201.6 hours / 4.2 to 8.4 days

Keep in mind that Broken Leg is designed to use the Realistic preset.

Effects:

Effect	One broken leg	Two broken legs
Sprinting	Blocked	Blocked
Rope climbing	Blocked	Blocked
Movement speed	0.65x	0.45x
Movement fatigue	1.5x	2.0x
Carry capacity and encumbrance thresholds	0.75x	0.50x

Broken Leg is designed to make bad movement decisions matter. A survivor with a broken leg may still live, but travel, escape, hauling, and shelter decisions become much more dangerous.

Predator Blood Loss to Severe Lacerations

Major Miseries can convert predator-caused Blood Loss into vanilla Severe Lacerations.

This can be configured to:

Setting	Behavior
Only with Requiem	Predator Blood Loss can become Severe Lacerations only during Requiem. This is the default behavior.
Always	Predator Blood Loss can become Severe Lacerations at any time.
Disabled	This conversion is disabled.

Keep in mind that if you're playing with the "Only With Requiem" preset, your maximum condition will already be reduced by 50%, and Severe Lacerations also reduces your maximum condition by 50%, resulting in instant death. This is intentional and the only way to survive that is with the Well Fed buff.

Scarred Flesh

Scarred Flesh represents permanent damage left behind after Severe Lacerations heal.

When Severe Lacerations are healed, Major Miseries records that trauma and increases Scarred Flesh history by 1.

One Scarred Flesh reduces max condition by 2%.

Scarred Flesh isn't designed to kill the player instantly. Its purpose is to have a long-term impact on the catastrophic injuries that Severe Lacerations are.
A survivor who survives terrible injuries is still alive, but it leaves its mark.

Sepsis

Sepsis expands the danger of untreated infection.

Sepsis Risk

If a vanilla Infection remains untreated, it can begin progressing toward Sepsis Risk.

Sepsis Risk can also appear earlier while a vanilla Infection Risk is active and still untreated. This early Sepsis Risk roll is controlled by the Sepsis Preset and is affected by Immunity Shield.

Default behavior:

Effect	Value
Normal trigger	Vanilla Infection starts
Early trigger	Untreated vanilla Infection Risk can roll once every in-game hour
Base risk gain while matching infection remains untreated	+25 risk per hour before Immunity Shield modifiers
Time from 0 to 100 risk at normal immunity	4 hours
Immunity Shield interaction	Strong shield slows Sepsis Risk and early Sepsis Risk rolls, weak shield accelerates them
Antibiotics taken for the matching vanilla infection	Cures Sepsis Risk
Infection Risk treated before becoming Infection	Cures Sepsis Risk caused by that Infection Risk
If the matching vanilla infection disappears	Cures Sepsis Risk

Sepsis Preset

The Sepsis Preset affects two things:

• the chance for Sepsis Risk to appear early during untreated Infection Risk.
• how often antibiotics must be taken once Sepsis is active.

While a vanilla Infection Risk is active, MajorMiseries can roll once every in-game hour to apply Sepsis Risk early.

Preset	Base hourly Sepsis Risk roll during Infection Risk
Forgiving	0%
Standard	5%
Harsh	10%
Brutal	17%
Who Wants to Play Like This?	25%

This chance is modified by the Immunity Shield.

Immunity Shield	Sepsis Risk roll modifier
90 to 100	0.25x
70 to 89	0.5x
50 to 69	1.0x
25 to 49	1.5x
0 to 24	2.0x

A strong Immunity Shield can make early Sepsis Risk much less likely. A collapsed Immunity Shield can make Infection Risk much more dangerous.

If Sepsis Risk appears during Infection Risk and that Infection Risk is later treated, the Sepsis Risk caused by it is removed.

If the Infection Risk becomes a full vanilla Infection while Sepsis Risk is already present from an early roll, it adds +10% to the current Sepsis Risk progress.

If the Infection Risk becomes a full vanilla Infection and no Sepsis Risk is already present for it, Sepsis Risk will be applied.

Sepsis

If Sepsis develops, that means the infection has spread through the bloodstream.

Default effects:

Effect	Value
Total duration	480 hours / 20 days
Condition loss while untreated	-10 condition per hour
Condition loss while treated	-0.2 condition per hour
Natural condition recovery	Disabled while Sepsis is active

Antibiotics can suppress the worst symptoms, but the affliction still has to be managed carefully over time.

Sepsis Treatment Preset

Once Sepsis is active, antibiotics suppress the worst symptoms for a limited time. The preset changes how often treatment is required.

Preset	Treatment interval	Required antibiotics per treatment window
Forgiving	120 hours / 5 days	2
Standard	120 hours / 5 days	4
Harsh	96 hours / 4 days	4
Brutal	72 hours / 3 days	4
Who Wants to Play Like This?	48 hours / 2 days	4

Forgiving keeps the same treatment interval as Standard, but only requires 2 antibiotics per window instead of 4.

Standard keeps the original rhythm: 4 antibiotics every 5 days.

Higher presets do not make Sepsis directly deal more damage. They make it harder to keep suppressed over time.

Immunity Shield

The Immunity Shield is a hidden long-term resistance system displayed in the First Aid panel when enabled.

It represents how much biological resilience the survivor still has left.

The shield ranges from 0% to 100%.

What drains the Immunity Shield

The shield drains when the survivor is in poor physical condition or under biological pressure.

Default body pressure behavior:

Source	Shield behavior
Energy below 25%	Drains the shield
Calories below 25%	Drains the shield
Hydration below 25%	Drains the shield
Warmth below 25%	Drains the shield
Any of these stats at 0%	Makes shield drain harsher

The lower the stat is below 25%, the stronger the drain becomes. A stat barely under 25% is mild. A stat near 0% is much worse.

Biological threats also drain the shield:

Active affliction	Base shield drain
Infection Risk	-0.25 / hour
Infection	-0.75 / hour
Intestinal Parasites Risk	-0.20 / hour
Intestinal Parasites	-0.50 / hour
Food Poisoning	-0.50 / hour
Dysentery	-0.75 / hour
Sepsis Risk	-1.00 / hour
Sepsis	-2.00 / hour
Corpse Sickness Risk	-0.40 / hour
Corpse Sickness	-0.80 / hour

If multiple biological threats are present, the system only considers the highest threat.

If the survivor is both physically depleted and biologically threatened, the shield drains faster.

What restores the Immunity Shield

The shield can recover only when the survivor is stable.

Default recovery requirements:

Requirement	Value
No active biological threat	Required
Energy	Above 25%
Calories	Above 25%
Hydration	Above 25%
Warmth	Above 25%
Condition, default setting	Above 50%
Condition, relaxed setting	Above 20%

Default recovery speed:

State	Base shield recovery
Awake	+0.10 shield per hour
Sleeping	+1.00 shield per hour

High energy, calories, hydration, warmth, and condition slightly improve recovery. Home Comfort also slightly improves Immunity Shield recovery.

What the Immunity Shield changes

The Immunity Shield affects infection-style risks.

Shield state	Risk behavior
100% shield	Infection-style risks progress much slower
50% shield	Vanilla risk speed
0% shield	Infection-style risks can progress up to 4x faster

This affects vanilla Infection Risk, vanilla Intestinal Parasites Risk, and Sepsis Risk.

It does not replace medicine. A strong shield helps the survivor resist problems, but a bad situation can still get worse.

Body Temperature and Fever

Major Miseries adds an internal body temperature system displayed in the First Aid panel when enabled.

This is separate from the vanilla freezing meter. The freezing meter still matters, but Body Temperature tracks the survivor's internal heat directly.

Default normal body temperature is around 37°C.

Body Temperature

Body Temperature is affected by cold exposure, warm ambient conditions, nearby fires, movement, fever, and severe overheating.

Default warming and cooling settings:

Source	Default value
Environmental warming	Up to +2.5°C per hour in warm conditions
Walking warming	+0.25°C per hour
Encumbered warming	+1.25°C per hour
Sprinting warming	+5°C per hour
Climbing warming	+10°C per hour
Cold exposure cooling	Base -0.5°C per hour before severe cold multipliers
Nearby fire warmth	Can warm body temperature directly

Movement heat only helps while the survivor is not already deeply freezing, and sprinting or climbing will not keep pushing body temperature forever.

Cold ambient conditions increase cooling. If the warmth meter is very low, cooling becomes much stronger.

Sweating, hydration, and overheating

When internal body temperature rises above normal (precisely above 37.2°C), you will begin sweating.

Sweating slowly adds wetness to worn clothing. The hotter the survivor gets, the stronger the sweating becomes.

High internal body temperature also increases hydration consumption. This is not specific to Fever. Any source of body heat can increase hydration pressure if the survivor gets hot enough.

Body temperature	Hydration consumption
38°C or higher	1.0x
39°C or higher	1.5x
40°C or higher	2.0x
41°C or higher	2.5x
42°C or higher	3.0x
43°C	4.0x

Severe overheating also has direct effects:

Body temperature	Effect
Above 40°C	Heat headache camera pulses can begin
Above 42°C	Movement staggering can begin
43°C	Maximum internal body temperature

Fever Response

Fever is part of the Immunity Shield system.

When the survivor has at least 50% Immunity Shield and is fighting a biological threat that can cause fever, fever can appear after about one in-game hour. Fever raises body temperature and increases fatigue pressure. Hydration pressure comes from the survivor's actual internal body temperature, not directly from Fever itself.

Fever severity is based on the fever target temperature caused by the current biological threat. If multiple fever sources are active at the same time, the strongest fever target is used.

Fever source	Fever target	Fever state	Fatigue pressure
Intestinal Parasites	38°C	Moderate Fever	2.0x
Corpse Sickness	38°C	Moderate Fever	2.0x
Infection Risk	39°C	Moderate Fever	2.0x
Food Poisoning	40°C	Severe Fever	2.5x
Infection	41°C	Severe Fever	2.5x
Dysentery	41°C	Severe Fever	2.5x
Sepsis	43°C	Critical Fever	3.0x

In practical terms, Moderate Fever means the body is responding to an early or lighter biological problem, Severe Fever means the survivor is fighting a serious active illness, and Critical Fever is reserved for Sepsis-level danger.

Lingering Fever can remain for up to 3 in-game hours after the active fever source stops being valid. During this fading period, fatigue pressure is 1.25x.

Active fever slightly helps resist infection-style risk progression. With a very strong Immunity Shield, fever can sometimes contain vanilla Infection Risk.

Cold can suppress fever temperature. In other words, fever does not make the survivor immune to freezing.

Aurora Influence

Aurora Influence is a long-term mental exposure system tied to repeated aurora exposure extremely inspired by the Wintermute Lore.

It is not meant to replace the vanilla aurora. It represents what happens when the survivor spends too much time under it, sleeps through it too often, or keeps pushing through the night while something in the sky is quietly eating away at their mind.

The system tracks hidden Aurora Influence Exposure from 0 to 100. At low values, it may only be a warning. At higher values, it begins to interfere with manual work, sleep, movement fatigue, fire-starting, and memory. At extreme values, it becomes the Void Sickness.

Aurora Influence Exposure

Aurora Influence Exposure increases during active auroras when the player is not fully sheltered.

Default exposure behavior:

Situation	Default value
Indoor exposure during aurora, medium-exposure region	+1 exposure per hour
Outdoor exposure during aurora, medium-exposure region	+4 exposure per hour
Sleeping while exposed to the aurora	1.5x exposure gain
Low-exposure region multiplier	0.75x
Medium-exposure region multiplier	1.0x
High-exposure region multiplier	1.5x
Low/Medium transition region multiplier	0.875x
Medium/High transition region multiplier	1.25x
Vitamin C at 500	1.0x exposure gain
Vitamin C at 0	Up to 2.0x exposure gain
Vehicle or The Riken partial shielding	0.25x exposure gain
Exposure decay when not exposed	-1 exposure per day

Yes, the exposure decay is intentionally slow.

The point is not to make one aurora instantly lethal. The point is that repeated exposure can follow the save for a very long time.

Aurora Exposure Risk

When Aurora Influence Exposure is above 0, Aurora Exposure appear in the First Aid panel.

The display is mostly a warning at first, but the real effects begin once exposure reaches 50.

Default effect scaling:

Exposure	Effect
< 50	Nothing happen
50 to 99	Action time can increase up to 1.35x
50 to 99	Movement fatigue can increase up to 1.45x
50 to 99	Fire-starting chance can lose up to 20%
>= 50	Sleep events can happen after at least 4 planned sleep hours
>= 75	Lost time after sleep can join the sleep event pool
>= 75	Sleepwalking can happen after at least 5 planned sleep hours
>= 99	Void Sickness replaces Aurora Exposure Risk

Affected action times include crafting, repairing, breaking down objects, and research. For research, the book does not become longer to read, your progress becomes worse. Imagine reading a 5-hour book in one sitting, you will forget about half the time spent reading it and will need to read it again to gain the xp.

Aurora Sleep Events

When Aurora Influence Exposure is at least 50 and the player sleeps for long enough, sleep may become unreliable.

Possible sleep events:

Event	Behavior
Restless Sleep	You sleep, but sleep recovery can be reduced. Long sleep can become much less efficient.
Night Terror	You may wake after 1 to 3 hours, sleep recovery is reduced, and sleep is blocked for 30 minutes afterward.
Lost Time	After waking you'll lose 0.5 to 2 hours.
Sleepwalking	You can wake somewhere else and lose 0.5 to 3 hours.

By default, regular sleep event chance scales from 5% at 50 exposure to 30% near Void Sickness.

Sleepwalking is separate. It starts at 75 exposure and uses the configured Sleepwalking Minimum Chance and Sleepwalking Maximum Chance settings. By default, that means 1% to 5%.

Sleepwalking uses configured wake points when available. It is designed to move the survivor to a plausible outdoor wake point in the current or logical region rather than simply throwing them into completely random death.

That does not mean it is safe. Waking up somewhere else in Great Bear is rarely good news.

Waking Blackouts

At 99 Aurora Influence Exposure or more, Void Sickness can cause waking blackouts.

Default waking blackout behavior:

Behavior	Default value
Roll interval	Every 10 in-game minutes
Roll chance at 99 exposure	Half of the configured chance
Roll chance at 100 exposure	Full configured chance
Time lost if no movement occurs	0.15 to 0.35 hours
Time lost if movement occurs	Based on path distance, clamped from 0.2 to 3 hours
Fatigue loss	10 fatigue per hour lost

During a waking blackout, the screen fades to black similar to the sleepwalking event. If the player is outdoors and a safe nearby position can be found, the survivor may be moved there. If no safe position is found, the blackout can still steal time without moving the player.

Waking blackout rolls are blocked in several unsafe or inappropriate situations, such as sleeping, passing time, climbing, predator stalking you, low condition, or an already running blackout.

This system is not designed as a clean teleport tool. It is designed as a punishment for letting Aurora Influence reach the point where the survivor can no longer trust their own memory and can be really brutal.

Void Sickness

Void Sickness begins when Aurora Influence Exposure reaches 99 or higher.

At this stage, Aurora Exposure is replaced by Void Sickness. The survivor can suffer waking blackouts, sleepwalking becomes more dangerous, and the affliction uses water related audio (according to Wintermute lore) and description behavior while active.

If exposure falls below the Void Sickness threshold, Void Sickness disappears and Aurora Exposure Risk will return instead.

Avoiding further exposure to the Aurora is the only way to recover from this. There are no meds or cures. The only way to get rid of the Void Sickness is to wait for it to disappear and pray you survive until then.

However, you can protect yourself from the Aurora by taking refuge in a cave, a mine, or any other deep underground location.

I want to extend a special thank you to Lithar and Zaknafein for their invaluable help in understanding the lore of Wintermute, which has been incredibly helpful in creating the most lore-accurate Aurora influence system possible. I love you guys!

Black Lung

Black Lung is caused by long-term exposure to coal-heavy locations such as coal caves, mines, and similar scenes.

The system uses hidden exposure before the player sees an affliction.

This means the danger builds quietly at first.

Black Lung Exposure

While the player remains in a coal-heavy scene, hidden Black Lung Exposure increases.

Default exposure behavior:

Value	Default
Exposure target before risk	75
Time to reach 75 exposure	336 hours / 14 days
Exposure gain rate in coal scenes	About +0.223 exposure per hour
Exposure decay outside coal scenes	About -0.056 exposure per hour
Time to decay from 75 to 0 outside coal scenes	1344 hours / 56 days

Leaving coal-heavy scenes allows exposure to slowly decrease, but recovery is 4x slower than exposure buildup.

This makes short visits relatively safe, but long-term living or repeated extended stays in coal-heavy places dangerous.

Black Lung Risk

When Black Lung Exposure reaches its threshold, Black Lung Risk begins.

Default risk behavior:

Value	Default
Time to reach full risk while exposed	112 hours / 4 days and 16 hours
Risk gain per hour while exposed	About +0.893 risk per hour
Risk decay outside coal scenes	About -0.223 risk per hour
Time to decay from 100 to 0 outside coal scenes	448 hours / 18.7 days

If Black Lung Risk reaches 100, it becomes Black Lung.

Black Lung exposure and Black Lung Risk can be avoided by wearing a respirator with active protection. Blocking coal exposure consumes canister condition slowly.

Black Lung Preset

Black Lung has a separate difficulty preset.

This preset affects exposure buildup, risk buildup, natural recovery, and worsening while already sick in coal-heavy scenes.

Preset	Exposure gain	Risk gain	Exposure/Risk decay outside coal scenes	Worsening while Black Lung is active
Forgiving	0.5x	0.5x	2.0x	0.5x
Standard	1.0x	1.0x	1.0x	1.0x
Harsh	2.0x	2.0x	0.75x	1.5x
Brutal	3.0x	3.0x	0.5x	2.0x
Who Wants to Play Like This?	5.0x	5.0x	0x	3.0x

On Who Wants to Play Like This?, Black Lung exposure and risk do not naturally decay at all.

Leaving coal-heavy scenes can stop the exposure from getting worse, but it will not clean your lungs anymore. The only way for that accumulated exposure to fully disappear is for it to finally become Black Lung.

Black Lung

Black Lung is a severe respiratory illness.

Default effects:

Effect	Realistic duration mode	Unrealistic duration mode
Black Lung duration	3600 hours / 150 days	360 hours / 15 days

Other effects:

Effect	Value
Sprint stamina usage	1.5x
Sprint stamina recovery	-50%
Delay before sprint stamina recovery	1.5x
Sleep recovery against Black Lung duration	Each hour slept removes 10 hours from remaining duration
Coal-scene worsening while Black Lung is active	Each hour in coal exposure adds 10 hours to remaining duration, modified by Black Lung Preset
Sleep cough interval	Randomly every 2 to 4 hours of sleep

BlackLung is a severe affliction, but in a more vicious way than others, it is not violent through a strong condition drain or any effect of that style, but is severe because it continually disrupts the sleep cycle.

Avoiding further exposure and getting proper rest can help recovery.

The idea is simple: coal-heavy shelters are useful, but living in them too long should have a cost.

Carbon Monoxide

Carbon Monoxide is tied to unsafe indoor fire use.

It is not meant to make every indoor fire dangerous. It is meant to punish careless or unsafe fires burning too long in the wrong places.

Carbon Monoxide Exposure

Carbon Monoxide danger can begin in indoor scenes when an unsafe fire has been burning for long enough.

In Standard, once a qualifying unsafe fire has burned for more than two in-game hours, Major Miseries begins checking for Carbon Monoxide danger. Each eligible unsafe fire adds roll chance, capped at 100%. If the roll succeeds, the indoor scene will be considered contaminated as long as the fire is burning + 2 hours.

Leaving the contaminated indoor scene stops the active exposure before it becomes poisoning.

Carbon Monoxide Exposure can be avoided by wearing a respirator with active protection. Blocking Carbon Monoxide consumes canister condition faster than Black Lung protection.

Safe stoves and proper chimney-style fireplaces are designed to avoid false positives as much as possible (it is entirely possible that there are exceptions not taken into account, any feedback is appreciated !).

Carbon Monoxide Preset

Carbon Monoxide has a difficulty preset that changes how easily unsafe indoor fires become dangerous.

The preset affects:

• how long an unsafe indoor fire must burn before CO danger can begin.
• the roll chance multiplier.
• how long before the first CO Exposure tick can happen.
• how quickly CO Exposure becomes CO Poisoning.

Preset	Unsafe fire burn time required	Roll chance	First risk tick	Time from CO Exposure to CO Poisoning
Forgiving	3 hours	0.5x	90 minutes	60 minutes
Standard	2 hours	1.0x	60 minutes	30 minutes
Harsh	1 hour	1.5x	45 minutes	20 minutes
Brutal	30 minutes	2.0x	30 minutes	15 minutes
Who Wants to Play Like This?	0 hours	3.0x	30 minutes	10 minutes

On Who Wants to Play Like This?, an unsafe indoor fire can become dangerous immediately. However, the first risk tick still waits 30 in-game minutes, so the player has a short reaction window.

Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

If Carbon Monoxide Exposure is ignored, it develops into Carbon Monoxide Poisoning.

Default effects:

Effect	Value
Duration	Random 6 to 24 hours
Condition loss	-5 condition per hour
Fatigue increase	3.0x fatigue increase
Sprint stamina usage	2.0x
Sprint stamina recovery	-70%
Delay before sprint stamina recovery	2.0x
Willpower-style condition recovery	Disabled while CO Poisoning is active

Carbon Monoxide is meant to make indoor fire safety matter.

A survivor can still use fire indoors, but careless long burns in unsafe places can become deadly.

Corpse Sickness

Corpse Sickness is caused by spending too much time near human corpses or animal carcasses.

The system tracks hidden Corpse Exposure while the player remains close to valid exposure sources.

By default, both human corpses and animal carcasses can contribute.

Corpse Exposure

Corpse Exposure is hidden at first.

The player does not immediately get sick from walking past a corpse or harvesting one carcass. The danger comes from repeated or prolonged exposure.

Default exposure behavior:

Value	Default
Human corpse detection radius	15 m
Animal carcass detection radius	10 m
Time to reach 100 exposure near a human corpse	1 hour
Human corpse exposure gain	+100 exposure per hour
Time to reach 100 exposure near an animal carcass	5 hours
Animal carcass exposure gain	+20 exposure per hour
Exposure decay while away, both source types enabled	-10 exposure per hour
Time to decay from 100 to 0, both source types enabled	10 hours

Decay depends on enabled source types:

Enabled exposure source	Exposure decay while away
Human corpses only	-50 exposure per hour
Animal carcasses only	-10 exposure per hour
Human corpses and animal carcasses	-10 exposure per hour

This is especially relevant when:

• A corpse is near a shelter.
• Animal carcasses are kept nearby for a long time.
• The player spends many hours harvesting near corpses.
• A location becomes a long-term camp surrounded by death.

Small carried or harvested carcasses such as rabbits and ptarmigans are ignored by the corpse sickness animal carcass logic.

If there are two or more sources of exposure close to the player, they do not accumulate, but the system will retain the strongest one.

Corpse Sickness Risk

If hidden Corpse Exposure reaches its maximum, Corpse Sickness Risk begins.

Default risk behavior:

Value	Default
0 to 100 risk time	12 hours
100 to 0 risk time	24 hours

The risk continues increasing while the player remains near corpses or carcasses.

It decreases when the player gets away from exposure sources.

Corpse Sickness

If the risk reaches its maximum, it becomes Corpse Sickness.

Default effects:

Effect	Value
Duration	Random 48 to 96 hours
Condition loss	-1.5 condition per hour
Fatigue increase	2.0x fatigue increase
Willpower condition recovery	Disabled while Corpse Sickness is active
Corpse Exposure after cure	Reset to 0

When Corpse Sickness is active, the Willpower condition regeneration is disabled. When Corpse Sickness is cured, the hidden exposure is reset to 0.

Corpse Sickness exists to make long-term corpse proximity feel unhealthy and unsafe. The base idea is that it's a psychological affliction, being surrounded by death makes you feel bad.

Severe Sprains

Severe Sprains expand the vanilla sprain system.

Repeated sprains on the same joint can create a Severe Sprain Risk.

If another sprain happens while the risk is active, the vanilla sprain is converted into a severe injury instead.

The system tracks each joint separately: Left wrist / Right wrist / Left ankle / Right ankle

This means repeated injuries to the same joint matter more than random isolated sprains.

Severe Sprain Risk

With most presets, a Severe Sprain Risk appears when the player suffers too many sprains on the same joint within the preset tracking window.

The risk does not immediately become a severe sprain. Instead, it means the joint is now vulnerable. Another sprain on that same joint while the risk is active can become a severe injury.

When Severe Sprain Risk starts, it starts at 99% and then decays over the preset risk duration.

Default preset values:

Preset	Sprains required on same joint	Tracking window	Risk duration	Severe sprain duration
Forgiving	3	120 hours / 5 days	18 hours	48 hours
Standard	2	72 hours / 3 days	24 hours	72 hours
Harsh	2	96 hours / 4 days	36 hours	96 hours
Brutal	1	120 hours / 5 days	48 hours	120 hours
Who Wants to Play Like This?	Every sprain converts directly	-	-	240 hours

The "Who Wants to Play Like This?" preset skips the risk step entirely. Any vanilla sprain becomes a Severe Sprain directly.

Severe Wrist Sprain

Severe Wrist Sprain affects weapon handling, crafting, and rope climbing.

Default effects:

Effect	One severe wrist sprain	Two severe wrist sprains
Duration	Based on preset	Based on preset
Rope climbing	Blocked	Blocked
Crafting time	1.35x	1.35x
Aim sway increase speed	2.5x	2.5x
Aim sway decrease/recovery speed	0.5x	0.5x
Two-handed weapons	Blocked	Blocked
One-handed weapons	Allowed	Blocked

Two-handed weapons include:

• Rifles
• Revolvers
• Bows
• Shotgun

Severe Ankle Sprain

Severe Ankle Sprain affects movement.

Default effects:

Effect	Value
Duration	Based on selected Severe Sprain preset
Sprinting	Blocked
Rope climbing	Blocked
Movement speed	-25%
Movement fatigue	1.35x

Regional Afflictions

Major Miseries adds region-based comfort and discomfort systems.

These systems are built around the idea that a survivor can become attached to one region, or feel deeply uncomfortable in another.

(Like... Forlorn Muskeg, for example. Just an example... I have nothing against that particular region, it could have been... I don't know... another region or something... well, it just so happens that's the one I thought of, bad luck I'd say... Don't get me wrong, I have absolutely nothing against flat and boring regions, I know a particularly flat and boring one myself and I sometimes go there... Of course, comparatively speaking, Mystery Lake is clearly a more interesting region, but hey, who am I to compare the value of one region to another ? You know, I don't believe there are good or bad regions. If I had to summarize my experience on TLD today with you, I'd say it's primarily about encounters. People who reached out to me, perhaps at a time when I couldn't, when I was alone at home. And it's quite curious to think that chances, encounters shape a destiny... Because when you have a taste for ... things, when you have a taste for a job well done, for a beautiful thing, sometimes you don't find the right person to talk to, the mirror that helps you move forward... Well, that's not my case, as I was saying, because on the contrary, I was able to; and I thank life, I thank it, I sing of life, I dance for life... I am nothing but love ! And finally, when people ask me, "But how do you manage to have such humanity ?", I answer them very simply that it's this taste for love, this taste that has driven me today to undertake the development of MajorMiseries... But who knows what tomorrow will bring ? Perhaps simply to put myself at the service of the community, to make the gift... um... the gift of myself... hmm, anyway).

Home Comfort

Home Comfort is a small buff gained while the player is in their configured home region.

Default effects:

Effect	Value
Movement fatigue multiplier	0.95x
Sleep recovery multiplier	1.05x
Feels-like temperature	+1°C
Immunity Shield recovery	1.05x, if Immunity Shield is enabled

This means the survivor uses about 5% less movement fatigue, recovers about 5% more fatigue from sleep, feels slightly warmer, and recovers Immunity Shield a little faster while in their home region.

It is meant to make a chosen home region feel slightly more familiar and easier to endure.
(Like... Mystery Lake, for example. Again its just an example... hrm anyway).

Changing the configured Home Region starts a 30-day relocation cooldown before it can be changed again.

Home Sickness

Home Sickness builds when the player spends too much time away from their configured home region.

Default behavior:

Behavior	Value
Default delay before Home Sickness	72 hours away from home
Configurable delay range	1 to 336 hours
Timer starts increasing when	Player is outside the configured home region
Recovery starts when	Player returns to the configured home region
Recovery speed after returning home	4x faster
Movement fatigue multiplier while active	1.15x
Sleep recovery multiplier while active	0.90x

Home Sickness is meant to make long expeditions away from a chosen home region feel emotionally and physically draining.

It does not punish short trips. It punishes being away too long.

Regional Distress

Regional Distress builds when the player spends too much time in a configured disliked region.

Default behavior:

Behavior	Value
Default delay before Regional Distress	72 hours in the distress region
Configurable delay range	1 to 336 hours
Timer starts increasing when	Player is inside the configured distress region
Recovery starts when	Player leaves the configured distress region
Recovery speed after leaving disliked region	4x faster
Movement fatigue multiplier while active	1.10x
Sleep recovery multiplier while active	0.95x

Regional Distress is similar to Home Sickness, but inverted.

Home Sickness punishes being away from home too long.

Regional Distress punishes staying in one hated region too long.

If the same region is selected as both the home region and the distress region, Regional Distress will not affect the home region.

Supported Regions

Regional Afflictions support vanilla major regions, several transition regions, Far Territory regions, and optional TLDev regions.

TLDev region support can be a bit clunky, I didnt tested it, all feedbacks is appreciated !

Compatibility Notes

Major Miseries touches several important gameplay systems.

There may be overlap and strange behavior with other mods that modify:

• Status bar behavior or visuals.
• First Aid panel visuals.
• Hunger, thirst, fatigue, freezing, or body temperature behavior.
• Clothing wetness or overheating behavior.
• Rope climbing.
• Vanilla infection and infection risk.
• Vanilla intestinal parasites risk.
• Vanilla sprains.
• Severe Lacerations.
• Blood Loss.
• Respirator or canister behavior.
• Wildlife AI behavior.
• Fire behavior.
• Aurora, weather, rest, sleep, pass-time, or time-skip behavior.
• Crafting, repair, research, breakdown, or other action duration behavior.

This doesn't mean these mods are doomed to malfunction.
It simply means these are the areas most likely to overlap and cause strange, unexpected behavior. However, in all the tests performed on this mod, no real incompatibilities with other mods were found.

For Developers

Click to Expand

Developer Console

The following debug commands are available via the Developer Console.

These commands are intended for development, debugging, and controlled save testing.

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Requiem Stage Commands

omen
Applies Omen.

dirge
Applies Dirge.

knell
Applies Knell.

requiem
Applies Requiem.

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Scarred Flesh Commands

scarredflesh
Increases Scarred Flesh history by 1 and refreshes the Scarred Flesh display.

reset_SFhistory
Resets Scarred Flesh history to 0.

set_SFhistory [value]
Sets Scarred Flesh history to the provided value.

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Sepsis Commands

sepsisrisk
Applies Sepsis Risk.

sepsis
Applies Sepsis.

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Broken Limb Commands

brokenleg
Applies Broken Leg to a random leg. Uses 2016h in Realistic mode or 201.6h in Unrealistic mode.

brokenarm
Applies Broken Arm to a random arm. Uses 1344h in Realistic mode or 134.4h in Unrealistic mode.

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Aurora Influence Commands

auroraexposure
Applies Aurora Exposure Risk in debug mode at 50% risk.

voidsickness
Applies Void Sickness.

set_AE [value]
Sets hidden Aurora Influence Exposure to the provided value, clamped from 0 to 100.

trigger_AE_blackout
Attempts to manually trigger a waking blackout. The command can still be blocked if the current situation is not valid.

trigger_AE_sleepwalking
Attempts to manually trigger sleepwalking. The command can still fail if no valid wake point or target scene can be resolved.

force_AE_sleep_event [restless|nightterror|losttime|sleepwalking|clear]
Forces the next valid sleep event, or clears the forced event. Useful for testing real sleep behavior.

trigger_AE_sleep_event [restless|nightterror|losttime|sleepwalking]
Immediately triggers a specific Aurora sleep event for testing.

debug_AE_context
Logs the current Aurora Influence context, including scene, logical region, exposure tier, aurora state, shelter state, Vitamin C multiplier, and current exposure.

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Black Lung Commands

blacklungrisk
Applies Black Lung Risk.

blacklung
Applies Black Lung. Uses 3600h in Realistic mode or 360h in Unrealistic mode.

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Carbon Monoxide Commands

coexposure
Applies Carbon Monoxide Exposure.

copoisoning
Applies Carbon Monoxide Poisoning for a random 6h to 24h duration.

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Corpse Sickness Commands

corpsesicknessrisk
Applies Corpse Sickness Risk.

corpsesickness
Applies Corpse Sickness for a random 48h to 96h duration.

reset_CE
Resets hidden Corpse Exposure to 0.

set_CE [value]
Sets hidden Corpse Exposure to the provided value.

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Severe Sprain Risk Commands

mm_sprain_risk_wrist_left
Applies Severe Wrist Sprain Risk to the left wrist.

mm_sprain_risk_wrist_right
Applies Severe Wrist Sprain Risk to the right wrist.

mm_sprain_risk_ankle_left
Applies Severe Ankle Sprain Risk to the left ankle.

mm_sprain_risk_ankle_right
Applies Severe Ankle Sprain Risk to the right ankle.

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Severe Sprain Commands

mm_severe_sprain_wrist_left
Applies Severe Wrist Sprain to the left wrist.

mm_severe_sprain_wrist_right
Applies Severe Wrist Sprain to the right wrist.

mm_severe_sprain_ankle_left
Applies Severe Ankle Sprain to the left ankle.

mm_severe_sprain_ankle_right
Applies Severe Ankle Sprain to the right ankle.

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Regional Affliction Commands

homesickness
Applies Home Sickness.

regionaldistress
Applies Regional Distress.

homecomfort
Applies Home Comfort.

homecomfort_cure
Cures Home Comfort.

reset_HR_timer
Resets the Home Region relocation cooldown.

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Predator Hostility Commands

reset_PH
Resets Predator Hostility and predator kill decay timer.

set_PH [value]
Sets Predator Hostility to the provided value.

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Immunity Shield and Body Temperature Commands

set_IS [value]
Sets Immunity Shield to the provided value, clamped from 0 to 100.

set_BT [value]
Sets internal Body Temperature to the provided value, clamped from 34°C to 43°C.

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Batch Commands

maj_afflictionsrisk
Applies the main Major Miseries risk afflictions in debug mode at 50% risk.

maj_afflictions
Applies the main Major Miseries afflictions.

maj_afflictions_cure
Cures all Major Miseries afflictions and buffs currently active.

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Vanilla Helper Commands

These commands help test Major Miseries interactions with vanilla afflictions.

severeL
Applies vanilla Severe Lacerations.

severeL_cure
Cures vanilla Severe Lacerations.

infection
Applies vanilla Infection.

infection_cure
Cures vanilla Infection.

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Internal Test Command

mm_testpopup
Displays a Requiem-style test popup.

Installation

1. Install MelonLoader.
2. Install the required dependencies: AfflictionComponent, ModComponent, ModSettings and ModData
3. Place MajorMiseries.dll inside your Mods folder.

AI Notice

This mod was partially developed with the assistance of AI tools.

AI support was used for structural guidance, debugging assistance and documentation refinement.

These tools played a significant role in translating the localization keys used by the mod, so it's highly likely that some translations may be incorrect or seem odd.
Please contact me on the TLDModding Discord server if you spot any incorrect translations or if you want to add an unsupported language. Any help in this regard is greatly encouraged.

Coding, core design decisions, system architecture, balancing, and implementation logic remain fully human-driven.