Since (developer confirmed) there is randomness in getting achievements it is not possible to give a guaranteed method/process for achievements. Some are probable (long shot, zombie, icure and olympics) others are possible but dependent on a random element. I have got the combo message twice. I believe it has to be before every country is infected. 1) max bird, livestock and rodent (that is all 3 to level 2 ) and then take the special cross species transmission that appears. I also had cold 1+2 and drug 1+2. After a short while, message popped up that New Guinea had been infected by contaminated blood 2) swine flu combo + livestock 1+2, + cold 1+2 + drug 1. After a longer while, message popped up that Iran had been infected by contaminated blood. As you can see it's not consistent what you have to do to get it. The developer likes randomness. I prefer achievements which are achievable 100% of the time by doing the necessary tasks/actions.
Willm is right. -Animal vectors + swine flu symptoms gets you oink oink. (It says your symptoms are similar to swine flu when you get the achievement). -Insanity gets you Palin. (Achievement says: Insanity! Palin has been selected to replace the Pres) (I'll post screen grabs of my setup if anyone wants to see how I did it. They both happened in the one game). I think that you get told at the start in news items what you can do later if you play your cards right, e.g. 'Swine flu research not published' came up at the start of the game when I got oink oink. So there's method to the madness. The news stuff isn't random, as we know we have cater our play to it, so why would the diseases and achievements be? As for nukes and space missions, those come up at the start of playing virus, so I wonder if Willm has the right idea but we are trying in the wrong one? Immune Cheat works for swineflu and to get Palin in, but there's no opportunity for nuking at all, so I'm trying virus instead. (Let us all know if anyone recalls seeing those news items anywhere else). My best guesses? Palin with Syphilis nuking the world is funny, and Dev has a sense of humour so I wonder? I'm going to try cysts, rash, psych symptoms on Virus. (If only there was a sexual transmission vector, but I'll try animal). Then get insanity when the Pres gets ill. I'll let you know if I have any joy. (I'm currently running this on No Govt cheat but it's not happening yet). Palin with Mad Cow Disease? (Because she is a mad cow). But Prion is slow I've been having trouble sticking to it. Hope this gives you ideas.
I've had a couple of run throughs on it just now, but nothing seems to happen, I must admit I've largely been playing on cheat, because of the freedom the DNA gives you, and the time the immunity can provide, it's an interesting idea though, maybe the achievements are plague type specific?
Yeah that's what I've been wondering. Maybe Palin, the mad cow in prion? Or Palin with syphilis in virus? I think the news items aren't entirely random. They change depending on which country you start in and which plague you're playing, or perhaps the vectors you choose. Swine flu research not released news came up at the start of immune cheat when I got oink oink, or perhaps it was when I chose animal vectors. (I've seen bird flu research after livestock or bird too). I'm getting both historic space mission and the nuke one at the start of virus every time. But you don't have the luxury of sitting around waiting for pres to get ill because if you have symptoms, the cure research starts, but you need symptoms for the pres to step down. By the time everyone is sick they are focused on cures and aren't doing nuking or space missions anyway. For that reason I had been only trying on the cheats as well, but I never see the right news stuff there, and I've been trying for ages.
Haha, I love the mad cow in prion, I laughed whole heartedly, and then pulled a thoughtfull 'time to get my google on' face! Looks like at least 5 or 6 symptoms are selectable in game.....which means it is theoretically possible to evole a mad cow like prion disease! I'm not saying its the answer, but it's certainly worth a tinker! Given that no one we are aware of has found the answer, it must be a intricate but clear passage of events necessary to bomb the Russians, I.e president Ill > palin replace > something > something = Russia and China fudged! Even with the randomness, I believe once you trigger the presidents illness a set corse of action will lead you to the big red button! I seem to have no problem getting the potus ill, with either cheat, I just fully transmit until no healthy people left and then add a few non deadly symptoms with maybe one or two deadly, and after a while it pops up! Give it a try on the cheat using a plague similar to the swine flu, deadly but with enough time to allow it to trigger!
Congratulations Ndemic for a realy good reveiw on BoardGameGeek. http://boardgamegeek.com/blog/164/ios-board-games Creators has Said that all acievments Can be done on all virus types.
Random achievements? Well that blows. Glad I quit trying, as I might have done everything perfectly but didn't have the achievement recognized. Poor design choice IMO, as they're called Achievements, not You Were Luckies.
It's not just flat random, the way I see it is that the permutations needed to complete certain achievements, say three different events, only have a certain probability of appearing, you still have to react correctly to them in order for you to succeed! So the president illness one may not appear every game, but if you transmit well and have a low but steady lethality the chances are it probably will! Too lethal and everyone's dead before you can even worry about palin, and not lethal enough, and potus won't get sick
Out of interest did you Spoiler Wait until America had Palin for President and then get the "USA getting paranoid" message With the Dev saying the achievements are to a certain extent random I could see this being the answer. Sucks big time if it were the case though, because it's got a very low probability of happening with so many other countries still alive. Also re: Virus in space Spoiler Every so often a message comes up at the beginning of the game saying historic moon mission planned, I suspect if your plague goes on long enough without detection you'll infect the astronauts.
Time for Ndemics to give hints As Plague no longer has achievements but has blind luckies instead, I believe it is time for NDemics to post specifics on how to get these achievements. I can not be the only one getting bored of trying different combinations, with the frustration of knowing that even the right sequence or combination might not result in the achievement through bad luck. Randomness to achievements = poor design choice. Admit it and publish the requirements please
I thought waiting was the key, 3 games post 2035 later I have my doubts! Messages dry up after about 2015, to one every few years! In regards to posting the answers, please don't, finding the solution is what keeps me playing, and just because some people don't have the patience or determination to work it out themselves, doesn't mean it should ruin it for the rest of us, what's the point in an achievement if it takes one game!
I have the patience and determination. I also think a game should be fair and fairly reward players. I have the contaminated blood achievement, but by luck rather than skill. Think about all the people who play Plague, of all the hours of effort and 100s of thousands (if not millions) of combinations tried and no-one has found the solution. Many will have done the right sequence many times, but simply because of a poor choice by the developer they were not given the achievement. Is that fair, right, proper - No is the only answer to that. Remove the randomness, publish enough for that at least. What virus type should we play, what news messages need to appear. Then and only then will Plague be fairly rewarding players with Achievements rather than meaningless indicators of something attained through luck.
after the insanity and Palin becomes president, I think there's something we need to do once the various countries start human experimentation, becoz the news headlines is yellow color. If you noticed, major events get either red or yellow headlines. I was playing in cheat mode, and keeping the symptoms mild enough till then, but I need help in trying to try out the various combos. Transmission wise, 2x cow bird rats should be enough. Swine flu combo is 3 X upper left (till diarrhea), 3x lower left till inflammation, and 3x cough to fever. Then WAIT. Keep devolving any other symptoms. Cheat mode no.1 No cure as that will give u infinite play time.
Forgot to add, u need of coz the following abilities: drug resistance x 2, and cold 1 or 2 depends on how Greenland is
Just thinking out loud You don't have to win the game to get an achievement. What would make th USA nuke a foreign country. What about starting in America, drug 1+2, minimal other countries, avoid water and air to avoid China and Russia. Get America 100% infected, swine flu, get palin, before China and Russia are infected / 100%. Then make disease lethal enough, but not over the top, to kill every one in America but not everyone in the world before the cure. If China or Russia are not infected too bad or even at all maybe plain would nuke. Basically simulate an attack on USA.
