The military shooter ArmA 2 has gotten a sizable sales boost from the Day Z mod, and mod-maker "Rocket" is continuing to add more sadistic tweaks for those seeking a tough challenge. The popular game mod has now updated to 1.5.8, adding a "sickness" feature to the game. Because zombies clearly weren't enough to worry about before.

According to the patch notes, you can now become sick in Day Z, which will cause you to slowly lose blood until you find and take some antibiotics. You can't die from the sickness, since it only reduces blood down to a minimum of 6,000, but it will certainly make your task more difficult. Sick players will lose temperature, so you'll need to build fires to stay warm which now requires adding wood to keep it lit. If your temperature drops too much, the camera will shake.

If you want to rely on the kindness of strangers, know that as a sick player, you'll cough loudly to signal others to stay away. Even the mod's creator seems to be curious about the social implications. "I don't really know what affect [sic] the new sickness and temperature system will have on player behavior especially with antibiotics so scarce," he wrote. "It is the genesis of an idea, so please remember this might cause havoc. You need to be careful."

The patch also makes a few other adjustments. You can't fill your canteen with sea water anymore, so you'll need to find freshwater ponds and wells. Plus disconnection saving means you won't have to save before quitting, and the inventory has added context-sensitive interactions. It also fixes thick fog, keeps you from falling to your death if climbing a ladder with a pistol, nerfs the Winchester, balances some loot, and packs a few other tweaks.