New status bar: Hygiene

[djanico]

Almost everyone overlooks basic Hygiene as a part of survival. Being realistic, hygiene is very essential in any survival situation over the long haul. Lets face it, the dirtier you get, the more prone you are to diseases and infections. It would be nice to incorporate this as well into the game.

New status bar: Hygiene

Make this a slower incrementing bar. Over time you will sweat, get dirty, get blood on you from Scavenging wildlife and defending yourself from it. The hygiene bar will fill up from Clean to Grimy. The dirtier you get the more susceptible you are to catching diseases (colds, flu, pneumonia and random infections) This will require you to take baths with water to keep yourself clean. It will give you something to do during downtime (bad weather days). So keeping yourself clean will be part of the "routine" to ensure you stay healthy.

Will require water (x Liter) and soap (add a random spawn for it in the game.. so go find some) or you can make natural Soap from flowers and natural oils etc. Soap will have X number of uses, so will require replenishing. and of course Cloth (a rag). The rag will be consumed as it will be dirty and wet and pretty much useless. Taking a bath should also drop your body temp drastically.

[Soul Sojourner]

I can't say I agree with this one too much. Here's why:

Dirt isn't going to do much to pose any health risks. It's winter, very cold, with snow everywhere, and a very harsh environment for fungi and bacteria to survive. The most likely transmission would still be animal, and cooking food takes care of most issues there. Anti-biotics and anti-septics take care of the rest.

Colds and flu are transmitted primarily through people. With very little to no contact with other humans, the likeliness of transmitting disease is substantially reduced, leaving the most risk being via animal still, and even then, a viral infection is still unlikely with even uncooked meat.

Otherwise, when it comes to general hygiene, like bathing, we have to assume any minor hygiene needs our characters have are taken care of automatically by them. Otherwise, things get a little weird when playing a female character. I can't see the implementation and use of female products in the game, and females are far more likely to need hygiene like bathing much more than males.

Besides all of those complications, I think it's something we have to treat a lot like any urinary and bowel needs. People need to take care of those needs for survival as well, but we don't want to actually need to make our characters take care of their business, it's better just to assume they do it on their own at some point or another.

Believe me, I fully understand where you're going with this, and I understand the desire for that extra level of realism, but there has to be a line somewhere. Because, well, there has to be.

Besides these things, some things about being unclean actually work for you in some situations, we can assume the important parts of hygiene are otherwise taken care of, and maybe damp pieces of cloth are the practical ways they handle them. I don't see baths as being feasible.

One more note, if anything hygiene related were added, it should be the most important type of hygiene, and ironically the only one you didn't mention, which is oral hygiene. The most likely and often worst hygiene related issues are going to be related to brushing teeth, and I think it can be assumed they take care of that on their own too. (unless we have multiple survivors running around and they're trying to keep the human race alive... then there's other very important hygiene issues... I think we can probably ignore those)

Anyway, this is just my thoughts on the issue. Do with them as you will.

[Boston123]

^ Huh?

Personal hygiene is FAR more important in a survival situation than you apparently realize. Especially in a winter environment. Repeated exposure to cold/dry air often makes the skin crack, and these cracks let bacteria and such into the bloodstream. If anything, wearing heavy clothing makes you sweat more, because there isn't really any "layering" system in the game.

What are the regions of the body that tend to trap bacteria, are warm, and tend to be wet? The crotch, under the arms, and the feet. If you don't clean these areas out regularly, you WILL develop some sort of skin problem, from a rash to a straight-up infection.

Hygiene, much like sweating, should have been a part of the game from the very beginning. Not even touching the fact that dirty clothing (not just dirt, but sweat and dead skin cells) has next-to-no insulation properties. You want to clean, "air-out", and dry your clothing regularity as well

The fact that the character is wearing the same socks for days on end, especially after tromping through snow with them, makes me cringe.

Anyone remember when this game was supposed to be difficult?

[Hotzn]

Granted, the game should be difficult and hygiene is an important part of survival. But still the game should not require us to take care of our hygiene. Please no tedious cleaning of arm-pits, between toes, ladies' accessories for the female character, going to the toilet, wiping the behind etc. That would be a major turn-off for me. No hygiene bar. Be merciful and let us assume hygiene is taken care of.

[Bill Tarling]

You can find multiple discussions about hygiene for the game looking back or searching the forum, even back when the game first entered Early Access. You can check out many of the pros and cons (here's a good place to start).

[Soul Sojourner]

I just think that, if I wanted to clean myself, wash laundry, brush teeth, worry about cracking skin and dryness in winter... well, I already do in real life, I don't need to do it again in a game.

I have a wood stove, dry heat, it's winter, cold, and plenty of dryness to go around, but I don't want to take care of the menial tasks necessary in my day-to-day life in a video game too. That's why I quickly get bored of the Sims games.

I could see someone needing to spend all of their time trying to boil water to raise the humidity in a shelter, heating an entire shelter to make it warm enough to make a bath (simultaneously drying the shelter out even further), heating pot after pot of water to make it warm enough to "bathe" in, struggling to wash and clean clothing when needing to keep it warm enough for the washing process, let alone the drying process, and still needing to take care of other hygiene needs on top of it like brushing teeth and so on.

It seems like a bit much to turn a survival game into a life simulator.

We're still talking about adding in razors, scissors, combs, brushes, tooth brushes, soaps, cleaning supplies, tweezers, cotton swabs, nail clippers, toilet paper, feminine products, hair products, toothpaste, portable/handheld mirrors, floss, wet wipes, tissues/napkins, towels/rags, and potentially others, with some of the previous potentially interchangeable or replaceable by/through other methods.

Not to mention a pot for taking care of business, toilets don't flush and you shouldn't go inside buildings you might be staying in. Furthermore, I doubt anyone wants to "freeze their arse off" by going outside, quite literally...

Add in the extra weights for all items, the need to haul many of these things around, the added difficulty for playing a female, the extra time it takes to fulfill these tasks. Also consider the extra time needed to move items from place to place, even if you're "playing the squirrel."

It's interesting, in a way, but mostly I think I wouldn't be able to play the game any longer, simply because many other games have already added too many menial tasks to consume my time that they become boring, the Long Dark will be the same way for me if it implements too many distractions as well.

My two cents.