Stinky Body Odor

[Stranger]

I like the new blood and body odor features but may I suggest that it take much longer and be much more difficult to work up a good stinky sweat? I can understand becoming easily bloodied as one good strike could easily do that but it seems like the instant I go outside and wave around my sword I end up stinking like a 800 pound man who sweats at the slightest thought of physical labor.

And what about body deodorant? There are many natural herbs that can be used to mask body odor, although the thought of seeing (Stranger, heavily-armored, bloody and smells of fresh posies) does make me giggle.

[Jaster]

I've always imagined Stranger with a pocket full of posies.

[Avedri]

This just seems like an all-around terrible addition. What happened to not adding random mechanical features that no one really wanted and getting back to quest-lines and RP?

[Rias]

:'(

It took all of 5 minutes to add these features.

Have you not been involved in the questlines and RP going on lately? Try logging in and getting involved!

[Rias]

So as not to ignore the original post: It takes getting significantly tired (i.e. a lot of energy loss) to get sweaty. Various means of nice smells and deodorants are planned.

[Blitz]

This just seems like an all-around terrible addition. What happened to not adding random mechanical features that no one really wanted and getting back to quest-lines and RP?

I couldn't disagree more. I think it's FAR too easy to get dirty and sweaty, but the blood and gore are a random mechanical feature that no one really wanted yet I think have a nice flavor/style and perhaps even add a little immersiveness.

[Avedri]

:'(

It took all of 5 minutes to add these features.

Have you not been involved in the questlines and RP going on lately? Try logging in and getting involved!

Lateral promotion thing at work has had me working overtime plus the holiday weekend. But yes, I'm really excited about the stuff going on with Valeria and the quest involving a guild.

The way I look at it is this addition is I assume that when I'm not logged in my character still exists in Arad and is taking care of the mundane things, like brushing hair and getting laundry done and washing all the smelly bits. Now I feel like in order to be presentable I'm having to actually do those mundane things during playtime. If I wanted to play a game that involves micro-managing, there's an app for that. I just don't want it to become something where I have a laundry washing skill.

[Orris]

I like it! I'll like it even more when the hydromancy aid bug is fixed!

[Kiyaani]

Orris just wants to douse everyone with water.

[Orris]

It's so true!

[Rias]

Bug? What bug? We have no bugs here.

Except bowtruckles. And termites. And spiders.

[Slaidh]

Bring on the blood, sweat, and gore! A good pungent BO means you've been alive!

Less chance to get smelly is fine with me as long as it stays.

[Lemuel]

I have to agree with Stranger here...if you are washed up, it would take more than 15 hours to go from clean to body odor. You can get sweaty quickly, though, but it takes time for bacteria to grow in that sweat.

Maybe we can have 'sweaty' effect take place quickly, where body odour is occurring now, and if the sweat is not dealt with in a number of hours, the sweat turns to body odor? How's that for a suggestion?

[Jaster]

From my experience of having to often work more than 15 hours a day, I can attest to the fact that you can indeed become stinky well within 15 hours.

[Rias]

Time has nothing to do with it. You get sweaty and smelly due to working yourself into exhaustion.

[Avedri]

So I realize maybe people haven't seen dramatic representations of frontier life through shows like Deadwood and Hell on Wheels, probably because they weren't produced by Disney. But people are covered in muck and blood. I find it pretty silly that shop owners won't assist you when you're gross. If you're adding a realistic aspect as silly as this functionality, make it make sense that townsfolk are used to seeing it.

I could understand if Mistral was too posh to help the dirty urchins, but people in Shadgard shouldn't be so snooty.

[Kiyaani]

I was thinking the same thing last night when I was buying bandages after just getting healed. I'm not going to take time to wash myself before going to the infirmary. I'm pretty sure they've seen blood and gore before =P

[Nootau]

If you walk into my shop dripping with blood and chunks of something you killed and smelling worse then a barn I would shoot you for ruining my once clean floor or calling the watch as a lune just walked into my store after killing what looks like two dozen travellers.

[Kent]

I have to agree with the last two posts by Avedri and Kiyaa. Daily bathing was not a feature of common life before 1900. Conversely, if the cultures existing in CLOK towns have placed such a priority on hygiene, then they should cater to it by having the town pump just inside the gatehouse plus a bath house and barber shop on main street. Also the infirmary would have a bathtub to was the dirt out of the wounds of patients to help with healing.

The body odor effect was particularly absurd when I went into the tannery in Dwaedn Vil to buy some items, and was refused service because I was smelly. I cannot see the common person in the Vil bathing daily, nor would they notice it over the fumes of the Tanning solutions.

My overall recommendation is that the body odor effect diminishes RP in a pre-19th century world and we would have a better game without it.

[Lysse]

Perhaps there should be varying levels of 'stink' for body odor then, and even dirt, that effect different establishments in different ways.

That being said, I do believe that the gore and blood mechanic is neat, and it's good that shopkeepers would refuse to deal with adventurers spattered in gore, blood, all that sort of thing. An exception might be the Healers, but frankly I seldom find myself walking into a healer bleeding profusely. I usually try to bandage myself up before I get to a healer so I don't bleed out on the way there, and if you're bandaged and not bleeding out it's reasonable to get a quick wash. Implementing a washing basin in the infirmaries may be appropriate in that instance.

[Stranger]

It might also be fun to introduce public restrooms and force players to have a "potty" meter that must be emptied soon after eating and drinking. We could also introduce a new body odor that goes along with 'digestion'. I'm sure Jaster would appreciate that. I also think some characters would be REALLY constipated by now, no wonder some players have turned evil... holding it that long would make anyone upset. :-D

[Jaster]

It would be fun if hitting someone hard enough would liquify their bowels and make them seep out uncontrollably. What a righteous smell that would cause.

[Lysse]

Daily bathing was not a feature of common life before 1900.

As an added side note to my previous post, this largely depends on whether you mean a full bath, and what region of the world (or even Europe) you're talking about. In Scandinavia prior to the 1900s, bathing was very common. While full bathes always were not common as a daily occurrence, it WAS common for Scandinavians to at least wash their hands and faces twice daily. Similarly, the Sauna held great popularity in Finland, and Sweat Baths (I believe) were popular in Norway, and Sweden has bath houses (and Swedish people would often take daily baths in them).

The decline in bathing in most of Scandinavia (with the exception of Finland) seems to have come from the influence of Catholicism. So for some cultures of Clok may not necessarily be a daily ritual, but it seems (in the bit of research I did to accompany my knowledge of general Scandian culture) that the bathing ritual only declined with the spread of Catholicism. There's no Catholic Church in Arad to my knowledge (or even an analogue for it), so there's no necessary reason that bathing wouldn't be a daily ritual for many people in the Lost Lands, especially since Old Aetgard has Faewyr Roots, and the Faewyr are based partially (at least) on Scandinavian cultures.

[Rithiel]

The body odor effect was particularly absurd when I went into the tannery in Dwaedn Vil to buy some items, and was refused service because I was smelly. I cannot see the common person in the Vil bathing daily, nor would they notice it over the fumes of the Tanning solutions.

My overall recommendation is that the body odor effect diminishes RP in a pre-19th century world and we would have a better game without it.

You were not turned away because you were smelly.

I was thinking the same thing last night when I was buying bandages after just getting healed. I'm not going to take time to wash myself before going to the infirmary. I'm pretty sure they've seen blood and gore before =P

Infirmaries will now sell to people even if they are covered in blood and gore.

For the rest of the stores - while being covered in blood may be more common than our world (NPCs don't run screaming from you if you are so covered), you're not going to convince me that store owners are going to be happy with potential customers getting their clean shops and/or merchandise covered in blood and gore. The fact that it is incredibly simple to clean yourself - you don't have to take a full bath or even strip - makes me even less likely to remove it.

Please don't think that Arad is pre-1900 Europe, or any other nation/continent on Earth. It's not. The institutions that made Europe (or wherever) what is is may be similar to some of the institutions in Arad, but it is a mistake to think "That's the way it was in old timey Europe, America, or wherever, so that's the way it must be in Arad."