Waterlogging

[Skjotur]

Probably an unpopular request, but I think swimming should waterlog things in your inventory. Some food items, especially bread stuff (travel rations) should be ruined. Books, letters, should have a chance to become unreadable. Gunpowder containers should have a chance to leak and lose the contents. Bowstrings should be affected and have penalties to shooting. Items should have a chance of falling out of your pack and being lost in the deep water as you swim from place to place but probably not as you're staying still in one spot treading water. Things like ash, ground herbs, handfuls of tinder, should probably just be lost immediately.

Stuff like that. A lot of work and different items to consider, but just throwing the idea out there.

[Elystole]

The problem I have with that is that if you know how to pack your things properly not only will they stay dry but you can use your pack as a flotation device.

I have personally gone swimming wearing a full set of clothing, boots, flak jacket, and kevlar helmet, while carrying two rifles, using two loaded packs as flotation devices, and towing another guy behind me.

It seems like a lot of work to include a bit of realism that could be thwarted with the addition of more realism (are we going to have a packing skill?). And if swimming gets you waterlogged, then so would heavy rain.

[Rias]

I like the idea, maybe with certain guilds having increased effectiveness with "preparatory packing" and having some special containers that are far less likely to allow their content to be waterlogged.

Not that it's anywhere near the top half of the priority list. It does kind of annoy me to see people swimming around with all their containers open and stuff, though.

[TwistedAkai]

[...] some special containers that are far less likely to allow their content to be waterlogged. [...]

Doesn't oilcloth typically do that?

[Skjotur]

I've obviously got less experience than our military boy here, I'm just a camper and casual bushcrafter. Giving certain guilds the ability to prevent waterlogging was my next step. Anyone can learn how to track or how to get good at navigating the wilderness, but in CLOK you need to be in a special guild to do them.

Oilcloth affords some waterpoofing but a satchel's contents aren't going to stay dry as you swim across a river or through an underwater tunnel just becaues it's made from oilcloth. It's still a satchel which isn't generally made to be used underwater, so you'd have to prepare it specially for that purpose.

[Elystole]

I've obviously got less experience than our military boy here, I'm just a camper and casual bushcrafter.

Not less experience, different experience. You know more about surviving in the brush. I was just specially trained in moving under load in the water.

Oilcloth affords some waterpoofing but a satchel's contents aren't going to stay dry as you swim across a river or through an underwater tunnel just becaues it's made from oilcloth. It's still a satchel which isn't generally made to be used underwater, so you'd have to prepare it specially for that purpose.

Are we talking instantaneous waterlogging once you go swimming or something based on time spent in the water or number of rooms traversed? I agree that swimming with open containers is a bad idea because things can be washed downstream, but we are in a frontier and I'd expect most people who are serious about travelling to prepare for the eventuality that they'd get really, really wet. It doesn't say so in the flavor text, but I expect our foodstuffs to be wrapped - unless you're one of those weirdos who thinks that stuffing a stack of wheatcakes in a satchel is good travel food. Jerky, dry rations, and cheese though? I don't think a quick dunk or even fording a river would automatically ruin them.

I do like the idea of special containers that are perhaps smaller but more resistant to waterlogging. So you'd see the people who just want to carry the maximum load possible and those who are worried about going places (and don't want crazy encumbrance in the first place).

[Bryce]

Flashbacks from Boy Scouts.

[qinweiqi]

I'm not sure how coding things work, but if coding for amount of time in the water is difficult, it may be easier (and make more sense) to base it off of amount of energy spent swimming/treading water. That would allow waterlogging for people that swim through several rooms or who sit in one room for a long while.