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mithrawndo

What's that smell?

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Hi folks, I'll keep it brief. I believe we need a smell engine. Alerts to smell could be formatted in the same way you are alerted to wounds, hunger and thirst. I'm not sure I see much point in giving a sense of smell to the AI (they appear to lack the intelligence to connect these smells with our presence), but that's something worth considering too - should it be deemed desirable. I suspect having to also wash and wipe your arse properly might be going a step too far!

 

Hunger:

Smelling food cooking could make you feel hunger. It would also alert you to someone's presence, adding a drawback to cooked food which (presumably) will be more nutritious than uncooked alternatives. As an addendum, I'd really like to see a mocha pot and coffee added to the game!

 

Nausea:

Walking into a room full of rotting corpses is probably going to turn your stomach - perhaps even make you throw up and/or temporarily incapacitate you. This also adds a use for gas masks and the like. Once hunting exists, it's also possible to tie this in - the smell of Cadaverine is what puts us off rotting meat.

 

Cordite:

Some propellant isn't very efficient and leaves quite a tell-tale smell. This is a great indicator that there has been recent human activity in the area, and it also could be used as a drawback for non-pristine ammunition. There's also potentially the issue of self loading for shotguns cartridges and the like, but that's another topic entirely.

 

Fire:

Much like damp wood creates smoke, burning certain types of wood makes a very distinct smell and could be used to indicate someone's presence - or could be used as a decoy to draw someone into an area prior to being mugged.

 

I'm sure there are more, but I think these demonstrate well enough why it's worth investigating. Thanks for reading, and I look forward to any responses/additions/criticisms.

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All good ideas.

If the game is fleshed out to the point where hygene/bathing is added for keeping healthy, the player should become progressively easier to detect by scent.

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Beans, Well thought out idea, And would be a great addition to the game!

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All good ideas.

If the game is fleshed out to the point where hygene/bathing is added for keeping healthy, the player should become progressively easier to detect by scent.

 

The amount of beans and sardines ya dude necks, bathing aint gonna do shit!

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Yeah, very good idea. I think I remember hearing from somewhere that zombies would be able to track by scent, but I don't think it would be considered too seriously.

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Sounds good but some of your suggestion must have time limit. I am not sure about smell after shots, If shot was at open space then smell shouldn't stay for long. Its could depends of the wind but this game didn't have anything like that.

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Any smell system is really part of a greater atmospheric system - so for example whilst firing a pistol in the open wouldn't leave a smell for more than a handful of seconds, a full on firefight in an enclosed space would leave a smell that lingered for some minutes*. Think of it as polluting the atmosphere** within a certain radius upon firing, with a decay that dwindles over time. More shots (or more fires, more bodies and so on) means greater accumulation of scent and hence more time required for the air to clear.

 

*This may be prohibitively difficult given the design of the game (see indoor rain for details). Time will tell!

**No, that wasn't a fart joke. No, I don't think farts should be part of the game. Yes, it's mildly amusing.

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Really interesting idea. I can imagine moving past a hill, and smelling "a foul bloody odor". This odor happens to be a injured sniper who hasn't treated his wound properly and is suffering from infection. Idk, a small idea but it's certainly awesome.

 

I can imagine passing out from the smell of rotting flesh, or blood frustrating players. Perhaps their character is someone hardened to the sight and smell of such things (like a lot of people would in the setting) and they don't want their character pissing around with that kind of stuff. But great ideas, dude.

 

On top of this I'd like to have more interactions with touch/feel as well. I'd like to be able to feel someones dead body to check whether they were warm, or cold (indicating how long they'd be dead for). I'd like to feel a snuffed fire to find out how long ago it had been put out. I unno' I might make a thread later.

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I love I love I love it. NEEDED.

 

Please post your idea to Reddit! Since that is the only place the devs care to look for suggestions. 

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Thank you VictorM, I've done as you suggested.

 

On top of this I'd like to have more interactions with touch/feel as well. I'd like to be able to feel someones dead body to check whether they were warm, or cold (indicating how long they'd be dead for). I'd like to feel a snuffed fire to find out how long ago it had been put out. I unno' I might make a thread later.

 

I strongly suggest you do. There are I believe already plans to implement checking for a pulse and your suggestion ties in nicely with this. Good luck!

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Should certain scents be able to overpower others, such as a campfire overpowering a scent of a rotting corpse or vice-versa.

Edited by Udysseus

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Could also work for checking if gas mask filters work or not. if you can smell things when wearing the mask, then the filter is expired

 

Most or all filters will probably have expired though

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