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New Minor Mechanic: Smell


TokenPlease

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What would a zombie apocalypse smell like? It probably wont be a very pleasant sensation to be honest, but I think a game like Project Zomboid could use a bit of realism like this!

 

I feel as though the incorporating of a smelling mechanic would be pretty interesting to experience within the game. When I was thinking it through, it would be included as a moodlet that the player has. When in close proximity to rotten food in containers or on the floor, this example of a moodlet would appear:

 

Capture.JPG.8683208d2dde15ce32462a5bae57 Stench: "smells terrible here"

 

It could have varying amounts of severity depending on the level of rot:

 

"smells a bit bad"

"smells terrible here"

"smells absolutely disgusting"

 

These are just ideas of of what they could display. Being around something that stinks could also prompt the already existing "queasy moodlet" when staying in that area for a while. Of course, a very useful way to find out if food could be going bad. Another small and maybe a far out suggestion for food items to have an option to be smelled. This could also help in a way with the new nutrition system. Though this could be a bit primitive, zomboid is all about realism and when surviving in apocalypse, we will use all of our thinking ability, power and sensing to stay alive.

 

Which leads me to another very important aspect that can add to the zomboid experince. Smelling zombies. You know that feeling when your raiding a house with your fire axe in hand, opening each door of this seemingly quiet empty house very carefully, and suddenly a zombie comes at you from a sharp corner without any sort or warning? Well what if you were alerted to its presence before hand with that beautiful thing between your nose? This could possibly take away from that absolute shock when raiding, but it will add much much more to the experience.

 

In addition, as another suggestion, each zombie will probably emit a varied "stench zone". Perhaps the decomposition of a zombie will stink more as a fresh zombie will not. I was just thinking about how the recent addition to 3d sound to the game could also work as 3d smell. (which in retrospect sounds silly)

 

Hordes, as you can imagine, will also smell terrible and probably emit a larger "stench zone", alerting you to their presence even if you can see them straight away. Imagine your on the first floor of a quaint home and you've cleared it pretty well, but you "smell something absolutely disgusting". this will give you an indication of something waiting upstairs, which in my opinion would make this game just a tad bit more immersive. In addition, this will give more insensitive to clean out home bases or general spaces that you need clean.

 

In conclusion, smell will help overall with the zomboid experience in my opinion. Not sure though.

Edited by TokenPlease
Grammar
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That's interesting idea and it's something that I think of when playing PZ as well as watching the Walking Dead. So, no negatives? I.E. if a new character walked into an area that "smells absolutely disgusting" might that not affect them badly, maybe even make the character queasy or even nauseous? Yeesh, I'd have to clean out my bases and their yards! ;-) Ultimately I think that people get used to horrible smells, even dead bodies. The trenches of WWI must have stank to high heaven.

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51 minutes ago, Slice985 said:

It would make the weak stomach trait not just a gimme. I never eat rotten food so I dont understand it. 

I did. Was just that desperate plus couldn't stand wasting things :P (the food couldn't be added as a recipe ingredient anyway)

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5 hours ago, Slice985 said:

It would make the weak stomach trait not just a gimme. I never eat rotten food so I dont understand it. 

I don't think that it's being suggested as a trait but an environmental factor similar to temperature. Now if there was a trait "sensitive nose" or "easily grossed out" it wouldn't be a gimme. You can easily control eating stale or rotten food, i.e. just don't eat it. There are times when you'd have to, or want to, go through a stinking corpse filled area so that could be a tough negative trait.

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6 hours ago, wanderinbilly said:

I don't think that it's being suggested as a trait but an environmental factor similar to temperature. Now if there was a trait "sensitive nose" or "easily grossed out" it wouldn't be a gimme. You can easily control eating stale or rotten food, i.e. just don't eat it. There are times when you'd have to, or want to, go through a stinking corpse filled area so that could be a tough negative trait.

 

Haha, no, that's not what I meant.. I've personally got a weak stomach. I've never been grossed out by anything and I've done some gross things like cleaning out a sink filled entirely with moldy dishes and helping clean out a hoarder's house.. Yes.. it is was as bad as one of those shows. In both cases I completely emptied my stomach and got extremely sick, but was still able to get the job done.... after I put on a mask with a couple dabs of something like vapor rub eventually it allowed me to stay in the area.  

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I think I once suggested "smell-o-gaming" on this forum... Could you imagine sitting in your chair with a scent of a thousand rotting corpses emanating from your computer?

 

I think your idea is better.

Edited by Demonic_Kat
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5 hours ago, theweef said:

I'm not even considering this until it's in the correct board.

I don't know how to post it to the PZ suggestion section ugh.

When I press the create tool and go and search through topics, "PZ Suggestions" is greyed out for some reason. That's why I posted here erggg >_>

 

Do you you know how I can fix it? I'm not too savvy on these things heh.

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There's a small amount of posts needed before you can yourself create a new topic in the suggestions section. It's supposed to make people wander and react a bit to the suggestions before submitting their own, but unfortunately it only makes players work around this by posting in the wrong place.  :-/

 

All you can do is report your first post to an administrator and ask for it to be moved. 

Edited by Teesee
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Quote

There's a small amount of posts needed before you can yourself create a new topic in the suggestions section.

Oh wow, I thought the system was broken or something, I've been lurking for ages wondering why I can't post suggestions. Thanks for that.:grin:

 

 

On the topic of the addition of smelling, I think that it'd be a neat idea and an interesting addition but... 

Quote

beautiful thing between your nose?

Did you mean "between your eyes"? Because I'm not exactly sure what's between my nose :-P

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4 hours ago, Teesee said:

There's a small amount of posts needed before you can yourself create a new topic in the suggestions section. It's supposed to make people wander and react a bit to the suggestions before submitting their own, but unfortunately it only makes players work around this by posting in the wrong place.  :-/

 

All you can do is report your first post to an administrator and ask for it to be moved. 

 

Don't do this. We're just as likely to delete your post as we are to move it. The limit is there for a reason. Dive into the general community for a bit before heading over to suggestions :)

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[offtopic]So the best thing to do is to... Do nothing then? I'll keep that in mind. Sorry for giving a false advice - I really thought that's how you had to proceed if you posted in the wrong section. [/offtopic] 

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  • 2 weeks later...

This would make use of burning bodies and not hording them in a room. (I cant be the only one to do that) It also could be used along with perfumes or air fresheners to make it not smell as bad or nice and soothing. I would agree however that some people can get used to it while others never do. A Vet definitely would be used to it but maybe not an average joe even after months. Could be useful or interesting for sure.

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