Bay 12 Games Forum

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

Author Topic: Disease and bathing  (Read 1658 times)

GiglameshDespair

  • Bay Watcher
  • Beware! Once I have posted, your thread is doomed!
    • View Profile
Disease and bathing
« on: June 08, 2012, 08:06:43 pm »

Dwarves already have a hidden 'dirtiness' meter. This, as it increases, increases the risk of infected wounds.
Introducing a risk of diseases would add another element of !Fun!. Proper prevention of miasma and (maybe) avoiding rotting zombies, etc, due to a chance of disease would become more important. Suppressing vermin becomes more important - so breed more cats or trappers. I believe it would make a deeper game, without too much effort and another strategic element. Plagues could shape the game world, adding a new element of chance.

Obviously, most diseases would be minor, only causing a rash or something - a minor illness. But the risk remains of a ore deadly disease. It is likely diseases could be completely controlled with proper care, as having you legendary weaponsmith die suddenly from lung-rot could be the wrong kind of fun.

As a consequence, dwarves could try to get a bath - maybe once a year or something. They would get a unhappy thought if they were unable to have a bath at all. They could bathe in a stream, etc, for a tiny decrease in happiness, but a moderate increase in cleanliness (like drinking water happiness wise.).  You could fill a pond and designate it as bathing, and this would have a higher happiness boost. And finally, baths out of metal or stone could be built and assigned to dwarves, for a larger boost to happiness. Using soap would increase the boost to cleanliness and happiness.

So what do you guys think?
Logged
Old and cringe account. Disregard.

crazysheep

  • Bay Watcher
  • [PREFSTRING:fluffy wool]
    • View Profile
Re: Disease and bathing
« Reply #1 on: June 08, 2012, 09:33:45 pm »

Dwarves already have a hidden 'dirtiness' meter. This, as it increases, increases the risk of infected wounds.
Introducing a risk of diseases would add another element of !Fun!. Proper prevention of miasma and (maybe) avoiding rotting zombies, etc, due to a chance of disease would become more important. Suppressing vermin becomes more important - so breed more cats or trappers. I believe it would make a deeper game, without too much effort and another strategic element. Plagues could shape the game world, adding a new element of chance.

Obviously, most diseases would be minor, only causing a rash or something - a minor illness. But the risk remains of a ore deadly disease. It is likely diseases could be completely controlled with proper care, as having you legendary weaponsmith die suddenly from lung-rot could be the wrong kind of fun.

As a consequence, dwarves could try to get a bath - maybe once a year or something. They would get a unhappy thought if they were unable to have a bath at all. They could bathe in a stream, etc, for a tiny decrease in happiness, but a moderate increase in cleanliness (like drinking water happiness wise.).  You could fill a pond and designate it as bathing, and this would have a higher happiness boost. And finally, baths out of metal or stone could be built and assigned to dwarves, for a larger boost to happiness. Using soap would increase the boost to cleanliness and happiness.

So what do you guys think?
Introducing diseases sounds like fun.
However, I'd like to point out that half of the things you're suggesting have been implemented: bathing (currently shows up as "Clean Self") and using soap for bathing (currently improves happiness and generates a "had a soapy bath recently" thought). Also, the idea of an ore-deadly disease was implemented in a mod (either Masterwork or Genesis mod) where black lung caused miners to suffocate.
On the other hand, the idea of creating a designated bathing area is interesting.
Logged
"Don't be in such a hurry to grow up, for there's nothing a kid can't do."

Itsdavyjones

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Disease and bathing
« Reply #2 on: June 08, 2012, 09:40:00 pm »

Having public baths like the Romans would be cool, but I would think instead of once a year, I would say once a season or every other season if that happens to be to frequent.
Logged

FearfulJesuit

  • Bay Watcher
  • True neoliberalism has never been tried
    • View Profile
Re: Disease and bathing
« Reply #3 on: June 08, 2012, 10:27:27 pm »

Maybe three times a year? We've got drinking four times a season, eating twice a season, sleeping...what, maybe twice a season again? Adding another frequent requirement might be a little more than an early fort or one with just a handful of high-end expert manufacturers could reasonably take, and I know a lot of us run small, 20 to 40-dwarf forts where each industry is handled by just one dwarf who's an expert in that skill, but has no ready replacement.
Logged


@Footjob, you can microwave most grains I've tried pretty easily through the microwave, even if they aren't packaged for it.

GiglameshDespair

  • Bay Watcher
  • Beware! Once I have posted, your thread is doomed!
    • View Profile
Re: Disease and bathing
« Reply #4 on: June 09, 2012, 07:48:09 am »

Introducing diseases sounds like fun.
However, I'd like to point out that half of the things you're suggesting have been implemented: bathing (currently shows up as "Clean Self") and using soap for bathing (currently improves happiness and generates a "had a soapy bath recently" thought). Also, the idea of an ore-deadly disease was implemented in a mod (either Masterwork or Genesis mod) where black lung caused miners to suffocate.
On the other hand, the idea of creating a designated bathing area is interesting.
I know quite a few of the ideas are already implemented, and this idea was to build on that. I just thought it should have more importance.
The number of times a year would be down to ToadyOne, once a year was just a wild swing.
Logged
Old and cringe account. Disregard.

crazysheep

  • Bay Watcher
  • [PREFSTRING:fluffy wool]
    • View Profile
Re: Disease and bathing
« Reply #5 on: June 09, 2012, 09:16:22 am »

I know quite a few of the ideas are already implemented, and this idea was to build on that. I just thought it should have more importance.
The number of times a year would be down to ToadyOne, once a year was just a wild swing.
Ah. Would have been nice if you made it clearer in the initial post, because I read your post as "let's implement these" rather than "let's build on what we have".
Logged
"Don't be in such a hurry to grow up, for there's nothing a kid can't do."