Oh, That Stinks! (Patreon)

Hey folks,

I hope you're all having a great weekend. This week, I want to talk about something I was planning to implement after I watched the gameplay of KCD2. I initially thought it might be a good idea, but then I realized it might not be worth the effort because it doesn't seem all that fun.

What is it?

So, I had the chance to watch the Kingdom Come: Deliverance II gameplay two days ago. While it was a really good showcase, one very minor feature caught my attention, and I thought, "Huh, something like that could be added to Bannerlord too." But yesterday, as I started thinking about it while staring at the compiler, I realized the gaps. The feature I'm talking about is, of course, the "Smell/Dirtyness" of NPC characters, as you probably guessed from the title.

If you haven't watched the Kingdom Come: Deliverance II gameplay, this part is mentioned at this moment (6:44) - https://youtu.be/5VP6bjlger8?t=404

Feature:

The basic idea was to add a smell/dirtiness mechanic to Bannerlord. Technically, it would have been a simple feature. Each day, you'd get dirtier by default when on horseback. If you stay in towns and pass the day, you won't get any dirtier, but it also won't reset your stink stats. Battles would significantly increase your stink because of sweat and blood. There would be bathhouses in all cities where you could clean up for a small fee, like 100 denars. If you pay more, you could get perfumes, which would make you smell attractive and noble. (I'll explain why this is important in the following sentences.) Your smell/dirtiness would have a visual representation whenever you visit scenes, like seeing stains on your face or armor. When interacting with villagers or citizens, they would comment on your current state, and more importantly, if you smell like a pile of dung and try to talk to a noble, they might comment on your smell. With some random variation, this could even affect your relationships. The same goes if you smell great; you could gain relationship points with the opposite sex, with some cooldown and randomness.

Challenges and Why I Didn't Move Forward with This Idea:

• Based on what I could gather, creating visuals on the "agent" in the game is either not possible, or I couldn't find a way to do it. I asked someone to check with TW on this, but I'm not sure if they'll have the chance to ask and get a clear answer. This is different from creating decals on static meshes like terrain, as it needs to be applied to the agent, similar to blood decals. It's certainly possible somewhere within the engine, but I'm not sure if it's accessible to modders. So, there wouldn't be any visuals unless I come up with something creative.

• To track your stinkiness, you'd need something displayed somewhere, most likely on the map view (where you see the day/night cycle, etc.). However, making even a small change to that map screen is unnaturally time-consuming and might raise some performance concerns.

• The feature itself seems to provide little to no "immersiveness" to the player, given that almost no one uses scenes anymore. Relationship bonuses, etc., are nice in campaign map encounters, but requiring players to visit a bathhouse every week in the game and spend money might be too annoying for such a small, random benefit.

Anyway, that's it, folks! I'm aware that I haven't been able to share anything but "failed" attempts to add stuff to Bannerlord lately, but this is the cost-benefit game of being a modder, and I don't want to make the same mistake I did with the Plague and Diseases mod (which people didn't play because it was too much of a hassle).

If you think this mod is worth pursuing, let me know. If enough of you agree, I might try to find a way to address the glaring issues!