I’m not sure what the methods would be, but I’ve always wished there was a way to better mask your scent so you could make a hideout inside an infested city without inevitably being swarmed. I’ve always liked the idea of having a hiding place deep in zombie infested territory… constantly on your toes. But so far I’ve not found it to be possible.
Trying to hide out in a city quickly turns into either:
Run away and leave town.
Fight an endless horde and possibly die.
Hiding just isn’t possible because they can smell you… there ought to be a way to prevent that.
From what I’ve seen, and it’s not exactly accurate but when you get to be about 12+ tiles away, excluding mutations you usually don’t “stink” enough for them to find you. The biggest problem I’ve had getting into trouble with hordes was using a shotgun in cities. Ever since I’ve switched to a Pneumatic Bolt Driver with even wooden bolts it’s worked beautifully.
After having killed two hulks in one area I went and carved “We have done the impossible, and that makes us mighty.” into it. Do. Not. Doubt. The wooden bolts. XD
I’ve never really encountered this problem, TBH. Even in larger-city games, where the shelter somehow winds up surrounded by buildings, I find that once I’m able to kill the surrounding zombies, I don’t usually attract too much in the way of attention, except in terms of stragglers shambling after me from supply raids, and that’s more a line-of-sight thing that I know about than a passive scent thing that happens on its own.
I’d certainly welcome proper scent tracking, though; zombies that would actually make an effort to hunt you down and siege you would make things way more fun.
If zombies are close enough to smell you, they’re most likely also close enough to hear you. The main thing scent does is lead them to doors and/or windows. The range is much greater if you’re in the open, but then you’re in the open… so they can see you…
Oh yea, the other main time it comes up is when you try and sneak around at night, so there’s that.
The options I’ve been able to think of are either “take a bath”, by linking the wet condition with reducing scent strength, masking of some kind, basically a deoderant item or a smokebomb that doesn’t hurt you (normal smokebombs and all kinds of smoke fields do destroy scent, but are a pain to use), or a “red herring” item that smells like the player. Oh yea, NPCs should also produce scent, currently monsters ignore them <_<’