The hygiene meter kind of stinks

[Glamurio]

Food works IMO because it both has a buff and a social aspect and people who have a job specifically do that, the janitor typically isn't running around with the RP focus of bathing people anyway.

Food also works because it is abundant and easy to obtain. There's like 10 vending machines on every station and additionally, oftentimes food such as donuts is just lying about. We have a dedicated area that is publicly accessible (the kitchen) that is dedicated to making food. Throw in botany as well.

Showers, meanwhile, are often hidden in maintenance paths, behind crew quarters, close to the gym, they're not easy to find for newbees and even as a veteran I sometimes have to open up the map on some stations because I simply forgot. Handwashing was a really good change, and imo, I don't think the "50% or higher" requirement is a good thing, let people fill up their hygiene at sinks at least then they're more likely to do it instead of being stinky all round.

We have fully functioning laundry machines but there's no reason to ever use them unless you can't find the shower. And I'd argue that if you removed shower cleaning clothing, people would just run around dirty. If this is something to be fixed, we need dedicated, large public areas and some sort of tangible buff that goes along with it, rather than adding a debuff if you don't engage with it. Doing laundry is a better "hygiene" mechanic than showering because you can do it in public spaces and it furthers conversation. Make people with nice-smelling clothes have increased stamina-regen for X minutes, tie it to a variable on the clothing. We can still have a debuff for dirty clothing too, but making people want to clean themselves needs an incentive other than "RP", of which people have mentioned, there is painfully little.