Are sterilized (boiled) rags overpowered?

[Rusty]

Every game, the very first thing I do is:

-Find a saucepan or cooking pot, fill with water
-Grab anything uncooked out of the fridge
-Put the saucepan and food in the oven, turn on
-Rip up my undershirt, socks, and anything immediately nearby
-Use hot water to sterilize rags until food is done
-Take food, turn off oven

Now I have rags that can not only protect from infection, but they basically cure infected wounds, meaning I can alternate between them and regular rags and there's no consequence, even if I get an infected wound. I've tested this several times, and when I wrap infected wounds with sterilized rags, the infection has disappeared by the time I have to change the bandages every time without exception, on a character who is susceptible to illness, no less. Obviously, this has no effect on zombification.

Should boiled rags have the same power as rags soaked in bourbon or disinfectant? I don't really think so...

[Animalman]

It doesn’t seem realistic no, but maybe it was done for renewability, it kind of undermines the first aid ability. A boiled rag is in theory sterilised but maybe it should rot into an unsterilised rag pretty quickly. So a fresh boiled rag is sterilised but if you kept it in your bag for 2 weeks it would decay into a normal rag.

[Rusty]

...I'm not concerned about infection. That's the problem. It's not common enough for me to worry about it, but in the off chance it happens in over two hundred hours worth of gameplay I have a million sterilised rags that immediately fix it.

I'm sorry, I'm looking to have a discussion about balance, not have my level of proficiency at video-game criticised.

[Animalman]

In real life I would never consider boiling a rag for sterilisation until I read this post

So I would probably lock it behind a recipe or else I would also add a time limit on its use. So it’s the sort of thing that you would do when you have a wound already dressed with dirty bandage and are about to change bandages. So the decay for it to be considered sterilised is quite fast less than an hour before it decays into a normal clean rag. So you have short time to apply it and receive the sterilised rag benefit.

[Nordil(Hun)]

Originally posted by Princess Button Masher:

Originally posted by Rusty:

...I'm not concerned about infection. That's the problem. It's not common enough for me to worry about it, but in the off chance it happens in over two hundred hours worth of gameplay I have a million sterilised rags that immediately fix it.

I'm sorry, I'm looking to have a discussion about balance, not have my level of proficiency at video-game criticised.

You asked if it was balanced as an item and were given a response. This wasn't about -you- but about -players- don't take it personal.

I have much more hours and I will say that hours = not a merit of skill in any way regardless. I play Tekken 7, people with 3k hours in there will get beaten by people with 50.

Rags are not OP, if you're already taking damage you did something very badly. Consider yourself lucky you didn't outright die.

My starts usually dont allow me to carry such extra baggage. Easier to wear a shirt, and rip it, or wear something under it and rip it.
Also i usually do not get hurt neither. Very rarely scratched by zombies, but no bites or lacerations.(And even scracthes are like once in two months. If they happen.)

How you can damage yourself is usually due to glass in windows, or floor, or falling from someplace. Now for those bandages are okay, but you will not need as much.
And if you get bitten you can use all your rags to wipe it, nothing will change your char will die.

[bulbatrs]

Considering how many adhersive bandages are out there and how common other methods of sterilization are sterilizing your own rages feel like a waste of time, but then again why not? it's not like zombies outside will run away. Definitely not op tho,

[[Censored]]

they dont cure infection - the rags are clean so they dont cause infection - if you wound is infected before you put the bandage on you need to disinfect it first - if you dont theres a chance you handle the infection naturaly and theres a chance the infection gets worse - this system is actualy accurate and about as real as it get - im always stunned to find out ppl are this detached from reality and sheltered - its like you seriously dont know how this works? are clean bandaids and peroxide O P irl?

[westrud]

In real life, if my only bandages were strips from an old T-shirt, and I had the opportunity to boil them clean of course I would. Boiling water is the best way to kill bacteria, this is why we boil water before drinking it. I think the sterilized rags in the game are working as intended, and I think boiling would be just as effective as soaking them in a disinfectant and more effective then using whiskey or bourbon.

[Rusty]

Originally posted by Rumple:

they dont cure infection - the rags are clean so they dont cause infection - if you wound is infected before you put the bandage on you need to disinfect it first - if you dont theres a chance you handle the infection naturaly and theres a chance the infection gets worse - this system is actualy accurate and about as real as it get - im always stunned to find out ppl are this detached from reality and sheltered - its like you seriously dont know how this works? are clean bandaids and peroxide O P irl?

I don't understand the rudeness, but I'll chalk it up as you're having a bad day. Thanks for the information you struggled to get out without directly insulting me.