Do you like the new muscle strain mechanic?

[Lexyvil]

What are your thoughts on the new muscle strain mechanic? I have seen some people disliking it, so I'm curious to know the general consensus on it.

Personally, I love it.
In v41, I got to a point where I could easily steamroll over zombies after understanding the gimmick on how to deal with them, so I no longer felt challenged. Even in modded runs where there were a mix of zombie types (1% being sprinters, 9% fast shamblers, 90% shamblers).

This new mechanic I feel like really makes you choose when to engage in a fight, and when not to, and this can really make multiplayer more fun when it comes to teamwork. If anything, I'm glad that levelling both Strength and Weapon Skills can mitigate the build-up and improve the fading time of the muscle strain, so at least there is some form of progress in becoming a killing machine again.

[Chaosolous]

Ehhhh, not on a "I like to smash zombies" level, but on a "yeah that would make sense" level.

My thought on game mechanics that simulate "realism" is that the first question should always be "Yeah, but is that fun?"

Realism isn't always fun and games should be fun.

Honestly, not sure how I feel about it yet.

[Epathos]

Yes

[Fosty]

Yes it's cool. Just give us the option to turn it off (if we don't already have it).

[Nordil(Hun)]

I killed about 25 zeds on the first day. Occasionally it popped up...but did not stay for long. And i killed 20 via HTH (push and stomp) 5 with a ratchet.
Weak and unfit character. (Secu guard).
So for me not much changed. But i only did a quick test.

[Epathos]

Originally posted by Fosty:

Yes it's cool. Just give us the option to turn it off (if we don't already have it).

There is a setting in sandbox to adjust it. I have it set to 0.5.

Default is 1.0

[Toroic]

It's a neat idea but poor execution. Fitness and Strength don't seem to influence how muscle strain builds up, only weapon skill. This makes no sense.

[Alcyonaria]

ive had it nonstop and having it prohibit combat at all, gotta analyze the new traits. some seem to make you bruise/get sore doing anything

[Lexyvil]

Yeah, I noticed it's proportional to the amount of zombies you kill. I saw it go from "Muscle Strain" to "Minor Muscle Strain" quite fast, but that was for a few zombies.

[Lexyvil]

Originally posted by Toroic:

It's a neat idea but poor execution. Fitness and Strength don't seem to influence how muscle strain builds up, only weapon skill. This makes no sense.

Strength apparently does affect muscle strain too, it's in the description when you hover your mouse over the skill.

[Toroic]

From my testing, muscle strain builds up quickly and falls off quickly as well. If you're spacing out the zombie kills it isn't hard to deal with initially.

However, I think once you're tired it stops going away, so it can catch you off guard. Finding time to rest is also difficult as the zombies don't seem to drop aggro nearly as easily anymore.

[Chaosolous]

Originally posted by Toroic:

as the zombies don't seem to drop aggro nearly as easily anymore.

From my experience, it's a visual thing a lot more with the zeds now.

Like, looping around or through a house is a good way to lose them from my playtime with B42.

[Toroic]

Originally posted by Alex:

Originally posted by Toroic:

It's a neat idea but poor execution. Fitness and Strength don't seem to influence how muscle strain builds up, only weapon skill. This makes no sense.

Strength apparently does affect muscle strain too, it's in the description when you hover your mouse over the skill.

Have you tested this or are you just going off the tooltip?

[Quill]

It's a clever idea to prevent people from just running to the Rosewood Fire Station and rushing to the LV Checkpoint to get all the Military Gear they want

However it's poorly implemented

It def needs to be a mechanic like Panic where you're affected by it less the longer into the apocalypse you survive

As others have mentioned the Passive Skills do nothing for it but also your weapon skills don't carry over when it comes to mitigation. If you got 10 in Long Blunt and swap to Axes you're SOL

Def needs to be affected by Passive Skils, COMBINED Combat Skills, and time into the apocalypse

If I grind for max fitness and survive a year I should feel like I'm powerful so I can die trying to loot the Ohio Mall instead of getting too weak when trying to go around Dixie

[Puppers]

In general I usually get bored after I get settled in the game and I find this muscle strain mechanic really helps me take my time so that the early game, for me personally, is stretched out much longer. It also allows me to use other methods being a melee only player by utilizing pain killers which I never use half the time. Combine that with being more strategic about where i go , how I plan on clearing out a place, what I use to clear out a place , etc. I really am enjoying it.

So far I played winter is coming with it and I had no issues and that game mode had a ♥♥♥♥ ton of zombies, it was fun, energetic and suspenseful for me. Right now I am just playing regular apocalypse with default muscle strain and just having a good time. I use painkillers to avoid any of the negative affects or do something else. I did try changing it to 0.5 to see how that faired but I thought it was too easy and just changed it back to default settings.

I only use stout and cat eyes, having a great time !

[Animalman]

It was fine as it was imo.
Was a lot of trouble breaking a door down and it felt correct like i should had picked a smarter tool for the job but the wrench was all i had.
The wrench condition tanked it aswell over 60 hits. one beating session i counted 30 hits before taking a seat in the locker room and speeding thru about an hour and a half to two hours then went back

I wasn''t sure if it was default, or me.

But as i was hitting the door, striking it, approx 10 times in a row, and spamming E. the character struck the door at a faster rate. as it rattled while being beaten. The rate of strikes obviously effected by fatigue, with the maximum causing about a 1 second inability to strike at all like what a sledge hammer does at max exertion.