Sprained leg?

[Grumpy Old Guy]

Is it intended that I can't splint this thing?

Is there some other treatment I don't know about?

Painkillers, bandages, med kits, and splints don't work and I HATE not being able to run.

The fact that the duration increases if I move quickly is the least fun thing I've seen in this game so far.

[Shurenai]

A sprain is a sprain; There's no medical cure for it except rest and care to not exacerbate the issue. You can sprint and jump around all you want- Just be aware it WILL take longer for it to heal.

[Grumpy Old Guy]

A sprain is treated with Ice, something for the swelling usually ibuprofin, a tight wrap, and brace.

Aside from that there is NOTHING fun about being forced to walk around for 8 minutes.

A broken leg won't heal in a day, but having it heal realistically in this game would suck and no one would want to deal with that. Just because it's realistic does not mean it's fun.

I don't care that I move slower, but the duration going up if you don't sit still/walk everywhere is horrible.

[Shurenai]

Even if you iced it, took ibuprofen, wrapped it and braced it, it would still make the injury worse if you were sprinting around on it.

That said, All 4 of those things are not Cures to it. They're things to reduce suffering and the liklihood of further damage. Icing and ibuprofen are to reduce pain and swelling which mostly just reduces pain and makes it less tender. Wrapping it and bracing it are more about preventing it from moving around too much even if you're walking around- But even then, this is with the assumption that you're walking around and doing low activity tasks, Not sprinting around like Usain Bolt.

Even a splint for a broken leg isn't strictly a cure- If you insist on sprinting around with a splinted leg it still makes it take longer to heal.

I'm not arguing for absolute realism here, Because that absolutely would suck- A sprain would take a week or more, a broken leg would be a month or more...ugh.


But the only 'cure' for a sprained or broken leg is time, and care to not exaggerate the injury. This is a survival game; There will be survival elements that loosely represent actual injuries/situations/etc. All said, It's not all that hard to find 8 minutes of tasks to do that don't require sprinting around. Sit in base and craft some food, craft some traps for horde night, tend your farms, upgrade some blocks. . Slow down a little, smell the roses, enjoy the game a bit.

[oohbetty]

Originally posted by Shurenai:

Even if you iced it, took ibuprofen, wrapped it and braced it, it would still make the injury worse if you were sprinting around on it.

That said, All 4 of those things are not Cures to it. They're things to reduce suffering and the liklihood of further damage. Icing and ibuprofen are to reduce pain and swelling which mostly just reduces pain and makes it less tender. Wrapping it and bracing it are more about preventing it from moving around too much even if you're walking around- But even then, this is with the assumption that you're walking around and doing low activity tasks, Not sprinting around like Usain Bolt.

Even a splint for a broken leg isn't strictly a cure- If you insist on sprinting around with a splinted leg it still makes it take longer to heal.

I'm not arguing for absolute realism here, Because that absolutely would suck- A sprain would take a week or more, a broken leg would be a month or more...ugh.


But the only 'cure' for a sprained or broken leg is time, and care to not exaggerate the injury. This is a survival game; There will be survival elements that loosely represent actual injuries/situations/etc. All said, It's not all that hard to find 8 minutes of tasks to do that don't require sprinting around. Sit in base and craft some food, craft some traps for horde night, tend your farms, upgrade some blocks. . Slow down a little, smell the roses, enjoy the game a bit.

hmmm, this may be good for the odd sprain or break that occurs while you are in the vicinity of your base, but its pretty unhelpful for the rest.

i think its a decent mechanic, but to suggest you can simply do some upgrades at base seems a bit wishful to me.

[Shurenai]

Originally posted by oohbetty:

Originally posted by Shurenai:

Even if you iced it, took ibuprofen, wrapped it and braced it, it would still make the injury worse if you were sprinting around on it.

That said, All 4 of those things are not Cures to it. They're things to reduce suffering and the liklihood of further damage. Icing and ibuprofen are to reduce pain and swelling which mostly just reduces pain and makes it less tender. Wrapping it and bracing it are more about preventing it from moving around too much even if you're walking around- But even then, this is with the assumption that you're walking around and doing low activity tasks, Not sprinting around like Usain Bolt.

Even a splint for a broken leg isn't strictly a cure- If you insist on sprinting around with a splinted leg it still makes it take longer to heal.

I'm not arguing for absolute realism here, Because that absolutely would suck- A sprain would take a week or more, a broken leg would be a month or more...ugh.


But the only 'cure' for a sprained or broken leg is time, and care to not exaggerate the injury. This is a survival game; There will be survival elements that loosely represent actual injuries/situations/etc. All said, It's not all that hard to find 8 minutes of tasks to do that don't require sprinting around. Sit in base and craft some food, craft some traps for horde night, tend your farms, upgrade some blocks. . Slow down a little, smell the roses, enjoy the game a bit.

hmmm, this may be good for the odd sprain or break that occurs while you are in the vicinity of your base, but its pretty unhelpful for the rest.

i think its a decent mechanic, but to suggest you can simply do some upgrades at base seems a bit wishful to me.

If you're getting your leg sprained while out and about, that's your mistake, And you should presumably suffer the consequences of whatever decision you made that led to the sprain in the first place. Otherwise why not just play in god mode, No injuries or illnesses or inconveniences, or danger, or risk to speak of.

If it's never ever an inconvenience or problem or challenge for the player, Why would they bother to add it to the game?

[Grumpy Old Guy]

Originally posted by Shurenai:

Originally posted by oohbetty:

hmmm, this may be good for the odd sprain or break that occurs while you are in the vicinity of your base, but its pretty unhelpful for the rest.

i think its a decent mechanic, but to suggest you can simply do some upgrades at base seems a bit wishful to me.

If you're getting your leg sprained while out and about, that's your mistake, And you should presumably suffer the consequences of whatever decision you made that led to the sprain in the first place. Otherwise why not just play in god mode, No injuries or illnesses or inconveniences, or danger, or risk to speak of.

If it's never ever an inconvenience or problem or challenge for the player, Why would they bother to add it to the game?

again, you're making some really obvious logical fallacies here.

First of all, you get a sprain just by being hit. You'll never manage to avoid 100% of the hits. Sooner or later you'll get unlucky, surrounded, surprised, or just plain falling through the floor. It's nearly impossible to play this game and never get hit.

The consequences of getting hit IE the sprain effect you in a way that's more punishing than just damage, and more punishing than other mechanics. Where almost everything in this game can be cured with the right item, if you get a sprained leg you're just SOL. No amount of planning fixes that. If you're early on and don't have a vehicle yet, you have two choices. Walk everywhere for the next 8 minutes or hole up and do nothing. If you run it lengthens the time you're hurt which is the problem. It's not the 20% slower speed, it's the fact that I have to actually stop playing the game to cure it.

A game mechanic that requires me to put down my controller and just walk away for 10 minutes is objectively bad. I can't bring something to fix it, I can't plan for it, and if I try to continue playing normally at a disadvantage because I'm slower it just makes the debuff last even longer.

The issue isn't that I'm slower, it's that it can't be treated, requires me to do nothing for it to go away for a very long time, and if I try to keep playing normally it lasts even longer.

If it could be cured I wouldn't care, if the duration didn't go up, I wouldn't care.

Nothing about this is fun to deal with, who enjoys walling themselves in a bathroom and walking away from the game for 10 minutes?

[oohbetty]

Originally posted by Shurenai:

Originally posted by oohbetty:

hmmm, this may be good for the odd sprain or break that occurs while you are in the vicinity of your base, but its pretty unhelpful for the rest.

i think its a decent mechanic, but to suggest you can simply do some upgrades at base seems a bit wishful to me.

If you're getting your leg sprained while out and about, that's your mistake, And you should presumably suffer the consequences of whatever decision you made that led to the sprain in the first place. Otherwise why not just play in god mode, No injuries or illnesses or inconveniences, or danger, or risk to speak of.

If it's never ever an inconvenience or problem or challenge for the player, Why would they bother to add it to the game?

hmm, try reading whats written for a change, said i like the mech, just your assumption that one can potter around base for 8 minutes that i found odd, and if you get your leg sprained/broken its nearly always your mistake, not just when you are out and about.

you're very dismissive today.

[De Espirit]

You've already applied the splint. All you have to do is not run or jump for 10 minutes. No one is forcing you to walk away from the damn game. And yes, you can still do the things you normally do, and don't tell me you can't because I've done it with a broken arm and then a broken leg. I will also say, including myself, that getting an injury is at least 60% the user's fault.

The enemy has to hit you at least twice before you can get an injury, and there are ways to prevent yourself from getting injured, mobbed, or surprise attacked. Use the stealth and ranged combat abilities that are in the game. Listen for giveaway sounds of nearby zombies. Stop jumping out of windows and off of rooftops. If you have to get down from the roof, try to use hay piles or make stairs out of wood blocks, or try to land on furniture. Close doors behind you or put wood frames/hatches in them. Throw down robotic turrets that'll activate when something comes near. Prioritize what enemies you take out first. Use rocks to distract wandering zombies. And for the love of god, stop running everywhere like you're going for a world record speedrun, everything can hear your footsteps from a mile away. That's what's getting you into trouble in the first place.

The only exceptions are random wandering feral hordes or zombie dog hordes, those are hard to predict. I can understand if you get injured that way, but that's about the only undefendable situation.

Go ahead and try it. Go loot a house using stealth, or use your vehicle to make trader supply runs, or go dig out a mine shaft (you're standing perfectly still for that anyway). I guarantee you by the time you're done, the injury will be almost healed before you know it.

[Shurenai]

Originally posted by oohbetty:

Originally posted by Shurenai:

If you're getting your leg sprained while out and about, that's your mistake, And you should presumably suffer the consequences of whatever decision you made that led to the sprain in the first place. Otherwise why not just play in god mode, No injuries or illnesses or inconveniences, or danger, or risk to speak of.

If it's never ever an inconvenience or problem or challenge for the player, Why would they bother to add it to the game?

hmm, try reading whats written for a change, said i like the mech, just your assumption that one can potter around base for 8 minutes that i found odd, and if you get your leg sprained/broken its nearly always your mistake, not just when you are out and about.

you're very dismissive today.

I didn't assume you would be at your base; I just only listed things that can be done around your base. That doesn't mean there aren't a hundred other things you can do out and about for 8 minutes.. Just that I didn't list them.

Me, personally, I only bother with tending injuries if I'm in a T5 quest, Or at base. Any other time i just wait until i'm home to tend them because I can't always guarantee that I'll have the medical supplies needed to tend the wounds. So what comes to mind for me is base related tasks.

But you could, for example, spend that 8 minutes chopping up cardboard boxes in the nearest POI. Dismantling cars. Dismantling electronics in the nearest POI. Digging up clay. Find the nearest resource node and spend a bit of time mining. Chop trees. Gather nearby chysanthemum, goldenrod and cotton.

There's a ton of things that you can do at any given time or place almost all of which are useful and many of which are things you will need to do anyway sooner than later. You'll always need more wood for fires. You'll always need more electronic or mechanical parts. you'll always want more clay or whatever minable resource. There's never a time when a player NEEDS to just sit there and afk.

Originally posted by Grumpy Old Guy:

Originally posted by Shurenai:

If you're getting your leg sprained while out and about, that's your mistake, And you should presumably suffer the consequences of whatever decision you made that led to the sprain in the first place. Otherwise why not just play in god mode, No injuries or illnesses or inconveniences, or danger, or risk to speak of.

If it's never ever an inconvenience or problem or challenge for the player, Why would they bother to add it to the game?

again, you're making some really obvious logical fallacies here.

First of all, you get a sprain just by being hit. You'll never manage to avoid 100% of the hits. Sooner or later you'll get unlucky, surrounded, surprised, or just plain falling through the floor. It's nearly impossible to play this game and never get hit.

The consequences of getting hit IE the sprain effect you in a way that's more punishing than just damage, and more punishing than other mechanics. Where almost everything in this game can be cured with the right item, if you get a sprained leg you're just SOL. No amount of planning fixes that. If you're early on and don't have a vehicle yet, you have two choices. Walk everywhere for the next 8 minutes or hole up and do nothing. If you run it lengthens the time you're hurt which is the problem. It's not the 20% slower speed, it's the fact that I have to actually stop playing the game to cure it.

A game mechanic that requires me to put down my controller and just walk away for 10 minutes is objectively bad. I can't bring something to fix it, I can't plan for it, and if I try to continue playing normally at a disadvantage because I'm slower it just makes the debuff last even longer.

The issue isn't that I'm slower, it's that it can't be treated, requires me to do nothing for it to go away for a very long time, and if I try to keep playing normally it lasts even longer.

If it could be cured I wouldn't care, if the duration didn't go up, I wouldn't care.

Nothing about this is fun to deal with, who enjoys walling themselves in a bathroom and walking away from the game for 10 minutes?

If you're just walling yourself in the bbathroom for 10 minutes, That is a mistake of you yourself because you can't deal with the consequences of your own actions and decisions.

The typical player may never avoid 100% of hits; But that does not mean it is not possible to.

Every single weapon in the players arsenal right down to bare handed brawling has a longer reach than a zombie. Every. Last. One. Played properly, A zombie will never even get to swing at the player, let alone hit them. And the player, similarly, Can outrun every zombie in the game when they aren't wearing armor that limits mobility- Even zombie dogs. If you ever get hit by a zombie, It was your mistake- Either you weren't aware enough, Or you didn't do the foot work well enough, Or you misjudged the timing, Or something else to that effect.

If you get cornered, It was your own misjudgement or mistake that got you cornered- Maybe you entered a room without paying attention, Or you got surprised from behind, Or you weren't paying attention to your exits and got cut off, Or maybe you weren't wary enough to see signs of a pit fall trap. . . But every step of the way, it will have invariably been some mistake of yours that got you into whatever situation you're in.

Next, A single hit will not cause a sprain, Ever. At any time. It literally cannot cause a critical injury on the first hit from a zombie. So you absolutely must be hit at least twice before you'll get a sprain.

Third, If at any time you're choosing to just sit and AFK, That's your own decision. As I responded to betty above, The same applies here. There are Many things you could be doing that do not require you to be sprinting and jumping around like a maniac, Many of which are things you need to be doing anyway.

And so what if you sprint around and make the debuff last a little longer? It's already the shortest critical hit debuff by a wide margin. A few extra minutes of it while you finish whatever you were doing and get to a safe place where you can do things that dont require sprinting and jumping won't kill you. Even if you triple the duration it still comes in shorter than even the cured state of some of the other debuffs.

[FT]

I got a sprained ankle from getting slapped once by a standing zed while wearing full lvl6 cloth with all banded plate mods added..completing one of the challenge notes. The sprained ankle doesn't have any treatment options (I think it says this in its hyperlink info thingy when you click on it) but I think it still goes away faster than a treated break (around 4-8minutes compared to 20-60minutes).

Of course this meant I had to walk all the way back to base next to the trader, including up a pretty large mountain without any jumping, lol. Luckily it was my last mission and my sprain only lasted 4minutes so it was gone a little bit before I made it back.
I don't get hit much, I was decently well-armored and getting a twisted ankle from a slap on the arm is a little goofy..but I DID get hit and I suppose it didn't last terribly long.
I know I've gotten annoyed by needing to slow down for 20minutes after treating a broken leg, so I do agree that some of this can feel pretty brutal and boring if you get bit at a bad time where you really want to be moving around faster.

I'm not sure what an improved way to balance the challange VS fun would be though..so I can't really give any constructive criticism.

[Khissi]

One point into Parkour goes a long way toward preventing those sprains and broken limbs as well as the mod you put in your boots. There is also a book that lets you jump from further up if you're carrying over 5k Dukes, but that's not something I've ever really worked toward and I have yet to ever use the candy that lets you jump from way up. More than anything, I try to put that one point into Parkour as soon as I'm able.

The sprains and breaks you get from fighting zombies, dogs and birds are another thing entirely and I can only say that getting yourself into full padded armor as soon as possible helps with that as well as learning how to stay out of reach and how to move down the outside of a POI using frames rather than jumping. Lots of little things make it less prone to happen and I do like adding to Parkour as I'm able. Still, it's pretty much the most annoying crit I've found so far, so I do sympathize.

[FT]

^^^ That combination of 1point in Parkour and the ImpactBracing Boot Mod saved me from a broken leg when I derped off a tall ladder inside a POI, falling from the 2nd/3rd story attic into the basement. Nothing I did could coerce the character to grab back onto that ladder. The fall was long enough that I had time to try, fail, and properly cringe for the impending landing...but the crunch never happened.

[oohbetty]

Originally posted by FT:

^^^ That combination of 1point in Parkour and the ImpactBracing Boot Mod saved me from a broken leg when I derped off a tall ladder inside a POI, falling from the 2nd/3rd story attic into the basement. Nothing I did could coerce the character to grab back onto that ladder. The fall was long enough that I had time to try, fail, and properly cringe for the impending landing...but the crunch never happened.

i like the "can fall 15m without taking damage while carrying 5000 feather dukes" book, great excuse to carry dukes at all times for those vending machine candies.

[NoMan]

Originally posted by Khissi:

One point into Parkour goes a long way toward preventing those sprains and broken limbs as well as the mod you put in your boots. There is also a book that lets you jump from further up if you're carrying over 5k Dukes...

I did not do the Parkour point (yet?), but I do have the mod and I read the book.

The boot mod provides silent landings and the book allows me to drop 15 blocks with no damage. By sheer coincidence, this is the exact height of the platform I had already built next door to my first trader.

In A19 I have gotten in the habit of reserving my points for a day or two and then spending them based on my best loot, working with the RNG rather than trying to force a preconceived build. I had actually earmarked the book for possible sale until the plan occurred to me and I measured my platform.

This guy is turning into a Stealth Rogue. It could be an issue on later horde nights but it is a lot of fun right now.

It has been refreshing to be forced out of my ruts and try different playstyles.