still too many sprains

[Skelegutplays]

started a new game today and played for about 2 IRL hours

11 sprains in 3 or so ingame days is insane.

Hinterland please lower the frequency of sprains because its pretty insane getting 11 sprains in 3 ingame days

[Ape88]

Just a couple questions for clarification: Are you paying attention to the sprain risk warning icon? Is your character encumbered?

The sprain risk icon comes up when you are moving on an area that could potentially cause a sprain, however it does not seem to come up just from being encumbered. I'm still figuring out how that part works. Whether being encumbered means you run the risk of getting a sprain no matter whether the area you're moving on is a risk, or if it just means the chances are higher when moving in a sprain risk area.

In the past I usually avoided sprains on really steep terrain by moving whilst crouched.

Also, I've pointed out in threads about sprains before, that the cold and walking in snow, on uneven terrain (Because you can't know what is under that snow) that all of those conditions combined make sprains a risk...

I think there should be an improvised splint or something that would slow you down but make it less likely to aggravate a sprain.

[AcademicDust894]

I have found the opposite. Just played eight hours straight IRL time for one sprain & I had to force the situation to test the new mechanic. As soon as the icon appears I back off the walking pace & slow down. Before The update I would of experienced far more sprains.

[Sunwolf]

I kind of agree with the OP.  I have extensive real-life experience traversing mountain slopes, some very steep, and have never sprained anything.  I'm not saying the mechanic shouldn't be there, but in TLD an increased risk risk seems to have turned into a guaranteed result.

I would suggest an off-low-medium-high option in the customize menu to fine-tune the sprain result the individual player is looking for.

Personally, I'm looking for an experience that goes like this:  I'm wandering around, exploring.  I'm a fit, relatively strong adult with no major health issues.  Yes, the slope I'm on is steep but I'm not too worried.  Most of the time I do just fine and complete my traverse of the slope without incident.  Rarely (as I would expect to see in real life), I would get a minor sprain.

As it stands now, what I'm seeing is: I'm wandering around, exploring.  I'm a fit, relatively strong adult with no major health issues.  OH CRAP, the slope I'm on is steep.  I'd better reverse course or I'm almost certain to injure myself if I continue.

Edited May 7, 2019 by Sunwolf

[Looper]

1 minute ago, Sunwolf said:

I kind of agree with the OP.  I have extensive real-life experience traversing mountain slopes, some very steep, and have never sprained anything.  I'm not saying the mechanic shouldn't be there, but in TLD an increased risk risk seems to have turned into a guaranteed result.

I would suggest an off-low-medium-high option in the customize menu to fine-tune the sprain result the individual player is looking for.

Have you tried putting 50 kg on you back including a bed roll, 40 sticks 15 pieces of coal and several long saplings. No.

It's a game. There has to be some punishment for goating encumbered. I rarely travel encumbered - almost never get sprains. The update almost exclusively made the game easier. Don't pick on every negative mechanic. 

[Sunwolf]

5 minutes ago, Looper said:

Have you tried putting 50 kg on you back including a bed roll, 40 sticks 15 pieces of coal and several long saplings. No.

No, but then I never move any distance in TLD while coming close to being encumbered.  I have, however, spent much of my time traversing said mountain slopes while wearing a moderately heavy backpack, perhaps 15-20kg, which is roughly what I carry in TLD when I'm moving any distance.

 

9 minutes ago, Looper said:

It's a game. There has to be some punishment for goating encumbered. I rarely travel encumbered - almost never get sprains. The update almost exclusively made the game easier. Don't pick on every negative mechanic. 

Thank you for pointing out that it's a game.  I otherwise never would have noticed.  Sure there has to be some punishment, but in my opinion (that's the key word here), the punishment for traversing a steep slope while UNencumbered is too predictable.  I'm not picking on every negative mechanic, just this one.  LTR.

[ManicManiac]

Not to worry folks, whenever anything new gets implemented there are bound to be adjustments, tweaks to mechanics, rebalancing, etc...
Raph already tweeted that they were looking into it.  Hang in there survivors, it's going to be okay.   

Edited May 7, 2019 by ManicManiac

[Ape88]

1 hour ago, Sunwolf said:

I kind of agree with the OP.  I have extensive real-life experience traversing mountain slopes, some very steep, and have never sprained anything.  I'm not saying the mechanic shouldn't be there, but in TLD an increased risk risk seems to have turned into a guaranteed result.

I would suggest an off-low-medium-high option in the customize menu to fine-tune the sprain result the individual player is looking for.

Personally, I'm looking for an experience that goes like this:  I'm wandering around, exploring.  I'm a fit, relatively strong adult with no major health issues.  Yes, the slope I'm on is steep but I'm not too worried.  Most of the time I do just fine and complete my traverse of the slope without incident.  Rarely (as I would expect to see in real life), I would get a minor sprain.

For a custom game maybe that would be a good idea. 

That being said, who is to say the in game characters are the same level of fitness. And IRL would you be traversing such steep slopes in snow? 

[UpUpAway95]

I'm not certain that this is working as intended even yet.  I just got a sprained wrist turning away from the bed after sleeping at Gray Mother's house on Pilgrim difficulty.  I only was 5kg overencumbered at the time.  I went back to bed immediately for 6 hours and the sprain  indicated it had healed, but the pain remained until I took two painkillers.

I also got a sprain a game day earlier entering Gray Mother's house... not on the hill but actually as I was just opening the door itself.  I was again slightly overencumbered (probably about 2 kg) and saw the yellow sprain caution; but these sprains are occurring on completely flat ground and with no red slope warning.

Edited May 7, 2019 by UpUpAway95
typo and added a forgotten detail

[Admin]

You might want to continue this discussion in the Update's thread instead.

 

[Sunwolf]

On 5/7/2019 at 12:58 PM, Ape88 said:

And IRL would you be traversing such steep slopes in snow? 

Actually, yes.  One of my favorite backpacking routes involves traversing hillsides, maybe 30-40% grades, for maybe 1.5-2 miles.  It's the first couple hours of the route and certainly the most difficult part.  I regularly do my winter backpacking, sometimes with snowshoes, sometimes without, on this route.

Edited May 10, 2019 by Sunwolf

[LkP]

2 hours ago, Sunwolf said:

Actually, yes.

Me too. I'm built like a 12y old and yet do mountain hiking for weeks carrying 20 to 25kg. Never had a sprain. In the snow, you may sprain your knee way more easily than your ankle, btw. I'm tired of this mechanism, I like to explore. I understand that doing crazy thing with the character must be balanced with injuries, but walking downhill in the snow is not a crazy thing if you have a little experience, it's actually fun (and if the characters have no experience at all, they can't carry 30 to 40kg, they can't walk all day long, just let them die :p).

[Sunwolf]

4 hours ago, LkP said:

Me too. I'm built like a 12y old and yet do mountain hiking for weeks carrying 20 to 25kg. Never had a sprain. In the snow, you may sprain your knee way more easily than your ankle, btw. I'm tired of this mechanism, I like to explore. I understand that doing crazy thing with the character must be balanced with injuries, but walking downhill in the snow is not a crazy thing if you have a little experience, it's actually fun (and if the characters have no experience at all, they can't carry 30 to 40kg, they can't walk all day long, just let them die :p).

Precisely.  When traversing slopes in snow, particularly when carrying any kind of load, the true risk factor comes with speed, not the mere act of the traverse.  If anything, sprain risk should be tied to sprinting on said slopes.

[Jolan]

I'm finding that I'm getting a lot more sprains then before, doing pretty much the same things as before the update.

[galadhlinn]

On 5/7/2019 at 10:39 AM, Looper said:

It's a game. There has to be some punishment for goating encumbered.

This is never a good rationale in my opinion.  To me it always comes across as, "We need to make it hard, and this is all we could think of."  Most (all) survivor games do this btw.  I'd be ok if things like dummy sprains were placeholders and then as the game is developed, they are refined with levels of sophistication and integration with other mechanics.  Immersion is always stated as a core value of survival games by devs but then through implementation, immersion is sacrificed repeatedly to make the game challenging.  I hope that some day devs will have the tools to create survivor games that are both challenging and realistic in a way that preserves immersion.  To the topic at hand, sprains should occur more frequently the first few weeks out, especially if you are in sneakers or dress shoes, but once you are in better shape, more adapted to the elements and have better gear (hiking boots), they should be very rare.  Like the op, with 40 years hiking and living in the wilderness, logging in the woods, building my home in the woods, I have never sprained an ankle even once.  I did, however, severely sprain my ankle when I was in Yosemite park on a hiking trip back in the 70s, but we were waiting for our wilderness permits to be issued to gain access to a specific area in the park.  I was skateboarding down a long mountain road at high speed and took a tumble.  I did the hike anyway, and my ankle turned black and swelled so much I could not lace the boot up all the way.  Had this been a real survival situation, I would have been in a serious situation.  I would like to see sprains be rare but truly debilitating.  You get one, and you had better have a place and supplies to hole up for 3-4 days.  Your travel/walking speed should be cut in half for a week, and continuing to walk with a sprain adds to the time of recovery and could increase the severity, so you have to make a calculated call and weigh risks of holding up versus pressing on.  There should be severity levels with level 1 being a limp and slower walking lasting three days, while level 3 means you have to drop all gear save a small amount of food and water, and you need to craft a crutch to help you get to a shelter.  Done wrong we have:  Great!  4th sprain in 45 minutes, this is ruining the game for me.  Done right, a sprain becomes part of your survival story:  Remember that time I sprained my ankle while hiking back down from the summit of TWM with all that gear?  I almost died!  

[Liofa]

23 hours ago, diggity said:

100% agree with this, way way less frequent but more severe.   This update (1.49) is seriously impacting my playstyle and thus enjoyment of the game.  Plus the contradictory strategy advice is placing us in a bind.  Avoid unnecessary fights with wolves! Except if going around them means climbing something even slightly steep.   What?  Don't like this, please fix.

Yes, even with the hotfix to the sprains system this week I am still seeing a lot of sprains. It's pretty much limiting me to only walking in the valleys, making the steeper terrain and hills off-limits. It's a shame, the maps are large and I'd like to use as much of them as I can. I think I'll wait until there's (hopefully) some more tuning to the new system before continuing with my run, it's just a pain (no pun intended) to have to carry lots of bandages and I'm running out of painkillers. 

I haven't looked to see if custom games have tuning for sprains, I'd probably tune it down by half if that's possible.

[UpUpAway95]

45 minutes ago, Liofa said:

Yes, even with the hotfix to the sprains system this week I am still seeing a lot of sprains. It's pretty much limiting me to only walking in the valleys, making the steeper terrain and hills off-limits. It's a shame, the maps are large and I'd like to use as much of them as I can. I think I'll wait until there's (hopefully) some more tuning to the new system before continuing with my run, it's just a pain (no pun intended) to have to carry lots of bandages and I'm running out of painkillers. 

I haven't looked to see if custom games have tuning for sprains, I'd probably tune it down by half if that's possible.

There is a custom setting to turn off sprains entirely, but it is only a yes or no option with no way to just lessen their frequency.

[Looper]

On 5/11/2019 at 4:03 PM, galadhlinn said:

Immersion is always stated as a core value of survival games by devs but then through implementation, immersion is sacrificed repeatedly to make the game challenging.  I hope that some day devs will have the tools to create survivor games that are both challenging and realistic in a way that preserves immersion. 

Yes I truly agree . On the brighter side 😉 - until then you can consolidate yourself with the fact that many game mechanics - that are very unrealistic - also works to your advantage😉. F.i.

• Water will never freeze in bottles outside - neither will meat (unless it's inside a carcass or a dead rabbit).  So cut it out and leave it on the ground to avoid freezing (and disappearence). But do not cook it until you need to eat it.
• You can live 1000 days on solely meat - every mans dream.
• Wolves can't touch you while using your mag. lense - unless they see you suck a it.
• You will become a masterchef if you cook very very tiny pieces - that's why gourmets cook tiny plates. Leveling up.

We accept this because - it's a ... an a damn good one ☺️ 

Cheers to all and no more of the infamous S-word! 😁

[Goodzilla]

I have the same problem with spraining's in the challenges. When I got 2 sprains in Hopeless Rescue before, now I have about 15 sraining's

[Muestereate]

I started off with Five times as many sprains, I've worked it down to three by tapping the walk button, take a few steps and pause,  feels a bit like catching your breath after a few steep steps, the wobble when I do this almost feels like I was grabbing the ground. Maybe this is the logic on wrist sprains instead of ankle sprains. The sprains can be killers though because when random hits its as if all the random hits at once. Occasionally it would be bad luck, but to sprain, sprain, sprain and then a wolf or two appears ruins it. Then the pistol misses at point blank, probably because I'm sprained but my complaint is so much happening at once and not just once in a while.

Even with the pistol to fend off the extra wolf attacks that this sprain system pushes you into, the long dark slams down the curtain all by itself. It's like those Bear or Moose attack, just let go of the keyboard and let it play through. If you are still alive a tsunami will cover the island shortly.