suggestion Sprain improvements

[Ghurcb]

In the video about Steadfast Ranger update Raphael said that the pain affliction was added to remove the insta-heal nature of sprains. And while I believe it was a great improvement, I still think it failed to do the job. You can still insta-heal sprains, you just have to use a bandage as well as painkillers.

To remove the "sprained ankle/wrist" afflictions you have to use a bandage or sleep/wait for 4 hours. Replace this "or" with an "and" and you have successfully gotten rid of the insta-heal.

Of course, I know that the sprains are generally seen as annoying, and most players wouldn't want to have them buffed like this. That's why I propose some other changes. 

First off, even after you take the painkillers the survivor keeps grunting and whining. That shouldn't be the case. Taking painkillers should make your character shut up as the sprain doesn't hurt anymore. 

Second, while you would need to both use a bandage and rest to heal the sprain, bandaging it should still remove the wobbly screen effect. In order to run again, though, you'd need to heal the sprained ankle completely. And since, while abundant, cloth is a limited resource, sprains should still be healed on their own. Sprained wrist should heal after 24 hours, and sprained ankle will be back to normal after 12 hours of sleep.

And third, there should be a way to prevent sprains completely. Giving the player more agency will make these two afflictions way less annoying. What I propose is a "Light on feet" buff, that would make it impossible to get a sprain (unless you get attacked by a wolf or fall). You'd get this buff by using no more than 50% of your carry capacity. So in the beginning of the run it's 15 kg, and when you have all the carry capacity bonuses it's 22.5 kg. 

Do you like this idea? Or do you have some criticisms? Make sure to let me know in the replies. 

Edited August 25, 2022 by Ghurcb

[Leeanda]

Forgive me if I missed something but if you can't use weapons with a sprained wrist for 24hrs isn't that going to make it almost impossible to go anywhere safely?  Not being able to use the bow on loper could be a death sentence.

[Razum]

I like the idea, but still won't fit perfectly in my opinion.

Like Leeanda stated, you wouldn't be able to use weapons with sprained wrist for 24h. And you wouldn't be able to run for 12h, which would make it much more annoying than it is now.

My proposal to this: Make all of it more dynamic and less static.

• Sprained ankle should be cured after 12 hours (I'll just go with your proposal for the moment). At the start you can barely run at all, with time passing you can run faster and pain goes away. But: The affliction can reset by chance (just like you got the sprained ankle by chance). When you go on steep terrain, when you run and also when walking normally, it's possible with respective multipliers that you sprain your ankle again, since it's still weak. The chance decreases as time passes. You can decrease that chance happening by weighing less, wearing better shoes and not doing these activities (which also decrease the chance of sprained ankle in the first place). Best after a sprained ankle is to rest for an hour or so.
• Bandaging your foot makes it that the chance of respraining your ankle is massively reduced. You can also run and walk faster. But since realisticly you would'nt sprain your ankle in big boots, it becomes obsolete in these scenarios. I believe, it should be possible to bandage your foot preemptively, but for that some parts of the clothing menu would need to change just for that.
• Sprained Wrist should work similar. It's cured after 12 hours (I think 24 is a bit high) and it's effects vanish over time until cured. The effects are:
  • You can't or only weakly draw a bow, which means, arrows deal much less damage. Your aiming is bad (more shaking).
  • You can still use the rifle, but when shooting you will probably sprain your wrist again (and reset the affliction). Your aiming is bad.
  • Climbing is possible, but of course much more risky. Chance for slipping is way higher than normal.
• Sprained Wrist is much less severe in most situations, since you don't depend so much on both your hands than on you legs to walk. Chance for a reset isn't higher than the normal chance of a sprain, so it only resets when using a rifle or walking on steep terrain.
• Pain: The current system is pretty much trash. When taking pain killers, you stop pain everywhere, not in a specific spot. So here are my proposals:
  • The more pain there is (as a simple description) there more the screen blures. When spraining, the whole screen blures for a second. Dependant on the curing of the affliction, the blur decreases. When respraining the screen should blur much more then when the first sprain occurd, because you are much more sensible there. Spraining multiple times makes the blurring stronger and longer lasting every time.
  • Taking pain killers makes the blur go away for like 3 hours

[Ghurcb]

2 hours ago, Leeanda said:

Forgive me if I missed something but if you can't use weapons with a sprained wrist for 24hrs isn't that going to make it almost impossible to go anywhere safely?  Not being able to use the bow on loper could be a death sentence.

Well, that is only if you don't bandage it. Then it will be gone in 4 hours. Yeah, 24 hours feels like a lot, but it's 1) more realistic this way and 2) not necessarily bad. I mean, right now sprains are an annoyance, something that you get, curse, and fix immediately. Maybe making them more dangerous on one hand, but fully preventable on the other will benefit the game.

Just to clarify, if you bandage the sprained wrist, it will heal in 4 hours. If you don't it will heal in 24 (maybe 12 would be better, though).
If you bandage the sprained ankle, it will heal after 4 hours of sleep. If you don't it will heal after 12 hours of sleep.

[Leeanda]

Lack of cloth isn't that much of a problem I suppose, except maybe for lopers . Especially on the longer runs.  Even though it seems more realistic 4 hours without the bow could still be a major problem.   But I can see it working in the game..  

Personally I'd rather just take sprains off altogether. And I do on most of my runs.  Major annoyance.🙂

[Ghurcb]

On 8/25/2022 at 7:33 PM, Leeanda said:

Lack of cloth isn't that much of a problem I suppose, except maybe for lopers . Especially on the longer runs.  Even though it seems more realistic 4 hours without the bow could still be a major problem.

Even if there's still cloth on your map, it would make little sense to have the same sprain for weeks, just cause you haven't bandaged it. Sprains heal on their own in real life too.
As to the 4 hours without a bow still being a problem, well, that's the whole point. In my experience, whenever my character sprains something, I kinda had it coming. The game warns you and gives you a lot of time before you get a sprain. Four hours for recovery seems like a fair "punishment" to me. Right now you just heal the sprain immediately and shrug it off.

[Leeanda]

I'm not sure that living the long dark in real life would let a sprain heal by itself. Climbing would be incredibly dangerous and climbing up any slope to retrieve arrows or harvest carcasses would also pose a risk to an ankle sprain.  

I've had sprains in game that were brought on by being on the tiniest mounds of snow and the warning comes on just by standing on a step,so I really shouldn't have had it coming!🙂.   

But I get that it is kind of too easy to cure the problem .  

I'm wondering why we can't hold a weapon but we can read/sketch and clean/sharpen tools with one hand though.

[A Lamp]

11 minutes ago, Leeanda said:

I'm wondering why we can't hold a weapon but we can read/sketch and clean/sharpen tools with one hand though.

We still got a mouth and teeths, may not be the most efficient way of doing these tasks but i guess is the only option at this point?

[Leeanda]

Just now, A Lamp said:

We still got a mouth and teeths, may not be the most efficient way of doing these tasks but i guess is the only option at this point?

Possibly but I wouldn't hold a loaded gun with my teeth 🙂

[UTC-10]

The difference for revolver use might be that one can fire without aiming.  That was the intent behind the introduction of the revolver for fast reaction and a pain to everyone who wanted to keep it routinely equipped.  

There should be consequences to doing so and the extent and severity would be up to the devs to decide upon.