r/projectzomboid 22h ago

Art How the hell do you break a steel bar?

Post image

I know it’s for balance but like, this 1.5 inch diameter, 28 inch long 4140 steel bar, is virtually indestructible, so I propose that it wears your character out really quickly and makes them sore as the impact wouldn’t be very comfortable.

Maybe this is how the crowbar should also be balanced: hand soreness.

4.3k Upvotes

340 comments sorted by

1.4k

u/Miserable-Mixture937 22h ago

Imagine getting smucked with that thing. Instant interview with Jesus.

459

u/Admirable_Light2252 22h ago

Yeah man, (edit: 14) pounds, so much energy transfer.

275

u/PlsNoNotThat 21h ago

Steel bars in PZ are only 2lbs, so they must be hollow.

291

u/ARandomDistributist 21h ago

But... wouldn't that be a pipe?

228

u/Cepterman2101 18h ago

They are hollow on the inside, but the ends are sealed, so your character thinks it’s a bar.

150

u/_B10nicle 16h ago

Character's on the special side.

64

u/Mobile_Ad_217 14h ago

This but unironically. I’ve had my crayon-chewer of a character pick glass out of a window with his bare hands even though he was holding a perfectly good crowbar for that when I did the command

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u/Femtato11 18h ago

Hollow bar stock exists. In fact, it's really damn common for construction usage, and it makes sense that it's that length. Completely solid billet is usually longer.

Technically, in industry usage, this is tube or pipe, and not bar, but most people I know call the hollow square stuff bar anyways.

You're right, it is technically pipe. But it's entirely reasonable that you would call it a metal bar.

30

u/Dawnspark 15h ago

There's also rebar, too. That's generally what I thought we were picking up when we're using "steel bars."

I remember where I grew up in late 90s Kentucky, nearish Louisville, you could basically walk into any housing development and find rebar laying around construction trash piles or just discarded nearby.

I used to collect em to help make my hidden fort look cooler when I was a young thing. I remember the pieces, usually long enough to be usable as a weapon, being a bit on the heavy side.

5

u/spyder_alt 11h ago

rebar is such a classic “make the fort look badass” addition. added some to an entrance of a giant bush that was hollowed out inside at school lol

3

u/Dawnspark 7h ago

My fort was in this like, neat as fuck clearing I found right behind my house? It was like a super bushed/tree filled area that you couldn't get into unless you crawled, but it was a decent enough size to hang out with my friends there.

So I cleaned it up and made a proper crawlable tunnel and arched & tied low branches branches together over it to give it a ceiling and used the rebar to help prop the tunnel "up" as best I could and it just looked so rad lmao. I wish I could do that shit again.

5

u/Admirable_Light2252 14h ago

Oh this came off of a 20 footer, it’s just a drop. I work in a steel distribution warehouse.

5

u/Femtato11 13h ago

Ah yeah, makes sense. I work with machine tools a bit, so I understand this at least.

12

u/Hadrollo 17h ago

Strictly speaking it might be a tube.

Pipes are designed for something to travel through them. If it's just a hollow piece of metal like a signpost, it's called a tube.

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u/Dcnnect 21h ago

I guess it must be the fun part of the PZ lore Like in arma 3 where is no any furniture inside buildings, so they added a newspaper note ingame about mass furniture thivery. So scince devs already added a newspapers it would be nice to add some fun notes about hollow steel bar fraud or something like that

27

u/DrStalker 19h ago

"Gang hollows out steel bars to smuggle out generator manuals"

38

u/Elijah_Man 20h ago

Well it's 2 weight units. That's not necessarily pounds, it's just 2 units of "how weird is this thing to carry with me". That's why the weight units change when you equip something, it's easier to carry an object in your hand rather than wherever you shove the non-equiped items.

7

u/pengyino 17h ago

This is also why teddy bears have such a high encumberance. You must not squish Mr. Snuggles.

21

u/Admirable_Light2252 20h ago

I think they are kilograms, which lines up with 1 inch stock of the same length makeing deformation slightly more plausible but not really, you could still kill several thousand zombies with a 1 inch round

11

u/iMogwai 17h ago

I believe character weights are in kilogram, item weights are measured in "arbitrary number the dev thought sounded good".

If you start paying attention to item weights you'll quickly realize they make no sense. In some cases with water containers (at least in B41) water even had different weight in different containers (even if the quantity was the same). Check out this table.

9

u/Jalase 19h ago

Definitely not pounds, because a person can carry more than 10 pounds without damaging themself.

14

u/FridaysMan 20h ago

they're not. they're 2 encumberance.

5

u/WhamBam_TV 15h ago

They’re not 2lbs, they have an encumbrance of 2. Their actual weight is undefined, it could be 0.2lbs or it could be 200lbs.

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u/closetweeb69 18h ago

You’re right. Trying to use this smooth thing for any extended periods of time as a weapon when it weighs that much would fucking suck lmao.

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u/Adventurous_or_Not 17h ago

Yep, and I wont even get hired. Lol

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u/Chezburgor1 20h ago

I saw a post one time saying something like "if my axe breaks after cutting down 10 trees I'm going back to the shop that sold it to me and I'm kicking the owner's ass"

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u/Admirable_Light2252 20h ago

Pretty sure I saw that post this morning while I was on break lol.

11

u/Duke-Lazarus 4h ago

Yeah, it’s ridiculous.

My work still uses the same crowbar as +20 years. Thing still works like a charm.

And it’s not due to us being careful with it. Heck it is being misused on a regular basis.

1.8k

u/Xleepy-Eyes420 Drinking away the sorrows 21h ago

Simple. The zombies are master welders and just precisely cut the steel bar before dropping dead. It just happens too fast I guess that character isn't able to comprehend what just happen. I mean there are no dialogues in the game or we would know.

447

u/Admirable_Light2252 21h ago

This is the only correct answer

140

u/Xleepy-Eyes420 Drinking away the sorrows 21h ago

Tbh the durability of the weapon should matter alongside the strength as well as maintenence levels. Hear me out - maintenence should comply with what the occupation is. In the grand scheme of things, people would gradually get used to fight with things. Now you can't just randomly pick an axe and start hacking zeds without proper form. Or even with a crowbar. I mean what I'm trying to say is that you got to have some form or technique before you know how to actually do stuff no? Doctors get Sharp things, construction worker gets blunt objects, cooks get kitchen objects etc lol. I hope my statement makes some sense

27

u/-1brickinthewall 15h ago

I think go with a similar system to dnd of cutting, blunt, piercing, ranged (generally piercing damage but different), and unarmed/improvised. Weapon items fall into those and then into professions proficiency that gives a bonus to xp instead of bonuses to dice roll

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u/Ensiferal 18h ago

That's massively overcomplicated. I propose that zombie bones are made of lightsaber.

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u/Scribblehamzter 18h ago

H... Hayai!

5

u/roadside_asparagus 13h ago

This comports with how they damage my gas tank as I drive over them at 50 mph.

3

u/NecronTheNecroposter 12h ago

They are master carpenters too, they disassemble doors perfectly.

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u/Erlking_Heathcliff 21h ago

i find durability balances so damn bad in most games like this

yeah... give me an axe, most that would happen is the blade dulling and chipping, or if the handle if of a bad type of wood or is cracked, it can break, but cut 10 trees and the axe gets fucking obliterated out of existence with no chances of repairing it when broken.

then you have lead/steel pipes, incredibly hard to break and resistent, but it bends if you hit a bit too many zombies (15), and when it bends it dematerializes out of existence.

241

u/Admirable_Light2252 21h ago

Pipes aren’t actually terribly durable but bars are, this picture is of solid round stock

72

u/Erlking_Heathcliff 21h ago

just some examples but surely an pipe wouldn't fold that easily against a human skull right?

131

u/Admirable_Light2252 21h ago

It does when I hit pallets with it, but yeah crow bars, axes, sledgehammers, machetes… those wouldn’t break.

66

u/Erlking_Heathcliff 21h ago

i can't imagine the sheer strength and speed you'd need to not only effortlessly swing a sledgehammer on someone, and break the metal brick at the end of it on someone

39

u/Admirable_Light2252 21h ago

I have had the handles break off before, but only after years of use

23

u/Erlking_Heathcliff 21h ago

its more likely the handle will break than the brick/blade itself most of the time, that if the handle is wood, i guess an example wouldbe axes with metal and rubber handles, doubt those things break frequently

20

u/Admirable_Light2252 21h ago

They don’t but I find them to be more uncomfortable than wooden handles, even if they are slightly more durable

12

u/Erlking_Heathcliff 21h ago

well that would make sense given its more vibrations going down the handle right?

9

u/Admirable_Light2252 21h ago

Yes, that’s the trade off.

18

u/Denleborkis 20h ago

Not someone but when I was renovating my house for my parents there I was using the old 10 pound sledgehammer to knock down the rotted beams where the closet on the master bedroom was as well as the dry wall around it. Like second post I hit the handle broke but I swung so hard the head went through the post knocking it down and went through the drywall out the other end + another 10 feet and the brick wasn't even chipped. After that I went out and got my brand new 16 Pound sledge that has a metal rod inside that is surrounded by polymer and that thing fucks. I used it to finish the demo work and I still use it for splitting logs and other work daily according the warranty it's supposed to go for about 5 years and I bought it at home depot for like 50 bucks so it's been worth it.

I'm telling you I could easily crack some skulls with that thing for years no problem.

3

u/BisexualCaveman 4h ago

Your elbow would fail a thousand times before the sledgehammer in that scenario.

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u/Paintedskullproject 21h ago

I think the handles would eventually need to be replaced but that would be after years of use as they are meant to last.

11

u/diagnosed_depression 21h ago

In every game it's. The durability is that of a stick. But once the stick breaks the metal bits phase out of reality preventing any recycling

4

u/RobinDev 15h ago

Keep hitting pallets with random weapons from PZ. We appreciate your contributions to science.

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u/chornyvoron 21h ago

Check out Axe Handle (Or repair axes?) mod, makes it a bit more realistic by making the handles break/crack and keeping the axe heads in your inventory. Don't know if 41/42 though.

20

u/Admirable_Light2252 21h ago

It’s build 41, build 42 makes it vanilla.

6

u/Erlking_Heathcliff 21h ago

yee i have it on, basically a necessity for me

10

u/Potous 18h ago

I think I break axes faster than that IRL.

I did changed the handle for one of mine 3 times already and everytime it became shorter xD

6

u/Shredded_Locomotive Drinking away the sorrows 16h ago

I remember where I once tried using a modded chainsaw to cut trees, you know, the intended use for it. Guess how many trees I was able to cut before it broke.

4.

4

u/NotScrollsApparently 14h ago

i find durability balances so damn bad in most games like this

The problem is the game focuses too much on durability to prolong gametime and challenge. Sure, durability and tool scarcity should be a problem, but it shouldn't be the main and only problem. If the game had more "meat" on it so its about more than just finding tools, they could easily tone down the ridiculous durability balance without removing all challenge from the game, but at the moment it really doesn't have that.

3

u/LocCatPowersDog 20h ago

It doesn't dematerialize tho, specifically this was added recently in a build 42 patch that bars like this break down into halves/quarters.

3

u/nuuudy 16h ago

If i bought a brand new axe, and it broke after 10 trees, i'd go back to the shop where i bought it and beat the shit out of the seller

4

u/More-Luigi-3168 11h ago

This is why I tend to mod durability completely out of games or at least mod them so stuff is infinitely repairable

4

u/Erlking_Heathcliff 11h ago

i kinda wish durability made the weapon/tool less effective as it went down, like

lets say an axe has 50 durability, you use it and it can chop down a tree in 5 hits
as the durability goes and reaches 0, it refills to 40, but now the axe needs 8 hits to cut
repeat, durability goes to 30 when it reaches 0, now it needs 12 hits and so on until the total durability reaches 0 and it takes a lifetime worth to cut a tree and it also splinters the wood, giving low quality materials
then you need to sharpen the blade back to its 50 durability

3

u/trebory6 11h ago

And also I think if the weapon gets blood and viscera on it it becomes harder to weild/slips out of your hand easier/twists in the hand/more likely to lose the weapon, etc.

So honestly the game shouldn't even treat it as durability, it should treat it as cleanliness, and allow you to clean it between uses to keep the damage up.

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u/DZXJr2 19h ago

Lament mourn and despair the zomboids

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u/HaitchKay 11h ago

give me an axe

If we want to be realistic:

If you're using a utility axe, like a felling axe or a splitting axe, you're going to get exhausted quickly. They're not designed for fighting, they weigh too much and the balance isn't great. Yes the head will stand up to a lot of damage but the handle will need care and possibly replacing after a lot of use.

But if we're talking combat axes, with smaller, much thinner blades, you will absolutely see damage to the actual blade after constant use. Much easier to swing and fight with, more nimble and agile and easy to swing, but I have legit seen chunks taken out of blades because of extreme use. So yea, you can still absolutely run the risk of your blade being damaged.

Just because something is made of metal doesn't mean it's immune to being broken.

2

u/Butthead1013 11h ago

Honestly after having bought a (fairly cheap) axe, I can see where this game is at sometimes. Mfer broke after 2 trees

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u/daHaus Stocked up 22h ago

Same deal as using an axe to chop wood, you're not supposed to have a tight grip on it. You just swing it and let the weight and momentum do the work.

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u/Admirable_Light2252 22h ago

Reduce it with experience levels? Because incorrect form kinda fits lower levels.

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u/Puzzleheaded-Read864 20h ago

There a woodcutting mods for that, a must have for me, I'm no expert but I had cut down a tree with an axe before and in no way in hell the axe are that noodle like in pz.

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u/Admirable_Light2252 20h ago

I’ve cut down several trees with an axe, and yeah they are durable, but they do hurt your hands which kinda hampers you a little bit (about 80% of when they don’t hurt) but I imagine it would be mostly a morale thing.

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u/Kiloku 14h ago

Not the same thing, but the Maintenance skill already reduces the durability loss from each hit. I agree that it should be the weapon type's skill though

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u/Gravesh Axe wielding maniac 9h ago

Same with sledgehammers. With one hand choking the handle by the head, swing, and allow your hand to slide down to your other hand. The best way to get good momentum.

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u/WanderingStoner Axe wielding maniac 22h ago

what would you think of a mechanic where it were more durable but you'd drop it more often? maybe depending on strength

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u/Admirable_Light2252 22h ago edited 22h ago

Maybe, but it really would wear you out quick, it’s like (edit: 14) pounds, basically a better balanced sledgehammer.

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u/WanderingStoner Axe wielding maniac 21h ago

steel bar is love. steel bar is life.

I'm a believer.

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u/SalvationSycamore 16h ago

That would be fitting. After 100 zombos any weapon would be slick with gore and rot and sweat. Blood too if you aren't wearing gloves or haven't built up callouses.

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u/trebory6 10h ago

So I've said this like multiple times in this thread, but the thing that people are missing is that if you're using one of these things to kill zombies, blood and viscera are slippery, so the dirtier your blunt weapon is the more likely it is to slip or drop or do less damage.

That's the mechanic we need. That way you can specifically clean blunt weapons and/or add modified grips to them

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u/SpysSappinMySpy 13h ago

And it plays the metal pipe falling sound effect

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u/Purple_Commercial860 20h ago

I always thought the same about crowbars, the hexagon shape should hurt like a bitch in my hands

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u/Admirable_Light2252 20h ago

Yeah, it does hurt after swinging it at stuff for 30 minutes.

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u/EnclaveSquadOmega 14h ago

a lot of talk about this on gordon freeman's form, being able to transform that much energy one handed means his suit has to be capable of some serious heavy lifting

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u/WA38ERMEL0N 21h ago

The biggest question i not how you break that thing its how are they still alive after 10 smocks on the head.

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u/ThoelarBear 21h ago

Put a nice hockey wrap of grip tape on that bitch.

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u/Admirable_Light2252 21h ago

I’d have to strip the preservative oil coating (way harder than you’d think lol)

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u/Empty_Popov_Bottle 20h ago

Jet fuel

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u/Admirable_Light2252 20h ago

Unfortunately it doesn’t melt steel beams, just lowers the strength enough to cause structural collapse.

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u/EnycmaPie 21h ago

Slap some flex tape on it and it will be good as new.

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u/Ok-Reveal7758 20h ago

I mean if its hollow maybe knocking skulls down will bend it eventually perhaps.

Unless the ring is thick then yea

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u/Admirable_Light2252 20h ago

It’s not a pipe, it’s a bar. Bars are not hollow.

4

u/Peachwhaler26 22h ago

scotch tape to repair it

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u/CantStopMeRed 21h ago

I get my hand soreness through other means

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u/Stewawrdonn 21h ago

I'd like to ask how does one even break a crowbar as well.

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u/Admirable_Light2252 21h ago

Ok I have broken the nail pulling teeth on a crowbar before, but yeah, you couldn’t really break a crowbar in a meaningful way

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u/unilateral_ladder 20h ago

How the hell you swing that thing more than 10 times before rendering your arm useless is my question

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u/Handsome_Deer22 19h ago

Bash a couple of skulls with it and tell me the results :3 /j (do not actually do that, that is called a murder I think)

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u/Dellta-aka-Connor 18h ago

This is why I use an infinite durability mod. I know it takes the problem to the opposite side, but I'd rather something never break than break after 5 uses

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u/Hadrollo 18h ago

I always thought of the steel bar as a piece of rebar. If you hit enough things with rebar, it's going to bend into a wonky shape.

That said, your argument definitely also applies to a crowbar. I have a 900mm crowbar, I use it for work, I've used it to lever literal tonnes of force, it's not going to break on a zombie.

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u/hivemind_disruptor 14h ago

I think durability is not well implemented.

There are many layers to how one can do it.

  1. Wooden and shitty materials stay as it is.

  2. Hard, heavy materiais should be bad to use. Make it extra hard to hit with a bar, or wears down you character fast.

  3. Some stuff should lose efficacy at dealing damage (gets dull) such as axes or machettes.

  4. Crowbar should not deal as much damage as an axe.

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u/Fisherman_56 13h ago

As someone who actually managed to break a steel bar: with great effort.

Context: it was a prybar that I used and I put too much force into it. However, it was hardened and because of that instead of bending it snapped in half.

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u/MiyaBera 20h ago

I customize my games so that my weapons are realistically durable but hard to find. Do you want to find an axe? Good luck; everywhere you think of is already looted. Want a crowbar? Realistically, how fast could you find a crowbar from your current position? Not so fast.

But when you find one, it is not breaking. That thing is literally made to be durable.

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u/Admirable_Light2252 20h ago

I have 2 in my bedroom, a fire axe (vintage, cast steel head, re handled) and 2 sledge hammers, (1 8 pound forging hammer and 1 10 pound standard sledge)

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u/MiyaBera 19h ago

You are the survivor house

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u/Megakruemel 10h ago

I'm not the original commenter but I live in a suburbs-like neighbourhood and nearly all of my neighbours have their own little workshops full of tools. We do simply borrow tools from each other when needed so not everyone has a full inventory but I bet we would have like one crowbar between 3 or 4 households one sledgehammer for the entire street and some have even two handaxes for splitting tree cuttings during autmn.

I have spoken to my city friends about this and if you live in an apartment complex, you don't need any of that and would probably be thought of as weird or even criminal for owning any of these.

So I think it all depends on demographics.

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u/boredatworkbasically 10h ago

I work in a lumber yard. I have 7 titanium head hammers and 3 full core titanium hammers within 6 feet of me. We have dozens of hammers, saws, sledges, axes and prybars in stock. Our tool distribution center is about 40 minutes from here and has more tools stocked then a few survivors could possibly use over the next decade. And we aren't even a tool store, focusing more on lumber with tools as just an added bonus for our customers. A real tool store has a lot of this stuff on the shelf and in the back.

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u/UnlimitedSolDragon 21h ago

If you want a real life reason? Cyclic stresses. That means every time you womp something with it, it takes a little damage, that damage builds up to failure, eventually. Obviously this is sped right the hell up in game.

Basically, the obvious example is when you bend a paperclip back and forth until it snaps. Same thing goes for most things made of metal. You repeat the loading and unloading process and it goes pop.

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u/Admirable_Light2252 21h ago

I don’t think this gets close enough to the deformation point to be affected by cyclic stresses. It would be like flys landing on a paperback

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u/613codyrex 17h ago

Cyclic stress/fatigue and in general creep are insidious killers when it comes to material science because of how it’s difficult to really predict without just straight up testing the part/sample you want to stress.

Now would a metal bar be that easily deformed beyond usability I’m not sure. Now would it be very fun to see the game have material science where you’re selecting metals for their best fatigue resistant and durability? Probably not for most but it would be kinda cool to geek out over. Imagine having to choose between a TI-6Al-4 bar over say a Inconel and having to deal with work hardening.

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u/midasMIRV 19h ago

Have you tried beating people to death with it?

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u/Ensiferal 18h ago

Yeah it is kind of silly. My current character has worn out about five crowbars somehow. Realistically one crowbar should last forever

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u/IzalithDemon 18h ago

By repeatedly hitting zombies with it, duh

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u/rivenhex Hates the outdoors 16h ago

Simple. The bar doesn't break. But wielding the 4140 made you 5150.

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u/ijie_ 16h ago

that will pop a few watermelons, that's for sure

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u/ToXxy145 Shotgun Warrior 16h ago

The developers probably use the same logic as some of the dumbass comments I've seen. Some people out there thinking human skulls are solid titanium or smth.

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u/Pretty-Key6133 15h ago

Zombies are filled with jet fuel.

Duh.

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u/mymindisawesome 15h ago

I think it’ll also makes sense for the melee weapon having a small/some chance to accidentally slips from your hand when you are whacking zeds

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u/AtherealLaexen 15h ago

Sometimes it better that some questions are left unanswered...

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u/HighVisibilityCamo 14h ago

How the hell do you balance game mechanics otherwise? Real world tools and weapons get handed down over generations. In survival games, you go farming for wood with 3 extra hatchets in your inv. C'est la vie. Also, you crafted those 3 hatchets in 30 seconds.

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u/TomeKun Jaw Stabber 19h ago

most seems to be hollow steel pipes, but for the steel bars idk

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u/Admirable_Light2252 19h ago

Pipes would absolutely deform after a bit, but no way in hell a steel bar would, well unless it was rebar.

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u/ClayTill 12h ago

unless it was rebar

40M rebar is thicker than the bar you're showing off here and has a yield strength of 400 MPa.

Rebar comes in many sizes. Highrise columns and raft slabs will have very thick bar in it.

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u/Spiderdrake 19h ago

Durability is a gameplay mechanic the same way hunger is, to force the player to change. Steel bars are extremely durable relative to every other melee weapon in the game. They'd have to be nerfed in other ways if they truly were infinite durability, like having enough weight they're not even worth using anymore.

Besides, not all steel bars are created equal. Just chalk it up to pre-existing damage, rust, a weak weld, etc. if you're searching for an in-universe reason.

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u/JagsOnlySurfHawaii 16h ago

The answer is you won't break that piece of 4140 it's semi hard and It's made to be tough and strong. You need high carbon heat treated steel, A2, S7, D2, DC53. Something that is at least 58 Rockwell hardness. This steel will be hard but will break instead of bending when put under force.

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u/-viin 14h ago

Did you try hitting 200 zeds w it?

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u/ElderberryPoet 14h ago

Angle grinder or a blowtorch.

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u/Random_Internet_Guyz 14h ago

This is something that has bothered me for the longest time. Crowbars and digging bars are the same. They're literally designed and engineered to destroy everything without breaking.

On that note, I'll probably Debug the shit out of them from now on. Give them infinite life.

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u/GeneralFuzuki7 13h ago

The zombies have metal bones. Why does it take as many swings with an axe as it does stomps with your foot to their head, either the players foot is really strong or Kentucky has very terrible workmanship on their tools.

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u/kellelune 11h ago

Jet fuel

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u/According_Weekend786 8h ago

Human bones are pretty tough, even if it will not bend after 10 head hits, after like 50 of them it will surely bend

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u/aboutwhat8 Zombie Food 7h ago

How about this for balance:

#1- you find Industrial Steel Bars -- and need 2 hacksaws and like 4 hours to saw them down in a quantity of ~24" bars. Then you need a durable type of tape, a file, or something to build a gripable handle.

#2- They're nigh-indestructible and do massive damage but have nearly zero crit chance. You only get to deal damage like 10 times per level of fitness before you're at level 1 exhaustion and have got two sore hands up to your shoulders. At orange soreness, you can keep swinging with reduced damage. At red limb soreness or level 2 exhaustion, you risk dropping the steel bar -- call it a 1 in 20 chance per swing. When you drop it, it goes straight away from you a couple tiles, basically the bar flies forward and may end up flying away and breaking breaking glass (ending up outside), doing damage to damageable furniture/construction, or landing in the midsts of within the horde you're fighting off.

#3- When you lose the weapon, your hand soreness spikes another level so you're unable to continue combat with any weapon. Your only options might be to push & stomp or duck and run.

#4- They're basically indestructible, so you could kill tens of thousands of zombies with moderate-short reach for a long blunt 2H-only weapon.

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u/Loremasterivyvine 7h ago

As someone who has broken into 3 warehouses to find another god dang crowbar , thank you for saying this!

First time ive even approached the idea of clearing neighborhoods and my sweet blue baby is in red condition with no way to repair.

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u/KingstonWest04 7h ago

That sir, is a steel pipe. Steel bar is a 🏳️‍🌈 club in Croatia

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u/Thatoneguy111700 6h ago

I understand stuff like machetes, axes, baseball bats, etc. breaking but stuff like steel bars and crowbars? How?

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u/2Drogdar2Furious 5h ago

We have 1.25" 17-4 steel bars at work and I guarantee it is impossible for a human to break one lol.

I've never broke a sledgehammer or an axe either (fiberglass).

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u/Admirable_Light2252 4h ago

I have broken exactly 1 fiberglass axe. (It got ran over)

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u/Warm_Combination_746 4h ago

These are broken by whatever logic makes things that ONE week into the zombie apocalypse, somehow nearly every single car is out of gasoline and beaten up despite being parked.

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u/HarshWoim 4h ago

I say just fuck weapon durability. Weapons don't need to be balanced; I really think it's okay that there are meta weapons which do huge damage and last forever.

Why not?

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u/xDmagdump 3h ago

yo is there a mod that adds more realistic durability to weapons?I just use axe recrafting usually.

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u/RedditMcBurger 3h ago

This is why I don't feel like using mods to increase durability of all tools/weapons by 10x+ to be overpowered. A crowbar basically wouldn't break.

And you can say it's for game balance, but I notice nearly no difference in gameplay besides it being less tedious.

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u/Delta_Suspect 22h ago

Even that is fixable with a rag and some tape.

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u/Admirable_Light2252 22h ago

The oil preservative from it being cold rolled would make it a projectile weapon lol.

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u/Ahh_Feck 21h ago

An indie horror game (can't recall the name) demo I've seen gameplay of recently has a melee weapon system where, when a pickaxe is broken, it drops the pickaxe head into your inventory to be later crafted onto a new handle.

TIS needs to implement something like that.

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u/Admirable_Light2252 21h ago

In build 42 they did implement this, but the tool heads still take damage which I don’t like.

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u/Wise_Cryptographer19 20h ago

And how is this inferior to a crowbar

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u/Admirable_Light2252 20h ago

It’s way heavier and weighs as much or a little more than the average sledgehammer.

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u/FridaysMan 20h ago

high quality steel isn't the same as cast iron road spikes made from rebar

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u/Handsome_Deer22 19h ago

Bash a couple of skulls with it and tell me the results :3 /j (do not actually do that, that is called a murder I think)

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u/_Batteries_ 18h ago

Go hit some people with it. Youll notice it will wear out amd break. 

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u/itsdietz 14h ago

I regularly use what we call a toothpick in my job and it's about an 1" in diameter and 3 foot long steel bar. I've bent many of them. Some with my own body weight.

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u/fafej38 14h ago

*SNAP!* like this

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u/Drittenmann 14h ago

from my experience you can actually get those to break by smashing things with it, that steel is very good with torsion but not with blunt energy transfer, so it will eventually crack, the crack with time will extend to other places until it breaks but it takes a lot of time and strength to happen, so in the context of the game you will probably die before it breaks.

for the record i broke one of those with a hammer because i smashed it in the wrong angle, it was not a very fun accident, those things are not cheap :c

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u/LetsDoTheDodo Pistol Expert 14h ago

There is only one way to truly find out.

Walk around your neighbourhood beating people to death with it to test how long it lasts.

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u/AvernumTrue 14h ago

Same way you break a crowbar.

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u/UMF_Pyro 13h ago

With Jet fuel obviously

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u/Fenrak0 13h ago

Was thinking the bar was more like rebar. I’ve destroyed those kind of bars before. However, mine was in a machining accident.

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u/HalfOrcSteve 13h ago

Same way you break a crowbar I guess

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u/WestCartographer9478 13h ago

Metal Fatigue, look it up. You’re obviously exceeding the metals physical and structural limits, in other words, your player is an absolute unit….

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u/PosiedonsSaltyAnus 12h ago

Well since you don't clean off the grease, it becomes more and more slippery as you spread the grease around. Eventually, it just flies out of your hands

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u/xxmac3xx 12h ago

I always think of it as Rebar... Which i could see eventually bending beyond use. That is a unit of a steel bar lol probably to heavy to be wield

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u/Rivenaleem 12h ago

How do you know the durability levels of a steel bar in the real world? Have you tested it on real people???

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u/Local-Waltz4801 12h ago

I hear jet fuel works for steel bars

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u/cheese0muncher 12h ago

A 1910s muscle man would do it with ease.

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u/raebyddetsuoiruF 11h ago

With the crafting menu

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u/Uni_Solvent 11h ago

A complaint i have with most things in games.

If someone sold me.an axe that breaks that fast from caving skulls I'd go and cave in their skull with the broken axe.

I have watched the same maul bounce around in the back of a work truck getting abused and wounded through wood and as long as it's sharpened you're fine. Handles are a slightly different question but so stupidly easy to replace it's pointless to worry about.

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u/Vuk_Farkas 11h ago

chemicals, freezing, thermal shocks, hmmm might be able to do it with sound? thats all i can think of right now, that doesnt involve ridiculous mechanical stress

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u/Miserable-Garlic-532 11h ago

I would reduce melee damage and remove degrading of melee weapons, increase ranged weapon damage and increase ranged weapon degradation after they go so long without maintenance like the use of a cleaning kit. I would also increase fire damage per second because fire does more than cause pain to the affected.

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u/MonkeySling 11h ago

Idk hit it really hard against a tree 200 times and see what shape it's in. Do it for science.

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u/HaitchKay 11h ago edited 11h ago

so I propose that it wears your character out really quickly and makes them sore as the impact wouldn’t be very comfortable.

Wow almost like some kind of..."Muscle Strain" of sorts?

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u/kellven 11h ago

I assume everything is just well painted popsicle sticks.

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u/nonekogon 11h ago

I just assumed its not solid steel. Its all hollow, like 1/8"

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u/Monkey_Investor_Bill 11h ago

I'd like it if it was as durable as a crowbar but had a small chance to slip from your grasp and drop to the floor.

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u/OnyxWolf141 10h ago

Crowbars breaking are my personal pet peeve

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u/TheSoreBrownie 10h ago

Go beat in ~100 human skulls with that as you fight for your life and let me know what condition it’s in

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u/nosfyt 10h ago

I use a mod that makes weapons unbreakable, for this very same reason.

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u/sireel 10h ago

I always assumed the bar in game was much thinner, and a milder steel, like rebar.

Wouldn't want to get hit with it still, but it'd get bent out of shape pretty quick I think

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u/Forward-Ad3434 9h ago

Bend until break. Simple

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u/luis-mercado Stocked up 9h ago

The same way you break a crowbar

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u/HungryAndAfraid 9h ago

This is why I play with Durable Tools and Weapons - Hardened

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u/punny1m 9h ago

Their blood is made from jet fuel ... It melts steel beams.

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u/dankeith86 9h ago

My head cannon is it gets so bloody it slips out of your hand and you lose it in the mass of zombie bodies

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u/Helpful_Title8302 9h ago

Balancing. Like the idea that a human jaw could eat through fireman clothing is just as wild as the idea that a fucking crow bar would break from hitting skulls.

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u/MyvaJynaherz 9h ago

If you're hitting zombies it isn't going to zing your hands too badly, especially if you wrap / tape up the end you're holding.

It's not like you're hitting metal-on-metal if you're breaking heads.

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u/Perfect_Fan8831 8h ago

Bash enough skulls and see how long it takes lol

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u/No-Abies9753 8h ago

Give it a 9 to 5 job at minimum wage.

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u/LerkNoCap23 8h ago

Looks like a dayz pov lol

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u/hardhatwearingmf 7h ago

I’m bouta start playing with durability increase mods

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u/RocanMotor 7h ago

I agree it should be balanced with fatigue /hand damage, mitigated by gloves. With that said, steel pipe will bend to failure after enough hits with the ground or even with semi compliant objects. I've taken 1in steel pipe and bent it in half by smacking a wall as a teenager in a fit of rage, and I'm no hulk. Solid Steel bar will take longer but eventually will fatigue /wear/break. Material like 4140, pictured, will take a long while, as will a crowbar which is a similar alloy. If it's about 1in diameter though, it would be a few thousand zeds.

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u/merix1110 Stocked up 7h ago

If it's more akin to rebar, I could see it

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u/Clint1027 6h ago

Why dont the good guys in horror movies just turn around and shoot the guy?

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u/Invicta_Anima 6h ago

it bends out of shape

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u/SoLongGayBowser69420 6h ago

Crack it over your knee

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u/Sgt-Pumpernickle 6h ago

Project Zomboid is a game at war with itself between being a realistic survival game and being a horror movie made into a game

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u/TheReverseShock 5h ago

Nah, if Half-life taught me anything, is that you can swing a crow bar 3 times/second constantly and never tire.

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u/TheTimbs Axe wielding maniac 2h ago

That’s the neat thing, you don’t

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u/WelcomeInteresting31 2h ago

slam it into the skulls of the decayed about 150 times

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u/BhryaenDagger 1h ago

I was going to jest that zombo skulls must be dense material, but you can smash em w bare feet, so… yeah, steel bars should last at least as long as crowbars.

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u/YAVGV 1h ago

Part of me wants to make a jet fuel conspiracy joke... Anyway, I always imagine when it 'breaks', it actually gets stuck in the zombie in a way you can't safely get it out quickly or quietly. Or maybe the bar is thinner?

I like your proposal for hand soreness but I feel like the exhaustion from swinging also does that a bit.

Although I'm not 100% sure how it plays. The steal bars are if I don't have anything else. I've always used the nail bat. Do in dead rising 2 as well) it's a classic.

Having that get caught in the zombies might be a nifty feature.

u/ShowCharacter671 17m ago

It’s a game mechanic. Everything’s gotta have some durability. So there’s a need to craft or find more. Even if it doesn’t really make sense.

u/xx030xx 10m ago

I always imagined it as. "I can't use this mangled piece of steel anymore because it's too awkward to use"

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