B42 is unnecessarily difficult.

I have 600 hours in PZ, most of which I played in custom sandbox mode with all default Apocalypse settings, only changing the day length to 3 hours, unlocking all clothing, and revealing the entire map.

I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty comfortable with this difficulty—not invincible, though. My average character lifespan ranged from a few months to half a year.

As you know, IS changed a lot of things. While I’m thoroughly enjoying the overall update, I find some aspects extremely unfair and overly difficult.

One of these is muscle strain and exhaustion, which don’t disappear unless you sit down somewhere. Muscle strain occurs way too early, and exhaustion is just plain frustrating. If you’ve ever done hard physical work or running in real life, you know that you can recover just by standing or walking at a normal pace. However, in the game, recovery is impossible unless you somehow lose the horde chasing you and manage to sit down in the middle of the woods.

What’s my point?

"Punishment" mechanics without corresponding "reward" mechanics kill a lot of the fun in the game.

How would I fix this?

To be honest, I think muscle strain mechanics aren’t necessary at all—exhaustion is enough. Moreover, exhaustion should decrease not only when you sit but also when standing or walking at a normal pace. On top of that, melee combat and high physical activity combined with good nutrition should significantly improve your Strength and Fitness over time.