Nicko2580

Okay so no one has ever really argued that in the hands of a highly skilled martial artist, a Katana would not be lethal. Assuming they can care for it correctly after the apocalypse, great. It's unlikely that they'll be able to, but great. In anyone else's hands, including I suspect the people arguing for it in this thread, they'd likely have their own arm off before killing a single zombie. In terms of general effectiveness - a hammer wins hands down. You don't need any training to use a hammer. You hit things with it and they die and thats the end of the game. They require no maintenance. They're useful for things other than killing. They don't get stuck inside dead things (unless it's a maul and you happen to use the pick side). They don't go blunt. The larger they get the more effective they become, but even a tiny one can impart lethal force on a human skull. There is just no contest.

It's been fun though. Sorry for hijacking your thread. What's your melee weapon of choice in a zombie apocalypse? :P Edit: OH wait! it's a fire extinguisher! :p

Ooh touchy. Move along son. It's your choice to get shitty because I'm responding. If you don't like it, don't involve yourself.

No. That's what you're assuming, but that's not what's true. I might be a bit slower than a Katana, but I am by no means as slow as you are thinking. And I don't even need to put full power or full extension into a swing to do enough damage to kill instantly.

Again, this discussion isn't about me and you. You keep making it that but I've never once said that I'd beat you personally with my hammer. Of course, if you're not actually trained in using that weapon I would put you in the ground faster than you can blink because I use mine a lot. If you are, then fine you'd win. And I am hoping (and betting) that they eventually make DayZ zombies headshot kills only, like they should be and like all classic zombies are.

Offset by the fact that I won't need to fight as long because every blow from my hammer either cracks a bone in a zombie and puts it on the ground or kills it outright. Whereas a person wielding a katana needs to either penetrate the head (and then pull the blade out) or cut precisely through the neck with every single stroke and not mess up and get the blade caught once.

Not true. First of all, you're acting as if the Katana is the be all and end all of medieval warfare - it's not. My hammer is not a full sized sledge. It is a 10 pound sledge, roughly a meter long which makes it longer than your Katana (36" average length = 91cm). I can swing ten pounds all day. I do when I'm working on fences and stuff. Assuming all other things are equal (food and such), I can crush skulls all month and if you think I can't swing it wide and hit multiple things you're very wrong. Plus as I mentioned the haft is steel which means that the whole thing becomes a weapon. I can jab with the haft, both with the butt end and holding it horizontally. I can block with it. Each weapon does the job it's meant to do. Katana's are not the best melee weapons on the planet and neither are mauls/hammers. However in a situation like a zombie apocalypse, my hammer is going to outlast your katana by miles. I have no maintenance. I have no worry about it blunting or getting stuck half way through a zombies neck so I can't pull it out if I don't swing it correctly. I have no worry about getting it stuck in a ribcage or any other body part. As for 'all cultures inventing swords' - all cultures invented maces, mauls and flails too because again - it does the job it's meant to do. There is no 'best'. There's only the best in a given situation and I contend that with zombies, my hammer beats your katana hands down every time.

Zombies are creepier in this game, I think it's the sound effects they make. Less groaning and moaning and more gibbering and yipping and yowling like an animal. I can't wait until they're all over the place and hard as hell. I want to actually have to consider them when I'm running around the place.

Afraid I'll take all ya stuff? You don't have to be so paranoid all the time Wheunis! :p Maybe I'll bring you some better stuff. ;) Can't we all just get along? :p But nah, I get it. I don't care whether you KoS or not. You saw my post earlier in this thread. It's part of what makes DayZ great at the moment. Just pointing out that a lot of people pretend they're doing it to survive, when it's actually counter productive to survival. Eventually there'll be too many zombies for one dude in his nest to handle alone.

Yes, I know how Katana's are used. They use a drawing style cut that relies on the curvature of the blade to do the damage. The stroke is fairly short, but devastating. The reason blades are curved is because you get more cutting edge for the same amount of material. Perfect for slashing open leather armour, as I said. As opposed to a longsword or broadsword which uses a long, chop style cut that relies on brute strength and the mass of the weapon drive the cutting edge. A much longer reach, but slower and requiring more strength to use. As for what's more lethal, a katana or a hammer? Either one will kill you in one stroke, so I'd say the lethality is about the same. My hammer has a solid steel haft as well, so the whole thing is a weapon. A certain level of care doesn't begin to cover what you need to do to keep a Katana sharp enough to continue to make clean cuts through limbs. Rather than fight you, we'll go for a week killing zombies after the apocalypse (because that's what this discussion is about) and meet up at the end. I'm certain that you will have a rather ineffective bar of blunted metal, whereas I'll still have a hammer.

I know a guy who forges katana's for a living as well as many other types of medieval weapon. Proper Katana's, like yours. Samurai's didn't 'sword fight' like you see in the movies. Sure a few clashes of blades here and there, but fights were over quickly and blades had to be cared for exceptionally well after each fight otherwise they will dull. They need to be oiled and aired and stored curve downwards. Even not storing them correctly will result in them rusting or going brittle or losing their edge. Not ideal for a zombie invasion. Try taking your Katana and holding it upright in your hands. Now imagine another katana slashing horizontally across it. It WILL break or crack, there's nothing you can do about it. That is why they did not sword fight like in the movies. It's just not how it was done. For that type of fighting you need something like a longsword, which has much more mass and can take a few hits with only a chip or two coming out of the blade.

Meh, I'm big enough to swing my hammer around pretty quick and a sharp jab to the face from the handle if you get too close will put you back into skull bustin' range. :p And even a 'proper' samurai sword from Japan is not made for sword fighting. It's not made for swinging around like the movies and cutting through things, especially bone. It's made for quick, slashing surface cuts and stabbing thrusts and penetrating leather armour which was what was mostly worn in those days. After cutting through a few necks, your Katana will be blunter than a butter knife. Fine for stabbing lots of humans, but not great for needing to take off heaps of zombie heads. What you want there is a large axe, as long as you have something to keep it sharp handy.

A samurai sword isn't that good a weapon to take into a zombie apocalypse to be honest. 99% of the swords today would break after the first head. A machete would probable be an even better choice because they're designed to cut through thick branches etc. Katana's were never designed for swordfighting like you see in the movies. They were designed for a quick thrust and a sharp cut across the torso, arms or throat. I'd prefer the large hammer I have in my shed any day of the week. One solid blow to the head and it's goodnight, no matter who or what you are.

No, I won't convince you of that, because in that case you're just being a douche. You're not doing it for survival, as I said. What you could do though and what would benefit your survival directly, is let me have the beans, bring me back to your base and help me out a bit. If you did that I would be falling over myself to do something to help you in return, like maybe go on a run for you for supplies. Or do the dangerous legwork while you watch through your scope in order to pay you back for the help. That directly benefits you. Taking my beans does not. As I said before - don't try and pretend you're doing it to survive. You're not. You're doing it because you like killing people and taking their stuff. That's fine. Don't get me wrong. Kill me and take my beans. I have no problem with that at all. But just admit that's what you're doing. Don't try and be sanctimonious about it and pretend it's all for your survival. And also I don't really care about my gear. It's a game. I can get new gear. I care about having fun playing a survival game, just like you. It's just that our methods of fun are different. You like to kill everything in sight and I like to work with others to survive. You're Merle and I'm Rick.

Yeah. Personally I'd like to see most melee weapons being pretty effective, especially blunt, heavy weapons. Bladed weapons and knives are actually pretty hard to kill people with in real life (but obviously the best to cause bleeding effects). It's far easier to bash someone's head in with a rock than it is to stab them to death in most cases or unless you really know what you're doing. If you don't have some kind of head protection, getting bashed in the head with a fire extinguisher from above as you run up stairs (thus multiplying the force) is going to result in unconsciousness or death nearly every time.

So I played my first game of DayZ yesterday and this is how it went (everyone should note that I just jumped straight in, without reading any guides or even checking the keybindings): I spawned somewhere along the coast and moved towards a nearby house, hoping to find some supplies. Almost instantly I hear a zombie, turn around and he's right there. I spend the next few minutes running around screaming like a girl, getting chased by this Zed because I couldn't figure out how to raise my fists and defend myself. Out of nowhere another survivor rocks up and I stand there like a twerp while said survivor saves me by punching the zed's head in. Then we high fived, which had both me and my fiancee in stitches. I still haven't said a word to this guy because I had no idea how. He nicknamed me Mr Greenshirt. He told me to follow so I did and we headed up the coast a bit while he talked about us forming 'The Union of Man' and a 'Fight Club' (but I'm not supposed to talk about that). We chased other survivors but they all ran away from us. :( They wanted no part of the Union of Man. Then finally I worked out how to type and he helped me out with the controls and VOIP just as another zed showed up. We beat it down, but the survivor died (I think he wanted to die though... very strange). He kept asking me to punch him before the zed showed up. If you're reading this dude, thanks for the shirt. It made good bandages. After that I wandered inland a bit, bleeding, until I finally figured out that I could tear up the shirt and bandage myself. I think I was pretty wrecked though because my screen was grey and blurry. Then I licked a battery... you know... because that's what you do in that situation. Then I walked into a building and got eaten. Fun times. Can't wait until I get home from work to play some more!

No. No I didn't. You must have misread. *eyes Pvt_Larry pointedly*

You got broken legs mate. Either find some morphine or get someone to kill you.

I didn't realise you could keep going from green to lime green. I just hit the green energized and hydrated statuses and left it at that. Thanks for the tip.

Man I was so hoping you would cave his skull in with that fire extinguisher. What an exceptional douchenozzle.

No it's not. Two heads are always better than one. Two people working together will always survive better than one. That's why societies exist on the scale they do today. If you like shooting people for the pure pleasure of shooting people, that's fine but don't pretend it's because everyone is a threat to your survival. I'm not. Chances are if I've got anything on me you need, you can have it or I'll trade you something for it. Chances are that if you need something that I don't have, I'll be willing to help you find it and watch your back while we both search for it. It's not as black and white as - you exist thus you are a threat.

Did you adjust your 'fat' slider to the fitter side? If you don't adjust your fat slider, you'll have to spend a fair bit of time walking until your guy is fit. ;)

I'm pretty much a noob and the only way I'll shoot you on sight is if you surprise me and I panic, or if I have the drop on you and tell you to put your hands up and you reach for your weapon. Even if you bolt I won't shoot you, as long as you don't try anything funny and are just running away. If you're a nice guy and respond and don't get offended when I point my weapon at you for a few minutes until I can establish some trust, then we'll get along fine. ;)

Hmm. I had the same problem but logging into high ping servers (500ms+) worked for me. Try exiting the game, reloading and then changing the clothing on your default character and changing your name, then log into a high ping server (not sure the population matters). I've heard that works.

Click respawn and then log out. Then log in to a super high ping server. I have this issue and whenever it happens I set my filter to search for 1000+ ping (any high ping server will do. Usually get ones around 500ish), log on, and it fixes the problem. Not ideal, but it's a workaround until the devs fix it.