I know this is by no means dire. With that said, its always been my dream to have like medieval swords/axes/maces maybe even shields in dayz. Recently, on steam, they had a free weekend for the game "Mount & Blade: Warband". This game has a wonderful melee system, and almost feels like arma while playing it(the movement). For example, you swing your mouse left, then right, to swing the sword at the left hand side of your target, and vice versa. You swing your mouse up then down to overhead. You can charge your swing but hold down left click. It is hard to parry when charged. When fighting 1v1 you can parry with some skill though. How cool would it be. Meleeing each other as fresh spawns with axes gives you a chance to survive, rather than both be highly damaged or dead. Just a thought.
