Avant-Garde

You make a good point about the apocalypse. When I posted that I was thinking more on the fact that people kill each other like crazy in this game, and I do believe that this game's objective is to be a somewhat realistic apocalypse simulator, not Quake 5:Huge-Arena-With-Shitty-Cluncky-Controls hehe So, how to avoid this becoming deathmatch simulator? Maybe adding more risk in killing other survivors, we have many ways to archive this: crazier zombies as you say could be one, aim sway is another, ammo rarity and so on.. So agree with you, but I also think sway is a cool thing. Its one more thing to master in the game, this only makes the gameplay richer, rewarding and interesting in my opinion. DayZ as it stands its easy as fuck to kill people. WAY to easy to land shots and the reward is HUGE. I mean, if not for a moral reason, you have absolutely NO reason not to kill someone. I would add an 8th point to your list that is decent, realistic and complex melee mechanics, so we have another skill to master and more viable gameplay options. There is no point in being a good brawler at the moment, this makes me so sad its not even funny

In my opinion gun sway should be really noticeable, not for realism but to make guns harder to use and thus make players think twice before shooting. I voted for random pattern but I would change if I could. If it has a predictable pattern you can get good at it and its a skill to develop, so I think it should be hard to master (complex pattern), but possible so we get to see some really skilled long range shooters. But it MUST require great skill in my opinion, otherwise players will still be loot piñatas in the eyes of an armed man. By me, this game shifts its focus to melee combat, and make firearms a pain in the ass to use and maintain. Enough with all these trigger happy lads out there, doesn't even make sense that in a zombie apocalypse people go out shooting each other and zeds as if there is no tomorrow, and with the shooting skill of a veteran US marine.

This is what makes DayZ so good in my opinion, in no other game such relations are part of the gameplay, such a creative design

Hey mate! May I ask you, are the melee mechanics ready to be talked about, or does it need the new animation system/other stuff I have no idea?

Thats funny because I feel like a giant in this game, interiors are all out of proportion!

This looks like gud desin for me OP, hope you are right man!

New animation system and melee improvements!

Actually, at the moment, I do believe that we have more melee weapons variety in DayZ then firearms, we don't need 15th century weaponry! Point is, they are in the great majority useless because the only thing going for melee in this realistic game is damage per second. Get high DPS melee weapon, spam and pray, thats it, end of dayz realistic melee fighting. You see, better melee system doesn't mean its going to be a "medieval zombie apocalypse". Its that people has come up with a very clever way to make melee combat in FPS games, its design progress if you will. DayZ is a game that could benefit A LOT from a better designed melee combat, and I'm not talking only about gameplay here, realism would benefit a shitload with a better melee. I mean, every fight, even in animals, there is initiative. Not in DayZ, where both are mindlessly spamming. Its bad design man! In fact, when I see zombie things, people tend to use melee way more then firearms anyways, in this game its really not worth it because its way to stupid and random. You can't rely on melee in this game due its spam nature. Its a matter of choice I believe, to make viable melee and people can use it with more confidence. If you can git gud in melee fights, means you will able to survive better without a firearm. Such thing is not possible at the moment.

In my opinion firearms are a great part of the problem, they make killing very easy. If we had less PEWPEWPEW and more melee, I really doubt people would kill each other as they do now.as melee combat involves a lot more risk (of course this would be a bad idea with the current melee system's depth, that is zero). I think that a good melee system would be a game changer in many aspects when you consider the big picture of dayz.

Improved melee for sure, its the most unrealistic thing in the game at the moment imo. Also, less PEWPEWPEW and more melee fights prease.

Thanks a lot for the answer mate! Do you think this melee subject goes better in what department of that sector of the forum? There is no thread about melee, or these kind of game mechanics! Who deals with this part of the game, animations or desingn? I actually think my questions goes better on Desingn due the fact its a more about the future and scope of a game mechanic, but I really don't know man. Yeah thats true, I'm kind worried that we haven't had for a long time any news/improvements on melee, and people seems to forgot about this subject very easily. I understand as very few games actually have decent melee combat, most of them its just there for the sake of it. My bigest fear is that this happens to DayZ, that is a game that, in my opinion, have a GREAT oportunity to make good use of melee combat. Also, for the sake of realism... People cries for the most little and absurd things over realism, but somehow melee is forgotten and its one of the parts of this game that really, REALLY lacks realism. I mean its all so simplistic, you get the highest DPS weapon and spam, end of melee in DayZ. There is almost zero depth, weapons makes little to none difference (you see how many people likes Fists) AND at the same time, the base they have, the tracer system, allows great and quite realistic stuff, and at the moment is good for nothing, totally not relevant and could be replaced by the classic hitscan, almost no one would even notice the difference (as already happened in older builds). I mean, tracer system should be one of the things that differentiate this game from every other copy of it, and the devs and the players do not talk about it. I really fail to understand it man. Really, tracer system is what makes melee combat in FPS games nice, it was something REALLY innovative that believe me, we will see a lot of games using it from now on. DayZ have this, and seems like no one cares! Not even the devs! If I had a game with said mechanic I would tell everyone in really big letters about it. Thats why I wanted to talk to a dev about melee man.

Oh guys if I knew this QA was going to happen... Makes me sad that we have no news about melee mechanics/improvements... Other then that this game is gonna be so amazing when its finished its not even funny, I can't wait, such an amazing job these devs are doing! May I make some late questions prease? What are some of the plans for melee? Will it have a parry/block/dodge/some defensive manuever? How about comboing and multidirectional attacks? Will it have some sort of negative acceleration during the attack animation to avoid people becoming helicopters while swinging? About attacks animations and the tracer system, can we expect that they will match better as development progress? How deep do you guys want melee combat to be? I mean, firefights are quite complex and I bet it will only get better right, will you guys show the same love for melee or there is something that makes all this not possible?

You are correct imo, this kind of thing changes once the melee combat is no longer based on spamming. While that doesn't happen, you should go for high DPS weapons because its the only thing that really matters. Its sad because we have a lot of melee weapons, but that are good for nothing and you should only use them if you don't have anything better. Which is kind of different with firearms right... You see, we need better melee even for b0lonce reasons, and to make sure devs hasn't wasted their time adding a lot of things that will have no practical use other then roleplay.

Once the devs have the animations and tracers fixed, long weapons shall be the obvious choice imo. Range gives you control in melee fights, as you can aways have the initiative. Big problem with pitchfork is the retarded animations (strafe and attack for ultimate lols), and the guessing game that is to find where the hell the tracers goes with said animations, I mean its all so broken I cry everytime We need a halberd as endgame melee weapon! Something that hits hard and has range. We need a better melee in fact, this game has a very good base just need to add depth to it!

Man, this is my main problem with this game melee system. Its so dumb its not even funny. We really need deffensive manuevers in order to archive some realism in this sector

Before melee was bad, because you circle strafe and spam. Now its even worse, because there is no point even in circle strafing, just stand there, take hits and hit the zeds. Really stupid, not realistic neither fun. This game always had a HUGE problem with melee, and the way things goes, I believe it will always have as melee is no longer mentioned by devs or the roadmap. We need defensive manuevers like parry/block/dodge so melee gets more realistic, otherwise will aways be this unrealistic shit.

Would be nice if we could have different kinds of attacks, I do believe that swords are more of a stabbing weapon then a slashing one. So stab for more damage/reach, slash because its easier to land though gives less damage and overhead as a nice way to get headshots with, though its hard to land Also, would be nice if we had Halberds aswell, as a top tier melee weapon due range/versatility

Don't you think people would do pipe-guns in a zombie apocalipse? I find it a rather good idea tbh

It is bad, hard to find, bad acuracy, bad rate of fire, bad damage, looks bad, spawn in bad places, bad to find ammo, people might kill you because it is a unicorn, dou its a very bad one and you don't want to lose your life for something that is so... bad right. If you see one, you better run away from it. I found 3, gave all of them because they suck, and I fail to understand the logic, but people gets really happy when you give this piece of shit to them lol. If someone gave me this weapon, I would shoot him/her thou I might end up getting killed because this weapon is really bad. Only good thing? Has such a weird/bad look that gets somehow cute, its firing sound is also cute. You see, a cute weapon man, that can't be good.

I believe the more we know, the better, so the devs can fix all the exploits we find and such. Sometimes I feel we really lack information about the game mechanics that we should have in order to exploit and find weakness. This is not only for loot mechanic, but for example also on the melee mechanic, they should add a console command or something like this to make visible the tracers in the swings, so we can in fact SEE what is wrong with melee and maybe help the devs.

Only way to know in my experience is if someone tells you that you are bugged. To make it stop just change weapons. I noticed that a friend of mine would go in animation fuck up when he got in his hands anything that wasn't a melee or fire weapon, can't confirm all this thou.

Close EVERY door in the prision building, so you know better when server hoppers arrive. It is, imo, the best place for loot in the game, I don't even know why people go to them airfields nowadays, since its also a PVP fest, there are way less loot spawn points. The prision building can be yours, easy to control, airfields are a tactical nightmare. I do recomend you to go there, and study the layout. Spend some time there, it will be worth man. Even if you get there and there is no loot, just wait a bit and the server hoppers shall bring it to you! Remember, close EVERY door in that building, you can even lock the main ones (that are 3 doors) that give access to the buildings inside.

Very true my friend, as a lone wolf I NEVER trust groups. The simple fact they can plan shit on TeamSpeak and you have no way of knowing it, makes it dagerous enough for me. Thou I find rather fun to hunt groups. You can smell their fear once one of their mates is down. It was a nice read OP, good story man! I had a very strange firefight in Chernogorsk firestation these days... 2 guys were shoting each other, one at the rofftop of the firestation tower, the other one I have no idea. As I aproach the firestation by its back, the dude on top of the tower notice me and open fire! I hide in the wall for cover, take the shotgun out of my back and proceed to fill his face with led. To my surprise, now there is a second guy at the tower and they start a melee fight! I shot them dead and wait a bit hidden in the same firestation wall... When I take a look at the tower again, a third man is going up by the ladders, I kill him too... None of them had good loot, we were all lucky freshpawns it seems, with civilian weapons and all... I had a shotgun, two of them had winchesters with few bullets, the other had a sledgehammer lol. We could have banded together! But nope, better fun in killing ourselfs lol. These big cities aways give me a good laugh

Gas stove idea is a must imo, as for the fire extinguishers! Would give a lot of depth to the game i believe, as it creates many opportunities to use.

You should aways stealth mate, lower stances are your friend (crawling helps A LOT) and choose wisely when to sprint, or be ready to get killed by players every big town you get in. I would recomend you to know the layout of the most important towns and miitary bases, this way you will know better camping/sniping spots and how to avoid/use them. AWAYS plan, you gotta have a plan to get in the city, get the fuck out of the city, cross the street, go to the next house etc, you gotta think foward man. You should imo play in high pop servers and get usued to how players behave in different places. Against zeds, get their attack timing and strafe when they windup their attack. If you do it right and there is no fps drop/lag, you can take 3+ zeds at the same time without getting hurt. This is only possible if you have decent melee weapon, so thats your priority as you spawn imo. That and food/drink of course. Every weapon that has axe in the name is good, farming hoe is also decent, sledgehammer... Avoid pitchfork, seriously you will get rekt by zombies trying to use that shit the animations are so bad its not even funny. Melee in this game works differently then in most games, you gotta aim with the swing animation, not with your crosshair. You will deal damage where the swing hits, so be carefull using big weapons in closed places. You will see man, once you start playing there is just a lot of things to do and think about, its very fun to be new in this game.