Troll_Hunter

I'm in favour of people dying from infection becoming a zombie themselves. It can be explained because the player arrive on the shore being a refuge from another land, managed to escape his own infested land. I'm not sure about people playing as zombies. It would make sense that upon dying from the zombie infection, the player comes back to 'life' as an zombi, with a different set of abilities and handicaps. Let's think of the zombi player character. Thinking about this I'm thinking of the game 'Depth', where players can play as a scuba diver or as a shark. It's an asymmetrical team death-match game. This game mode is becoming more popular these days. I think with a careful implementation it can be a refreshing experience, making the zombies much more interesting, intelligent and dangerous. Let's explore some possibilities. I feel a fresh server should start with only uninfected players and computer controlled zombies. Players can become infected by zombie bites, and if left untreated die of the Z disease (recognisable symptoms). Upon death players come back to life as a zombie. They would be very hungry and in order survive it needs to feed of dead bodies, be it dead players, animals or fellow dead zombies. As a zombie they would loose the ability to fire guns, they are simply to complicated for your degraded monkey level mind. Melee weapons, and using guns as such, has become more much easier as the zombie has obtained the ability to rage. Rage would be a channelled focus, speed and strength. Rage will be accompanied with roars, increased gamma, contrast, slight red cast (a bit like IR or thermal vision?) and a bit of tunnel vision. Engaging rage maybe be done through 'sprint' (double forward). Because of the high speed coordination would be more difficulty, as turns take a bit longer, a bit like a fast raging bull's inability to do sudden short turns. Zombies superior strengths allows them to throw items with much further with more kinetic energy. It would be great if the game's players and items would react appropriately to kinetic impacts, getting smacked over, smacked to the side etc. Raging sounds will be heard from a reasonable distance, and attract nearby zombies. So a keen player can collect a horde of zombies, and have them follow them around like a school of hungry hair trigger sharks. Imagine being in a tree line considering looting a village and seeing a zombie searching and coming towards slowly to your direction.. counting your bullets, fire or evade, how hungry are you? Maybe zombies should also be given the ability to climb rain pipes, trees so they can like monkeys jump and attack from above? Maybe zombies should regenerate and come back after a short while if not shot in the head. So a zombie with food in his belly can rise again after a certain regenerating time having been shot in the chest. A zombie only dies of starvation or a bullet in the head. Zombie progression, what 'upgrades' for what actions should have a zombie have? Maybe some parcour elements like leaping, climbing should be learn able? Also tracking blood trails of the wounded? But what would be the long term zombie goals? Maybe eat and spread the disease to the whole of Chernarus? Should a zombie be able to login on another server? Should a zombie die of hunger, or just loose a 100% of his rage ability, rendering him a easy target? With players becoming zombies, there will become another situation of identifiable 'teams' and I've learned there are a lot of players who object to that idea. They like the uncertainty of not knowing weather a person is possible friend or foe. On the other hand one can say the zombie team already exists, and adding humans to that would make them much more interesting, and varied game play.

Here a video about .223 .22LR suppressed and unsuppressed from an AR - supersonic -, and later .22 LR suppressed and unsuppressed from a P22 pistol - sub-sonic. http://youtu.be/x-XyAxQys1A As you can hear, there is a lot of room for improvements, including getting the sound to work all the time (bug repair), and enhancing the sounds so they match reality and the game's ambiance better.

Caboose, in the Netherlands we call your remark a "dooddoener" (literal translation: death doer). An 'argument' that's sucks all life out of a lively discussion or proposal. Rendering everybody miserable and depressed. Your remark is also irrelevant to the suggestions forum section because suggestions are things that are not yet in the game. Your remark belongs to bug-reports. Back to suggestions. I think good sounds and sound design is vital for Dayz, a game that hinges on ambiance and setting. So hearing muffled distant sounds and echos of struggles and fights greatly increases the fear and terror. I would like also people to make sounds and screams of agony when getting shot, or being in severe pain. The current zen Buddhist like silence is really stale and unrealistic.

I love the idea of gun sounds travelling more range, especially according to calibre and angle. I would like to hear a bit of echo to reflect the valley, woods, indoors or city environment. How does a .45 suppressed really sound? : http://youtu.be/3Lsx0WAetsI Yes gun sounds should be a major consideration for players. Bows, knives, axes, small sub sonic ammo and suppressors will become much more popular.

I think too that Chernarus can use more mood setting dress up. It should look like people lived there, and used their environment, fled and died there. Old dead decaying bodies in chairs, on floors, etc. Also smouldering fires, smoke, flags, clothes on moving washing lines, windmills, in short things that move, indicate wind direction (needed for accurate long range shots!) to make the place feel much more alive.

Grabbing apples too. Grabbing materials, or bodies, and throw them in the trunk too :D

I find in general the eye to gun/hand distance is / or appears too far. Perhaps that's why also consuming animations look odd, I would expect the bottle top to land just below my view when drinking out of it. The same with sticking food (where is it?) in my mouth. The current view gives me the impression the 'lens' isn't a wide view enough, and placed to far back into the head to compensate. With a wider angle lens there is a bigger difference between close and far objects. With a narrow lens the difference between far and close objects appears less. (You can see it with a zoom lens camera). I believe this was chosen to make long distance viewing in game easier, with distant object look a bit bigger. I think having a wider standard lens, and a narrower when concentrating (right mouse button).

I do not expect new features to be added in Beta, because that phase is mend for bug repair and polish/tuning/optimizations. However I do think VBS2 engine, related to the ARMA2 engine, has some very cool advanced features, including rivers and accumulating snow. So I assume they know how to do it. Their problem is the amount of development time they have, and how good and flexible their engine is. The Arma engine is has always been heavy on computers, aiming for 30 fps.

A left hand pushing forward to push or interact with doors, while your gun is in your right hand. And yes in such situations a pistol is much more practical. Maybe a kick animation, violently swinging open the door when holding a two handed weapon. Yes I find fences, doors and other world interactions magically swinging open immersion breaking moments. Animation blending should be in there, as well as a speeding up of the current animations, because at the moment it looks like my character takes all the time in the world to do anything during my dangerous stressful Dayz life. Which is also immersion breaking. Maybe we ask and expect to much from the BI team, and they cannot close the gap with the high levels of Farcry in regard to use animations?

I stand corrected Alexei Stukov. Post your suggested weapons in private chat to this topic starters private message, and he'll add it to the first page, keeping things nice and tidy. Thanks Alexei for you help!

Thanks Fuse, English isn't my native language either, I'm still learning, but youtube and listening to interesting podcasts help a lot. I now believe you mean a wetsuit, when you describe 'calipso'. Yes dry bags are usually not super roomy, but they float, and that extents your range :) I think swimming across is not something you would do without consideration. Finding a row boat, seems more interesting, especially if you can sail a river system. Building a small make-shift raft is also a very cool option for those that do not have a dry bag should use if they want to bring gear with them. Such a raft isn't waterproof off cause. A fast flowing river with rocks, rapids and waterfalls would also be very cool to see and navigate. Thanks, for the recognition and the beans!

It appears that any game mechanics to make KOS less attractive are facing aggressive opposition. Most likely by those who enjoy doing KOS the most. After a week of going through many forum topics and posts it's rather sad to witness the sincere suggestions being buried by a waves of fallacious words. Such levels of blind destruction and insults It is very discouraging to a creative mind. I have no doubt many people have left this forum because of the toxic social environment here. I fear the same base mentality has gotten into the current DayZ player base. As in the beginning the interaction was more interesting and varied, now the remainder are paranoiacs and sadist living out their personal addiction and frustrations online in a legal way. Friendly interactions with strangers have become very rare. I suspect the KOS players succeeded in not only frustrating the cooperative trust inclined players, but also Dean Hall himself into retreating from redit. Maybe his frustration has something to do with the audience inability to listen, and respond in a rational, constructive manner? Fight or flight reactions and the complete distrust have made interaction in game and well as on fora far from bearable, let alone enjoyable. If you have a hair trigger fight or flight sensitivity try these old tricks; count to 10, assume the other's positive intent, ask for clarification of their poorly formulated words, Ask yourself what is it they worry about and need? instead of assuming malicious intent. These days people can hardly verbalise without spewing insults. Their fuzzy broken speech has hardly any substance. Most talks are only an attempt to establish dominance over the other. No wonder why people cannot stay together, they have lost their control over their emotions, language and ability to reason. Ok, sorry for appearing a bit off topic, but understand it's my attempt to provide insight and support to people who are creative, proposing something they feel is helpful for the game, but only seem to harvest insults, attacks, paranoia. Please understand it's not your proposal that is so bad, it's the cowardly KOS people who want to keep things as they are, killing with no consequence. If you like the KOS mentality keep on doing what you do, and you'll find the game soon devoid of human targets and or interesting interactions, because it's early fame is surpassed by the KOS reality. If you like meeting interesting, thinking people, accept mechanics that promote cooperation and make KOS a challenging, difficult and often a costly tactic. Or at least limit yourself to rational arguments and refrain from name calling and destructive tantrums. If you feel aggression coming on by reading this post, have courage, sleep it over and choose to be honest and fair in your response. I really wish people to overcome their hair trigger fight or flight reflexes. Patience and courage, TH

Maybe a 300 win-mag or 338 lapua hunting rifle? (for big game hunting:) - I think it would make sense around a rich hunter's house when bears are introduced into the game. Also a modest mountainous area expansion in the west with a rich Swiss vibe would be cool. In a Swiss setting sig sauer rifles and guns would be cool. As well as chocolate :D - where are the chocolate bars???

What is a calipso? you mean a small rubber boat? The water tight bag we have now could also function like a float, keeping your gear afloat. Before doing a crossing it would be best to put your dry clothes into this dry bag, so you'll have dry clothes and warm up quickly when you reach the other shore. For anyone who has not swam in cold waters, there are 3 shivering phases, the first one is because of quick change in outside temperature. The second one comes later when the limbs get hypothermia, this is also the wise moment to get out quickly before severe cramps set in. The third shivering phase is the final burst of energy the body attempts to keep you conscious. These could be simulated simply by having a variables of time in water, water temperature, and body temp before entering water. It could be a simple linear equation, where the start body temp would be the vantage point, and the water temp the angle of the temperature decline over time. The shivering phases are related to the body temp, and indicate to the player how far along they are on their way to unconsciousness, drowning and dying of lack of O2. On the shore quicky put dry clothes on, eat some solid food, and run and regain your body temperature quickly. Wet clothes can taken off to dry quicker in the sun -if it shines ;) on a stone surface, or near a fire. Just to remind people, in real life after people loose conciousness they can still live for many minutes (at least 4) on their remaining 50% SaO2 reserves in their blood. There are enough stories of people having been about 20 minutes underwater unconscious. So when you see an unconscious person just get them to air clear their airways, blow in their face (triggers breathing reflex) and perform CPR. Do not give up easily. If it's a small faint, then the people come around fast, within a minute. When they do it's best to have them go to hospital to make sure they have not got water in their lungs, triggering 'second drowning' later on. P.s. yes it's my interest, and I am a breath-hold diver / freediver, lifeguard and swim instructor. If you drop into deep water, you better drop your gear otherwise you'll drown.. This would be much more realistic. Water should degrade certain items faster, making maintenance needed. A drybag would prevent things getting wed, though the gun/axe would still suffer because it's exposed.

I wonder how the engine currently handles rendering of buildings, does it do proper occlusion rendering? From looking at a given city, village or forest scene I believe that the amount of triangles is not more then say Farcry, Battlefield, COD, etc. So I think there is room for improvement there. For ARMA2, there is the possibility that windows has cores parked, so that the game will not use them. http://customcombatgaming.com/forums/index.php?/topic/8667-optimize-your-arma-2-settings-and-increase-fps/

Hi people I like to see a poll to index people playing styles. In order to make up the poll, we need to recognise and define the different playing styles, can you help me out with that? Please list 1..x your list of possible playing styles, and provide for each a definition, precision is appreciated. Thank you.

I see the following weak points in current DAYZ SA: 1) Lack of a long term challenge after learning how to survive, 2) Rampant Indiscriminate killing / Killing on site (Kos). 3) Lack of friendly interactions with strangers. 4) Lack of deeper strategy. 5) Lack of cooperation. 6) Lack of high long term stakes. To remedy and improve these points I propose: Two rankings: - Bandit Ranking and - Hero Ranking, both in game visible. The two ranking careers are substantially different, which makes for interesting choices and many more hours of exiting diverse gameplay. People can own and play multiple characters, or change their career by changing who they select to kill. How to implement? - A created character has a permanent unique name, age and global ranking number. Characters will be remembered and remain listed on the global ranking forever. - Identification in game is to be either up close (<25m) by watching a character for a second it will unveil their name, age and rank. At distance with a scope/ binos from say 100-200m. And online off cause, with a link to their current server, so the hunt can begin :) - Ranking is coloured corresponding to their current bandit path and rank, or Hero path and rank. High ranking (top 1/3) characters have a lighter colour. How does the ranking work? In general: - Killing high rank players give more points. - Killing bandits makes a player go to the hero reputation side. - Killing heros makes players go to the bandit side. As a Bandit: - killing a hero increases your bandit rank, amount depending on the hero's rank. (higher = more ranking points) - killing a low and mid ranking bandit (lower 2/3 and down) increases you Bandit rank. - killing a high (top 1/3) ranked bandit shifts your reputation a to the Hero side. As a Hero: - killing a hero shifts your reputation to the bandit side, amount depending on the hero's rank. (higher = faster to the bandit side) - killing a bandit increases your hero's rank, depending on the bandit's rank. (higher = more ranking points) In Practice? Killing fresh spawns yield only few ranking points, making them much less interesting targets for ambitious players. Playing as a starting bandit is in the beginning easy, you can kill and loot nearly everyone and see your ranking rise. Finding help is more difficult as your bandit status has people alarmed. Playing as a starting hero is in the beginning tough, as you need to identify and make sure you're not killing another hero. Finding a buddy is easier, because of your hero status. Becoming a mid ranking bandit means you're a high value target for Hero's and higher ranking bandits, who do not like your competition. Killing the high ranking bandit gets them out of your way, but you'll have an substantial cost in bandit rank points. A cunning plan is better: Let's betray his location to the heros and hope they'll eliminate my competition! Becoming a mid ranking hero, you'll find that killing bandits alone is not enough. Those high ranking heros look immortal, and prevent you from promotion! Maybe an nice accident can make some space for my inspired leadership without to ranking points cost for killing a high rank hero in person :) A high rank bandit is feared by most and worshipped by many for his power. He needs a trustworthy security team, to keep his enemies at bay, the ambitious mid-ranking bandits and off cause the hordes of ambitious hero's. A very demanding stressful job, envied by many, hunted by many. A high ranking hero enjoys admiration from low ranking heros but cannot blindly trust the ambitious mid-ranking heros any more. He needs a security team as he is a major price to all bandits too. - There are different effects of killing people with a different status, makes target identification valuable, and Killing on Sight sometimes costly, if you want to rank up or down. The ranking offers players the glorious chance to become the worlds best DayZ player. May the odds be with you ;) With a character's global ranking on the line I expect some extra high drama moments, and smashed keyboards. <- which is good for the economy ;) Criticisms: Yes! there will be griefing, revenge and vendetta's! That is the challenging price of living a bandit's life... - you reap what you sow :D Living a successful (hero) live also has it's share of trouble. Think other hero's ambition, jealousy and envy, making things tough for high ranking hero's too. With a published ranking, being a top ranking character will be increasingly difficult, just like in real life... Published Server location: knowing which server someone is on still gives players plenty of time and SQUARE MILES to hide, work on their ranking, plan ambushes, call in defence, escape. I would love the tension of facing an organised gang trying to hunt me down in Chernarus. The cool thing is this challenge scales along your improving skill, so it's challenging fun for all skill levels. For expert players It will become extremely challenging as they approach top rankings. At times bloody scary, a most wonderful strong emotion experience only a few games manage to pull off. The most scary sandbox game just got another level of fear :) ps. if you fear the wrath, you better choose a hero playing style :D and team up. Chaingunfighter, on 26 Nov 2014 - 4:01 PM, said: Thank you for your response. I get you're worried about your current play style, like many here on this forum, let me clarify the ranking system I envisioned. Voluntary participation. One does not need to engage in the ranking competition, it is a voluntary option for those who want a tougher challenge. To stay a low profile/rank player, you can create multiple characters, so their hero or bandit points stay relatively low and you can explore your fantasies without the consequence of your actions. Another option is to kill people on both ranking sides so your ranking stays low. Bandit-hero ranking points determination. How does the game knows your killing is justified or not? Well, it does not ! However it knows the rank of the person you've killed, and deals point accordingly. So if you want to be a hero, you better check id before shooting. If a person with a hero rank suddenly decides to indiscriminately kill you, he may loose a lot of rank points of his hero status because you were a hero too. I think this will work out beautifully, and both bandits and hero's will enjoy their different careers, which from they can deviate too! Changing your mind, and status. If you start out killing everyone, including heros, then you'll become a bandit. But at any moment you can have a change of heart, and start discriminating between hero's and bandits. By killing high rank (top 1/3) bandits you quickly lower your bandit status and have your status cross over into a hero ranking status. Going from hero to bandit is easier, just kill everyone accept the top 1/3 rank bandits. In short: I think a Hero and Bandit ranking is a voluntary, flexible, challenging and motivating mechanic. Questions: 1 What play style do you currently have? 2 What do you like? 3 Where can the two rankings idea be improved? Please try to present rational arguments so we can learn and we can grow.

Thank you for your response. I get you're worried about your current play style, let me clarify the ranking system I envisioned. Voluntary participation. One does not need to engage in the ranking competition, it's just a voluntary option for those who want a tougher challenge. To stay a low profile player, you can create multiple characters, so their hero or bandit points stay relatively low and you can explore your fantasies without the being hunted consequence and top ranking glory. Bandit-hero reputation points determination. How the game knows your killing is justified or not? Well, it doesn't! However it knows the reputation of the person you've killed, and deals point accordingly. So if you want to be a hero, you better check id before shooting unveiling yourself. If a person with a hero reputation suddenly decides to indiscriminately kill you, he may loose a lot of rep points of his hero status because you too were a hero. I think this will work out beautifully, and both bandits and hero's will enjoy their different paths, which from they can deviate too! Changing your mind. If you start out killing everyone, including heros, then you'll become a bandit. But at any moment you can have a change of heart, and start discriminating between hero's and bandits, changing your reputation and eventually your bandit status changes into a hero status. Going from Hero to bandit is also possible off cause. I think a Hero and Bandit ranking is a voluntary, flexible and challenging mechanic.

I find only 1 argument; "Griefing will go through a roof." Yes griefing, revenge, vendetta's. It's the price of NOT living an a moral life... - a lot of people hate you :D Living a successful (hero) live also creates hate and jealousy, making things tough for high ranking hero's too. With the published rank, being a top ranking killer will be increasingly difficult, as the reward - ranking points - and lust for killing/capturing you increases, just like in real life... Knowing which server you're on still gives players lot's of square KM's to hide and work on their ranking. I would love the tension of facing an organised gang trying to hunt me down in Chernarus. It will be extremely challenging, and bloody scary, a most wonderful strong emotion only a few games manage to pull off. The cool thing is this challenge scales along your improving skill, so it's fun for everyone. The most scary sandbox game just got another level of fear :) ps. if you fear the wrath, you better choose a moral playing style :D and team up.

Crafted spear, (knife, cord, wood limb) Great for dispatching trapped dear, and killing zombies and players at a distance, also throw able. Speznatz Russian army shovel, versatile light weight tool for digging, chopping wood, chopping heads. Throw able too. (I got the Cold Steel version at home) Crafted Fire torch, (oil, tinder, wire, branch) Great for keeping food smell attracted wolves and bears and at a distance, luring players, lighting and warming and drying clothes, and burning down enemy wooden houses and cars. Also to be used as a melee weapon. Although a big arsenal is fun to collect, I think it's better to have quality over quantity. A game with 30 weapons is not automatically better then a game with just 10. Actually the 30 may actually hurt the game because a player needs a long time to collect a complete weapon system, and finding matching ammo. Also a large arsenal takes up dev time that may have a much more positive impact improving for instance a vital game mechanic like physics.

I think a reputation ranking would help successful bandits and survivors become a bigger target. A created character should have a permanent unique name, age and global reputation rank. A name that cannot be reused, even after death. Bandits should have a red rank number, indicating their dark path and rank, and making them a bigger price to others ;) Hero's / survivors blue. As a bandit you try to become the oldest and the worst, but your increasingly worse reputation will have people hunting and fleeing from you. Identification in game is to be either up close (<25m) watching for a second will unveil name, age and rank, or with a scope/ binos from say 100-200m. And online off cause, maybe with a link to their current server, so the hunt can begin :) Because of carry and skill limitations it will be made harder to survive alone, and some tasks need advanced skills to (re)gain full functionality. For bandits Killing gains rep, killing high rep players gains much more. Off cause a survivor/hero ranking is also there, where the goal is the become the oldest survivor, with highest rep. Killing low rep players cost rep, killing low rep bandits gains low rep. killing high rep bandits gains more. killing high rep hero's cost more. Maybe also getting rep for healing and repairs? The global rep, and the limited carry and skill system will help to set up a complex dynamic that encourages thought, consideration, and sharing and tension. Example: As a bandit player you'll get shot someday, and you'll need to have field surgery, done by another player, to regain full functionality. Because it needs to be done under narcosis he needs a trustworthy friend with a medicine skill. This friend hasn't got the skill but manages to find and and take hostage a doctor, to force him to help his fellow bandit friend... With a character's big global rep on the line I expect some high drama moments, and smashed keyboards.

About the mag dumping, I think long term, non government funded people much rather take the magazine out and put them in a pouch, to be reused later. However this should be a menu magazine change, or one should have a dump-pouch attached to the pants, just like people use in real life. So without dump pouch 'r' dumps the mag to the ground. With dump pouch, it dumps it into that. If you do not have a dump pouch you can pick the empty mag up from the ground, or change the empty mag in the inventory menu. Backpack animation. Now I think the inventory menu needs a fast animation of the player kneeling and taking off his backpack, and putting his arm into it, and pressing it again will put the backpack back on if it's close. This will remedy the immersion braking and totally unrealistic running while working the inventory menu. It will also make a clear distinction of taking stuff from jacket, vest, pants, by having those items directly accessible through the quick menu slots. Now a vest makes sense because one can reload much faster from that, because you do not need to take off the backpack. A put down backpack can function as a gun rest.

I agree with the basic idea of non trivialising work/tasks. Skills. I think of skills players can find in the form of books and practice, enabling them to do advanced medicine, hunting, mechanics, etc. A group with advanced skills can thrive, with relative ease compared to a lone survivor. The specialisations and specialised tools make individuals important to a group, and to strangers. For instance, when shot in the leg, a bandage and splint get you mobile, but only to a walking/limping speed. Advanced medicine, can do in field operations with chloroform, disinfectant, cord, needle, knife, bandage, to remove the bullet from the leg and allowing a player to run full speed again. I'm not in favour of maintenance of farms. Planting, and guarding the food farm maybe fun, especially when food loot gets low, or when Bambi is checking out my growing produce and I can take it down for some extra nice protein :D Goal. At this moment there is no progression and goal beyond getting geared up and fight with others. This can easily be changed by a global ranking for say the longest survivor. With close up player and rank identification, and longer with binos / scopes, it will become a competition goal. Events / quick scenario games. The game's environment now is stable, so people can roam around in their favourite spot without needing to adapt the easiest play style. Admin induced events (disasters) can shake those comfortable players up. A 3 hour (3 dayz days) scenario game might look like this: day1 zombie hordes from the graves, day2 heavy storm, day3 military invasion (A3 zeus), no foot loot respawn (makes farming, hunting, cannibalism, crafting, necessary).

Circle strafing is at this moment needed because we cannot block attacks. I think there should be a blocking move, so you can block a melee strike. When holding a rifle you can do a melee attack by swinging the rifle butt, and blocking strikes by holding the rifle out in front. Blocking should be a bit faster, so it's easier to respond. Combat would be a series of attacks and blocks, where the attacker tries to time and hit the other at an open spot. The defender needs to put his blocking line/block in the path of the attackers melee swing. Fists will have shorter range, but will be harder to block since they have a small surface area. Defending with fists will employ the lower arms as block surfaces. Naturally a speed up rifle butt or axe or machete will break those lower arms, after which you cannot raise them, and can only jog away in severe pain. To show hits on the body, their should be a small blood splatter, with impact sound, and maybe with a cracking sound if it's a strong hit. Also I'm much in favour of agony and pain sounds, which you can hear over a realistic distance, this is really missing in Dayz, where getting shot and bleeding heavily yields a zen monk like silence, not how real people react to bullets in the arm, axe in the leg etc.. To make the melee combat convincing impacts should have a kinetic effect, unbalancing the player, even knocking them over with a full ragdoll physics when hit unconscious / dead. Tuning can be done by sizing the blocking size, and tuning the attack swing. If there is enough programming time, the attack swing could be a variable, where the player stores energy and has that released. The bigger the store (being visualised by how far the fist/axe/riflebut is bought backward), the harder the swing and the more recovery time the attacker needs for the next swing. Hence allowing for a quick short counter. A close up blocker, can block the attack swing early (just as it starts), this reduces the swing impact dramatically. Apart from dodging this is the only way to block an well aimed axe/ rifle butt from breaking your forearms. Naturally a player with just his arms up can move his upper body much faster then a player holding an axe/rifle, this allows then to duck and bent and dodge a swing of a slow heavy melee weapon. The best response to being attacked by an axe wielding madman ;) is to get close quick, block early and strike fast with your fist, just like in real life :D Armed zombie fights would be a nice training for players to learn how to do melee. A 2 or more to 1 fight is going to be hard for the single defender, he needs to make sure to circle around and keep the attackers in front, and employ quick blocks and fast short, well placed strikes.

I don't like it, because I think there are many more important things to do, and such sounds do not carry that far anyway. What I do think however is that most animations are much too slow, like the player has all the time in the world! This is very contrary to the survival situation, where you want to be fast because it is dangerous everywhere and you need to move fast in order to find your next meal.