choobie

Hello friends, first off... thanks for hours upon hours of fun. Been playing the mod since 2012 and the standalone as soon as it was released on steam. so i'd like to think im in a decent position to give sound feedback. And i could actually see this suggestion being implemented and becoming a real solution to an ongoing problem throughout the mod and the standalone. PROBLEM: Engaging zombies in melee combat is dangerous. but not for the right reasons. it's a buggy nightmare, and it has always been so ever since the mod. and yes alpha blah blah. but to be honest, i don't ever see dayz's (from the mod to the standalone) current engine to ever be able to accomodate a melee system that would ever produce a real solution to what is supposed to be a very important mechanic in a zombie game. I have no doubt that killing sprinting infected with a machete in the real world would be much easier, or at least more practical. you could have the complete drop on a zombie, and between hits not registering but somehow still triggering the hit marker sound, and blatant landed swings at the head not killing them, and the zombie running through your model, you could come out with a broken leg from what was clearly a free kill. I understand melee combat with a zombie should not at all be encouraged, and i 100% agree. But when it happens, at the very least it should be much much more consistent and reliable. SOLUTION: On top of being able to swing your melee weapon normally if you wish, being in melee range and having a zombie in front of you should give the player the scroll menu option to initiate a melee kill, which triggers a 3 to 4 second action animation where the player has to commit to for a good chance of dispatching a zombie (note how this wouldn't be a go-to mechanic as if you're locked in an animation with one zombie and there are others around or aggro-ed it would basically be a death sentence). during the animation, the player and the zombie around until one of 3 things happen, 1) KILL: an 80% chance the player completes the melee kill (100% if initiated from the back and not aggro-ed). note also how there is possibility of failure, as to not encourage unneeded combat with zombies, thus making the safest course of action to avoid the zombie completely. 2) STALEMATE ONE (player upperhand): a 10% chance that after the action animation, the player does not succeed in completing the melee kill, however manages to shove the zombie to the ground, where a player can choose to flee, or attempt to finish off the downed zombie with regular melee swings before the zombie recuperates. 3) STALEMATE TWO (zombie upperhand): a 10% chance that after the action animation, the player does not succeed in completing the melee kill, and is knocked down (just the typical existing already in-game knock down mechanic). the action would have a cooldown of 5 seconds and ontop of that would require the player to have a certain amount of stamina, which attempting the melee kill would take a lot of. I feel like that with this mechanic is very doable with the game's engine, since there are already existing action animations that entail the same aspects of what im thinking of, such as two characters performing an action together: handcuffing and blindfolding, feeding, bandaging someone else, resuscitating someone, giving someone and epi-pen etc. im sure these actions have all have the basic structure and mechanics for the one i'm envisioning to become very possible to create. and at the very least, the animation would remove the ridiculous scene of watching a survivor and a zombie running around each other spamming claw swipes and weapons swings. bohemia pls. -_- well, hope you all enjoyed the read! thanks for your time! please bump and share if you like the idea! the game would be damn near perfect if this was implemented imo. :)