Melee weapons should go into the sidearm slot

[KlinkKlink 4]

Alright, guys! Gather round and listen to me rant about a pet peeve of mine. I never understood why your hatchet or crowbar must go into your primary weapon slot. It feels so much like an unnecessary hindrance. Consider this: You see a guy that you deem worthy of your bullets, so you shoot him. Bang. He dies. GG. But of course, that thing you used to shoot him with was a particularly loud thing and thus attracts a conga line of zombies. At this point you are forced to make one of three choices.

One: You can waste more of your uber-rare Sa58v ammo or whatever, but you don't want to do this! You killed three innocent men for this thing and you'll be damned if waste your last magazine on some friggin' zeds!

This leads you to option two. you can break out your trusty hatchet! Since it counts as a primary weapon, you do the usual ritual. You squat down and bring up your inventory screen... you don't want to risk your weapon disappearing up into the Aether which forces you to open your bag... then put it in... close your bag... remove your hatchet from your tool belt... then close your inventory... switch from your sidearm to your primary... all the while having multiple zombies wailing and wailing on you. And only THEN you can fight back. Now you've lost a ridiculous amount of blood and if you're unlucky, a bone broke or you were knocked unconscious which makes this a somewhat bad option.

And finally three: you can cheese it to the nearest pine tree or bush and utilize the invisible wall exploit to avoid them which I say is pretty shallow. Now, you know things are bad when people feel forced to use an exploit because your user interface is just plain abysmal.

What were your options again? Waste resources, get hurt for no reason, or use an exploit. Oh mother... why is this even a problem? Does this achieve some semblance of balance between melee weapons and ranged weapons? Is it a limitation in the Arma engine? I certainly HOPE this wasn't intentional. If it was, why? If you Google the words "axe holster" there are plenty of images of some that go along the hip. In a game dedicated to realism, there shouldn't be these contrived, gamey bits put in just to create artificial balance. That whole song and dance we always have to go through can be avoided entirely if melee weapons were to simply be counted as sidearms. If this can't be done in the mod, PLEASE let's have it like this in the standalone. I better stop before this post gets any longer. Anyways, tell me what you guys think. Agree? Disagree?

Edited May 5, 2013 by KlinkKlink

[PaxC4T 159]

I personally think you should be able to have an extra melee slot.

[dasmooze 3]

i agree with you sir i prolly wouldn't even bother with side arms any more, and just use the axe always for zombies and when a player comes along its easy to use your rifle. rocket should do this with standalone

[Ken Bean 175]

In the SA there probably is some kind of hotbar, there you can assign certain items to, if not all. So switching from primary to melee could be done by pressing a hotkey.

Edited May 5, 2013 by Ken Bean

[applejaxc 2500]

Better: Have its own slot.

[Ken Bean 175]

Yeah, I'd like to have a extra melee slot as well. But the hotbar is confirmed I believe and this would a very handy way to switch weapons.

As for the mod, I'd love to see a melee slot. I think the third slot is used by the backpack currently.

The Arma 3 inventory system seems to have a spared backpack slot.

I'm still curious how the final inventory system of the SA will look like. This would be more important than putting every scope and all the extra high military tactical shit on 5000000 weapons. I mean, we are talking about a scenario where probably not every houswife has laserpointer in the drawer besides of assault riffles.

An extra melee slot would add to the realism.

Edited May 5, 2013 by Ken Bean

[liquidmind 320]

I believe you should have no slots at all, but two hands :-)

Whatever you don't have in your hands, needs a place to be put at.

Humans have 2 hands. not more, not less.

[lachlan04@live.com.au 37]

Melee: Left Leg

Pistol: Right Leg

Primary: Chest/Hands

[Clay Zombeh 0]

Great idea, or even better, it could have its' own slot! ^^

[dekartz 315]

To be fair, a "fuggin' axe" doesn't really count as a side-arm. Not to mention the balancing issues. As it stands, taking that shot is a choice that has consequences, as you just listed. Removing that consequence doesn't make the situation 'better' just 'easier. I think exchanging your main weapon for an axe works to balance the near-endless utility of the axe when faced with zeds.

[wisper 61]

Plenty hunters/campers go about with hatchets on belts in real life... along with an assortment of other necessaries. Realism is not going to be compromised as long as they address the fatigue issue, (which needs tweaking anyway).

[Chaingunfighter 917]

I think this is fine for certain weapons.

Something like the hatchet or crowbar is probably okay to be a secondary. However, in the SA I think the slot it should go in should depend on the weapon (Something like a hunting knife or a ball-peen hammer would be secondary, but a sledgehammer or something would be a primary weapon. The best thing would be if you could carry multiple amounts of weapons in different slots, with weight and inventory room taken into account.

[lachlan04@live.com.au 37]

How about a hatchet that is actually a hatchet? You know, like a small one handed axe that is a useful tool in a variety of situations, is a fast but short ranged melee weapon and can easily get clipped onto your belt.

And then you would have the axe, a big two handed weapon that is heavy and takes up more room, it requires lots of momentum so you can't hit as fast as some other weapons but it would have some serious brute force and cutting damage and would easily knock somebody out with a few blunt hits or make them bleed profusely after a few angled blows.

Both would have their pros and cons.

[wisper 61]

What, u mean to say that I won't be able to clip my pole-axe on to my belt? Darn, here I was thinking I could clip on two of those and then walk like on stilts. ;)