Melee Weapons

[dvsilverwing 241]

Currently, "blunt" melee weapons like the pipe wrench, shovel, baseball bat, and crowbar all come off as almost useless when it comes down to it. They are outshined when it comes to damage by the splitting axe and fire axe by miles, and when compared to things like either of the bayonets, the kitchen knife, fire extinguisher, and fists they still fall completely flat. The current problem I have with melee weapons is the way the character swings them, they really aren't effective in any sort of combat. While the axes might not be as accurate, the massive damage they inflict more than compensates for it. But compare the blunt melee weapons to fists, it's extremely difficult to accurately hit with the mentioned weapons because of the fact the arc in which they swing never actually crosses the crosshair, rather you swing them at belly-level, while fists/bayonets/fire extinguisher all attack in a way that hits directly where the crosshair is aiming, making them deadly accurate and easy to score head hits with.

 

I'm sure I'm not the only one that thinks medium-tier melee weapons being outmatched by a fire extinguisher and fists is a silly concept, at least I'd hope so. I'm not complaining about the damage of the blunt weapons, because when you DO hit the head of a zombie or player it does the job fine, but you have to aim miles above the head to actually swing at head level, when you aim at the head with the crosshair you're hitting the forearms, hips, and thighs most of the time.

 

I guess the only thing I'm really trying to propose here is that the melee weapons actually swing in an arc which crosses the center of the screen at some point, they'd be a lot less useless and we'd see a lot less new spawns opting to immediately fistfight other players rather than look for their own gear, and it's a way better route than nerfing fists themselves in my opinion.

[tempaccount (DayZ) 8]

it's likely going to be fixed in the future if dean can actually stop counting his money and start working on the game

[Dchil 829]

You do know that the aiming for the Melee weapons is wherever the hitting surface passes through?

 

Therefore, learn how it swings and then position yourself so the swing hits where you want it to.

[Korsbaek 1778]

it's likely going to be fixed in the future if dean can actually stop counting his money and start working on the game

 

Yeah...

 

It's not like they're working on it right now, and have already thrown out a couple of patches plus the one coming this week.

[dvsilverwing 241]

You do know that the aiming for the Melee weapons is wherever the hitting surface passes through?

 

Therefore, learn how it swings and then position yourself so the swing hits where you want it to.

 

Did you read anything? I'm not talking about that at ALL, I'm talking about the fact weapons don't swing at crosshair level, they swing far below it. Have you looked at the weapon swing in first person, ever?

[- Karma - 75]

You do know that the aiming for the Melee weapons is wherever the hitting surface passes through?

 

Therefore, learn how it swings and then position yourself so the swing hits where you want it to.

 

Would you not say that is completely counter intuitive as well?  Even you have to admit, the first time you tried to use a club like weapon in the game your swing likely missed badly and you were like "Dafuq?".  I'm all for awkward weapons having a learning curve that maybe don't quite swing where the crosshair is or take time to intersect with the crosshair due to odd or slow swinging arc - but a crowbar?  Really?  C'mon man.

 

@ dvsilverwing - melee could use some work.  My biggest issue right now is the ridiculous difference in swing style and relative accuracy compared to whether or not you have a weapon "readied".  It is more effective to use the Axe unreadied due to the diagonal swing style as opposed to the nearly vertical swing style of being readied.  Really it probably should only be the vertical style, and I'd like to see coding that forces an "ready weapon" animation before you can use it - ie don't have your axe readied, zombie catches you off guard, click to attack, take a half second for transition animation of readying weapon to complete before swing animation begins on first attack only.

 

I'm putting together a detailed post on melee and how I think it could be balanced, keep an eye out dvsilverwing and bring these issues up again if you want - I'd post my thoughts here, but graphs and the like....

[irishroy 1347]

it's likely going to be fixed in the future if dean can actually stop counting his money and start working on the game

He does/they do.

 

man, this game is out for less than 2 months.... ;)

Edited February 3, 2014 by irishroy