Melee aiming - post your info

[Robert Neville 59]

Since the 0.49 patch, the melee combat is REALLY messed up.  It is extremely difficult to hit.

 

I fought a female zombie with the telescopic baton and perhaps hit her once in 20 blows.  Do you have any idea where you must aim to hit?

 

For the crowbar, aim slightly right of target.  Axe and fists, aim over head.  But for the baton?

[Evil Minion 943]

Look at the animation - if you direct your weapon into your target (ignoring the white dot) you will hit most of the time.

 

Many of the twohanded weapons are not all that difficult and hit not very far from the middle (seems to be a very steep diagonal strike).

Knifes slashes hit to the right - but obviously so.

Onehanded stabs are close to the center (includes ashwood stick).

The Fire Extinguisher is very easy to hit with - if you have problems in melee try it out.

The Pitchfork is strange - seems like the tracers are smaller than the model.

Baseball Bats hit to the far right - best to aim at your target and then when you start the strike turn left.

A Hammer is very short and you might need to move towards your target even if already in kissing range - but its good for finishing off downed zombies.

[Red_Ensign 990]

I prettymuch aim for the heart and connect pretty quickly, half the time on the first or second swing (with a fire axe).  if I don't have a fire axe I don't try melee.

[Robert Neville 59]

if I don't have a fire axe I don't try melee.

 

So what do you do?  You run?

[Irish. 4886]

Between belly button and heart area gets me a hit every time. 

 

Now if Im trying for headshots, I aim for the neck where it ends at the shirtline to the chin. 

 

Basically, aim low.

[Red_Ensign 990]

So what do you do?  You run?

 

you don't HAVE to fight everything you see....

[MaxTheSurvivor 152]

Let the Z run on you and when it's about 10m away (right before it attacks) run quickly on the right side (character is right handed) to find yourself behind him and hit with your melee weapon. If you miss or if the Z is still alive repeat this. Don't be impatient or it will hit you and maybe ruin something. Take your time.

[MountGreen 20]

Don't know about you guys but on my DayZ it seems I have to stay completely still throughout the animation of a melee hit otherwise nothing is registered. I basically do what MaxThesurvivor said above, dodge stand behind them, hit, repeat.

[The-MCV- 149]

It's a bit better now actually, for me. Last patch it was a bit of a pain, though. The original melee was kind of bad also, looked like a lag-hit. You just hit in the air and the damage occurred the next second, to the misfortune of whatever you were aiming at. Wasn't too challenging.

[Parazight 1599]

I always aim for the family jewels.   Zombie, male player, female, melee, sniping, close quarters combat, it doesn't matter.

[Karmaterror 982]

From my little run last night I found that aiming just above the head with fists scored a headshot most times(3pp) just below the head for 1pp. If I get a melee weapon tonight il post results.

 

Wasn't it gonna be just a simple aim and click with this patch while hit detection got fixed? That's how I was playing it anyway, seemed right with having to aim a little high in 3pp :)

[kimmaz 63]

I usually hit the head all day! It just take practice.... I usually point/aim the little dot to the left of the zombie's body. And I would be as close to the zombie that I cant walk forward cause I bump into it. I move my mouse left as I swing my weapon. If you aim your dot in the middle of the screen at the zombie you will not hit it.

[Sirwarriant12 94]

I have zero issues as long as I aim lower on their bodies.

[St. Jimmy 1631]

"Monkey zombies" are very messed up. You only hit their head with a luck. The whole melee system feels very clunky.

[Abram_ 40]

Works fine, but the post-leap movement of the crawling zombies is weird, and a bit annoying.

Certainly far better than the .48 version.

[Avant-Garde 229]

Look at the animation - if you direct your weapon into your target (ignoring the white dot) you will hit most of the time.

 

Many of the twohanded weapons are not all that difficult and hit not very far from the middle (seems to be a very steep diagonal strike).

Knifes slashes hit to the right - but obviously so.

Onehanded stabs are close to the center (includes ashwood stick).

The Fire Extinguisher is very easy to hit with - if you have problems in melee try it out.

The Pitchfork is strange - seems like the tracers are smaller than the model.

Baseball Bats hit to the far right - best to aim at your target and then when you start the strike turn left.

A Hammer is very short and you might need to move towards your target even if already in kissing range - but its good for finishing off downed zombies.

Nice post man! Even "knowing" how the tracers are drawn (imo bohemia should demonstrate this to us somehow, in Chivalry:Medieval Warfare there is a console command that shows the tracers), there are plenty of inconsistencies caused by lag and whatnot

 

In my opinion the range and the fast release times (that is, the time it takes to draw the full arc of an attack) are what makes this game melee bad. But that would be b0lonce and probably is better to fix when in beta. Bigger release times could do miracles to this game's melee mechanic.

Edited September 29, 2014 by Avant-Garde

[ebrim 998]

So I've never had the same problems that many seem to have regarding melee. It struck me the other day that this may simply be an artifact of my only ever playing on 1st person servers.

 

That said, I'm going to give the same piece of melee advice I normally do. Screwdriver and bayonet are your friend, a simple thrusting motion is very easy to aim and with a hit to the head you'll down the zombie quick. Even if you don't take a moment to pause and aim you'll rack up enough hits in a short enough time that they'll die without the headshot. The only current downside to this tactic is that due to the quick nature of the attack you are more prone to the bug that causes you to switch hotbar item. Hammers are actually very effective for somewhat similar reasons, the attack animation is pretty linear in front of you and a bit of blunt trauma to the head is not appreciated by zeds.

[Jonah_Hobbes 171]

 I had a hard time shooting Zeds last night,taking several shots more to kill one, many times the shots just missed and this was at short range. Never had a problem with it before wondering if there was just a touch of lag as it was worse with other players around.

 

The melee is taking me two hits with a fire axe to kill soldiers, anything else is one hit but it can seem wildly inaccurate sometimes taking 3 hits which is ridiculous really. The only time I'm sure I'm going to kill is taking Z from behind when it's  still.

 

Like I said this is all fairly recent and I've never had issues before my break from the game.

 

Good advice on here though and will try and aim lower which seems to be the consensus.

[Robert Neville 59]

Thanks all for the info.  I never had any issue before 0.49 and was able to kill zombies with one blow.  It's the 0.49 patch that introduced a lot of problems.

Edited September 30, 2014 by Robert Neville

[lorenz00 0]

I aim slightly above the head, that way I know it's a headshot. The easiest I find are the pickaxe/axe, however strangely enough the Fire ext is a close second. If I don't have any of the three I just use my fists and aim for the head... the white dot slightly above the zombies face.

[Camisado2 83]

I've learned, dont fuck with zombies unless you have a hoe or axe. The other day I got pinned in between a wall and a dining table in the pub, with a zombie blocking my exit. He pummeled me and I pummeled him with a bat, the only time I noticed that I was making contact was when I aimed for the midsection while moving forward. I ended up dieing tho. I might as well have been throwing zucchinis at him

[flimsypremise 94]

I think the source of the problem is that the view angles on the player in both 1st and 3rd person do not give you a very good sense of how far your weapon reaches. Most misses are falling short of the target, because you can't actually every see the point of impact with parts of the player model in the way. I think the answer lies in a better UI for melee combat, rather than any deficiencies in how hits are registered.