Melee weapons - Lenght considiration

[ToySmokes 116]

Okey so without taking in consideration that the dev team has already thought of this, I wanted to share an idea that I think would balance the whole aspect of long and short melee weapons in DayZ. This is a long read but I believe it will be worth it if you care about helping improve the game.

(All links go to the DayZ Wiki)

Informational part (Idea at second caption)

As all you survivors probably know already, the long melee weapons such as the firefighter axe, sledgehammer  and the baseball bat all go on our characters back. Now, there has been some debate whether or not one should have to add a rope to the weapon to be able to carry it on the back. No matter how you feel about this I have another idea to bring to the table. As of now we have a lot of different one-handed melee weapons as well as two-handed melee weapons. Almost all the one-handed melee weapons can't be carried on our backs, and I believe all the long ones can. (Forgive me if I'm wrong, it was a while since I played the game due to me not having my computer. If I'm wrong just ignore these facts and stay with me). Obviously though there are some exceptions such as the machete. As of now there are no real pattern to how much damage a weapon inflict as far as I can see (Wiki stats here for all melee weapons). 

Idea

Okay so with all that done, here are the actual proposal that in my world would add depth to the way melee weapons in DayZ work and also bring a new perspective of dealing with choices.

Lets say that you have one short splitting axe (no information found about the short one on the wiki) in front of you to the left, and one firefighter axe to the right of it. You are free to pick one of them up and leave. My obvious choice would be the firefighter axe since it;

1. Inflicts more damage to foes both by shock damage to the head and actual health loss, and...
2. Can be carried on the back (The short splitting axe can't)

My point is that there is no reason to pick up the shorter counterparts to the longer melee weapons right now.

So my idea is that instead of us being able to carry the long melee weapons on our backs, we should only be able to carry the short ones, and limit it to when we have some sort of backpack, vest or a weapon holster on our character since otherwise the weapon would (realistically) have nothing to hang from. 

So what about the long melee weapons you ask. Now it instead seems like no one would even consider picking up the firefighter axe anymore, since we can't carry it on our backs and the damage dealt by the longer melee weapons only dubbels to the shorter melee weapons right now (In some cases not even that). So how do we solve this and make us actually facing a choice with those two melee weapons in front of us.

Naturally we bump up the damage over all caused by the longer melee weapons to make them super powerful and effective. You would be able to one-hit kill humans as well as infected, hitting both body and head, making you super deadly up close (this is for the sharp melee weapons only. The obtuse ones have the same effect but in knock-out efficiency). The catch is that you would have to constantly carry the weapon in your hands since you can't place it on your back and it's to big to fit in a backpack. Also it would have a heavier swing (takes longer time to reach the target), making it possible for the other person to dodge or possibly parry the attack. 

Now to the short, one-handed melee weapons. You would be able to carry them on your back (assuming you have a backpack, vest or weapon holster on your character). But instead they are less effective, inflicting maybe three times less damage over all than the long melee weapons. On the other hand it would be handy in a situation where you need to quickly switch from melee to firearm since you can clear your hand of the melee weapon much faster (excluding the idea of throwing the long melee weapon away). The short melee weapons would also realistically speaking be faster swung against the opponent, making the attacks harder to avoid and/or parry.

Soft skills (Additional idea)

If this system I'm proposing would be implemented there is also a convenient door opening regarding the upcoming soft skills. My idea is that the more weight a character carries and the better he or she eats, the more weight he or she will be able to carry (if that makes sense). After eating good, cooked foot, drinking enough of good and purified water and carrying/lifting heavier weights per day, eventually the character would become stronger and be able to not only carry the short melee weapons, but the long, two-handed melee weapons as well, making that person both deadly at range (if they have a firearm in possession) and up close and personal. This adds a whole other depth to the character transformation and desire to keep your character alive, breathing new life to that whole "consideration" aspect of this game that Hicks always speaks about; (Deciding whether or not to engage or interfere in a firefight ect). It would also add one other way to see how "old" and experienced a character is (except for hair growth and possibly scars?). This way taking care of your character would pay off in a very concrete way.

Regarding how long the span of not being able to carry long melee weapons to being able to, should be: Not to short like 3 in-game days, but also not to long like 250 in-game days. The idea is that it shouldn't take to long time, but you should have to work for it and stay alive a very long time. Also this would mean that the day-night cycle stays sped up like I believe it is now (Version 0.60). (The timespan examples are only just that; examples)

That was it for me. Thank you for taking your time reading this! Open for a civilised discussion in the comments.

Yours truly, ToySmokes

Edited October 28, 2016 by ToySmokes
Clarification changes

[-Gews- 7443]

I agree that geared players should not be carrying around weapons like firefighter's axes and sledgehammers. That's absurd. Those should be only used by fresh spawns running around coastal cities, well-equipped players should carry light weapons like machetes, light hatchets, long knives, etc.

On 2/13/2015 at 10:28 PM, -Gews- said:

The way I see it, fire axes should be coastal bambi weapons. Once you have a decent rifle and ammo, you won't want to carry a giant axe as well. You would go for something lighter like the ice axe or a knife.

However I don't think they should be one-hit kills.

 

[ToySmokes 116]

@-Gews- Of corse the over all balancing of the damage inflicted per hit could be changed. One-hit kill might be too strong even considering the balancing I mentioned in the text. Don't you agree though that (if this idea where to be implemented) this idea would add a sort of "end-game" to the player in that sense that if you keep your character alive and well you will not only have great gear, but also be able to carry both firearms and more powerful melee weapons. It's like adding level restriction on weapons without the hard skills level mechanic, making it more organic instead.

[BeefBacon 1185]

22 hours ago, ToySmokes said:

Lets say that you have one short splitting axe (no information found about the short one on the wiki)

http://dayz.gamepedia.com/Hatchet

 

I like the idea of 'slings' automatically existing when we have something like a backpack. Weapons floating on your back does look pretty weird, it's true, and weapon slots being made available when you equip a backpack is a good middle ground between magic floating weapons and slings.

The main drawback of carrying a long melee weapon should be its weight. I'm not sure it should be any more complicated than that. Heavier weapons should be slower to swing but, usually, do more damage than lighter weapons. Geared players should want to use smaller melee weapons to cut down on weight. Most melee weapons have (or will have) some sort of special utility - axes are the best example of this as they can cut down trees. Players should want to keep a variety of tools on their person at any given time - a knife to skin animals, a hatchet to gather wood, a screwdriver or a wrench for vehicle repairs, so on. They're not only for use as a weapon. On that note, larger weapons that have a special utility (again, axes as an example) should be more effective than their smaller counterparts at performing that utility.

As a side note, different knives should have different strengths. An improvised stone knife should be objectively worse than a hunting knife, for example. It should be able to perform basic tasks extremely poorly until you can find, say, a kitchen knife.

I hope to see a rebalancing of melee weapons in general. Sometimes fists are a better option, and that is absurd.

[-Gews- 7443]

20 hours ago, ToySmokes said:

@-Gews- Of corse the over all balancing of the damage inflicted per hit could be changed. One-hit kill might be too strong even considering the balancing I mentioned in the text. Don't you agree though that (if this idea where to be implemented) this idea would add a sort of "end-game" to the player in that sense that if you keep your character alive and well you will not only have great gear, but also be able to carry both firearms and more powerful melee weapons. It's like adding level restriction on weapons without the hard skills level mechanic, making it more organic instead.

I don't think the "powerful" weapons (specifically fire axe, splitting axe, sledgehammer, and similar) should be considered end game gear, regardless of strength. They are just too heavy and cumbersome. In general I don't want to see people choosing to carry those heavy tools as melee weapons when they already have a gun. It's silly to have a guy with an assault rifle carrying a sledgehammer as well, so the game should penalize it. The top pick of the current melee weapons for an end game loadout should be the machete.