One of the more important suggestions a dev could read. Will literally increase the game's chance of success two-fold. (Seriously.)

[choobie 0]

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. :)

Edited November 16, 2014 by choobie

[therandomredstone 431]

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 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. :)

You've really thought about this haven't you? While im not sure about them implementing takedown animations. I do know that they are going to fix the melee fighting with zombies. What I was thinking about was when you hit a zombie, it resets the amount of time before it can hit you again, ex: a zombie is about to hit you, but you hit it, it "jolts" or "reacts" to the punch, and the time before it can hit again ex:2 seconds, is reset, so that means a zombie couldn't hit you or even swing at you when you are hitting it!

Oh my GOD.... this is how they are going to do it.... Jesus god.... YESS A SOLUTION!

[Jhunt7507 29]

They just need to fix the engine. I can usually take zombies pretty easily with a fireaxe. You just have to engage them at the right distance and time

[Caboose187 (DayZ) 3036]

They just need to fix the engine. I can usually take zombies pretty easily with a fireaxe. You just have to engage them at the right distance and time

As Jack Burton once said, "It's all in the reflexes"  :D

[11tw 106]

I think that this would be a good fix, as it eliminates all of the problems with the current system... also accomodates players with laptop scrollpads rather than proper mouses. As long as it existed in tandem with the other system I think it would be cool (also a good way to implement stealth kills, pressing a key when crouching to take out a zed silently using a certain weapon).

Keep in mind that this is basically in the Last of Us, a game that Dayz would do well to emulate in terms of controls.

Edited November 15, 2014 by 11tw

[mfdayz 18]

personally I'd rather just have the engine get fixed and tweak zombies to make them more interesting. I have never been a fan of things that take control away from the player such as kill animations, quicktime events, etc.

[agentstaple 29]

I suggested a spear on the weapons thread the other day.

 

It would be long enough that you can attack without being in range but you could only stab and after stabbing there would be a delay before you can attack again. If you hit a zombie in the body it would fall (2/3body hits would kill it) and if you hit it in the head it would die. But, your spear would sway if you have been running, so if you are running from a zombie and turn to attack it you would have to time your attack right. Moving would also make the spear sway more so you can stop and get less sway but risk being hit by the zombie.

[BeefBacon 1185]

I'd like to see a Mount and Blade style melee system, where your angle of attack, speed and weapon type all play into how much damage you do. For example, a fire axe would do a lot of damage when swung, but you could easily whiff by hitting the target with the handle rather than with the head of the axe making it impractical for extreme close-quarters. A knife or machete, however, are smaller weapons and so do less damage but are much more reliable against closer targets, especially when used to stab (rather than swing).

 

An ideal attack would be one where your weapon is moving at its fastest when being swung and where the character is moving towards the target for increased forward momentum.

[Troll_Hunter 54]

I agree with melee combat is a problem in Dayz.

 

It is unrealistic, ambiance breaking unrealistic, and has a big luck factor, low framerates, very poor feedback.

 

The quick time animation sequence would camouflage the limitations of the game-engine, and turn the player choice in a 100% gamble. I do not know about other players, but I like games where there is no such gambling. I prefer chess over dicey games ;)

 

I do not know how or if they can improve the melee combat system at a reasonable cost.

 

I like to ask for a better feedback system. Ragdoll animation of impacts on characters, both with melee and projectile combat. So when hit from an angle the limb and body reacts in a believable way. This means a running player hit in the leg would fall over, and would need a short moment to recover (if he can) and limp to safety.

I'm not sure the engine, servers and netcode can do all this, since it already struggles with having decent update rates for all the other things it has to do now.

 

Remember that zombie games are there because they need much less complicated code (cheaper). Maybe gamers want to see some more believable 'zombies'? Maybe something like a bunch of desperate,aggressive hungry short sighted homeless people, or wild roaming refugees inside their own country, or a gangs lead by a crazed psychopaths. I don't know, but just the word zombie is too shallow for me, I like to see more humanity and depth to these characters.

Edited November 16, 2014 by Troll_Hunter

[bobotype3334 160]

NO QuickTimeEvents PLEASE.
Your suggestion is nice but the very idea of a drop down menu hanging around while you're in mid-combat would greatly hurt immersion, like some kind of Clippy.
Keep control in the player's hands, even if we're going to be at the whim of game bugs, this isn't Ryse.

But yes, melee combat needs to be very risky for players so that guns are a zombie killing weapon instead of saving your bullets for KoSing players. A good way to encourage this would be edged weapons like the fire axe doing more damage than their blunt friends, but sticking in the wound if swung too closely to the target, so that you have to let go of the weapon or try and wrench it free for a few seconds.

Edited November 18, 2014 by bobotype3334

[OrLoK 16182]

Hello there

 

I personally loathe those consolian "mash X now to escape" combat / interaction things. Alien Isolation is full of them. Horrid.

 

Rgds

 

LoK