I’VE FINALLY FINISHED THIS THING (Postponed it several times)
Maybe we can all agree that melee needs to be enhanced. I had already my own thoughts on that, but I decided to make it because I think that there’s lack of in-depth posts about it. Also, was formulating my ideas in order to complement and develop some existant ideas further, also adding some new ones compatible to ideas like these (and other ones).
WARNING: lacked of audiovisual content, as I couldn’t find any of it to explain ideas better. Expect loads of text.
Weapons and attacks rework
Starting with the basics, talking about tweaked and likely more detailed classification of weapons/tools, strenght and general offensive usage.
Weapons categories
- Blunt: intended as all those melee weapons or tools designed to hit with solid and brute impact force, causing bruising and crushing damage to the opponent. These would be hammers, bats, crowbars, etc.
- Bladed: these are any kind of weapon or tool with a bladed edge (most of these made of metal) designed to slash and cutting apart at the opponent. These would be knives, axes, scythes, etc.
- Piercing: weapons or tools mainly designed for stabbing, piercing through the opponent causing high damage in a concentrated wound area (bullets do this same, but at range). These would be stakes, pickaxes, pitchforks, etc. (I also suggest a bit more of variety for this type, e.g. stakes, chisels, hand drills, etc.)
- Other: these would be weapons or tools that have an specific or unique type of damage that doesn’t fit in three previous cathegories. E.g.: blowtorches (fire), tasers (if added; electric), etc.
Melee strength
Determined by skills plus held weapon, doesn’t just determine the damage you cause to other player, but also determines how much probabilities you have of disarming an enemy upon a strong hit (blunt weapons being the best for this purpose). Also, strength determines how severe harm effects will be (bleeding, broken bones).
Charged attacks should remain the same as current mechanics: stronger, yet slower and stamina consuming, also having stunning/shoving values depending on strength.
Attack styles
The kind of attacks you can perform depends on the type of weapon/tool you’re holding, as it may be used accordingly to weapon’s capabilities. Every attack type should have their own damage type, strength and speed, but all of these should be able to be charged.
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Swing/sweep: basic attack for both bladed and blunt melee, which may affect several enemies if used wisely. In 3.x you can only do this on you main hand’s direction, but in Unturned II should be enabled to do it side to side (like in Hotline Miami).
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Chop: downward attack, effectively performed by all melee. Strongest attack type that may stun and/or disarm the enemy.
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Jab: direct and frontal, mainly for one-handed and piercing melee. May stun enemies and push them away if strong enough.
References (self-experience)
Unturned
No More Room In Hell
Old School RuneScape
Hotline Miami
Weapon stance: weapons that can be held in more than single way can vary their attack types depending on current stance, e.g. reverse knives, on/off blowtorches and/or chainsaws, etc. (NMRIH and Cry of Fear as references)
Throwables
Theoretically, every single item ingame should be throwable. It could work with a key designed for dropping any held item, and if there’s a case on which the players want to throw it far away or to someone else, then hold the key and release.
It comes to terms of this topic when a melee weapon such as knives, hatchets, javelins, etc., can also be thrown to cause damage. For this, I suggest holding the drop key, then clicking to throw (just releasing the key would result in a non-offensive throw). (NMRIH as main reference)
New mechanics
Starting out with some ideas for new melee useful basic mechanics:
Dodging
Can either work by double tapping in a direction or by holding a specific key while moving. Just like jumping, it consumes stamina when used (sidestep length and stamina spent determined by skills). (CoF as main reference)
Bashing/shoving
Meant to push enemies away. If using guns, available as secondary melee attack for stunning and dealing moderate blunt damage (stabbing if bayonet). Has cooldown and consumes a small amount of stamina (bash force, cooldown time and stamina consumed determined by skills). (NMRIH as main reference)
- Tackle: occurs if used against anybody while sprinting, for overthrowing and disarming the enemy. Also consumes more stamina than regular shoving and it’s usable against weak objects to break them, e.g. doors, glass, etc.
Blocking
When blocking, any incoming melee attack will be blocked or deviated, having a small endurance bar (or increasing suppression blur) that indicates how much you can resist before overwhelmed by attacks therefor lowering your guard. If last blow before overwhelmed is too strong, you may get disarmed (overall endurance for this principle up to skills).
Note: you can only block attacks effectively if holding a 2-handed weapon agaisnt another 2-h or a single handed one. One-hand attacks would rather be deviated rather than blocked, but as those are faster than 2-h ones, those should be usually dodged. (some medieval games and SW: BF2 [Jedi’s blocking] as main references)
Ambushing and grappling
For engaing surprise attacks at enemies, having to choose between assassination or subduing the enemy when reaching it from its back, just like in Metro series. As I’m not sure if unconsciousness feature will be applied in game, subduing an enemy should lead directly to restraining, whereas if applied getting the enemy unconscious should be the third alternative to melee ambushes (or just unconscious, then restraining).
Being subdued when ambushed can be counteracted in the very last moment by grappling with the enemy. The skilled a player is, the more time available there is to react. Subduing an enemy after tackling could also be a very useful workaround when facing an enemy with a gun (can be counteracted by grappling too).
It was a pretty hard post to develop without the help of audiovisual material. However, if anyone got useful additions to point out, please comment below. I want to know your thoughts!
- All ideas are good and accurate
- What if instead…? (comment)
- I don’t like these ideas
