If you put a metal weapon directly into heat ie. campfire, it will glow red hot and do more damage. Sharp weapons will no longer deal bleed damage and hot weapons will lose durability quicker.
Getting weapons stuck:
If you deal a heavy blow with a sharp weapon, it might get stuck in the surface you just hit. So if you cleave a zombie in the skull with a cleaver, it would lodge in his head and you’d have to right-click to remove it.
Throwing your weapons
You should be able to throw almost every melee weapon but some weapons are better thrown then not. vice versa. There could be different throwing stats for weapons, like accuracy, distance, and velocity. If you upgrade a throwing skill or something, then these stats could be improved.
whether a weapon has applied rotation when thrown could be a factor to your weapon. A rotating weapon could deal more damage than a non-rotating one.
maybe something like multiplying damage by angular velocity and velocity would work.
I think it would be funny if you threw a regular knife and it just bounced off an enemy because the handle hit the bad guy instead of the blade. It could be a risk of rotating throwing weapons.
Using non-weapons as weapons
I want to be able to throw a can of hot beans at somebody and watch their skin melt from the bean grease.
I’ve wanted to be able to throw bricks for so long… and throwing knives would be super dope. I’m picturing the sledgehammer flying through the air though, I definitely wanna see that
I think you’re right about that, sharp weapons should cause you to bleed still. After all, sharp stuff cuts. And stabs. On the contrary, I think dull weapons/blunt force (like sledgehammer, not the shotgun) should break bones.
The cleaver or knife stuck in the zombie’s head should only happen in case of hit kill, it is frustrating to be with a horde behind you and probably lose your only weapon.
Heated weapons look cool, but I don’t know if they would be very useful in combat, I think it depends a lot on how long it stays warm, if it is too short it will be useless, if it is too long, it is very anti-immersive, so I believe it is the main difficulty would be to find an adequate time for the weapon to stay warm until it cools.
Stuck weapons can be linked with throwing weapons, if they hit correctly, I believe they should be stuck, but getting stuck just by hitting them can be very frustrating, just like @anonimoanbu said.
When throwing weapons you should have a 50% chance of hitting the hilt, giving a very small amount of damage (especially when compared to if you hit it correctly), with which the weapon bounces off.
This chance of rebounding could be decreased according to the player’s skill progress (skill in the game, not in real life).
Charging your weapon, holding rightclick will wind your arm back. The longer you hold the button the more accurate, fast and reliable the throwing weapon will be. Throwing weapons like hatchets and knives will make this pretty much a must if you want to hit accurately
but spears will be more accurate with less charging, since they don’t spin like other weapons.
For game mechanics I’d assume they’d deal more damage because of the pain that would be expected. I’m assuming that a hot knife would have a similar effect to burning yourself on a stove or something.