PC Alpha 18 zombies are too tanky early on.

I have to say that I like it where it's at too. The first few days can be a real struggle, and it's great!

It is my favorite part of the game. I wish I felt the same throughout an entire playthrough, but it quickly switches from a struggle to survive to how fast can I refill my ammo supply.

If this ever changes, it probably would not mean that I stop playing entirely... mainly because I would have hope that it would get changed back, and there is always the modding possibility. If the changes did stick and lasted to gold release, and for some reason it just could not be modded back, I'm pretty sure it would be over for me.

 
The biggest issue I have with low damage melee weapons (at least early game) is that you need such a tremendous amount of hits that you actually trigger their rage all the time.
I've started a pure Fortitude build yesterday and even though I got very lucky on day 1 to find Q3 Iron knuckles, with 3 points in Fortitude and 1 in brawler, they still only had 9 dmg and 19 power attack damage. The knuckle wraps I crafted first had 6 dmg and 12 power attack damage; my Q1 stone spear has a power attack damage of 39, with no points in perception/spears. When you can't properly trade blows yet because of a lack of armor/pain tolerance, I can't help but think I'd be better off playing the spear for now : better range, no repair cost, better damage.

I'll keep on playing because I think overtime knuckles will feel amazing, but early game, not so much.
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I really like how weak we are early game now, it feels like true surviving a zombie apocalypse.

I find it helps to pick your fights, target the slower/weaker ones, turn the other way if you see that day 1 biker lol. Fortitude is ridiculously fun to play, has most of the survival perks, jab and hook combos all day, once leveled up I was keeping 3-4 zombies constantly on the ground on insane/nightmare. It doesn't hit as hard as the sledge but boy does it feel good.

 
I would not want zombie HP scaled with our progression. That's anti-progression. I welcome the fact that increased GS starts to add the more dangerous zombies to the mix, but that's not enough....it needs to increase the number of zombies, and the frequency and size of wandering hordes. I've been to GS 500+ in A18 and the only difference I saw from day #1 was more Cops, Ferals, Wights and Irradiated etc and less normal zombies. I did not see increased zombie numbers in total; the world was still mostly empty and dull.

 
Spears are garbage, club perks are weak ,knives are crop harvest gimmicks and axes are mediocre .

Sledge hammers are the only melee weapon worth taking exclusively for their crowd control ability. Everything else feels garbage. Zombies just tank too much hits and headshots deal laughable damage to zombies.

 
I might be missing something here, don't the level 1 trader quests still send you a GREAT distance away to find something?
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T1 and T2 buried supplies quest are usually within 500 meters, T1 have 1 recipe every time(very good if you plan on skipping master chef) and T2 usually a gun or a mod

 
Tanky enemies vs primitive weapons is supposed to be a challenging endeavor. The game is balanced for Nomad. At nomad the primitive weapons down the zombies pretty quickly. Higher than that and it is a battle with lots of opportunities for zombie rage to occur which makes close quarter fighting when trying to clear a POI more challenging. That’s why it’s a higher difficulty.
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Not anymore, the game is balanced for Adventurer, that is now the default difficulty. I'm not sure what the number differences are between the two but Nomad feels more like what I would expect out of two bumps in difficulty not one. On adventurer with a stone spear it usually takes a few hits to knockdown a Zombie then finish it with a throw while it's on the ground and you can't lose your spear. On Nomad it takes probably twice as many hits to get that knockdown and the follow up throw seems to only be enough on the weakest zombies. The zombies also can be counted on to enrage every time if their head doesn't explode early.

 
Not anymore, the game is balanced for Adventurer, that is now the default difficulty. I'm not sure what the number differences are between the two but Nomad feels more like what I would expect out of two bumps in difficulty not one. On adventurer with a stone spear it usually takes a few hits to knockdown a Zombie then finish it with a throw while it's on the ground and you can't lose your spear. On Nomad it takes probably twice as many hits to get that knockdown and the follow up throw seems to only be enough on the weakest zombies. The zombies also can be counted on to enrage every time if their head doesn't explode early.
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You are mistaken. Though Adventurer is the default setting, the game is balanced to Nomad difficulty. I've seen the devs post this several times on the forum.

 
The biggest issue I have with low damage melee weapons (at least early game) is that you need such a tremendous amount of hits that you actually trigger their rage all the time.
I've started a pure Fortitude build yesterday and even though I got very lucky on day 1 to find Q3 Iron knuckles, with 3 points in Fortitude and 1 in brawler, they still only had 9 dmg and 19 power attack damage. The knuckle wraps I crafted first had 6 dmg and 12 power attack damage; my Q1 stone spear has a power attack damage of 39, with no points in perception/spears. When you can't properly trade blows yet because of a lack of armor/pain tolerance, I can't help but think I'd be better off playing the spear for now : better range, no repair cost, better damage.

I'll keep on playing because I think overtime knuckles will feel amazing, but early game, not so much.
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The spear power attack is so high because you have to throw it, depriving yourself of a weapon till you pick it back up. I personally prefer sledgehammers, even a tier 1 iron sledge, with 1 mod in it will 3 shot standard male zombies on warrior difficulty, probally 2 shot them on nomad. Its why I keep saying the only viable melee weapons mid/late game are sledge, followed by club aka baseball bat, the rest? just don't really measure up not in damage or in secondary effects. I do not turret cheese either. i've never used a junk turret once for extra dmg when meleeing with my sledge, I just have no need to, most zombies are on the floor after my first swing especially if its a headshot, and they are dead before they can get back up. I've also never used one on horde night either, though I should consider it if I get a decent quality one for some extra dps. Once you get 3-4 in sledgehammers it gets fun, as your power attack now has a good chance to aoe knockdown a entire pack, mind you it can do this anyway on a power attack due to the glancing blows system.

Knuckles probally need a high tier steel knuckle to be anything good, as it then has about the same damage as a iron club, which is kinda sad when you consider steel knuckles need parts and is a higher tier but thats a whole can-o-worms for balance issues.

 
You are mistaken. Though Adventurer is the default setting, the game is balanced to Nomad difficulty. I've seen the devs post this several times on the forum.
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Even on nomad most of the other melee weapons save for sledge/clubs(baseball bat is also considered a club) just fall short past midgame. They lack the good secondary effects, bleed is useless, as it does its damage too slow, nor does it even stack properly for that matter. Spears, won't knockdown unless you throw your weapon at them, which imo tossing your weapon is a stupid move period. Stun baton, i'm not even going to get started, you can breathe on zombies for more damage than that puts out. The only other weapon that might be viable mid game (but not late game) is probally knuckles, as with the weighted head mod and the perks it has a decent knockdown chance, and knockdown is pretty much king for secondary effects. Its downside is the range is so bad your most likely going to get hit if you don't knock them down on that first punch.

 
I can see knuckles being viable for sure, I've never used the bat. But I can def see clubbing being not very strong, and yeah I agree on the stun baton. It's wonderful early but man, idk I know the damage is low due to the stun, but you have to hit several times if not lucky. I know you can use it in combo with something else, but when you're facing a pack of zombies, stunning one of them every so often really doesn't do anything. I say let you charge it somehow and have it stun everytime with a chance of faulting after some uses. Not every weapon needs to be the "op i can use this all the time", but stun baton needs some love :) Maybe a bleed for the spear (I don't notice bleeding even with a serrated blade mod on it)

 
Spears, won't knockdown unless you throw your weapon at them, which imo tossing your weapon is a stupid move period.
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It's not a stupid move, it's a spear. You can either throw it or drop it. If it's steel, maybe you can be bothered selling it, the parts would take a spot anyway.
What, you'd seriously suggest I'd try to tickle a zed with this thing? :)

 
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