Changes I'd Make To The Perception Tree

[Paiper Zombee]

Just some ideas I had for the Perception Tree after spending a lot of time with it recently and wanted some feedback.

Spear (Weapon)

First, I'd say that spears would always have a chance to cause 1 bleed effect by default. No more needing that from books or parts.

The Perk Tree

The perk for "The Infiltrator" would be removed. It would have it's ability to pick up, take less damage, and the delayed trigger from land mines and board traps distributed across the levels of Demolitions Expert.

To replace the loss of "The Infiltrator" we'd get a perk called "Parry".

Parry
Use the stick/pole that the blade of your spear is attached to to parry incoming attacks.
Level 1 Gives a 10% chance to parry incoming attacks
Level 2 Gives a 20% chance to parry incoming attacks
Level 3 Gives a 30% chance to parry incoming attacks
Level 4 Gives a 40% chance to parry incoming attacks
Level 5 Gives a 50% chance to parry incoming attacks

Perception Mastery
Due to the introduction of Parry, it would also change some things in the Perception Mastery and the Spear Hunter Books. Mastery would be restructured as:

Level 1 Blood Rush
Attacks with the rifle now cause 1 stack of the bleed effect. Bleeding effects can now stack up to 4 by using the spear or rifle weapons.

Level 2 Salvage Specialist
Now includes the perks from Cushion Crawler.

Level 3 Counter Attack
Parried attacks will now also cause 1 stack of the bleed effect.

Level 4 Deadly Parry
Parried attacks will now trigger Spear Hunter Vol 7: Deadly Combo as long as you have read the associated book.

Level 5 Blood Shot (Replaces Long Shot)
Rifle shots deal 50% more damage and inflict 1 extra stack of the bleed effect.

For the Spear Hunter Books, only Vol 3 would change.

Spear Hunter Vol 3: Bleeding Damage
Spears have a 25% to cause 2 stacks of the bleed effect. (Changed from 25% chance to cause bleeding damage.)

 

[Riamus]

As a spear player, I wouldn't want to change Spear Master to include bleed effects as part of the perks. If anything, I'd just make bleed from bladed weapons include the spear since it can be considered bladed. I get that some people prefer to kite everything and let them die from bleeding, but I don't enjoy that kind of game. I hold my ground as much as possible and look to kill enemies quickly, which means bleeding has basically no impact. Adding it to Spear Mastery wastes the perks for me. Leaving it in Perception Mastery lets people who want it have it without wasting points for those who don't need it.

As far as parrying, I suppose that is okay, though there are so many damage reduction and negation perks already that I don't think we should have more of them. We shouldn't become invincible. Besides, if parrying was added to the game, it should work for most melee weapons. It would be strange that only spears are allowed to parry.

In short, I like how it is now. That doesn't mean it can't see some changes, but bleed and parry aren't really what I want from spears.

 

[SabinSnake PS5#1]

I don't even know why bleed damage on zombies is even a thing in the game to begin with. People become zombies from either death by loss of too much bood or the virus kills em from exposure to it from open/bite wounds. And suddenly zombies can die from bleeding? Yet movies have shown zombies in skeletal form with no blood... Makes zero sense! Bleed damage shouldn't exist for zombies, since all internal organs are shut down, cept for the partial brain activity.

 

[Paiper Zombee]

As a spear player, I wouldn't want to change Spear Master to include bleed effects as part of the perks. If anything, I'd just make bleed from bladed weapons include the spear since it can be considered bladed. I get that some people prefer to kite everything and let them die from bleeding, but I don't enjoy that kind of game. I hold my ground as much as possible and look to kill enemies quickly, which means bleeding has basically no impact. Adding it to Spear Mastery wastes the perks for me. Leaving it in Perception Mastery lets people who want it have it without wasting points for those who don't need it.

As far as parrying, I suppose that is okay, though there are so many damage reduction and negation perks already that I don't think we should have more of them. We shouldn't become invincible. Besides, if parrying was added to the game, it should work for most melee weapons. It would be strange that only spears are allowed to parry.

In short, I like how it is now. That doesn't mean it can't see some changes, but bleed and parry aren't really what I want from spears.

Spears get bleed capability from book 3 in the Spear Hunter book series, from Perception Mastery, and from the Serrated Mod. So if you're trying to avoid having the bleed effect then one would have to remove the mod, skip out on the Mastery perk, which you technically can't if you want to progress that tree, and skip out on book 3 in the Spear Hunter series. I see no benefit to that, but to each their own.

The Perception playstyle (at least to me) has always been about playing keep away from the enemies, since spears have the longest hit distance, and snipers are the ultimate distance gun. Out of all the trees Perception is the only one with no damage mitigation perks, or any injury reducing perks. This leads me to further believe that perception is supposed to be played in the keep away style, just like Agility when caught out of stealth, instead of trying to play it like a Strength or Fortitude build where it's all about standing your ground.

Parry was an idea I had to give the Perception Tree some type of damage mitigation, and the expansion to the bleeds was to allow Spears more functionality with the whole "keep away" playstyle. Kiting (in my opinion again) has always been part of the Perception playstyle. Having the expanded bleed effects would minimize the kiting time.

I don't even know why bleed damage on zombies is even a thing in the game to begin with. People become zombies from either death by loss of too much bood or the virus kills em from exposure to it from open/bite wounds. And suddenly zombies can die from bleeding? Yet movies have shown zombies in skeletal form with no blood... Makes zero sense! Bleed damage shouldn't exist for zombies, since all internal organs are shut down, cept for the partial brain activity.

You're also talking about a game where zombies can dig with the power of an auger, and bash concrete and steel blocks with their bare hands. And have you seen how agile and smart zombies can be for something that's supposed to be dead? They can duck and dodge melee hits, and (my favorite) trying to hit a runner or sprinter with a sniper causes them to zig and zag to avoid being hit, despite the creature having no idea you're aming at them. So zombies/creatures bleeding, not a big deal to me. lol.

 

[SabinSnake PS5#1]

Spears get bleed capability from book 3 in the Spear Hunter book series, from Perception Mastery, and from the Serrated Mod. So if you're trying to avoid having the bleed effect then one would have to remove the mod, skip out on the Mastery perk, which you technically can't if you want to progress that tree, and skip out on book 3 in the Spear Hunter series. I see no benefit to that, but to each their own.

The Perception playstyle (at least to me) has always been about playing keep away from the enemies, since spears have the longest hit distance, and snipers are the ultimate distance gun. Out of all the trees Perception is the only one with no damage mitigation perks, or any injury reducing perks. This leads me to further believe that perception is supposed to be played in the keep away style, just like Agility when caught out of stealth, instead of trying to play it like a Strength or Fortitude build where it's all about standing your ground.

Parry was an idea I had to give the Perception Tree some type of damage mitigation, and the expansion to the bleeds was to allow Spears more functionality with the whole "keep away" playstyle. Kiting (in my opinion again) has always been part of the Perception playstyle. Having the expanded bleed effects would minimize the kiting time.


You're also talking about a game where zombies can dig with the power of an auger, and bash concrete and steel blocks with their bare hands. And have you seen how agile and smart zombies can be for something that's supposed to be dead? They can duck and dodge melee hits, and (my favorite) trying to hit a runner or sprinter with a sniper causes them to zig and zag to avoid being hit, despite the creature having no idea you're aming at them. So zombies/creatures bleeding, not a big deal to me. lol.

Depends on what you have Ai block damage percentage at, I have it set on 25% to make em weak to not break through objects so easily, which is not much different from a person trying to break stuff with their fist, it takes more time to do it, you're just asking for trouble having the percentage on high. You can make em walk instead of run or sprint too, I still die a lot even when they're walking, having em run or sprint is too insane. It's TFP's fault for making em smart, too bad there's no option to change it.

 

[Jost Amman]

I think Perception should also give you the capability to see the health bar of enemies (in general).
To enable the health bar normally feels gamey to me, but to have it activate because my toon is very perceptive, makes much more sense.

 

[Paiper Zombee]

Depends on what you have Ai block damage percentage at, I have it set on 25% to make em weak to not break through objects so easily, which is not much different from a person trying to break stuff with their fist, it takes more time to do it, you're just asking for trouble having the percentage on high. You can make em walk instead of run or sprint too, I still die a lot even when they're walking, having em run or sprint is too insane. It's TFP's fault for making em smart, too bad there's no option to change it.

When I play solo I tend to tweak the numbers, but I do the majority of my play on a multiplayer server, so I'm at the mercy of those settings.

Hopefully when the advanced settings come with sandbox mode there will be an option for "dumb" zombies, which will make them behave more like zombies and not do all of the advanced combat maneuvers. If they did this, though, I'd hope they'd give us options to control how the other creature types behave. It would be cool to have Romero style zombies with no advanced combat maneuvers that shamble (day or night), but the Mutated types, Irradiated, and Charged can run during the day, sprint at night, and use the advanced combat maneuvers.

I think Perception should also give you the capability to see the health bar of enemies (in general).
To enable the health bar normally feels gamey to me, but to have it activate because my toon is very perceptive, makes much more sense.

I've been playing with a mod on that shows the enemy health that I forgot this is still not an official thing in the game. That would be a good idea. But what Perception talent to tie it to?

 

[Jost Amman]

I've been playing with a mod on that shows the enemy health that I forgot this is still not an official thing in the game. That would be a good idea. But what Perception talent to tie it to?

The main attribute level: when you reach Perception lvl. (e.g.) 5, you can also start noticing how bad your enemies are hurt.