PC Feedback on Weapon Balance

[Dabeeto]

I was playing with some friends, and a few things really bothered me.  

Sledgehammer:   The pros of this weapon are non-obvious, if really any.  It swings so slowly and takes so much stamina, that between the loss of accuracy, the slowness of getting in multiple hits,  and the stamina drain, even finding a good sledgehammer early on (as a strength character) makes them unreliable... at best.    It's range is leaves you wanting (as it appears to be the same as any other club or tool).  

Spear:   So unless I'm missing something here, even the steel spear does very little damage with it's regular attack, compared to an early game iron weapon.    I understand it's decent for throwing, but they're easy to lose.  I had found a tier 6 steel spear, gave it to our precision guy, and he quickly lost it inside a building (not even in a grass plain).   Perhaps if they were much cheaper and/or had location marks (like the bicycle).   I also think it's a poor decision to mix "spear" and "javelin" terminology in the game.  Perhaps change both reference to "throwing spear" in all locations?   Harpoon could also be a possibility for a name change, and maybe you could make a version with an attached rope that keeps a target tethered to your throwing location for a period of time (short for pvp and future bandits, but fairly long for zombies and other 'dumb' creatures.)  

Stun Baton:  The stun baton also seems lacking in zombie killing power.  I assume the point is for it to "stun" things, but I don't have direct experience with it.  All I can say is, even with 10 intelligence and a Tier5 stun baton, our guy didn't care for it much and usually resorted to a baseball bat with hardly any strength.

Bows and Crossbows:  The realistic reason crossbows are "better" is because they require almost no skill to use, however they often took a long time to reload, especially compared to a bow and arrow.  Gamers, in general, prefer bows, which are often treated as "better" than a crossbow.  The reason for this is usually bows are harder to shoot (because of the severe arching) so to "balance" for this, usually their damage and/or speed is increased quite a bit compared to the more rifle-like crossbow.   I don't really see this in the game, with the crossbows being a better choice in every way as far as I can tell.  

 

[TWORDY]

Sledgehammer:   The pros of this weapon are non-obvious, if really any.  It swings so slowly and takes so much stamina, that between the loss of accuracy, the slowness of getting in multiple hits,  and the stamina drain, even finding a good sledgehammer early on (as a strength character) makes them unreliable... at best.    It's range is leaves you wanting (as it appears to be the same as any other club or tool). 

Personally I think Sledgehammer is one of the most lethal weapons in 7dtd. What I don`t necessarily support is the stamina drain. I`d rather balance the weapons just by the speed of the swing and thats all. Right now low tier stone Sledgehammer is more lethal than the steel one which makes sense without any further investment into perks. Idk... to some newcomers this would seem like some weapons are broken

 

[ElCabong]

Each weapon should have its advantages and disadvantages. Like you stated with the crossbow, is a high damage stealth weapon that is easy to use and slow to reload.

Each weapon has a skill tree associated with it, with crossbows and bows and pistols it is agility tree. The advantages and disadvantages of your weapon of choice gets better as you progress down the tree customizing the character you have created.

I haven't used sledgehammers yet so I'm not sure which tree that is, probably strength, but I am sure that but as you go down the tree that's associated with it, it gets better. I like bashing heads in so one of these days I will roll a character that uses blunt weapons.

Use the weapon you enjoy using, don't worry about which one is more powerful than the other unless your in to PvP. In which case you'll very quickly find out what that is because everybody is using it. If that changes with a new update, everybody will change to the new flavor of the day.

 

[Soulbreeze]

The Pro's of the Sledgehammer are because of the perks. It gets an AOE knockdown as you put points into the perk. The only weapon that can crowd control a group of zombies running at your face. It's pretty fantastic to power swing and see multiple zeds flop.

 

[Dabeeto]

ElCabong, it isn't though.  The crossbow is better in all categories than the bow (comparing same tier, as in the best of each type, or the worse of each type...)

 

Right now low tier stone Sledgehammer is more lethal than the steel one which makes sense without any further investment into perks.

huh?   It makes sense the stone one is better than the steel one?  How's that make sense?  Like, you can make a well balanced steel sledgehammer.  A rock on the end of a stick isn't going to be well balanced. 

Soulbreeze, that's interesting about the sledgehammer.  Although that feels like it's encroaching on what the stun baton is *supposed* to do. 

 

[pApA^LeGBa]

The stunbaton is supposed to freeze them in front of the junkturret, hence both are intellect. It´s damage is laughable compared to the sledgehammer, not really suitable to control a group of Z´s on it´s own. A heavy sledge can knock down a group due to it´s pure weight. How is that supposed to work with the tiny baton?

The spear is pretty good. Throwing needs practice and if you miss you switch to another weapon until you get it again. You can´t play spear only anyways. Well not for long. Early game a stone spear is a very powerfull weapon and as it is easy to make you can just carry two or more of them.

I use crossbows as soon as i can instead of bows. Simply due to the higher damage.

Knifes are a bit underrated. But i have to say, that the bleeding effect makes them very attractive. Going archery/deepcuts right at start is a nice combo. Get two arrows at them, then stab them. Works pretty good even with a bone shiv and can be combined with hidden strike and from the shadows nicely as they are all agility perks.