PC Power Attacks. Could they charge instead of the cooldown?

N

Nexian

New member
This would require some new animations, but the power attacks just don't match power attack of other games and it bugs me.

A power attack in this game is, press right button, it hits instantly, wait short while, do another.

A power attack in most games is, hold down the button, watch it charge up, release to perform attack.

The second system has a number of advantages:

1. Early release. You can release the power attack during the charge to deal a portion of the power attack damage. This would be damage between a normal attack and a power attack. Whether these half-hits count as power attacks would be up to the developer.

2. Holding an attack. Once an attack is charged, you can hold the button down indefinitely, keeping the attack ready. This could have you move slower without a perk or just be a way to add extra perks (e.g. "Holding a power attack for 3 seconds before release does X")

3. No weird cooldown. The cooldown is transferred to the charge up. You finish one attack and can instantly start pulling back your weapon into another power attack. There's no part where you aren't able to do anything and it feels smoother.

4. Having actual power attack charge and animation would just look cooler on screen. You are building up and putting effort into a larger attack with a heavy blow. Right now it just looks like a normal, instant blow.

 
Not that I'm really attached to the current power attack (it has its place and i use it when i NEED a stagger/knockdown), but I don't like this idea on its own merits.

I don't like the "gaminess" of it. It feels like a different way to do melee "just because." It would force me to walk around with a complicated set of buttons pressed all the time, even more so than this game already forces (OK, there's a zombie over there...lets hold "W", "shift", and RMB....get closer, release shift to get some stamina back....getting close to in-range, press shift to sprint forwards and release RMB). Additionally, the way you describe it, it would be MORE instant than our current power attack...even if you disabled sprint while holding RMB, what's to stop someone from walking thru a POI with their weapon constantly cocked, just so they can land a faster-than-normal, super-hard hit? it would be right back to the issue of "everyone would use power attacks all the time exclusively" - for combat at least...If i can precharge the attack an indefinite amount of time before the hit, i'd never go back to normal hits again.

I certainly think the melee system needs work....swinging a downward sledge hit to watch a zombie jerk their head sideways in their attack animation, and seeing my sledge pass thru their neck, collarbone, and chest - but getting a complete miss with my attack is incredibly frustrating, but i think pre-charged attacks isn't the way to go.

 
Has something changed very recently then? I was never using normal attacks as-is. I figured they were basically just for knives when you had the talent.

But, were power attacks not instant already but just very... underwhelming? I was already walking up and doing a RMB followed by Shift+S to avoid being hit back, I'm not sure moving counts as a combo.

The only thing this changes in terms of buttons is RMB is held instead of clicked, it won't add anything more. The cooldown on power attacks doesn't seem long enough to warrant holding a power attack charged at all times, especially if it blocks things such as looting for example. Plus, if you have to charge up an attack, that's something a zombie could potentially interrupt, giving more use to quick attacks

Maybe an easier way to limit power attack use is the same as aiming. Charging a power attack drains the stamina it will use, followed by a steady amount of stamina as you hold it. After all, we're talking about people holding a club or sledgehammer over their head or around their back for an extended period.

This is more of an aesthetic change that would allow more options later.

 
I actually thought this was what TFP had in mind when I first heard about power attacks being introduced. They could just make it work like drawing the bow and it would feel so much better than what we have right now. Without perks, I just don't see a single situation in my gameplay where I would rather use a power attack than a normal one.

swinging a downward sledge hit to watch a zombie jerk their head sideways in their attack animation, and seeing my sledge pass thru their neck, collarbone, and chest - but getting a complete miss with my attack is incredibly frustrating, but i think pre-charged attacks isn't the way to go.
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The best example of this is when you swing your axe from right to left, but because your reticle is slightly to the zombie's left you miss the zombie but somehow hit the wall behind it. I wish they added a small zone around the current hit zone that deals half damage or something, kind of like how in Demon's Souls battleaxes only do full damage when you hit the enemy with the bladed part of the weapon.

 
We talked about LMB press and hold to do power attacks and use the pipe bomb throw gui green ring to charge it up. RMB could be block/knockback. Another huge change people will complain we changed it lol. I think it would be awesome though.

 
On the upside, I'm pretty sure we'd complain about anything changing, ever :)

What is new is scary and wrong, and then it becomes the norm

 
Block/knockback - a thousand times yes please!!! Consider kick also. But anything that makes the melee more dynamic is welcome.

 
We talked about LMB press and hold to do power attacks and use the pipe bomb throw gui green ring to charge it up. RMB could be block/knockback. Another huge change people will complain we changed it lol. I think it would be awesome though.
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Awesome, indeed!

 
We talked about LMB press and hold to do power attacks and use the pipe bomb throw gui green ring to charge it up. RMB could be block/knockback. Another huge change people will complain we changed it lol. I think it would be awesome though.
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I think block/shove or knockback would make far more sense for gameplay reasons.

I'm still hoping you guys will fix the melee swing (clubs) it's quite frustrating with running zombies. It's probably the only thing that makes me just quit playing out of pure annoyance.

 
Making a weapon swing cause an actual collision zone to appear in the game world would make fighting way more intuitive, instead of it being a 'point and click' system.

Unfortunately I understand that implementing something like this comes with a host of difficulties, like literally everything to do with collisions.

Also interface issues, since the players will of course want to choose which way they're swinging something but won't want to deal with any additional keys (and god forbid a 'gesture' system).

Being unable to shove zombies has always kind of annoyed me about 7dtd, lots of other zombie games let you do this and it would make fighting up on roofs and such a lot more engaging, instead of just constantly backing away.

 
We talked about LMB press and hold to do power attacks and use the pipe bomb throw gui green ring to charge it up. RMB could be block/knockback. Another huge change people will complain we changed it lol. I think it would be awesome though.
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Trying to imagine using this with the sledgehammer, first a slow charge up + a slow animation , then the miss.

Nah, it would work for fighting one walking zombie, but facing 2 or more fast radiated ferals, sounds too slow.

 
I would vote for a charging power attack only because it would free our rmb up for another option, like blocking/parrying, throwing, or kicking/pushing.

 
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