PC Rage / Run / Melee Truely Terrible in A18

Love the new rage mechanic. A17 melee was so dull, now at least there is a bit of a risk to wading in and needing to think carefully and keep some stamina to get away if needed rather than just swinging til they are red mist. Wouldn't mind an audio cue possibly but I think that might take out the danger of it all to be honest.

Rage mechanic is one of the better things they have added this alpha and I would hate if they removed it to appease people who can't or won't adapt or just want to swing/backpedal with zero risk.

 
Your own melee range is still larger than their swing. Yes, even with a Wooden Club. Practice makes perfect.

 
Take it for what it is and it's a really fun combat game. I realized long ago that combat in this game is basically 2D-platformer style with some extra, um, depth, enabled by the 3d world. Start your swing and lock your eyes on the crosshair like keeping your eye on a pitched baseball. While the weapon's swinging bring the crosshairs on target, you'll get the timing down and it'll really start to feel like you're swinging. Pay attention to your opponent's reach and behavior or you'll be stunned and bleeding faster than you can say "♥♥♥♥ me". Armor or no, trading blows with a zed is not a good plan. Early on, especially before you've got a weapon upgrade, you're going to feel desperate and weak. I like it. You cannot just phone in combat in this game, your hits have to connect and anything but headshots had better be Plan B.

There's no shields and no blocking in this game, does that not count as a declaration that its aim is fun, not simulation? If you could use trash can lids as shields that'd be awesome but it'd be a different game. The head motion and general movement (to say nothing of the nightmarish reach on some of those guys) makes interesting, even scary opponents. If you want broader realism in melee combat try Warband or KC:D , either of those is a huge step up (but there's no perfect simulator, you could find the limits of realism in any of them and carp endlessly about those if you wanted).

 
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The Zombie Rage Mechanic is a good thing, in my opinion. Before, it was all too easy to predict exactly how the Zeds would react, and take advantage of the system. Now, things are much more chaotic, unpredictable, and more realistic. I've died from it, but, it's still an A plus new feature!

 
I love that people who like the rage mechanic instantly tell you to play on toddler mode, as if the rage mechanic is the only thing the difficulty changes.
People who don't like a dumb mechanic do not inherently want an easier game. It's a pretty intense change to combat in a game a lot of us have been playing for years, and I think we have a legitimate request in not playing the easiest difficulty and not having a rage mechanic.

Are we really saying there was no danger before? No difficulty prior to this mechanic? In all reality A14/15 and 16 were more difficult than this is. Slap on heavy armor and they can wail on you and you don't take much damage, but it's not as fun.
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Its just back and forth opinions being shared. You've delivered your "I don't like it because reasons" and others have given their "I like it because reasons". I haven't seen anyone in any of the threads tell anyone sneeringly to go play "baby mode" or anything like that. The question has been asked how to play without rage mode and the answer literally is to select Scavenger from the options menu. I see people giving information and nobody being condescending about what level of difficulty someone "should" play to "have balls" or "be a legit gamer".

Have you played on Scavenger at all to even try it?

I can say that there is no plan to remove the rage mechanic or create a dedicated option slider just for it or even to expose it to the xml. That last might get done eventually but faatal mentioned doing so is time consuming. For now it is handled the way it is and I would suggest people try it and see if they like it rather than dismiss it out of hand.

 
Every thread I read seems to have an even amount of "melee was boring" "melee was fine".

All this update seems to have done is split the community down the middle.

I for one was fine with how melee worked. If melee were the same as it used to be with these POI spawn increases I think it'd still be a challenge. Tight spaces make for tough engagements. Of course it's going to be boring in the open wilderness, you've got the advantage of space and timing.

 
That's without question, but melee seems to be extremely inconsistent now, I keep missing swings I had no problem at all landing on previous alpha and glancing blows don't feel like they work at all(I know they do, but still, rarely any effect).
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yeah, same. Zombies are swinging from WAY far away (rubber arms are back, yayy :-/ ) when you can't hit them yet. And the lack of followthrough with swing animations now makes it hard to judge where your swing goes.

I like rage just fine, but melee definitely needs work.

 
It was boring inside. Headshot with club, back pedal, headshot with club, rinse, repeat. At least now there is a degree of unpredictability about melee combat.

 
Stone sledgehammer is the answer!
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This works for me. I currently use javelin/sledge and not using bows at all. (Perception/Int build so far)

I will throw a javelin or two to soften them up then ending things with a sledge power swing. Very fun so far. I like the rage mechanic as it keeps the action from getting too repetitive which I like.

 
Although there seem to be lots of great improvements in A18, Melee is really terrible. Zombies now randomly choose to sprint after you and can reach with their hands a longer distance than you can hit with a club/torch. To make it worse they seem to have massive damage pools and inflict a bleed or infection almost every single time they hit you.
I used to love melee but seriously see little point in playing this.
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Wrong, it is the best addition EVER to the game.

 
I can manage the rage...but it definitely makes combat less fun, especially if you have multiples (who are swinging to hit you, missing but hitting other zombies in the bunch who then rage and charge you). I spend more time backing up or moving to avoid the rage than I do actually fighting.

And the hit mechanics/range is definitely having some issues. I have played with most of the weapons, and zombies can absolutely hit you from further away than you can hit them...sometimes....it's completely random. Sometimes I can be hitting them just fine (especially with a spear) and staying out of their range, other times we will both swing at the same time, my cursor will be dead center of their chest and they will hit me but my hit will miss completely. The stun baton has a really weird hit box, I can hit body mass just fine, but forget head shots. Honestly, so far fists are my favorite (there is something really odd though about having fists with both the sharpened edge and burning shaft mods on them....fire fists for the win lol)

 
So this is a copy/paste with most of this from another post, I just stumbled on this one too. I also dislike the rage mechanic with melee in it's current form.

I found a work around that effectively counters the annoyance of the rage mechanic and is doable in xml and also saves time getting places for those of us who can't play for hours at a time. In the entityclasses.xml I changed these few values which add a bit of speed but at these levels don't seem too overpowered to me(provided below). It is the player's speed near the top of it.

And don't get me wrong, it is avoidable since most zombies are alone, and you can do things like mass produce stone spears and throw them in their knee and kill them while stunned. (granted, armor defense is OP now it seems) But if you use a short range weapon it seems skewed. It pushes the bow/spear and their limitless ammo that doesn't care about enraged zombies if you have room behind you, or a sledge or club that have better range and stagger/knockdown mechanics.

To those that may think its too easy like this, don't forget about the fact that the difficulty slider everyone loves to suggest also goes up to tougher zombies. You could mod in higher zombie counts too I'm sure but I haven't looked far enough to find that yet.

<passive_effect name="WalkSpeed" operation="base_set" value="2.00"/>

<passive_effect name="RunSpeed" operation="base_set" value="1.40"/>

<passive_effect name="CrouchSpeed" operation="base_set" value="1.50"/>

 
I personally like the rage zombies . Brings more of a excitement to the game for me yes I get hit more but I now forget a thrill out of all the oh ♥♥♥♥ moments there are in the game now. I hated a17 it was my least played alpha sence 14 due to there being 100 zombies in a poi an having the boring slog to kill them all. Now there are less but I find the fights lot more interesting.

 
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