PC So.. what happened to the dismemberment system?

Scyris

New member
Seriously, I remember in a16 being able to blow zombies arms or legs off while they were still alive to cripple them, or just for fun. Spike traps/barbed wire also used to destroy their legs. I've also never been able to blow a zombies head off either, in a16 any weapon had a chance to do it, in a17 it seems its 100% perk reliant. I feel this change removed alot of the zombie killing fun. Was there a reason for it? and please don't tell me its to try to get a lower rating when the game was always rated M afaik.

 
It looks like it's something that starts happening after you level up a bit and your attacks do more damage. Not just with the ranged perk, it can also happen when you one hit zombies with the sledgehammer for example.

 
It's 100% perk now? Oh, boo. :( It was SO much fun shooting an arm or leg off and have the dumb thing just keep coming like something straight from Monty Python.

 
It's 100% perk now? Oh, boo. :( It was SO much fun shooting an arm or leg off and have the dumb thing just keep coming like something straight from Monty Python.
Seems that way, I've never been able to blow a head off, or any body part off a zombie so far, as i've had no perks to do so. Since a17e came out i've killed thousands of zombies, and not one, ever has had a body part blown off, as I never had the perks high enough. Also high damage doesn't do it either. Its very easy on nomad to get the sledgehammer to 1 shot female zombies and 2-3 shot the rest of normal ones. 3 str and 2 in skull crusher, with a sledge should be enough to 1 shot all the female zombies other than the fat cow one. You might need to drop 1 mod into the sledgehammer though. Even then i've never once knocked a zombies head arm or leg off in a17e at all, not even once. So yeah, it has to be 100% perk reliant now to be able to do it, and even then, its only headshot instakills.

 
I haven't seen any dismemberments before I got the perks either - haven't played too much without perks to be sure though. Either it has a very small chance or it is enabled by perks. There should be a small inherent chance to dismember that is greatly increased by the perks, like Bloody Mess in FO.

 
Dismemberment is just fun. There is no strategy in it. Either I kill it by targeting the head or I dismember it. But that is just for fun and not worth investing points into.

 
I can confirm after adding max points to my shooting and melee skills that dismemberment was present quite often. I think it's associated with the amount of damage done.

 
I have a 5% chance now to blow a limb off.

After 3 days and tons of zombies, only one head busted. I miss it from A16 too. We used to take off arms and legs and leave the angry stump. Twisted I know, but funny.

 
Pretty sure that you don't have any dismemberment chance by default. Headshot perk lvl 3 gives 5%, lvl 5 gives 15% on ranged headshots, Skull Crusher gives the same but on melee, and Deep Cuts gives all-around dismemberment 5/10/20% lvls 3/4/5 on bladed power attacks. There also used to be a threshold where if you did enough damage it could result in a head explosion. That lack of threshold is the big problem imo - just increasing the chance causes insta-kills, too easy. But having enough dmg to kill a zombie in a single headshot should have a significantly higher chance of head explosion. Same with limbs.

In A16 there was more dismemberment/leg crippling in general, but essentially this

Code:
<property name="HeadDismemberBaseChance" value="0"/>
<property name="HeadDismemberBonusChance" value="0.08"/>
<property name="HeadDismemberThreshold" value="0.23"/> [color="#FF8C00"]I really wish they'd re-add this[/color] <!-- if the total damage exceeds that value, there is a chance for dismemberment --> 
<property name="LowerLegDismemberThreshold" value="0.175"/>
<property name="LowerLegDismemberBaseChance" value="0"/>
<property name="LowerLegDismemberBonusChance" value="0.9"/>
<property name="UpperLegDismemberThreshold" value="0.175"/>
<property name="UpperLegDismemberBaseChance" value="0"/>
<property name="UpperLegDismemberBonusChance" value="0.9"/>
<property name="LowerArmDismemberThreshold" value="0.105"/>
<property name="LowerArmDismemberBaseChance" value="0"/>
<property name="LowerArmDismemberBonusChance" value="0.9"/>
<property name="UpperArmDismemberThreshold" value="0.105"/>
<property name="UpperArmDismemberBaseChance" value="0"/>
<property name="UpperArmDismemberBonusChance" value="0.9"/>
<property name="LegCrawlerThreshold" value="0"/> <!-- at like .175 nearly every zombie knocked down from a leg hit turns into a crawler -->
<property name="LegCrippleThreshold" value="0.01"/>
Turned into this

Code:
<property name="DismemberMultiplierHead" value="1"/>
<property name="DismemberMultiplierArms" value="1"/>
<property name="DismemberMultiplierLegs" value="1"/>
<property name="LegCrawlerThreshold" value="0"/> <!-- at like .175 nearly every zombie knocked down from a leg hit turns into a crawler -->
<property name="LegCrippleThreshold" value="0.01"/>
:(

 
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Isn't everything?
I think some weapon mods give a chance as well. Crippling something? Of course some of them don't work still, but at least we can craft them now, progress!

I really miss dismemberment too. Especially since I was playing DL a few weeks ago, which made me want to play 7DTD again (I missed the building aspect). If DL & 7DTD could have a baby I'd support it!

Even shooting zombies in the knee doesn't really seem to slow them down much. They just run up and say "I used to be an adventurer like you, and then I took an arrow in the knee..." and punch me in the face.

 
I think part of the problem is that zombies can die from limb damage now. Before you couldn't kill a zombie by hitting its legs or arms. Now they'll die before you can remove limbs, if it's even possible still.

I also don't agree that blowing off heads should be restricted to perks. It's fine if they increase the chance of doing it but you shouldn't be completely unable to do it if you don't have the perk.

 
Not 100% sure, but it's looking like only heads can be dismembered now. I've never seen a zombie loose it's legs or arms.

Sad!

 
There's a mod I found- (haven't tried it yet) but on the description it says something along the lines of "20% chance to take off limbs of bipedal enemies"

So if their going through the effort of making mods that blow off heads and take off limbs - it stands to reason that they likely intend to keep it in. It may possibly just be bugged or disabled for the moment. They are pretty good about putting just about everything they changed in the patch notes - even when the remove something. Unless I just missed it, I don't see anything about them removing it.

I for one am glad that they don't lose their limbs on spikes anymore. That made the game WAY too easy. Every zombie turned into a crawler and it made the horde nights a lot more tame.

 
If you really want more limb dismemberment right now, you can open up Data\Config\entityclasses.xml (Make a backup first just incase), do a search for

Code:
<passive_effect name="DamageModifier" operation="perc_add" value="0.5" tags="head"/>
and paste these two lines below it so it looks like this:

Code:
<passive_effect name="DamageModifier" operation="perc_add" value="0.5" tags="head"/>
<passive_effect name="DismemberChance" operation="base_set" value="0.2"/>
<passive_effect name="DismemberChance" operation="base_set" value="0.1" tags="head"/>
This should set head dismember chance to 10% and everywhere else (limbs) to 20%. You can change those values as you want. Also fyi, that DamageModifier value is headshot bonus damage. The default with no perks gives you +50% extra damage, you can change that value as well if you want.

 
If you really want more limb dismemberment right now, you can open up Data\Config\entityclasses.xml (Make a backup first just incase), do a search for

Code:
<passive_effect name="DamageModifier" operation="perc_add" value="0.5" tags="head"/>
and paste these two lines below it so it looks like this:

Code:
<passive_effect name="DamageModifier" operation="perc_add" value="0.5" tags="head"/>
<passive_effect name="DismemberChance" operation="base_set" value="0.2"/>
<passive_effect name="DismemberChance" operation="base_set" value="0.1" tags="head"/>
This should set head dismember chance to 10% and everywhere else (limbs) to 20%. You can change those values as you want. Also fyi, that DamageModifier value is headshot bonus damage. The default with no perks gives you +50% extra damage, you can change that value as well if you want.
Have you tested it and successfully blown arms or legs off of a zombie?
 
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