Hi, a bit of a disclaimer, this is just what I think, so feel free to tell me how wrong I am, because I probably am.
The current implementation of enemy dismemberment is sort of weird. It almost never happens early on in a playthrough in melee combat. There's been many times where I've encountered a tough zombie, such as a soldier or biker relatively early. I usually try to kite around these harder enemies instead of using heavies like I would to quickly finish weaker zombies, instead sneaking some light hits in, usually made difficult but enjoyable inside close quarters pois, since at this early stage my melee weapons do minimal damage, my brain goes straight to crippling the threat, often leading to showdowns where I hit them, they might hit me, causing potential status, but my opponent's legs don't give out, despite me hitting a leg numerous times. It just feels sort of frustrating, at least to me. I have no problem with player status effects, but it'd be nice if enemies could react more to attacks, and the crippling system seems like a good fit.
The bikers and soldiers have head armor, but I believe headshots are still the fastest way to kill them despite this. It feels like spamming headshots is really the only way to play for melee combat, which feels a bit like a missed opprotunity to me.
Some testing led to these findings: (All weapons are T1 Quality with no perks or bonuses on adventurer difficulty)
Wooden Club (Vs Bikers)
Headshot - 29 Damage
Bodyshot - 14 Damage
Legshot - 14 Damage
Baseball Bat:
Headshot - 48 Damage
Bodyshot - 24 Damage
Legshot - 24 Damage
Steel Club:
Headshot - 77 Damage
Bodyshot - 38 Damage
Legshot - 38 Damage
I'm sure this 2x is intended, and I'm probably dumb for not knowing the number beforehand, but given how rarely dismemberment occurs without extensive skill point investment, this makes going for leg shots almost completely redundant until you spend a lot in skill points to significantly increase dismemberment chance. Trying this again with a melee weapon with maxed out perks leads to much better results, but still shows a bit of a weird situation.
With a tier 6 steel club with maxed out strength as well as pummel pete, I was dismembering enemies very often. crippling limbs with almost every hit. However; by the point these chances are resonably high, I felt like it didn't have much use, espescially since headshot damage is increased further with said higher strength investment, making dismemberment a bit less useful in my eyes, when I could quickly eliminate these enemies with some strong attacks to the head. Regardless, it's still a nice part of the gameplay loop, I just think it'd be cool if it was accessible earlier on.
My suggestion is making dismemberment more accessible to general melee combat. Maybe dismemberment chance could be baked into sucessive melee hits instead of onto strength and other skill categories, and it could increase exponentially the more you attacked one body part. I think melee can be a bit frustrating in its current state, with zombies occasionally stumbling forward and attacking during stun animations, or speeding up/entering rage mode super frequently on higher difficulties. I think it would add a lot of depth, espescially since many poi's now have lots of ambushes, taking the risk to cripple a threatening enemy is a fun risk/reward in my mind, and would give some purpose to attacking enemy legs in the lower levels. I think it also works well with the door changes made in A21.
What do you think of this suggestion? Is it terrible? Either way, I hope melee gets a little bit of polish in future updates.
The current implementation of enemy dismemberment is sort of weird. It almost never happens early on in a playthrough in melee combat. There's been many times where I've encountered a tough zombie, such as a soldier or biker relatively early. I usually try to kite around these harder enemies instead of using heavies like I would to quickly finish weaker zombies, instead sneaking some light hits in, usually made difficult but enjoyable inside close quarters pois, since at this early stage my melee weapons do minimal damage, my brain goes straight to crippling the threat, often leading to showdowns where I hit them, they might hit me, causing potential status, but my opponent's legs don't give out, despite me hitting a leg numerous times. It just feels sort of frustrating, at least to me. I have no problem with player status effects, but it'd be nice if enemies could react more to attacks, and the crippling system seems like a good fit.
The bikers and soldiers have head armor, but I believe headshots are still the fastest way to kill them despite this. It feels like spamming headshots is really the only way to play for melee combat, which feels a bit like a missed opprotunity to me.
Some testing led to these findings: (All weapons are T1 Quality with no perks or bonuses on adventurer difficulty)
Wooden Club (Vs Bikers)
Headshot - 29 Damage
Bodyshot - 14 Damage
Legshot - 14 Damage
Baseball Bat:
Headshot - 48 Damage
Bodyshot - 24 Damage
Legshot - 24 Damage
Steel Club:
Headshot - 77 Damage
Bodyshot - 38 Damage
Legshot - 38 Damage
I'm sure this 2x is intended, and I'm probably dumb for not knowing the number beforehand, but given how rarely dismemberment occurs without extensive skill point investment, this makes going for leg shots almost completely redundant until you spend a lot in skill points to significantly increase dismemberment chance. Trying this again with a melee weapon with maxed out perks leads to much better results, but still shows a bit of a weird situation.
With a tier 6 steel club with maxed out strength as well as pummel pete, I was dismembering enemies very often. crippling limbs with almost every hit. However; by the point these chances are resonably high, I felt like it didn't have much use, espescially since headshot damage is increased further with said higher strength investment, making dismemberment a bit less useful in my eyes, when I could quickly eliminate these enemies with some strong attacks to the head. Regardless, it's still a nice part of the gameplay loop, I just think it'd be cool if it was accessible earlier on.
My suggestion is making dismemberment more accessible to general melee combat. Maybe dismemberment chance could be baked into sucessive melee hits instead of onto strength and other skill categories, and it could increase exponentially the more you attacked one body part. I think melee can be a bit frustrating in its current state, with zombies occasionally stumbling forward and attacking during stun animations, or speeding up/entering rage mode super frequently on higher difficulties. I think it would add a lot of depth, espescially since many poi's now have lots of ambushes, taking the risk to cripple a threatening enemy is a fun risk/reward in my mind, and would give some purpose to attacking enemy legs in the lower levels. I think it also works well with the door changes made in A21.
What do you think of this suggestion? Is it terrible? Either way, I hope melee gets a little bit of polish in future updates.
