Melee and flashlight ideas (Mostly unrelated)

[TacoBomber]

Quick suggestions for both! Less wordiness, more content.

Melee weapons
1. Primary attack for vertical swings: Standard strength OR stronger hits, but limited to hitting one enemy at a time. If you're lucky, you'll hit two crawlers if one happened to jump on another.

2. Secondary fire for horizontal swipes: Weaker than the vertical/primary attacks from a lack of gravity lending to the force of the swing, but capable of hitting multiple enemies in a 90 degree angle or so in front of you. Range is limited to the weapon itself, so this wouldn't help as much for the knife compared to the axe.

Chainsaw wouldn't need these since it already has something akin to these on its own.

Flashlight
1. The ability to use a flashlight for one-handed weapons. Specifically... Knife, Machete/Pipe, possibly Handcannon. Only being able to use the default pistol or shotgun in dark areas for light is a tad annoying. Not game-breaking, but the left hand should be used for something.

2. Purchasable helmet light... Thingamajig. Usable with any weapon, but makes you more of a target for enemies because of the whole head beacon thing.

 

[REALDEMO]

Melee weapons idea +1
flashlights idea -1 (shotgun is the only primary weapon with flashlights, because it is SUPPORT class weapon)
But it's true - we need the really dark maps for new co-op gameplay type.

 

[Murphy]

capable of hitting multiple enemies in a 90 degree angle or so in front of you.

Stop thinking in videogame terms for a second. Imagine hitting two humanoid targets with an axe in one swing. It doesn't work. It would get stuck in the first one. You'd have to pull it back out and then hit the other one.
Unless you are a younger Schwarzenegger with either this or this this isn't going to work!

My suggestion for melee would be to
a) remove the weird pause before hitting with the axe
b) increase the range of the axe
c) increase the damage of the axe a bit
d) decrease the damage of the knife a bit so it only because a one-hit-killer from perk lvl 3 and up or something. Currently the machete is almost useless. This would make it more viable.
e) give enemies a certain chance to still hit you if you chainsaw them with primary fire. Where is the fun in the current chainsaw? It's only fun to use against really string enemies like Scrakes or Fleshpounds and they can hit back anyway. So let's make fighting other enemies fun too...

 

[Cato269]

My suggestion for melee would be to
a) remove the weird pause before hitting with the axe
b) increase the range of the axe
c) increase the damage of the axe a bit
d) decrease the damage of the knife a bit so it only because a one-hit-killer from perk lvl 3 and up or something. Currently the machete is almost useless. This would make it more viable.
e) give enemies a certain chance to still hit you if you chainsaw them with primary fire. Where is the fun in the current chainsaw? It's only fun to use against really string enemies like Scrakes or Fleshpounds and they can hit back anyway. So let's make fighting other enemies fun too...

a) Disagreed, Fireaxe is strong enough without needing a shorter swing time. Not to mention the animation can already be canceled to speed up the swing.
b) Arguable, however I wouldn't want to have the axe outrange a gorefast's attack.
c) It's basically a one hit kill already on the standard clots, gorefasts, crawlers and stalkers even without berserker, the axe doesn't need more damage, it's offset is the slow attack speed - A berserker cannot extend ZED time himself with the axe as it does not get a second swing off in ZED.
d) Arguable.. Machete is useful because of it's light weight and it's ability to easily decapitate a gorefast unlike the knife, even with alternate fire and berserker perk levels.
Knife is fine in my opinion, no other class but the berserker falls back to it unless they are grabbed and need to reload or want to run away. And if a berserker is falling back on his knife, you'd assume it's the melee weapon of his preference as melee weapons do not have ammunition.
e) Agreed, however this already exsists to some extent with the crawlers and their leap. Personally, I do not use the chainsaw as it is too heavy. I'd say this is more a preference decision.

 

[TacoBomber]

Good point there, Demo. It just seems odd to me that the flashlight is currently only usable with only two of the available weapons (three if you count the dual pistols).

Stop thinking in videogame terms for a second.

In a video game where poking yourself/someone else with a syringe can somehow make you recover from injuries after getting hit in the face with a chainsaw, sword arm, and/or puke?

Cato said almost everything that I feel about the axe suggestions already.

The machete does seem a bit underwhelming since even without using the Berserker perk, I tend to use either the knife over the machete because of its speed, lack of weight, and lack of cost. If I need more power, I'll either use the knife's alternate fire or buy an axe.

Chainsaws... I'm divided on it. On one hand, the slowness is a pretty big downside for someone like me who prefers to zip around and shank things, although it does make sense since chainsaws are pretty heavy and it wouldn't be very safe to run around with one running even if you were strong enough to. On the other hand, standing in a doorway with a medic behind you means that the only times you'll ever really need to move from that spot (assuming there's no other entrance/the others have been welded shut) is if you're attacked by a Fleshpound or Siren..

 

[Murphy]

a) Disagreed, Fireaxe is strong enough without needing a shorter swing time. Not to mention the animation can already be canceled to speed up the swing.

I didn't know you can cancel the animation but it sounds like an exploit to me and should be fixed.
If you hit Fire it should start its animation and not have a weird pause before. Basically the axe should work 100% like it did in the mod and that includes b) and c). Especially b). Don't care that much about c).

b) Arguable, however I wouldn't want to have the axe outrange a gorefast's attack.

Don't even get me started on gorefasts. They are a joke. They can't ever hit you as long as you are backtracking! This should get changed asap so they can pose an actual threat! And not just when they got you cornered either!

Using the axe should be a game of timing. If you time it wrong, gorefasts (or other enemies) should be able to hit you. Like they could in the mod.

d) Arguable.. Machete is useful because of it's light weight and it's ability to easily decapitate a gorefast unlike the knife, even with alternate fire and berserker perk levels.

Knife primary is like a weaker machete and knife secondary is like a weaker axe. Only it's not actually weaker if you can one-hit everything with the knife you can one-hit with the machete (granted, gorefasts can take two hits with the knife. But is that really worth buying the machete instead, with which you are slower and don't have secondary fire?) and if the knife has almost as much range as the axe but you are faster with it. The only drawback of the knife is that you have to go for the head more than with the other weapons, but since when is that a problem in melee, right?

e) Agreed, however this already exsists to some extent with the crawlers and their leap. Personally, I do not use the chainsaw as it is too heavy. I'd say this is more a preference decision.

Crawlers are not enough! And they jump into the blade most of the time too! Unless something attacks you from behind or is strong enough to survive in your blade for a while (Scrakes, Fleshpounds, Patriarch) nothing can get to you.
So what if you are slower. What do you need speed for? You need speed to be agile enough to dance around enemies and deliver blows without getting hit yourself. With the chainsaw you don't get hit anyway!
Chainsaw primary fire should be as easy to use as mindlessly slashing into a horde of specimens with the knife but of course way stronger than that. But not strong to one-hit everything it touches and grant you perfect safety!

Secondary fire should be what the axe does currently but a lot stronger. This already works very well. A little more damage couldn't hurt, compared to what Support people can do, but it's ok. Primary fire is a joke though.

I realize this is a game and as such everyone likes different aspects differently. The above is just my personal taste, which is largely influenced by how awesome it was to be an axe-berzerker in the mod.