Berserker Ability - Lunge

[Compass]

The Berserker is missing something. Obvioiusly, Zerdic has a higher running speed, armor, and healing rate, at the cost of melee speed, damage, and discount.

What I propose is a special ability only the Berserker has.

I call it... the LUNGE!

Okay, maybe not that far

Level 0 - No Lunge
Level 1/2 - Lunge 1 meter when jumping.
Level 3/4 - Lunge 2 meters when jumping.
Level 5/6 - Lunge 3 meters when jumping.
Lunge works once every 2 seconds (allow normal jumping while lunge charges.)

Basically, when the Berserker jumps, it gets an additional momentum speed boost that allows it to skip across, similar to bunnyhopping in the UT engine it's based on. This can be used both as an aggressive maneuver to rapidly close the distance on Zeds that would otherwise be stolen by ranged teammates, or as a defensive maneuver to run away. This is similar to the Scrake's rush when he's enraged. It will make Berserker a lot more different from Zerdic than it currently is and possibly make it a better kite choice for players, with its insane ground-covering ability in addition to the melee ability.

 

[Aze]

You know, polish this idea a little more (let the thoughts flow in!) and this is AWESOME.

First problem i see is excessive movement speed and kiting. If this proves too much of a problem with this ability how about this little idea for it:

Holding Ironsight down with melee weapons when you are close enough to a target makes you "lock on" or "face" the target (Can only aim up and down and move back/forward and "sidestep" around the target. No turning left or right, until you release the lockon ofc). Then, when you are locking on to a target and press jump, you instead "lunge" a certain distance towards it (and attack if you get close enough, with a powerstrike?)

That way it could only be used offensively.

Meh, i know it sounds bad, but you know, just an idea

 

[Compass]

I forgot about ironsights =)

I don't think it should be for lock-on, though. Too chaotic to use against more than one enemy and restricts movement, making it hard to actually see behind you or back out of bad situations without breaking lock and turning around.

A big issue is an FP or Scrake getting past you going after a teammate, and the easiest way to catch up would be to lunge past it, not at it, so you can block it or draw aggro.

Perhaps:

Ironsights with Melee & Berserker - Blocks attacks

Damage reduction on block (stops physical attacks from enemies in front of you)
Level 0 - 10%
Level 1 - 15%
Level 2 - 20%
Level 3 - 40%
Level 4 - 60%
Level 5/6 - 80%


Discuss =3

 

[9_6]

Bunnyhopping berserkers would look silly.

 

[Compass]

Would be better than no Berserkers...

 

[imonoz]

sounds kinda cool but. . i dont know maybe would look kinda silly people doing that in the heat of apocalypse

 

[comaryu]

Support the idea. There's no need to say why, if ya compare zerks to zerdics and other classes. They could use this, to buff them up a bit.

but there are some drawbacks, don't ya think every 2 secs is imba? I mean, comon, ya can practically run away from anything with that. You can "Kite" the whole game by yourself , and another issue would be zerkers being able to exploit. Right before the patch, people were getting into places where its impossible for zeds to reach them Such as the helicopter area in manor. I can already picture people stacking weps in one place and then shifting to zerker just to get to that "exploitable" spot

 

[Compass]

5 seconds, perhaps? Make it part of an area of effect stun attack? We need something for Zerk!

 

[9_6]

Btw high moving speed + jumping can get people to places they aren't supposed to get to, on certain maps.
This would probably open a whole new can of exploits you can't even predict right now.

 

[nath2009uk]

^

Also, I would hate this. I much prefer normal jumping, especially when jumping on objects.

 

[C_Gibby]

Lunging sounds great! Like on games where you use the melee attacks like in Oblivion or Fallout 3.

 

[Vaecrius]

Bunnyhopping berserkers would look silly.

This.

What the OP describes is going to be used much, much more as a means of travelling around the map than anything used in melee.

For a berserker with limited armour, a slow melee attack that sends their entire body flying into the fray (and, keeping in mind, likely deftly dodging your medic's dart) is going to be suicide if you're not super-careful. I don't mean "demo remember where your pipes are when you run away" careful, I mean "SS you've got 30hp no armour and a crossbow here's an enraged fp at 5 feet" careful.

What I do see working is this:
YouTube - Lady Sibyl Sevenoke vs. Don Pascual del Mar 3/3
A long-reaching thrusting attack where you strike one target then return to your original position so the target can't hit back if you don't land that headshot.

The berserker's melee strength isn't in getting from Point A to Point B super-fast - the speed bonus only helps to let them make quick adjustments and get away if the fight goes tits up, which it will if the berserker has to get from Point A to Point B rather than already being at Point B when necessary. Instead, the main power behind the perk is in letting you defend yourself more effectively by hitting first with your melee weapon.

 

[Compass]

That's fine, if it's utilizing the ironsights button.

 

[_Duke_]

In principle I like the idea, but it shouldn't be able to be spammed constantly.
It needs to be on a recharge meter similar to the heal needle or welder.

 

[slavek]

Have you seen the WTF mod from the modding section? It includes a lunging mode for Berserker using melee weapons.

 

[Salad Snake]

I like it, but it should be separated from normal jumping. Perhaps just tapping ironsight would initiate it. Also, I'm thinking this would be something that's more horizontal then vertical, I can't really think of any new exploits this would cause if it only went as high as a normal jump.


Melee combat in FPS games is usually quite bland "run up and press mouse1" affairs, I almost never see unique melee abilities in first-person games (even having an alternate attack is rare, luckily KF is one of those rare games). Something like this to spice up melee combat is an excellent suggestion imo. Vaecrius' suggestion is worth looking at as well.

 

[Compass]

There's a lot of ways to spice it up. Adding an AOE attack for Berserker would make him on par for crowd control. Imagine a sweeping Katana/Chainsaw/Axe sweep that kills a whole group of clots surrounding you!

 

[Salad Snake]

There's a lot of ways to spice it up. Adding an AOE attack for Berserker would make him on par for crowd control. Imagine a sweeping Katana/Chainsaw/Axe sweep that kills a whole group of clots surrounding you!

I do like the idea of that, but AoE melee attacks are ridiculously hard to program properly if I'm not mistaken (just ask the folks at the Age of Chivalry mod). Most devs just make melee attacks a slightly delayed hitscan attack that reaches about an arm's length from you. So in reality, in most FPS games when you use a melee attack you're just shooting a bullet that goes about 4 feet before disappearing.

 

[Compass]

How so? Just have it be like a grenade effect at player origin, like a pipe bomb on your head XD

 

[Vaecrius]

Looking at my own lunge suggestion I had a thought: there could be a power attack during which you can't move or turn, but you automatically take a step forward and whatever you hit gets knocked back a few feet, possibly displacing other zeds or players if the target isn't killed on the first blow.

It's sort of an "area" of attack, and can be used to control the flow of the zeds without (I don't think anyway) adding too much that could be exploited out of the intended context or being either way OP (you're suddenly killing 3 guys where you used to be able to kill 1) or useless (you've just slightly annoyed 3 guys instead of killing one).