Spear Changes in Alpha 21

[Monkey Magic]

Gotta say, as much as I like the idea of Spears becoming a proper melee weapon, the removal of throw entirely is a bit of an overkill - I was hoping they would split the two, and have something like a "javelin" as an alternate early game ranged weapon. Spears - when used specifically as a thrown weapon and not also a melee weapon - are pretty awesome early game, better than the slow-to-reload bow IMO.

Sure, one has to fill their bar with spears to compensate for their immediate loss after throwing, but given that early game one has very little else to place on the hotbar, this currently isn't an issue - and if this "javelin" became a thing, it could easily be a stackable item of say, maximum of 5.

[Jimmy Vega]

One of the changes im looking forward to the most. Need something to compete with the club that everybody's forced to use.

[Monkey Magic]

I have never used the club TBH, never liked the swing animation, and it looks, and felts awkward. After completing the initial quest to craft one, I will immediately scrap it and craft four spears instead. That has been my go-to since I first started playing the game.

As a rule I tend to pick a melee and ranged set based on the main statistic I'm playing, and in the case of Strength, I'd rather go Shotgun/Axe, than Shotgun/Club.

In terms of melee weapons as a whole, the knife and baton far outshine the club in any case (though the latter does require some getting used to at first, and the former is garbage early game) and even the wrench is a better melee weapon that club IMO

[Jonnson]

Originally posted by Jimmy Vega:

One of the changes im looking forward to the most. Need something to compete with the club that everybody's forced to use.

Consider using the bone knife. You can make one within 10 minutes of spawning out of road kill. It's power attacks use very little stamina, and its head shots cause recoil, which is better than stun, and on every hit, no failure. Mastery of this weapon can serve you all the way to level 50. For example, I can melee pretty consistently, 4-5 zombies, on insane (max health zeds) simultaneously, using all power attacks, until they are dead, before I run out of stamina, without putting points into the knife, sex rex, or cardio, at level 1. Mastery includes, proper aim, and timing. No other melee weapon compares until late game (high stats).

[Shurenai]

Originally posted by Monkey Magic:

I have never used the club TBH, never liked the swing animation, and it looks, and felts awkward. After completing the initial quest to craft one, I will immediately scrap it and craft four spears instead. That has been my go-to since I first started playing the game.

As a rule I tend to pick a melee and ranged set based on the main statistic I'm playing, and in the case of Strength, I'd rather go Shotgun/Axe, than Shotgun/Club.

In terms of melee weapons as a whole, the knife and baton far outshine the club in any case (though the latter does require some getting used to at first, and the former is garbage early game) and even the wrench is a better melee weapon that club IMO

Have also never really used the club. I've done playthroughs focusing every stat individually, and chose Sledgehammer when doing strength.. Personally I've been rather partial to the fist weapons from Fortitude for awhile. Love em.

[Crashtian]

Originally posted by Jonnson:

Originally posted by Jimmy Vega:

One of the changes im looking forward to the most. Need something to compete with the club that everybody's forced to use.

Consider using the bone knife. You can make one within 10 minutes of spawning out of road kill. It's power attacks use very little stamina, and its head shots cause recoil, which is better than stun, and on every hit, no failure. Mastery of this weapon can serve you all the way to level 50. For example, I can melee pretty consistently, 4-5 zombies, on insane (max health zeds) simultaneously, using all power attacks, until they are dead, before I run out of stamina, without putting points into the knife, sex rex, or cardio, at level 1. Mastery includes, proper aim, and timing. No other melee weapon compares until late game (high stats).

The bone knife is indeed an insane early game weapon, Slamming it down into zombie skulls with endless stamina. It doesn't shine as well when facing a group of zeds, but that's easily solved my kiting them to a door.

[Uncle Al]

Throwing was a nice gimmick but I'm very happy with the trade-off of losing spear throwing to make spears a viable melee weapon (beyond the first couple of days when they're handy anyway). I really like the perception tree but invariably end up picking up a melee weapon from another tree because spears were so horrible.

Increased damage, a proper power attack, penetrating power attacks and full stamina refill on kills (book perks) sound like spears are going to be serious contenders as melee weapons.

I'm really happy with the perception weapon changes across the board, as perception got a pretty terrible weapon selection outside of horde nights (where penetrator perked rifles and explosives rule). Spears were horrible because of being forced into using a low damage regular attack at all times, and there's simply no reason to use a long range sniper weapon when fighting melee only enemies in an environment where the draw distance is something like 50 meters. If you can see a zombie, you can pretty much shoot it with an SMG for full damage so why use a rifle?

And for stealth alpha strikes, rifles get totally outclassed by crossbows...

The new headshot bonus for rifles is quite an elegant solution which will hopefully make rifles very strong in ranged engagments but still not great when hipfiring at close quarters.

[HardRock]

Spears should be stackable item to afford throwing them. In A20 it occupies multiple slots in hotbar in early game, when carrying capacity is limited the most. And if you dont throw it - you have to use weak attacks only. And even thrown spear does not oneshot enemies. So you are left with no weapon and get into worse position than you started with.

Sometimes I even accidentally dropped my spear because of pressing power attack for a moment. So I'm glad they removed throwing. At least it solves the accidental drop issue.

[thestile]

They could let you select a "throw mode" vs. "stab", the way you change ammo types.

[...👑 JOST AMMAN 👑...]

Originally posted by Uncle Al:

and there's simply no reason to use a long range sniper weapon when fighting melee only enemies in an environment where the draw distance is something like 50 meters. If you can see a zombie, you can pretty much shoot it with an SMG for full damage so why use a rifle?

That's a very good point. That's why I think they should add bullet spread based on distance to (semi or full) automatic weapons.

[comet_65cali]

Spear Throwing would have made sense if we could have stacked spears.

Glad they updated it, this may now match the stone-sledge as the MVP of early game for A) spear hunter books are so common from mailboxes and B) most reach for a melee weapon.

[Uncle Al]

Originally posted by comet_65cali:

Glad they updated it, this may now match the stone-sledge as the MVP of early game for A) spear hunter books are so common from mailboxes and B) most reach for a melee weapon.

The books won't be quite as common, as mailboxes will contain a mix of early game magazines and crafting magazines, at least that's what the patch notes imply. That said, the crafting magazines give you even more incentive to search mailboxes early game, so you're probably still going to pick up a fair few spear books more often than not.

I can certainly see getting the bicycle then going on a mailbox searching rampage being a strategy I'll try out.

[Crashtian]

Originally posted by Uncle Al:

Originally posted by comet_65cali:

Glad they updated it, this may now match the stone-sledge as the MVP of early game for A) spear hunter books are so common from mailboxes and B) most reach for a melee weapon.

The books won't be quite as common, as mailboxes will contain a mix of early game magazines and crafting magazines, at least that's what the patch notes imply. That said, the crafting magazines give you even more incentive to search mailboxes early game, so you're probably still going to pick up a fair few spear books more often than not.

I can certainly see getting the bicycle then going on a mailbox searching rampage being a strategy I'll try out.

This is my A21 experimental plan. Load in, do tutorial quest, hit the road running to loot the easiest book sources I can locate, see how easy/hard it is to speed run the new magazine system.

Can we get a skill to max by day 7 just doing focused loot grind? Only time will tell.

Something something spears.