Mellee weapons (vanilla)

[MAKAIROSI]

I think there is too little content when it comes to mellee weapons in vanilla. I think there should definitely be katanas/power katanas (as exotic items / from glitterworlds) and we ourselves should be able to build power swords. They should come after power armors and charged shot researches. Like these two combined can give us (one of?) the best mellee weapon(s) we can craft, which is the aforementioned power sword. Actually thinking of it, almost all mellee weapons could receive their power counterparts, maybe apart from "club". Maybe a power hammer.

I have a character with a huge affinity to mellee, which sadly still carries the starting plasteel knife. I can't do anything with him in fights, even against 2-3 tribal guys with limestone clubs, though he should be able to cut them (at least 2 of them) before falling. I'm not talking about miracles here. Why would we get the shields (since they don't let us attack with ranged attacks) if we don't have any mellee choices apart from the starting ones? I am forced to only equip those to unarmed colonists, but i draft them and put them in safe spaces during the raids anyway.

Something else to consider is to enable the colonists to carry both a mellee and a ranged weapon, and switch if the enemy comes too close. Now i would suggest to divide all weapons to two new categories "big" and "small", or "heavy" and "light" and enable a colonist to carry one of each. So either a heavy ranged weapon and a light mellee or vice versa. Another suggestion would be to get a new trait in there ("built" or something) which enables the colonists to equip a heavy weapon in both slots. Maybe even get a "weak" trait that only allows a colonist to equip light weapons.

Now imagine what a team we could make, and how more diverse the characters would feel with these changes. And i'm saying this now because we are in a game that's starting (as it should be) to focus a bit more on war. We can raid outposts, caravans, even attack settlements, and the raids are becoming more and more numerous in strength and weaponry. We can have doomsday launchers and triple rocket launchers but, god-forbid, not a late game mellee weapon that can be useful in any situation apart from a one-on-one fight.

But then again, we can not even repair our gear. Which is fair in the beginning, sure, but in mid-late game it's unthinkable since a power armor costs what, about 18 components and about 250 plasteel? And all that will be, eventually, lost? I think we should be able to research this and be able to repair our gear as a next research from the one which enables us to build them. (So basically, research "power armor" then research "power armor repair")

But really, am i talking about too much here?

So to sum up:

1. Introduce late-game mellee weapons.

2. Enable colonists to carry both a ranged and a mellee weapon at the same time. Switch weapons when the enemy is in mellee range.

3. Divide weapons to heavy and light and make the colonist be able to carry only one of each, unless they have a trait that dictates otherwise.

4. Enable colonists to repair their gear via specific researches.

I think all this is not too much, introducing the "planet" and "rivers" and "caravans" is a ton more work than what i just said here. And i'm glad, obviously, for all the updates, but i think it's a problem we should tackle at this point.

PS. A minor issue, but it feels kinda weird to sow plants or constructing a wall while carrying a multibarrel weapon. I would suggest to find a way to discard "heavy" weapons when they aren't used for war purposes, although i don't see how that would be effectively included, since they would have to be manually equiped each and every time they are needed. But then again we could always have "light" weapons for hunting purposes and all "heavy" weapons in some sort of armory storage for war uses. Something to think about?

[jie]

ever made good quality plastheel longswords? the damage is tied to the quality of the weapon. i had a few with some superior longswords shredding trough enemy like it was nothing.

[Sir Fraser]

Yeah my crafter was lucky to create a masterwork plasteel longsword for my level 15 brawler.

He was capable to disarm enemies quite litterly when they came to close to him.

[Stormsong]

Originally posted by jie:

ever made good quality plastheel longswords? the damage is tied to the quality of the weapon. i had a few with some superior longswords shredding trough enemy like it was nothing.

This. This is the answer to #1. It may not be as varied as you seem to want. But well-made plasteel longswords are really strong. Give it to a pawn with a powershield, decent armor and 10+ melee (bonus for brawler) and you've got the makings of a legendary warrior.

2 & 3: Maybe the itch for these is covered in the Combat Extended mod? I don't use it, but it sounds like that might be a place to look.

4: This would be nice to have.