Sword damage seems lower than ever. I hit a player 14 times and he did not die. Video evidence: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hVVx9FUdfg&feature=youtu.be
It also takes 4+ hits to kill a zombie.
Swords are weapons designed for one purpose, killing. They should be higher damage, especially because they lack other functionality (can't cut kindling/chop wood).
Hit a player with a sword.
Sword was in pristine condition.
I will continue to update this with better accounts of how many hits it takes to kill a player as I can:
Update: I killed a player with some where between 1-3 body shots and a head shot (head shot killing blow). So it is not consistently as high as the above scenario.
Update 2: I let another player hit me as a fresh spawn with a sword. I asked him to hit my body, he aimed a bit low and hit my legs. He only hit my legs and it took 9-10 hits before I went unconscious.
Video evidence: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SC2UU2uKGoM&feature=youtu.be
The description does say that the sword is a replica so one could assume it's actually blunt. What would be cool I think, would be to be able to sharpen it on the upcoming workshop bench and really turn it into a deadly weapon, which would also enable all other functionality (cut wood, kindling etc). This way you could have a blunt sword for non deadly duels (for roleplay/fun) or a deadly weapon via crafting. As a bonus, your opponent would never really know if it's sharpened or not until they 'try' it out ;)
Replica doesn't necessarily mean blunt, many replicas are sharp. I'd expect the one they put in the game to be sharp or else it's a bit silly without something like your idea (which is good, but probably a long way off if they did it).
The majority of melee weapons have awful/unreasonable damage. I believe its a case of them just copying stats/not configuring most of them. I think it's high time they looked at it though.
voted up. the sword looks like a joke in the video footage.
I can see where if you were hitting the player in the foot 15 times it might not kill him, but you were swinging at his neck.
I propose that if a proper balance pass on damage isn't viable at this time that the sword simply does the same amount of damage as a fire axe.