They seem incredibly weak for sure, I died to a female zombie while trying to beat her face in with a crowbar, while earlier I had killed plenty with my fists. It also seemed like I was attacking behind me at times.

Experienced the same thing, was able to one shot a zombie with an axe one time, and the second time 30 shots didnt kill the thing

Same for me with both shovel and axe. Inconsistent hit boxes.

Guys try to push spacebar, i think there is 2 types of hit one of them is more powerfull then the other, for me the melee weapon work fine if i push the spacebar, if i push again it sucks, but you just have to find the default type and change it

Same problem with Hammer. Hit a zombie from full health to death (mine, not the zombie...), and the zombie found it quite funny as he beat me to death. Probably 20-30 swings of the hammer, right at it's head.

Video of my death: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9rFBCPpRVA&feature=share&list=UUl0YSEfNVaxp7fQP-0VR-yw

i think thats a problem with the lowered/rasied mode for the meele weapons (press spacebar).. if you hold your meele raised you will swing the weapon sideways. result is not hitting anything.. press spacebar and you hold the meele lowered if you attack in this state you will hit much better.

edit: not sure for the hammer though

Is there any possibility that the melee weapons could have been in ruined/badly damaged-state that makes them not possible to use?

If not, I would add shovel to this list of melee weapons that in my case had close to zero effect on AI (most hits did seem to go through the zombie I was trying to kill with the shovel).

I can't even swing my weapons, a knife or a hammer. If by default you need to "raise" this weapon into an attack position, that needs to be removed IMMEDIATELY. If I can't use them because they're "badly damaged", that's one thing. But I'm pretty sure, a kitchen knife, as rusty or badly damaged as it may be, still having a handle, could kill at least a zombie or two, and probably also some people.

Of course I just accidentally fell off of a one story drop, something that MAY have broken your legs in the mod, and instantly died... So I can't test the "raise weapon" theory. If that's how it is though, that needs to be removed or changed so that ALL weapons are raised and ready to fire by default. If someone wants to lower them, they may choose to do so, AFTER they've pulled the weapon out and THEN chosen to lower it.

I'd have to agree with that ^ Having weapons lowered by default is clunky and annoying.

+1 on this, I found a hammer which was doing absolutely nothing, I can only confirm that it has no effect on players.

Well I can't agree. I was with a buddy near electro and he one-hitted a zombie with his axe. Maybe the Zombie was already hit by another player cause the zombie stood over a dead body. But before that he already killed another Zombie with his axe. Don't know how many hits he took then but couldn't be this much cause the fight was over in a few seconds.

I just got hit with an axe as well, and it worked, knocked me out with a single hit. But, bats and shovels are still having no effect for me.

As Crackpot said (lol) axe's work just fine, I've killed many zombies with them now. However, as McGuyver said, this ONLY works when the weapon is LOWERED. If it is raised in a ready position it seems to impact off to the right side, so that's still a bug.

I can confirm that a survivor (Bandit) was hacking at me with an axe to no effect. He hacked like mad without hitting me. I then just walked away.

The weapons attack to your left or right, when I used axe I had to look left so the axe went down the middle to hit the zombie. Watch where they swing!

Nice vid! Hopefully this will get fixed soon, it's really annoying.

I agree with Andyb11, I've had some luck when looking slightly to the left and putting the target on the right half of the screen.

I was unable to get the shovel or axe to hit zombies, both fists and bayonet worked correctly though. common theme sounds like weapons that are swung as opposed to have a stabbing type attack?

with the fire extinguisher you can't even swing it if you are in the raised position, it swing fine when lowered, haven't tested on a player yet (sorry im friendly)

some weapons are incredibly weak, if you hit someone on the head with a shovel twice you a least expect them to be unconscious for a short period of time. unconscious timers need tweaking.

@Esoterick, yeah I haven't had any luck with stabbing weapons at all.

Can confirm that the screwdriver does not register in melee combat

I have had this problem with the crowbar as well. Died toe to toe with a zombie while spamming attack but not registering any hits

Seems like the hitbox is rather iffy, and combined with server latency swings that pass through the body might not actually do damage. At least that's how it feels.

Yeah ^ The whole system needs work at the moment. I think the zombies ability to hit you so quickly is a little off as well

I have found the axe to be very powerful, but the crowbar to be lackluster. I didn't get very far with a kitchen knife either.

I would honestly like to see melee weapons much more powerful. A kitchen knife can do some serious damage, and is also a very risky endeavor. A crowbar should be able to kill in two or three hits, and all of these weapons should kill with a headshot on a single hit.

Also the latency combined with the way the player swings is definitely in need of some work. Why can't all melee be like Rune?

Agreed Crowbar is useless and the shovel also I have better luck killing Zeds with my Fists. This really sucks the enjoyment out of the game when you are swinging and the Zed simply beats you to death. Also Crowbar and shovel should deal more damage especially the Crowbar.

Zombie hit range is also ridiculous, they can get their hitting animation going and still hit me if I've moved a meter away.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlqy8lkO6tk&feature=youtu.be

Hatchet & Fire axe seem to do fine, 1 hit kill. Wrench seems to do some damage aswell, but not very effecient.

Most melee weapons work if they are in the lowered position (some much more efficiently than others - another bug for another time) but if you raise that weapon it impacts to the side and becomes useless no matter how efficient it is.

According to the latest devblog (feb 24) this issue will be fixed. Thank goodness.