Experimental Combat Build
Experimental Combat Build was released March 30, 2012.
Changelogs
This is a very broken build otherwise (an offshoot) that hasn't got a lot of the stuff in the changelist, and pistols are broken at the moment. This is not to play but purely to test the proposed new aiming system.
However, if you run the debug batch (or add -Ddebug into one of the other batches) you will start with the axe and some kitchen knives.
ONLY axe and knives have been balanced for the new system, and then not even fully so. Please ignore any weirdness with zombie knockback or other weapons being completely broken. With a debug build you can start with both weapons so just ignore playing normally. Endurance needs balancing with new system. UI not final. Needs changes for human on human combat.
It's a good idea to BACK UP YOUR SAVED GAME - Copy your C:/Users/<YourName>/Zomboid/Sandbox directory.
So how does it work?
First of all, you no longer click to attack. You hold mouse to charge, and let go to attack. Spamming the mouse button will do fast random flails that are unlikely to do much damage.
Two types of weapons:
Swinging
Axes and whatnot. when you click you get a small circle, which grows as you hold it. Any zombie inside the circle (that is also in range) when you release will be in the arc of your swing, so the more powerful the swing the wider the arc and more zombies hit by it. The more you hold the mouse, the more powerful the swing will be and more likelyhood of killing the zombies. Ultimately this will also tire you out a lot more but at this time that hasn't been added.
Stabbing
Knives, pens, pencils. Only kitchen knives balanced thus far. Where a powerful eye / skull stab is the only way to kill. When you click you get a big circle, and it shrinks the longer you hold it. When you let go your strike will hit somewhere in that circle, so the longer you leave it the more powerful and accurate your strike is. It's useful to charge up an aim and lead the zombie to wait for it to get into your aim then release it into its eye.
So that's the system, let us know what you think.
Remember: The days of leading your mouse ahead of the zombies when aiming are over. If you have your mouse on the other side of the screen you'll hit nothing. We feel this will be much more intuative to new players, who tend to click the zombies themselves and end up swinging at an odd angle since they are actually aiming behind the zombie in iso perspective. We've seen this a lot in youtube videos and it's always a bit embarrassing.