To preface, I’d like to say I’m not one of those players that are ultra-elite murder-machines who play on 0 Item Spawn and 50 Zombie spawn and claim it’s too easy. In fact, I usually don’t survive past the first season. However, one thing I’m noticing is that melee skills (Melee, Bashing, Cutting, Piercing) level quickly. In fact, they tend to level very quickly if you’re pushed into fighting a lot (or find a way to take on a lot of enemies at once without getting overwhelmed; I tend to do this at FEMA camps a lot).
With Unarmed, it seems to get seriously ridiculous. I just started a new game with no melee combat whatsoever, and wound up having to punch out a regular zombie and a fat zombie that spawned in my house. Both my Unarmed and Melee skill skyrocketed as a result from 0 (0%) to 1 (80%) and 1 (82%) respectively. That’s almost a level per kill. And I tend to find it particularly easy to shove a melee skill to 7 or 8 without even particularly trying. Skills like Dodging or Ranged Combat skills don’t seem to level nearly as quickly, and it makes investing in melee almost a waste, since you can grind them so quickly.
So I guess what I’m suggesting is, maybe reduce the rate at which melee skills level? Perhaps, just as Ranged Combat depends on factors in addition to simply shooting, have the learning rate adjusted by, say, how hard the enemy is to hit (or pierce the armor of), or simply making it so that misses and ineffective hits don’t boost skill? As it is, finding a fat zombie to bash away at seems to turn you into Bruce Lee in a remarkably short time.
