Something that would make sense

[Codeslamer]

You just start the game, go outside and a zombie dog sees you. You lure it into a window and no-matter if you have a pipe, stick, or just unarmed, you miss, and miss, and miss. Over and over, not hitting it once until dying. If the dog was outside I would understand abit more but a dog climbing through a window frame with bits of broken glass?! How would you miss that?! You might miss once or twice but EVERY DAMN TIME?! I’m sure a dog wouldn’t be dancing around a window frame, not cutting it’self, signing ‘Can’t touch this’! It doesn’t matter who you are. Unless you are blind there would be no way possible that you would miss a DOG, not a small bird or rodent but a DOG, completely, 100% of the time while it’s half way through a window. No way in a million years.

Edit (Computer thought i was done. ) What i think should be done is simple. Make it so it’s easier to hit things, (like dogs for example?) while they’re through a window!

[TheWumpus]

Things in windows ARE easier to hit. The problem is not the code, the problem is your character’s lack of melee ability. Reduce encumberance, etc. If all else fails say fuck it and reroll. If it bothers you that much, go into the JSON and reduce the dodge skill of zombie dogs.

[Muaddib]

Things in windows ARE easier to hit. The problem is not the code, the problem is your character’s lack of melee ability. Reduce encumberance, etc. If all else fails say fuck it and reroll. If it bothers you that much, go into the JSON and reduce the dodge skill of zombie dogs.

This. Zombie dogs are easy. Just pelt them with chunks of steel or rocks.

[Hardluck]

I went through the same frustration. The combat mechanics are somewhat more complex than the first appear. Biggest contributor to this is the fact that armor makes you tougher to kill, but encumbers and that makes you weaker in combat. Here are few guidelines that helped me survive early game.

Dex is better for melee in early game than STR. A missed swing that would have done 50 damage is not as good as a swing that hit for 5 damage.

Weapons with lower damage but faster attack and a bigger to hit bonus are a lot better in early game. Same reason.

Torso encumbrance kills you. Every point of it is a penalty, not only to your skills, but to the time it takes you to swing your weapon. In the first few days I’d rather fight naked than take a single point of encumbrance on the torso.

[Valpo]

In the first days fighting naked would result in bad tempreture penaltys. But just for a moment when i fight a z dog in the first day i throw of my winter coat to beat it to death unencumbered (And put it right back on afterwards).

[razor]

Small enemies like zombie children, dogs, most wildlife and skitter bots are things that you may have better luck shooting up close instead of fighting with a melee weapon. Having any serious torso encumbrance will make fighting them difficult even with good melee skills but you can still shoot them effectively. I do this especially when I am returning from looting town and I have a bag full of equipment that would be time consuming to drop / pick up.

For the early game it would be good to pick up all the rocks you can find. The majority of enemies can be outrun and you can use rocks to soften up enemies before you fight them in melee. Zombie dogs do not have very many hitpoints and you can wear them down with enough rocks.

[fish_have_fingers_no]

I like to imagine that the Melee skill also controls how used you are to fighting zombies, robots and the occasional moose and also keeping calm doing it.

[Jakers]

Y’all need to start with 12 DEX or higher. Then this will never happen.

[FunsizeNinja123]

Y’all need to start with 12 DEX or higher. Then this will never happen.

[Valpo]

na ima start with 8 str n 10 dex because reasons.

[Nopkar]

Make sure the weapon you’re using doesn’t have a negative ‘To Hit’ bonus. fresh starts are especially susceptible to getting wrekt when you use one of these items. Later on its not so bad. And make sure you don’t have any encumbrance that affects your melee skills as this also has a huge impact early game.

In the end your spawn comes down to partly luck and partly more luck, just restart if you’re in a really bad spot unless that’s what you’re going for

And remember, just bump up your starting points for an overall stronger character so you can get used to the game. you seem to be having quite a few problems and most of them can be eliminated with experience. it doesn’t mean you suck, it just means you need to get used to the game.

also I suggest turning on slow zombies…this is a huge help in getting used to the game overall, it slows their attack speed as well.

[Jakers]

Oh yeah, I should also mention NEVER use the pocket knife as a weapon against zombie dogs. You will almost never hit. Like Nopkar said, use a starting weapon with high to-hit. Such as a makeshift crowbar, or nail board.

You don’t need a high STR as such to beat a zombie dog; DEX is way more important in a situation like that. If you start with 13/14 DEX you can even hit krecks. Which is why I find that DEX>>>>STR>INT>PER in my opinion for stats.

A stat build like:
STR: 10
DEX: 14
INT: 10
PER: 10

Is what I usually go for. I can always boost my INT with caffiene pillz.

[iceball3]

I typically go for a lower dex (8 or 9) build as i tend to chose my fights, and can compensate for skill later on.
Maybe i just like bashing through walls too much eith my 13 str and trait-pile

[Coolthulhu]

DEX>>>>STR>INT>PER

This.

High DEX solves almost every single problem with melee monsters.
DEX is the closest thing we have to a difficulty setting. High dex makes melee monsters much weaker, low dex makes early game much more challenging.
20 dex makes it possible AND feasible to wreck a hulk with 0 skills and a pointy stick and I’m not exaggerating the slightest bit here.

[iceball3]

It is important to note that dex controls dodging as well, which is why being in immense pain hinders it.

[AllisonW]

'Sup y’all, first post here.

Against the conventional wisdom of the community of folks I first learned about this game from, my own experience corroborates the Dexterity > Strength for melee thing. I made an eight-year-old girl with Str 6 and Dex 12 and was told to stay out of melee, but with enough luck to find a hatchet in the early game she’s since made it to nine. It’s kind of ridiculous; she’s an untouchable crit factory in melee, especially now that she’s got high skills. Given that I found the Boxing style, I even use unarmed to mop up skeletons if I’m not carrying a bashing weapon these days.

I don’t know if it was the intent of the developers, but aside from entirely unarmed combat or heavy melee weapons, Strength honestly seems more important for ranged combat (throwing, archery, high-recoil guns, etc.) than melee combat, whereas the reverse seems true with Dexterity. It’s kind of counter-intuitive, but I suppose it might be one of those learning-how-the-game-is-really-played things.

[FunsizeNinja123]

I made an eight-year-old girl with Str 6 and Dex 12 and was told to stay out of melee, but with enough luck to find a hatchet in the early game

Welcome to the fourms. Don’t feed the ninjas.

[AllisonW]

Thanks.

And I always upvote Clementine. Or I would if I could find a +rep button or something.

[FunsizeNinja123]

And I always upvote Clementine. Or I would if I could find a +rep button or something.

Eee-eh?! Here in the zone cataclysm forums we don’t have fancy likes or upvotes, we have the graciousness of the ninja people with differing opinions.

[Coolthulhu]

[quote=“AllisonW, post:16, topic:8422”]I made an eight-year-old girl with Str 6 and Dex 12

I don’t know if it was the intent of the developers, but aside from entirely unarmed combat or heavy melee weapons, Strength honestly seems more important for ranged combat (throwing, archery, high-recoil guns, etc.) than melee combat, whereas the reverse seems true with Dexterity. It’s kind of counter-intuitive, but I suppose it might be one of those learning-how-the-game-is-really-played things.[/quote]

That’s one superhumanly buff and agile 8 year old girl.

Strength for archery is overrated, it only affects range (unless you go below 6, which is the hard low cap for best bow).
I don’t know what was the intent, but to me it looks like the stats are supposed to do things you’d expect them to do in real life, rather than things commonly associated with them in video games.
But yes, strength doesn’t do much for melee. The most important part of it is the carrying capacity. It has a more significant effect if you use bashing weapons - those are useless at low strength. Since mostly-bashing weapons are kinda bad after early game, strength loses to dexterity (and loses hard) when it comes to melee.