The honourable AXE that didn't get to be a weapon.

[Apoc Fyerah]

Hello, zombie survival horde crafting gamers!

 

I haven't seen this discussed anywhere, so I figured I'd make a new thread about it.

 

Personally I'm a big fan of AXES. They are big, heavy, sharp, headchoppin', bodydecapitating things, that from the beginning of humans experience with sticks and stones,- has always been a great murderous weapon. To many, it is the choice of honour for carrying out this certain task - murdering things, but for some reason... not in 7 Days to Die.

 

 

Why(?), I wonder.....

 

 

It's the only tool/weapon in the game that is a weapon, but is not validated as one. It has no choice of skill to buff it up as a weapon.

No critics to the developers, but the axe even got mentioned in the Deep Cuts perk - but only that it is not included. I find this quite sad to be honest.
When I'm raiding POI's, especially small ones. I find myself carrying the axe in my hand alot. It's practical, because most of the small POI's are to a large extent made out of wood.

I have used the steel axe alot for murdering zombies, and it's great. It even looks alot more like a battleaxe made for killing things, than an axe whos sole purpose is to chop wood.

 

As Alpha 20 is about to be released, I want to raise this topic and hopefully be able to do something about it before the new update is released.
I would love to see the axe get a line of skills to buff it up, so it can get a chance to be the true murderous weapon that it is.

 

Knives function well as both tools and weapons, why not the axe aswell?

Could easily just include it with the knives, or it could get it's own perk altogether.

 

Suggestion:

Level 1: Increase damage delt with axes by 10% and increase chance of limb dismemberment with normal attack by 5%.

Level 2: Increase damage delt with axes by 20%, and increase chance of limb dismemberment with normal attack by 10%.

Level 3: Increase damage delt with axes by 30%, and increase chance of limb dismemberment with normal attack by 15%.

Level 4: Increase damage delt with axes by 40%, and increase chance of limb dismemberment with normal attack by 20%.

Level 5: Increase damage delt with axes by 50%, and increase chance of limb dismemberment with normal attack by 25%.

 

I often find myself in the situation where I can't run from a fight, and neither do I have the stamina to kill my attacker/attackers.

So as we have all experienced, either die or pull out the gun and plow the field. If you live to tell the tale, you just got the attention by the next four zombies. No time to regenerate stamina, you sow the seeds with their blood aswell. If you are unlucky the ball keeps rolling and adds mass fast from this point.
Shooting your guns without silencer at the wrong time and you find yourself facing a horde that you just can't beat when standing on open ground.

(At least if your playing on a higher difficulty).

 

Remember how I introduced axes with words like bodydecapitating? This is where the glory of dismemberment comes in. Let's say you were in this situation, suddenly ambushed by three zombies. You don't have the stam to kill all three with three power attacks or more, and you can't run. Instead three well placed normal hits on their legs makes them crawl. Giving you the time to regenerate stamina and finish the job in silence.

 

As both Intellect and Fortitude attributes only have 2 combat perks, I think it could fall in under any of them, or...

- move the Demolisions perk from Perception to Intellect, and have the axe get a perk in the Perception Attribute.
I think it is more logical to see an advanced and modern way of combat like demolitions, to be put in with the other brainy perks in the Intellect Attribute.

As axes has always been a weapon of precision (believe it or not, small blade on top of stick), it would make sense to keep it in the Perception Attribute

 

Here another line of thoughts;

What if there was a perk that increased the damage delt to "zombies only" or "everything, but other players", or whatever way you could tweak the perk - for all TOOLS.

I would suggest this includes the cathegories of tools such as; Construction tools, Disassemblement tools, Mining tools and Woodcutting tools. As knives already have their weapon boosting perk, it would not get buffed by this aswell. 

 

Suggestion:

Level 1: Increase damage to all (specified) targets by (specificed) tools by 10%.

Level 2: Increase damage to all (specified) targets by (specificed) tools by 15% and give 10% chance to slow target.

Level 3: Increase damage to all (specified) targets by (specificed) tools by 20%, give 10% chance to slow target, and 10% chance to bleed target.

Level 4: Increase damage to all (specified) targets by (specificed) tools by 25%, give 10% chance to slow target, give 10% chance to bleed target, and give 10% chance to stun target.

Level 5: Increase damage to ALL targets by (specified) tools by 30%, give 10% chance to slow target, give 10% chance to bleed target, give 10% chance to stun target, and give 10% chance to knock over target.

 

FunPimps have already showed us that there are lots of different ways to make perks, and have them scale in balanced yet "confidence accumulating" ways.

I could see these perks being shaped in many different ways. This goes on for as long as the imagination does.

Happy to have a forum where I can share my thoughts and ideas about the game.

Hope there are those of you that agree with me on the matter that The One and Only AXE needs to be Honoured!
Thanks to any upcoming responses to this thread.
Happy hunting everyone.

Apoc

[meganoth]

You won't really like what I have to say. The axe already was a formidable weapon in an older alpha (one without perks). The result: Everyone used the axe for melee because it was miles above any other weapon in usability: It was in the toolbelt anyway as it was needed for wood cutting and door crushing and some scraping. Saving one of the limited toolbelt slots and saving lots of switching in pois between fighting and looting.

 

Gimping wood cutting was not an option so the only way to make other melee weapons viable was to gimp the fighting potential of axes.

 

In recent alphas with perks it is a little different because you actually might use other melee weapons because they are in an attribute you are specializing in. But if you specialize in STRENGTH the axe would compete against club and sledge and there must be a reason to choose those over the axe.

 

Anyway, in the early game the axe is still viable as a melee weapon, it just loses out in the late game. I don't think it will get better. As always your option is to mod the game.

 

The knifes may be in a somewhat similar position but they are much less obligatory as tools. Many players do not have a knife in the toolbelt unless they perk into AGI, and the knife line is noticably weaker and more difficult to use as a melee weapon than the club for example. And actually the axe is a formidable replacement for skinning animals instead of a knife.

 

 

[Boidster]

Props to OP for thinking it through a little bit. I still use an axe from time to time just for fun, but if they could balance it appropriately with the other melee tools I'd be happy for it to be an alternative. I mean, chopping zombie heads with an axe is just zombie mythology canon at this point innit?

[BFT2020]

11 hours ago, Apoc Fyerah said:

Hello, zombie survival horde crafting gamers!

 

*snip for brevity*

*cracks his knuckles*

 

Let me see what I can do on a modlet taking what you put in your post.  I would probably put the perk tree in fortitude as it doesn't align with either Perception or Intellect.

[Apoc Fyerah]

Thanks for all your replies.
As I am quite new to the game I did not know that the axe had already seen it's glory days, and were actually nerfed.

 

*sobs* *sobs more* *...sniffs...*
 

On the contrary meganoth, I really do appriciate you enlighting me.

Thanks again.

[hiemfire]

15 hours ago, Apoc Fyerah said:

It has no choice of skill to buff it up as a weapon.

In A19, not sure if it'll stay the same in A20+, Miner 69er does that. It also gains benefits from points invested into the strength attribute. It ain't high-top tier by any stretch of the imagination, but it ain't crap either. Just don't put the Fireman's Axe mod on it and it is good to go as a decent melee weapon.

 

Tool/Weapon Mods I suggest to slot in for a melee focused axe:

• Ergonomic Grip
• Weighted Head or Structural Brace or Diamond Blade (these 3 are exclusive of each other so can only take one of them, pick which fits your taste of flattening stuff from time to time or not wearing the axe out as fast)
• Serrated Blade
• Wood Splitter (For utility, still boosts damage to enemies by 10% that adding any mod gives).

Happy chopping.  

Edited November 9, 2021 by hiemfire (see edit history)

[BFT2020]

So this is the rough draft I was able to get done this evening

 

https://imgur.com/a/sWfSi4x

 

The text needs flavor, but you can see in the description fields on what it does.

 

This is from the readme file I created with the modlet

Quote

 

Changes made by this mod

-Added AxeMan perk to Fortitude tree (to buff axes for combat)
---Iron and Steel axes only
---Increased entity damage as you perk up
---Increased chances to dismember as you perk up
-Removed Miner69r perk from axes (to prevent axes from becoming too OP)

 

 

I will see what I can do with the descriptions.

 

Iron axe entity damage starts at 15.1 and steel axe at 28.9 (clubs are 17.4 and 26.2)

 

[Apoc Fyerah]

8 hours ago, BFT2020 said:

So this is the rough draft I was able to get done this evening

 

https://imgur.com/a/sWfSi4x

 

The text needs flavor, but you can see in the description fields on what it does.

 

This is from the readme file I created with the modlet

 

I will see what I can do with the descriptions.

 

Iron axe entity damage starts at 15.1 and steel axe at 28.9 (clubs are 17.4 and 26.2)

 

Wow, that's impressive! Really awesome that you took your time to make this!
Is it downloadable from somewhere? I would like to try it. 🤩

[BFT2020]

5 hours ago, Apoc Fyerah said:

Wow, that's impressive! Really awesome that you took your time to make this!
Is it downloadable from somewhere? I would like to try it. 🤩

I want to first check the numbers to make sure (from a math perspective) that I didn't make it too OP to start with.  I also want to make a minimum effort on the text to improve it (minimum effort as I am an engineer and wasn't hired for my English skills 😉 )

 

After I get that done, I will zip it up and figure out a place to upload it so you can download it.  Make sure you can virus scan it as I am just someone on the net offering to help you.  I know I got good intentions, but you should always verify (Trust but verify)  😉

[Matt115]

Well making axe a weapon would make it to op. Well - sledgehammer and clubs would be pointless because better to keep in toolbelt 1 item that 2/3 . Well this is simple and logical reason why they done this in this way.

[Kam R.]

Hiemfire beat me to it, but still:

 

Description of the strenght perks:

"... Deal xxx head shot damage and have a x% greater chance to dismember with shotguns, clubs, sledgehammers and tools governed by miner 69'er"

 

Description of the miner 69'er perks:

"...increase tool damage by x% and block damage by y% with any axe, pick, chainsaw or auger."

 

Now I don't know if "tool damage" translates to entity(melee) damage here, but the strenght part deffo should cover dismemberment.

It would be great if all the perk induced damage boosts would be visible in the item stats field numbers some day...

 

I did run with the axe late game and fully perked and it performed pretty well. I even preferred it to a sledge tbh.

[BFT2020]

That's hilarious  😆

 

@Apoc Fyerah Try perking into Miner69r on the strength branch and see how the axe works for you.  No need to mod anything as the values in it seems to align with what you are wanting.

[hiemfire]

20 hours ago, Kam R. said:

I even preferred it to a sledge tbh.

 

Careful how loud you say that, they may hear and nerf the axe... 😬🤐