Weapons

items/weapons.ron says how each melee weapon behaves when swung. Every weapon also needs an item in items.ron with weapon: Some("its id"): the weapon is how it swings, the item is the thing you carry.

Zombies have about 100 hit points (85 to 115). Distances are in metres, times in seconds, chances and endurance from 0 to 1.

(
    id: "kitchen_knife",
    name: "Kitchen knife",
    category: ShortBlade,
    damage: (17.0, 25.0),
    range: 0.65,
    arc_degrees: 40.0,
    windup_seconds: 0.12,
    swing_seconds: 0.4,
    max_targets: 1,
    knockback: 0.05,
    stagger_chance: 0.15,
    knockdown_chance: 0.0,
    crit_chance: 0.22,
    crit_multiplier: 2.6,
    endurance_cost: 0.03,
    noise_radius: 2.5,
    spawn_weight: 3.0,
    found_in: ["kitchen", "dining"],
    length: 0.3,
    color: (0.75, 0.78, 0.82),
),

Fields

Field	What it is
id, name	As for items.
category	Unarmed, ShortBlade, ShortBlunt, LongBlunt or Axe. Decides the swing animation and the skill.
skill	Some(Bludgeon), Some(Edged) or Some(Brawl). Left out, the category’s: blunt trains Bludgeon, blades and axes Edged, bare hands Brawl. Every weapon of a category must name the same one.
damage	(min, max) per hit, rolled evenly.
range	Reach from the player’s centre to the edge of a zombie’s body.
arc_degrees	How wide the swing is.
windup_seconds	From starting the swing to the moment it lands.
swing_seconds	From starting the swing until you can act again (at least the windup).
max_targets	How many zombies one swing can hit, nearest first. Each extra one takes less.
knockback	How far a hit pushes a zombie back.
stagger_chance, knockdown_chance	Rolled on each hit: knocked down, else staggered. Both are likelier from behind.
crit_chance, crit_multiplier	Critical hits. Likelier from behind.
endurance_cost	Endurance one swing uses. Standing still gives back 0.05 a second (walking 0.02), so cost ÷ swing time above that wears you down.
noise_radius	How far zombies hear the swing.
spawn_weight	How likely it is to be left lying in a house (0, the default: never).
found_in	Room types where it’s three times as likely to be lying about.
length, color	Its grey-box look.

Exactly one weapon must be Unarmed: bare hands, what a player with nothing in hand punches with.

Feel

Our own weapons follow a pattern that’s a good place to start:

• Knives: fast, short, one target, high crits. Go for the back.
• Short blunt (hammer, pan): staggers.
• Long blunt (bat, club, plank): a wide arc that hits several and knocks down.
• Axes: slow, heavy, tiring. Two hits, or one good one.

Swings get slower and weaker below half endurance, and skills change damage, cost and speed (see How the world works).

Testing weapons

The MCP weapons tool prints the table as the game read it. To feel a weapon without walking about, have an agent spawn it and a few zombies, then attack: each reply says what was hit, for how much, and what happened to it. See Testing and debugging.