[Doom Dark Ages] Revamp melee system for strategic resource management

Happy new year everyone! This post is a bit long but I'm hoping to draw some sympathy toward the complaints of this game while adding an experienced take to it. This game did a lot right and in terms of its performance and accessibility, I think it deserves all the praise it gets. It's not necessarily fair to compare this game to eternal on a 1:1 scale but coming out of what eternal provided, it's easy to see why so many had issues when playing this game for the first time. The combat loop is much more generalized, the strategic formula has been highly muddled down, and you're no longer thinking like the cocaine monkey that eternal had turned you into. I think the solution to this issue is one that is extremely simple... but probably not possible, knowing Id and how they treat game updates. I want to list the most common complaints about the combat gameplay that people have had (yeah there's other complaints about the story and whatever but I'm not as interested in that), and then provide what I think SHOULD'VE been in the game from the beginning which would've satisfied these common complaints. -Removal of glory kills, executions don't feel mechanically useful by comparison nor are they as interesting. -Too much parrying, the combat feels focused in an unfamiliar direction. -The resource management is either non-existent on nightmare setting or far too punishing on the minimum setting. I think the reason all of these are common issues has less to do with the fact that people want to see more of what Eternal initially created, but rather that the melee system is completely ridiculous; and that's literally why all of these complaints make sense. Had the melee system been developed with more strategic intention then the whole game would've had such an original and evolved combat loop that these complaints are about. A problem with the current melee system is that once you get the dreadmace, the gauntlet and flail are pretty useless, only serving as fun alternatives with mild advantages. To fix this, all 3 melees would be active options that draw from the same "melee ammo" pool. For this example, let's say a total of 10 charges exist (this idea would probably need to be tweaked after gameplay testing but just go with the idea), every charge recharges at the same rate as a current gauntlet charge already does. The gauntlet should've served as this game's chainsaw, as it already does, but ONLY the gauntlet should return ammo. Every gauntlet strike takes 1 charge in return for ammo, but the 3rd and 4th hits need to have their damage nerfed, at least by half. So yeah you could just keep wailing on the baddies with your fists and kick combos for longer, but you're dealing less damage. This is to compensate for having the alternative melee options at your immediate disposition instead of having to swap to them as a mutually exclusive option. The flail should've served as this game's flamebelch. Every flail strike takes 3 charges in return for armor. This may not seem fair initially since a single parry is meant to return a full flail swing instead of 1/3 a swing, but remember that you're no longer using the flail for ammo anymore, you're using it specifically for armor gain and to break armored enemies, so it would no longer be as necessary as it is without the gauntlet anymore. The reason it wouldn't be just 1 charge per swing is because you could get armor too quickly this way and that could ruin the risk-reward of using the flail over the gauntlet. Although, the flail def would also need a slight buff to its damage, it doesn't even kill basic imps in a single hit most times. Finally, the dreadmace should've served as this game's rechargeable crucible that drops health. Again it would not drop any ammo, and would instead require the full 10 melee charges to use (unless using the double swing after it has been purchased). All three of these options would likewise have their desired effect during an execution, meaning that depending on the resource you want along with the health drop from the given enemy in the moment you can choose your execution method, regardless of whether you have the necessary charges for it or not (in other words, an execution with the flail would drop armor, an execution with the mace would drop extra health, and an execution with the gauntlet would drop ammo). You would at the very least be forced to be using the gauntlet constantly as the dedicated ammo option, the flail and mace would be nice options to use if you're wanting the extra damage or armor. This would add a unique layer of strategy, as you could decide whether to save your charges for a dreadmace swing (perhaps swap to another weapon to save on ammo in the process), or for additional armor swings. It would then add to the strategy that you punch to add shock to a super heavy, land a few parries, then use a dreadmace swing for an easy kill. The options would become much more open and the "fun zone" would be more apparent. So how does this resolve the aforementioned complaints? -The executions are now necessary, as your method of execution determines your resource, except it is free of a melee charge requirement (as it already is). This turns them from a downgrade of glory kills into a strategic utility, which I think is the real core of the issue: executions currently don't serve any purpose except a "slightly earlier" kill. -Parrying is now a necessary requirement in order to assist in gaining resources. It already is necessary in the game, but it's only because that's how you avoid taking damage most of the time. It's fine, but it serves no strategic purpose until you gain runes (which even then, are just glorified excuses to parry more projectiles). It's easy to see what people are complaining about though because you're almost never REALLY running low on ammo, it's the hp economy that has the real issue. A free melee charge per parry is nice but it's clearly not a strong enough incentive because after a while, yeah, the parrying gets old and it doesn't feel like it has its place in the combat loop, it's just something you have to do to deal with certain enemies. However, if your economy is more strict as would be the case with my example, parrying becomes a necessity BECAUSE of the melee charges you receive for it. The reward becomes more apparent, and the complaints about its inclusion would be much smaller (similar to those that complained about Eternal's reliance on the chainsaw... the complaints came from those that weren't really immersing themselves in the formula). -the resource management is now obvious. It seems to me like the base nightmare difficulty was meant to have the resource slider at minimum, but they bumped it up a notch because the resource management was more scuffed than they had intended during playtesting. But even at minimum resource setting, this change would make the management feel much more immersive and in your control. I also have some thoughts on the runes, specifically how dogshit the turret is (it genuinely feels like it wasn't originally coded to be a rune?), but that's for another conversation. Would love to hear everyone's thoughts, cheers