When it comes to weapon mods, I've set things up so that any mod can be attached to any weapon body so that the player can make any sort of combination they want, which sometimes leads to fairly absurd looking weapons. I'm hoping that I can keep this flexibility in place going forward, but I may run into an unforeseen issue that forces me to assign mods to be used with a specific type of firearm (i.e., rifles, shotguns, etc.) I just enjoy the absurdity of a attaching a rifle barrel to a shotgun that has a massive magazine and one completely unnecessary laser sight, so fingers crossed that nothing gets in the way of keeping things so modular. I've added a new variable to mod barrels which affects the spread of shotgun fire. Long, thin barrels now group the pellets into a tighter a pattern, while shorter barrels produce more spread - and consequently, more opportunity to hit multiple targets.

I've also set up the remaining 1-handed melee weapons, which are all depicted in the image below. They all work the same, but I wanted to have some variety and since the meshes were already available, I figured I might as well get them all done. I had considered including mods for melee weapons but since zombies are all a one-hit, one-kill (save for those wearing helmets) enemy, there isn't much point in making melee weapons unique or capable of modification. I have, however, finally put the time into getting melee weapons working with the character interface, so you can at least inspect them and check out their only stat (attack speed).

Melee weapons and armor pieces now have depleting durability as well. When the player takes damage, a random piece of armor takes damage as well and the player must use scrap metal that they've salvaged/looted in order to make repairs before they are destroyed. Melee weapons now take damage with each use as well and will require the same insofar as repairs, and repairs can only be made at appropriate workstations.

And finally we move on to what has always been the most enjoyable part of this project for me: the absurd. Players will soon be able to pick up severed arms to use as a temporary melee weapon. Durability of these limbs is miniscule, so they won't be very effective for very long; this is mostly just for fun but could also prove to be a life-saving feature if the player is out of ammo and has lost their only melee weapon due to being unable to make the necessary repairs. Regardless, I found it amusing and am glad that I was able to find a way to incorporate it into the final game that doesn't have a major impact on overall progression, especially considering the ridiculous number of severed limbs that the player will have access to. The mechanic for picking up the arms is not done yet, but you can see that the test phase went well based on the video below. What started out as a tangential source of laughter over the course of an afternoon has now become one of my favorite features of the game, and if nothing else it should help the game to stand out a bit when it comes time to update the trailer.