Special moves. Specifically, maneuvers unique to every melee weapon that consumes a lot of stamina and has different effects on players or the environment depending on whether they're killed or not.
- -Bats get homerun swings, turning small cover obstacles and rolling players into flying projectiles after a little startup.
-The Hammer can destroy collapsible concrete floors with a special swing.
-The Katana would have a lunge move that does heavy damage, beheading or exploding opponents 2 seconds after killing them.
-The machete would have a drag move that ignited the blade temporarily, setting struck enemies on fire.
-Fire Axes could have a leap move, allowing the player to jump in an low arc while swinging the axe overhead and downwards, with the blade dealing heavy damage to players and destroying cover.
-Makeshift weapons lack a special move properties, I think that's fair seeing as they're makeshift.
The command could be punch and kick at the same time for all of these. I'd prefer these all take max stamina to perform, but 75% of total doesn't sound too unbalanced.
With all that being said though, why even bother? My most basic answer is that it would add a layer of strategy to melee combat besides "get into range and hope that I can block better than this guy or kick his weapon out his hands." A person with a katana should be scary, and someone with no ammo and just fists should feel intimidated that this fight could be challenging. The variance of melee weapons right now only varies in damage and length, and I feel pretty confident in saying that it could use a little more depth.
EDIT: Topic was moved, thanks based mods