**Visceral Combat** is a combat-tuning mod built for players who like Better Combat's foundation, but want melee to feel more committed.

**Visceral Combat** adds configurable movement and impact layers on top of existing systems. This includes forward lunges on attack, recoil on weapon hits, directional enemy knock movement, attack arc particles, and brief hitstop for both the attacker and target.

The result is sort of a mix between Epic Fight and Better Combat. You get some of the commitment of Epic Combat, while retaining the freedom and compatibility of Better Combat.

The mod also includes Holstered Mode, allowing players to temporarily unequip their held items for increased movement speed at the cost of being unable to use items.

Most features can be configured in the server.config file inside the visceral\_combat config folder.

This mod depends on Better Combat, its dependencies, and Architectury. It currently is available for both Fabric and (Neo)Forge, for 1.20.1 and 1.21.1.

Details:

Forward Lunge
When you swing, you lunge forward, in whatever direction you are inputing through your keys. Slow, heavy weapons send you flying further; fast weapons give a short burst. Whether you can move sideways or if its forced to move you mostly forward is configurable.

You have four charges for lunging. Each charge is consumed and required when lunging, and each charge replenishes after a duration equal to 8x the attack time at the moment you made it. Each charge recharges individually. Many of these values are configurable to your liking.

Lunge Modes:

- In ARCADE mode: Moving backward or sideways while swinging - The lunge in that direction is significantly reduced. Not moving while attacking causes no lunge.

- In DUELING mode: You lunge purely forwards, all the time.

- In HYBRID mode: You lunge mostly forwards, with some influence from your input.

- The lunge automatically brakes as you close in to an enemy, so you don't slam into them.

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Hitstop
Hits cause a brief freeze on impact. Both you and whatever you hit pause for a split second. The freeze scales with weapon speed: slow weapons cause a longer freeze, fast weapons barely any. This gives attacks a sense of weight and impact.

Any momentum built up during the freeze isn't lost; it's held and released all at once when the freeze ends.

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Enemy Knockback
Enemies get knocked back in a direction that actually makes sense for the attack

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Impact Recoil
When you land a hit, you bounce back slightly in the opposite direction you were moving.

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Attack Particles
Swinging spawns a glowing slash arc that follows the shape and direction of your attack.

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Holster Mode
Press H to holster your weapon. While holstered:

- You appear unarmed: no weapon is visible or active in either hand.
- You run faster, but only once your attack cooldown has finished. Swinging and immediately holstering doesn't give you the speed boost straight away.
- You can't attack, swap items, or pick up weapons into your hands.
- A reminder message appears on screen if you try to attack while holstered.
- Your holster state is periodically confirmed by the server, so it stays in sync in multiplayer.

Everything about holster mode can be toggled and tuned in the config, including disabling it entirely server-side.

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Config Options
All features can be individually turned on or off. The main tuneable values are:
- How far the forward lunge sends you, and how quickly it fades
- How much the lunge is reduced when moving away from your target
- Recharge times, max charges, sprint requirement for lunging, charges enabled or disabled
- How hard enemies get knocked back and in what direction
- The speed boost while holstered
- Whether hitstop applies to you, enemies, or both