I've made the whole wasteland ninja PC. It was fun,.... AFTER I had developed him to the point I could sneak up on about anything (lots of stealth boys used early). A 'tweeked' unarmed (and melee) combat setup would be nice.
Do I expect it? No.

what's unarmed?

Punching/kicking enemies until they're dead.

I'm working on a mod right now that will let you disarm your opponent if you're within range (very close), unarmed or using an unarmed weapon, and have a high enough unarmed skill (and the associated perk). You can either deposit the weapon into your inventory, or equip it, depending on whether you disarmed using the "activate" or "grab" button. I wouldn't mind seeing that, or a more varied amount of unarmed attacks that did various things, like cripple specific limbs or temporarily incapacitate your enemy. If you've seen the S.M.A.R.T. system that Brink's going to use for vaulting/jumping/sliding, I think something like that would be great, where the melee attack you performed depended on where your cursor was pointing rather than on which button you pressed (you'd only need one button, maybe even just the normal attack button).

Ekhem, except that the fact that fighting someone, or something, with bare hands will knock him unconscious rather than chopping the head off with a critical strike?

Unarmed along with melee are good as a secondary weapon skill, when your running low on ammo or you just want to uppercut a mutants head off.

I've been politely hinting to Josh that you unarmed/melee guys could use a little pick me up in the info department. He's dropped hints and outright revealed about 4 new guns and energy weapons in the last few days. My guess is that there isn't that much left to reveal in the unarmed/melee arena and they want to leave what's still out there for the game release. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

I just started a Melee/Unarmed playthrough in Fallout 3. Fisto! is an awesome weapon. I really hope the Power Fist is as powerful if not more powerful than it was in 3. The Unarmed/Melee weapons and gameplay should be really good this time around.

Unarmed and Melee Weapons should be merged into Melee Combat or something.

I would not be opposed to this frankly.

I would be opposed to this vehemently.

Like I am about First Aid and Doctor becoming Medical. (On the surface it seems sensible, but it was like that for a reason).

Why, they merged Big guns with small guns. What would be the negatives of merging melee and unarmed?

Agreed.

And most people hated that decision including me.

I agree but they did need to make Big guns more powerful, like they were in 1 and 2. In 3 it seemed that you were better off using small guns than big ones. I would rather them merge melle and unarmed than big and small guns. It would make it easier for me to make some of my role play characters.

The negative is that merging skills (any) reduces the ability to specialize. Consider that now you cannot create a sharpshooter who is not also a minigun expert. Merging Melee with unarmed would then mean that one could not create a defensive Martial artist who was not also a knife expert ~and a sword expert, and a cudgel expert, and (adding thrown weapons) also an axe throwing expert. Now Fallout 1 itself lumped Melee as one skill, but the premise extends beyond Fallout and affects all RPG's that try to consolidate skills. :rolleyes:

Take First Aid & Doctor (now lumped as Medical). Originally First Aid was the skill for minor scraqes and cuts, while Doctor was for correcting crippling injuries (but could be used for simple healing). First Aid gave half the XP, took less time, and could be improved with books. Doctor gave twice the XP, took longer, and had to be pushed up with skill points (which took away from everything else, so Doctor was a deliberate commitment).

The end result of having them separate meant that PC's had a total of six possible heals per day, but only three chances to correct crippled limbs, and the choice to administer the appropriate treatment for their NPC's injuries. Medical retains none of that.

Not really. All you have to do is limit yourself. My cowboy character was just as good with a Assault rifle as he was with Lincolns repeater but did he use them? No he didnt, because i restricted myself. Like I said before, id much rather have melee and unarmed merge than big and small guns.

Pretending shouldn't be the players job by default. I, for one, hate games in which I have to pretend my character does not know something he clearly does, as the mechanics dictate. It's just lacking in interactivity and choices - and forces me to keep track on out-of-game aspects.

Strength 7.

Does it matter? The skill dictates proficiency regardless of handicap.

Player's Kludge.
The game should not be like that, and time spent training your feet & fists should not make you an expert with hammers; any more than time spent learning pistols should make you proficient with anything but (really). Honestly I never truly liked the idea that one skill covers small fireams, nor that ALL melee weapons were covered by one catch-all melee skill.

again Id rather them have merged melee and unarmed than big and small guns, like in F1.

Its become "Guns", "No Guns", and "BOOM". :shakehead:

It could have been "Pistols", "Rifles", "Edged", "Exotic-Melee", "Exotic-Firearm"; "Unarmed", and even "exotic-Martial Art".
With one exception, I have never played an RPG that benefited from simplifing the skills. That one RPG expected you to die in 20 minutes and make a new character (and the emphasis was simplified characters in general, that could be made in a few minutes).

This is a matter of personal taste. Everything you pointed out and critisized I think is actually a step in the direction of being more awesome. Specialization would only concern me in a more teamwork oriented game. So if I was actually travelling around with like 5 companions, each with their own special set of skills, I could understand the emphasis on teamwork and need for specialization rather than just having a single character superstar do everything while everybody else just stands around doing nothing. As it is, though, all Fallouts currently in the series places a lot of emphasis on the player's PC, firmly placing him in the spotlight at all times, and thus all games can be completed without recruiting a single companion (and often I found them to get underfoot more often than be helpful). With so much emphasis on the individual player character, my view is that it's a good thing the PC is able to get such a broad spectrum of knowledge by investing in only one skill category. It makes me feel less limited in what I am able to do in the Fallout universe, and have a greater impact on the environment since I know how to do so much.

I have no problem with limiting my self, or using my imagination. This is a Role Playing game after all. Plus I'm used to playing D&D. We will agree to disagree. It doesnt invalidate either of our opinions, because they are just that, opinions.

I think that as your skill goes up, you should have better power attacks and swing faster. And, if you hit someone that is armed, you should be able to keep hitting, which stops them from shooting, until you miss. Would make it worthwhile.