Remove Random Crits (from melee, obviously)

Random crits have no place in the game, and putting them on melee doesn't solve the core problem of random crits.
The 2 arguments for melee crits I see are "lol I just one shot someone" and "Without crits melee is useless."

Melee is not useless without crits, as 65 damage a swing is enough to 2 shot any light class from full health. Most classes don't use melee unless their guns are empty (the entire point of having a melee weapon, when you're close-quarters and your guns are emtpy) Or certain supportive classes like Medic and Sniper, who's main weapons are situational and benefit from their melee weapons in close quarters.

More than anything melee crits only benefit those supportive classes like sniper and med, who already strongly rely on their melee. The other day I was playing sniper and got cornered by a pyro and scout. I was half-health and locked in a corner with 2 of the most powerful close-quarters combat classes.
Then I pulled out my melee and one-shot both of them with random crits.
Why even bother having classes with defined roles and weaknesses when random crits can just show up and give a middle finger to all the careful adjusted class balances?

On a similar note, sniper and medic being prime targets for spies, yet just being able to reliability one-shot them just feels like insult to injury for the worst class in the game. On top of everyone being hyper aware due to increased FOV, as a spy main I can tell you more than half my deaths are to random melee crits.

If the main argument is to keep melee weapons relevant, (which they always have been) then why not *add* more relevant melee options? Almost every medic uses the spritz or shock therapy, and no one argues those are irrelevant. Most snipers use the fish-wacker for it's obvious benefits.
(This section isn't so much directed at vf4 servers as it is the TF2C devs, I don't expect you guys to make new weapons, lol)

Interesting points.

FWIW, the request to have melee crits turned on came from the devs themselves and not something we decided ourselves, so unless I hear otherwise from them my hands are tied

Give me names and I will make them change their tone.
By that I mean beg them.

Admittedly, I love random crits, the thought of fighting against all odds and somehow surviving is so awesome, I'd hate it that they'll get removed and remove any chances of surviving a near death situation.

However, I do see the point of why they can be a pain, spies should have a more equal chance against lighter classes like sniper and medic, going through all that effort to go behind enemy lines and trying to backstab the super skilled sniper that's raining hell, then gets one-shotted with his melee in a split-second reaction is just awful.

The reason why people consider melee useless without random crits is that ranged weapons do way more damage from far away, yes they have a limited supply of ammo, but ammo can be abundant and putting ranged weapons against a melee, 9 out of 10 times ranged weapons will win.
Currently, the use of melees occupy a niche situation that is rarely successful unless the opponent also is using the melee, depending on the class each opponent is, can have ridiculously low or high chances of winning.

I of course agree that we need more melee weapons, but I would also consider giving each melee unique properties, like the support classes and the engineer has.
One example would be the pyro's fire axe having the ability to set people on fire, another would be the scout's bat having a chance to stun people for a second or a chance to dodge an attack when in use.

I think the main issue is that melee in the game is not a viable choice, but a last resort that without random crits would never work and would just seal your fate, In fact cp_degrootkeep was the only map in the game that made melee have a major purpose, wonder where cp_degroot's gone now?

Fully agree. Remove random crits from all of the servers, simple as.

This game isnt MORDHAU please remove the random melee crits pretty please c:

yeah, random melee crits can feel really bs when someone misses all of their shots and gets lucky with an insta kill

to be fair, if you're allowing someone to get into melee range without making any attempt to slow them down or stop them, you kinda deserve to get owned
random crits on guns don't work because they make fights unpredictable and let bad players get kills for free. in no universe should a lone medic or engineer be able to win a fight against a full HP soldier or heavy, but random crits let this happen. when crits are locked to melee only, there's the risk of having to get into point blank range and very easily getting killed by any power class. no one is going around as a wannabe demoknight trying to farm melee kills exclusively unless they're just shitposting and not taking the game seriously

on a semi related note: i am very glad that official servers have random bloom disabled. you can at least make the argument that crits break stalemates on shit-tier maps like dustbowl or turbine, when literally nothing else works because the enemy has stacked heavies and engineers on the point and the only thing that can save you is RNG, but random bloom is just an objectively bad mechanic which serves no purpose, benefits no one, and only serves to make hitscan guns less functional. in a game where soldiers and snipers have weapons with perfect accuracy, there is no reason for random bloom to exist

i don't think they really add or detract that much, at least in the casual sense. they're pretty obviously bullshit, but it's funny bullshit.

however- I'd say though that in a world of 100+ FOV that melee random crits can be pretty fucking stupid, especially when Spy has a primary that is supposed to encourage butter knifing the enemy.

Here's my question: when the devs were designing stuff like the tranq gun- did they have in mind the possibility of a random melee crit from the spy's target? Why not just add a penalty miss mechanic like the sniper club if they wanted to punish poor melee skills from the spy?