Fistfighting in Hytale?

DISCLAIMER: This is speculative and based on pre-release information. This is not meant to be taken seriously; this is just for fun.

Many video games that include fistfighting alongside other weapons usually make fists near-useless, which I find slightly insulting since I like fistfighting. The quickest examples I can think of are the Grand Theft Auto series, where guns are far superior to melee combat, followed by Minecraft, where fists deal only 1 damage and have no special abilities compared to almost every other weapon.
(I think Assassin's Creed, The Last of Us, and the Disgaea series integrated fists with other weapons very well, though.)

Since Hytale has a fantasy setting with a wide variety of weapons like swords, magic, and even guns, and many fantasy movies and games don't have fistfighting, I'm worried of the possibility that fists will suffer from the same lack of usage as Minecraft. None of the official media showed any sign of fistfighting.

This blog post is designed to enumerate ways on how Hytale can implement fistfighting in-game properly.

Start with VERY weak fists, but get progressively stronger

If fists start off too strong, other weapons would become obsolete early-game.

I suggest making fists about as weak as Minecraft fists when the player makes a new save file, then get steadily stronger with higher damage, faster speed, and new, more effective combos as the player progresses in their adventure, until they're on par with other weapons.

There are multiple ways to improve fists, but we don't know what route Hypixel Studios will go through (if they'll go through any of these routes at all):

Exploration (The Legend of Zelda-like) route

Exploration is an essential activity in Minecraft and The Legend of Zelda series, so I think Minecraft and Zelda players will expect exploration to be highly emphasized and rewarding in Hytale.

Perhaps the player can pick up skill books that improve the player's fistfighting ability, or go to a village where the local master can teach them a skill in fistfighting.

Practice (The Sims-like) route

In later The Sims games, Sims can improve skills by doing an activity directly related to the skill--cooking improves the Cooking skill, while fixing broken objects improves Handiness.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Grand Theft Auto V also have similar mechanics.

Punching Trorks, golems, dragons, and other enemies over and over can be a way to improve fistfighting skill. (Among the monsters in Hytale, the Trork is the first I'd kill hundreds of.)

The problem is, improving skills in this way (i.e. grinding) is controversial among the gaming community as a whole, particularly Fire Emblem players.

Perhaps the best solution is to combine exploration and practice. In this way, the player first practices against a bunch of monsters, then visits a master or reads a skill book from a faraway village or dungeon to truly gain fistfighting skill.

Then again, Hytale is supposedly going to be friendly to both settlers and explorers, and I'm not sure how to improve fistfighting while slacking off near a base without making anti-grinding gamers angry.

Make Gloves More Than Just Armor (Disgaea-like)

Gloves are confirmed to be a functional armor type, based on this Hytale UI screenshot.

It would be interesting if gloves not only protected the player, but also increased their fistfighting power (but not necessarily skill) and maybe even added additional effects like setting the enemy on fire with each punch (or power-punch).

This can be integrated with the exploration part by putting powerful gloves in dungeons and caves. However, there's no confirmed "armor experience" mechanic, so the practice route can't work with this.

A Good Moveset

This is a no-brainer when it comes to making fists viable.

I'd suggest adding disarming moves, assassinations, grab attacks, and other special moves. I'd like to see a mechanic like this: Power-punching a mage's head can damage their brain and temporarily reduce their magical strength. (No offense, player4709.)

However, it's important to not make these too powerful to the point where other weapons become obsolete. Maybe add cooldowns to special moves?

P.S. Official Hytale post about world generation: https://hytale.com/news/2019/1/worldgen-introduction

P.P.S. Hypixel Studios supposedly reads everything sent to their social media accounts, but I wouldn't dare share any of my Hytale-related posts with them. I want them to carry on with developing Hytale at their own pace.
With that said, it would mean the world to me if Hypixel Studios officially reacted to any of my Hytale posts.
(They react a lot to fan art. I suck at drawing, though.)