Does the Ranged Combat need some rework?

[Wraithbourn]

Ok, embarassing situation here that made me think that the ranged combat to hit numbers are a little wonkey.
   I had a colonist with a ranged combat skill of 10 (which the game labels as an "Expert"), equipped with a standard pistol.  An iguana went mad, and so i designated him to kill it.  Should have been easy, however, when he engaged, he managed to miss every shot until it ran up to him and started chowing on him, and continued to miss.  The tooltip showed his chance to hit it at 20%.  I ended up having to draft another colonist with a survival rifle to shoot at it while the first colonist ran away.  When it was finally incapacitated (in shock), i had both colonists stand within a few squares and fire on it.  Speeding up time, it took them 2 hours to kill it because they missed almost every shot.  The lizard was in shock and not even moving for heavens sake!
   Am i missing something here?  It wasn't behind cover of any kind, the only negative i could see was that it was night time, but at point blank range, it should not destroy any chance you have of hitting a target.  Not to mention that if the size of the creature was the cause of the misses, then we definately should not have them able to do as much damage to my colonist as it did if I can't really hit it back.  The guy lost  a finger and had half his life chomped off by this little lizard.
  Also does anybody have a breakdown on what all the %'s that it shows you for your To-Hit chance mean, because they all appear to be positives, or mabey they are a % modification of the initial to hit number.  Either way, i think that it really should have not taken what it did just to hit the thing.

[Solarstorm45]

Hey how's it going, don't know if helps but saw in a post on bailable so like bows the stats and the pistol accuracy and damage are to be desirable even with a high level shooting so probable due to the lower class weapon

[Sagerk]

Chance to hit is affected by more than just colonist skill. Weapon quality and health make a difference as well as weapon type and colonist health.

Your pistol may have a range of 24? but will have a low chance to hit at long range due to the weapon range modifiers (you can see these on the info panel for a weapon). Your colonist could have been missing an eye or an old scar on his hand which both affect accuracy negatively. You can see your colonist's base chance to hit on the colonist info screen, if you click on the ranged accuracy stat it will break it down for you.

Cheers,

[Wraithbourn]

Hey how's it going, don't know if helps but saw in a post on bailable so like bows the stats and the pistol accuracy and damage are to be desirable even with a high level shooting so probable due to the lower class weapon

Thats all good and well, but unfortunately, unless you come across an arms dealer trader selling things early, you are pretty much stuck with pistols and bows. 

Chance to hit is affected by more than just colonist skill. Weapon quality and health make a difference as well as weapon type and colonist health.

Your pistol may have a range of 24? but will have a low chance to hit at long range due to the weapon range modifiers (you can see these on the info panel for a weapon). Your colonist could have been missing an eye or an old scar on his hand which both affect accuracy negatively. You can see your colonist's base chance to hit on the colonist info screen, if you click on the ranged accuracy stat it will break it down for you.

Cheers,

Per the original post, this was from close range to point blank range with the pistol, so it wasn't an issue of long range.  The colonist in question has no physical issues to throw in the mix.  I really do think that the to-hit modification for it being dark or for the lizard being small are what is to blame, as I don't think the same colonist had any issues shooting at a pirate during a raid from much longer distances.

And I am being very literal when i say that my 2 colonists with 10-11 ranged combat skill and no other issues, took 2 hours (game time) of shooting at a passed out lizard from 2-3 squares away to kill it.  It was totally ridiculous!

Attached is a picture showing the hit chances of one of my shooters, it seems that the engine arrives at the final to-hit percentage by taking the first number - the shooter % and then multiplying it by the rest of the numbers.

[attachment deleted due to age]