Nine thoughts

[cultist]

Melee has certainly gotten better with energy shields, but they still serve best as ambushers IMO. A melee guy charging a line of shooters is dead even if he reaches them. A melee guy flanking a line of shooters attacking something else can absolutely devastate that group. I had a level 16-17 Brawler in an A8 game with a superior plasteel longsword. He usually took a limb off with the first hit, causing instant shock to that enemy. He even solo'ed a centipede (their melee behavior seems bugged?)

Sadly, the AI isn't particularly smart when it comes to combat, so melee enemies are still mostly free kills as long as there's not a horde of them.

[Lichuj]

8 melee raiders vs 5 colonists with low tier guns is enough to lose the game instantly without even a chance to win the fight.

Unless... you make them attack the turret and die.

Doing melee vs raiders in such proportions equals another instant lose of the game.
_
Balance.

[lusername]

Melee warriors are an amusing thing. In early attacks, before I started using the turret thing, I found that the corpses of melee tribals were generally filled with arrows. The thing is, I don't use any arrows...

Friendly fire, isn't.

Pawn AI, particularly with regards to "moving into the shot cone of friendly ranged weapons", needs work.

8 melee raiders vs 5 colonists with low tier guns is enough to lose the game instantly without even a chance to win the fight.

Actually, this is a really easy fight. Stand your guys out in a loose spread, then get your fastest runner to bait them. When they take the bait, open fire. By the time they realize they've been had, they're probably shot full of holes. Pistols fire fast and survival rifles have pretty good range. Hell, 5 guys with survival rifles is enough to take out a giant mechanoid invasion. The PROBLEM is when you're facing guys who have guns of their own, which means there's no trick you can use to avoid being killed. Pawns have such crap accuracy that if you want to lay out enough fire to both hit and kill an opponent in reasonable time, you have to resort to musketeer tactics: Standing in rows and shooting until one side is wiped out or breaks.

[tommytom]

It was annoying at first with friendly-fire being so possible, but I think it's realistic enough now and doesn't need to be tweaked.

If you want 10 guys shooting over the shoulder of your super powerful melee beast and not kill him, you better give him a shield or otherwise not shoot at him.

Moving your guys INTO friendly fire is equally supposed to be punishing/random. You can do it for strategy reason, but it better be damn worth the risk.

I've lost colonist to random stuff and I have reloaded from saves in the past, but now I don't do that. I send the guys in that I care the least about or I mourn the passing of guys I really liked. Lost my original colonist recently. Instant death from a Pila first try to the heart. Enemy deserved that kill. GGWP. I should have gotten armor to protect my uber colonist.