Melee soldier?

[igz33]

I have a melee soldier with 10 melee and a plastell shiv. When I send him attack a centiped, he get downed straight away. How can I make a good melee soldier?

[Panzer]

Mechs are fearsome melee fighters, unless they re stunned and you have like 4-5 melee fighters or animals that fight for you, dont engage them in close combat.
To get proper melee weapons, you need a smithy, plasteel makes for the best melee weapons, but you should have a good crafter for that. My general rule of thumb is if the weapon deals more than 20 dmg, it is worth using, otherwise smelt it and get half the materials back.

[Limdood]

Think of it like this.  I grab a plasteel longsword and sneak up on a guy with a sniper rifle while he's reloading....that sucker is DEAD.  Sure, he might punch me a time or two before i slice his legs off, but i'm essentially going to be fine.

Now think of it like this.  I grab a plasteel longsword and walk up to a tank-sized centipede made up of solid steel.  I might get a hit or two in, but that thing is going to turn me into paste in a headbutt or two.

Mechanoids aren't meant to be fought 1 on 1 in any situation.  Mechanoids require focused fire, and even then you run a risk of losing a couple colonists. 

Melee characters are meant to either counter other melee pawns (high risk, as you deal with comparable incoming damage on your pawn, plus stray bullets) or attacks on enemy shooters (medium or low risk, depending on if you have to run up to them or swing at them while other enemies can shoot you)

Also, shivs are garbage, they are the weakest weapon around.  Fast, low damage weapons like the shiv are decent for if you want to to incapacitate enemies instead of killing them, but you need a lot of people swinging (or shooting, for pistols or PDWs).  Slow, high damage weapons are great for taking out enemies quickly and efficiently and can even occasionally incapacitate enemies (via chopped or shot off legs)

[sadpickle]

Slow, high damage weapons are great for taking out enemies quickly and efficiently and can even occasionally incapacitate enemies (via chopped or shot off legs)

I had a colonist with a shiv fight a raider that slipped past the killbox... raider was incapped but survived. When I checked his health tab his leg was chopped off. Was mighty impressive.

"Look, just lay there while I saw through your leg. Should only take a minute"

[Limdood]

yeah it can still happen, but with random targeting of body injuries (the torso being most likely hit) its tough to deal enough repeated hits to legs, arms, or heads to remove them. 

You probably already know, but the OP likely doesn't, that hitting a pawn or animal, each hit causes pain.  If enough hits happen, the pain will be so high that the target will fall incapacitated in shock from the pain.  With higher damage weapons, you're much more likely to deal enough damage to the torso (or another vital body part) to destroy it than you are to rack up enough nonlethal hits to take someone out from the pain.

[Mothos]

As Limdood mentioned, melee soldiers are best used in specific situations where they can excel. Giving them good armor, a personal shield, and good traits will set them up for success. Good traits are any that increase movement speed (such as fast walker or jogger) and brawler, which will make them 175% more accurate in melee combat.  Giving them bionic body parts will also help; bionic arms will increase their melee damage, bionic legs will allow them to move more quickly, and bionic eyes will allow them to be more accurate. It helps to put them in tactical situations where they will be able to quickly close the distance on enemy fighters.

[johnnyroberts]

 My melee fighters tend to act as base defense, as in prison breaks, and pirates dropping right into my base. As rare as these events are melee fighters will excel at base defense when your colony is invaded. And I do use melee soldiers on mechs, but they are equipped with a p.shield and act only as decoys, running around distracting the mechs giving my fire teams time to take it down. A nice addition would be able to craft actual steel hand shields for early game, because without a personal shield melee combat is almost a certain death sentence in many situations.

[Boston]

AS in real life, melee combat sucks compared to ranged combat. Humanity stopped using spears and started using bows (and other ranged weapons) for a reason (many, actually).

What would be nice is if your colonists weren't completely helpless when equipped with a ranged weapon. Either they could carry a small backup melee weapon, like a knife or a shiv, or could enact certain combat maneuvers when armed with a firearm (buttstrokes, bayonet stabs, etc)

Back in Alpha 12, I  used a mod that added backpacks to the game. My main combat/hunting pawn was equipped with a rifle, a handgun and a knife, just so they weren't screwed over in combat.

As with many other aspects of combat in Rimworld, most of the problems will be ironed out with the eventual updating of Combat Realism.

[Anoff]

Well, first of all... a SHIV... you do realize that you can pretty easily make much better weapons, right? And second, against a centipede? Only real a long range guy should deal with them.

[Limdood]

Giving them bionic body parts will also help; bionic arms will increase their melee damage, bionic legs will allow them to move more quickly, and bionic eyes will allow them to be more accurate.

Just as a point of reference, bionic arms will NOT boost their weapon damage, but will boost "fist" damage.  That being said, bionic arms are almost certainly more useful on either your crafters/artists, to boost speed at tasks, or your hunters, since manipulation boosts accuracy AND giving shooters a powerful punch can help if they get locked in melee combat (hunters especially, as a revenging single animal that gets to your hunter can be easily taken down with increased fist damage).

due to the inherent accuracy of melee damage, eyes are also probably better serving your ranged combatants, who have to multiply their base accuracy every square, so even tiny accuracy increases make bigger differences.

i strongly agree about legs though...bionic legs are amazing on melee and haulers/cleaners

[christhekiller]

Yeah. When dealing with mechanoids you either use melee guys as a distraction or a rescue for downed colonists. The only colonist who should even near mechanoids are the emp grenade guys

[Negocromn]

AS in real life, melee combat sucks compared to ranged combat. Humanity stopped using spears and started using bows (and other ranged weapons) for a reason (many, actually).

What would be nice is if your colonists weren't completely helpless when equipped with a ranged weapon. Either they could carry a small backup melee weapon, like a knife or a shiv, or could enact certain combat maneuvers when armed with a firearm (buttstrokes, bayonet stabs, etc)

Back in Alpha 12, I  used a mod that added backpacks to the game. My main combat/hunting pawn was equipped with a rifle, a handgun and a knife, just so they weren't screwed over in combat.

As with many other aspects of combat in Rimworld, most of the problems will be ironed out with the eventual updating of Combat Realism.

If they give pawns more than one weapon slot then they might as well delete the brawler trait, shields, and so on. Getting hit by fists is already a big problem for brawlers as it is.

[keylocke]

i also agree with having a secondary weapon slot. this would allow more tactical use of grenades or one time use items like rocket launchers.

i also think the mood penalty that brawlers have on equipping ranged weapons should be removed, but allow them to keep the melee accuracy bonus and just take a penalty to ranged accuracy instead.

[Boston]

AS in real life, melee combat sucks compared to ranged combat. Humanity stopped using spears and started using bows (and other ranged weapons) for a reason (many, actually).

What would be nice is if your colonists weren't completely helpless when equipped with a ranged weapon. Either they could carry a small backup melee weapon, like a knife or a shiv, or could enact certain combat maneuvers when armed with a firearm (buttstrokes, bayonet stabs, etc)

Back in Alpha 12, I  used a mod that added backpacks to the game. My main combat/hunting pawn was equipped with a rifle, a handgun and a knife, just so they weren't screwed over in combat.

As with many other aspects of combat in Rimworld, most of the problems will be ironed out with the eventual updating of Combat Realism.

If they give pawns more than one weapon slot then they might as well delete the brawler trait, shields, and so on. Getting hit by fists is already a big problem for brawlers as it is.

Good, it is a stupid trait anyways

[Negocromn]

AS in real life, melee combat sucks compared to ranged combat. Humanity stopped using spears and started using bows (and other ranged weapons) for a reason (many, actually).

What would be nice is if your colonists weren't completely helpless when equipped with a ranged weapon. Either they could carry a small backup melee weapon, like a knife or a shiv, or could enact certain combat maneuvers when armed with a firearm (buttstrokes, bayonet stabs, etc)

Back in Alpha 12, I  used a mod that added backpacks to the game. My main combat/hunting pawn was equipped with a rifle, a handgun and a knife, just so they weren't screwed over in combat.

As with many other aspects of combat in Rimworld, most of the problems will be ironed out with the eventual updating of Combat Realism.

If they give pawns more than one weapon slot then they might as well delete the brawler trait, shields, and so on. Getting hit by fists is already a big problem for brawlers as it is.

Good, it is a stupid trait anyways

the trait is stupid indeed

melee characters are cool tho