Ways to Make Melee More Interesting

[Trylobyte]

How about this:

I don't mean to be 'that guy' (I'm just active on the forums tonight) and I appreciate the obvious thought you've put into this idea, but this is an awfully complex, intricate, and detailed system revamp with a fairly high burden of knowledge for what's going to still be two pawns running up and slapping each other.  It's still not going to be interesting and engaging, it's just going to be complicated.

We need to remember that, right now, the combat system in Rimworld is relatively simple and make suggestions that improve it without going into 'completely overhaul the combat system' territory.  That would be the focus of an entire future update and would likely include both ranged and melee.

[A Friend]

Point taken. But still, I do think the higher skill = higher chance to dodge instead of hit chance could work wonders on removing the problem of brawlers getting their ass handed to them by unskilled fighters.

[Trylobyte]

Point taken. But still, I do think the higher skill = higher chance to dodge instead of hit chance could work wonders on removing the problem of brawlers getting their ass handed to them by unskilled fighters.

Oh, that I agree entirely with.  I was very surprised when I learned that higher skill doesn't affect chance to avoid damage at all.  Melee fights aren't all about who can hit the other guy the hardest (unless you're a D&D barbarian or a Rimworld tribal) but who can survive the fight, and not getting hit is a vital element of that.

[b0rsuk]

The ironic part is that D&D barbarian is based on the movie "Conan the Barbarian" with Arnold Shwarzenegger, which is based on books about Conan the Barbarian, who frequently used stealth, backstabbed a wizard, used all kinds of weapons including a bow and a dagger, on many occasions ran away from danger or invicible enemies. He used bodies of fallen enemies as shields against arrows and so on. Conan the Barbarian from books rarely gets hit. He also says stuff like "I don't touch things I don't understand."

[Xom]

I started a thread on this two years ago. I really do wish for a parry or block system to be implemented so that level 20 melee hunters would cease being blinded or crippled by animals when they deign to be so arrogant as try and hunt outside of a suit of power armour.

I propose:
A parry or block can (based on a roll derived from skill difference) result in a reduction of delay of the defender's attack, resulting in a counter attack and thus keeping rapid defences from bogging down combat
Higher skill should reduce melee attack delay in general compounded with manipulation enhancements and weapon quality. A skilled fighter is more conditioned to strike quick and has a better sense of timing.
Knockdowns and brief incapacitations should be a thing, especially with blunt attacks. The defender is hit and has the wind knocked out of them, resulting in them lying on the ground for a little while, catching their breath.
Speaking of breath - to limit melee there should be a stamina meter of some kind. Breath bionics drugs and smoke can adjust its regeneration while attacking, special moves and exertion (sprinting?) deplete it. Critical strikes such as kicking the solar plexus can deplete an enemy's breath making them unable to attack as effectively. Higher melee skill reduces breath cost of attacking due to conditioning and efficiency of movement.

If special moves are to be a thing maybe some can be triggered manually by the player controlling soldier pawns while others are opportunistic only? Further yet, how about special moves based on traits? A jogger can (randomly?) break into a sprint to close distance to melee attack someone, someone who's industrious can launch into a series of rapid efficient strikes, a brawler can randomly throw unarmed attacks with their feet and hands even when wielding a weapon, trigger happy has a higher chance of firing even while being attacked in melee, nudists (especially creepy or attractive ones) can distract, abrasives can goad their enemies into attacking when they should be defending, kind pawns are more likely to knock out and stun human opponents in place of more deadly melee blows, masochism and steadfast/iron will has a chance of not being interrupted by melee blows, cannibals can bite their opponents, psychopaths can cause more pain with their blows, blood lust can put pawns into frenzies, too smarts can read their opponents and have a small chance to perfectly defend or disallow their targets a defence entirely by simply outplaying them (a test of melee vs melee skill?), masochists can take a damaging blow and retaliate instantly before their opponent can even retract their weapon to defend, prosthophiles can sometimes use their prosthetics in various interesting ways, neurotics can panic and freak out, green thumbs can... jam their thumbs into an opponent's eye? You get the picture. This is much more likely to be a mod than anything but if Rimworld is truly about creating interesting stories that have mechanical meaning maybe traits should be about more than just providing static modifiers and blocking off some jobs.