How are people changing clothes for battle?

[pllovervoltage]

I thought melee was op. My uranium mace brawlers can down any non-centipede enemy in 1-3 hits. I find melee pawns crucial for protecting your ranged pawns and drawing fire from enemies especially from large number of centipedes.

I always keep my pawns equipped otherwise they can't deal with drop raids. Imo covering your pawns with every article of clothing available is crucial. However most weapons have at least something like 15% penetration which does negates a lot of the armor. But I'll take mitigating 1/5 hits(rolled once for each article of clothing over a part) over nothing.

[jpinard]

I thought melee was op. My uranium mace brawlers can down any non-centipede enemy in 1-3 hits. I find melee pawns crucial for protecting your ranged pawns and drawing fire from enemies especially from large number of centipedes.

I always keep my pawns equipped otherwise they can't deal with drop raids. Imo covering your pawns with every article of clothing available is crucial. However most weapons have at least something like 15% penetration which does negates a lot of the armor. But I'll take mitigating 1/5 hits(rolled once for each article of clothing over a part) over nothing.

Are you saying clothing again is better odds, or are you referencing armor too?
What is the best melee weapon (and metal type of that weapon) to use against mechs?

[Shurp]

But I'll take mitigating 1/5 hits(rolled once for each article of clothing over a part) over nothing.

But at what cost?

If an article of clothing/armor protects your colonists 20% of the time, but increases the strength of the threats you face by 25%, you're actually worse off than you were before.  I really can't imagine devilstrand is worth it anymore.  Flak vests of course still are (they're cheap and highly effective).  Power armor... maybe, but I doubt it.

[pllovervoltage]

But I'll take mitigating 1/5 hits(rolled once for each article of clothing over a part) over nothing.

But at what cost?

If an article of clothing/armor protects your colonists 20% of the time, but increases the strength of the threats you face by 25%, you're actually worse off than you were before.  I really can't imagine devilstrand is worth it anymore.  Flak vests of course still are (they're cheap and highly effective).  Power armor... maybe, but I doubt it.

I don't think comparing percentages of blocking x% shots with x% increase raid size is a meaningful comparison. However if you want to compare this way.

A full excellent quality devilstrand set of clothes costs 1700ish silver. Rounding up to 2000ish silver it translates to 20 raid points per colonists you decide to outfit with devilstrand or 50ish points if you equip with power set. What % increase this results in the increase in the size of your raid is highly dependent on your savefile however if you were completely naked with no clothes and no base and compared to fully equipping with a power armor set would increase the raid size by 100%. A devilstrand set would increase raid size by 50%. These are the absolute worst case scenarios. The larger your base the lower these percent increases are.

Now saying that this % increase in raid size somehow translated to a direct % linear increase in num shots (which would mean terrible strategy)

Devilstrand Set
(1+50% # shots) * (1-(40% armor-20% normal industrial weapon armor penetration))= 20% increase in # shots against your colonists
(1+50% # shots) * (1-(40% armor-50% masterwork charge lance armor penetration))= 50% increase in # shots against your colonists (making sure ap doesn't go below 0)

Power Set
(1+100% # shots) * (1-(100% normal quality power set armor-50% masterwork charge lance armor penetration)) = 0% increase in # shots against your colonists

I just gave the worst off possible scenario (even compared with raiders max possible armor penetration) getting nums i don't think mean much in the end but for what these numbers are worth.. Power armor (in a ranged situation) is always worth even in the worst conditions. Devilstrand set would increase num of shots by 50% or 20% (basically more vs stronger enemies and less vs weaker enemies which makes sense).

So it would seem that devilstrand seems non beneficial but that would be analyzing the data wrong. Whatever you do base wealth and thus raid power increases over time regardless of the extent you minimize it. Lower armor clothing has the best value in the early game but its value goes down as enemy armor penetration goes up. Any value put anywhere else but clothes works against you and rather than trying to save wealth in clothes, you would get better return in investing in combat with the best and most armor you can to counter the increasing raid strength and armor penetration. Investment in clothes rather seems to counter the increase in raid size from base wealth.

[pllovervoltage]

I thought melee was op. My uranium mace brawlers can down any non-centipede enemy in 1-3 hits. I find melee pawns crucial for protecting your ranged pawns and drawing fire from enemies especially from large number of centipedes.

I always keep my pawns equipped otherwise they can't deal with drop raids. Imo covering your pawns with every article of clothing available is crucial. However most weapons have at least something like 15% penetration which does negates a lot of the armor. But I'll take mitigating 1/5 hits(rolled once for each article of clothing over a part) over nothing.

Are you saying clothing again is better odds, or are you referencing armor too?
What is the best melee weapon (and metal type of that weapon) to use against mechs?

I'm saying clothes are worth.
https://www.reddit.com/r/RimWorld/comments/9k0kn1/dev_mode_weapon_testing_plasteel_longsword_vs/
Is a nice post comparing the uranium mace and plasteel longswords. Mechs, esp centipede, have much sharp armor than blunt armor and so I expected that uranium mace to be the best weapon vs centipedes. However according to this post mace beat longsword in most scenarios but longsword actually beats mace in centipedes. I've been sticking to uranium mace however.

[N0xiety]

Melee is kind of even OP if you have people with 'tought' trait and can fit them with exellent or better devilstrand and plate armor together with power armor helmet. Give them a uranium mace and they become beasts. They can literally hold entire infestations back on their own in a narrow corridors. They are that powerful! They will get in a disadvantage when faced against alot of guns tho as the knockback effect keeps them from moving when there are alot of guns firing at them, so best to use them in enclosed spaces where not everything in the raid can aim at them at the same time. They are like spartans holding the line while your colonists at the back rain hell on the enemy.