Any reason to have pawns that are good at both Shooting and Melee?

[Mr. Blues]

As far as I know their Melee skill doesn't affect the melee attacks they perform with the butt of the gun, so is there a point to having high melee skill/passion on a pawn that uses guns 100% of the time?

[iller]

I had one of my melee pawns totally get their ass kicked by some rando raider holding a ranged weapon because I made mine run up and punch at "them" without realizing that the enemy target had slightly higher Melee skill than my own pawn AND a power claw stapled on its other shoulder.  My own pawn was not just afflicted with "gun butt" bruises, they were definitely bleeding all over with Claw damage and missing digits.

[Mr. Blues]

I had one of my melee pawns totally get their ass kicked by some rando raider holding a ranged weapon because I made mine run up and punch at "them" without realizing that the enemy target had slightly higher Melee skill than my own pawn AND a power claw stapled on its other shoulder.  My own pawn was not just afflicted with "gun butt" bruises, they were definitely bleeding all over with Claw damage and missing digits.

Mine got his ass kicked by a raider with 3 melee levels below him and wielding the same weapon...

[iller]

Well you're welcome to come to whatever conclusions you want since it looks like you already had your mind set on the conclusion when you started this thread.  Meanwhile I've since stapled powerclaws and archo arms on more of my hunters who've fought off bears in melee range ...(sometimes a micromanagement is required like instructing them to drop their rifles and melee with both hand for even more DPS)

[RedPine]

1) I'm pretty sure melee skill matters even if you are wielding a ranged weapon.  The To-Hit calculation should be the same.  High quality ranged weapons make surprisingly good clubs, too.

2) Some enemies are safer to attack in melee (mostly blunt damage/single target) than ranged (mostly sharp damage/AOE).

3) [Mod]Simple Sidearms[/Mod] Why shouldn't snipers have a night or a cudgel on them?

[Mr. Blues]

Well you're welcome to come to whatever conclusions you want since it looks like you already had your mind set on the conclusion when you started this thread.  Meanwhile I've since stapled powerclaws and archo arms on more of my hunters who've fought off bears in melee range ...(sometimes a micromanagement is required like instructing them to drop their rifles and melee with both hand for even more DPS)

Haven't come to any conclusion, just pointed out that a 1v1 is not conclusive evidence given the random nature of the game. If it were I wouldn't need to make this thread in the first place.

Anyway, I've since done some testing of my own, and it looks like melee does have an effect on gun-melee attacks. Though whether it's great enough to make a pawn worth keeping or banishing/selling/harvesting a pawn or not I couldn't say. Probably not, at least not for fighters. Hunters maybe.