Is close combat ever worth it?

[Lost Cause]

Maybe I am a bit pessimistic here, but after losing the ultimate close combat machine in a fight with a monkey I feel that the price of kitting out your people for close combat is way too high for the risk involved.
I gave the guy the full power armour, hyperwave clothing under that, two bionic claws, two bionic legs and he had 11 points of melee skill yet he lost and was killed outright in a one on one fight with a raging monkey.
Goodbye thousands of silver worth of bionics.
But even if you just consider the penalties of the close combat bionics... the ones you can get from mechtoids have a 85% manipulation efficiency, while the high priced ones have 90% efficiency and that appears to be the only difference between them. So anyone you give one of these to is going to be less effective than a bog standard colonist and it will cost you significantly more or be a lot more difficult to squire than simply giving them a regular bionic arm and minigun, M16 or LMG.
So under what circumstance do you actually want to be equipping people a claw or a hand spike?
Close combat denies you the chance to use cover and rapid fire weapons and gives you the massive vulnerability to friendly fire as other members of your colony do the smart thing and try to attack from a distance not to mention other hostiles that will happily shoot at you. It isn't even like it is an intermediate step... you can't start with close combat and advance to ranged battle later. To get the best close combat gear you have to go out of your way, put people at risk or spend massive amounts of silver and what you get for it is a combat liability and a weaker than average colonist when it comes to non-stabbing related activities X.x

[Noobshock]

I agree damage feels way too random even on fully equipped fighters.

Which is why people stick to M24s and the #1 rule of successful combat is AVOIDING fire at all costs.

[Lost Cause]

I agree damage feels way too random even on fully equipped fighters.

Which is why people stick to M24s and the #1 rule of successful combat is AVOIDING fire at all costs.

M24? are you mad man!
rapid fire all the way!
When the swarm rushes you you can't be picking them off one by one! Hose them down with a hail of lead and laugh as they break and flee!

[Noobshock]

Well, miniguns take time to acquire, but yes the minigun is definitely viable to suppress groups. Other than that though it's M-24 all day, with turrets to stall. They can't hurt you if they never get close enough to.

[Lost Cause]

Well, miniguns take time to acquire, but yes the minigun is definitely viable to suppress groups. Other than that though it's M-24 all day, with turrets to stall. They can't hurt you if they never get close enough to.

Well... I suppose I can see the value of that approach....
I'll stick with channeling all my enemies into a tiny little space and no cover as ten fully armored, minigun wielding, organ harvesting, bionic super beings set up a wall of bullets so dense a neutron star would fell better about it's weight.

And not a single one of them has a claw!

[DeltaOmega]

You pretty much need to have the brawler trait to melee reliably. It also helps to have the ai core and 2 bionic eyes installed. I also found it odd that you would hit with either your left or right side yet never with your equipped weapon when you have a bionic weapon installed.

[Darth Fool]

I use Melee to chase down new recruits after they flee from attacking my bases.  I like to design my kill boxes with rock chunks filling the box to slow down the enemy advance and heavily armoured doors near the front entrance to the kill box that lead to empty tunnels to the back that allow my own colonists to avoid the chunk-filled ground for a minimum slow down on entrance and exit.  If I have a brawler I will usually keep him next to these doors ready to give chase.  Melee can also be useful for knocking berserk prisoners out with less chance of killing them.  I have also used melee troops to knock out grenadiers, although that is often risky since they are usually  pretty good at melee.  Finally, if terrain permits, I will use melee units to knock out enemy snipers.  Dodging behind full cover so that the sniper targets my other units who are in cover and slowly closing in so that the brawler can make a mad dash and attack the sniper before he can change his target and hit the brawler.  So, yes, there are reasons for having close combat specialists and using them, but usually you are better off engaging at range.

[Barley]

I've used melee as a counter to m24s during seiges (when the pirates are sleeping, of course), as those snipers are just too deadly for a conventional shootout.

[ITypedThis]

Well, to be fair, monkeys are actually pretty overpowered.

[obsidian_razor]

I hate to bring realism into a game like this, but it sorta makes sense that melee is just worse than ranged combat. It kinda is that way in real life too.

As you have said, to engage in close combat, you need to forgo cover, and you expose yourself for counter attack.

I have a couple of brawlers in my 4 year old colony, and even with full bionics, power claws, power armor and helmets, it's suicide to send them into a thick fire-fight. If the raiders don't down them the colonist will with friendly fire.

The only time when they are useful is (again, like in real life) in enclosed spaces. If raiders make into the colony, your melee guys are perfect to corner them in a room or hallway and beat them to death. They are also very good to take out raiders that take longer to break and flee after they start retreating. Finally, they are very useful to "pacify" a broken colonist that goes on a rampage without killing them (though prepare to buy some bionics for them afterwards).

In general, I'm satisfied on how melee works in the game, though sometimes you get super unlucky like you did with your monkey :/
I personally hate centipedes and their insta-kill melee attack. Scythers on the other hand are ridiculously easy to take down in melee for some reason.