Why do pistols need extreme range accuracies listed?

[UrbanBourbon]

If I remember correctly, the listed weapon accuracies, expressed in percentages, are applied as hardcoded ranges, with the maximum being like 40 squares. I distinctly remember Tynan himself listing the actual ranges for each of the 4 figures in a forum post. If that is true, then why do weapons with short ranges, such as shotguns or pistols, need extreme range accuracies listed, when obviously those ranges apply only to Lee-Enfield and M24, and Charge Lance maybe?

Or have things changed along the way and is it so that the accuracies apply only from the viewpoint of a weapon's own maximum range, and the last percentage expresses the accuracy at the most distant quarter of the weapon's range?

Not following? Ok, let's look at some wiki data as an example:
Pistol's accuracy stat: 91%-71%-50%-32%
http://rimworldwiki.com/wiki/Pistol

The question is, what actual ranges does the 32% cover, and can the pistol even reach those ranges?

[amul]

If you hover over targets after selecting a drafted colonist, you can see the to-hit chance broken down, including accuracy penalties. I haven't made a study of it, so I can't say for sure, but on the other hand, I don't remember ever using a pistol and thinking, "Weird, it says short range when I'm clearly at it's extreme range."

[Utherix]

I just assumed every weapon's range was split by 1/4, each forth being a tier of ranged accuracy, so that the highest number is always at the max range of the weapon.

Otherwise yeah, there should be a PSA that those values aren't used.

[UrbanBourbon]

If you hover over targets after selecting a drafted colonist, you can see the to-hit chance broken down, including accuracy penalties. I haven't made a study of it, so I can't say for sure, but on the other hand, I don't remember ever using a pistol and thinking, "Weird, it says short range when I'm clearly at it's extreme range."

Yes, I am aware of the tooltip, the breakdown list. This, however, doesn't help when I'm trying to compare the stats between two weapons. I'm a veteran so I rarely even need to consider default gun differences because I have their general properties memorized but it's bit disconcerting from the new player point of view. Also, this becomes a problem if one ever tries weapon mods. I guess I should try to memorize the 4 ranges - touch, short, medium, long. Right now I just can't seem to find the info about their exact definitions, the exact numbers.

I just assumed every weapon's range was split by 1/4, each forth being a tier of ranged accuracy, so that the highest number is always at the max range of the weapon.

Otherwise yeah, there should be a PSA that those values aren't used.

I wish the ranges were split to 1/4 parts in relation to the max range but that is not the case, or at least it wasn't in the past, which meant the pistol had an accuracy of 32% at the range of like 30-40 tiles (or whatever the exact definition of "long range" is) even though the pistol's max range is 24 tiles. I'm going to keep trying to find the Tynan's post about this, from few alphas back.

Edit: A-ha! Didn't find the post but the changelog on Googledocs showed it.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_rCdGYp3nbSUXFG4Ky96RZW1cJGt9g_6ANZZPOHyNsg/pub
From June 16, 2014:

"Refactored how weapon accuracy is defined. Instead of an abstract �accuracy� variable with a bunch of opaque equations behind it, you now set the miss chance at touch/short/medium/long range (4/15/30/50 cells) and the game interpolates between these. Allows making weapons like sniper rifles worse at long range."

Edit: Also, that should probably read "...Allows making weapons like sniper rifles worse at SHORT range. (because they actually are bad at shorter ranges in the game)

[Goo Poni]

I was under the impression that it did work on maximum range and the above tidbit (4,15,30,50 for ranges) was scaled to the weapon's actual range.