Melee weapon "to hit" calculation?

[Xelanthol]

I was just wondering how the “too hit” calculation is done, I just had a frustrating experience getting mauled by a skeletal dog, and not being able to hit it once despite 30+ or so attempts. I was using a gun in melee with a -1 to hit, and had an encumbrance level of 2 on my torso-nothing major. Is there not a “threaten critical but hit normally if you don’t crit” ala DnD? I had a skill of 5 in melee weapons, and around 2 or so in bashing I think.

Getting around this I can use throwing weapons, which seem to be WAY more accurate, like it is calculated based on something else.

Knowing how the system works might ease some frustration, thanks guys

[halberdsturgeon]

DEX also affects it. But your bashing skill was just too low and your encumbrance penalty too high. Use a weapon with a higher to hit bonus on small, quick enemies like skeletal dogs until you’re better with bashing weapons.

[SKiPPY]

I know how you feel, “How hard is it to hit something in front of you and why is throwing more accurate than hitting?” I get frustrated with this all the time, especially whenever I’m wearing a backpack (which is about 100% of the time). I think this part of the game is inherently flawed; I was trying to hit a regular, non-hostile dog for 30 turns, all misses. I had a torso encumbrance of 4, +1 to hit bonus weapon, LV 2 melee, 8 dex and 9 PER, deft, LV 1 bashing weapons. I got frustrated and threw the pipe at the dog, who was about 2 spaces away, and got a crit hit, which some how killed it ( i only had 8 strength and LV 1 throwing!)

How in the hell is it easier to throw when your torso is encumbered? Never mind throwing to kill, just throwing accurately should be harder than hitting something with a sizable melee weapon.

[halberdsturgeon]

The problem is invariably torso encumbrance, which in my opinion needs some serious looking at. I usually tweak it in my game. You can achieve a torso encumbrance of 1 with a storage of around 200 and high armour using fanny packs, dump pouches, “MOLLE” packs and some of the stalker armour, but personally I don’t like being shoehorned into a single setup like this.