Disable whatever mod you're using that allows shooting in melee then.

no mods, vanilla, long time no play, gaming was fun, etc. but that made my day in the multiverse of eternal boredom.

Getting melee locked is dangerous in Rimworld. The game imposes a huge stagger movement penalty for several seconds, so disengaging once melee locked is almost impossible.

Once in melee however, your colonist really will be using the bolt-action rifle as a bludgeon. Each and every single gun has melee DPS stats listed as well and yeah, the bolt-action rifle is one of those weapons with an accuracy that is high at long ranges, but I think it actually gets worse as the enemy closes in on you.

Having a dedicated melee blocker is essential, and if the racoon or raider with a shank is following your melee blocker, then you can run circles around them, never getting close enough to get melee locked and slowed by the stagger. This allows your bolt-action rifle and revolver to do the work and take shots at the enemy. Each time an enemy takes damage, the basic AI tells it to re-target to the cloest foe, which is exactly why the melee blocker is circling them so tightly. You won't lose aggro like this.

I mean. Trying to shoot a feral racoon at 1 meters range is not exactly easy. Not even with a shotgun. It is pretty much close combat fighting at that point.
If you are trying to shoot anything with a scope. You are basically just doing it with a massive handicap.

Sounds like this is a case of having to learn and accept the games rules as they are and not compare them to other games or your own expectations.

I'm sure if you where to play chess you would find it silly, or in your words "boring", that while pawns can move forward they cant capture forward.

Typically games have rules for reasons. in the case of chess its to create a challenging strategic game play experience. While chess is set up to be two armys fighting each other, real soldiers can run forward and attack. but not in chess. And thats what makes chess such an enduring game; the rules.

Video games are far more complex and often try very hard to simulate reality much closer than chess does. but they still need to incorporate non-realistic rules for the sake of limitations or balance. And each game does this in different ways.

Rimworld has decided to make melee a viable combat option, and so they they chose to disable pawns from shooting in melee range. While other games often have an "attack of opportunity" to discourage people from trying to run away from a melee fighter, rimworld gives the attacked pawn a strong slow debuff.

But its not just a "get close and you win" scenario, ranged weapons have weaker melee attacks too, and you can still shoot targets that are not in melee range while being punched in the face. As a colony builder rarely should you have just 1 pawn fighting any way.

If you have 2 pawns, both being punched in the face, they can still shoot at each other's attackers.

Thanks for all you replies. I managed to defend my base and kill other feral animals just by reloading ealier saves when SHTF. It's the best way to cope atm with what should be (intuition etc.) but is not with that game (weird rules).
I have my first prison and prisoner, I'm so happy.

Saving frequently and reloading as needed is definitely the most efficient way of learning the game. This is not the easiest game to get into, a lot of things will surprise you as a new player and lead to potential wipes. Some people enjoying smashing into these things head first then starting a new run, getting a little further each time as they figure stuff out, but that can add hundreds of hours to the "tutorial phase."

You are right, Astasia ; when a game's mechanics fail to be intuitive, the learning phase needs the tutorial in order to get the codes and the rules of said game.

This game fails on the intuition phase, I got another example: I got a fire 3 blocks outside my house (a trapp or so burnt like that), then the fire propagated to my house, to the point I just saw my sims do their tasks randomly while living in an environment totally on fire.

Quite interesting to see that basic baby sitting is the hugest part of the game and automation is just a mask, because your miis might just go into a fire brainless.

I concur that by playing you see the flaws of the game unravelling and that you adapt your game style etc etc.

This kind of game is like "learning how you are being played by the game", it's NOT playing the game, you just trial and error and retry. unless after having sit in front of a 7hour long youtube tutorial video which would help you play. This game is literally unplayable without youtube.

The last game I did that huge learning phase with youtube was on kerbal space program, because newton physics are a real deal to comprehend. But here, I have to watch a youtube tutorial just to understand why my meeples are not able to extinguish the fire which is literally consuming them.

Let's say it's not the same intellectual challenge and pleasure to learn how to play tbh. I do not understand the ratings, project zomboid is way more deep in many ways.

I believe it's another game that should be uninstalled when you are a rational player unless you want to apply and learn counter-intuitive rules when playing.

I'll try another few hours, if i'm getting too frustrated due to silent stupid rules applying, I'll leave.

By default pawns will firefight asap, unless you edit their job priorities or they have a trait/background that disables firefighting.

Originally posted by Shroomy:

You are right, Astasia ; when a game's mechanics fail to be intuitive, the learning phase needs the tutorial in order to get the codes and the rules of said game.

This game fails on the intuition phase, I got another example: I got a fire 3 blocks outside my house (a trapp or so burnt like that), then the fire propagated to my house, to the point I just saw my sims do their tasks randomly while living in an environment totally on fire.

Quite interesting to see that basic baby sitting is the hugest part of the game and automation is just a mask, because your miis might just go into a fire brainless.

I concur that by playing you see the flaws of the game unravelling and that you adapt your game style etc etc.

This kind of game is like "learning how you are being played by the game", it's NOT playing the game, you just trial and error and retry. unless after having sit in front of a 7hour long youtube tutorial video which would help you play. This game is literally unplayable without youtube.

The last game I did that huge learning phase with youtube was on kerbal space program, because newton physics are a real deal to comprehend. But here, I have to watch a youtube tutorial just to understand why my meeples are not able to extinguish the fire which is literally consuming them.

Let's say it's not the same intellectual challenge and pleasure to learn how to play tbh. I do not understand the ratings, project zomboid is way more deep in many ways.

I believe it's another game that should be uninstalled when you are a rational player unless you want to apply and learn counter-intuitive rules when playing.

I'll try another few hours, if i'm getting too frustrated due to silent stupid rules applying, I'll leave.

By default firefighting is enabled on all colonists at the highest priority setting. For a colonist to ignore fire you would need to have some combination of...

Manually turned off home base expansion. Pawns don't auto firefight outside of home area.

Manually turned off or lowered firefighting priority. Pawns got other things to do cuz you told em that was more important.

Have ALL pawns with firefighting disabled. You picked bad starting pawns.

Have ALL pawns capable of firefighting on a mental breakdown. Your pawns hate life and probably just want the run to end anyway.

Yeah, so 1. Manually give priorities to each task because some will never begin (hello research). 2. have someone clean everyday for mental stability 3. Never upgrade all your walls at once, they will scrap the wood out of it before even thinking to build the wall (thus having no interior for days sometimes)
Etc. Oh, and prisons + psychotic episodes are the basis of the game ahah

Whatever you do, do it in small bits. Do not proceed with creating eg the next room till the previous task is FINISHED and - and this is an important AND - your base has been cleaned up and everything has been hauled away.

Basically, add no new tasks until your pawns are bored doing nuffink, are idle.

Originally posted by Shroomy:

Yeah, so 1. Manually give priorities to each task because some will never begin (hello research). 2. have someone clean everyday for mental stability 3. Never upgrade all your walls at once, they will scrap the wood out of it before even thinking to build the wall (thus having no interior for days sometimes)
Etc. Oh, and prisons + psychotic episodes are the basis of the game ahah

I have research as the lowest priority on literally everyone. If I ever see the idle icon, I know that's a sign I should just slap down one more basic research bench in my lab. Eventually you will be cruising at speed 3 while all your bills are completed, your garden is growing and the floor is indeed clean.

Research points all go into the same pool, so it doesn't matter if more than half your colony starts out at a 0 intellectual skill, eventually they'll all be mediocre or even great researchers.

Originally posted by XelNigma:

If you have 2 pawns, both being punched in the face, they can still shoot at each other's attackers.

... and kill each other

Originally posted by Anna:

Originally posted by XelNigma:

If you have 2 pawns, both being punched in the face, they can still shoot at each other's attackers.

... and kill each other

Friendly fire doesn't exist within 5 tiles unless you're playing with fire. Or explosives.