Combat sucks.

[Hydrozoans]

The combat in this game is horrendous. You get ganged up on by numerous enemies, but even with 60 melee, and using a 30 melee knife I only have 52% chance to hit, which is the same as a 45 melee knife. 10 rats come for me, and if I miss (and you often do, far more often than for the game to be any fun) I have to wait for all 10 to move again before I do anything. In Fallout you could isolate smaller groups of enemies, this is utterly stupid. The stats on this are way way way wrong in comparison to the superior combat of Fallout. Everything about this game is entertaining except for the combat. I remember when I played the pre-finalized demo version that the combat was awful as well. I tried as hard as possible to never enter combat if I didn't have to. I hope the combat is fixed at some point, right now it's AWFUL. As I said, it's not even remotely fun. It's just redundantly useless.

Perhaps I'm not at the right level for certain fights, but it seems that the the game isn't properly balanced a majority of the time when you are supposed to be able to fight enemies.

[Dorok]

10 rats? I only see KRZ catacombs or circus.

Both combats can be done rather soon but at very low level they can be dangerous.

You can isolate them in some separated packs. You'll need control a bit companions/dog to either request them wait further in back and lead some rats to them, either request them move back to split the pack.

EDIT:
If you have the dog and start combat without request it wait further in back to split the pack, you should better use the Stay close AI setup. Same for companions if they use close or short range weapons, at least if they have a higher initiative than your character. And then you'll have retreat the group to split enemies. Ask them wait further in back and drag some rats there is safer but slower and eventually a bit less fun, but worth a try if you want beat those combats at any price and asap.

EDIT2:
There's no point to do those two combats asap, this game isn't about exploring an area, trigger all dialog, get all quests, kill all stuff, go to next area and repeat.

It's not cool either to delay too much those combats because they aren't scaled. If you don't bother on a too easy combat, delay until you use a few mid range weapons, have some drug healing, and have at least one companion or/and the dog.

[Yaz Mataz]

Dexterity affects melee hit chance, as well.

To get the most out of each skill, you need at least a 100.

I have gripes with combat, too, but they are not in the same vein.

Also, combat in the original Fallout series was hardly any better :).

[Dorok]

I don't agree on the 100 thing, it's a lot more nuanced than that.

I'm not sure how OP could get 56% chance to hit with close range and 60 Melee. In my current play with 62 Martial I had much better chance to hit, even if I admit I often used Aimed attack to increase chance to hit.

I switched to pistols fast and haven't done those two combats with melee so perhaps the rats in those two combats have a better dodge.

With party Atom RPG combat system is better, overall Atom RPG randomly generated combats are better. But FO1&2 had a better proportion of hand crafted combats if I remember well. Moreover FO1 or perhaps only FO2 had better character development related to combats, the weird ability system of Atom just doesn't match the perks.

Overall I would say Atom RPG have more fun combats.

If I'm at my 6/8 plays more or less chained it's a lot because combats are fun for me.

[Ghrathryn]

Couple of points for the OP, if I'm reading your post right, you're saying you don't like trying to solo a horde, be aware most turnbased RPGs do cycling turns (each character in turn, often depending on speed, initiative or something), and not all of them are limited in how many characters are on the opposite side, or even your side or at least not low limits ala Final Fantasy and the like. Heck, a non-RPG example, the original X-Com games you could get up to 26 soldiers vs 28 aliens, and if you borked up, it might be one lone soldier waiting on all 28 aliens to have their turns, probably hidden apart from pot shots in his direction and lets not get started on idiot civilians on terror maps.

Second point, while RNG often winds up buggering the player (that's why it's often referred to as the SadoRandomiser), there's often a number of things involved even in 'light' systems. AD&D 2 had a THAC0 or To Hit Armour Class 0, which was a bugger to figure out because the character had to essentially put the enemy AC which could and was supposed to go negative (negative good, positive bad because it applied to the attacker roll for reasons) against their roll and compare that to the THAC0 for hits, even in D&D3 it was still a case of attack against AC is class provided Base Attack Bonus + Strength/Dexterity mod + enchantments against an AC provided by armour, dex mod, size mod and enchants/conditions. Even baseline roll under percentile like the Warhammer RPG and 40K series of RPGs have things that affect your chance to hit and screw you at the worst time.

[Hydrozoans]

The combat stats just don't seem to properly add up with the skill in the game. I'm absolutely tired of swinging and missing, and having to reload 3-4 times during one early battle in the game. I have a decent knife, and my character isn't that bad off. For example, I'm in the Roaring Forest now, and fighting the wolves is one of the early quests in the game, but I'm under matched by playing the game normally with 60 into melee. In Fallout the game naturally leveled you up to face what you needed to face. The 10 rats were obviously meant for me to wait on, but these wolves are early in the story/exploration, it's absolutely stupid that I should have to come back later to kill these wolves. Obviously I'm supposed to grind tediously in the open world on random encounters so that I level up, and that itself I find stupid. I should be able to kill these 4 wolves if this area of the game is supposed to be explored this early. I dunno, I don't find this combat fun at all. It's lousy 3rd rate Fallout with screwed up combat stats that don't translate into real game. The only reason I play is for the Soviet apocalypse theme, and funny dialogue. I just gotta grind stupidly, and it's not the kind of game I really want to grind on. Fallout has me jaded in this regard.

[grraf]

ullrthehunter1989 brah the only reason u have a hard time is because u lack game knowledge...
So fun facts:
1)melee is the butt of the joke, martial arts weaponry have so much better dmg per AP spent that is not even funny, add to that also the fact that u will start with more in martial arts then in melee...
2)The top tier martial arts weapon are crafted so u can have them as soon as u get the reqed materials
3) https://imgur.com/a/9EQZCTr take a look at that those u literally build them from the junk u pick up from garbage bins/off the ground and besides the first one of them, each will down a rat/wasp/ant in 2 blows at most... while the more advanced ones like these: https://imgur.com/a/tF7Doao will just about one shot any animal... and with +20% to stun/penetrate armor are quite devastating to human opponents as well
4)There are recipes for highly advanced weaponry for sale in some places u can build from very cheap materials(Krasny city library/Peregon merchants/Otradnoe merchant) so trust me the game becomes trivial as soon as u craft something above mediocre and use it to domino yr way into looting increasingly stronger gear from opponents or simply focus on building yr own end tier stuff(heavy xbow/boom gautlet/sniper rifle/4xbarrel shotgun/advanced percussion revolver)

[flushfire]

Dex should not have influenced chance to hit in close combat. Since the game pushes the player to go martial in the beginning, at least before he gets to KRZ, anyone who has less than 8 Dex is going to have a really hard time. Dex is good enough as it is just based on AP and the amount of skills it influences. It already severely limits build variety. Right now might as well make 8-10 Dex mandatory. And yes, I have tried just 6. It's doable but a new player will likely find it too challenging.

The beginning is especially rough for new players. Getting out of Otradnoye, the only weapons available are what you can craft and the Rusted Nagant with maybe 8-16 bullets. If you don't mind cheesing the crafting system by looking at recipes online, it will be easier, but not if you're playing naturally. If you don't happen to come across the Satanist merchant in the factory, good luck fighting bandits with Svinchatka and 6 Dex. He's the only one who has the Quality Knuckleduster recipe afaik. The weighted glove recipe can be sold by the Otradnoye store but the white bandanas required aren't available that early.

The rusted pistol is the most viable weapon at that point (throwing starts low so needs more skill points than is available at level 3), but you will quickly run out of bullets unless you get lucky with a caravan, and even then you would have wasted points on Pistols if that's not your early game weapon of choice. The respec option shouldn't influence how the game is balanced.

I think a lot of us are spoiled with the fact that we already know the recipes, or maybe some have the starter knife.

If it were up to me I'd make it so that the Otradnoye store sells at least the most basic of weapons. It only makes sense, the guard tells you that's where you can buy weapons, when you talk to the shopkeeper he tells you buy weapons from him but when you look at his inventory, he doesn't have any! Yeah, I've seen him sell a club once. In 5 runs.

It wouldn't mess up the balance that horribly if he at least reliably sold a non-rusted Knife, or some Brass Knuckles, or more than 4 bullets.

[pyatr]

I played this game for 160 hours as of this post and the overall combat and everything around it still ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ sucks. One battle you win for sure and other you will lose for sure - too much random elements and too few ways to approach the situation. The only way to win is boring metagaming. I just like the roleplay and occasional atmosphere.
Developers should play Underrail to see what actual good and challenging turn-based RPG combat looks like.

[Dorok]

Underrail? Lol there's many turn based combats much better, I would expect better for a party RPG (or close).