I swear the last couple times I fought dogs I was literally unable to hit them. This was an early character, but it was not a quick death - I'm sure that character lasted at
least thirty turns. It's not like it's a tiny invisible gnat or whatever, it's a dog.
On a related matter, I don't understand how encumbrance is so brutal. I shouldn't become incompetent at hitting stuff with sticks just because I'm wearing, like, a shirt, a trenchcoat, and a backpack. My understanding of it is that like ~4 points is considered a 'newly-trained professional' level of competence in a skill or so, too, so it's weird to hear like "oh you can't wear layered clothes until you've got a couple points in melee and dodge", because I sorta parse that as "you can't fight in melee with encumbrance because you're slightly less skilled than a new pro boxer".
And EVEN IF it's one of those big-ass military backpacks, it's just a damn backpack. It's resting, presumably centered, on your back, relatively secure, your arms and shit are free and mobile. I mean, it's not as if you're this dude.
Then again, I
assume most of the zombies aren't opposing you with any skill, disregarding their vulnerabilities, dumb-awkward-shambler style. Maybe they're more gainly than that, batting attacks out the way or whatever. I'm also slightly assuming optimal conditions - like, not the whole getting-tied-up-in-melee stuff, but just the first sorta hit, between a rested person and a regular zombie.
Would it perhaps be a good idea to reduce some item's encumbrance and make encumbrance-increases with how much weight you're carrying? Kinda like Elona, where as you hold more crap - even below your max weight value - you get Burdened and your speed lowers and stuff. Kinda like that, except the penalty would be Encumbrance, not speed, I guess.