Title.
I've been trying to fight with melee weapons at 10 melee and 20 str and have been failing due to the low damage. The damage is so low that I cannot kill something in one hit with a chop, and in fact find it hard to hit anything with melee without it running. In addition to this, the cooldown is so long for a melee attack that you will likely get hit if the animal doesn't run or die. With a stone axe, I've been hitting 30~, with a metal axe low 50s, and with a metal sword in the low 80s. The latter two almost always resulted in animals running if I hadn't punched them 6 times prior. All of these are pitiful and not nearly enough to kill an animal when they have no defense up let alone when they have a bar up to contest you. A metal axe doesn't kill ants in one shot, and a metal sword doesn't kill a bat in one shot. Think about that, it's fucking dumb.
Now to think back to old Haven. The stone axe, the default survival item, had a base damage of 100, higher than the wrought sword in this game. This is fucking dumb. A metal sword or axe should be much more viable than a fucking punch, and an axe to a defenceless fox's or bat's face should just outright kill it, no questions asked.