Attack bonus

[Roman Lodestar]

I can't find any information about this one, what exactly is attack bonus? does influence how do you perform an attack such as "you make a sloppy attack" or "you make a skilled attack"? I find knives to have that stat as "very little", meaning they the worst option for combat?

[PALU]

As far as I understand it's basically a bonus or penalty to your attack roll, the same way tool quality affects other jobs, such as e.g. skinning.
If that is correct, you should probably use a combination of the right tool for the job (i.e. different weapons for different armor and defenses), and the best chance to hit. This, however, usually boils down to the weapon you're the most proficient with, as your skill with any secondary weapon is probably a lot worse, even if it isn't very suitable for the target (a poor hit is still better than no hit, and a hit that doesn't cause injury still damages the armor, which will eventually break when damaged enough).
Also note that it's at least as important to reduce the other skill roll penalties, i.e. encumbrance and fatigue, as they have a tendency to far exceed any weapon bonuses/penalties if not kept in check.
It's great to have such protection that nothing except a very successful hit harms you, but it's not as great to have your chances to hit reduced by 30% due to the weight of the armor, and every attempt to attack (with that penalty) accumulating an additional 2% fatigue penalty on top of that.
At a guess, combat is  "VERY HEAVY" work.

[Erkka]

I can't find any information about this one, what exactly is attack bonus

In the game, press F1 to open the built-in encyclopedia, press space to type a keyword, then type "weapon class". That should give you an overview of what attack and defence bonus is.

So, in a melee combat situation, what matters most is the ratio of "the attack bonus of attacking weapon" vs "the defence bonus of blocking weapon". Or, in case of counterstrike, it is the ratio of attack vs attack. For exampe, if your opponent attacks you with a sword, and you try a counterattack, you are in worse position for the sword can reach farther away than your knife - you have to get closer to your opponent to deliver a strike. But if you are fighting knife vs. knife, the attack bonuses are equal so the don't have that much effect.

Or, consider the situation you are sneaking from behind to stab an unaware NPC. If you want to stab with a knife you have to get a bit closer compared to thrusting a spear - so your spear attack is probably more likely to succeed before your opponent notices you. The attack bonus simulates that.

[Roman Lodestar]

I took me a while to digest this information but as far I can see: Any weapon > knives

A Njerpez with a bastard sword made a short work of me and my dog, deflecting all my strikes and always was getting hit while having 92% knife skill and 85% dodge.

Of course it could be bad luck and that njerpez had good sword skill but still I considered it a cheap death, at the end it looks like attack bonus has a huge advantage over skill.

[Acolyte]

Ya, this is a much more realistic game than the "Gamey" ones out there where every weapon type has to be if not viable, equal. Nothing against those games, they allow for my Hollywood action hero fantasies, but this one is not that.

As a student of Medieval Martial Arts, I know both dagger and longsword techniques and am pretty good with both. I would not like to try dagger vs lonsword in anything more than training. The advantages are just too huge for the sword. OTOH, if you're fighting in a crowded space with obstacles all around - imagine fighting in the living room of a small apartment full of furniture for example - the dagger becomes much more viable. This is not yet in the game, though.

Just my 2 harsh squirrel hides.
   - Shane

[Roman Lodestar]

I hear you, in part is also my fault since my mind is accustomed to the common RPG games than realism ones, I thought light weapons could give more tactical advantages to offset their small damage percentage but it is something that is not implemented in-game and I don't know how it would be properly designed.

Well, next time I will roll a too-easy mode Driik(their hideworking skills are abysmal) Kaumo just for the sake to have good sword skills.