MENACE News

We have been talking a lot about systems, mechanics, and theories, so let’s take a look at an actual combat problem you will have to overcome in the game: Killing a tank!

[h3]Understanding Tank Armor[/h3][hr][/hr]We will be looking at the Rogue Army's Assault Gun, the heaviest tank currently in the game.

Vehicles do use the same armor, hitpoints, and durability system as infantry. It was important to us to have the same systems so that players only have to understand one system and not master a completely different one.

A class 3 infantry armor will stop SMG rounds from around 5 tiles distance. It has 55 armor and an armor durability of 45 per element, and normal humans have 10 hitpoints each. For a squad of 5, that's 225 durability and 50 hitpoints.

Now let’s look at the tank’s values. It brings a hitpoint total of 400 points, an armor durability of 600, and a front armor of 180, side armor of 140, and rear armor of 100. With these stats, it becomes obvious very quickly that any standard infantry weapon is next to useless against this vehicle, as they mostly do about five damage to a target per hit over medium distance.

Armor by the Numbers


[h3]Being Prepared[/h3][hr][/hr]To fight behemoths like the Heavy Tank, we added lots of tools to the player's arsenal. However, the player has to have them available, bring them to the mission, and pay the supply costs. Also, dedicated AT weapons are usually very bad against infantry or other targets, so the player has to sacrifice overall firepower.

This creates an interesting dilemma, as you always want to bring some AT weaponry while still keeping the firepower against soft targets as high as possible.

Let’s look at some options that can be used to dispatch the heavy tank:

[h3]Option One: The Sledgehammer[/h3][hr][/hr]Some weapons deliver extremely powerful blows and are highly specialized in taking out the best armored targets. The pirate Laser Lance, for example, has an armor penetration of 180, enabling it to straight up punch through even the heavy front armor of the tank.

The damage is also decent with 130. This weapon will make short work of the tank, but it is costly and not very useful against infantry, as one attack can only dispatch one element of a squad.



[h3]Option Two: The Flank[/h3][hr][/hr]There is a large variety of infantry special weapons that are decently good at damaging and taking out vehicles, for example, a simple RPG or Rocket Launcher. The RPG can even be fired when standing and only uses 40AP to enable two shots in a turn.

Maneuvering an infantry squad to the side or even the rear of the tank gives them a great angle to damage it severely. An RPG will almost certainly penetrate the back armor of 100, and with a damage of 100 and the possibility of two hits in a single turn, the tank drivers should be sweating.

We explained vehicle defects in Dev Diary #26: Vehicle Defects, so head out and read up on how they work. Reducing the hitpoints of the tank by 50% will cause a light and a medium defect, which will disable and severely damage it in any case.

Also, tanks and vehicles in general need a lot of AP to turn and have a minimal view range. This can be used to avoid their main gun and stay on their flank or rear.



[h3]Option Three: The Charge[/h3][hr][/hr]If you feel especially lucky, there is always a range of grenades and other devices available that can be used over very short distances to attack vehicles.

The most common one is undoubtedly the classic AT grenade that packs quite the punch.
More creative variants would be an incendiary grenade to set the tank on fire or a thermite grenade, which burns through any armor and does a percentage of hitpoint damage, which is a lot in the case of a 400 HP tank.

If the tank still has actions left and engages the approaching infantry with its medium machine gun, it is pretty often game over for that squad, so this approach is very risky.



[h3]Option Four: The Ambush[/h3][hr][/hr]You can also get your hands on remote-controlled explosive devices and anti-tank mines. If you are crafty enough and can place these in the path of the advancing tank, they can make short work of any armored vehicle.

Getting these devices set up in the right spot is very tricky, though, and needs a lot of experience and a bit of luck.



[h3]Option Five: High-Tech[/h3][hr][/hr]Some abilities and devices can momentarily disable a vehicle and give you time to set up for proper side or rear attacks or to give you more time to work through all that armor and hitpoints.

The classic would be an EMP rifle that instantly disables any vehicle it hits for a turn. This weapon is completely useless against any other target, so if you don't want to give up your special weapon slot, you can go with an EMP grenade. Just make sure not to get shot to pieces before getting close enough.

There are also things like an OCI (Read: Dev Diary #8: Operational Capability Improvements) that enables a hacking attack which can instantly disable any one vehicle on the battlefield for one turn. Installing an OCI is a big investment, but you are essentially installing a panic button you can push if a vehicle comes and rolls up your troops, and you have nothing nearby to stop it.



[h3]Option Six: Countermeasures[/h3][hr][/hr] Of course, vehicles have an array of countermeasures they can equip to increase survivability. This can be explosive reactive armor that numbs rocket-based impacts, smoke launchers, or ceramic plating that absorbs the immense heat from laser-based weapons.

The best vehicle protection, though, is sending infantry squads with it who keep enemy infantry out of the vehicle's flanks and vicinity, scout and detect ambushes, and help suppress any AT weapons in the area.



[h2]Engage, Explore, and Stay Informed[/h2][hr][/hr]That's it for now! We'll see you next Friday.

You can find us on Discord, BlueSky, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and Reddit for discussions, updates, and feedback. You can also subscribe to our monthly MENACE newsletter on our website — just scroll to the bottom of the page to sign up.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2432860/MENACE/

We shared a quick glimpse into the work-in-progress vehicle weapon system a little while ago. Now it is time to check out the whole system in action and find out what you can do with it!

[h3]Initial Thoughts and Concepts[/h3][hr][/hr]For a long time during development, we struggled with finding the right solution for our vehicle and vehicle equipment or weapon system. On paper, it sounds very easy: give vehicles two weapon slots to equip some vehicle-specific weapons and be done with it.

When looking at vehicles, the first thing you notice is the variety of vehicle types. There are small trucks, light and medium Tanks, ATVs, and Walkers. All of these should, in theory, be able to use all the weapons, but the 3D Models are not compatible, so the number of different weapon prefabs you need to do quickly explodes into the hundreds, which is not doable for a small team like ours. Also, different weapons have different sizes. A large tank cannon can not be slotted into a tiny truck, so each vehicle type, or chassis, needs a variety of differently sized weapon slots.

Given all of the above and considering our limited resources, we opted for the simplest route: Each vehicle is a unique, handcrafted variant that cannot be changed. A pirate truck with a rocket organ is a fixed entity, while an IFV with an Autocannon is another. There is no swapping of weapons or loadouts.

Given the procedural nature of MENACE and the importance of army building to us, we could not keep it that way. We decided to put in a lot of work to create a completely modular vehicle weapon system that gives players maximum freedom to build any vehicle as they like.


[h3]Chassis[/h3][hr][/hr]The whole system is based on vehicle chassis. These are the bases that support all the different weapons and equipment options. A pilot can not be deployed to battle without a vehicle assigned.

Each chassis has a variety of characteristics, such as armor and hit points, but more importantly, it has a selection of different vehicle weapon slots. These can be equipped with a vehicle-mounted weapon of the appropriate size in any combination.

[h3]Vehicle Weapon Slots: Light, Medium, Heavy[/h3][hr][/hr]There are three sizes of vehicle weapon slots:

Light Vehicle Weapons
These are the equivalent of infantry special weapons. Examples are light and medium machine guns, light flamethrowers, or plasma rifles. Adding a light weapon does not affect the vehicle's performance or abilities in any way.

Medium Vehicle Weapons
Medium weapons are larger than any infantry-operated weapon system, with the exception of some tripod-based infantry support weapons. These weapons typically come equipped with a designated turret mounted on the vehicle. Examples are: Laser Lances, Heavy Machine-guns, Rocket Launchers, or Heavy Flamethrowers. Adding a light weapon does not affect the vehicle's performance or abilities in any way.

Heavy Vehicle Weapons
These include extraordinarily heavy and powerful weapons. Equipping a heavy weapon on a vehicle will remove its transport capacity if it had any. Sometimes, a heavy weapon will completely change the look of a vehicle. For example, equipping a heavy mortar in the light carrier will not only change the turret but also the whole model.

Examples of heavy weapons include tank cannons, heavy mortars, and all variants of twin-linked weapons, such as twin-linked heavy machine guns or miniguns.

[h3]Vehicle Loadout Examples[/h3][hr][/hr]Let's look at the pirate rocket truck and the light carrier. The truck has one medium weapon slot in the vehicle's trunk. It cannot take on a light or heavy weapon.

The light carrier, which can also transport a squad, has a light and a heavy weapon slot. Note that the heavy slot can take a medium weapon as well.

Below are examples using the pirate rocket truck and the light carrier to show how loadouts affect both capability and appearance.

[h3]Pirate Truck and Light Carrier (No Weapon Equipped)[/h3][hr][/hr]
[h3]Pirate Truck and Light Carrier with Autocannon (Medium Weapon)[/h3][hr][/hr]
[h3]Light Carrier with and without Autocannon + Light Machine Gun
[/h3][hr][/hr]

Note: Adding a light weapon to the light carrier looks different depending on whether a medium weapon is installed or not.

[h3]Light Carrier with Tank Cannon (Heavy Weapon)[/h3][hr][/hr]
[h3]Light Carrier with Heavy Mortar and Flamethrower[/h3][hr][/hr]
As you can see, the appearance of the vehicles depends not only on the chassis but also on the weapons they are equipped with. Finally, here is an overview of some of the weapon and chassis combinations currently available in the game. There are more variants, and we will add more during development.

[h3]Walkers[/h3][hr][/hr]There are various types of walkers with different weapon slots. However, the medium walker is currently the only chassis that can take two medium weapons. These can either be different ones or the same one twice.

Some vehicles can also equip two of the same weapon, but these are combined into a single twin-linked weapon that requires a heavy slot for installation, rather than a medium one.


[h2]Engage, Explore, and Stay Informed[/h2][hr][/hr]That's it for now! We'll see you next Friday.

You can find us on Discord, BlueSky, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and Reddit for discussions, updates, and feedback. You can also subscribe to our monthly MENACE newsletter on our website — just scroll to the bottom of the page to sign up.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2432860/MENACE/

This week, we have a very special treat for you that we just added to the game, the so-called “Squaddie System”. It basically turns a squad's additional hitpoints into actual, persistent soldiers that you can even rename!

Let’s find out more:

[h3]How did the old hitpoint system work?[/h3][hr][/hr]In the old system, each squad came with a fixed number of 5 soldiers, including the squad leader. Each of these “elements” brought 10 hitpoints to the squad's total hitpoint pool. Whenever the squad took 10 or more damage, one of these elements was killed, taking one squad weapon out as well. The elements essentially represented a squad's total hit points.

After combat, certain ship upgrades would heal a number of elements until the squad eventually was fully restored to 5 elements. After an operation, all squads were automatically restored completely.

The entire system was very abstract, not very immersive, and also failed to treat the fallen soldiers with the care and respect that actual human players would expect. It also somewhat incentivised occasional suicide attacks, especially in the final mission of an operation, as lost elements would be refilled anyway.


[h3]Flexible Squad Size[/h3][hr][/hr]The ultimate reason for changing this system was the need for flexible and dynamic squad sizes. We were missing the freedom to create squads as we needed them for our individual tactical approaches.

Want to make a 3-Soldier mortar team or sniper-scout squad? Want to make a 9-Soldier Rifle squad? Well, you can't. Also, the supply cost for a squad scales heavily with the chosen equipment, especially the armor and squad weapons that you have to pay for each element. Being able to adjust the squad size makes it easier to balance your supply point budget before a mission.

With the goal of allowing for an increase or reduction in squad size, several challenges arose. Most importantly, what happens when a squad takes losses, but you can just increase the squad size after the mission to fill it up again? The solution was to add a persistent resource, which is the manpower you are drawing from, to both increase squad sizes and use it to fill losses after combat.


[h3]Persistent Manpower[/h3][hr][/hr] We added a persistent manpower pool to the game, where a squaddie represents each element from the original system. A squaddie is an actual soldier with a certain name, nickname, home planet, gender, and look. We also track how many missions they have survived so far.

You no longer have to stick with fixed squad sizes, but you can add as many squaddies as you want, up to 8 plus the squad leader for a unit. Each of these squaddies gets assigned from your manpower pool, and of course, you can also choose which squaddy to add to which squad.

Whenever an element is killed in combat, that life of a squaddie is permanently lost. Each loss carries over, and there is no automatic healing or refilling of losses. You will have to upgrade your ship with a recruitment office to expand your manpower pool. There are also other chances to add squaddies to your manpower pool, like freeing them from a pirate prison on a mission or obtaining them through events.

Manpower is now the most important resource that ties together StarMap gameplay and tactical combat, as it is persistent across all levels of play. Losing too many Squaddies in mass assaults and employing units with large numbers of soldiers but no armor will be very costly and unsustainable in the long run.

[h3]Renaming Squaddies[/h3][hr][/hr]The squaddies come with a name, surname, callsign, home planet, gender, look, and mission survived stat. We currently have over 1.300 callsigns in the game, so you won't run out of new names quickly.

Most importantly, you can rename and edit the squaddies to your liking. The most requested part of this is, of course, changing the names to those of your friends, family, or coworkers.


[h2]Engage, Explore, and Stay Informed[/h2][hr][/hr]That's it for now! We'll see you next Friday.

You can find us on Discord, BlueSky, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and Reddit for discussions, updates, and feedback. You can also subscribe to our monthly MENACE newsletter on our website — just scroll to the bottom of the page to sign up.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2432860/MENACE/

Despite having talked a lot about vehicles in the past, we never explained how their health, damage, or defects work. You will see that vehicles and infantry are handled very differently in the game in a lot of aspects:

[h3]Vehicle vs. Mechs[/h3][hr][/hr]Before diving into the actual damage mechanics, we should take a step back and look at the different types of vehicles in the game. While there are various types within each category, the biggest difference lies between vehicles and walkers.

Vehicles include any machine that uses tracks, wheels, or similar to propel itself forward.

Mechs use any number, mainly two, of legs to traverse the battlefield.

Vehicles tend to be heavier and thus more resilient to enemy fire, while most mechs have the advantage of sporting two weapon slots that can carry additional firepower. Vehicles also have directional armour values, while mechs have the same armour facing all directions. Vehicles are usually much heavier armoured in the front, less so on the sides, and the least in the back.

[h3]Differences in Movement[/h3][hr][/hr]Due to their strong inertia, vehicles are faster when moving in straight lines, especially when additionally taking advantage of roads. A vehicle on a straight road will move across a big portion of the map in one turn.

However, the big forward inertia and speed make it hard to take quick turns. Driving around corners or obstacles requires vehicles to slow down significantly to prevent losing control. In the game, turning a vehicle costs a substantial amount of action points, so good planning ahead is needed.

Ensuring the vehicle has a straight and obstacle-free path of approach is crucial to maximizing its speed.

While not reaching these high speeds, mechs or walkers have the advantage of being able to turn on the spot. They do not need to pay any additional AP to change their facing or direction; this makes them very manoeuvrable and flexible on the battlefield.

While vehicles excel at moving through open terrain, mechs or walkers are king in confined spaces like settlements. Vehicles can become bogged down very quickly when navigating narrow roads and alleys. Enemies can also quickly flank them and attack their flank or rear for maximum effect.

Mechs or walkers are highly maneuverable in settlements and move just like infantry units, allowing them to quickly change positions, face any emerging threat, and react swiftly to changes on the battlefield. They also do not have a weak spot, such as low rear armor.


[h3]Defects and Hitpoints[/h3][hr][/hr]Going forth, we will use vehicles for all vehicles and mechs to keep things simple. All vehicles have hitpoints, armour, and armour durability just like an infantry unit.

Of course, the values for vehicles are usually much, much higher. They are mostly immune to small or even medium arms fire, and it takes serious anti-vehicle weapons to put a dent in them.

All vehicles have certain thresholds when losing HP that can cause a so-called “defect” to appear. These defects are very similar to injuries in Battle Brothers and have various effects and severity.


At 25% hitpoints lost, a vehicle suffers a light defect. These are usually easy to play around with or wear off quickly. Examples of light defects are a small fire, overloaded controls that stun the vehicle for one turn, or light weapon damage that can cause the attached weapons to malfunction.

At 50% hitpoints lost, a vehicle suffers a medium defect. These are more serious than light defects and can put a huge dent in combat effectiveness. Examples can be a medium fire that keeps damaging the vehicle until it is put out, engine damage that increases movement costs, or damaged optics that reduce view range, detection, and accuracy.

Finally, at 75% hitpoints lost, a heavy defect is suffered. These are always serious and spell the end of a vehicle in many cases. This can be a large fire that quickly destroys a vehicle, or a completely destroyed weapon system or engine, effectively immobilizing a vehicle. A heavy defect can also be a critical hit, instantly evaporating the vehicle in a massive explosion.

There are way more defects in addition to those mentioned above.

[h2]Unique Defects[/h2]
In addition to the generic defects, each vehicle type and even each unique weapon can have defects attached to it.

[h3]EMP Discharge[/h3][hr][/hr]An EMP weapon can suffer an accidental discharge, effectively stunning all machines around it.


[h3]Rocket Cookoff[/h3][hr][/hr]A vehicle armed with rockets might shoot off rockets randomly when getting destroyed. Better not be near this one when it blows up!


[h3]Flame Leak[/h3][hr][/hr]Carrying around large fuel tanks is not without risk in a battle zone. A unit equipped with a heavy flamethrower might get its fuel lines punched and leave a trail of fire behind it.


There are many more defects like this in the game, and we will take care to add more. Each vehicle and weapon should feel unique and immersive, including what happens when it gets blown up.

[h2]Engage, Explore, and Stay Informed[/h2][hr][/hr]That's it for now! We'll see you next Friday.

You can find us on Discord, BlueSky, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and Reddit for discussions, updates, and feedback. You can also subscribe to our monthly MENACE newsletter on our website — just scroll to the bottom of the page to sign up.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2432860/MENACE/

[p]Things are moving ahead, and the game shapes up more and more. The time has come to showcase an exemplary mission in MENACE, illustrating the decisions the player must make and what to expect when engaging in the tactical combat portion of the game.
[/p][hr][/hr][h3]Mission Select[/h3][p]After accepting an operation offered by one of the local Wayback factions, you have to decide what mission you want to play. The missions of an operation are aligned in a tree, so the next mission that can be chosen always depends on the previous one.
[/p][p]There are several factors to consider here. The difficulty of the mission: Harder missions have more and tougher enemies, but also give a higher mission rating. On top of that, the possible item rewards can have a higher rarity. The strategic asset: Every mission allows the player to secure a strategic asset that aids them in the remaining missions of the operation or rewards them with additional items.
[/p][p]The actual mission reward will be an item (such as a weapon or armor). Only the broad category of the expected item will be shown, not the actual item. On top of the expected item, there will always be a random item that can be chosen as a reward instead.
[/p][p]In this example, we want to tackle the “seize GTAM-site” mission. We feel confident that we can handle the difficulty, and we need a new light modular vehicle weapon for our light carrier. The strategic asset we gain will be “air defense restored,” which will make all following missions easier.
[/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][h3]Mission Preparation[/h3][p]In the mission prep screen, we can get a rough overview of the upcoming battlefield, including suspected enemy positions. As we do not have any intelligence, we won't gain intel on the type of enemies.
[/p][p]We can see the two areas we have to capture, and that the enemy units will pour in from the north. Our deployment zone is to the south of the map.
[/p][p]Speed is key in this mission. If we can take up position in the capture zones before the enemy arrives, they will be easy pickings.
[/p][p]Additionally, we must decide whether it’s worth splitting our units to try to capture both targets simultaneously or focus our efforts on one target at a time. Completing the mission fast will increase the mission rating significantly, but it is also a lot riskier.
[/p][p]As we don’t have many squads available at the beginning of the game, it will be the smarter move to move all units together.[/p][p]
[/p][hr][/hr][h3]The Team[/h3][p]Charles Lim (Marine, Infantry):
Equipped with the MP3A9 submachine gun as a squad weapon and grenades as an accessory, Lim and his squad will act as mobile infantry inside the light carrier. He is also equipped with a solid class III armor, making him quite resilient to small arms fire. We intentionally leave the special weapon slot free, so the squad can carry one additional SMG instead, making them even more deadly in close-quarter combat.

[/p][p]Renu Rewa (Marine, Pilot):
The light carrier is a wheeled infantry fighting vehicle that can be equipped with either a medium or a light vehicle weapon or with a transport compartment and a light weapon. In this mission, we go for the transport compartment and a machine gun. As speed is key to occupying the objective before the enemy, a medium machinegun should be enough to provide fire support against the incoming pirates.

[/p][p]Jane Darby (Marine, Infantry):
At the beginning of the game, access to good squad weapons and body armor is very limited, so Darby and her squad will go into this mission with just the RMC marine fatigues and stanced carbines. Without body armor, the squad has to stay out of firefights as much as possible. As a special weapon, we chose a rocket launcher. If the opportunity arises, we can use it to take out pirates and their rides while approaching the objectives or to remove their cover if they have already reached a capture zone. It’s also very capable of taking out light vehicles like the dreaded pirate chaingun truck.

[/p][p]Marta Carda (Marine, Infantry):
Marta and her squad will also join the battle without any armor to speak of, so their purpose is to hang back and use the medium machine gun to provide additional fire support. As we had some points left, we also equipped the squad with grenades to dislodge enemy units from cover if necessary.

[/p][hr][/hr][h3]The Plan[/h3]

1. [p]The first part of the plan is to rush the objective as fast as possible. In the best case, our squads will be able to establish positions before the enemy arrives and take them out on the approach. If the enemy reaches the capture zone earlier, things will get dicey. Our squads must move in aggressively and drive them off as quickly as possible, even if that means taking the risk of casualties in close combat.
   [/p]
2. [p]The second part of the plan involves utilizing the road and the transport capacity of the light carrier to shift to the second objective zone as quickly as possible after securing the first one.
   [/p]
3. [p]The third part is capturing the second objective zone from the enemy. Most likely, the pirates will have set up covered positions by then, so we must be prepared to destroy their cover or assault their positions with grenades. This might also be a good opportunity to use close air support to suppress the enemy as we approach.
   [/p]

[p][/p][hr][/hr][h3]The Actual Mission
[/h3][p]The first part of the plan works perfectly. The radar station is captured without enemy resistance in a couple of rounds.

[/p][p]While en route to the second objective, there is still no sign of enemy activity. Only when the carrier approaches the GTAM site do the first pirate units get spotted.

[/p][p]The carrier immediately engages the pirates and takes them out as they are standing in the open. Lim’s infantry squad dismounts and moves into cover.

[/p][p]More enemy activity is spotted at the back of the site, and close air support is ordered to strafe the suspected positions. Some pirates manage to fire back, but can’t defeat the class III body armor of Lim’s assault squad.

[/p][p]The arriving strafing run suppresses enemy activity for a moment, which is used to bring forward Darby’s squad with the rocket launcher, reducing the pirates' cover to rubble.

[/p][p]The initial resistance is broken, and infantry and carrier waltz into the compound to keep up the momentum.

[/p][p]Remaining pockets of resistance get cleared with SMG fire, grenades, and vehicle fire support.
[/p][p]The objectives are successfully captured.

[/p][hr][/hr][h3]Mission Result[/h3][p]
This screen shows the secured strategic asset, the amount of promotion points earned (depending on the mission rating), and the possible item rewards that can be chosen. On the right-hand side, the mission rating is broken into different aspects. The amount of information in this area might still be increased.
[/p][p]This screen shows the performance of the squad leaders and their units. Casualties taken, enemies eliminated, and if a squad leader attained an emotional state.

[/p][hr][/hr][h3]Next Up[/h3][p]Now that the first mission is aced without any casualties, you have to select the next mission to tackle in this operation. All operations will branch out but culminate in one especially hard final mission as a sort of climax. Before taking on the next mission, new equipment can be handed out to squads, and promotions can be assigned to unlock new perks for squads.

That's it for now! We'll see you next Friday.

You can find us on Discord, BlueSky, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and Reddit for discussions, updates, and feedback. You can also subscribe to our monthly MENACE newsletter on our website — just scroll to the bottom of the page to sign up.[/p]