MENACE News

This week, we are spinning back and taking a look at one of the features within our Operations system that we talked about in Dev Diary #18. Strategic Assets are important rewards for completing missions within an operation, but enemy forces are also not sleeping on improving their combat odds.
Let’s take a closer look.

Note: Operations are branching mini-campaigns of three to five procedural battles. You choose one mission per tier, carry all damage forward, and end with a single showdown. Clear the chain, and your roster is restored while you bank OCI points, Authority, faction trust, gear, and temporary Strategic Assets; fail any mission, and the operation ends, costing you the top rewards. Dev Diary #18 has more details.

[h3]What are Strategic Assets[/h3][hr][/hr]Early in development, we decided not to have singular missions. Still, we wanted to create an entirely new dynamic and procedural system that creates ever-new campaigns with connected and branching missions. The result of this effort is our Operations system, which we discussed in the Diary linked above.

Each completed mission gives the player a variety of rewards, mostly new items but also experience in the form of promotions to hand out to squad leaders. Also, players get OCI points and trust with the local faction as rewards for completing the whole operation. What was still missing was the actual outcome of each mission and how it affected the rest of the operation.

Armed clashes always have a goal or a reason to happen. Each side wants to achieve something and is risking their lives for it. This outcome of a mission is what we decided to call a strategic asset.

The name might change, as it does not fit a hundred percent.

So, in short, a Strategic Asset is a boon, resource, opportunity, item, or any other kind of advantage that the player earned by completing a mission. These assets depend on the mission type, and many are unique to specific missions. Often, there are multiple different possible strategic assets for each mission, and it might be a different one when playing the same operation and encountering the same mission later.

Most strategic assets will only be active for the duration of the current campaign and are reset once the campaign is resolved. However, there are some where players get permanent rewards like additional items, promotion points, trust, or others.

[h3]Why Strategic Assets[/h3][hr][/hr]When designing the game, it was important to us to add immersion, choice, and consequence, and believability to the operations. They are all about adding context to each mission, and this not only includes the mission preparation and briefing, but also the outcome and aftermath. After all, there was a good reason to set up that specific mission by local command and the Impetus Staff.

An example would be a mission to free loyal local forces soldiers from Rogue Army holding cells in a rescue mission. A possible strategic asset could be two local forces squads joining the players' army for the final mission of this operation.

Another would be more manpower in the form of Squaddies to join the player’s forces. Another mission might have the player ambush Pirate reinforcements along a road.

If the player succeeds, the Pirates might suffer from reduced supply points in all following missions.

[h3]Strategic Asset Examples[/h3][hr][/hr]The mission “Rescue Settlers” in which you have to sweep in and stop alien critters from killing local settlers:


Securing a settlement might bear various effects; in this case, the player gains the bonus of a Hunting Lodge. These hunters can be very helpful in bringing down large aliens that might lurk in the area:


The assignment to clear and secure a landing zone will often be the first when starting an operation and setting up a bridgehead to advance from. This might be a strategic asset from such a mission:


Searching and destroying Pirate weapon caches might have you gain access to some piratey equipment:


Oftentimes, opposing forces are fighting over the control of fringe settlements. The reasons might be many, but often it is about gaining access to powerful facilities that help the ongoing efforts, like a repair workshop:


[h3]Enemy Assets[/h3][hr][/hr]The enemy factions are, of course, also not sitting idly by. They do have their plans and ways to acquire strategic assets, which in this case are called “Enemy Assets”.

After the initial operations, which are relatively short, longer and more difficult operations start to appear. These might have missions that are not strategic assets, but enemy assets as rewards. In case the player decides not to take on the mission with the enemy asset attached, but does another mission on the same level of the operation, the asset gets activated.

Just as with the strategic assets, it will only run for the rest of that specific operation, but given that Operations can be up to 5 missions long, this can really add up.

The enemy assets are faction-specific and resemble efforts of, for example, the pirates, to establish advantageous conditions on the battlefield. Here are some examples of what to expect:

Pirates love to tinker, break apart, and Frankenstein together new equipment. Letting them set up a metal workshop will help them improve the durability of all their armored units.


Being the unorganized bunch they are, the Pirates suffer from low discipline and can be beaten back even when attacking with superior numbers. They might want to work on that weakness and give their units a little nudge in the right direction. Allowing them to establish a propaganda center that boosts their morale will make them much more resilient on the battlefield, recover faster from suppression, and be less likely to flee.


As you can see, both strategic assets and enemy assets can be decisive to the outcome or difficulty of a campaign. Going for permanent goodies like items can be viable.

Still, it will come at the cost of not getting an immediate advantage that helps to win the operation with better results and fewer losses.

Additionally, stopping enemy assets is crucial to avoid giving the enemy an edge. However, missions involving enemy assets do not provide a strategic advantage, so players are missing out on any immediate advantage.

We want players to not only face complex decisions on the battlefield itself, but also before that on the operational level.

In combination with all the other factors like mission type, difficulty, expected reward, weather conditions, and strategic or enemy assets, there are a lot of factors that have to be taken into consideration when selecting not only the next mission but also planning a way through the branching operations.

[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 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/