Incline MENACE - sci-fi turn-based tactical RPG from Battle Brothers devs

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

From discord:

Given the scope of the game with squads that can have anywhere between 1 and 9 elements there have to be some simplifications in regard to armor, weapons and ammo counts. All of this can change until the EA though! Right now Armor and Squadweapon are the same for a squad (one problem is the different movement speed of different armors but also other stats like viewrange and detection). Also, a squad making a single attack at a target with a variety of weapons would be very hard to predict or understand for players

Yeah, a small sidearm can make sense in some cases. For example a sqaud might have battle rifles that are good at long range but bad at short range. A pistol as an accessory for very short range would be helpful to defend in close quarters. The special weapons and consumeables to have limited uses and the squad weapons unlimited as Heron pointed out. Limited ammo for basic squadweapons introduced an amount of problems as squads would become basically useless when out of ammo

 

[Strange Fellow]

This sounds more like a wargame than anything else to me.

 

[Ibn Sina]

I am guessing there is exactly zero melee?

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

More from discord:

Vehicle damages will work similar to injuries in Battle Brothers. Vehicles share some injuries or "defects" but also have unique defects that can only happen on this specific vehicle.

Normal weapons will not be able to pen vehicles

 

[Parsimonious cook]

This is incline in general, though there better be individual armor values for front/rear/side of the vehicles as well.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

This is incline in general, though there better be individual armor values for front/rear/side of the vehicles as well.

Top and bottom also.

 

[Beowulf]

This is incline in general, though there better be individual armor values for front/rear/side of the vehicles as well.

Ground Control had that IIRC. And this really looks a lot like GC (even if it's only the scale and the approach to squad management they're copying from it) and that's a good thing.

 

[ArchAngel]

From discord:

Given the scope of the game with squads that can have anywhere between 1 and 9 elements there have to be some simplifications in regard to armor, weapons and ammo counts. All of this can change until the EA though! Right now Armor and Squadweapon are the same for a squad (one problem is the different movement speed of different armors but also other stats like viewrange and detection). Also, a squad making a single attack at a target with a variety of weapons would be very hard to predict or understand for players

Yeah, a small sidearm can make sense in some cases. For example a sqaud might have battle rifles that are good at long range but bad at short range. A pistol as an accessory for very short range would be helpful to defend in close quarters. The special weapons and consumeables to have limited uses and the squad weapons unlimited as Heron pointed out. Limited ammo for basic squadweapons introduced an amount of problems as squads would become basically useless when out of ammo

They should at least implement that soldiers can have different weapons that unlock new abilities that come with that weapon (like you can give one soldier a Grenade Launcher and he can fire that once per X rounds while others shoot with their normal weapons). Anything less would be very dissapointing.
When one plays squad type games I always remember DoW1 and recently new Aliens game. Sure both were RT and not TB but that is their problem, not mine.

 

[Harthwain]

This sounds more like a wargame than anything else to me.

To me it sounds like WH40K tabletop.

 

[Sarissofoi]

Due recent Unity shenanigans Menace could be delayed by a extra year(read on Steam forum). We live in such wonderful times.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Due recent Unity shenanigans Menace could be delayed by a extra year(read on Steam forum). We live in such wonderful times.

Anything from devs, or is this just randos sperging?

 

[Parsimonious cook]

Its randos sperging.

 

[Sarissofoi]

Supposedly they get some info from discord.

 

[gurugeorge]

Getting strong Ground Control vibes from just the visuals there. Now that was a fun game.

 

[PanteraNera]

Overhype_Jaysen — Today at 10:17 AM​

The whole thing is pretty absurd, our inspiration for MENACE was Aliens, Starship Troopers, Jagged Alliance and Xcom. We use the same angle on the male/female topic and representation
Its a basic scifi standard
has been for almost 40 years

 

[Alienman]

What is that about?

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

What is that about?

Women, feet or both.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

Overhype_Jaysen — Today at 10:17 AM​

The whole thing is pretty absurd, our inspiration for MENACE was Aliens, Starship Troopers, Jagged Alliance and Xcom. We use the same angle on the male/female topic and representation
Its a basic scifi standard
has been for almost 40 years

You are going to radicalise them into SJW's if you keep pressing them about the womyns.

 

[Alienman]

80% strong independent women, 15% trannies, and 5% men.

 

[Serus]

and why urban combat gonna be limited.

Huh? They are making squad-based tactical game and urban combat is going to be limited? Does this mean we'll be fighting in the open plains for most of the time or something?

I am pretty sure what is meant by "limited urban combat" is that there wont be multi-level buildings that you can enter. Urban combat itself is in the game, most of the videos show fighting in urban environment.

so what you’re saying is… forest maps with buildings instead of trees?

Somehow you made me remember old episode of Dexter's Laboratory when they play D&D, with this dialogue between Dexter and DeeDee:
DD - you walk through a forest...
Dexter - a dungeon
DD - forest
Dexter - dungeon!
DD - ... ok... forest in a dungeon.
And we see in the background forest changing into a dungeon and back. Finally it changes into a forest with skeletons chained to trees and other dungeon-like elements.

 

[PanteraNera]

Overhype_Jaysen 09/25/2023 1:08 PM​

It will be a little less sandboxy than BB, as BB was almost 100% sandbox. We want there to be a little more context, guidance and persistency to it

Overhype_Jaysen 09/25/2023 2:03 PM​

Not as linear as FTL, more a bit in the xcom 2 direction

Overhype_Jaysen 09/25/2023 3:53 PM​

It will be less sandboxy but there will be contracts where factions work against each other and the player has to pick sides. Also, we introduce a lot more variety in operations as they have different missions with very different goals. Missions will also feature drastically different objectives, deployment zones, setups and so on.

Overhype_Jaysen 09/25/2023 3:53 PM​

Players will have choices which missions to select within these operations

Overhype_Jaysen 09/25/2023 4:11 PM​

Going with that definition the game is still pretty sandboxy as in the player has a lot of decisions to make and set his own goals and so on. It is not a world simulation though

Overhype_Jaysen 09/25/2023 4:15 PM​

Yeah, especially the noble houses. I planned them to be extremely different from each other with their own agendas and so on

Overhype_Jaysen 09/25/2023 4:16 PM​

turns out creating a world simulation is quite a big endevaour There is a reason grand strategy games exist

Overhype_Jaysen 09/25/2023 4:17 PM​

The player is traveling through space and on planets and can also have random events happen, but you are not physically chasing pirates around (or getting chased by space direwolves)

Overhype_Jaysen 09/25/2023 4:18 PM​

I personally always felt the chasing aspect of the game was tiresome and awkward, especially when party speed was very similar

Overhype_Jaysen 09/25/2023 4:21 PM​

I cant say too much about the Starmap yet as it is still in development and we really do love to feature creep ^^

Overhype_Jaysen 09/25/2023 4:25 PM​

well, there will be some equivalent enemies that tear players to pieces, rest assured!

Overhype_Jaysen 09/25/2023 4:26 PM​

You are just not getting chased through space ^^

 

[PanteraNera]

Overhype_Jaysen — Yesterday at 10:07 AM​

It will be an AP based system similar to Battle Brothers. The xcom system with the 2 actions is extremely limiting and does not allow for balancing different actions with different action point costs. We want players to have maximum freedom of choice, for example just standing and shooting as much as possible or spend all AP to move as far as possible

 

[PanteraNera]

Overhype_Jaysen — Today at 10:05 AM​

There was definitely something strange going on with Pheonix Point, I had really high hopes for it as well...
Didnt catch me though
I personally always perceived the original X-Com as more of a horror game than a tactics or strategy game. It has very strong Horror Elements
MENACE will be foremost a tactics and strategy game where the Horror is more in the setting, enemy design and story. It is after all pretty hard to Jumpscare people in a top down tactics game : )
For me Horror is also in the unknown. Having your own fantasy fill in what you dont know or dont see. So not spilling too many beans on the enemies and their abilities makes sense for us until the EA

Some information about the changes in Phoenix Point

R. Head — Today at 11:22 AM​

I was there to watch it crumble.Mr. Gollop hired some financial advisors that cobbled up a "focus group" consisting of casual SolomonCOM players.
Said focus group dismissed every design elements in place. Too scary, too complicated, too stressful, too weird, too not like XCOM.For some reason mr. Gollop decided to go along, ditch the writers and redo the whole game. Perhaps he was afraid for financial stability of his little studio, jeopardizing it in the process.

R. Head — Today at 11:26 AM​

They had to reimplement a lot of the initial mechanics back under community's pressure, but the lore has been irreparably damaged, the time was wasted and some mechanics were reimplemented in a more ass-backwards way than this early concept:

Overhype_Jaysen — Today at 11:27 AM
Ah, that explains a lot : ) I felt that but didnt know the actual backstory. Funnily enough, most times going more "main stream" to secure financial stability achieves the exact opposite by creating a less successfull product

 

[Gromoer]

I wonder how PP did financially. Aggregators give a very crude estimation of 200-300k copies sold which isn’t bad I guess + they got some money from Epic. Probably this strategy helped securing some extra bucks, but in the long run Mr. Gollop will enjoy much less credibility. Not sure if it bothers him though.

 

[mediocrepoet]

I wonder how PP did financially. Aggregators give a very crude estimation of 200-300k copies sold which isn’t bad I guess + they got some money from Epic. Probably this strategy helped securing some extra bucks, but in the long run Mr. Gollop will enjoy much less credibility. Not sure if it bothers him though.

Yeah, I'm sure he's devastated.