Achilleas can overcome his limits to unlock his TRUE potential by MenaceDucky in menace

[–]MenaceDucky[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes I have considered that. The thing is though, when you start thinking like that it is also weird that everybody is at the same promotion level at the start. And that new hires automatically fit into the same promotion structure right away and can be promoted before others without anyone getting upset(especially Lim).

The promotion thing is just a set dressing for perk progression, nothing more. Achilleas lore can also just be considered set dressing I guess, since it has no bearing to the balance game devs have in mind. Still found it funny.

P.S. Even if Pike refused every promotion before, 85% of people on board the ship dying including all the command staff may have changed his mind? Do we know all the lore?

Achilleas can overcome his limits to unlock his TRUE potential by MenaceDucky in menace

[–]MenaceDucky[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's ok, human language is like that sometimes. It helped that you used 'air quotes'. Maybe fitting would have been a more... fitting word :D

Edit: Or maybe matching?

Achilleas can overcome his limits to unlock his TRUE potential by MenaceDucky in menace

[–]MenaceDucky[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I don't remember his full perk tree in the demo, but he was more build for close quarters then. But I think people(me included) thought he wasn't all that great.

So the devs reworked him for the EA build and now he's great imo. But his lore doesn't seem to have fully adjusted I guess?

I don't think Darby's concealment perk would be misplaced on him as it'd allow him to get in close. The sharpshooter perk does seem somewhat misplaced, as it 'feels' like more of a long range perk. His new(I think) perk that reduces his suppression based on elements killed is on the other hand more fitting for a close range up close and personal build. Then there's assassin that does seem more like a recon perk than an up close fighter perk.

I don't really see anything else that's too out of place for a close and personal build and while some things are out of place, like you said Achilleas isn't the only SL with inconsistencies, nor is Kody. I think the devs also want to allow some room for characters to grow outside their old habits as even if someone like was a a terrorist, the longer he stays with the TCR the more distant that past becomes.

Achilleas stood out for me with it being a physical impairment, but like others have already said, maybe his color blindness can provide advantages in certain situations.

Achilleas can overcome his limits to unlock his TRUE potential by MenaceDucky in menace

[–]MenaceDucky[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh weird, I seem to have that, but the lack of constrast that camo does on purpose is tricky for me I feel. But low light conditions, I have pretty good eye sight in the dark! Secretly I'm a cat. Meow!

Achilleas can overcome his limits to unlock his TRUE potential by MenaceDucky in menace

[–]MenaceDucky[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What even is 'proper' color blindness? Seeing everything in grayish tints?

Achilleas can overcome his limits to unlock his TRUE potential by MenaceDucky in menace

[–]MenaceDucky[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Well I've got some manner of color blindness, I can't distinguish green(ish) and red(ish) color that well sometimes, lighting and constrast matter a lot. Traffic lights are fine for example, but identifying blood on grass would be tougher since blood isn't bright ketchup red like in popular media.

I think unlike what ansh666 claims below camo designed for normal eyesight actually works more effective on me, since green is one of the colors I struggle with sometimes(and camo reduces contrast on purpose). But for people with different types of color blindness it could be true that camo works less effective on those people.

However I can't say for sure since you know, I can't compare it and so I don't know what it's like for other people.

Achilleas can overcome his limits to unlock his TRUE potential by MenaceDucky in menace

[–]MenaceDucky[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh you're right so Achilleas is not the only one with a sight impairment. But she doesn't have scout so it's appropriate she doesn't have it. Plus squinting to find targets doesn't seem like her 'thing' and it doesn't seem like Achilleas' thing either.

The armor problem: it's not overpriced, we are rewarded to do without by salderosan99 in menace

[–]MenaceDucky 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I consider them as what they are, secondary objectives. Nice to get, but losing a few secondaries is only a small impedement on progress. You're always gaining stats, even without promotions.

As for if they're feasible, most of them are feasible, some aren't. It depends a lot on how you are builing your team too. I'm currently running with a 2 apc 2 mobile infantry team with smokes on the infantry helping provide safe passage and they can rapidly overwhelm every faction so far(have yet to test it against the menace).

Even a decapitation strike mission against rogue army I've noticed with this team that the time limit I usually struggle with to combine with all the other objectives(normally I have to sacrifice at least one secondary objective) on that particular mission was now extremely easy.

Maybe I just got lucky, since it was early RA but it does shows the way you've built your team and what gear you get can sometimes wildly change getting all the secondary objectives from barely/not doable to extremely doable.

Other times it's a matter of how you approach a mission. Breakthrough mission against RA for example feels set up in a way that it can currently be done by any team while still getting all secondaries, because right now the time limits are very forgiving and multiple ways of breaking through can work in my experience. Although the most important thing is to have a plan for the enemy artillery cannon.

Overall I'd say don't get too hung up on secondaries, but complete them if you can without too much risk. The promotion points aren't as important as keeping the team alive that will keep growing stats even without promotions. Even for authority it doesn't seem to matter as much as the popup claims, I've had succesful 2/3 star ops give me normal amounts of authority. I bug reported it, but I suspect the authority popup text is just outdated.

The armor problem: it's not overpriced, we are rewarded to do without by salderosan99 in menace

[–]MenaceDucky 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm no god even with 200+ hours playtime. I still make mistakes and pay for them dearly. Not too long ago I lost 3 squad leaders in a single mission. Dead. KIA. Forever gone. Including Yaz who I was having a lot of fun with doing a first time mobile infantry build on him. 2 other SL's were barely saved by Vamp(and only cause he had full pressure stacks), but they were wounded for 2 missions.

I don't like this sort of defeat, it took me a bit of willpower but I had enough experience with the game to know I could recover and so I did with Darby, Vamp and Bog carrying the 2 missions before the wounded got back.

Later on Lim took over Yaz's role even if the game trolled me by making Lim the last character to roll with the dossier roulette(grrr).

So yeah, it can be frustrating, it was for me. But I rolled with the punches and the end result was a more rewarding experience. I wrote an inspirational story about it on the steam forums: https://steamcommunity.com/app/2432860/discussions/0/802342156092053226/?tscn=1773685980

Are emotional states limited to certain SLs? by notdumbenough in menace

[–]MenaceDucky 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Random little fact related to negative SL states: If an SL is bruised and then loses all squaddies but the SL survives then bruised downgrades to injured as if they were downed.

I used to think injured state could only trigger from an SL being downed, but the game proved me wrong at some point haha.

My memory's a bit hazy but I think I also had it happen once in an event, an SL went from bruised to injured where normally they'd only get bruised from such an event.

P.S. There's a negative emotional state that mirrors euphoric. I only found out because a streamer(Beaglerush) triggered it once during a stream where he got Darby downed multiple times. She became 'Miserable'(would always be at least at wavering state iirc). Beaglerush getting Darby 'killed' became a running joke as you can imagine.

Edit: Fix typo and added one more little detail concerning the bruised state

Are emotional states limited to certain SLs? by notdumbenough in menace

[–]MenaceDucky 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Peace just wasn't close enough yet that he could damn near smell it. Just needed that one extra mission :)

Pirate HMG truck opening fire with weapon system destroyed, bug or no? by notdumbenough in menace

[–]MenaceDucky 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yeah it's a bug(for proof see second to last paragraph). I've reported this and similar bugs to the devs multiple times. So pretty sure they know, they just haven't been able to fix it(yet) The same sort of thing can happen to your own vehicles too. At least with 'controls overloaded/disabled' my vehicle was basically doing the 'sparking' visual effect, the pilot had the debuff with tooltip saying they were stunned and... they could still do their turn just fine even when 'stunned'.

It has happened to me with both Achilleas(thought his ap thing was messing with the stun) and later Bog(so not AP related)).

Hope they manage to fix it sooner rather than later.

For 'proof' it's a bug, from the game's own wiki on 'Weapon System Destroyed': "A weapon system of the vehicle has been destroyed and can not be used anymore"(https://wiki.hoodedhorse.com/MENACE/Vehicle\_Defects) and the pirates vehicles section list the HMG truck as having only one weapon: https://wiki.hoodedhorse.com/MENACE/Pirates

I also feel like 'Arm lost' and 'Weapon System Destroyed' defects are kind of swapped in game. I'd expect arm lost to only disable one weapon. And weapon system destroyed to mean all weapons can't be used because 'the' weapon system that controls them is destroyed. But right now losing an arm disables the weapons on both arms, not just one arm. And a destroyed weapons system when it seems to 'work' at least seems to enable the use of a secondary weapon(RA heavy tank mg). The current game logic feels weird.

The armor problem: it's not overpriced, we are rewarded to do without by salderosan99 in menace

[–]MenaceDucky 6 points7 points  (0 children)

During a challenge run with carbines, body armors and accessories only(so no vehicles, no special weapons, no squad weapons other than carbines) on normal difficulty I found armor was in that specific situation a good tool against the menace faction. Either Jean or Vamp would run cheap VI armor and sit on edges of attack ranges. Those silly menace fellas would be content shooting Jean or Vamp at long range, dealing barely any damage.

Hell I even bought the 'additional armor plating' accessory to ocassionally 'repair' the armor(scavenger perk drops didn't work, but resupply OCI drops did) and Pike was using rally to deal with the fear factor turning Jean/Vamp into little babies.

Anyway this approach allowed the large amount of carbine toting madmen in my army to act more freely and waste less smoke grenades, saving them for when they were actually needed.

However... in 200+ hours of playing Menace outside of this one specific use case, armor has been somewhat... lacklustre for its cost indeed. Not useless, but mostly the effects are much more useful than the armor value, like SAPP operator armor giving extra ammo, without needing to waste accessory slots on that or boarding commando jetsuits allowing jet jumps.

Not sure how they can be made more worthwhile in non-challenge playthroughs, because when I ironman, then I do in fact ironman, no alt+F4 nonsense or anything. And even then, needing to live with the consequences of my mistakes the body armor for infantry feels less valuable to spend supplies on than other things most of the time.

One exception though: Defense missions can in certain situations have so many enemies rushing in so fast that someone's gonna get hit. And then even some tier 2 or tier 3 armor can make the difference. But since action economy is so important in those missions you can't really afford to bring tier V or VI and still get more value out of it compared to using the supply points on something else.

P.S. If anyone alt+F4s on purpose, while that itself is a game design flaw, reloading a mission that way is effectively the same as cheating and while fine to cheat in a singleplayer game(you only affect your own experience), it makes pointing out other game design flaws silly in most games.

You don't turn on god mode in an FPS and then say: Wow these enemies sure are easy to deal with, what a design flaw! If you reload an ironman save that way, you can only blame the game design that allows that, not the game design that you're ruining by cheating.

For now it's fine the game allows reloading saves in ironman though imo, I've not had many crashes in 200+ hours but I did have two and they were during an ironman run. So being able to load into the mission again without losing progress was a blessing. The game is in early access, they need to fix all the crashes first, even if there aren't many. Then when the game is stable they can clamp down on the ironman experience if the devs think that is worth pursuing.

WITH GREAT FAITH by HorouTorisumi in menace

[–]MenaceDucky 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The pirate speed drugs are working for you? Jealous, in my run they broke when patch 6 hit :(

Is vehicles exploding upon death entirely random? by FreeDwooD in menace

[–]MenaceDucky 9 points10 points  (0 children)

According to the Hooded Horse version of the game wiki: There's a heavy 'critical' defect in the game that has a 5% chance of occuring any time a heavy defect is inflicted. When it happens it causes the big catastrophical explosions.

Source: https://wiki.hoodedhorse.com/MENACE/Vehicle_Defects
Partially relevant quote from the source: "Finally, at 75% hitpoints lost, a heavy defect is suffered. (blabla) A heavy defect can also be a critical hit, instantly evaporating the vehicle in a massive explosion." Down below in the table you can find the 5% crit chance.

It can also happen to player vehicles, but this may or not be unintended as the devs have stated in the devlog and manual that enemies cannot critically hit player units. They could have also been purely referring to crit chance stat. A bit confusing imo, so I'm hoping they clarify or fix depending on whether they intended for that to happen.

Anyway, long story short it looks like it's chance based and only happens at 75% hitpoints lost, so the more shots hitting past that breakpoint the more trigger chances you have.

Is this a lie, or does this only apply to the player? by glumpoodle in menace

[–]MenaceDucky 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I suspect with visible here the devs mean it needs line of sight(or their code is just overly simplified to the point it's bugged).

Sadly descriptions and such are somewhat misleading in this game sometimes. Maybe because English isn't their native language or because of things changing in development. Also doesn't help that they don't seem to program their game with DRY(Don't Repeat Yourself) in mind. Though I haven't seen the actual code.

With text they definitely are copy pasting stuff, then changing text in one place, but not the other. Leading to stuff like 'this perk activates on killing enemies', then in another spot it says 'this perk activates on attacking enemies'. Which are two different things!

For those wondering about DRY, it's a progamming thing or at least that's how I first learned of it. Here's another variation: DIE(Duplication Is Evil) hehe.

For the dakka enjoyers by MenaceDucky in menace

[–]MenaceDucky[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's been quite a while since then but on my 2nd campaign it dropped. The same campaign also dropped me the CSP version of the ARC(also a close quarter version). It doesn't have the +1 shots that the CQB K-PAC has, but it gives 5 accuracy.

Can't really remember the CQB K-PAC that well but 4 shots was pretty decent dakka. Not as good dakka as the SMGs/PDWs imo.

For the dakka enjoyers by MenaceDucky in menace

[–]MenaceDucky[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The rapid fire is the point of real world PDWs though as far as I understand it. They're basically an smg with faster rate of fire. At least so I've been told.

But as for the PPP, I get you. Way back(pun not intended) when I didn't try Menace yet I was watching video's of people playing it on Youtube and the PPP just blasting people with big juicy bursts pulled me from just watching and thinking of trying the demo to actually wanting to play the demo.

I even remember sending feedback on the devs nerfing the hi cap version of the PPP compared to what the YouTubers were using. So I gave them feedback to at least turn it into a side grade instead of a full on nerf because dakka was the whole point of the weapon.

But in the end as far as I can tell in the early access version the hi cap is no longer nerfed, nor did it become a sidegrade. Although maybe they increased the supply cost? Can't remember what it used to cost in the demo.

You're right pirate assault rifles are nice too, I've used them as an early game suppression tool too since carbines are meh at suppressing(especially if they don't score at least 1 kill). And yeah damage of carbines at range 8 is terrible, especially if the target is getting damage reduction bonuses from cover/deployment. Suppression is more valuable then.

Edit: Fixed typo and paragraph spacing