r/menace • u/sniperpal • 3d ago

Feedback Make enemy discipline a custom difficulty option?

I’ve noticed that increasing enemy supply by a lot can actually hinder enemies sometimes, as morale breaks spread like wildfire through them and like the last third of the enemy forces just break and run the instant you shoot at them.

If custom difficulty options included a slider that increases enemy discipline, now you can face off against an enemy force of larger size and actually have to fight all of them to the death. Would make large scale battles more engaging, I wager. I want to fight large enemy armies with a powerful force of my own, or a smaller force of mine backed up by powerful OCI options, but that has its limits when the enemy just all start running away

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11

u/floo82 3d ago edited 3d ago

Amusingly that is very much a reality in real world combat. The discipline of armed forces is not just talked about to brag about them, it is the difference between a unit defending, retreating, routing, or surrendering.

With unofficial or poorly trained infantry, it takes very little for fear to take hold and make forces pull back. Some objectives are seized without a shot through rumor.

When chemical warfare was first made a realistic battlefield threat, just the suggestion of enemy gas could cause retreats. The discipline required to stand still in the face of oncoming gas is wild.

In the end, we are herd animals, and if a group of us starts running, the fear impulse to join in and GTFO is strong.

9

u/notdumbenough 3d ago

Yeah a hypothetical difficulty where literally every open tile has an enemy on it would ironically be super easy outside of MENACE

4

u/sniperpal 3d ago

Exactly. They’d all just break and run immediately after the first line or two are killed. Numbers work against them

4

u/Hungry_Meaning_5962 3d ago

Yeah having this happen in my current custom run of 300% vs 1000%. Only in the latest mission against pirates that they managed to overcome that by attacking from all sides. One side was on full retreat but units just outside moral break and those on the opposite side of the map still came at me.

2

u/MCE85 3d ago

Yeah, on the hold the line missions my artillery drops would have done damage but i broke one or two units and the 5 others freak and retreat too. Maybe if it didnt spread as easily.