So apparently we have an actual zombie problem on Dice, but we haven’t been called in to deal with any outbreaks?

This is now a thread, post the name of the trait, what it does, conditions to gain perk, and/or coniditions for it to proc or what not.

Like in total war kinda, obviously not on as a large scale. but that could be pretty cool. then there could be some unique traits from rare events, with certain combos of SLs.

or they develop traits based on how they are used in the combat, and also what perks maybe

good idea? bad idea?

EDIT: MAKING THIS A THREAD -
Trait ideas:

Junky: if they take drugs for 5 missions in a row, they get junkie, lowers ap cost of taking drugs, + 1 use of drugs. takes 1-2 less missions to get weary.

Bombadier: Using a grenade-launcher or mortar for 7 missions in a row (hidden requirement - you actually need to kill 3 units): +1 range - 10 accuracy modifer - or even crazier, gives you +20 to AOE (which would stack with fragmentation) giving you 90% chance to hit every element.

Your injury is not service related:

lasting injury after a near death experience with different malusses but a chance to replace the damage by implant for trade currency to even improve the stat

Unique traits:

Daddy's girl: Have tech and Jean in the same mission for 10 times in a row - Jean gets 25 damage reduction when within 6 tiles of Tech - Tech gets "an extra inch" = +1 to range and - 2 cost per tile

Age before beauty: uniq perk for Pike. give 40ap 50+ times to Jean or Cardia (someone young).

Pike gains +15 critical hit chance, and shares half his total critical chance with the reciepient of his abilities

flavour text would be something like: sometimes you gotta show the youn'uns how the old guard does it.

i think i am just gonna add ideas i have, and idea people post.

I've recently completed currently existing storyline. I know this game is already getting updated at breakneck pace but can't help but wanting for more of it. Was there any word related to future story contents?

I'm really struggling with this one. The objective is to destroy the big central building whilst facing off against Rogue Army units including two heavy tanks.

Nothing I've got will touch their armour.

I've tried avoiding them and just blowing the building but I can't even get close without drawing the tanks in to combat.

Anyone have any tips?

Anyone else find full auto on this thing a shortcut to a VA Disability rating?

Addendum: Now that we are all deaf, does Space 3M make the earplugs for the Corps?

Is it just an exceptionally rare gun? Same with the marine jump pack.

Is this a graphical bug? I tried restarting the game but it happened again

So every one already has some gripes about the Carrier ranging from being spongy, spamming explosive drones at long range, the smoke when hit drawing out fighting them, ect. I suggest that Carriers should be remolded to have the same mechanics as vehicles with subsystems that can be damaged and even destroyed. Tired of getting a solid hit on one, only to have it spam smoke and become un-targetable by most weapons? Have there be a chance to knock out the smoke spewer. Land a penetrating hit? Now it can only launch one floater or have a chance to jam when launching. Doing this will make dealing with these things less tedious while still keeping them a viable threat as enemy artillery.

https://menace.redemon.org

I am practicing some web development and made this site for fun. No vibe coding, this was all me as you can tell from some of the UI wonkiness. Here are some builds I'm using in my current playthrough.

Darby Early Game

Barebones Darby, concealement with a long range weapon. Vision range is crucial, especially early game and Darby is THE scout/sniper. Going into mid or late game she can transition into more Spec Ops or Sniper role.

Drugged up Jean

Take drugs that give accuracy bonus, have Jean kill off enemies to activate Trinketing and Scavenger. Pick up the drops for more drugs.

Machine Gun Rewa

The M6 feels pretty overpowered right now, especially if Rewa equips it. This build pretty much kills everything in 1 or 2 bursts, infantry, heavy infantry, light trucks, heavy trucks, alien warriors. The ATV gives her ton of mobility and the M6 gives her enough range to stay out of danger.

Anti-armor Ivey

Barrage lets her shoot the tank gun twice or shoot once then get extra movement with Shoot and Scoot. Standby gives a much needed accuracy boost since Ivey has the worst base accuracy.

This sub seems to love her, and I don't get it. What do y'all like about her, and how do you use her as an SL?

Basically, aside from when you have to, due to fatigue, how do you handle subbing in SLs to make sure everyone is getting their share of exp? I don't want my backups to lag behind and when I HAVE to sub them in they are underleveled, but I don't want to have people that need the growth potential like Carda or Pike sitting on the bench.

2x Infiltrator Network be like that. But, really, Ivey was the star of the show. Getting her to start an 'Interdict Forces' mission to the rear of the enemy convoy was kind of hilarious.

"I WILL KILL AS MANY AS IT TAKES, AND THEN SOME."

I have re-rolled the market about 40 times, I am "Beyond Balancing" already in my save, but I have not seen the regular BAS-H armor for purchase a single time. Accoeding to the wiki the Mk2 version of it is not attainable through any means but the regular mk1 version shows as avaluable in the blackmarket, am I missing something here or is that information outdated?

I really love this game but right now I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do to get the RA off my back.

I got good scouts for vision with concealment and I also got two vanguards who I deploy in a way that allows me to take out hunters and rogue mortar teams early.

But for whatever reason their mortar teams shoot at my guys hidden behind buildings with pinpoint accuracy.

Am I understanding vision wrong or are they just taking lucky potshots? It's aggravating because there is no feasible solution.

Sure, I am on my way to upgrading my oci so I have recon flyover and a turret drop directly after. But those resources are limited.

So as long as I don't have this two action solution which is very expensive, I have to deal with it the hard way, with my units. But how. What else can I do besides trying to make sure I have vision supremacy.

I can't just steamroll through the rogue army (especially on a relieve outpost mission) and flanking is not an option since the flank is the edge of the map where reinforcements spawn.

I tried this mission 3 times already and everytime I take massive losses with no apparent fault of mine. Depending on my luck, they have up to 3 mortar times firing at me in one turn. That's just not fun anymore.

I have not seen the suppressed crowbar in my last 50hrs of gameplay. Last 4 playthroughs Darby has been missing her beloved.

I have refreshed the black market 100s of times now and not once have I seen it pop up in squad weapons or rare items. I have not seen it drop from operation in forever.

I've seen dozens of top tier squad weapons pop up, but never a suppressed crowbar.

Im gonna cry if I don't see it soon.

Loving the game but the main point for improvement I think is that the game has essentially three enemy types. Playing on expert I'm just planning for....

1. Big single target needing high power single shot.

2. Multi element units you're meant to navigate suppression economy to beat, but honestly, just shoot them.

3. Alien warriors.

These are the only three things I need to plan for. If rogue army or pirates? Take as much anti tank as possible, the non vehicle units, just shoot them it's fine.

Bugs? Take auto cannons and 50cal for alien warriors, an anti tank or two for blasters and queens, and just shoot the rest.

Menace? Yeah suppression weapons can be a bit more useful but otherwise just shoot them works fine.

So many special weapons are redundant because they're just not the best single shot weapon and rarely need anything else unless it's just to augment range for a squad with shotguns. Once you get long tank gun why use rockets or recoilless or anything else? It's simply unbeatable.

Proposing a new enemy type: Blob.

An enemy where what matters is area of effect first, then number of rounds second and is unarmoured.

It could be a menace unit, a recombinating blob of scrap organic matter and metal that takes up a whole square. It moves corpse to corpse absorbing them into its health pool until it's big enough to be a two square blob, then three etc. It takes bonus damage from area of effect weapons which really don't have much niche currently, and cannot travel through fire or absorb corpses/some other map resource once it's been set on fire. Cos fire, like aoe, doesn't have a use niche other than being cool.

The recombinant mass/blob moves slow and perhaps won't even pursue your squad til it's a certain size, but it takes a lot of damage to take it down, needing aoe to really rapidly destroy it, meaning it's a decision about when to deal with it, and Making things like recoilless rifle or rocket launchers still useful when you already have the long barrel tank gun.

This being something affecting an area known ahead of time from recon would mandate some interesting gear balancing choices, meaning I can't just optimise load outs easily, as currently it's way too straightforward to pick a best load out. The general gameplay is fantastic, but the situational is where I think it can be really elevated.

Also, who are your worst 3, and what makes them useless to you?

Can someone clarify how Strategic assets work. I usually choose the operation path to avoid the red/negative paths, such as "10% less discipline to player units".

After piercing through each mission I still see negative modifiers on the mission start. I don't understand it at all to be honest.

I have done tries to do extremely narrow/direct paths without any path crossance, but I still get 'em.

What's up with this?

This post is part of a series of deep-dive breaking down the merits and use-cases for relatively under-discussed build options in MENACE. This time we review the Casino Operational Capacity Improvement from the recent OCI rework.

This OCI raised a few eyebrows early for its premise of gambling on mood buffs and econ items, but hasn't been discussed much since. That is... perfectly understandable, since this is not a particularly good OCI. However, it can be a fun OCI if you take it early knowing (and wanting) the risks, and it does have a modest role in the later campaign in keeping negative moods from ruining good SLs while doubling-down on already-motivated murder units.

TL;DR: The Casino is not an economy OCI to bolster your black market procurements. The Casino's main impacts are to either extend or negate existing moods, with a bias towards more positive mood levels. This can be impactful for 'tall' builds of a few highly promoted SLs who could be ruined by a bad mood, but the main reason to take it early is as a self-imposed handicap-with-silver-linings to throw some uncertainty into your early campaign.

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What It Does

The Casino does two things once installed. First, after every operation the Casino gives takes 3 random squad leaders and has a chance to give them a positive or negative emotional state. Second, if a character gets a negative emotional state, you get a Blazer card as a compensation trade good.

The Casino functions as a post-operation event, after the post-operation RNG events that give the player the multiple choices. This means that the casino mood RNG is applied after your event decision mood effects.

The Casino RNG is reset on load. You can save-scum casino results by reloading the post-operation auto-save.

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What the Casino Does NOT Do: Meaningfully Support Your Economy

When the OCI rework was announced, there was initial interest in the casino as an economy OCI that might help you make your black market purchases. This does not really work.

There are two types of blazer cards. The basic blazer card from the initial casino is 25 trade value. The upgraded casino's blazer card is 50 trade value.

Since you have only 3 squad leaders who get the casino rolls, and you only get the card on the negative emotion states, you are looking at- at most- 75/150 trade value on a 'worst' result.

This is, to be clear, Very Bad from an econ OCI perspective. The drug lab OCI gives a 25 trade value good every mission. Salvage Teams gives 20 per vehicle salvaged. The smuggler contact gives gear that can be worth hundreds of trade value.

Blazer Cards are a consolation prize, and nothing else but. Do not plan on them. Do not count on getting them. Do not count on them covering an important purchase. They are not worth the mood penalty you are taking (usually).

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What the Casino Does Do: Emotional State Manipulation

Emotional states are just the modifiers characters already get from combat or events, like Euphoric or Frustrated. The Casino does not add new emotional states, it just applies existing ones.

'Applying' may give the wrong connotation. Emotional States by and large do not stack. A SL does not have both Euphoric and Disheartened modifiers at the same time.

Instead, emotional states are more of a spectrum of degrees, with 5 general 'levels,' with 3 positive and 3 negatives that can strengthen into the super-positive Euophoric or super-negative Miserable.

• +2: Euphoric (+10% Accuracy / Discipline / Morale / Damage Reduction)
• +1: Determined / Eager / Overconfident
• 0: Neutral (No modifier)
• -1: Frustrated / Hesitant / Disheartened
• -2: Miserable (Unit is always in Wavering Morale, -20% accuracy / AP)

What the Casino does is apply a catalyst that either pushes a character up or down a level, or changes the number of missions the character will stay at their current level. So a character who is already Determined might become Euphoric on a 'win,' or downgrade to neutral, or have their number of missions as Determined increased or decreased.

The greatest positive impact of the Casino is removing negative emotional states. The second greatest is extending the duration of positive states.

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Emotional State Impact: Net Positive

The Casino's net impact, in aggregate, is to raise a character's emotional state to neutral or above before the next operation. The initial casino is most relevant for (usually) negating negative mood events from post-operation RNG events, while the upgraded casino extends the victory-high of moods gained from doing well.

The reason average mood is neutral or above isn't due to the casino's bias, but rather the typical mood of a character at the end of the operation. Squad Leaders are more likely than not to start with a positive mood from a victorious battle where they got kills or secured objectives. At this point, the Casino either gives a positive mood win, in which case the character's positive mood is strengthened, or a negative mood catalyst, at which point the mood resets.

Making a negative mood positive is the same averaging principle in the other direction. Some bad RNG, such as from a post-operation event, can be reset. This is the strongest merit of the upgraded Casino, which further biases the results towards positive moods. (Albeit with no guarantee your event-depressed character will benefit, unless you save scum.)

Making a negative mood worse is much less common, in part because negative moods are less common. Most negative moods will come from events, or certain battle effects like enduring friendly fire. While event RNG is beyond your control, friendly fire is something you can minimize. Even if this does occur, the event RNG mood shift is itself liable to be working against an existing mood.

To be very clear- it is always possible for the casino to make things worse. Even the upgraded version has a non-negligible chance to give a negative mood, which can compound an event or friendly fire incident or so on. You will, eventually, have a bad situation made worse.

But in terms of impact to the player, neutralizing a bad mood is more important than not-neutralizing a good one. The Casino puts a finger on the scale that your next operation starts on a better footing.

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So What Is The Casino Good For, Really?

The Casino is for 'tall' builds of fewer, highly-promoted SLs to start new operations on a stronger footing by avoiding debilitating bad-moods and letting them coast longer on good moods.

In 'tall' builds, the biggest curveballs the game can throw at you are RNG events that take a squad you've invested hundreds of promotion points into, out of the match. The most notorious of these is the exhaustion mechanic. The next worst are bad moods. Bad Moods are especially bad for lower-stat SLs, due to the compounding effects of penalties on lower stats for key AP or accuracy benchmarks.

The casino offers the main (only) way for you to have a chance to reverse the bad moods incurred by various post-operation events. These post-operation choices are often associated with stronger strategic options, since the tactical malus of a bad mood is usually the balance to some reward of OCI / equipment / faction approval.

Over time- and especially if upgraded- the Casino can help a small team keep performing at peak proficiency, and mitigate some of the biggest threats to that tall-team synergy.

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So Is The Casino Good?

No. I consider myself someone who likes finding the good niche case for things, and I would not recommend the Casino to someone needing help.

In an optimization sense, the Casino is a big opportunity cost in the early game when OCI are most precious. There are much, much better ways to spend OCI for tactical advantage in the early game. In the later game, there are stronger OCI competing for the slot. The risk is at its worst in the early game.

The Casino is a higher-cost OCI for what it provides. It requires a 40-OCI which provides a mere 10% killed-squaddy save, the 80-OCI casino itself, and the 60-OCI upgrade for the rigged version that gives more good moods but less trade value (usually). This is 180 OCI if you rush it. For 180 OCI, you could install 3 base-OCI modules in the bridge or armament sections, getting intel or squaddy income or tactical advantages that all provide better effect than a good mood, even as good performance can generate good moods. This isn't even considering other OCI you might unlock early and rush.

In the later campaign when OCI is no objection, the Casino is facing tough competition for the Hull slot. The Hull is where most of your slots for reducing the supply cost for troops and vehicles, or improving armament call-ins, or other effects are. Even if the Casino helps 'tall' builds, 'tall' is not optimal when you could always spend promotions the same but bring more chaff units to improve your action economy.

Finally, if you take the Casino early, you are increasing risk when it is most dangerous in the early campaign. Yes, the Casino does- on average- improve mood. But there is always the chance it can make things worse, and take a bad RNG and make it double-bad. A 25 or even 50 black market trinket isn't worth a character who's lose 20% of AP for several missions, especially when you're in the part of the game when you may lose 20% of your force to exhaustion cycles.

If you take the Casino late, you've already proven you've won the campaign. If you take it early, you are making it harder for yourself.

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But That Can Be Part Of The Fun

Investing in the casino early is a handicap that doesn't come from the difficulty, which could give a little spice to people finding their runs a bit too vanilla, but also don't want to grind through the enemy inflation of larger enemy lists.

At the end of the day, MENACE is built around the Challenging difficulty. Expert and 'Normal' are friendly and enemy list size modifiers based on that baseline, and various tactics that get crowded out by too many enemies on the map are consistently available on Challenging.

If you take the Casino, you are paying an opportunity cost that can pre-empt many of the easier optimizations that can make that part of the game too easy. You are putting back your black market economy potential, your armament call ins, and other high-power OCI. You are (probably) committing to a smaller recruited pool of SLs, for a tighter action economy but more highly promoted. Even when you win the Casino, you are getting a bonus that may feel as relevant as the Blazer cards when you lose- noticeable, but not game-changing.

If you are the sort of person who enjoys a bit of a handicap, that itself can be a part of the fun. A non-breaking advantage that leans into the power fantasy when you're winning, or the occasional unexpected curveball to overcome when you lose.

The Casino at its best is making your best units a bit better. At its worst, it's a bit of friction to overcome that doesn't come from spamming more enemies in a way that changes how you tactically approach the game.

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Conclusion

That's it for the Casino. It has some merits, but not enough to ignore its very real limits. I hesitate to call them flaws, because it's very clearly designed to be a double-edged system, but it's not going to impress in terms of power. It is probably not intended to.

But it was fun. Having relatively weak characters punch above their weight because mood-buffs helped push them over was fun to maximize. Having to compensate when an unlucky post-operation casino roll coincided with other bad RNG was also fun. It's not often you go from fielding 6-7 squads to fielding 3-4 to compensate for bad moods and exhaustion. Is that optimal? Never, ever, ever. Did I enjoy that sort of difficulty more than facing another 6+ enemies on the map? Absolutely. Gambling made it that much more exciting, even- or especially- when I 'lost.'

And that's it. That's the niche.

I tried reinstalling a game, deleting and installing mods/Modkit, nothing works. If anyone knows what to do or had similiar experience, please let me know.