SL Update 1 - now live!

Get ready to enjoy our second big EA update that focuses on three new characters but also brings a long list of additional changes and content! This patch is compatible with existing save games. Below is a short list of what's new with the patch, but if you want to get more detailed info head over to our last two Dev Diaries and read up on all the new things: Dev Diary #47 and Dev Diary #48

New Squadleaders:

Three new Characters join the fray with this update, Weiwu (Backbone), Corlain (Dice) and the vehicle pilot Murdock (Mock). These are so called honor guards closely affiliated with the according Wayback faction and you will have to earn the faction's trust to allow them to take these new characters on board your ship!

Custom Difficulty Options:

When starting a new game you now have a wide variety of new options to make the game harder, easier or adjust it to your playstyle:

Nested Tooltips:

A first iteration of the new nested tooltips is now in the game, finally giving you a possibility to examine the skills of accessories and other items.

New 3D weapon models:

As always, there are some new 3D models for weapons that have been missing.

For a comprehensive list of all changes and additions, read the full changelog below!

Changelog

v0.7.6+19301 -- SL Update #1

New

• Three new Squad Leaders: Corlain, Weiwu and Murdock (Pilot). Because all three are from specific factions, they require trust with their corresponding faction to unlock

• Added new alien operation including 12 new missions

• Added nested tooltips

• Added custom difficulty options when starting a new game

• The black market can now be restocked for a fee

• Added 'Buff' perk to boarding commandos, first mate and pirate captain

• Changed Vehicle Weapon 'Medium Chaingun' to be a light weapon

• 'Rend Ammo', 'Match Ammo' and 'Hollow Point' now work with pistol accessories

• Four new 3D models for infantry weapons: DMR, Laser Rifle, Heavy SMG & Silenced LMG

• New accessory "Signal Jammer" that can remove "designated target" effects and added it to the Black Market and ZB reward tables.

• Added new animations for captured POWs and VIPs

• Added new barks for various SLs

Improvements

• AI changes: Previously, the AI often valued self-preservation and mission objectives over actually attacking the player. We did a tuning pass over all units to change the priorities. The result should be a much more aggressive AI.

• Improved performance on the mission preparation screen and armory

• Conditional skills now also show their range:

  • Perk 'Rally'

  • Perk 'Call out Target'

  • Perk 'Taking Command'

  • Perk 'First Aid'

  • Perk 'Buyout'

  • Perk 'ZB License Agreements'

  • ATGM Indirect Fire

  • Target Designator

  • Signal Jammer

• Perk 'Big Game Hunter' now applies to all large targets including vehicles

• Added a warning if deploying severely damaged vehicles (<25% HP)

• Added tooltips for environmental features

• Added headlights to MBT chassis and its turret

• Added rotation animation to vents of industry factory buildings

• Added missing icons for pirate Saboteur units

• Added new icon for Black Market recruitment effort

• Swapped order of "Indirect Fire" and "Direct Fire" skill buttons for vehicle ATGM skills on quickbar

• "Lucky Shot" can no longer be used again while the effect is active, preventing wasting AP by double-clicking the skill

• "Juryrigged" is only usable if the vehicle actually has a defect

• Tweaked enemy transport behaviour to incentivize approaching the target instead of unloading passengers at the map border

• Pirate Boarding Commandos barks are slightly louder

• General adjustments to bark play rates

• Factions will more formally introduce themselves prior to the player's first operation in the Wayback

• Added black outline to movement arrow on Dice of the Gods

Bugfixes

• FIXED Medium armors were hardly available on the black market

• FIXED Decoys and turrets can no longer capture objectives

• FIXED OCI "Salvage Teams" didn't count enemy vehicles destroyed by offmap abilities

• FIXED The night vision effect in combination with Depth of Field could cause severe performance issues

• FIXED Objective type 'Recover Objects' can no longer spawn inside dropoff areas

• FIXED Sometimes vehicle door entrances were not correctly calculated on mission start

• FIXED Laser Turrets can no longer spawn on Alien Eggs

• FIXED Sachin Singh's portrait is now visible in the armory when KIA

• FIXED Enemy Strategic Asset 'Road Blocks' didn't reduce the player deployment zone

• FIXED Vehicle equipment slots are now empty for pilots KIA

• FIXED Construct Worker Drones were only attacking with Mining Lasers

• FIXED Deployment zones should now always be tile-aligned

• FIXED Pistols no longer have an Armor Penetration value of 0

• FIXED Turns will no longer auto end when the unit has enough AP to leave a vehicle or building

• FIXED Construct Skirmisher was able to get stuck in the fast forwarded animation

• FIXED Rocket organ impact decals were shown on too many tiles

• FIXED Coordinates label on mission preparation is properly localized now while loading a map

• FIXED Not all rescued civilians and allied forces were able to crawl while pinned down

• FIXED Player units could end up outside of deployment zones

• FIXED Perk 'Fervor' was active while Medium Weapon was equipped in a Heavy Slot

• FIXED Loading a save caused more reinforcement to spawns than intended

• Various UI fixes

Balancing

• Optimized enemy army point calculation to make it more flexible, less random, and give us more control for making balancing adjustments to missions depending on the campaign progress

• Increased Spiderling HP from 13 to 15

• Increased loot drop chance for Alien Spiderling loot from 25% to 30%

• Discipline values greater than 100 no longer reduce incoming suppression to 0; at least 5% of the suppression is always applied

• Aborting missions now counts as aborting the operation and reduces authority

• Reduced Rend Ammo armor damage from 15 to 8

• Reduced Pirate Captains PDW accuracy bonus from 10 to 0

• Increased Enemy Supply Points globally by +10%

• Increased Enemy Supply Points on Rogue Army "Breakthrough" mission

• Increased autocannon range from 9 to 10

• Adjusted accuracy dropoff for all autocannons from -5/-7 to -4

• Increased item rarity for auto grenade launchers from 20 to 30

• Increased scatter chance for the infantry auto grenade launcher from 10% to 60%

• Reduced pick weights of battle tanks and heavy tanks

• Increased pick weights of heavy infantry and stormtroopers

• Young Alien Warriors now properly spawn in Operation 2 and afterwards

• AdjustedPirate mission 'Rescue and Disengange'Changed AI Settings to make local forces act more defensive

• Increased pirate flamethrower team's chance to use flamethrowers

• Adjusted Event 'Will trade weapons for resources' to cost less OCI points but give less advanced weapons

• Made it harder by about 20% to shoot troops out of open vehicles

• Slighty reduced the total amount of available items on the black market

• Increased medium machinegun ammo from 6 to 8

• Adjusted vehicle light chaingun to have the same stats as the infantry version

• Increased vehicle light chaingun ammo from 12 to 18

Known Issues

• Rendering performance needs to be optimized on Backbone, especially for older GPUs.

• Some antivirus programs incorrectly classify the "GameAssembly.dll" file as malware and delete it, making the game unplayable. If that happens, please whitelist the "GameAssembly.dll" and "Menace.exe".

• If the game is installed on HDD drives, loading times are bad and barks are delayed.

• Display mode "Fullscreen" sometimes behaves not as expected, after minimizing the game. Until this is fixed please consider using "Fullscreen Window" instead.

Steam Reviews: Your Feedback Matters

Hi folks, we'd like to ask that you please consider taking a moment to leave a Steam review. Early Access is a collaborative process where your thoughts and feedback matter as patches and content are developed. Even if it's a few sentences about how you feel about MENACE, it'd be a great help to the team.

Community Guides and Resources

Be sure to check out the latest community resources and official guides.

• The Gate Rippers’ War Manual: This is a mega-compilation of guides that covers the basics of MENACE, how to use stealth, what accessories to pick, how to engage in close-quarters combat, and much more. A must-read for any prospective commander looking to excel in the Wayback.

• Squad Leaders, a Brief(ish) Overview: A fantastic overview of all the game's current Squad Leaders and what their strengths are.

• Enemy Almanac: Rogue Army: Knowing your enemy is half the battle. This guide covers the Rogue Army, what their strengths are, and how to fight them effectively.

• AddedOfficial Beginner's GuideIf you're brand new to MENACE then check out our official beginner's guide that'll cover all the essentials to prepare you for the frontlines.

• Official MENACE Wiki: Do you have more questions about MENACE? We have a community-run wiki that has details and information to help you along.

Engage, Explore, and Stay Informed

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. MENACE