In this week's diary, we want to mix it up a bit and take a look at one of the core combat mechanics in MENACE: Suppression. We will continue to jump between various topics to keep things fresh and offer something new every time.
What is Suppression in real life?
When modeling the tactical combat in MENACE, we took a step back and looked at real-life firefights and small unit tactics. Throughout history, there has been a predominant aspect of winning these engagements, and that is suppression.
The fundamental idea is when someone gets shot at, they will try to avoid getting hit.
Ducking down and taking cover will reduce the effect of incoming fire, but also leads to not being able to see what is going on and more importantly not being able to effectively return fire. Additionally, suppressive fire is hindering any movement, effectively fixing a squad in its position.
To sum up, a heavily suppressed or pinned down enemy can't see what's going on, is not shooting back, and can not evade or leave its position. This is the perfect setup for an assault element to move in and clear the enemy position in close-quarters fights with grenades or flanking fire.
The above approach is embodied in the four Fs that were established in WW2 and are well known: Find the enemy (we will talk about detection and concealment later), Fix the enemy (by suppressing them with fire), Flank the enemy (move an element around their cover or in close range) and Finish them. Only now is this approach somewhat challenged by excessive drone warfare, but we take a bit of leeway to keep things more straightforward in MENACE.
Find, Fix, Flank, and Finish
How does MENACE model Suppression?
Suppression represents a unit’s performance degrading both physically and mentally due to being attacked, be it directly or indirectly.
A unit is harder to suppress the more discipline (character stat) it has. When a unit accumulates suppression, it will move from unaffected to suppressed and finally to pinned down.
There are several ways to apply suppression to a unit:
- Suppression Effect: Upon dealing damage and especially when killing elements, suppression is applied to the enemy unit.
- Suppression Application: Suppression is applied per shot, so a weapon with a high rate of fire tends to apply more suppression. Also different weapons deliver different amounts of suppression.
- Cover and Suppression: Suppression gets REDUCED when the target is in cover or wears heavy armor.
- Discipline Impact: Suppression gets REDUCED depending on the discipline stat of the target (pirates are easier to suppress than marines).
- Neighboring Tile Suppression: A portion of the suppression also gets applied to neighbouring tiles, not only the targeted tile.
Modeling the Effects of Suppression: A Three-Stage Approach
Stage One - Unaffected
As long as the amount of suppression is within the first bar no debuffs are in effect.
Stage Two - Suppressed
The amount of suppression lies within the second bar. The target unit is forced to kneel down (“deploy”), which makes them stationary.
Debuffs due to being suppressed:
- - 30 Action Points
- - 50% accuracy
Buffs due to being deployed
- +15% Accuracy
- +15% Defense
- -15% Damage taken
- +1 Concealment
Stage Three - Pinned Down
The amount of suppression lies within the third bar. The target unit is forced to lie down. It loses all action points and its view range is reduced to one tile.
The Defensive Role of Suppression
Even though it loses its ability to act freely, a unit gets more resilient while being suppressed because its combatants are forced to kneel or even lie flat on the floor when receiving a lot of fire.
That means the more suppressed an enemy unit is, the less damage it takes.
So when attacking a unit, it might make sense first to shoot to deal damage, THEN shoot to suppress.
Recovering from suppression happens automatically. It gets reduced by 1/3 at the end of a unit's turn.
Note that changing stances due to getting suppressed or pinned down happens instantly during the actual attack. This is not a player or AI choice but forced on the unit.
How to Effectively Play Around Suppression
Facing suppressive fire can be overwhelming at times, but there are a lot of countermeasures you can take.
Countering Suppressive Fire
The easiest solution would be to simply suppress the suppressing enemy. This is best achieved with units that are not affected by suppression themselves while being highly mobile, like vehicles. To this end, it is important to plan ahead and identify avenues of approach that you can cover with your own suppressive fire to make sure your lead units do not get pinned down.
Ideally, you suppress all enemies before they can suppress you.
Concealment and Speed
Using smoke to break up sightlines and conceal your troops from the enemy would also be possible. Regular squads can carry smoke grenades, but the smoke can also be deployed by vehicles in a large screen or even by mortars and the like.
Combat Drugs and Off-Map Abilities
Another possibility would be to equip an accessory called “combat drugs” that instantly reduces suppression and grants a discipline bonus as well. These are somewhat rare and expensive, though.
Thirdly, it’s possible to disrupt suppressing units with so-called off-map abilities like dropship strafing runs or orbital rocket strikes. This is especially effective against unarmored, immobile enemy units like heavy weapon teams.
Engage, Explore, and Stay Informed
That's it for now. Let us know what you think about Supplies and Equipment.
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 — just scroll to the bottom of the page to sign up.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2432860/MENACE/
And here are the recent prior Dev Diaries in case you've missed them:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2432860/view/535466136352850184
https://steamcommunity.com/games/2432860/announcements/detail/512947503265480935
https://steamcommunity.com/games/2432860/announcements/detail/535464414104519508