Manticore: Tactical Combat

Manticore is an immersive and tactical Combat overhaul that emphasizes strategy and player skill expression.

Contact/Feedback

If you encounter any issues, please let me know. You may join the Spacefarer Discord at https://discord.gg/YQHjkGd89x or via the QR code. I can also be reached in the official BGS Discord as S1nderion.

Design Concept

Manticore is designed around the following principles: • Patchless compatibility with as wide of a selection of content as possible. • Dynamic health rescaling offers a natural progression curve, mitigating 'bullet sponginess'. • Brutal, fast-paced combat encounters encourage flexibly combining skills and tactics to achieve victory. • Combat Skills remain relevant throughout the game, with Synergies unlocking new tactics and playstyles. • Game balance is preserved by respecting existing relative scaling between enemies, weapons, armor, and skills. • Novel mechanics directly integrated into gameplay support expressive character building. • Custom VFX for new effects means less reliance on HUD and UI for feedback.

Overhauled Skills

• Suppression [replaces Ballistics]: Reduce enemy accuracy and damage, or trigger weapon jams. • Efficiency [replaces Lasers]: Deal more damage on consecutive energy weapon hits. Recharge ammo at higher ranks. • Gunfighting [replaces Targeting]: Build and consume Adrenaline with pistols to deal critical hits or slow time. • Neutralisation [replaces Sharpshooting]: Deal devastating Initial Hits when striking first in an engagement. • Dueling: Land Critical hits to trigger Eviscerations, dealing devastating damage. • Fitness: Evade incoming damage and build Adrenaline while Sprinting, Sliding, and more. • Boxing: Assign Unarmed to any hotkey. Instantly and brutally KO crippled foes. • Neurostrikes: Deal scaling EM damage. Switch between NeuroStyle and Boxing Style anytime without menus. • Martial Arts: Build Adrenaline on melee kills, slow time on melee kills. • Particle Beams: Chance to Quantum Entangle - freezing enemies and priming them for unique reactions.

Dynamic Health Rescaling

In Manticore, the player and enemies follow a new set of rules regarding total available health. These rules vary according to the chosen Preset, which can be modified via the Gameplay Option. Tactical is designed for smooth progression and cinematic boss encounters. Health is strictly balanced around a narrow band of values, which adjust as the player progresses through NG and beyond. Vanilla+ features relaxed scaling emphasizing gear progression and looter-shooter gameplay. Strong enemies will have relatively more health over time, so you'll want to swap out or tune up your gear more often. Death Wish offers an ultra-immersive survival shooter experience. All human characters have a realistic pool of health - use of tactics and skill synergies is required to survive.

Difficulty

I recommend setting both vanilla Gameplay Options for damage to Normal / Normal when starting out. You can adjust them freely from here to reach your desired difficulty.

Visibility

Manticore is generally designed to be fully playable without HUD. Critical information is conveyed visually where possible - see when you've triggered Evasion, Nerve Punch, Entanglement, or Marking with custom VFX.

Compatibility

Manticore is broadly compatible with most types of content added by other Creations. • Weapons appropriate for vanilla balance will work well with Manticore. • Balancing is done via keywords - new weapons or ammo are therefore fully compatible. • Spacesuits and Helmets are categorized automatically based on weight and keywords. • Mods like Ganymede, which change enemy or star system levels, are fully compatible. • Health scaling is performed dynamically on vanilla or mod-added enemies. • Incompatible with other combat overhauls like StarValor, Deadly Effective, or Ascension. • Compatible with Stealth or AI overhauls such as Red Dog's Immersive AI or GrindTerra Hardcore Combat. • Compatible with general gameplay overhauls like Megamod, Royal Galaxy, or Singularity. • Make sure to load Manticore after these kinds of gameplay overhauls.

Installation

A new game is generally recommended, but Manticore can be installed mid-game. In-progress skill challenges for modified Skills will be reset when Manticore is installed.