KickStarter Phoenix Point - the new game from X-COM creator Julian Gollop

[ArchAngel]

I like that you guys find the game challenging. I guess me and others in Community Council bothering devs for last 6 months to make the game harder and more challenging had an effect.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

I like that you guys find the game challenging. I guess me and others in Community Council bothering devs for last 6 months to make the game harder and more challenging had an effect.

Too often community feedback has an opposite effect.

 

[ArchAngel]

I like that you guys find the game challenging. I guess me and others in Community Council bothering devs for last 6 months to make the game harder and more challenging had an effect.

Too often community feedback has an opposite effect.

Well they kind of got a council of mostly good players, most of us play on Legendary or Hero difficulty so we all pushed to make the game harder but also more balanced.
And it is not done yet, game is still too easy on Legendary difficulty.

 

[lightbane]

Soo, is there an equivalent to plasma weaponry here? What's the ultimate weaponry if not? Are psychic powers a thing as well?

 

[ArchAngel]

Soo, is there an equivalent to plasma weaponry here? What's the ultimate weaponry if not? Are psychic powers a thing as well?

No plasma weapons. Later you get access to some nice weapons, especially if you delve deeper into DLC2 content. Priest class has psi powers.

 

[Alienman]

Soo, is there an equivalent to plasma weaponry here? What's the ultimate weaponry if not? Are psychic powers a thing as well?

I found a new kind of rifle, with armor penetration that seems to be a clear upgrade over the regular rifle. Not used it yet though, waiting nervously for a base assault to commence.

 

[Alienman]

Attacked a citadel. That was a stupid decision. And this large mothatruckah can jump!

Also... this is fine.

 

[The Anus Of Discontent]

After shit talking the game for years since Alpha 1, I went into the Year One edition completely blind and with absolutely zero expectations.

Hey, it ain't bad. The geoscape is kind of a mess and quite boring. There isn't too much to do besides explore points of interest once, then move on to the rest of the world. The tactical combat is damn fun, I dig projectiles being physical and free aim feels nice, however 10 hours into my first playthough I haven't lost a single soldier. I picked the second hardest difficulty for the first playthrough, but I might as well go for legendary instead. The maps are a little on the small side, a sniper or the rocket vehicle is usually capable of covering the entire map, unless it's a built up district with 3 story high buildings blocking line of sight. The graphics are NuXcom through and through, show it to some grandma she wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the games. Replace aliens with crabs and it's the same game aesthetically. The balance and economy is f u c k y , do I build a Scarab armored and tracked vehicle capable of launching 8 deadly rockets every mission, which reload for free.. or for the same cost do I build two sniper rifles, and pay for the ammo. 8 soldiers max per fight, a single transport capable of carrying 6, vehicles talking up 3 of those slots, means near every fight so far has been a 3 soldier + 1 rocket tank fight every mission. It's fine, but I miss human wave, disposable rookies tactics of the original Xcom games. However no game of the sort has really been doing that anyway, besides Xenonauts to an extent, so it gets a pass I suppose. Makes me want to play Long War. Cutscenes are alright, voice acting isn't half bad, some soldiers' accents are pretty sexy.

Overall, as much as I love to hate the game, it's pretty good. It ain't horror, the geoscape is definitely not the 4x that was promised, but it's a decent time waster at 50 percent off. I was expecting nothing, I got a pretty engaging 10 hours of tactical combat so far. Don't know if it will be able to hold my attention for the entire playthrough however, but for now I dig it. It came a very long way since beta/release.

Edit: Oh yeah and the music sucks donkey dick.

 

[ArchAngel]

After shit talking the game for years since Alpha 1, I went into the Year One edition completely blind and with absolutely zero expectations.

Hey, it ain't bad. The geoscape is kind of a mess and quite boring. There isn't too much to do besides explore points of interest once, then move on to the rest of the world. The tactical combat is damn fun, I dig projectiles being physical and free aim feels nice, however 10 hours into my first playthough I haven't lost a single soldier. I picked the second hardest difficulty for the first playthrough, but I might as well go for legendary instead. The maps are a little on the small side, a sniper or the rocket vehicle is usually capable of covering the entire map, unless it's a built up district with 3 story high buildings blocking line of sight. The graphics are NuXcom through and through, show it to some grandma she wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the games. Replace aliens with crabs and it's the same game aesthetically. The balance and economy is f u c k y , do I build a Scarab armored and tracked vehicle capable of launching 8 deadly rockets every mission, which reload for free.. or for the same cost do I build two sniper rifles, and pay for the ammo. 8 soldiers max per fight, a single transport capable of carrying 6, vehicles talking up 3 of those slots, means near every fight so far has been a 3 soldier + 1 rocket tank fight every mission. It's fine, but I miss human wave, disposable rookies tactics of the original Xcom games. However no game of the sort has really been doing that anyway, besides Xenonauts to an extent, so it gets a pass I suppose. Makes me want to play Long War. Cutscenes are alright, voice acting isn't half bad, some soldiers' accents are pretty sexy.

Overall, as much as I love to hate the game, it's pretty good. It ain't horror, the geoscape is definitely not the 4x that was promised, but it's a decent time waster at 50 percent off. I was expecting nothing, I got a pretty engaging 10 hours of tactical combat so far. Don't know if it will be able to hold my attention for the entire playthrough however, but for now I dig it. It came a very long way since beta/release.

Edit: Oh yeah and the music sucks donkey dick.

You can bring 8 guys into mission (and 9 into some). You just need to bring extra guys in another aircraft. Also that vehicle is awesome in first part of the game but you are going to notice it starting to suck in midgame and it is almost useless in late game.

 

[Nortar]

Some "advanced tactics" observations from early/mid-game.

My most useful melee weapon is an unloaded 5 kg machinegun. No kidding.
The bash attack costs 1 AP instead of 2 AP attack for all other melee weapons I have so far.
And 3 AP jet-pack and 1 AP bash is a match made [strike]heaven[/strike] in a grim dark future where's only war.

The chance to daze, among other things, depends on weight of the weapon it seems, so any MG would work just fine.
So my Heavies mass-jump towards enemy front and start cracking skulls with their empty machine guns.
Even if they don't outright kill anyone, they daze which is the next best thing. Saves ammo too.

Also a bit cryptic to be an easter-egg, but still I want to believe!

Spoiler

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

My most useful melee weapon is an unloaded 5 kg machinegun. No kidding.

I whack 'em with medikits, that's 20 points of damage with no change of item breakage.

 

[Nortar]

My most useful melee weapon is an unloaded 5 kg machinegun. No kidding.

I whack 'em with medikits, that's 20 points of damage with no change of item breakage.

Time honored traditions of battle medics.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Is there any way to...

Spoiler

...obtain ammo for Independent-faction weapons?
I got their sniper rifle and assault rifle with some ammo, but there doesn't seem to be option to reverse-engineer those.

 

[razvedchiki]

how do you deal with the mutated tritons that stealth when hit/produce smoke? they are really anoying to deal with.

 

[7h30n]

Is there any way to...

Spoiler

...obtain ammo for Independent-faction weapons?
I got their sniper rifle and assault rifle with some ammo, but there doesn't seem to be option to reserve-engineer those.

Unless they changed it

Spoiler

You should have 1 or 2 copies of the same weapon unequiped (i.e. in the stores), then you get the option to reverse engineer the weapon which in turn allows you to produce ammo.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Is there any way to...

Spoiler

...obtain ammo for Independent-faction weapons?
I got their sniper rifle and assault rifle with some ammo, but there doesn't seem to be option to reserve-engineer those.

Unless they changed it

Spoiler

You should have 1 or 2 copies of the same weapon unequiped (i.e. in the stores), then you get the option to reverse engineer the weapon which in turn allows you to produce ammo.

Spoiler

That works with major faction gear, but with stuff I got from bandits there isn't even greyed out option on list of research topics.

 

[Alienman]

how do you deal with the mutated tritons that stealth when hit/produce smoke? they are really anoying to deal with.

Large amount of explosives

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

how do you deal with the mutated tritons that stealth when hit/produce smoke? they are really anoying to deal with.

Large amount of explosives

fire, Fire,FIre!

Spoiler

Those bastards move after going invisible.

 

[Nortar]

how do you deal with the mutated tritons that stealth when hit/produce smoke? they are really anoying to deal with.

The usual tactics of shooting off their arms to prevent them from attacking does not work, as their regeneration ticks before they act, and they grow their hands right back.
So instead of breaking their hands, I tried breaking their weapons and it works pretty well.
One direct hit from Cyclops is enough to break whatever the tritons are holding and they are mostly harmless after that.

 

[Trithne]

how do you deal with the mutated tritons that stealth when hit/produce smoke? they are really anoying to deal with.

The usual tactics of shooting off their arms to prevent them from attacking does not work, as their regeneration ticks before they act, and they grow their hands right back.
So instead of breaking their hands, I tried breaking their weapons and it works pretty well.
One direct hit from Cyclops is enough to break whatever the tritons are holding and they are mostly harmless after that.

I honestly think it'd be worth testing having turn by turn effects trigger at the end of turns to, to see how that changes things. While you'd have an easier time dealing with effects on you, and things like breaking a Triton's arms would actually be effective, you'd also lose the whole "well i can ignore that guy because he'll die instantly".

Fortunately there's no Triton with both Pain Chameleon and Regeneration, so just break their torso.

 

[ArchAngel]

how do you deal with the mutated tritons that stealth when hit/produce smoke? they are really anoying to deal with.

The usual tactics of shooting off their arms to prevent them from attacking does not work, as their regeneration ticks before they act, and they grow their hands right back.
So instead of breaking their hands, I tried breaking their weapons and it works pretty well.
One direct hit from Cyclops is enough to break whatever the tritons are holding and they are mostly harmless after that.

The regenerating Tritons is different than Stealth Triton and they cannot have both as that is their Body part special ability.
With both version you disable their Body part and they lose both abilities. As for Stealth ones you just disable their weapon wielding arm and they are useless.

 

[Nortar]

Yeah, good point about regeneration/stealth traits not coming together, thanks.

 

[razvedchiki]

can you build faction armor? (synedrion,anu etc).

 

[razvedchiki]

hero difficulty is much easier than legend at least at the start, you get 5 men (2 of them lvl 2) and new recruits from faction havens get armour. plus squad members have 25% more health.
on the other hand on legend you can start exploring right away and if you get lucky you can get a random mission to save/recruit 3 bandits which is huge for early game.

 

[razvedchiki]

how many teams you have? can you win the game with 1 team plus some replacements/base defenders?
i find it quite hard to equip a new team/bew base (it will take may days to equip/train/reactivate a new base to sent them). planes especially need a lot of time/materiel to make.