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

[ArchAngel]

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.

I steal planes from Synderion or NJ instead of building them. Having 2 or 3 8 man teams should be enough to defend and explore

 

[Jaedar]

Grunker
I have now tried the game. It is alrite. Basically firaxcom but with much worse production values (both on the ui and graphics side) and better gameplay detail. You are limited to low squad counts, but you can fire manually, each soldier has an inventory/weight limit. So far mix of alien/human enemies. If you steal the gear from the human ones you can use it, aliens seem to give nothing except xp.

Enemy designs are starting to feel more classic x-com bullshit. Just ran into an enemy type that cloaks and runs away when shot and deploys smoke clouds that reduce visibility to 1 tile. I don't have any good AoE weapons yet either (basic nades suck). Feels fun.

There are way too many cutscenes though, feels like every other mission/research cuts away to what is basically a powerpoint presentation with voiceover.

 

[Grunker]

Grunker
I have now tried the game. It is alrite. Basically firaxcom but with much worse production values (both on the ui and graphics side) and better gameplay detail. You are limited to low squad counts, but you can fire manually, each soldier has an inventory/weight limit. So far mix of alien/human enemies. If you steal the gear from the human ones you can use it, aliens seem to give nothing except xp.

Enemy designs are starting to feel more classic x-com bullshit. Just ran into an enemy type that cloaks and runs away when shot and deploys smoke clouds that reduce visibility to 1 tile. I don't have any good AoE weapons yet either (basic nades suck). Feels fun.

There are way too many cutscenes though, feels like every other mission/research cuts away to what is basically a powerpoint presentation with voiceover.

Never got the appeal of fire manual tbh

 

[Jaedar]

Grunker
I have now tried the game. It is alrite. Basically firaxcom but with much worse production values (both on the ui and graphics side) and better gameplay detail. You are limited to low squad counts, but you can fire manually, each soldier has an inventory/weight limit. So far mix of alien/human enemies. If you steal the gear from the human ones you can use it, aliens seem to give nothing except xp.

Enemy designs are starting to feel more classic x-com bullshit. Just ran into an enemy type that cloaks and runs away when shot and deploys smoke clouds that reduce visibility to 1 tile. I don't have any good AoE weapons yet either (basic nades suck). Feels fun.

There are way too many cutscenes though, feels like every other mission/research cuts away to what is basically a powerpoint presentation with voiceover.

Never got the appeal of fire manual tbh

When you are trying to kill invisible pistoleers hiding in fog it is very handy! It also lets you target enemy body parts which can be very useful against certain enemy types. In theory it means you can also tactically demolish the environment, but so far nothing I have is heavy duty enough.

 

[Grunker]

Grunker
I have now tried the game. It is alrite. Basically firaxcom but with much worse production values (both on the ui and graphics side) and better gameplay detail. You are limited to low squad counts, but you can fire manually, each soldier has an inventory/weight limit. So far mix of alien/human enemies. If you steal the gear from the human ones you can use it, aliens seem to give nothing except xp.

Enemy designs are starting to feel more classic x-com bullshit. Just ran into an enemy type that cloaks and runs away when shot and deploys smoke clouds that reduce visibility to 1 tile. I don't have any good AoE weapons yet either (basic nades suck). Feels fun.

There are way too many cutscenes though, feels like every other mission/research cuts away to what is basically a powerpoint presentation with voiceover.

Never got the appeal of fire manual tbh

When you are trying to kill invisible pistoleers hiding in fog it is very handy! It also lets you target enemy body parts which can be very useful against certain enemy types. In theory it means you can also tactically demolish the environment, but so far nothing I have is heavy duty enough.

I know how it can be useful, in terms of added value to gameplay it just seems like a gimmick to me

 

[razvedchiki]

manual aim is usefull when you cant kill something in 1 turn, but you can disable part of its abilities (like the head of the snake that screams).
had a mission against forsaken that i couldnt pen but managed to disable their guns and escape.

 

[ArchAngel]

Grunker
I have now tried the game. It is alrite. Basically firaxcom but with much worse production values (both on the ui and graphics side) and better gameplay detail. You are limited to low squad counts, but you can fire manually, each soldier has an inventory/weight limit. So far mix of alien/human enemies. If you steal the gear from the human ones you can use it, aliens seem to give nothing except xp.

Enemy designs are starting to feel more classic x-com bullshit. Just ran into an enemy type that cloaks and runs away when shot and deploys smoke clouds that reduce visibility to 1 tile. I don't have any good AoE weapons yet either (basic nades suck). Feels fun.

There are way too many cutscenes though, feels like every other mission/research cuts away to what is basically a powerpoint presentation with voiceover.

Never got the appeal of fire manual tbh

When you are trying to kill invisible pistoleers hiding in fog it is very handy! It also lets you target enemy body parts which can be very useful against certain enemy types. In theory it means you can also tactically demolish the environment, but so far nothing I have is heavy duty enough.

I know how it can be useful, in terms of added value to gameplay it just seems like a gimmick to me

It is not a gimick, it is critical way to disable enemies on harder difficulties.

 

[Nortar]

Is it just me or Legacy of the Ancients is a bit overtuned?
The weapons look great, but they require so many hoops to jump through, that it seems the game would be much faster/easier completed without them.

Considering the difficulty of the ancient sites securing/defending missions, I feel that I loose more than I gain.
Maybe it would not be such a fucking chore if there was only 1 kind of "ancient" resource, or if there was no need to additionally process them in 3 other different locations.

 

[ArchAngel]

Is it just me or Legacy of the Ancients is a bit overtuned?
The weapons look great, but they require so many hoops to jump through, that it seems the game would be much faster/easier completed without them.

Considering the difficulty of the ancient sites securing/defending missions, I feel that I loose more than I gain.
Maybe it would not be such a fucking chore if there was only 1 kind of "ancient" resource, or if there was no need to additionally process them in 3 other different locations.

Well you get 1000 materials for doing those sites. And weapons you eventually build are much stronger than what you can normally have.
But I do agree that it is a chore, one that we complained to devs a lot but they didn't change much about that.

 

[Jaedar]

Grunker
I have now tried the game. It is alrite. Basically firaxcom but with much worse production values (both on the ui and graphics side) and better gameplay detail. You are limited to low squad counts, but you can fire manually, each soldier has an inventory/weight limit. So far mix of alien/human enemies. If you steal the gear from the human ones you can use it, aliens seem to give nothing except xp.

Enemy designs are starting to feel more classic x-com bullshit. Just ran into an enemy type that cloaks and runs away when shot and deploys smoke clouds that reduce visibility to 1 tile. I don't have any good AoE weapons yet either (basic nades suck). Feels fun.

There are way too many cutscenes though, feels like every other mission/research cuts away to what is basically a powerpoint presentation with voiceover.

Never got the appeal of fire manual tbh

When you are trying to kill invisible pistoleers hiding in fog it is very handy! It also lets you target enemy body parts which can be very useful against certain enemy types. In theory it means you can also tactically demolish the environment, but so far nothing I have is heavy duty enough.

I know how it can be useful, in terms of added value to gameplay it just seems like a gimmick to me

I mean you can have that opinion, but it's really just an "immersive" and granular interface for doing called shots, which are a thing since forever in tactical games and let you make some tradeoffs between reliability and power of your shots. And it's not always (just mostly) best to go for the head too.

 

[Grunker]

Grunker
I have now tried the game. It is alrite. Basically firaxcom but with much worse production values (both on the ui and graphics side) and better gameplay detail. You are limited to low squad counts, but you can fire manually, each soldier has an inventory/weight limit. So far mix of alien/human enemies. If you steal the gear from the human ones you can use it, aliens seem to give nothing except xp.

Enemy designs are starting to feel more classic x-com bullshit. Just ran into an enemy type that cloaks and runs away when shot and deploys smoke clouds that reduce visibility to 1 tile. I don't have any good AoE weapons yet either (basic nades suck). Feels fun.

There are way too many cutscenes though, feels like every other mission/research cuts away to what is basically a powerpoint presentation with voiceover.

Never got the appeal of fire manual tbh

When you are trying to kill invisible pistoleers hiding in fog it is very handy! It also lets you target enemy body parts which can be very useful against certain enemy types. In theory it means you can also tactically demolish the environment, but so far nothing I have is heavy duty enough.

I know how it can be useful, in terms of added value to gameplay it just seems like a gimmick to me

I mean you can have that opinion, but it's really just an "immersive" and granular interface for doing called shots, which are a thing since forever in tactical games and let you make some tradeoffs between reliability and power of your shots. And it's not always (just mostly) best to go for the head too.

I wasn't talking about the body part-part, I was only talking about manual aiming

 

[Jaedar]

I wasn't talking about the body part-part, I was only talking about manual aiming

I think it is a better interface than picking body parts from a list. It also makes it very clear why you have a hard/easy time hitting certain body parts.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Do sniper rifle shots penetrate through targets?
I've taken multiple bodyparts with single shots and I think those shots may go through lighter cover.

 

[Nortar]

Do sniper rifle shots penetrate through targets?
I've taken multiple bodyparts with single shots and I think those shots may go through lighter cover.

I noticed the same.
Not sure if full excess of damage is carried over, but sniper shots definitely go through lighter cover, such as glass.
It's especially noticeable in Synedrion zones with lots of windows.
Once I had a shot that killed a pandoran and destroyed a tree a few steps behind it, that looked pretty cool too.

 

[geno]

Is there a development roadmap? I think I'll just wait for all the DLCs and updates to be released.

 

[ArchAngel]

Do sniper rifle shots penetrate through targets?
I've taken multiple bodyparts with single shots and I think those shots may go through lighter cover.

I noticed the same.
Not sure if full excess of damage is carried over, but sniper shots definitely go through lighter cover, such as glass.
It's especially noticeable in Synedrion zones with lots of windows.
Once I had a shot that killed a pandoran and destroyed a tree a few steps behind it, that looked pretty cool too.

Cover always soaks up some damage. Only left over damage continues through.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

If you steal the gear from the human ones you can use it, aliens seem to give nothing except xp.

Some aliens carry weapons that might drop.
Though way that game drops loot is closer to vanilla JA2 rather than original X-com, at least stuff that might appear is something that killed unit actually carried.

 

[ArchAngel]

If you steal the gear from the human ones you can use it, aliens seem to give nothing except xp.

Some aliens carry weapons that might drop.
Though way that game drops loot is closer to vanilla JA2 rather than original X-com, at least stuff that might appear is something that killed unit actually carried.

Also you can capture pandorans and use them as food or turn them into mutagens.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

If you steal the gear from the human ones you can use it, aliens seem to give nothing except xp.

Some aliens carry weapons that might drop.
Though way that game drops loot is closer to vanilla JA2 rather than original X-com, at least stuff that might appear is something that killed unit actually carried.

Also you can capture pandorans and use them as food or turn them into mutagens.

Any benefit in capturing humans?

 

[ArchAngel]

If you steal the gear from the human ones you can use it, aliens seem to give nothing except xp.

Some aliens carry weapons that might drop.
Though way that game drops loot is closer to vanilla JA2 rather than original X-com, at least stuff that might appear is something that killed unit actually carried.

Also you can capture pandorans and use them as food or turn them into mutagens.

Any benefit in capturing humans?

No, but since they usually got good armor but low life you can more easily defeat them with paralyze damage.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

If you steal the gear from the human ones you can use it, aliens seem to give nothing except xp.

Some aliens carry weapons that might drop.
Though way that game drops loot is closer to vanilla JA2 rather than original X-com, at least stuff that might appear is something that killed unit actually carried.

Also you can capture pandorans and use them as food or turn them into mutagens.

Any benefit in capturing humans?

No, but since they usually got good armor but low life you can more easily defeat them with paralyze damage.

So no zapping civilians so one can turn them into yummy proteins?

 

[razvedchiki]

which tech i need to manifacture turrets?

 

[ArchAngel]

which tech i need to manifacture turrets?

You either grab technician tech from NJ or get two turrets and reverse engineer them.

 

[razvedchiki]

get them from where?
just found a technician from a random event and he sits useless in my base doing nothing. same with the stealthy synedrion class.
i dont raid.

 

[Jaedar]

So how does this game work, exactly?

How is ammo consumption calculated? Feels like sometimes it's counting per bullet, other times I am asked to replenish after firing one shot. I wouldn't mind, except I am quite literally at 0 materials.
How is "items will be recovered automatically at end of mission" work? Because I went through like 7 bandits, and recovered 0 bandit weapons/ammo at the end and I know there were loot icons on the battlefield, but I ignored since the mission briefing implied I'd get them automatically.
Why is Synedrion hiding (( they don't seem to have a single base in all of asia.
How does research work? Sometimes after mission/exploration I'll get Research +500 but it is very unclear what this actually means, and how much additional labs speed things up.

I'm starting to feel I went way too heavy on opening new bases/research as I am mostly out of useful things to research and can't build anything. I especially regret buying a rocket vehicle instead of a 2nd skyranger. Rocket vehicle is cool and all, but it steals xp and takes up a lot of space.