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

[Parabalus]

I guess that's where the R part of RPG kicks in.

its more of not abusing the faction relation system in which currently you can pillage a factions havens for aircraft/tech/resources constantly but still get 100% allied BFF.

Stealing aircraft really seems like a no-brainer. The cost in materials and time is absurd vs one mission, which might not even be hard depending on the RNG map setup.

 

[razvedchiki]

this needs to change, you cant both attack and befriend a faction.

 

[Parabalus]

Prob just enough to tweak the numbers, increase negative rep from stealing.

 

[razvedchiki]

attacking should mean going to war.

 

[Jaedar]

I guess that's where the R part of RPG kicks in.

its more of not abusing the faction relation system in which currently you can pillage a factions havens for aircraft/tech/resources constantly but still get 100% allied BFF.

Stealing aircraft really seems like a no-brainer. The cost in materials and time is absurd vs one mission, which might not even be hard depending on the RNG map setup.

Yeah. I hadn't done any raids of the other factions (I wanted to befriend them), but I rolled up a new game and checked. The penalties are pretty small and the reward is huge(-6 rep to steal a ship that is worth 150/1200). I raided Anu, and it was entirely trivial since they had only melee weapons and a few shotguns. Their blimp is pretty shit, but I guess if you steal synedrion aircraft it is a massive boost.

attacking should mean going to war.

I could see a single raid not being all out war, but just hostility. Something like losing 30 to 50 rep seems reasonable.

The math works out terribly it seems. If you do the missions the factions offer, you'll end ahead in terms of net reputation with everyone even though this should realistically make everyone condemn pp as a pirate org.

 

[Parabalus]

The explosives indicator seems to often mark enemies which aren't hit after you actually fire the weapon, that the case for anyone else?

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

in a game with a very limited amount of deployable troops, the blimp is actually the best ship, by a gigantic lot. a whole third more than the second best ship.

 

[Jaedar]

The explosives indicator seems to often mark enemies which aren't hit after you actually fire the weapon, that the case for anyone else?

Pretty sure that explosives scatter, just like everything else. So sometimes you miss. Could be a bug of course, it's hard to judge since there's no gui indication for the scatter.

in a game with a very limited amount of deployable troops, the blimp is actually the best ship, by a gigantic lot. a whole third more than the second best ship.

Eh, it's ridiculously slow (half as fast as default craft). I guess it might be good to have one for really hard missions, but I find that it's hard to reach havens in time and that I spend a lot of time going back and forth. I think I'd rather have two less guys and travel twice as fast. I feel that just getting 16+ recruits equipped would be a ruinous cost, and you'd probably need a lot more than 2 teams if you are using blimps. I guess if you don't mind spending extra time in the inventory you can use the same set of equipment and just teleport it around, but that seems incredibly annoying. But now that I mention it, obviously the correct way to play the game, which just goes to show how much it lacks polish.

XP is also shared equally so having extra dudes means less xp for each. And considering squaddie level is one of the few improvements that aren't sidegrades, this seems pretty important.

Also the jericho ship has 7 seats?

 

[ArchAngel]

The explosives indicator seems to often mark enemies which aren't hit after you actually fire the weapon, that the case for anyone else?

Grenade Launcher and Missile Launcher are not precise, the blast preview is just an approximation.

 

[ArchAngel]

in a game with a very limited amount of deployable troops, the blimp is actually the best ship, by a gigantic lot. a whole third more than the second best ship.

Instead of the blimp bring two Manticores or 2 Synderion ships to mission and you can still have your 8 soldiers on the mission.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

i didn't say "field a fleet of them", i said "it's the best ship". haven defense missions are rarely more than a pure formality, the basic ship (the second best) is enough.

 

[Parabalus]

The explosives indicator seems to often mark enemies which aren't hit after you actually fire the weapon, that the case for anyone else?

Grenade Launcher and Missile Launcher are not precise, the blast preview is just an approximation.

Is that by design? How do you tell where it will hit then?

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

The explosives indicator seems to often mark enemies which aren't hit after you actually fire the weapon, that the case for anyone else?

Grenade Launcher and Missile Launcher are not precise, the blast preview is just an approximation.

Is that by design? How do you tell where it will hit then?

It being approximation means that you really don't.

 

[Parabalus]

The explosives indicator seems to often mark enemies which aren't hit after you actually fire the weapon, that the case for anyone else?

Grenade Launcher and Missile Launcher are not precise, the blast preview is just an approximation.

Is that by design? How do you tell where it will hit then?

It being approximation means that you really don't.

Extremely retarded, especially contrasted with how brilliant the hit indicators are. Could have done the same really.

 

[ArchAngel]

The explosives indicator seems to often mark enemies which aren't hit after you actually fire the weapon, that the case for anyone else?

Grenade Launcher and Missile Launcher are not precise, the blast preview is just an approximation.

Is that by design? How do you tell where it will hit then?

It being approximation means that you really don't.

Extremely retarded, especially contrasted with how brilliant the hit indicators are. Could have done the same really.

Well it is kind of like how Long War does it with rockets, you get the circle of how it will hit if it hits that exact spot but you cannot know how it will do exactly. What I can tell you is that any accuracy bonuses you can grab work with these projectiles.

 

[Togukawa]

Yet another "please tell us where to take this game" survey in my inbox today. These devs truly have no vision.

 

[Jaedar]

The explosives indicator seems to often mark enemies which aren't hit after you actually fire the weapon, that the case for anyone else?

Grenade Launcher and Missile Launcher are not precise, the blast preview is just an approximation.

Is that by design? How do you tell where it will hit then?

It being approximation means that you really don't.

Extremely retarded, especially contrasted with how brilliant the hit indicators are. Could have done the same really.

It's early access bro.

(And yes, it is really weird they don't use the same system)

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

Snipers and rocket guys will test if you ignored your Strenght

How so? Seems to me I'd want speed to spot and countersnipe them, not strength. Maybe I am missing something strength does, but it seems like the least useful stat. Speed is just great in general, willpower fuels your abilities, most of which are incredibly good and strength just lets you deal more melee damage (just use a shotgun) and carry more (It's not like I can afford to outfit everyone with enough backup grenades/weapons to max out either way). Strength does help you resist paralysis, which is good. But the attacks which cause it inflict a lot so it feels very expensive to bump strength just to get an extra ap in those edge cases.

Strength is best stat. Each point of strenght improves: Max HP (1 = 10 ), Paralyze resistance (1 = 1), Throw Distance, max Encumbrance (if you go over max you lose Speed, 1 = 1), melee damage with Bashing (damage = size of weapon x Strenght score, max can be 5 x strenght).
Speed will not help you vs enemy snipers. Only luck or enough HP to survive being one shot can (or hit once with that and then by some other person taking a pot shot at a weakened soldier).
I already had so many situations where my soldiers would have died if my Strenght was 1 or 2 points lower and I got 500+ hours of playing the game.

I always up strength on my chars at begin of game because its annoying to not be able to have them raid chests on scavenge missions w/o being encumbered. It gives more tactical flexibility with regards to who can get to chests and what I can take (anybody and more things). Then all the things you listed.

 

[Parabalus]

The explosives indicator seems to often mark enemies which aren't hit after you actually fire the weapon, that the case for anyone else?

Grenade Launcher and Missile Launcher are not precise, the blast preview is just an approximation.

Is that by design? How do you tell where it will hit then?

It being approximation means that you really don't.

Extremely retarded, especially contrasted with how brilliant the hit indicators are. Could have done the same really.

Well it is kind of like how Long War does it with rockets, you get the circle of how it will hit if it hits that exact spot but you cannot know how it will do exactly. What I can tell you is that any accuracy bonuses you can grab work with these projectiles.

Looks like it also affects the enemy - I had enemy spider drones blow up without hitting anything multiple times.
Since they are perfectly accurate in regards to the center of the explosion, it looks like the indicator is even worse than you describe, since it apparently does nothing more than highlight enemies in the radius, regardless of terrain, which is worse than the nu-XCOM one.

 

[ArchAngel]

The explosives indicator seems to often mark enemies which aren't hit after you actually fire the weapon, that the case for anyone else?

Grenade Launcher and Missile Launcher are not precise, the blast preview is just an approximation.

Is that by design? How do you tell where it will hit then?

It being approximation means that you really don't.

Extremely retarded, especially contrasted with how brilliant the hit indicators are. Could have done the same really.

Well it is kind of like how Long War does it with rockets, you get the circle of how it will hit if it hits that exact spot but you cannot know how it will do exactly. What I can tell you is that any accuracy bonuses you can grab work with these projectiles.

Looks like it also affects the enemy - I had enemy spider drones blow up without hitting anything multiple times.
Since they are perfectly accurate in regards to the center of the explosion, it looks like the indicator is even worse than you describe, since it apparently does nothing more than highlight enemies in the radius, regardless of terrain, which is worse than the nu-XCOM one.

Spider Drones AI tend to be stupid and put themselves into position where something blocks its explosion.

 

[Parabalus]

There really should be an indicator for return fire, having to look up the Perception of enemies to know if you're out of range is tedious.

The explosives indicator seems to often mark enemies which aren't hit after you actually fire the weapon, that the case for anyone else?

Grenade Launcher and Missile Launcher are not precise, the blast preview is just an approximation.

Is that by design? How do you tell where it will hit then?

It being approximation means that you really don't.

Extremely retarded, especially contrasted with how brilliant the hit indicators are. Could have done the same really.

Well it is kind of like how Long War does it with rockets, you get the circle of how it will hit if it hits that exact spot but you cannot know how it will do exactly. What I can tell you is that any accuracy bonuses you can grab work with these projectiles.

Looks like it also affects the enemy - I had enemy spider drones blow up without hitting anything multiple times.
Since they are perfectly accurate in regards to the center of the explosion, it looks like the indicator is even worse than you describe, since it apparently does nothing more than highlight enemies in the radius, regardless of terrain, which is worse than the nu-XCOM one.

Spider Drones AI tend to be stupid and put themselves into position where something blocks its explosion.

Yeah, the AI is shit in the same way the indicators are.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

i played extensively this year one edition (i haven't much else available right now), and i have to say that the bug about bases being attacked without warning is still in full force.
i grew bored of it way before endgame, the problem with these games is always the same: team too small, losing a man means full wipe means losing the game. there's very little resources available, and only when the game says so, i've had more unarmed soldiers than ww2 russia, and reached endgame many of them are still unarmored. dlcs are annoying, irritating, distracting, obscure, an obstacle to progression. classes are badly balanced, the infiltrator is god on earth providing damage, scouting, walls destruction and distraction, while the berserker is dead meat. many skills are useless, very situational or totally mandatory: dash and shoot back on the assault? they make sense only for a heavy. the random skills randomly available to soldiers are a joke, most of the times a waste of points, sometimes infuriating.
movies are boring, dialogues are boring and with baaaad accents. in the end i activated the console to get finished with this, just to see how it ends. i should be pretty close at last.

ps: what's up with all the tranny recruits? 90% of rookies has not only danger hair but also wrong names.

 

[TemplarGR]

Yeah, sounds exactly like Xcom 2, lol. I know Xcom 2 is better, but really, not by a large margin. Both games share essentially the same fundamental flaws. They just differ in production values and polish. They are both a waste of time and clearly far worse than tactics games of the 90s. I am still waiting for a developer who can match (not even exceed) Xcom Apocalypse, i am not sure i will even see it in my life time at this point.

 

[Jaedar]

there's very little resources available, and only when the game says so

This is what raiding settlements is for. Minimal rep penalty, and you get a lot of resources.

the infiltrator is god on earth providing damage, scouting, walls destruction and distraction, while the berserker is dead meat.

Interesting. I agree that the berserker is a weird grab bag of abilities and that melee weapons are mostly incorrect (shotgun is going to be better most of the time). Not sure how infiltrator would be great, the crossbow seems pretty weak and the damage bonus for shooting people in the back too risky and inconsistent. I like using snipers doubleshooting with the quick aim perk.

 

[Parabalus]

Pretty fun game, better than the XCOMs. Shooting mechanic is great and hopefully a new standard. Offers a much more consistent challenge instead of dropping off late. Still a bit buggy.

the infiltrator is god on earth providing damage, scouting, walls destruction and distraction, while the berserker is dead meat.

Interesting. I agree that the berserker is a weird grab bag of abilities and that melee weapons are mostly incorrect (shotgun is going to be better most of the time). Not sure how infiltrator would be great, the crossbow seems pretty weak and the damage bonus for shooting people in the back too risky and inconsistent. I like using snipers doubleshooting with the quick aim perk.

Infiltrator last perk triggers from stealth, so at max range with a sniper it's always on pretty much. For some reason the Daze (the shooting from behind stuff) also triggers from stealth, contrary to the description.

Berserker is pretty good with explosives and heavier weapons due to Shred and Adrenaline Rush, the latter especially with the Daze immunity mutation.

There are a lot of strong combos, but Rapid Clearance on Assaults is is probably the most broken one, since it feeds many degenerate loops. Also the Sniper's Marked for Death stacking, and the description is incorrect, seems to be a % bonus. Frenzy being so easily available makes me understand why Archangel doesn't value speed stat.

Melee starts being really good later on when you can afford the various augments, it makes mincemeat out of the Hoplites and generally does a lot more damage than shotguns.