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Well, I finally started the game and I'm having fun with it. Everything was pretty smooth until I had my first Haven Defense mission.
- The mission said that the attackers power was 10 and the defenders was 22 but in the mission itself there were 7 or 8 attackers and 3 defenders. I understand that those values will never represent the amount of enemy and friendly units in the map, right? That was a bit frustrating but now I know and will take it into account. I assume the only way to know the difficulty of a mission is to fly there and check. Can you check in any other way? Also, if you wait some time and the attackers power decreases, will the mission be easier?
- That fight lasted for 4 or 5 turns, maybe 6. Those 3 defenders only took action in 1 of those turns. The rest of the time did NOTHING at all. Like, bugged nothing, standing out of cover. Was that specific map bugged? Should I expect that every time?
- Out of curiosity, I checked the Diplomacy missions and they appeared in the quest list but there was no target. Does that mean that I haven't found the haven they want to attack? Will it show once I discover it?
Well, I finally started the game and I'm having fun with it. Everything was pretty smooth until I had my first Haven Defense mission.
- The mission said that the attackers power was 10 and the defenders was 22 but in the mission itself there were 7 or 8 attackers and 3 defenders. I understand that those values will never represent the amount of enemy and friendly units in the map, right? That was a bit frustrating but now I know and will take it into account. I assume the only way to know the difficulty of a mission is to fly there and check. Can you check in any other way? Also, if you wait some time and the attackers power decreases, will the mission be easier?
- That fight lasted for 4 or 5 turns, maybe 6. Those 3 defenders only took action in 1 of those turns. The rest of the time did NOTHING at all. Like, bugged nothing, standing out of cover. Was that specific map bugged? Should I expect that every time?
- Out of curiosity, I checked the Diplomacy missions and they appeared in the quest list but there was no target. Does that mean that I haven't found the haven they want to attack? Will it show once I discover it?
1. Enemy and defender strength has two purposes. One is that if defender strength is greater haven will defend itself and you only go there to get some resources, XP and reputation by helping. Enemy Strength determines Threat Level of the mission which is what you want to know. It goes from Low to Extreme. Threat level determines number and strength of enemies waiting for you there.
2. Allied AI (almost) never does anything on turn 1, probably to make the fight harder. Then later they try to do their best by reaching enemy. Take into account those are probably lvl 1 human soldiers, their stats are crap which means they probably use up all their AP into movement. Later as their levels grows so does their usefulness. And it is normal that human AI likes to stand in the open a lot. Their AI is weaker than pandoran AI. Also if this was Haven Defense where you need to rescue civilians, human defenders will panic a lot as pandorans start killing civilians. As I said Lvl 1 soldiers have crap stats and that includes willpoints which defend vs panic.
3. I am not sure what is your question here. Diplomacy screen will show those factions that you have come in contact with and will let you either take on generic mission or show you locations of story missions for factions. If you accept one of their generic missions it usually says Sabotage food/tech/materials/research from faction X, that means you need to find any Haven of that faction X that has the building that produces what they want sabotaged and then go do that.
Well, I finally started the game and I'm having fun with it. Everything was pretty smooth until I had my first Haven Defense mission.
- The mission said that the attackers power was 10 and the defenders was 22 but in the mission itself there were 7 or 8 attackers and 3 defenders. I understand that those values will never represent the amount of enemy and friendly units in the map, right? That was a bit frustrating but now I know and will take it into account. I assume the only way to know the difficulty of a mission is to fly there and check. Can you check in any other way? Also, if you wait some time and the attackers power decreases, will the mission be easier?
- That fight lasted for 4 or 5 turns, maybe 6. Those 3 defenders only took action in 1 of those turns. The rest of the time did NOTHING at all. Like, bugged nothing, standing out of cover. Was that specific map bugged? Should I expect that every time?
- Out of curiosity, I checked the Diplomacy missions and they appeared in the quest list but there was no target. Does that mean that I haven't found the haven they want to attack? Will it show once I discover it?
1. Enemy and defender strength has two purposes. One is that if defender strength is greater haven will defend itself and you only go there to get some resources, XP and reputation by helping. Enemy Strength determines Threat Level of the mission which is what you want to know. It goes from Low to Extreme. Threat level determines number and strength of enemies waiting for you there.
2. Allied AI (almost) never does anything on turn 1, probably to make the fight harder. Then later they try to do their best by reaching enemy. Take into account those are probably lvl 1 human soldiers, their stats are crap which means they probably use up all their AP into movement. Later as their levels grows so does their usefulness. And it is normal that human AI likes to stand in the open a lot. Their AI is weaker than pandoran AI. Also if this was Haven Defense where you need to rescue civilians, human defenders will panic a lot as pandorans start killing civilians. As I said Lvl 1 soldiers have crap stats and that includes willpoints which defend vs panic.
3. I am not sure what is your question here. Diplomacy screen will show those factions that you have come in contact with and will let you either take on generic mission or show you locations of story missions for factions. If you accept one of their generic missions it usually says Sabotage food/tech/materials/research from faction X, that means you need to find any Haven of that faction X that has the building that produces what they want sabotaged and then go do that.
1. Ok. So, Attacker power 10 is medium Threat Level. Will the Threat Level and/or Attacker power go down if I let time pass in the Geoscape insted of going there right away?
2. What you're describing is not what happened in that fight so I'm hoping it slightly bugged or something. Those friendlies did absolutely nothing at all except for one turn where they shot the enemies, the rest of the turns they just skipped, no movement, no shooting, nothing.
3. Ah... The key part here is any haven that has the building targeted. Gotcha!
Ok. So, Attacker power 10 is medium Threat Level. Will the Threat Level and/or Attacker power go down if I let time pass in the Geoscape insted of going there right away?
What you're describing is not what happened in that fight so I'm hoping it slightly bugged or something. Those friendlies did absolutely nothing at all except for one turn where they shot the enemies, the rest of the turns they just skipped, no movement, no shooting, nothing.
I am now doing a proper new run with DLC3 while also using all other DLCs. Air combat certainly forces you to play differently. You cannot just roam around ignoring the Behemoth, you always need at least one ship close by, if nothing so you can defend raids on your own base.
And new Myrmidon unit is very good, it you ignore them they will fuck up your soldiers. They do bring something new to the battlefield.
I am now doing a proper new run with DLC3 while also using all other DLCs. Air combat certainly forces you to play differently. You cannot just roam around ignoring the Behemoth, you always need at least one ship close by, if nothing so you can defend raids on your own base.
And new Myrmidon unit is very good, it you ignore them they will fuck up your soldiers. They do bring something new to the battlefield.
I am now doing a proper new run with DLC3 while also using all other DLCs. Air combat certainly forces you to play differently. You cannot just roam around ignoring the Behemoth, you always need at least one ship close by, if nothing so you can defend raids on your own base.
And new Myrmidon unit is very good, it you ignore them they will fuck up your soldiers. They do bring something new to the battlefield.
So, seems like I'm a bit late to the party with this one, but decided after all the updates it might just be ready to take it for a spin.
First impression, it came a long way from the tech demo I played back then, but still feels unfinished. To the point that I'm contemplating shutting off the entire Festering Skies DLC. It feels half-baked at this point.
it reminded me a lot of the Ufo After_____ series, similar setup, similar set of secondary factions. Also seems to inherit the narrative-driven structure from these games with lots of tedious research and geoscape-hopping just to push through toward the next progress point.
I still can't shake the feeling that it's heavily modded excom, but to give it justice, I'm enjoying it a lot more with 4AP and a more detailed inventory.
I actually like a lot of things I'm seeing. Bullet trajectories remind me of how weapons in the original ufos behaved, it also tends to avoid nonsensical rng shooting EXCUM was notorious for.
I like how they integrated the free-aim into the rest of the game's mechanic, rather than making it a cheap gimmick. Shooting off brainsuckers off your squadmantes is a nice touch, so is taking apart gargantuan aliens by hacking off their body parts.
I also liked how the opponents evolve to keep up with my guys. Felt like a logical and incremental progress rather than - this alien now wears a yellow shirt and will have double the HP - I've had my fill of this in xenonauts an am not a fan.
One thing that wore me down pretty quick was how repetitive the maps and missions are. On my first restart, despite putting me on a totally different landmass, it felt like I was tediously retracing my steps doing same shit on the same maps.
I don't see myself mustering the strength for a third attempt anytime soon. Bit of a shame, cause I'm seeing plenty of good ideas. Unfortunately, what I'm not seeing is getting it all together as a coherent game.
It is functional as a game, but still feels thrown-together and drawn-out more than it should be.
basically any mission where I have to get to a point as fast as possible(which is a solid 80% of them) my main thought is "gee, I wish all my characters had jump jets"
it's not just the massive distance they can cross, but the fact that it puts them out of reach of being attacked most of the time too
It is open ended gameplay on purpose. But yes, story missions are mostly the same. Only type of enemies are going to change depending on when you go do the mission.
IIRC, jump jets are just a fixed 20-range jump. That's quite a lot in the beginning, but as you progress - putting a few points in speed as well as adding Assault class for Dash gives you better mobility and flexibility, better still if you got Quarterback for even moar speed.
The cool factor of jump jets is of course undeniable, though I think eating up 3 AP up front is a real bummer. Would be nice to drop in and be able to swing the big hammer. There are some good looking legs under Advanced Bionics, btw.
And speaking of swinging the big hammer, one thing I'm having trouble getting my head around is why am I getting better damage output from bashing crab people with an autocannon (only costing 1 AP to boot)
than with a dedicated melee weapon? Seems like cqb is still up for some rebalancing.
IIRC, jump jets are just a fixed 20-range jump. That's quite a lot in the beginning, but as you progress - putting a few points in speed as well as adding Assault class for Dash gives you better mobility and flexibility, better still if you got Quarterback for even moar speed.
The cool factor of jump jets is of course undeniable, though I think eating up 3 AP up front is a real bummer. Would be nice to drop in and be able to swing the big hammer. There are some good looking legs under Advanced Bionics, btw.
And speaking of swinging the big hammer, one thing I'm having trouble getting my head around is why am I getting better damage output from bashing crab people with an autocannon (only costing 1 AP to boot)
than with a dedicated melee weapon? Seems like cqb is still up for some rebalancing.
On one hand, it definitely feels a lot better than it did the last time I played. It's pretty much an improvement over XCOM/XCOM 2 in every way. Extreme enemy variation due to mutations, I'm actually not sure if these are premade or being randomly generated similar to say, Spore. There's a lot of good new mechanics over XCOM/2 -- most obvious are manual shot placement and per-bullet calculation. I like the vehicles, but they don't seem too good tbh.
On the other hand, I feel like there's way too much going on at the same time due to all the stuff they've added. Basically every time I unpause I get a new cutscene due to content explosion, I can't keep track of it all.
On the gripping hand, air combat is complete ass. What were they thinking?
eh, I give it an official Rusty "It's decent enough" Recommendation. If you liked nu-XCOM/nu-XCOM 2 I don't see why you wouldn't like this.
I'd really prefer a game like this except at a bit more of a micro level where you control one unit in Phoenix squad rather than controlling every minute detail.
Try killing that part first, directly targeting its body to destroy it faster, or going with a high HP ship. But usually for the later fliers you need to attack them with multiple ships.
Target it directly so you can blow it up. You can also retreat without real penalty (but takes 5s to retreat). Only penalty is that you ship automatically retreats to closest POI and you get control back at that moment. Then you need to move it back to attack again. Enemy ships can continue bombarding shit while you are doing that. Once that physic attack hits just start retreating immediatelly. DoT stops after you retreat.
Other way is to get defensive module that removes biological damage.
Ambrose Balance Update Now Available
Changes to the mid-late game, weapons, mutations and bionics and more are in this new free update.
Our latest Phoenix Point update, “Ambrose,” is now available for all our operatives around the globe.
The patch started its life with a very simple task at hand: to cut some tedium of mid - late game. This is something that had previously been discussed at length by both our community and internally, so we were not short of ideas. But as often happens in gamedev, shortly after we began working on the task, conditions shifted, and we found out that things won't be so straightforward.
We had settled on a release date for our PlayStation and Xbox Behemoth Edition, and in that case, it was precisely "Ambrose" that would go for a console certification. The whole console certification process is long and complex, as well as the process of merging and syncing up new content for both PC and consoles. To reduce the possibility of further complications, we decided to keep "Ambrose" changes strictly to the "data" kind.
This also meant that we had the opportunity to incorporate other changes that were also discussed at length by both community and internally, namely to address the difficulty for Rookie and Veteran players. At the same time, we wanted to keep the game challenging for all players, including bringing some new fun with some old toys.
Your feedback has been crucial in shaping up "Ambrose," with many of the ideas of how we can better balance the soldier's gear coming from your suggestions. There are a few things that came out during testing that we plan to address in the following updates (yep, less tech in scavenging) and we are also closely monitoring all feedback around the "economy" changes and the reduction of the amount of HD mission. Even with the launch, the job is not done with it going live. Soon, we’ll be talking more about what’s coming in DLC 4: Corrupted Horizons, what to expect from the console Behemoth Edition, and other updates coming later this year for the game.
A huge thanks to all of you who take your time to share feedback on the game, and test or discuss the elements of “Ambrose.” And for everyone that has yet to play Phoenix Point, as of today, we’ve introduced a price reduction for our Year One Edition to $39.99 USD, so get in there now as the world’s not going to save itself! Try using the code HERECOMESTHEPHOENIX on the main game menu (look for the little key in the bar on the lower-left) for a little treat from Odin…
Full patch notes are as follows:
Ambrose- v1.12
Geoscape
The cost of late-game faction research is lowered by approximately 35%.
The build time of story haven zones is lowered by 50%.
The rate of Pandoran evolution is slowed down with approximately 20% on Rookie, Veteran, and Hero difficulty.
The rate at which the Pandoran bases conduct their attacks is reduced.
Increased the rewards for scavenging and haven defence missions by approximately 20%.
Increased the number of total food, training, elite training, and factory zones in Havens
The Neutral weapons and armors are now available for manufacturing to the player from the start of the game.
Tactical
Increased the maximum strength for the player's soldier to 35.
Increased the starting strength of the soldier for Rookie, Veteran, and Hero difficulty with 2.
Increased the strength of all human characters by 2.
Reduced the amount of damage “Bash” does.
Increased the number of enemies in the beginning of the game for Hero and Legend difficulty.
Increased the chance of enemies dropping items on death.
Mutations, Bionics and weapons adjustments
Venom Torso - damage increased to 55, Shoot Spike cost reduced to 1AP, 10 stealth and 2 speed added, maximum range of projectile removed, effective range reduced to 22 , ammo reduced to 16.
Tentacle Torso - Paralysis value increased to 24, stealth penalty removed, perception bonus increased to 6, 1 speed bonus added.
Screaming Head - Psychic Scream cost reduced to 1AP and 4 WP, but is restricted to one use per turn, 4 WP bonus added.
Judgement Head - WP bonus increased to 8.
Shadow Legs - shock damage of Electric Kick increased to 200.
Propeller Legs - Rocket Leap distance increased to 9 tiles.
Juggernaut Torso - Demolition State cost reduced to 2WP.
Scion of Sharur - viral damage increased to 15.
Destiny III - damage reduced to 70, ammo capacity reduced to 12, manufacturing and ammo cost reduced.
Nergal's Wrath - effective range increased to 14.
VVA-2 Arms - ammo capacity reduced to 5.
Ragnarok - ammo cost is reduced to 16 tech and 49 materials.
Autocannon - weight reduced to 4.
Praetorian 2 Body Armor - armor reduced to 18.
Guardian XA Helmet - armor reduced to 26.
Guardian XA Leg Armor - armor reduced to 29.
Mutogs adjustments
Venomous Head damage increased to 60.
Ramming Head damage increased to 150.
Slasher Tail damage increased to 70.
Basher Tail damage increased to 60 and shock damage increased to 200.
Paw Strike damage increased to 80.
Pandoran changes
Damage of the Evolved Organic Machine Gun reduced to 45 per shot.
Siren Injector Arms viral damage increased to 6 (per hand).
Arthron Shieldbearer gets 2 additional speed.
Scylla Thureus, Scylla Imperator, Scylla Hegemon, Scylla Regina, Scylla Smaragdos, Chiron Smaragdus, Siren Armis have now evolved 50% virus resistance.
Legacy of the Ancient changes
Excavation time of Ancient Sites reduced to 8 hours
Manufacture time for archaeology probes was reduced by approximately 40%.
Lowering the requirement for Triton Umbra and Scylla Smaragdus to be researched by the aliens.
