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

[Parabalus]

ArchAngel

Was there any discussion about disallowing teleporting gear between squads? Biggest gripe with the game tbh, should only let it happen when you can swap soldiers themselves.

 

[ArchAngel]

ArchAngel

Was there any discussion about disallowing teleporting gear between squads? Biggest gripe with the game tbh, should only let it happen when you can swap soldiers themselves.

There was. We didn't get a direct answer but a strong feeling that it is too much work for them atm.

 

[Melmoth]

i wonder why ArchAngel doesn't have the advertising plant tag yet

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

to me one thing that sucks is that the tech tree feels like every faction is basically the same thing. They all have an assault gun, a shotgun, a pistol, a heavy and a sniper rifle etc.. but they are just a tiny bit different than each other (one has higher shred, but lower range..one higher armor piercing and longer range, but lower something else..) its really fucking boring and totally makes me not care about research since in the end the weapons are almost completely balanced and it seems like it hardly really matters. Maybe I just quit too soon though and this changes or something as the game and research goes on, but it was hard to want to keep playing once I realized this about the basic faction weapons...

It just felt so bland and lame... it felt like it lacked creativity to differentiate the factions. I feel like I am playing one of those board games where all the factions have the same basic shit but just different bright colored plastic pieces to represent them. Like one side has yellow tanks and planes and ships and another has blue ones, perhaps with a +1 difference on dice mods in certain small modifiers to add some 'spice'...

The game even has the skittle bright colors like board game pieces might have. Just feels totally opposite of how the kickstarter pitch felt.

That is not true. Anu has no snipers but has shotguns and melee weapons. New Jericho has heavy weapons and rockets which is exclusive to them, Snyderion has stealth stuff. Only common thing to all 3 factions is pistols lol, they don't even all have their own assault rifles.
And end game weapons are OP as hell, much stronger than starting ones. And that is without DLC2 weapons that are even stronger.

well maybe I need to keep playing it then, that is good to hear, Like I said I sort of lost interest at a certain point and one main issue was I thought the tech tree was going to be bland and sort of the same for every faction, but perhaps it was just who I ran into first.

 

[gurugeorge]

to me one thing that sucks is that the tech tree feels like every faction is basically the same thing. They all have an assault gun, a shotgun, a pistol, a heavy and a sniper rifle etc.. but they are just a tiny bit different than each other (one has higher shred, but lower range..one higher armor piercing and longer range, but lower something else..) its really fucking boring and totally makes me not care about research since in the end the weapons are almost completely balanced and it seems like it hardly really matters. Maybe I just quit too soon though and this changes or something as the game and research goes on, but it was hard to want to keep playing once I realized this about the basic faction weapons...

It just felt so bland and lame... it felt like it lacked creativity to differentiate the factions. I feel like I am playing one of those board games where all the factions have the same basic shit but just different bright colored plastic pieces to represent them. Like one side has yellow tanks and planes and ships and another has blue ones, perhaps with a +1 difference on dice mods in certain small modifiers to add some 'spice'...

The game even has the skittle bright colors like board game pieces might have. Just feels totally opposite of how the kickstarter pitch felt.

That is not true. Anu has no snipers but has shotguns and melee weapons. New Jericho has heavy weapons and rockets which is exclusive to them, Snyderion has stealth stuff. Only common thing to all 3 factions is pistols lol, they don't even all have their own assault rifles.
And end game weapons are OP as hell, much stronger than starting ones. And that is without DLC2 weapons that are even stronger.

well maybe I need to keep playing it then, that is good to hear, Like I said I sort of lost interest at a certain point and one main issue was I thought the tech tree was going to be bland and sort of the same for every faction, but perhaps it was just who I ran into first.

New Jericho at the beginning has assault rifles, pistols and sniper rifles that are just a small step up from PP's, so maybe that's what you encountered first.

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

to me one thing that sucks is that the tech tree feels like every faction is basically the same thing. They all have an assault gun, a shotgun, a pistol, a heavy and a sniper rifle etc.. but they are just a tiny bit different than each other (one has higher shred, but lower range..one higher armor piercing and longer range, but lower something else..) its really fucking boring and totally makes me not care about research since in the end the weapons are almost completely balanced and it seems like it hardly really matters. Maybe I just quit too soon though and this changes or something as the game and research goes on, but it was hard to want to keep playing once I realized this about the basic faction weapons...

It just felt so bland and lame... it felt like it lacked creativity to differentiate the factions. I feel like I am playing one of those board games where all the factions have the same basic shit but just different bright colored plastic pieces to represent them. Like one side has yellow tanks and planes and ships and another has blue ones, perhaps with a +1 difference on dice mods in certain small modifiers to add some 'spice'...

The game even has the skittle bright colors like board game pieces might have. Just feels totally opposite of how the kickstarter pitch felt.

That is not true. Anu has no snipers but has shotguns and melee weapons. New Jericho has heavy weapons and rockets which is exclusive to them, Snyderion has stealth stuff. Only common thing to all 3 factions is pistols lol, they don't even all have their own assault rifles.
And end game weapons are OP as hell, much stronger than starting ones. And that is without DLC2 weapons that are even stronger.

well maybe I need to keep playing it then, that is good to hear, Like I said I sort of lost interest at a certain point and one main issue was I thought the tech tree was going to be bland and sort of the same for every faction, but perhaps it was just who I ran into first.

New Jericho at the beginning has assault rifles, pistols and sniper rifles that are just a small step up from PP's, so maybe that's what you encountered first.

it was whoever had the 'bulldog' assault rifle I think was called, it did higher shred damage but had less range I think

 

[Trithne]

to me one thing that sucks is that the tech tree feels like every faction is basically the same thing. They all have an assault gun, a shotgun, a pistol, a heavy and a sniper rifle etc.. but they are just a tiny bit different than each other (one has higher shred, but lower range..one higher armor piercing and longer range, but lower something else..) its really fucking boring and totally makes me not care about research since in the end the weapons are almost completely balanced and it seems like it hardly really matters. Maybe I just quit too soon though and this changes or something as the game and research goes on, but it was hard to want to keep playing once I realized this about the basic faction weapons...

It just felt so bland and lame... it felt like it lacked creativity to differentiate the factions. I feel like I am playing one of those board games where all the factions have the same basic shit but just different bright colored plastic pieces to represent them. Like one side has yellow tanks and planes and ships and another has blue ones, perhaps with a +1 difference on dice mods in certain small modifiers to add some 'spice'...

The game even has the skittle bright colors like board game pieces might have. Just feels totally opposite of how the kickstarter pitch felt.

That is not true. Anu has no snipers but has shotguns and melee weapons. New Jericho has heavy weapons and rockets which is exclusive to them, Snyderion has stealth stuff. Only common thing to all 3 factions is pistols lol, they don't even all have their own assault rifles.
And end game weapons are OP as hell, much stronger than starting ones. And that is without DLC2 weapons that are even stronger.

well maybe I need to keep playing it then, that is good to hear, Like I said I sort of lost interest at a certain point and one main issue was I thought the tech tree was going to be bland and sort of the same for every faction, but perhaps it was just who I ran into first.

New Jericho at the beginning has assault rifles, pistols and sniper rifles that are just a small step up from PP's, so maybe that's what you encountered first.

it was whoever had the 'bulldog' assault rifle I think was called, it did higher shred damage but had less range I think

Bulldog is Jericho. Jericho weapons are pretty much the ones you're going to want to get access to quickly - they fire fewer shots per burst than Phoenix weapons, but do more damage, so armour has less impact against them.

Later on Jericho will research weapons that just ignore armour. Anu will spec into viral weapons while Synedrion make a hodgepodge of status effects.

 

[ArchAngel]

to me one thing that sucks is that the tech tree feels like every faction is basically the same thing. They all have an assault gun, a shotgun, a pistol, a heavy and a sniper rifle etc.. but they are just a tiny bit different than each other (one has higher shred, but lower range..one higher armor piercing and longer range, but lower something else..) its really fucking boring and totally makes me not care about research since in the end the weapons are almost completely balanced and it seems like it hardly really matters. Maybe I just quit too soon though and this changes or something as the game and research goes on, but it was hard to want to keep playing once I realized this about the basic faction weapons...

It just felt so bland and lame... it felt like it lacked creativity to differentiate the factions. I feel like I am playing one of those board games where all the factions have the same basic shit but just different bright colored plastic pieces to represent them. Like one side has yellow tanks and planes and ships and another has blue ones, perhaps with a +1 difference on dice mods in certain small modifiers to add some 'spice'...

The game even has the skittle bright colors like board game pieces might have. Just feels totally opposite of how the kickstarter pitch felt.

That is not true. Anu has no snipers but has shotguns and melee weapons. New Jericho has heavy weapons and rockets which is exclusive to them, Snyderion has stealth stuff. Only common thing to all 3 factions is pistols lol, they don't even all have their own assault rifles.
And end game weapons are OP as hell, much stronger than starting ones. And that is without DLC2 weapons that are even stronger.

well maybe I need to keep playing it then, that is good to hear, Like I said I sort of lost interest at a certain point and one main issue was I thought the tech tree was going to be bland and sort of the same for every faction, but perhaps it was just who I ran into first.

Yes, factions have starting weapons that are kind of similar to what Phoenix gets. Phoenix has a mix of everything factions have. They are the middle faction. PP also has its own share of unique weapons like Shields, Grenade Launchers, lighter snipers, special one shot shotguns and Cannon Heavy weapons. And then later you get some crazy weapons when you mix your tech with tech of certain factions. And DLC2 weapons are just OP. I don't even use DLC2 weapons anymore because they make the game too easy in my view.

 

[Thorgeim]

So this is what I mean with the UI (and immersion I guess).
Old Xcom/OpenXcom, just a random shot from a mission i had my save on. It reeks terror, timeless classic and even with its shortcomings, considering how old it is, it can still suck me in with the way it makes you feel. Plus fog of war is awesome for this kind of game (IMO of course).

This is a new-ish PP image I found somewhere, looks fairly smooth in terms of models but its just ... boring and simple, the UI imo is ugly as feck, and look at the soldier heads christ..., not to mention the aiming and combat details, its honestly like a mobile game:

Now this is a pre-alpha PP screenshot. To me this UI looks much better, slick, makes sense, the soldier image is very nice, looks hand painted and gives it personality, the HP dots instead of bars or shevrons makes it less budgety as well. I really dont understand how someone decided the final UI was better.

If I could mod this one to the final version Id happily play the game more tbh shame I dont know how and modding doesnt seem to be as simple with this one.

 

[Jaedar]

I really dont understand how someone decided the final UI was better.

Probably the pre-alpha gui shown never existed in a working state and was scrapped when they realized how much work it would be to implement.

This game stills bums me out. "So close" to being good, yet so far, and getting further with every release.

 

[Parabalus]

So this is what I mean with the UI (and immersion I guess).
Old Xcom/OpenXcom, just a random shot from a mission i had my save on. It reeks terror, timeless classic and even with its shortcomings, considering how old it is, it can still suck me in with the way it makes you feel. Plus fog of war is awesome for this kind of game (IMO of course).

This is a new-ish PP image I found somewhere, looks fairly smooth in terms of models but its just ... boring and simple, the UI imo is ugly as feck, and look at the soldier heads christ..., not to mention the aiming and combat details, its honestly like a mobile game:

Now this is a pre-alpha PP screenshot. To me this UI looks much better, slick, makes sense, the soldier image is very nice, looks hand painted and gives it personality, the HP dots instead of bars or shevrons makes it less budgety as well. I really dont understand how someone decided the final UI was better.

If I could mod this one to the final version Id happily play the game more tbh shame I dont know how and modding doesnt seem to be as simple with this one.

The middle screenshot is console UI, not what you see in-game.

Current UI is better than the pre-alpha one.

 

[Trithne]

The "Wasteland" maps are good, but all the Haven maps suck, and it's because they don't feel like they're part of the world. As much as yes, inside a Haven it's probably fairly clean and devoid of Crab, missions that take place in Havens (And that's the majority of them) just feel like a random city block of any generic sci-fi. Also given this is supposed to be the post-Crab-apocalypse, these Havens manage to build some pretty damn impressive shit.

Here's another earlier build (or just concept art) that at least manages to make the environment feel the same as the wasteland.

Also, Haven defenses are dumb. Again, it's just a random city block that happens to have some Crabs in it now. Imagine if they worked more like sieges.

The middle screenshot is console UI, not what you see in-game.

Current UI is better than the pre-alpha one.

Fuck off, that is exactly what the game UI is.

 

[Mazisky]

All the last posts show they tried to mimic Nuxcom 2 (without having the budget to do it) instead of sticking to their original art-style, which is nonsense.

 

[Thorgeim]

So this is what I mean with the UI (and immersion I guess).
Old Xcom/OpenXcom, just a random shot from a mission i had my save on. It reeks terror, timeless classic and even with its shortcomings, considering how old it is, it can still suck me in with the way it makes you feel. Plus fog of war is awesome for this kind of game (IMO of course).

This is a new-ish PP image I found somewhere, looks fairly smooth in terms of models but its just ... boring and simple, the UI imo is ugly as feck, and look at the soldier heads christ..., not to mention the aiming and combat details, its honestly like a mobile game:

Now this is a pre-alpha PP screenshot. To me this UI looks much better, slick, makes sense, the soldier image is very nice, looks hand painted and gives it personality, the HP dots instead of bars or shevrons makes it less budgety as well. I really dont understand how someone decided the final UI was better.

If I could mod this one to the final version Id happily play the game more tbh shame I dont know how and modding doesnt seem to be as simple with this one.

The middle screenshot is console UI, not what you see in-game.

Current UI is better than the pre-alpha one.

oh ok, i cba to reinstall the game so didnt check, had a look at PC screens and its very slightly better but to me still much worse than the pre alpha builds and im still salty about switching to health bars

anyway, not hating on tbose who like it, just disappointed in what could have been a much more comfortable and nicer experience, esp. when concept was cooler.

 

[cvv]

I like the world of PP better than XCOM due to its lovecraftian doom vibe. XCOM 2 always felt way too capeshit for me.

XCOM 2 WotC is a lot of fun but the vibe IS kindda ridiculous. Instead of horror, fright and terror you have wackiness and moustache twirling villains.

I played XCOM 1 recently, after many many years, and was shocked by the vibe. It's WAY darker and more tense than WotC. Even though on release it was already a decline vibe-wise compared to the 1990s games.

I fear they'll turn the capeshit stuff to 11 in XCOM 3.

 

[gurugeorge]

All the last posts show they tried to mimic Nuxcom 2 (without having the budget to do it) instead of sticking to their original art-style, which is nonsense.

Yeah I feel that somehow they took a wrong turning in terms of marketing aims. They really should have tried to differentiate the game from XCOM, not make it look like a cheap knock-off of a game made by a major pro team that's bound to be more highly polished. "This is not your grandad's XCOM" type of deal maybe.

 

[DeepOcean]

Ok, I've been reading the thread, so, we gonna get 30% fixed NuXCom still with 70% of the very same issues + shovelware production values + archeological dig style development where the developers just build new systems over the incomplete ruins of older systems causing confusing bloat that dont necessarily translate to fun systems that work well together? I mean, will probably buy it on the next steam sale because love TB combat but I dont think if they gone on the pitch for this game 5 years ago and said "Hey, guise, we are doing 30% better XCOM, give us money." people would be lining up to give them money.

So, thanks backers for trusting people you dont know with money, assuming risk? Thanks for providing us with steam sale fodder, I guess? Your sacrifice was good and provided us with even more shovelware XCOM clones? I mean, we had Xenonauts, OpenX-COM, Firaxis popamole XCOMs and all those games that are too busy copying the original X-COM and being worse than it, so we needed of another one?

 

[Mazisky]

I like the world of PP better than XCOM due to its lovecraftian doom vibe. XCOM 2 always felt way too capeshit for me.

XCOM 2 WotC is a lot of fun but the vibe IS kindda ridiculous. Instead of horror, fright and terror you have wackiness and moustache twirling villains.

I played XCOM 1 recently, after many many years, and was shocked by the vibe. It's WAY darker and more tense than WotC. Even though on release it was already a decline vibe-wise compared to the 1990s games.

I fear they'll turn the capeshit stuff to 11 in XCOM 3.

We are doomed I am afraid, they are making a Marvel Xcom.

Also it will be announced in a week or two, so prepare the shitstorm

 

[cvv]

We are doomed I am afraid, they are making a Marvel Xcom.

It's just a reddit leak news, nothing to worry about.

Spoiler

Oh god it's real isn't it.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

The essential vibe of UFO is that Xcom is humanity's last hope and a technological spearhead

i completely disagree. x-com is the last defense because no one else gives a damn or even worse they're waiting for you to fail, otherwise you wouldn't have bills to pay, equipment to buy, stuff to build yourself. you're on your own while nations demand results. it's not a concerted effort, a last stand. you're an average blue collar.

 

[Mustawd]

I like the world of PP better than XCOM due to its lovecraftian doom vibe. XCOM 2 always felt way too capeshit for me.

XCOM 2 WotC is a lot of fun but the vibe IS kindda ridiculous. Instead of horror, fright and terror you have wackiness and moustache twirling villains.

I played XCOM 1 recently, after many many years, and was shocked by the vibe. It's WAY darker and more tense than WotC. Even though on release it was already a decline vibe-wise compared to the 1990s games.

I fear they'll turn the capeshit stuff to 11 in XCOM 3.

We are doomed I am afraid, they are making a Marvel Xcom.

Also it will be announced in a week or two, so prepare the shitstorm

I am ok with this.

 

[cvv]

The essential vibe of UFO is that Xcom is humanity's last hope and a technological spearhead

i completely disagree. x-com is the last defense because no one else gives a damn or even worse they're waiting for you to fail, otherwise you wouldn't have bills to pay, equipment to buy, stuff to build yourself. you're on your own while nations demand results. it's not a concerted effort, a last stand. you're an average blue collar.

My head cannon has always been "countries are constantly infiltrated, bullied and corrupted and at some point they just join the aliens and pull out of the XCOM project". XCOM2 kindda points to that.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

sorry man, you said "ufo", i thought the following "xcom" was a typo and it should have been "x-com". instead you're seemingly talking about xcom. but then why name ufo? point is: nuxcom is shit, disregard it.

 

[gurugeorge]

It's fairly easy to differentiate them, call the original games "X-Com" with a hyphen, call the Firaxis games (and their clones) "XCOM" allcapsalljoinedup. I think that was intentional on Firaxis' part, but people still seem to fumble about with it.

 

[Alienman]

X-cum for the XxX rated.