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

ArchAngel

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n terms of realism, is individual/independent INITIATIVE
Should be completely irrelevant, and everything is supposed to happen at the same time, so adding a new arbitrary 'gamey' variable does not serve anything. Furthermore, X-com already has a thing called 'reaction fire' that does the thing you want
No it does not do the thing you want, that is separate system that can work with both kinds of initiative. But changing Xcom from team initiative to individual initiative would make the gameplay much slower and much harder to plan out tactical approaches. Team initiative is mostly used to make it simpler and less complicated for players.
 

veevoir

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In the meantime JG delivers on reddit:
QhOZGF.jpg

Best /thread riposte I've seen in a while :D
 

ArchAngel

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If Firaxis does a bit of promotion for this as well, the campaign might be super successful. I expect it reaches a few stretch goals.
 
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I never really liked the "us then the enemy" turn order. Always feels very board-gamey.

Wargames have had multiple kinds of initiative systems for ages. Ranging from the one you describe( I-Go, You-Go), to alternative activation by dice and cards and to activation determined by the unit's stats.

The last one is more suitable for small scale games obviously where the players have fewer units. Not that it couldn't be used when a group or a formation share their stat related to activation. This type of system is what in my opinion should be used for Phoenix Point but If I had any say in the matter I would use a nigh random activation/initiative system with a few variables.
 

Israfael

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No it does not do the thing you want, that is separate system that can work with both kinds of initiative.
The point of all that sentence was that such 'tweaking' is going counter the systems approach because you allow random actors to do extra things (or to break the typical flow of events) based on some asystemic arbitrary variable
 

Ivan

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you sure about that discount? I'm not seeing it this time around. Is it because I used it for the Pillars II campaign?

nevermind! in my excitement I bypassed the email with the code.
 

Infinitron

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you sure about that discount? I'm not seeing it this time around. Is it because I used it for the Pillars II campaign?

You're supposed to get an email with a link that activates it.

RPS interview: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2017/04/25/phoenix-point-crowdfunding-interview/

Phoenix Point is now crowdfunding: we spoke to Julian Gollop about standing out in a post-XCOM world
Adam Smith on April 25th, 2017 at 5:00 pm.

phoenixheader.jpg


The original X-COM (UFO: Enemy Unknown), Julian Gollop tells me, “succeeded in spite of itself”. I asked him how he felt about the game now, twenty three years after its initial release, and particularly about the way it’s often placed on a pedestal. He didn’t expect it to be a success and certainly didn’t think he’d be making a game heavily based on its legacy almost a quarter of a century later.

Yet here we are. The crowdfunding campaign for Phoenix Point [official site], a sci-fi horror strategy game about an alien onslaught, has just begun. Gollop is back where many people feel he belongs, and this time round he seems extremely confident in his game’s design.

That confidence is sure to take some hits over the next year and a half – such is the reality of building a game. Phoenix Point isn’t slated for release until the end of 2018 and even though it’s been in development for a year already, the trickiest parts of the process are ahead. You can read more about what the game is and what Gollop and his team hope it will become in this feature, which I wrote after seeing work in progress segments and speaking to Gollop at E3 last year. Here, I’m going to concentrate on the work that has already been done, and why I think it’s Gollop’s interest in simulation that will make Phoenix Point stand out in a post-Firaxis XCOM world.

I spoke to Gollop for an hour yesterday, talking about everything from how he built the team working on the game to his thoughts on new-XCOM, and XCOM-like games in the past. We also talked about crowdfunding, of course, and why he’s chosen to go that route again, after the successful Kickstarter for his new studio’s first game Chaos Reborn.

phoenix1.jpg


“It’s very tiring, running the campaign and looking at all the feedback, but I enjoy building a community and having those conversations. With Chaos Reborn, we had quite a big divide between people who wanted something like the very traditional Chaos game, and people who wanted something new. With Phoenix Point, I think there will be less of a divide in that sense. We’ve already done a survey, asking people what is important to them and it matches up with our own feelings very well.”

One of the big questions on that survey related to multiplayer. I can see the appeal of controlling mutated lifeforms in tactical combat scenarios, but I’d much rather have all of the time and resources spent on the game be put into the singleplayer campaign, with its emergent scenarios and dynamic AI factions. Gollop felt the same and was relieved to see the survey results agreed. Very few respondents felt that multiplayer was important.

Only people who have already signed up to the game’s newsletter ever saw the survey, so the sample size is relatively small and made up of people who are most likely familiar with Gollop’s previous work. That’s why I raised the question about UFO: Enemy Unknown’s status in its creator’s mind. It’s one of my favourite games but I rarely recommend it to people who’ve never played it before. I don’t think it’s aged particularly well and if I take off the rose-tinted glasses, I can see all kinds of things that I’d happily see changed or improved.

“There’s no tutorial, the interface has too many buttons…people don’t want to read a big manual before they play a game anymore. I don’t like games where I have to read a manual!”

phoenix5.jpg


Phoenix Point will be a complex game, with lots of moving parts to keep track of, but it shouldn’t be overwhelming or obscure, and should avoid too many dead-ends.

“It’s a strategy game so eventually players are going to have to make some smart decisions if they want to survive, but we give people enough options that they shouldn’t be backed into a corner. If you need resources, you can raid another faction, or trade with them, or do a smaller, simpler mission to get hold of what you need. The aliens do have an objective they’re working toward, which I won’t reveal, but you’re not locked into an escalating military conflict. There should always be interesting decisions to make even if you’re not doing particularly well.”

phoenix4.jpg


That’s all thanks to the dynamic world. Other human factions are playing the game, driven by AI, in the same way that you are. They have their own short- and long-term goals, and they need to perform missions of their own in order to achieve those goals.You can work with them or against them, and in the early game you’ll most likely be helping one another because the alien threat requires a team effort to counter, but you’re free to turn on them at any time. And they may turn on you, and will certainly retaliate if you work counter to their ambitions or directly assault them.

On that note, you can not only raid factions to steal resources, but can attempt to take over their bases (Havens) if you so choose. Giving the player so many options in a world full of simulated entities going about their own business is thoroughly exciting to me. The focus here is relatively narrow, with the aliens’ encroachment from sea to land taking precedence over convoluted diplomatic wrangling and dynasty-building, but there should be plenty of room to create alliances and enemies even in the endtimes.

“It’s a more complex Geoscape than in previous XCOM games because of that layer of simulation, but we’re not at the complexity of something like Civ.”

phoenix3.jpg


At this point, I should make it very clear that the image just above these words, of the Phoenix Point Geoscape, is one of the best things I’ve ever seen. I make no apologies for being an absolute nerd. Just look at it – weird temples devoted to cosmic horror, UI elements that look clear and useful, and a bloody great Behemoth. Missions will usually have some flavour to them beyond “go here to kill some aliens”, Gollop says, and I’m keen to see more of that sort of thing. I’m also pleased that he happily accepts my definition of Phoenix Point as a horror game.

“Oh, it absolutely is a sci-fi horror game. You can see the John Carpenter influence and The Mist is there as well as the cosmic horror elements. One of the most memorable aspects of X-COM was hearing shots and screams in the dark, seeing plasma fire but not knowing exactly where it’s coming from or what is waiting for you. The mist in this game is an extension of the fog of war, a manifestation of it, and it’s very dangerous. You have better tech than the aliens to begin with but the mist levels the playing field, as well as being a big part of the horror aspect.”

phoenix2.jpg


Gollop is a fan of the new XCOMs, going so far as to say Phoenix Point wouldn’t look or play as it does but for Firaxis’ games. One place where he feels there will be a very different flow, apart from the dynamic simulations themselves, is in the difficulty curve.

“XCOM games have traditionally started very difficult and become easier. The aliens have better tech than you but you turn the tables and eventually have very strong squads. In Phoenix Point, the aliens adapt to the way you play.”

This all goes back to the way the aliens are constructed. There are different cores, which Gollop calls “chassis”, and you’ll see different ones in different parts of the world. Africa has a chassis referred to as the Sphinx, which is based on a lion. But because these creatures are mutated mash-ups, that simply means it’s a tough, fast quadruped. It might have longer legs, borrowed from elsewhere in the animal kingdom, or human arms to hold a gun (and that gun will have been stolen from a human faction). If a gun-wielding sphinx manages to obliterate one or more of your squads, the aliens will stick with it, pleased with its efficiency. But if you find a new tactic or tech that takes out a whole bunch of them, the aliens will adapt.

phoenix6.jpg


There’s a random element to those adaptations but essentially the alien AI is discarding parts that don’t seem to work and cycling in new elements to find a way to beat you. What this should mean is that the difficulty curve has peaks and valleys rather than a steady trend in either direction. There is a doomsday clock element behind everything, giving urgency to your actions, but Gollop wants to encourage experimentation rather than having people try to discover the ‘correct’ route.

And that, I think, is the major difference between Phoenix Point and other XCOMs and XCOM-likes past and present. It’s intended to be a game in which systems interact, overlap and allow players to observe them and react to them, while encountering factions and entities that make up and are reacting to those same systems. In that way, it has much in common with my beloved but flawed X-COM: Apocalypse and I can’t help but see it as a continuation of some of the ideas in that game. It’s about time.

The most enticing loose thread I find to pull on involves a game that never saw the light of day. As we talk about the long wait for more XCOM-like games, Gollop tells me about a project he pitched at MicroProse immediately after UFO: Enemy Unknown.

“It was set in the 1930s and you controlled a team of occult investigators. Portals were being opened bringing paranormal entities in the world, and you had to fight all kinds of different supernatural creatures. And Nazis.”

The Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense: Enemy Unknown? Maybe once this next alien threat has been repelled.
 

veevoir

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Woot! With the discount and pre-release pricing I get the luxury digital edition for 35$ instead of 50$, my 3rd world wallet is saved!


you sure about that discount? I'm not seeing it this time around. Is it because I used it for the Pillars II campaign?

nevermind! in my excitement I bypassed the email with the code.

The superbacker discount for backing other campaigns at fig shows up as an add-on to pledge over 25$
 

ArchAngel

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The numbers are going up fairly fast. If this keeps up he will reach 500k within one day.
 

Jimmious

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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Well the secret backing period did bring it to 17%.. I hope it will have much better success than Chaos Reborn campaign, that was kinda touch and go.
Tbh I don't think there are enough people in the world that knew about the original "Chaos:The Battle of Wizards"... It's a surprise it even did it.
Phoenix Point is clearly in the X-COM domain and will probably do much better
 

veevoir

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BONUS QA ROUND from comments on fig:

Will PP have some ballistic physic, like in old X-com?
- JG: Yes

Will buildings and terrain be fully destructible?
- JG: Yes, that is what we are planning.

When you said 4+ squads, that means the starting lineup is 4?
- JG: was more thinking that 4 would be a lower limit, not an upper one. There won't be the same kind of artificial restrictions as in XCOM - but personnel will be a limited and valuable resource.

Will psychology play a role as well. will squad mates panic feel fear that sort of thing?
- JG: The vibe we are going for is modern Lovecraftian horror - so fear, panic and insanity will all play a role.

The map has a height. Do these things affect the game? Is there a map with multiple layers? Like a tower or an apartment. Is the map randomly generated? How wide is the map?
- JG: The maps will be multi-level and height will be an important factor. They will be procedurally generated in a similar manner to both old and new XCOMs.

-JG: Our focus is very much on the single player campaign, and we are aiming for something deep and involving, and highly replayable.

Will this game have TU's?
-JG: It's a hybrid - you have a move and shoot action as standard, but you can use 'will points' to extend or add actions depending on abilities, plus if you spot an enemy your movement is stopped and you can react - either by moving or shooting.
 

Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Ok, I'm sold (no homo)

I backed Chaos Reborn and had great fun with it. Too bad this isn't in kikestarter, I'm not making a Figaro account. Will wait for Codex kickstarter.

This is an RPG site, I can't tell you there will be one. But if the game is funded quickly enough I assume there will be a PayPal option.
 
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I usually don't buy/pledge at this price, but I'm willing to make an exception for something related to XCOM/X-COM. With the superbacker discount, $20 really isn't too bad.
 

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