Turn-Based Tactics Phantom Doctrine - "tactical Cold War conspiracy thriller" by Hard West devs

[Zombra]

Forgive the dumb question, but isn't lead design the "head" of the project? Looks weird seeing a game being created with this role vacant. I may be speaking bullocks though, as I know nothing about game dev.

They can be the same person, but usually not I think. Think of it like the producer and director of a movie.

 

[Raghar]

Forgive the dumb question, but isn't lead design the "head" of the project? Looks weird seeing a game being created with this role vacant. I may be speaking bullocks though, as I know nothing about game dev.

Lead design should be with team at least half year, and heavily invested into the project.

 

[ValeVelKal]

Lead designer is the head of the design team and is almost always part of the « top management » of a project - but he usually has no say in resource allocation, technical choices, etc

The game lead gives the general direction of the project in all « categories » : (« we need some sort of XP system, we need an open world » « We need dynamic quests ») but also art (« everything in pixel art »), technical (« Unreal »« full online »), production (« we’ll start with a prototype for the action phase, then build the strategy part » « we will externalise the art of all the monsters of the game because our artists are not good at that » « full voice over in Latin, no translation »)
His day to day role is generally to allocate the resources at the high level, make sure everyone remains in the general direction of the project, and take the hard calls (« ok we remove the space battle mini game to deliver on time ») The game lead can be just game lead (common), or at the same time the lead producer (common), the lead GD (rare), or even the lead dev (very rare)

 

[Heroic Liberator]

90% off:

 

[Stavrophore]

There's not many games where you can play as soviets/KGB so for anyone who is a sucker for these themes - the game is worth it imho.

 

[Fargus]

Yeah, it's cool that you can play as either glownigger or KayGeeBee. A decent game for for a nu-xcom clone, but gets repetitive rather quick. But for 90% off? Definitely worth it.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

There's not many games where you can play as soviets/KGB so for anyone who is a sucker for these themes - the game is worth it imho.

Insh'Allah,

 

[Lhynn]

90% off:

So repetitive and simple, I wouldnt replay it even if it they paid me.

 

[Nutria]

If there was any real detective type gameplay, the kind of stuff Zombra likes, I would have loved this, even if the tactical was weak. But it's just tactical missions strung together by a visual novel of what retarded millenials imagine the 1960s was like because they saw a Jason Bourne movie.

 

[std::namespace]

While waiting for JA3 to get cheap, I got this as a gift.
This seems like a borderline exploit, you step to an enemy point blank and get unavoidable maximum damage from a machine gun. Thank God the AI does not do this...

 

[std::namespace]

All systems in this game are broken...
1. The above mentioned point blank shooting
2. Danger level and forced base relocation mean nothing because the game gives you a new base for free. You dont lose base upgrades or items... You lose money but you can just buy items and sell them after the free relocation...
This is basically an infinite money exploit since you gain money by just passing time.
3. Travel time and distance dont matter because you can assault missions in 0 time with any agent in the world and the timer does not move... They all just teleport to location...

 

[Harthwain]

All systems in this game are broken...

I wouldn't say they are broken. The ideas and systems were great, but they lacked some polishing to truly make them shine.

I loved Hard West 1 combat system, because it really helped re-creating Western/The Wild West atmosphere. The very same system could have worked for Phantom Doctrine, because the extended shootouts fit the romanticized notions about spies in the Cold War era that's depicted in movies, novels and comics. It would also fit the reinforcement system designed to pressure the player to act stealthly and move quickly once the cover has been blown due to government forces responding to the situation.

Instead they decided to go for a realistic approach of "enemies rarely miss, because they are trained to hit" and changed how the line of sight fire mechanic worked, which ended up being very counter-intuitive for most players and - more importantly - simply wasn't fun to play. This caused the studio to do a major redesign of the entire mechanic.

The clues were reduced to simply clicking on any word until you got the confirmation you had everything you needed, requiring no thought whatsoever. There was no false intel. There was no need to connect the dots. So, again, the idea was great, but the execution left a lot to be desired. This is true for a lot of stuff. Which is sad, because all of it had potential, but it has been wasted and as a result it killed the game.

The indirect result is - we don't see other studios trying to make a spy game set in the Cold War period, despite the setting being interesting in and of itself and having potential even when looking at it from different angles (a stealth game, a spy management game, an investigation-oriented game, etc.).

 

[std::namespace]

I loved Hard West 1 combat system

Well, you are wrong for loving it. As I remember it - it was broken worse than Phantom D - it had not even a damage threshold... It worked like a DnD Stoneskin and lied about it. So when you saw an enemy, you plinked at it with the most terrible guns/chars you had from anywhere on the map and since there was actually no random chance to hit, you reduced the "Luck" shield, the Stoneskin and prepared the sniper killshot. It was horrific.
At least in PD you just run at them point blank and blast the shotgun - and you can run absurd distances.

There is also another funny overwatch exploit because the AI is forced to spare players point blank and your Overwatch fires multiple times.

Instead of killing an enemy, you run up to it, Overwatch and end turn instead of killing em. Now the AI enemy next to you will move, die, and you still get another Overwatch...
Works for anything but Agents, who survive one Overwatch blast. They die to takedowns...

I cant even finish playing this, its so bad.

Also the whole structure of a mission is broken, its extraction fight - the game; if even that. You dont ever want to go in Heavy cause its gonna spam Enemies at you for no gain. So you stealth with overpowered silenced headshots. Its unplayable.

 

[Harthwain]

Well, you are wrong for loving it. As I remember it - it was broken worse than Phantom D - it had not even a damage threshold... It worked like a DnD Stoneskin and lied about it. So when you saw an enemy, you plinked at it with the most terrible guns/chars you had from anywhere on the map and since there was actually no random chance to hit, you reduced the "Luck" shield, the Stoneskin and prepared the sniper killshot. It was horrific.

Some weapons were overpowered, true, but the foundation was great.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

At least in PD you just run at them point blank and blast the shotgun - and you can run absurd distances.

I just had one dude melee everyone to death.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

At least in PD you just run at them point blank and blast the shotgun - and you can run absurd distances.

I just had one dude melee everyone to death.

Isn't that your ideal for every game?

 

[ERYFKRAD]

At least in PD you just run at them point blank and blast the shotgun - and you can run absurd distances.

I just had one dude melee everyone to death.

Isn't that your ideal for every game?

Yes. Your point being?

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

At least in PD you just run at them point blank and blast the shotgun - and you can run absurd distances.

I just had one dude melee everyone to death.

Isn't that your ideal for every game?

Yes. Your point being?

Just asking.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

At least in PD you just run at them point blank and blast the shotgun - and you can run absurd distances.

I just had one dude melee everyone to death.

Isn't that your ideal for every game?

Yes. Your point being?

Just asking.

Very well.

 

[Falksi]

I loved Hard West 1 combat system

Well, you are wrong for loving it. As I remember it - it was broken worse than Phantom D - it had not even a damage threshold... It worked like a DnD Stoneskin and lied about it. So when you saw an enemy, you plinked at it with the most terrible guns/chars you had from anywhere on the map and since there was actually no random chance to hit, you reduced the "Luck" shield, the Stoneskin and prepared the sniper killshot. It was horrific.

What was so horrific about that? It's essentially recreating pinning someone down into a position and playing the odds against them, whilst the person with the best odds to take them out takes them out.

 

[gooseman]

I played this, then played Hard West. Didn't know it was the same dev, but it makes sense. Both games are aggressively simplistic (in a bad way) and mediocre. You think "oh, this seems cool" and when you prod at it, it all falls apart. The base management stuff, the combat with infinite spawning enemies if you go on alert... Meh. Shame, such a good premise for a game.