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

[Mazisky]

I wonder if just a Xcom remake, i mean literally ufo defense with better graphics would be better than anything else.

 

[rezaf]

I still want my X-Com with a Silent Storm style physics engine. *drool*

 

[AgentFransis]

You feel it's not missing anything because you never experienced something better in all departments over the original/first x-com experience.

Indeed the base can game can provably be improved as demonstrated by X-Piratez. Factions and minor factions each with their own types of ships, missions, unit and gear. A much larger and more interesting tech tree. Stronger tactical variety between enemies (different behaviour, loadouts, some enemies very resistant to certain types of weapons). Slower and more gradual tech progression (well this one is subjective, but I prefer it this way). More mission variety including various "side quests".

Even a straight remake with better graphics is not necessarily better as simpler graphics are much easier to work with and lead to more/better mods. The X-Piratez creator said explicitly that if the graphics were any more complex the mod would not exist.

 

[rezaf]

XPiratez is almost a bit TOO big, though, imo. It's pretty good, mind you, but it also drags on and on and on and on...

 

[AgentFransis]

Yeah it's really long, but you don't have to finish it. It kept me entertained for a very long time before it started to get old (basically when I got to the end game and felt that most of the challenge is gone) and that's me binging the game for hours every day. The missions are fun but that tech tree is like crack, you just want to unlock more and more to see the art and read the flavor text.

 

[rezaf]

Yeah, you're right, you don't have to finish it. But imo, that's another weakness of XPiratez.
The first game in which I got pretty far stalled when I was lacking loot spawned by ... I think it was a Ghoul or something. I had played so long that their missions had stopped being created, so I would have been forced to wait on a tiny chance that one appeared in a terror mission or something. Eventually, I got too bored with it and that was the end of it.

My second and also last very long game I stopped when I lacked some research that I could only gain by shooting down a battleship or something. These rarely spawned, and my fighters were unable to defeat it. I could technically build the stuff to improve my fighter fleet, but I lacked some nook here and some cranny there which I would have had to grind for. So that game ended as well.

In both matches, especially the last one, the game had far, FAR outstayed it's welcome. I think it would be much better if there was another choice like the one for what to build out of the big hull in the beginning deciding your basic approach to tech - it could even be the same decision for all I care.
So you'd have a pirate branch in which you would develop better and better gunpowder weapons and stuff OR a modern arms branch with machine guns and explosives OR a hi-tech branch with lasers and shields OR an alien-tech branch with plasma and stuff.
Replayability would be enhanced and you would not have so much clutter in tech and inventory.
Also, an option to auto-resolve missions by assigning a leader of a certain minimum rank, but that's of course a change far outside the mod's scope.

 

[AgentFransis]

I think a lot of the kinks with bottleneck items were ironed out since you last played, I know effort was made to address those issues. I didn't have any hangeups like that in my playthrough, but maybe I was just lucky. I don't think it's length is a weakness really, the game is basically a sandbox. It's a bit like complaining that DF is too long. And of course it's worth bearing in mind that the mod is still a work in progress that is constantly evolving and being tweaked.

Regarding your suggestions:
- That would only really trim a small portion of the tech tree. And you can already skip whole sections of it if you want to, especially the custom weapons stuff.
- You definitely don't have to take every mission, and if you were no wonder you burned out. Fairly quickly you should become economically self sustaining through booze production and can ignore all the small fry (unless you're training noobies).

 

[rezaf]

AgentFransis, I wrote a semi-lengthy reply to your post, but on second thought I deleted it. This is the thread for another game and we should let everyone get back to discussing that.

Maybe we can settle at XPiratez being a mod well worth trying and - should the need arise - move further discussions to the thread dedicated to it? ☺

 

[AgentFransis]

Ah shit, I thought no one cared about Sellout Point anymore and this was now a shitposting thread.

Drop the reply in the OpenXcom thread if you feel like it.

 

[Israfael]

Haven't followed this for a while, but this actually got my attention (in a 'told you so' fashion)

In other ways, overwatch could be quite over-powered; having your entire team ready to take out any approaching target in any direction.

In the new overwatch system, you must specify a direction and distance for your overwatching soldier to cover - only movement within this area will trigger overwatch.

So, they still can't decide whether they'll do it properly (as in proper simulation with FoVs and LoS) or do a gamified system like nu-xcom to please the unwashed masses. What's the point of such convoluted mess if you can just do reaction fire/sight cones like he did 20 years ago? Truly, we live in an age of decadence and decline. Maybe, in 2021, when game will be close to getting released, they'll do away with classes and other gamey features.

 

[luinthoron]

So, they still can't decide whether they'll do it properly (as in proper simulation with FoVs and LoS) or do a gamified system like nu-xcom to please the unwashed masses. What's the point of such convoluted mess if you can just do reaction fire/sight cones like he did 20 years ago?

The new system has the advantage of not wasting your ammo on enemies that are too far away to reasonably hit, though. You would not have with only FoV/LoS, but otherwise it works in pretty much the same way.

 

[Israfael]

The new system has the advantage of not wasting your ammo on enemies that are too far away to reasonably hit, though. You would not have with only FoV/LoS, but otherwise it works in pretty much the same way.

I'm not speaking about some sort of advantages or new features, I'm saying they had to basically implement what we asked of them to make the game less binary in respect to overwatch and this whole pop-a-mole boardgame concept of nu-xcom. If range is limited, it can also be implemented in a simulation (let's say, it'd be dependent on perception and accuracy), but also, why would you not fire at something even if you know that you can't really hit it (as in "suppressive fire"?). Also, it'd probably be more interesting if they allowed us to manually control the toons if they passed the reaction shot check

 

[luinthoron]

Also, it'd probably be more interesting if they allowed us to manually control the toons if they passed the reaction shot check

Now that is indeed another good idea to take over from the Jagged Alliance series.

 

[LESS T_T]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/ph...te-can-we-calculate-the-epic-moneyhat.112525/

Phoenix Point Fig backers have accrued 191% return to date - can we calculate the Epic moneyhat?

I received the below email from Fig today:

It got me excited not only because my investment has already paid off so well, but also because being told these results before the game is released means we can try to guesstimate how much Epic paid Snapshot for its 1-year exclusivity deal. So let's jump into the analysis!

• Here are the the Form 1-K filings Fig made with the SEC for the years ended September 30, 2017 and 2018; I'm going to reference them a couple of times in this post.
  
  
• First, some background on the mechanics of game investment through Fig. Investors don't invest in the developer itself, but rather in preferred shares of Fig. For each game, Fig enters a license agreement with the developer agreeing to a revenue split on all revenue from the game, in exchange for which Fig runs the crowdfunding/investing campaign and certain other services. Fig then agrees to provide dividends to the individual investors out of their share of the revenue at a certain percentage--85% in the case of Phoenix Point.

• How do we know that the only revenue earned for Phoenix Point so far is from Epic? What about the Microsoft Game Pass deal? Well apparently Microsoft isn't paying in advance, because the news for that deal emerged in June of 2018, but from the above table, we know that as of September 2018 no revenue was earned for the game.
  
  
• So in order to get from the investor return to the total revenue from the Epic deal, we need to know the revenue split between Snapshot and Fig. The license agreement isn't filed with the SEC but we can back into this proportion based on the below chart from the Fig page discussing investment returns on Phoenix Point. It indicates that the sales breakeven point for investors is 48,033 units at a $34.99 price point: total gross sales of $1,680,675, and net revenue to Snapshot of $1,176,473 after the 30% cut to Steam (this was before the deal with Epic).

• Phoenix Point was willing to accept up to $500,000 (1,000 shares) of investment from individual investors through Fig, of which they collected $495,500 (991 shares). For simplicity's sake we'll assume the full $500,000 was met, since the difference has a minimal effect on the results.

• For the investors to collectively break even on their $500,000, Fig would need to receive $588,235 ($500,000/.85). This means the split between Fig and Snapshot is 33.33%/66.66% ($588,235 vs $1,176,.473).
  
  
• Now instead of just $500,000, the investors are getting $955,000 (191% return). At a 85% dividend rate, that means Fig collected $1,123,529 in royalties. If Fig's share is 33.33%, then that would mean the total amount paid by Epic was a whopping $3,370,587 (approximately).

Not too shabby, especially considering the only money put into the game so far, aside from whatever Snapshot had to begin with, is $500k from investors and $766k from backers. One thing I'm not sure of, though, is whether this is a no-strings-attached payment, or if this will act as an advance on sales of Phoenix Point on the Epic store. Obviously if it were the latter, incremental revenue from PC sales will be much smaller.

What do we do with this information, if anything? That I'm not really sure of, but I found it to be an interesting exercise, and I think it helps give a better perspective as to the decisions facing the developers who have taken the Epic exclusivity deal. Can you say you'd reject that kind of payday as a developer, just for the sake of supporting consumer storefront convenience? Especially before your game is even done and without having to make any assurances of quality?

 

[Burning Bridges]

3 million is nothing. This is 2019 and 3M are like 300K in 1980s money. A complete joke if they gave away control of their product for such a handout, and the money will be completely gone in 12 months.

 

[Alienman]

It's cheat money though, but I guess it doesn't matter if you invested, looking for that return.

 

[luinthoron]

Interesting article, although it completely forgets about the money made from pre-orders after the Fig campaign when talking about the money already invested in the game.

 

[True Ukrainian]

LOL at all the people wanting refunds from Fig and missing their payday.

 

[Alienman]

Normal backers got nothing.

 

[thesheeep]

LOL at all the people wanting refunds from Fig and missing their payday.

Not everyone who backed on Fig backed as an investor.
I doubt too many investors asked for a refund. But who knows.

 

[True Ukrainian]

LOL at all the people wanting refunds from Fig and missing their payday.

Not everyone who backed on Fig backed as an investor.
I doubt too many investors asked for a refund. But who knows.

I know. I am referencing one of the complaints that was being thrown around about the Epic deal, that Fig and Gollop were being irresponsible with investor money by giving up big sales on Steam and that any losses investors would experience would fall on their heads.

Now it looks as if Fig and Gollop did the right thing for their investors but I don't see the praise coming in.

 

[Mazisky]

LOL at all the people wanting refunds from Fig and missing their payday.

Not everyone who backed on Fig backed as an investor.
I doubt too many investors asked for a refund. But who knows.

I know. I am referencing one of the complaints that was being thrown around about the Epic deal, that Fig and Gollop were being irresponsible with investor money by giving up big sales on Steam and that any losses investors would experience would fall on their heads.

Now it looks as if Fig and Gollop did the right thing for their investors but I don't see the praise coming in.

Don't argue. They just need to follow the hate bandwagon trend of the moment like sheeps, in a typical codex way. They'll buy the game on Epic store anyway.

 

[Burning Bridges]

like sheeps

yes

They'll buy the game on Epic store anyway.

no

 

[thesheeep]

I'm certainly not one of those opposed to the Epic store, but this case is a hard pass for me, ever since they broke their first promises.
Really, I'm just here for the shits and giggles.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Apparently some alternative unit models have been found from BB4.