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

[Shog-goth]

But how would you do an air combat against a goo?

Why goo? Pandoravirus is the catalyst for accelerated mutation, but on the field you're fighting mutants which can also fly.

Festering skies: The skies darken with alien vessels, and Phoenix Point must rise to the challenge. An all-new interception mode, inspired by the original X-COM, lets players build and upgrade their own aircraft, fight aliens in the skies, and harvest tech from downed alien vessels.

 

[Shog-goth]

Phoenix Point Patch 1.0.54730 - December 16th, 2019

Our first major patch deploys today. It should be going live at about 2 PM Eastern European Time, or about 4 AM Pacific Time.

Patch Notes:

GAMEPLAY CHANGES

Return Fire

• Dazed targets no longer return fire
• Only enemies who are targeted by an attack can return fire
• Return fire is no longer a half burst for some weapons - all weapons now return fire with a full burst

Ambush Missions

• Ambush missions should occur less frequently

Pandorans

• Some Pandorans have their perception slightly increased. Affected Pandorans may now detect the player’s units more easily

Scavenging Missions

• Scavenging missions should now have slightly more variety in the type of enemies encountered

Spotting

• Soldiers now stop every time they detect an enemy regardless of range (previously, they only stopped if the spotted enemy was close)

Mind Control

• The “Recover Will” ability can no longer be used while simultaneously mind controlling another unit. The effect of this is that Sirens will no longer permanently be able to keep soldiers under mind control.

Story Missions

• Adjusted difficulty on some story missions to better match up with when the player encounters them in a usual campaign flow

General UI improvements

• Restart Game, Exit to the Main Menu and Quit to Desktop now trigger a confirmation pop-up, instead of merely restarting, quitting to the main menu, and quitting the game, respectively

Cover detection

• Generally, more tall objects are detected as high cover, and more low objects detected as low cover on the tactical maps

MAJOR FIXES

• Fixed a bug where soldiers were sometimes dying when finishing a Jet Jump
• Fixed a bug where sabotage missions sometimes did not end if soldiers were evacuated
• Fixed a bug where the game could freeze if a soldier died during an overwatch shot
• Fixed a bug where sometimes Raid Resources mission did not grant any resources
• Fixed a bug where the game could crash on launch in some locations
• Fixed some extremely rare problems with game saves
• Fixed a bug where sometimes the Citadel mission was finishing instantly
• Fixed a bug that in some cases was preventing the player from finishing the last mission of the game when allied with Disciples of Anu
• Fixed a bug where you could recruit or trade from havens, even though the leader was hostile. Now, if the leader is hostile to the Phoenix Project, trade and recruitment are not possible.

OTHER FIXES

• Fixed a localization bug for the Chinese Language
• Fixed a rare bug where the game can get stuck after a barrel explosion
• Fixed a problem where sometimes interaction with consoles was not available
• Fixed a problem where sometimes the game gets stuck when a Chiron is in Stability Stance
• Fixed a bug where using Remove Mindfragger ability on a soldier controlled by a Siren was causing the game to get stuck
• Fixed a rare bug that was causing the game to get stuck when a Quick Save is made while a soldier is panicked
• Fixed a bug where sometimes the OK button on the replenish screen after a mission was not working
• Fixed a bug where occasionally the game got stuck when a siren tries to mind control a vehicle
• Fixed some collision detection bugs on some maps
• Fixed a bug causing Sirens to appear in Nest missions
• Fixed a bug on one of the story missions that was causing the objective to be destroyed
• Fixed a bug where the Mind Control ability was not showing when the head of the Siren was targeted in Free Aim mode
• Fixed a bug where sometimes leaving a haven defense on the first turn was causing the haven to be destroyed
• Fixed an issue where enemy turn music keeps playing during the player's turn
• Fixed a bug where failing to finish the mission in the Geoscape tutorial was causing the game to get stuck
• Fixed a bug where recruiting a Mutog on Legendary difficulty caused it to have no 3D model
• Fixed a bug where recruited vehicles on Legendary difficulty had no weapons
• Fixed a bug with the Bombardier ability not providing the correct bonuses
• Fixed an issue that was causing the Mutog to not be able to evacuate
• Fixed an extremely rare bug causing all sites on the globe to be revealed
• Fixed a bug that caused Bash ability to be available for the Technician Robotic Arms
• Fixed a bug causing Boom Blast ability to not interact correctly with some other abilities
• Fixed a bug causing some players to not be able to activate the Living Weapons DLC
• Fixed sound issues with voices, dialogs, and effects
• Fixed problems with some weapons not reloading fully and/or starting without a full magazine
• Fixed a bug where loading an autosave before an ambush mission was not triggering the ambush again
• Fixed an issue with the description of the Adrenaline Rush ability, not reflecting that it also reduces accuracy
• Fixed some problems with missing text
• Fixed small issues with missing UI sounds

 

[ArchAngel]

Good for first patch if it was released last week. But two weeks after release it is still missing lots of stuff, including important balance fixes like nerfing the fucking DAsh that lets you finish missions in turn 1...

I have put the game on pause now while I play new league of Path of Exile. I am going to come back after some more patching and balancing is done.

 

[fantadomat]

So by the time it comes to steam it will be a full game,ok then i will wait for that version.

 

[Iluvcheezcake]

So by the time it comes to steam it will be a full game,ok then i will wait for that version.

Thats the plan, yeh. Also with a discount

 

[mwnn85]

A shame it's such a shambles of a release.
I'm playing it through Wine on Debian with the latest DXVK.

I can't believe they've passed this off as good enough; must've burnt through all the money pretty quickly.
How many copies can they honestly be selling on the Epic store compared to the numbers they would've done on Steam?
Early access on Steam would've been so much better.

I still like the combat but the rest is incredibly rough.
Probably not even worth bothering with the 22GB torrent until it gets some serious polish.
My soldier blew his own arm off by shooting an adjacent explosive tank despite the first person view being clear.
He went full retard instead of outright dying - complete loop - had to kill the game.

 

[Raghar]

So by the time it comes to steam it will be a full game,ok then i will wait for that version.

You mean you'd wait for full version until you'd pirate Phoenix Point.

 

[fantadomat]

So by the time it comes to steam it will be a full game,ok then i will wait for that version.

You mean you'd wait for full version until you'd pirate Phoenix Point.

Oh yeas, but i didn't want to be that blunt on the codex.

 

[ArchAngel]

So by the time it comes to steam it will be a full game,ok then i will wait for that version.

You mean you'd wait for full version until you'd pirate Phoenix Point.

Oh yeas, but i didn't want to be that blunt on the codex.

Have you no national pride to buy a game made by your fellow Bulgarians? Or will you prove to the world that 50% of Bulgaria are gypsies.

 

[Mustawd]

So by the time it comes to steam it will be a full game,ok then i will wait for that version.

You mean you'd wait for full version until you'd pirate Phoenix Point.

Oh yeas, but i didn't want to be that blunt on the codex.

Have you no national pride to buy a game made by your fellow Bulgarians? Or will you prove to the world that 50% of Bulgaria are gypsies.

To be fair, the game was likely made with pirated software as it is.

 

[Raghar]

Return Fire

• Dazed targets no longer return fire
• Only enemies who are targeted by an attack can return fire
• Return fire is no longer a half burst for some weapons - all weapons now return fire with a full burst

This is kinda bonkers. If I had a soldier that shoot at enemy and with return fire, she would be half dead. Now, with full return burst, not killing your opponent at first burst would equal suicide...

Of course one solution would be reduce number of enemies that are capable of using return fire. (And don't allow high perception characters to use return fire. ) Current situation basically results in: Enemy shots at soldier, soldier returns full burst from riffle and it bounces of armor. Enemy shots at soldier... Soldier uses medkit, reload completely empty weapon, shoots at vulnerable part and actually do some damage, and use overpowered DASH to run away to have actually chance of survival.

Funnily return fire that uses at most 1/3 of regular burst would work probably better. But this idea they used to repair problems with return fire basically caused a little problem called, with short burst of 6 bullets and 36 in magazine, and two burst used for killing nearby enemy, return fire eats magazine in only 4, and then when you need to kill that nearby enemy, you have NOTHING in your magazine. That's one reason why not take return fire on soldiers, the other reason is they don't check if there is own soldier in line of sight and can easily shoot him into the head by sniper rifle.

Pandorans

• Some Pandorans have their perception slightly increased. Affected Pandorans may now detect the player’s units more easily

Which makes missions even less tactical.

Spotting

• Soldiers now stop every time they detect an enemy regardless of range (previously, they only stopped if the spotted enemy was close)

Which kills dash. Why would you use dash when you move one square and then soldier stops because he sees an alien on the other side of map facing away from soldier and shooting crate.

Mind Control

• The “Recover Will” ability can no longer be used while simultaneously mind controlling another unit. The effect of this is that Sirens will no longer permanently be able to keep soldiers under mind control.

Yea, and now only remaining problem is these 50 will power and disabling head not disable mind control, and don't stop mind control. Combine it with missions where 3 sirens are part of reinforcements... Or map where there are 3 sirens AND some enemies with machine guns.

General UI improvements

• Restart Game, Exit to the Main Menu and Quit to Desktop now trigger a confirmation pop-up, instead of merely restarting, quitting to the main menu, and quitting the game, respectively

Was there even reason to do that? The main menu was only thing on game that worked flawlessly. Why butcher it?

Fixed a bug where soldiers were sometimes dying when finishing a Jet Jump

Jump Jets are dangerous. People dying by using them is kinda realistic right?

• Fixed a bug where you could recruit or trade from havens, even though the leader was hostile. Now, if the leader is hostile to the Phoenix Project, trade and recruitment are not possible.

But this was one of MOST important gameplay elements, how did this oversight managed to get through playtesting. This game wasn't made in half year.

• Fixed a bug causing Sirens to appear in Nest missions

Does it means the mini boss of doom wasn't supposed to appear in nest mission? Like at all? Or perhaps only one, and only after her kill some small reinforcements during first encounter with nest. You know something sensible made by people who are trying to design proper game.

Who actually designed this? Bulgarians, or people who outsourced it to Bulgarians?

 

[fantadomat]

So by the time it comes to steam it will be a full game,ok then i will wait for that version.

You mean you'd wait for full version until you'd pirate Phoenix Point.

Oh yeas, but i didn't want to be that blunt on the codex.

Have you no national pride to buy a game made by your fellow Bulgarians? Or will you prove to the world that 50% of Bulgaria are gypsies.

It is not on gog,so there is no way to buy it. Also it is made by a bunch of foreigners,it doesn't matter if it is made on our soil if it is not made by our people. Also stealing shit is national pride .

 

[Raghar]

So by the time it comes to steam it will be a full game,ok then i will wait for that version.

You mean you'd wait for full version until you'd pirate Phoenix Point.

Oh yeas, but i didn't want to be that blunt on the codex.

Have you no national pride to buy a game made by your fellow Bulgarians? Or will you prove to the world that 50% of Bulgaria are gypsies.

You know, in east europe, people like B-B-Bulgarians are making game for rich western Europe and US people.
It would be amoral if they would spend theirs nearly non existing disposable income for B-B-Badly designed game.

And as for rich people from western europe, I seen on reddit some comments about how authors of game grabbed money from fig, and released half baked effort. (And spend some discussion about implying chiefs of company committed felony and are spending effort to fill theirs own pockets. I wonder if they are right.)

Authors of this game have much worse problem than piracy. Theirs problem is how to prevent people to uninstall game after first mission. It typically takes more than 2 hours to see all bad stuff, thus they can evade Epic return policy. But, stuff like "when you want to steal research, you must destroy table behind research console". That is seriously BAD. PC release is basically a public test before they release it on consoles to grab money. (I wonder if console players will not find it too simple. They played Atelier Rorona without problem. In comparison to Atelier Rorona, this is child puzzle, with mild difficulty.)

Year later, it would be possibly playable, and perhaps they would even deliver what they promised to deliver NOW. If chiefs of project will not run away with money instead.

 

[geno]

Do I need the EGS launcher to update the game?

 

[mwnn85]

Do I need the EGS launcher to update the game?

Yes, unless you find other non-official sources...
On the plus side it's otherwise DRM-free.
I've run it on Wine under Linux or you can even add it to Steam as a non-Steam game and run it through Proton.
Shame they gave up on the cross platform stuff.

It's been mostly another year of AAA disappointment for me - apart from Sekiro.
The indie devs are really on the ball though with the 2D stuff & supporting all platforms - Rimworld, Factorio, Stardew Valley, Gungeon, Dead Cells, etc

Other quick thoughts...
Seems daft to gain control of civilians on defence maps?
I kinda like the way they've locked research and items behind certain factions.
The only problem is, I seem to have no trouble befriending all three.
If it was all polished up this would be closest thing to what they tried with APOC.
The Dash skill seems to trivialise encounters; I'm having no trouble moving around them and getting two shots in the side or back.
Some of the other character skills look OP. Wish it was all action point based with generic soldiers + inventory.
I quite like the way you have to discover locations as opposed to just building them. I also like the mist which slowly encroaches the map.
Annoyingly the game has placed one of the early objectives on another continent (North America/Mexico) whilst I'm in Asia - looks like I have to do lots of scanning and fight/explore tons of trash/repeat encounters - just to get there.

I think we're looking at 8 months to a year - minimum - for this to possibly reach it's potential.
It still could end up a bit half arsed and unfinished like APOC.
The alien dimension was pretty much completely devoid of any challenge - big letdown.

 

[ArchAngel]

Do I need the EGS launcher to update the game?

Yes, unless you find other non-official sources...
On the plus side it's otherwise DRM-free.
I've run it on Wine under Linux or you can even add it to Steam as a non-Steam game and run it through Proton.
Shame they gave up on the cross platform stuff.

It's been mostly another year of AAA disappointment for me - apart from Sekiro.
The indie devs are really on the ball though with the 2D stuff & supporting all platforms - Rimworld, Factorio, Stardew Valley, Gungeon, Dead Cells, etc

Other quick thoughts...
Seems daft to gain control of civilians on defence maps?
I kinda like the way they've locked research and items behind certain factions.
The only problem is, I seem to have no trouble befriending all three.
If it was all polished up this would be closest thing to what they tried with APOC.
The Dash skill seems to trivialise encounters; I'm having no trouble moving around them and getting two shots in the side or back.
Some of the other character skills look OP. Wish it was all action point based with generic soldiers + inventory.
I quite like the way you have to discover locations as opposed to just building them. I also like the mist which slowly encroaches the map.
Annoyingly the game has placed one of the early objectives on another continent (North America/Mexico) whilst I'm in Asia - looks like I have to do lots of scanning and fight/explore tons of trash/repeat encounters - just to get there.

I think we're looking at 8 months to a year - minimum - for this to possibly reach it's potential.
Otherwise it might end up a bit half arsed and unfinished like APOC.
The alien dimension was pretty much completely devoid of any challenge - big letdown.

You control civilians so you can take them to safety as your score and xp gain depends on how many you saved.
Dash skill (and others ) are being balanced in next patch.
Factions all go to war in mid and late game and it is very hard to be friends with everyone. As soon as you do haven defense of one of them you lose reputation with other 2.

 

[orcinator]

Only enemies who are targeted by an attack can return fire

Only counter for kill sprees now gone.
Guess the devs finally made it to the final mission.

Soldiers now stop every time they detect an enemy regardless of range (previously, they only stopped if the spotted enemy was close)

Oh wait there's the nerf.

 

[orcinator]

Factions all go to war in mid and late game and it is very hard to be friends with everyone. As soon as you do haven defense of one of them you lose reputation with other 2.

Don't lie on the internet, fucker.

 

[ArchAngel]

Factions all go to war in mid and late game and it is very hard to be friends with everyone. As soon as you do haven defense of one of them you lose reputation with other 2.

Don't lie on the internet, fucker.

I don't know how it works in your Easy campaign but in my Legendary campaign they all hate each other and are completely incapable from protecting their havens from Pandoran attacks. I have to do all the defending or the Index thingy goes up. And every defense gives bonus with that faction but minus with other two. Only defeating Pandoran lairs and citadels gives bonus reputation with all 3 factions.

 

[orcinator]

Factions all go to war in mid and late game and it is very hard to be friends with everyone. As soon as you do haven defense of one of them you lose reputation with other 2.

Don't lie on the internet, fucker.

I don't know how it works in your Easy campaign but in my Legendary campaign they all hate each other and are completely incapable from protecting their havens from Pandoran attacks. I have to do all the defending or the Index thingy goes up. And every defense gives bonus with that faction but minus with other two. Only defeating Pandoran lairs and citadels gives bonus reputation with all 3 factions.

I beat the game on legendary, note the large amount of fuckers in the screenshot above.
As for the faction rep I already described the ez way to get rep.

The "meta" thus boils down to focusing on an alliance with the factions whose havens keep getting attacked, then once you're allied, keep raiding them to please their rival, ally then betray them in turn to befriend the last faction. I don't know what happens if you let an allied faction's rep drop too low since I managed to keep them topped up thanks to alien bases.

Also Haven defenses don't give that much negative rep, and if you are struggling to level up a faction all you need to do is ignore them.

 

[ArchAngel]

Factions all go to war in mid and late game and it is very hard to be friends with everyone. As soon as you do haven defense of one of them you lose reputation with other 2.

Don't lie on the internet, fucker.

I don't know how it works in your Easy campaign but in my Legendary campaign they all hate each other and are completely incapable from protecting their havens from Pandoran attacks. I have to do all the defending or the Index thingy goes up. And every defense gives bonus with that faction but minus with other two. Only defeating Pandoran lairs and citadels gives bonus reputation with all 3 factions.

I beat the game on legendary, note the large amount of fuckers in the screenshot above.
As for the faction rep I already described the ez way to get rep.

The "meta" thus boils down to focusing on an alliance with the factions whose havens keep getting attacked, then once you're allied, keep raiding them to please their rival, ally then betray them in turn to befriend the last faction. I don't know what happens if you let an allied faction's rep drop too low since I managed to keep them topped up thanks to alien bases.

Also Haven defenses don't give that much negative rep, and if you are struggling to level up a faction all you need to do is ignore them.

Yes you can do that but why? By the time you got all 3 factions to allied you could have finished the game 3 times.
mwnn85 was talking about a normal game.

 

[orcinator]

Factions all go to war in mid and late game and it is very hard to be friends with everyone. As soon as you do haven defense of one of them you lose reputation with other 2.

Don't lie on the internet, fucker.

I don't know how it works in your Easy campaign but in my Legendary campaign they all hate each other and are completely incapable from protecting their havens from Pandoran attacks. I have to do all the defending or the Index thingy goes up. And every defense gives bonus with that faction but minus with other two. Only defeating Pandoran lairs and citadels gives bonus reputation with all 3 factions.

I beat the game on legendary, note the large amount of fuckers in the screenshot above.
As for the faction rep I already described the ez way to get rep.

The "meta" thus boils down to focusing on an alliance with the factions whose havens keep getting attacked, then once you're allied, keep raiding them to please their rival, ally then betray them in turn to befriend the last faction. I don't know what happens if you let an allied faction's rep drop too low since I managed to keep them topped up thanks to alien bases.

Also Haven defenses don't give that much negative rep, and if you are struggling to level up a faction all you need to do is ignore them.

Yes you can do that but why? By the time you got all 3 factions to allied you could have finished the game 3 times.
mwnn85 was talking about a normal game.

Sick Deflection. You can easily rush the endgame and only ally with one of em given how little gear matters but that doesn't make faction rep management hard once you realize the system is broken.

 

[ArchAngel]

Factions all go to war in mid and late game and it is very hard to be friends with everyone. As soon as you do haven defense of one of them you lose reputation with other 2.

Don't lie on the internet, fucker.

I don't know how it works in your Easy campaign but in my Legendary campaign they all hate each other and are completely incapable from protecting their havens from Pandoran attacks. I have to do all the defending or the Index thingy goes up. And every defense gives bonus with that faction but minus with other two. Only defeating Pandoran lairs and citadels gives bonus reputation with all 3 factions.

I beat the game on legendary, note the large amount of fuckers in the screenshot above.
As for the faction rep I already described the ez way to get rep.

The "meta" thus boils down to focusing on an alliance with the factions whose havens keep getting attacked, then once you're allied, keep raiding them to please their rival, ally then betray them in turn to befriend the last faction. I don't know what happens if you let an allied faction's rep drop too low since I managed to keep them topped up thanks to alien bases.

Also Haven defenses don't give that much negative rep, and if you are struggling to level up a faction all you need to do is ignore them.

Yes you can do that but why? By the time you got all 3 factions to allied you could have finished the game 3 times.
mwnn85 was talking about a normal game.

Sick Deflection. You can easily rush the endgame and only ally with one of em given how little gear matters but that doesn't make faction rep management hard once you realize the system is broken.

It is not a deflection when it is true. But it is OK that option to become everyone ally still exists for autists like you to have some more fun.

 

[Raghar]

Factions all go to war in mid and late game and it is very hard to be friends with everyone. As soon as you do haven defense of one of them you lose reputation with other 2.

Don't lie on the internet, fucker.

I don't know how it works in your Easy campaign but in my Legendary campaign they all hate each other and are completely incapable from protecting their havens from Pandoran attacks. I have to do all the defending or the Index thingy goes up. And every defense gives bonus with that faction but minus with other two. Only defeating Pandoran lairs and citadels gives bonus reputation with all 3 factions.

Doesn't this game have inverse difficulty?

I looked at Kaen stream, and he was hiring a soldier for 300 food. Now, in normal difficulty when someone shoots your soldier and you need replacement to avoid fighting at 4 soldiers, and don't play at difficulty level asian. You need to pay 300 - 480 materials and some tech as well. Thus legendary difficulty player can replace in mid game a soldier for 10 days of production of material on base. Normal difficulty, either need to scavenge, or was able to keep sufficient material reserves, just in case.

Thus situation, three snipers shot at one soldiers and blew up his head off. Now we need to replace new soldier. Would be solved differently on 1. legendary 2. normal
1. We wait for our food production to get 300 food and fly to hire new one. We have equipment from first one, at worst we would need to manufacture new weapon.
2. If we don't have enough material and tech in storage, we need to either do fort defense missions, or scavenge on some sites. Then we would move to hire new soldier, which comes with his own weapon, which we can't produce ammo for and when it runs dry, we would need to make our weapon anyway. It came with armor that either kills stealth, or is quite vulnerable to stray machinegun rounds.

Now what happens when someone wants to hire new soldier?
1. We got new soldier and now wee need to spend time to make weapons and possibly armor for him. (Aka need to spend material and tech to manufacture these weapons and armor.) Soldier needs to wait until at least his weapon was manufactured (can he go without armor?). But if there is training facility in base, he can train before his armor is manufactured.
2. We got new soldier and he has weapon of HIS OWN FACTION, and now we just need to decide if we can use him in our squad with these weapons and armor, or if we need to outfit him with weapons that would complement the squad better. (If the soldier needs to be outfitted by something else, you spend additional material and tech to make weapons and armor, even when you spend material during hiring the soldier.)

Now imagine that someone wants to make something like heavy, with cannon and sniper armor... Step 1. hire heavy. Is NJ only place where you can hire heavy? Step 2. Manufacture the sniper armor. Step 3. NJ heavy comes with heavy machinegun, thus next step for heavy with cannon is manufacture cannon. You can multiclass him into sniper to allow him to use hell II cannon with sniper skills. Sniper rifle needs 3 action points, hell II cannon needs 3 action points, thus sniper skills work awesomely.

As you can see, this is also easier on legendary.
(Then we have people who were able to finish game in 6.5 hours, and well if difficulty curve doesn't ramp up much more slowly on normal, he might have easier time on 6.5 hours on legendary, than a normal player.)

 

[Infinitron]