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

[Parabalus]

Pretty fun game, better than the XCOMs. Shooting mechanic is great and hopefully a new standard. Offers a much more consistent challenge instead of dropping off late. Still a bit buggy.

the infiltrator is god on earth providing damage, scouting, walls destruction and distraction, while the berserker is dead meat.

Interesting. I agree that the berserker is a weird grab bag of abilities and that melee weapons are mostly incorrect (shotgun is going to be better most of the time). Not sure how infiltrator would be great, the crossbow seems pretty weak and the damage bonus for shooting people in the back too risky and inconsistent. I like using snipers doubleshooting with the quick aim perk.

Infiltrator last perk triggers from stealth, so at max range with a sniper it's always on pretty much. For some reason the Daze (the shooting from behind stuff) also triggers from stealth, contrary to the description.

Berserker is pretty good with explosives and heavier weapons due to Shred and Adrenaline Rush, the latter especially with the Daze immunity mutation.

There are a lot of strong combos, but Rapid Clearance on Assaults is is probably the most broken one, since it feeds many degenerate loops. Also the Sniper's Marked for Death stacking, and the description is incorrect, seems to be a % bonus. Frenzy being so easily available makes me understand why Archangel doesn't value speed stat.

Melee starts being really good later on when you can afford the various augments, it makes mincemeat out of the Hoplites and generally does a lot more damage than shotguns.

 

[ArchAngel]

i played extensively this year one edition (i haven't much else available right now), and i have to say that the bug about bases being attacked without warning is still in full force.
i grew bored of it way before endgame, the problem with these games is always the same: team too small, losing a man means full wipe means losing the game. there's very little resources available, and only when the game says so, i've had more unarmed soldiers than ww2 russia, and reached endgame many of them are still unarmored. dlcs are annoying, irritating, distracting, obscure, an obstacle to progression. classes are badly balanced, the infiltrator is god on earth providing damage, scouting, walls destruction and distraction, while the berserker is dead meat. many skills are useless, very situational or totally mandatory: dash and shoot back on the assault? they make sense only for a heavy. the random skills randomly available to soldiers are a joke, most of the times a waste of points, sometimes infuriating.
movies are boring, dialogues are boring and with baaaad accents. in the end i activated the console to get finished with this, just to see how it ends. i should be pretty close at last.

ps: what's up with all the tranny recruits? 90% of rookies has not only danger hair but also wrong names.

This sounds like you were playing on lower difficulty and you had no clue what you were doing. I have none of these problems on Legendary. Also it is easy to get more resources, you needed to explore more or raid Havens.
On Legendary most skills are useful and needed. And Berserker is very powerful if you know what you are doing.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

there's very little resources available, and only when the game says so

This is what raiding settlements is for. Minimal rep penalty, and you get a lot of resources.

totally unfeasible at start because you'd be crushed. totally unfeasible later on because you want to build reputation.

the infiltrator is god on earth providing damage, scouting, walls destruction and distraction, while the berserker is dead meat.

Interesting. I agree that the berserker is a weird grab bag of abilities and that melee weapons are mostly incorrect (shotgun is going to be better most of the time). Not sure how infiltrator would be great, the crossbow seems pretty weak and the damage bonus for shooting people in the back too risky and inconsistent. I like using snipers doubleshooting with the quick aim perk.

spiders. either completely absorb all enemy fire or will maim everything, smashing walls, possibly destroying weapons, crippling, wounding, bleeding, stopping to make use of medikits. a whole team of infiltrators i doubt would ever have to show its nose out of cover.

 

[Jaedar]

there's very little resources available, and only when the game says so

This is what raiding settlements is for. Minimal rep penalty, and you get a lot of resources.

totally unfeasible at start because you'd be crushed. totally unfeasible later on because you want to build reputation.
.

Nah. Raiding Anu at start is free money (what are they going to, rush me with their shit tier armor and shotguns/baseball bats?) and Jericho is fine until they invent mounted rocket launchers. Synedrion are tricky, but none of their weapons or armor are actually strong, so superior tactics will rule. Have to watch out for snipers though. Each raid will net you more than a thousand in total resources so you don't have to spam them, and the penalty for a single raid is only like -5. Do one raid for every defence/lair mission and you'll still find yourself increasing in rep, and you probably won't need that many.

Raiding does actually become a lot less feasible as the game goes on, as each faction gets hard to counter tech. Two shots (out of the three round burst) from a virus rifle will incapacitate one of your soldiers for half a dozen turns. Jericho gets rockets and heavy armor out the wazoo. Synedrion get instaparalysis tanks.

I think "the correct" way to play is to raid heavily early on and build a bunch of science/manufacturing/training/bases and only later on do the regular scavenging and exploration missions. You should especially never build aircraft, always steal them.

 

[Matalarata]

totally unfeasible at start because you'd be crushed.

Playing on veteran to get an hang of things and because I have very little time and I managed to steal a Synedrion aircraft with my 5 starting soldiers rank 3 + a random Synedrion (lol) sniper I hired while en-route. I cannot vouch for how the games holds together later on, but early raids are pretty doable. The mission was evalued "extreme" and indeed I faced many more foes than in my previous nest assault (also, enemy snipers) but I didn't lose a single soldier and even if I had lost two, I would have considered the raid successful.
Cherry on top was the rep hit, -6%. For slaughtering ten or so operatives and stealing a top-of-the-line piece of gear. I can see why you should never, ever pay for aircrafts but this is pure comedy from a realism standpoint. Not that I personally care about that, just find it hilarious.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

so you're telling me i'm wrong in saying looting missions are hard because you totally did an entirely different mission.
intreadasting.

 

[Parabalus]

there's very little resources available, and only when the game says so

This is what raiding settlements is for. Minimal rep penalty, and you get a lot of resources.

totally unfeasible at start because you'd be crushed. totally unfeasible later on because you want to build reputation.

You have too much rep later on as it is, a citadel gives you 3 free raiding missions. You'd have to go out of your way to not end up 100/100/100.

 

[prengle]

phoenix point more like... penis point B-)

 

[Matalarata]

intreadasting.

"Intredasting" is your reaction to a simple statement of facts. Raid missions are raid, oh knoweledgeable one. You fight the same kind of enemies, if you raid or steal. Stealing aircrafts is debatably harder since you also have to hold position for 4-5 turns. Have you even played the game? To answer your inane question, no I also performed two proper raid, after I posted my message, see above for my evaluation.

Methinks you simply ignored that portion of the game and performed sub-par but hey, what do I know, right? Intredasting my ass.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

aircraft missions are "walk a man there, walking back optional". resources missions are "walk there which is in multiple points all very far, pick up stuff, have enough strength to bring stuff back, if you can't get back everything is lost".
if you can't see the MONSTRUOUSLY GIGANTIC difference, you're a living chromosomes dispenser.

 

[Matalarata]

Wow, even when confronted with evidence that you're the only one itt that didn't manage an early raid and defined them as:

totally unfeasible at start because you'd be crushed

you prefer to call other people names. That... really tells a lot about you.

walk there which is in multiple points all very far

Lol.

pick up stuff

1AP

have enough strength to bring stuff back

Bad build? The importance of strength has already been emphatized before. Your point? Also, the more you know, overloading soldiers only gives them -moves. Heavies can jump far (with no overload penalties, mind you), loot crates and pass items to other soldiers and you can literally exit the map with people 5-7 point over their carry capacity. I know because I did it, pretty easy too. Finally, cherry on top, you can just pick up what you really need and avoid overloading. Even a partial raid nets a lot of resources, again have you even tried it?

if you can't get back everything is lost

Git gud?

I repeat, having to hold position for 4 turns is far worse. If any of the above gave you any problem or is what you consider "unfeasible", it's your chromosomes that have some problems holding together. Lol, imagine playing JA blind.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

you have devastating comprehension issues. i have no use for you.

 

[Matalarata]

Yes, I never understood people making excuses for their own shortcomings. Bye.

 

[Grotesque]

so in this game, the exploring airship still autorefills with fuel an any interest points on the map?

 

[razvedchiki]

manual refuelling was too much for the target audience.

 

[Parabalus]

manual refuelling was too much for the target audience.

How did that work? You had to buy/steal/scavenge fuel at every site you currently just bounce off of?

Sounds fun while you have just one aircraft, afterwards not so much.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

instead of any site automatically refuelling in an instant your aircrafts, it worked only on bases. maybe allied outposts too, can't remember.
anyway, geoscape sucks, they know it, that's why we can't chose where the first base is.

 

[prengle]

manual refuelling was too much for the target audience.

the same target audience that happily micromanaged their ship's inventory and weapons and so on in x-com? hot damn, i sure do love the games industry

 

[PanteraNera]

In Backer Build 3 it worked like this:
Every aircraft had a limited amount of fuel.
You had to move back to Base to refuel.
You could build refueling points on friendly haven's for like 60 materials. If the haven was destroyed or you pissed them off (going below neutral I think) the refueling point was gone.
If you had not enough fuel to get back to a base or refueling point you had to do an emergency refuel which costed something like 40 materials.

I really liked the system a lot more than what they finally went with, as it added more strategy to the geoscape (diplomacy, pandoran attacks, resource managment).

 

[Parabalus]

In Backer Build 3 it worked like this:
Every aircraft had a limited amount of fuel.
You had to move back to Base to refuel.
You could build refueling points on friendly haven's for like 60 materials. If the haven was destroyed or you pissed them off (going below neutral I think) the refueling point was gone.
If you had not enough fuel to get back to a base or refueling point you had to do an emergency refuel which costed something like 40 materials.

I really liked the system a lot more than what they finally went with, as it added more strategy to the geoscape (diplomacy, pandoran attacks, resource managment).

Seems like a lot of busywork for no real gain if it was that simple to get fuel. I'm not surprised they cut it entirely.
Explains why the blimp sucks so much now though, since it's biggest advantage was removed.

If it was both a 7th resource and you had to store it on your aircraft it would be way better, especially if you were able to customize the aircraft's loadout.

manual refuelling was too much for the target audience.

the same target audience that happily micromanaged their ship's inventory and weapons and so on in x-com? hot damn, i sure do love the games industry

That's really puzzling in game, since you have multiple teams and aircraft, but their gear can freely teleport between them. Pretty much the only thing preventing that is that it's extremely tedious.

 

[robinox]

Both games share essentially the same fundamental flaws. They just differ in production values and polish. They are both a waste of time and clearly far worse than tactics games of the 90s. I am still waiting for a developer who can match (not even exceed) Xcom Apocalypse, i am not sure i will even see it in my life time at this point.

I sadly agree.

 

[Infinitron]

Phoenix Point may seem familiar to those who’ve played turn-based tactical strategy games, but there are a lot of differences in how you play the game. Let us walk you through them before your first time playing!

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Was ability to build independent ammo patched in?

Spoiler

 

[razvedchiki]

nope, it appears at the screen but you cant actually manufacture it.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

nope, it appears at the screen but you cant actually manufacture it.

Funniest thing about this is that production costs for those items are visible, but there's simply no way to make them.