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

[ArchAngel]

It's a bit like Cyberpunk 2077, or even the PoE games, or maybe even you could say Wasteland 2. Not the game we were promised and/or expected, so there was a lot of nerdrage and disappointment on release, but it's turned out to be alright for what it is. Not stellar, but fun enough and worth playing.

All these things are a lesson in (from the dev side) overhyping and (from the player side) managing expectations.

At release it was pretty bad. Buggy, barely working, completely unbalanced.

 

[Serious_Business]

As someone who didn't follow a lick of the hype and didn't play on release either, I like the game overall, with no special negative feelings. A part of me might one day think of it as a modern classic, but I'm not sure ; with only about 50hours in it's hard to say (you need hundred of hours for these types of games, and I can't do them all), but anyway I can say that it's worth it for 50h (if not two thousand). What I do like a lot about it, as I think I might have said elsewhere, is the lore and the atmosphere. I just gobble that Lovecraftian shit up everytime, but yeah, it was very good at making the aliens feel alien.

 

[ArchAngel]

I went back after 6 months to try the TftV mod again, guys were busy and it looks more and more polished each time. Now it also has bigger changes to vehicles as part of it and some options to choose starting base or something like that is coming out very soon.

 

[Fargus]

So far i'm liking the game.

The enemies are pretty original in looks, i was kinda surprised how enemies that are infection in nature learned to use human weapons. I especially like the gangsta squid side gripping a pistol like a nigger.

Love the bodypart targeting.

Factions are pretty cool, i'm playing as Anu race traitor to produce some human squids later.

Soldier customization sucks but everybody is wearing helmet anyway.

What do i need to do to get an aircraft capable of carrying 8 soldiers? I used to have that at the start of the game then my transport got replaced with "The Gift" after crappy aerial combat tutorial.

 

[Skinwalker]

Is it shit?

 

[luj1]

Could have been decent (?) but they changed the UI and look of the game too much (for the worse)

 

[PanteraNera]

Is it shit?

If you haven't played the Backer Builds, which had a lot more tactical & strategical depth to them, haven't followed the development, especially the interviews around it's Kickstarter, than I guess it is decent.

It could have been so much more, both in setting, as well in gameplay mechanics. But mid development they scrapped most of the original ideas and remade most assets to look more like NuXCOM and also streamlined the mechanics.

 

[geno]

Terror from the void has reached 1.0, is it worth a reinstall?

 

[Jaedar]

Got this from official snapshot games thing (they have my email since the ks)

bugfixes, and more.

We at Snapshot Games are honored that the PHOENIX RISING team has dedicated so much time and effort into customizing our game Phoenix Point. We believe that they have achieved an amazing re-imagining of our campaign, and we want the result of their hard work to be noticed and enjoyed by as many players as possible. Phoenix Point is also currently on sale to mark the release of the incredible mod - enjoy their great work! Now, let's give them some space to present their mod:

PHOENIX RISING team announces 1.0 release of Terror from the Void, a complete overhaul mod for Snapshot Games’ iconic Phoenix Point.

​ TFTV Official Launch Trailer​

Mod Features​

A complete reworking of the Phoenix Point campaign, with new characters, story, events and reports, and integrated and rationalised in-game lore, including a revamped Oneiric Delirium from the original release. Written by and for sci-fi horror fans!

Completely redesigned classes, focusing on sharply defined fighting roles and strong class identities, and on removing and rebalancing overpowered synergies from the vanilla classes. Fight the nightmarish doubles and replicas of your deceased comrades! Revenants are special Pandoran combat forms invested with the mutilated consciousness of your fallen heroes – they will hunt you relentlessly over the course of your campaign!

Modular campaign settings, with both very easy and nightmarishly difficult settings, and more than 20 toggles that allow you to fine tune your playthrough to your liking. Total rework of Legacy of the Ancients; redesigned missions, automata, and ancient weapons, with unique mechanics and reworked lore integration.

Total rework of Kaos Engines; massively expanded marketplace that will now sell you faction research, rebalanced Kaos weaponry, and mercenary soldiers with unique gear and abilities! Vehicles and modules have undergone an extensive redesign, with a focus on expanding and specialising their roles over the course of a campaign. All other DLCs have been rebalanced or reintegrated A series of UI changes and QOL improvements - loadable soldier loadouts, helmet visibility toggles, and more!

A reworked final mission, with new mechanics and access to unique support troops depending on your factional alliances.

Void Omens! Semi-randomised modifiers to your strategic campaign, that represent humanity’s slide into a waking nightmare.

AI fixes, a stealth overhaul, over 50 vanilla bug fixes, and many, many more features. Terror from the Void is a true reimagining of the vanilla experience from the ground up, made by fans who love Phoenix Point.

Mod Vision​

Phoenix Point was a visionary game from an acknowledged master in the genre. Terror from the Void takes that vision and runs with it, asking the question: what more could be done in terms of balancing and harmonizing the base game and the DLC content? How could the systems be adjusted with reference to experienced TBT players who value interesting tactical decision-making, while also making the game even more enjoyable for novice players? If the original horror setting was pushed into and explored more fully? This is a total conversion, created by fans for fans, that seeks to realise the untapped potential in the original product, and elevate one of the hidden gems of the genre by polishing, streamlining, and, where necessary, re-imagining the original. The scope of the work cannot be overstated, and the points above are only a rough guide to the changes. Almost every system has been touched, chopped, and changed, with an insistence on maintaining the original feeling and identity of the product.

Terror from the Void has been built in the grand tradition of fan reworks in the TBT space. Our community response during the open beta has been overwhelmingly positive, and we are enormously proud of our product. We invite you to once again pick up your Ares AR-1, stare into the abyss, and embrace entropy and madness in Terror from the Void, available now on Steam Workshop, and on GitHub for the Epic Games Store and GOG editions. Soul-rending truths and black, indifferent cosmic vistas await you… Director.

Links​

Steam Workshop: Terror from the Void (TFTV) GitHub: Terror from the Void mod for Phoenix Point Terror from the Void - wiki.phoenixpoint.com Terror from the Void Discord

If the original dev team is shilling for the mod, it's probably worth checking out.

(I played an earlier version and liked it more than the base game)


It's also pretty funny to see devs recommending a video which contains user written blurbs, one of which is "finally made phoenix point playable for me"

 

[ArchAngel]

Terror from the void has reached 1.0, is it worth a reinstall?

Reinstall from previous version of TFTV or from vanilla?
Both yes. But be careful, base defense has now become the most dangerous mission.

 

[MrBuzzKill]

Also wondering whether it's worth a reinstall/ new playthrough
This seems to be PP's Long war but I'm kind of on the fence due to wildly inconsistent new graphics
After all I enjoyed PP for being a polished game 2 years after it game out

 

[ArchAngel]

Also wondering whether it's worth a reinstall/ new playthrough
This seems to be PP's Long war but I'm kind of on the fence due to wildly inconsistent new graphics
After all I enjoyed PP for being a polished game 2 years after it game out

It is not Long War in sense that it takes longer to finish, it probably takes less if you compare it with vanilla with all DLC (because DLCs added a lot of new missions), but a lot of systems were overhauled or at least changed a bit.
Graphics were not changed but there are new UI elements so you can have info about newly added mechanics.
And have tutorial window option ON, tutorial info about all the new mechanics was added there so people understand how new stuff works.

 

[Galdred]

Terror from the void has reached 1.0, is it worth a reinstall?

Reinstall from previous version of TFTV or from vanilla?
Both yes. But be careful, base defense has now become the most dangerous mission.

It was really weird to have suppky, ambush and "acquire vehicle" missions to be the hardest before, though, given how inconsequential the rewards were.

 

[Jaedar]

It was really weird to have suppky, ambush and "acquire vehicle" missions to be the hardest before, though, given how inconsequential the rewards were.

I think supply and acquire vehicle missions could be very valuable, at least early on. Ambush is intended as a bad thing, so it makes sense (although it does make exploring points of interest at all pointless lategame).

 

[ArchAngel]

Terror from the void has reached 1.0, is it worth a reinstall?

Reinstall from previous version of TFTV or from vanilla?
Both yes. But be careful, base defense has now become the most dangerous mission.

It was really weird to have suppky, ambush and "acquire vehicle" missions to be the hardest before, though, given how inconsequential the rewards were.

Ambush is tough in mid game as soon as pandorans get some dangerous ranged weapons but toughest important mission was always Citadel

 

[thesheeep]

"Oh, I'm just gonna shoot at this spot with my scarab, path is clear."
Scarab proceeds to launch both rockets into the ceiling.
"Well, uhh.. okay, then. Next turn. I guess I'll annihilate those two fools close to the scarab. Explosion shows to not be touching the vehicle."
Scarab proceeds to blow up its front half.
"Okay, this rocket attack shows to collapse the ceiling, meaning the enemy should drop down, right?"
Scarab proceeds to shoot at the targeted spot and... nothing happens. No hit, no explosion, just nothing.
"You know what, I think the scarab stays home now. Good thing I invested all that early manufacturing."
No wonder that vehicle is named scarab. It's buggy as hell!

Why the fuck can I manually aim a shot, including leaning to the sides, but not overwatch where you'll just overwatch right into the wall instead of leaning?
Same with overwatching upwards or downwards. Very often, it just won't do anything and the enemy walks right through your cone.

In general, the hints the UI gives you are at best an "uhhhh, maybe, idk, just guessing". In the few hours I played, I already lost count how often grenade/rocket paths turned out to just not be the case.
Thinking about just not using those kinds of weapons because I feel like I cannot afford crapshots like that for long.

This game, man....
I barely started and I already feel like ragequitting for all the wrong reasons
Usually, X-COM likes get to me with their 95% miss-chains, but this one gets to me with its UI "hints".

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Yeah, scarabs are a bit wonky in caves because of their missile launchers. Flamer armadillos are a lot better.
You could use scarabs with heavy cannons, but you only get 4 shots because for some silly reason vehicles don't have magazines in Phoenix Point. You'd think that Gollop would know that vehicles would be able to carry more ammo than an infantryman.

 

[ArchAngel]

"Oh, I'm just gonna shoot at this spot with my scarab, path is clear."
Scarab proceeds to launch both rockets into the ceiling.
"Well, uhh.. okay, then. Next turn. I guess I'll annihilate those two fools close to the scarab. Explosion shows to not be touching the vehicle."
Scarab proceeds to blow up its front half.
"Okay, this rocket attack shows to collapse the ceiling, meaning the enemy should drop down, right?"
Scarab proceeds to shoot at the targeted spot and... nothing happens. No hit, no explosion, just nothing.
"You know what, I think the scarab stays home now. Good thing I invested all that early manufacturing."
No wonder that vehicle is named scarab. It's buggy as hell!

Why the fuck can I manually aim a shot, including leaning to the sides, but not overwatch where you'll just overwatch right into the wall instead of leaning?
Same with overwatching upwards or downwards. Very often, it just won't do anything and the enemy walks right through your cone.

In general, the hints the UI gives you are at best an "uhhhh, maybe, idk, just guessing". In the few hours I played, I already lost count how often grenade/rocket paths turned out to just not be the case.
Thinking about just not using those kinds of weapons because I feel like I cannot afford crapshots like that for long.

This game, man....
I barely started and I already feel like ragequitting for all the wrong reasons
Usually, X-COM likes get to me with their 95% miss-chains, but this one gets to me with its UI "hints".

Unfortunately most of these issues are base game issues and cannot be fixed with mods.
Well Scarab could be made with no scatter but then its damage would need to be nerfed. Scarab has a fairly big scatter and should never be used for precise targeting.
Shooting ceiling can be seen by moving the targeting around a bit and if it turns white (which means no shot) close to your wanted path there is always big chance it will scatter that way.

Situations where it does nothing are of two kinds. 1. projectile went outside of map boundary (also not good idea to shoot with scarab near edge of map) 2. projectile hit one of the indestructible parts of the terrain that also block projectile explosions.

Overwatch behind cover is another engine issue.
Yea, UI is often pretty useless. The funniest situations are ones when it shows you will have a line of fire towards enemy from a new position and when you arrive there and try to aim all you can see is its elbow.. good luck hitting that 5% shot..

Hand throwing grenades on the other hand is super precise and very deadly. Especially in hands of Assaults with perks that let them throw farther and later being able to equip them for 0 AP.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Why not just remove the ceiling hitbox? In order for the trajectory to be blocked there would have to be a hitbox, no?
But really, it's ok that artillery scarabs can't be used in Nests. They are artillery, after all. Another reason why NJ is best faction, because flamethrowers excel in such areas.

Now, what should be changed is letting you use vehicles in Lairs. For some reason the terrain in Lairs are such that vehicles can't actually drive through them, so you can't used mechanized infantry tactics even though the map is basically a death trap for infantry due to the lack of cover and sniper spots.

Are there more Crowd Control options? When I played TFTV I noticed that you can really feel the lack of War Cry in late games encounter. Later missions really expect you to use CC to limit enemy attacks which is what War Cry was for, and since TFTV removes War Cry it just makes those encounters even more tedious and bullshit. I did suggest buffing stun grenades on discord so that they can actually affect targets with a decent amount of Will a while back, but I don't know if they actually implemented it.

 

[Jaedar]

"Oh, I'm just gonna shoot at this spot with my scarab, path is clear."
Scarab proceeds to launch both rockets into the ceiling.
"Well, uhh.. okay, then. Next turn. I guess I'll annihilate those two fools close to the scarab. Explosion shows to not be touching the vehicle."
Scarab proceeds to blow up its front half.

Aoe attacks don't have perfect accuracy (I think grenades might though?). They follow the same spread formula as everything else, just the feedback is a lot worse. Iirc the only way to tell is to see how solid the damage indicator is on the enemy hp bar. Pure white = guaranteed hit, everything else means you have a chance of scatter.

 

[ArchAngel]

Why not just remove the ceiling hitbox? In order for the trajectory to be blocked there would have to be a hitbox, no?
But really, it's ok that artillery scarabs can't be used in Nests. They are artillery, after all. Another reason why NJ is best faction, because flamethrowers excel in such areas.

Now, what should be changed is letting you use vehicles in Lairs. For some reason the terrain in Lairs are such that vehicles can't actually drive through them, so you can't used mechanized infantry tactics even though the map is basically a death trap for infantry due to the lack of cover and sniper spots.

Are there more Crowd Control options? When I played TFTV I noticed that you can really feel the lack of War Cry in late games encounter. Later missions really expect you to use CC to limit enemy attacks which is what War Cry was for, and since TFTV removes War Cry it just makes those encounters even more tedious and bullshit. I did suggest buffing stun grenades on discord so that they can actually affect targets with a decent amount of Will a while back, but I don't know if they actually implemented it.

You have sonic grenades and poison also debuffs your stats now. And of course from the start blowing up dangerous enemy limbs worked. And you can also soften enemy armor and then drop fire grenade on them (fire grenade was nerfed that it no longer reduces armor). And of course you can use Mech or Mutoid abilities to block some of enemy abilities.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Yeah, but did they buff sonic grenades? They only affect low will targets in the base game, which is pointless against Sirens and Scyllas which have much more than 15 will.

 

[ArchAngel]

Yeah, but did they buff sonic grenades? They only affect low will targets in the base game, which is pointless against Sirens and Scyllas which have much more than 15 will.

You are not meant to easily CC Sirens and Scyllas. That is exact reason why WarCry was removed. That and skill being very bugged. There were attempts to nerf it first but it was not possible to fix its major bug where AP reduction is remembered and then if you warcry next turn as well it is added resulting in enemies not having any AP anymore.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

You kind of are though? Sirens are too dangerous to not get CC'd to oblivion because of their mind control and scream abilities, and Scyllas can one shot your troops and spawn mind fraggers.
I tried doing a citadel mission and it was practically impossible because I couldn't deal with a Scylla, Sirens and tritons all at once. Even with poison and paralysis weapons.
Maybe its because I was trying to go for Synedrion this time, but my options seemed really limited.

 

[ArchAngel]

You kind of are though? Sirens are too dangerous to not get CC'd to oblivion because of their mind control and scream abilities, and Scyllas can one shot your troops and spawn mind fraggers.
I tried doing a citadel mission and it was practically impossible because I couldn't deal with a Scylla, Sirens and tritons all at once. Even with poison and paralysis weapons.
Maybe its because I was trying to go for Synedrion this time, but my options seemed really limited.

It is not end of the world if Sirens get to MC or kill some of your soldiers sometimes, they are meant to be dangerous. They are basically Ethereals of this game.
To make them more dangerous even Berserker lost his ability to be immune to MC.

As for Scylla, yea they were also made to be more dangerous on purpose as they were too weak before. You are also not meant to kill them left and right and Citadel is meant to be one of the toughest missions in the game (for me tougher than last mission). You just came to home of the biggest baddest MFO pandorans got, they are going to throw everything they got at you and you better bring your best and toughest soldiers with best gear.
It sounds like you went into that missions too early. You can do other stuff and do that mission later. I think capturing Scylla is only needed for one of the endings.
And Synderion has some good tools vs scylla and others there - explosive spider drones. Bring one Infiltrator and lots of those and spam them all over the place. Enemies love to go after those instead of your own troops.
And it is a good idea to have one strong character to tank the Scylla and if you do not have one, bring a strong vehicle.

And if you want to capture a Scylla, do that in Haven defense where they do not get infinite reinforcements.