An idea to change Boom Blast

And my central point is that the extended range makes the game too stationary/static. :wink:

Not at all. My Squads are all very mobile - usually built around 3 or 4 fast-moving close-quarters specialists backed up by 1 or 2 Snipers & a Bombardier.

Saying that Boom Blast makes the game too static is like saying you should get rid of Snipers because they make the game too long-range.

That could work too, though I would avoid any buffs to damage (a + 20% for grenades is actually a huge buff, because of how they work).

Get rid of AP reduction from Boom Blast, keep the range buff, somehow limit use of mounted rockets.

The thing is all similar TBS have some safeguards against excessive use of explosives, but Phoenix Point doesn’t at the moment.

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Boom Blast allow to stay at the initial starting position and being extreme effective with the bombard.
For me it is static with this soldier

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But so does good Sniper accuracy!
I honestly don’t see any difference.

On most missions, my Sniper(s) and Bombardier set up on good sightlines close to their deployment point and start softening up the most dangerous targets for my strike team to move forward and take out.

Just because one part of the team is fairly static doesn’t make the whole encounter any less mobile. It’s what support teams are supposed to do.

I don’t see this problem with the sniper. Why?

  1. Sniper needs LOS, so a slight positioning is necessary, at least between the targets.
  2. In order for a sniper to have good accuracy, he needs appropriate equipment that has less armor. A bombard, on the other hand, can fire its weapons of mass destruction heavily armored without LOS, without movement (mostly) and without accuracy buffs. If he is hit even in open terrain, he usually remains unimpressed, with no significant damage.

I mean… A bombard in my experience needs even more positioning than a sniper to clear obstacles in the path, because there’s very often obstacles in the throwing arc everywhere in my experience.
Also my experience is that there’s no armor that is going to keep you from losing limbs if you’re caught in the open (hence why I honestly think armor is useless for the player), so that’s a moot point.

But either way, they are both a static support unit - but neither of them ‘makes the game too static’.
They are simply part of the standard combined arms package of a modern warfare squad.

The efficacy of Boom Blast’s range bonus is not that it allows the Bombardier to sit in one position all game, but that it allows them to move into a position where they can target the indirect fire-support of the enemy and provide counter-artillery fire, to soften it up for the Snipers to take out its Will.

Removing that range and replacing it with a 3-grenade salvo will simply make the Bombardier even more static and devastating vs a particular group of enemies. Much better to reduce the salvo but keep the range effect, so that instead of completely blatting a bunch of helpless Crabbies out of existence it is incentivised to be more creative in its uses.

A 3-grenade salvo narrows the Bombardier’s utility to one single form of usage only.

Yes, but two shoots are way more effective! So to sit in the initial position is more effective.

to mess the topic…

  • Mounted weapons should not allow for more shots than 1 / turn. And they should not be affected by Boom Blast (no matter what bonuses you want to leave or add)
  • Grenade Launcher or Archangel should not have modified range even if Boom Blast has such modifier, and I think the same should be with AP cost, or if your really want to have lower AP cost with grenade lanucher then increase dispersion of fired grenades/missiles by 50% (more in case of Archangel?)
  • Boom Blast should work more with hand grenades, but also don’t increase range (or give max +25% range instead of +50%) and allow to handle (change in inventory) for free and throw at 1 AP. This is quite powerful combo but still require a lot of WP and mostly work for 1 turn because how many grenades you can have? :slight_smile:

So basically, remove Boom Blast?

I think you play a different game than I do. :thinking:

My grenades didn’t always disable limbs with the first hit, mostly they’re only damaged and armor is stripped by 10 and the second grenade then does the job. Exception is only if I mix it with Infiltrator or some other damage addition, but that is not the problem of the grenades itself and so also not of Boom Blast.

Then the description from @walan is true, but only from the midgame on when you have fast scouts and all the other damage addition stuff. In my games in the early stages I rarely can spot any enemy in the first turn. If it is a night mission it sometimes needs 3 turns to see the first enemy and then they are mostly in buildings near the objectives, no job for my bombardier.

IMO, if you take the later game possibilities as a norm for a nerf of the grenade and rocket launchers then we have a problem with that many damage addition and not with the Boom Blast skill.

And what @MichaelIgnotus wrote feels also true for me. If you give me a salvo of 3 nades instead of only 2 single shots then you make this devastating strike on enemy packs even worse.

In the end, I’m still not convinced of the need for Boom Blast to nerf …

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Could be :slightly_smiling_face:

Are you playing Cthulhu?

last point doesn’t suggest anything like that

Yes sure and then also on veteran difficulty as always :slight_smile:

Again, as long as I have no damage addition buffs then my grenades only destroy limbs of the weakest pandas at the start of the game and they evolve pretty fast. Actually I’m past the first month and the weak pandas are almost gone, most Tritons and Arthrons have at least 10-30 armor all around and the first Chirons come across. Only my one Infiltrator/Heavy is able to do what @walan describes, all other can mostly do limb destroying only with their second strike. That is why I think that not the skill is the problem, no, the skill is needed for the enemies that get stronger in time.

Hmm, that’s interesting… I think a lot depends on how fast you progress through the game. I play on Legend and I always feel like I’m way ahead of Pandoran evolution.

And as I’ve said before, you’re not the average player.

I’m all for making Boom Blast less abusable, but I don’t think a 3-grenade volley is the solution. It simply shifts the problem sideways, whilst taking away something from the skill that a lot of players who play differently to you find very useful.

Same here …
First Team almost all Lvl7 and seen not one Siren (Legend)

Then Veteran is the new Legend difficulty?
02.02. and first Sirens and Chirons are coming around.
I play only with 3-man-teams. I have one A-Team mostly full skilled (my Infiltrator-Assault/-Heavy/-Sniper OP-build-killerteam), one B-Team close behind and one C-Team on level 7 but mostly from training center, way behind the other two. And a bunch of recruits in my training base waiting for level 7 and new aircrafts.

Maybe I’m to fast …

I’ve usually got that sort of setup going on as well, depending on starting conditions and how much I’m willing to abuse other factions for resources.

I only saw Yokes mention Boom Blast + Hand grenades… are we the only people who do that? By week two I used a heavy/assault with free inventory to throw 4 grenades around the map messing up a lot of tritons on rooftops. I’ll admit that the bonus range seems unnecessary, especially if you also end up with the Quarterback talent.

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