I’m not addressing bugs, but some things I regard as problems or suggestions for improvement:
- GEOSCAPE:
I’m generally happy with this part of the game. It’s an interesting choice to have limited resources, weigh up what’s worth doing, cut your losses, etc.
a) Starter missions (e.g. the basic first diplomacy missions for each faction) should be distance limited from Phoenix Point. I’m midgame and still nowhere with Disciples of Anu because this mission was the other end of the planet.
b) Diplomacy could be more exiciting and involved than simple mission granting.
c) I’m not sure haven defences should damage your reputation with other factions. I can’t really see why they should be so against you helping defend other humans from Pandorans.
- TACTICAL
Here, there could be significant improvements, as there becomes a point where missions can become chores rather than fun going into the mid-game. They should get tougher, but some of the ways they get tougher make the game annoying to the point of quitting and reloading.
a) I think the limb HPs are a little low for your agents. Not usually too bad for weapon fire, but anything except a heavy gets hit by an explosive, that character’s often out of action for the battle. And when you meet missions where every Arthron has a launcher arm and there’s 1-2 grenade Chirons, that’s a lot of explosives.
b) More diversity of opponent equipment. Every arthron/triton seems to have the same equipment each tactical battle - armour, pincer/shield/gun/launcher - etc. That localised Pandoran areas have preferences, fine, but all in the same battle area the same loadout, no.
c) More weaker opponents. This partly relates to the above about diversity of opposition, but it would be good if there were still some lower-risk missions and badly armoured & low HP arthrons/tritons around, for instance on scavenger missions (which become far more effort than they’re worth quite quickly). I think this would be nice to give your rookies something to do, as otherwise low level agents just have to sit in base training or they’ll be eaten alive. Also, maybe, limit training to L4 and force your guys to go out and get combat experience for higher levels?
d) Remove return fire ability for melee attacks. At least, from the aliens. If you melee a machine gun arthron and don’t kill it, say goodbye to your agent. In fact, return fire generally is maybe a bit OP - limit it to once/twice a round?
e) Grenade Chirons are a problem. Worm-throwers, fine. Goo-throwers, annoying but fine. But there’s no fun being wrecked by a unit you can’t see or shoot at. Maybe give a sort of preparation turn (like the Scylla blaster) - forcing your units to move is at least some disadvantage.
f) Heavies generally have, perhaps, too many accuracy negatives. Not so bad with the grenade launcher, but the gatling gauss thing is virtually useless beyond close range even despite how many rounds it fires, and the Hel II cannon is just a prayer to the RNG gods.
g) Range balance. The game pushes you to long-range combat ttoo much: mid-range weapons (assault rifles) become ineffective, and the enemy effectiveness at close range (Sirens & Mindfragger control, pincer melee, poison spit and launchers, high damage & inaccurate weapons, etc.) plus frequent numerical superiority makes close range very dangerous.
h) I’m not convinced by the way bits of terrain I think should be very robust like walls and staircases are destroyed when hit by assault rifles and shotguns.
GENERAL GAMEPLAY:
a) As far as I can see, you hit a nasty “crunch point” . Starts easy, becomes challenging, turns into a nightmare when you suddenly find all your opponents are too armoured for much of your equipment. Sure, once you get past this hump with the penetrating weapons it’s not too bad again, but it’s a really horrible and frustrating point in the game.
b) No armour improvement tech (except from DoA)? Or have I just not got there yet?
c) Faction balance: Synedrion seem terrible. I get that sneak and poison might be useful and I might not have worked out how to use them yet, but normally I find I need to urgently remove the amount of firepower coming my way, I can’t wait four turns for the enemy to die. A flyer with only 5 seats? No thanks, I need my squad size. They also seem unable to defend their havens as well as NJ and DoA do, but maybe that’s just anecdotal from my experience.
d) Together with aspects of the above, recruits are incredibly expensive and thus agents (especially experienced ones) very painful to lose, which is why I think some of the lethality at difficult points makes the game more chore than fun. I get there has to be a certain cost otherwise you could recruit and scrap their equipment at profit, but…
e) Assault rifles become very bad too quickly - only salvageable with characters who luck onto the assault rifle perk. Maybe provide some sort of mid-level ammo tech that gives them a bit more potency (+10 pen?) mid-game? Same with PDWs. I might note the Pandorans seem to get machine guns with plenty of damage to spare.
f) When I get to Haven defences, it sometimes says there are faction defenders left. Where are they? I’ve never seen any - is this a bug or defenders are represented by some other game mechanic?
g) Make two types of Pandoran Haven assault? A raid which can destroy a district (if all districts are lost, haven destroyed anyway), and a full invasion with harder opposition which can destroy the whole haven.