Arkham 1.8 EGS patch issues

Phoenix Point Game Feedback
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It was suggested I post a new topic about the new patch.

Running Arkham 1.8 EGS

Started a new game with this patch.

The problem I’m seeing, is I hit a wall. After hitting this wall, I can’t win battles… even after replaying them a dozen times, knowing exactly where/how the enemy are going to hit me. This isn’t a specific battle, its seems like its all battles after this point.

I hit F-12 in the game, and uploaded the issue/saved game.

Prior to this point in the game, I had no issues, but now… battles are just dumb. an example, I added a guy that can neural disrupt Sirens, and used him to good effect in previous battles, now… even with him, I just loose every battle.

Someone suggested shooting Sirens heads (of course I’m doing that)… and I realized, that at this point in the game, when shooting Siren’s heads, I kill the Sirens before I can disable their heads.

some of what I think I’m seeing.

. Just more enemies per battle, more everything.
. Takes about twice as much damage to kill an enemy.
. MUCH more difficult to disable the head of a Siren, end up just killing when I shoot them in the head…
. Enemy seems to be using cover much more, to the point I’m having real hard time shooting them outside of Overwatch.
. Overwatch seems to be much less accurate then past battles.
. Tar Pandas (always difficult) seem to be especially so now… the host Panda, is much harder to kill, after they Tar up, they seem to take a LOT more damage. resulting in Tar Panda’s killing multiple troopers before they can be stopped (even after have War Cry on them).

Other observations.

Captured Pandas don’t produce nearly the same about of food. I think it should be adjusted a bit higher, it seems like it was adjusted much to low with this patch.

I haven’t seen a vehicle capture mission… had to build my own, previous games before this patch, I would get a couple of these, and I wouldn’t have to build my own.

The rescue Soldiers mission, keeps giving me troopers that are too week, with bad equipment. I think they should match about what point in the game you are at, making these missions better than just recruiting and building their equipment.

I have really LOVED the game, prior to this patch… I find it was difficult, but with effort I was able to win. Now… I seem to be reaching a point where I just can’t win any battles.

I find these battles to be even tougher than the old Guardian sites.

Eddit…

One more observations about War Cry and Tar Pandas.

in the past (prior to this patch)… I the Panda host had War Cry on them, the Tar Panda that was created, also had War Cry on them… I tried this on the new patch, the Tar Panda did not have War Cry on them. I could war Cry them again… (after the host died)… but this might be a bug with this patch.

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Hey @pacman223 you mentioned also having much more powerful enemies in these missions. It would be helpful if you could list, for one of these missions:

  • every enemy
  • the time in the game in which the mission appeared (day and month)

About tar shadow pandas in general: instead of killing the host, try disabling or mind controlling them. This way you won’t have to face the tar shadow at all.

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Sectoid,

Do you have a way to know all the enemies in a battle?

Yes, often I paralyze Tar Pandas, I’m a huge fan of paralyzing them, but the last few battles I had, they came soo fast, and hard, no time to paralyze them before they are killing me.

time in my game. 18:15 06.02.2047

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Since you did the same battle numerous times I thought you knew all enemies in at least one of them. Anyway, if you know where most of them are, you could take your soldiers (use frenzy if you have it available) and just run around spotting enemies so you can list them. Just a rough estimate would be good.

This is also important, it’s early february so you shouldn’t really be facing ultra tough battles. After necronomicron I think most of january was comprised of melee enemies. Early february could have sirens and such but only the first and weaker ones.

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ok… I just re-ran a new battle (since I let the last haven fall… exactly the same results… my whole team dead.

i counted…

13 enemy Pandas 2 of which were Tar Pandas.

this was me attacking a lair… (i have done MANY of these in past games… they usually don’t cause issues).

6 troopers…

1st turn… I spawned near a sentry… my only hope was to kill it… everyone shot at it… while I didn’t kill it outright, it was bleeding, and died on its first turn.

2nd turn… 2-3 sniper panda’s showed up, 2 or 3 Ashrons (?.. guys with launcher arms, spitters, and supper fast). I killed one Ashron as it rushed me, and was in touching distance… hit it with a Hell cannon (from overwatch, on its turn) hit it with a sniper rifle, and 2 laser assault rifles … finally got it. honestly they usually only take 1 hell cannon hit, + something else… like a laser assault rifle.

I sniped the other Ashron, but it rushed again, and hit one of my guys… but I got it… again… something like 4 laser sniper hits… + assault laser rifle hits…

several more panda’s rushed in. I destroyed a Panda sniper rifle (with a lucky sniper shot). . at this point I had killed something like 5 Pandas + the sentry…

I was thinking… oh great, now I’m going to win this battle… just when I said they were not winnable…

but…wait… I was then rushed by 2 Tar Panda’s at once. again… hit one host with Hell cannon, + sniper rifle… didn’t kill it… it killed one of my assault troopers. I got in the next turn, and it became the Tar Panda It was next to my troppers… I war cried it… set up the hell cannon on over watch for it… it popped up… was stunned by the hell cannon hit… ran up next to my sniper…sniper hit it… but couldn’t kill him… one of my assault Troopers shot… but didn’t kill him. next turn… while under war cry… he hit my sniper and took out his arm). … the hell cannon (fired at the another rushing Ashron. the Assault laser trooper took out the tar Panda (finally)

After killing the other Tar Panda host… the Tar panda came back up… killed the sniper it was standing behind, and hit another trooper.

at this point, I’m now down 3 troopers. Tar panda on the loose, and about 5 more Panda’s snipping me… I lost track of exactly how many Panda’s (or what kind) I killed… but something like 8 Panda’s dead, 1 of which was a Tar Panda, 5 panda’s still running around (including one of the Tar Panda’s) . the sniper that lost his arm, actually exited the battle the turn before everyone else died.

next turn everyone died.

This is exactly how the other battles go. These guys are just Too tough, they can’t be beat by any 6 troopers I have… probably couldn’t be beat by 8 troopers… even a team that could take a Guardian site, wouldn’t have beat them.

yes… my Hell cannon hit almost every round. I don’t actually think it ever missed. I couldn’t kill both Tar pandas, even when both were hit by the Hell Cannon at least once. I tried to paralyze one of the tar pandas, got 6/40… didn’t do much… still killed 2 people before I put it down.

My troopers hit almost every round they fired…

In the end, I want to say I killed 8 Pandas, 1 of which was a tar panda. I engaged the Tar panda hosts at max range (as soon as I saw them)… hit them multiple times with sniper rifles + hell cannon (as it rushed me)… yet still was not able to stop the Tar Panda from killing most of my team.

if It was only 1 Tar panda, I probably could have pulled it out.

I would say this was MUCH harder than any Guardian mission I have ever played.

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Also, keep in mind, the missions I run into Sirens, they are at least 2 of them, the more powerful ones (golden?)

that battle happened a bit before this loosing battle.

Just wanted to say this again, there is no way my team could win. I could re-play this 100s of times, I still wouldn’t win.

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First, you can stop the terror sentinels by disabling all three heads. I find that it’s best to hit it with a grenade when it’s quiescent to strip armor and life off the heads — you can usually weaken two of the three heads significantly, allowing you to finish them off with assaults. Use a sniper on the remaining head.

With the tarthrons, paralyzing is good, but fire is better. If fire kills them, they don’t respawn. I like to target their legs to slow them and then light them up. You can also MC them.

Finally don’t start shooting at everything you can see when you see it. Enemy will move randomly until alerted, so it’s often better to let enemy notice you (or wander into overwatch) before shooting at them. Helps cut down on the swarming.

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Ok, lots of things here.

Being a lair, it’s a bit more difficult than other missions in general, but 11-13 is not a bad enemy count for a lair at all.

What seems to be going on is that either your enemies are heavily armored already or your weapons are dealing less damage. I assume you’re using skills that enable you to do more damage overall. If the problem is armor, then we have 2 considerations:
1 - you should try to shred armor before shooting with assault rifles, else they won’t do much damage. However, I assume you already know this… and you mentioned other high damage weapons not being able to kill them, like sniper rifles and the Hel cannon. Also, your soldiers may all be wearing light armor for better accuracy, you should be mindful of using better armor and upgrading their strength for more hit points. Again, as a seasoned player I assume you also know about that.
2 - you shouldn’t be facing all heavily armored pandorans (specially not golden sirens, I would think) in the beginning of february.

All in all it seems to me that pandoran evolution numbers got screwed, meaning this may indeed be a bug. Since you already F12’d it, let’s wait and see. Maybe if more people run into this problem they’ll report it here too.

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Thanks, I sure hope its a bug…

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I’ve seen several vehicle recruit missions post 1.8. You might just be unlucky.

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What difficulty are you playing on?

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Voland,

I’m playing Veteran. I have played this game a LOT since around July of this year. This is the first time I felt its just too difficult.

I tried playing again, on a Haven defense I got the Big guy, Scylla ? yea… on a normal Haven defense :(… lost that one several times in a row… my poor level 5 troppers :(. had to give up on the Haven :(…

the last Haven defense I won, had 2 Sirens + 1 golden Siren. :(… I don’t think its supposed to have 3 sirens on a Haven defense.

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I don’t see a problem with either a scylla or 3 sirens (maybe not both) in a haven defense, even on veteran difficult, if it’s later in the game like march and onwards. However, this kind of setup in early february doesn’t seem right.

@VOLAND and others are more experienced and may have better insight though.

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Very odd indeed. In my 2-1/2 campaigns I’ve only seen 1 Scylla in a haven defense and it was very late in the run.

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Another interesting issue I ran into, that I think is a bug.

I have started playing again :(… I really do like the game…

I have seen twice now… I went to a haven to recruit, and they offered a vehicle instead of a person. At first I thought it was my imagination, but it happened again… yep sure enough I recruited a vehicle.

very odd… not sure how to report that…

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This has been the case for sometime now (being able to recruit a vehicle). In the past, I’ve had more vehicles offered than soldiers. On the flip side, my current campaigns are all soldiers and now vehicles. Just the roll of the dice.

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I started trying to play the new version… 1.9?

exactly the same issue exists… The game I’m playing goes crazy and I can’t continue.

my game I just stopped playing was going Great… I really do mean great… my team is mostly 6th level… a few have died on missions… but as long as I played the battles smart, I got through them.

all of a sudden… I can’t win a battle again… exactly the same I saw with the previous version… its like the game hits a spot, and the difficulty goes stupid.

example…
at 27.02.2047
haven defense… it had Scylla + sniper pandas (that I can’t see or hit) + a siren that I can’t see until it controls at least 1 of my troopers. and on top of that… artillery Panda… … My team lasted 2 terns … everyone died… played it 3 times… same results each time… Its totally stupid… its a game ender… oh did I mention that same battle also had an Artillery Panda? if it wasn’t enough that the Scylla took out at least 1 trooper per round… (nothing I could do to stop that)… the Siren controls at least 1 trooper before I can even shoot at it… and then arty hits everyone… and everyone dies.

This isn’t just a single battle, after loading a saved game… and ignoring that haven defense… it doesn’t matter what I do… each battle is the same… I could have a perfect squad, and they would all die just as well…

I have to stop playing the game now… I really liked it… but this is just ULTRA dumb. in its current state, I would never suggest ANYONE pick this game up and play with it… honestly I wish I hadn’t purchased it now… which really sucks… as I really liked the game… prior to the last 2 patches, it was very entertaining.

but in its current shape its just not playable.

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I haven’t played Veteran in nearly a year, but this enemy deployment sounds reasonable for Veteran at the end of February for an Extreme difficulty haven defense (which it has to be if there is a Scylla in it). For comparison, you get that at the end of January on Legend.

I strongly recommend you play on Rookie for a while, since, among other things, what it does is slow down the Panda evolution considerably. You shouldn’t see Scyllas until March. Other differences here: Getting Started - wiki.phoenixpoint.com

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I’m at 14.02. on Veteran, have already killed 3 Scyllas and destroyed one Citadel. They were introduced at the end January. So I doubt that you shouldn’t see a Scylla until March on Rookie.

Or is there again something in the game that reacts to the performance of the player?
Compared to @pacman223 I’m pretty far ahead with my soldiers and have over 10 soldiers on level 7, all dual classed and with good stats so that I have no problem to face Scyllas. They are not trained by TC only, they all have plenty of missions and good stats, half of them already close to maxed out.

Yes I know, I’m probably too experienced and should play higher difficulties, but I really don’t like the faster pace up there.

@pacman223:
No offence, but it seems to me that you should do something different in the early game to get more powerful soldiers before these threats arise. Fighting Scyllas with insufficiently trained soldiers would also be very difficult for me, maybe even impossible.

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My goodness! :slightly_smiling_face:

I was basing this on my fast forward run on Rookie. I didn’t see a Scylla in the evo report until late March, IIRC.

Yes, the speed of Pandoran evolution :slightly_smiling_face:. Doing many missions should speed it up. But TBH I thought it was a minor factor.

We need data!

So, poll: please, what difficulty are you playing on and what date do you get a Scylla in the evo report?