Commander a.k.a. the player

I don’t like the idea of a single glorified individual. I do like the idea of having control over interesting NPCs, and having them out in the field, when and where it makes sense to do so.

But, I want to see the story of multiple interesting individuals, and–this is VERY IMPORTANT TO ME–I want to see the story of Humanity’s survival, as a whole, by working together, and accepting that change is necessary.

I believe that’s what the Phoenix Project is about, and that’s what I’m hoping for, and funding for, because seeing a good story about our species as a whole, succeeding together, despite racial, gender, religious, sexual, economic, physical etc. differences; that’s important and impressive to me.

I really feel that the glorification of any single individual would erode the importance and the impact of what the game, and the Phoenix Project, is all about, as well as how well it speaks to me, personally, on an emotional level.

If you’re going to glorify anyone in the game? Glorify everyone in the game! Let every single soldier have a story, a life, a background, and a role to play. I say, make this game a statement, not about how I as a gamer am personally uber, but how everyone playing this game is a singular and relateable individual, and human-being, and how being a human, and part of our unique human species, can sometimes actually be a pretty cool thing.

Please put that in the game!

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Commander, as it was in Xcom 1994, is just selected hardened soldier, with some add stats.

Together? NJ, Syn and DoA are fighting each other, PP doing the same (depending on your choice, you can win without allying with any faction), I don’t see how is this a story about succeeding together. Sure, a faction does work “together”, but that’s not “our species as a whole”.

They don’t seem like they’re actively fighting each other, actually… If you read all of the Briefings, then yes they’re uneasy with each-other, sometimes, and yes, DoA is viewed with suspicion, but, they’re trading with each-other, they’re communicating, and even DoA isn’t viewed as “The Enemy”.

Nobody’s actively shooting anybody else in the face, though, because there’s simply not enough humans left. The only human-on-human violence that I really noticed, actually, was when Athens fell, and the politicians who abandoned their own people, were themselves turned on–by the most peaceful faction, Synedrion–when they tried to get in the way of Synedrion’s exodus.

I can’t really disagree with Synedrion’s reasoning there, either, since those same politicians had apparently had something to do with trying to blow up Synedrion’s protective dome.

I don’t believe I’ve read any stories where any of the four Factions ever actively fight any of the others?

Am I wrong about that? Can anyone confirm or deny? I’m interested–I really love all the stories!

And, Phoenix Point’s goal is the salvation of the species as a WHOLE–and apparently, it has had that goal for thousands of years, in It’s various incarnations.

Individual play-throughs of the game don’t have to be about that, of course–you’re right, I’ve heard the same thing, that you can win without allying with any of the Factions. In that case, I guess you have choices and options where the Factions can come to violence with one-another.

(Will those be good first-choice options, in a world where humans seem to be just barely holding on?)

However, survival of US, in at least some form or another, defnitely does seem to be a strong theme in the game, and I’m hopeful that that overall ideal of “humans working together, benevolently” will be expressed, because the game absolutely is about a direct threat to our entire species, every single human, and even to our very ecosystem in which we first evolved.

That’s what ultimately makes Phoenix Point very intriguing to me, and it’s what first really captured my interest… That it’s a story about Humanity, versus the possibility of complete extinction. It’s not control of the planet that’s at risk, like in the Xcom games. It’s not about money, or power, or identity; but rather, our entire ecosystem, species, self-awareness and self-direction, way of life, and evolutionary path, that’s on the table.

It actually goes even further than just “our species as a whole”, into “if we lose, there will probably never even be another species like us, ever again.”

It is true before the game takes place. But in the game they will start to fight for resoures, for technology, for more safe havens.

Actually, one of the first geoscape/simulation-update had this in it:

Before you start each new campaign, a number of Havens and various other points of interest will be seeded around the globe. A very clever simulation, which all happens behind the scenes, simulates several years of war between the factions and the independent Havens, fighting over outposts and resources. The alien threat starting to encroach on the land, consuming and mutating as it goes. Each faction has its own “personality” which tells the simulation how and where it should try to expand.

“Several years of war between the factions”, it does sound like they are actively fighting each other (even if there is no war between the “big” factions, faction vs haven is still human-vs-human war).

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