There are almost as many people on these forums saying: “How can we beat this game, it’s too difficult,” or “Don’t take away all that OP stuff, it’s the only way we can compete,” as there are saying the Pandas have no chance.
Just because you’ve figured out the meta doesn’t mean that everybody can.
Now, it’s my personal mission to try to get this game into a position where players on both sides of that spectrum can enjoy it. It’s taking slow and painful steps, but I think we are getting there slowly.
And for me, the holy grail is Second Wave Options.
100% agreement. If both worlds are happy, who’'s to blame? After all, it is still a game and should be enjoyed by all players. However, talking badly about everything doesn’t help anyone. Not referring to you ). General comments.
Sorry, but not every crap you write makes sense. If someone replies you are immediately insulted. Fortunately we have different opinions. Basically, we both love the game. I see it differently and want to see facts instead of just claims.
I personally tend towards Walan’s side, in that I think the skills as they stand are too OP and tend to unbalance the game. But I also have sympathy with Omega’s viewpoint and think it’s just as valid as mine.
The perfect solution in the short term is to get the skills properly balanced and at the same time rebalance the Nasties etc on Easy/Vet so that the game on Easy is a cakewalk thru the story and on Vet is a moderate challenge that can be aced if you make the right builds. Meanwhile, Heroic should be difficult to master and Legendary should be damn near impossible.
We’re not there yet. Easy isn’t easy enough, Heroic is only hard if you impose a host of self-limitations and Legendary can be cheesed in oh so many ways by the OP builds currently possible in this game that it’s not even funny any more.
But the game is inching in the right directions - and once it gets there, the next step is to institute a set of Second Wave Options (or mods) that let Omega whack his Super-Soldiers up to the max and me and Walan take them right down to the min: then everybody’s got the game they want!
Well I still think that there are two main things that could easily be changed: 1. lower the final bosses HP on easy. 2. Rise the punishment for stealing plains from friends and raiding them - especially on higher difficulties.
In my opinion, it is kind of difficult and confusing if you do not know everything there is to know about Phoenix Point and its mechanics. Even after watching the videos, reading the official wiki and watching how others play the game on Legend dififculty, I still have trouble in the game.
Some examples:
“Wait…it can do that?”
“Erm…what the sh*t? How do I take that monster down?! Its like my guys are using Nerf guns!”
“Wait…wha…what did it do to my soldiers?”
“Why do I not have this research?! How do I unlock it?”
“Wait…why are all 11 of my soldiers all over the place in base defense?! This makes no sense! I’m dead!”
“Sigh. Damn it. I am out of Tech and Materials. I can’t even get manufacture more advanced guns and ammo. #killmepls”
Well I think you are right about the confusion part - it is easy to just miss out new buttons and options. After building a mutations lab I just missed out the “mutation” button in the soldiers screen until I watched a YouTube video about mutations.
If all of them we’re positioned perfectly the mission would bei boring, wouldn’t it?
The problem is If you’ve got new soldiers without gear that are put in front (tough I managed to still retreat them, play a little more defensive and fight Back).
Sorry, what is mounted laser? I see only fury 3 for heavies out of additional weapons that can get mounted to armor, rest is anti psy/detection equipement-anti goo.
I just don’t understand this. Why do people have to “figure out the meta” at all? That doesn’t even make sense to me. The game is actually broken from my point of view and always has been. (Mostly due to raiding and OP skill/tech combos). I figure two things ought to be true regarding this:
OP combos shouldn’t exist, nor be needed to beat the game. “Rock-paper-scissors” balance or “chess-piece sacrifices” type of balance makes more sense to me.
Every action that generates a large boon for the player should also come with an equally detrimental punishment.
Example 1: Steal an Aircraft from a faction? Enemies for the rest of the game and each raid against them becomes significantly more difficult, and they actively try to intercept your aircraft if you’re in their airspace. Expect them as surprise enemies on some story missions (and fun surprises if you have two+ enemies causing some chaos that actually ends up working in your favor amusingly… balance goes both ways)
Example 2: Scarab + 4 rookies in the back with shotguns clearing every map for you like a breeze? Enemies begin utilizing acid, heavy armor and heavy weapons more frequently in combat. Tech should exist to help enemies counter this strategy that only unlocks IF you abuse it too frequently. eg. Pandorans develop acid-pod mines that are invisible to vehicles and anyone inside of a vehicle (need soldiers with a certain perception OUTSIDE of the vehicle to spot them… then we could say that tech can be researched once first encountered for equipment to attach to a vehicle to help detect mines but also reduces carrying capacity of the vehicle by 2)
Balance.
Example 2 is what a lot of us expected to get in this game and were all sorely disappointed to realize they just used marketing terms to make the crumby system they have sound better than it is without being a lie.
How Snapshot ACTUALLY balances is they see the Scarab + 4 rookies in the back working and decide to reduce soldier AP from those who exit the vehicle from 2 to 1 so they can’t use their weapons effectively. Making the strategy less viable throughout the game but still possible once you figure out Quick Shot or the Synedrion Cyber Torso + Melee Weapon and still is as dumb as before.
Couldn’t agree more, and that’s what I tell Snapshot’s devs in far more detail than I think they really like every time they ask us in the Council what we think of the game.
But that still doesn’t alter my point that the game as it stands is either ludicrously easy to the point of being broken (which is a word I have used more than once to the devs) if you can figure out how to make the various skill combos work to your advantage, or so difficult that it becomes an impossible chore if you don’t.
There is a middle ground, which I am constantly campaigning for, which curbs the excesses (of both PP and the Pandas) in the game and can create a very tense and compelling campaign. That’s the game I play, using all the self-restrictions I have listed here: What Self-Restrictions do you Use?
But we live in the real world - and in the real world Snapshot have made a game that is equally loved by people who like stupid, over-the-top superheroes as by those who loved the Julian Gollop original back in the day. So every time Snapshot’s devs try to put the genie back in the bottle by, for instance, readjusting Rage Burst so that it does what it was originally supposed to do rather than the ludicrously OP Sniper Scylla-killer skill it became, there is a cry of outrage from those who like the OP skills, claiming that Snapshot have ‘ruined the game’ (and that’s a direct quote).
So Snapshot now have two mutually opposing audiences they need to please - those who like super-soldiers and those who don’t. The only way they can ultimately square that circle, in my opinion, is by creating a set of Second Wave Options that allows players to tailour the game the way they like to play it - in the crudest possible fashion: with Super-Skills ‘ON’ or ‘OFF’.
And as you can see from my list of self-restrictions, there’s a whole load more than that which needs to be done before this game is properly balanced and can be seen as a worthy successor to X-com. At the moment, it’s a pretty good successor to XCOM, though in my opinion it has tipped the scales in the wrong direction towards cartoon territory, rather than turn-based-tactics & strategy.
I like your idea of a “Super-Skills” button to prevent certain combinations BUT with 4% of steam buyers having finished the game: rather make it a Button to chose from the start than a second wave…
Edit: In my opinion especially regarding difficulties: one of the problems is that you don’t know what you get by what you chose - like I said before, I expected the difficulty setting to change a lot of things that will remain the same with every difficulty chosen.
For me personally, it would be even better to be able to turn off ALL the skills of the soldiers before starting the game. Soldiers should only differ in basic stats and this should be randomly assigned.
This path would also require rebalancing weapons and ammunition. (well, and the strength of the enemy, of course)
Dreams…
Aaahhhh, no way - advanced soldiers need advanced skills. If you don’t want skills play OG with OpenX-Com - still a great game (while graphics are not really up to date)
Nothing against you gsi-man - you have as much right to want to play this game with Super-soldiers ‘ON’ as I and Rainer have to want to play it with super-soldiers ‘OFF’.
But that’s the impossible square that SG has to circle, and the only way I can see them pleasing both sides is by giving us Second Wave Options.
Haha, devs wonder now if introduction of Second Wave will help. Good job.
Consider that some of them finished game already playing in Epic Games store. And some like me just don’t finish game before restarting it in late game. For me most fun is first half or maybe first 75% of the game. With self-restrictions game is challenging and provides quite fun. Later self-restrictions make game harder. And strategic part gets boring when you have reached every place, explored everything and activated all Phoenix bases.
Nice touch
Good job.