my experience so far as I returned after 2 patches
+I really like the beefed up shred values on grenades and cannons.
+difficulty progression is much improved, no more dozen+ 330+HP crabs waddling around in a resource cashe mission.
+oddly enough I like the forsaken, but they do pop up an awful lot and they seem to prefer their heavy armor mutations in the early game. good enemies, I’d tone down the numbers…pandorans should be the most common enemy
+really like most of the changes to key skills, even though I would have hit RB harder and capped some of the benifits given to quick aim. in my oppinion the “1AP limit” for skills should be used across the board.
+viral arthron MG, doesn’t hit like a truck but can make your dude run around in panic. good addition overall
-more enemy bombs “acid” grenades and bombs just means that there are more weapons/enemies that one has to forcefully alphastrike. I don’t like enemies that you can’t take cover from, or have equipment to counteract its effect.
-somewhat disappointed that the vehicle problem isn’t dealt with yet, I’d really like to use heavy weaponry like vehicles, mutated dogs etc…but they really arn’t all that useful. I’d really like someone to look into that. at the moment the opportunity cost of fielding these units is just too high.
-missions that won’t go away, yes I failed to get to haven “x” in time and it got destroyed…why is it still on the objectives quick list.
-ODI is behaving oddly, while lairs and nest do still reduce its counter the impact of taking down a pandoran structure is almost non-existent. this needs a little more work then transparency, as getting time pressured by a doom clock isn’t all that much fun…its great to use this mechanic to force players to actually attack structures and not dawdle. but it shouldn’t really do much to players that are actually advancing the plot.
-keep updating phoenixpedia and loading screen tips, the game itself should supply players with the relevant information, not patch notes, youtube guides or forum threads. misinformation in the game itself shouldn’t exist.
+/- have yet to test players side of acid weaponry, anu doesn’t want to cooperate all that well…might have something to do with their starting diplomacy mission spawning on the south pole while I started in pakistan.
+/- melee weapon damage boost, yay…bashing with a high strength heavy wielding a cannon still beats it…whut!?..AFTER a melee rework? also just adding more damage doesn’t really change the position of usefulness of the various melee weapons, the hammer…unless the advanced melee weapons from the phoenix project has changed drastically, still seems to beat everything else.
+/- unmeasurable, but I have the feeling equipment drop rates on missions are reduced, this makes reverse engineering new goodies from fallen enemies harder, as the vast majority of what I seem to get are ammo drops. note should try the mind control>strip method again for that