Feedback: Abilities

Phoenix Point Game Feedback
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Summary

Many abilities and traits are broken. Many could be easily fixed. I’ll update this thread as I encounter more.

Willpower

The whole mana bar thing with willpower feels very forced. One of my friends dying is equivalent to using my Jump Jets. Two of my friends dying is equivalent to using the Dash ability once.

I’ve basically never run out of willpower, despite always using the abilities pretty freely. I’ve never really had to use the willpower recovery ability either, though that would make it pretty easy. Those silly squares that give you +2 willpower? I don’t seek them out… why would I?

It’s not like this is a good balance consideration, either. I mean, the Jump Jets that seem to terrify the Heavies, they cost 3 AP to use, and heavy weapons cost 3 AP. So how on Earth would I spam Jump Jets, and why would I when you can’t do anything when you do? In fact, if I DID want to just have fun and jump around all day, or needed to move my heavy up to catch up to the others… what’s wrong with that? The Jump Jets are meant to give me a unique class davantage, right? So wouldn’t it just make sense to let me do that?

This whole concept is dumb. Willpower only makes sense as a resource if you’re using psychic powers that drive you mad, or something. It feels really forced with many of these abilities, and I think you should adjust willpower to work more like Morale from the original UFO Defence.

Jump

Already went over this. Remove the -2 WP, it’s balanced enough with the 3 AP cost and the class and armour requirement.

Dash

There are a few possibilities for this one. None of them involve leaving this ability as it is. A lot of people make fun of it as teleporting around, and it’s true that it’s an easy way to reposition and unleash 2 AR blasts at point blank range.

1 Free Movement AP: A simple one would be to just give the Assault troops a passive buff. Let them spend 1 AP on movement for free. So, they can move 3 AP worth of distance, and still have 2 AP left over, or can move for 5 AP worth of distance in one turn. This shows how mobile they are and encourages the player to keep them moving, and isn’t overpowered.

Cost 1 AP for 2 AP worth of Movement: This way, you can’t use the ability to teleport, and blast people with two AR bursts. It is a decent burst of movement, and you can still use this to move quickly to a position and blast someone with one AR burst, but I don’t think it’s overpowered.

3 AP ability to move 5 AP’s distance: You could just make this work like a sprint ability. It would allow you to move 6 AP’s distance in one turn, 50% further than normal. You wouldn’t be able to shoot an AR and use this, but you could shoot a pistol.

2 extra AP, if all you do that turn is move: This would be a passive, which is nice to save on buttons. Basically, if you just want to sprint and cover a lot of ground, you can. This would be great for having your Assault troops reposition rapidly, or bounce between fronts to support your other troops.

Return Fire

This ability is so badly broken, it needs its own thread. You can read it here:

Quick Shot

Question: Why is a quick shot, a Snap Shot you might call it, MORE ACCURATE? The fact it drives you crazy to use it is, again, strange. This qability is too good to not spam, so if the willpower cost is meant to stop me, it’s not working very well.

I don’t have a thread dedicated for how to fix this ability.

I have TWO threads about it:

I probably won’t add more ability fix suggestions for a while, as the game is too broken for me to bother playing with it for now. When modding becomes possible, I will fix all the traits in a mod and you can see it for yourself.

PS: I’m finally starting to run out of thread ideas. If you have something you would like to complain about, but aren’t sure how to express yourself, call this number at 555 4747 123. We have an expert here is complaining about things, even when no one will listen to him, and he will take on your complaining needs.

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This was reported back in BB5, don’t put too much work into all this. I don’t know if actual devs are reading these forums at all.

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They SAY they are… but yeah, I’m probably wasting my time here. I’ll post one more thread about lethality, then sit and wait till news about mods or genuine patches.

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Jumpjet isn’t very useful when it comes to distances - my guess is that it’s main function is to easily jump in elevation - something I notices is that ladder’s aren’t very generously spread, like in FiraXCOM. I found jumpjet useful, whenever to get elevation for granade rain next turn, or get closer to an objective.

I must say, I didn’t find dash that OP just yet. It is certianly the most useful skill I have encountered so far, but since I am not capable of 1shotting enemies anymore, reclaiming will isn’t that easy. However, I didn’t manage to get to the heavy perk which grants extra will to squadmates.

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That’s how I used the Jump Jets, made the Heavy a good scout and rooftop support. I figure there’s no need to charge willpower, the 3 AP cost is fine.

A lot of people talk about dash being pretty OP. I figure they were using powerful shotguns or heavy weapons with it, or such, and it gets OP later on.

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It’s OP in general as it effectively can extend the reach of your movement for a small use of manna. It’s not something that I would use to get some guy into a safety but lose some manna that now I can’t use for a bunch of offensive abilities. It’s more like if you don’t use at any possibility for it to make difference, you are just loosing on potential of damage output. It’s OP as it changes your mind set and changes your complete tactics. Like I use it on sniper pretty much non stop as it gets you into a firing positions 9 out of 10 times.

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An expert in complaining and you don’t have a french phone number ??!!?

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I really liked to jet jump (3AP) and body slam (1AP) stuff. Looked so cool. But the cost in willpower is too much for that little damage.
Jet jump + sword attack should be viable although I haven’t tested it yet.

The jet jump being 3AP is already a big price to pay to put yourself in jeopardy (mostly with sniper tritons running around later) so I never really understood why you have to pay willpower.

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:laughing: Easier not to have one, these days, as then you’d have to live there. If you’re a complaining expert, the police tend to have some violent things to say to you, in the language of la baton. Of course, French complaining does tend to involve donning a yellow vest and agitating for the next Revolución.

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Well, as a french I’m well placed to know that we like complaining, I do it a lot.
But frankly, what’s happening in the last year in France is total BS.

Finally we have a president doing what he said he would do to get elected and … no, some people can’t accept that he actually does it (I didn’t even vote for him, but now I would, he has balls).
They think they are a lot because they live in their own world with like minded people. Like 200’000 followers means something, we are 60M in the country.

Sorry but I’m crying that all this french reputation of complaining is because of always the same group of people that have the power to block the country with their strikes. Hope the government doesn’t back down.

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Let’s not turn this into a political forum, eh? That said, I support the idea of unions, so we might disagree. :wink:

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Yep, this is card-game weird.

EDIT: JRPG Weird.

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