feedback for developers

Phoenix Point
1

my opinion about the game and an attempt to influence its further development for the better. (hoping for the best :))

I have played the game for more than 200 hours, in its various release versions since February of this year.

bought a full game package.

I want to immediately thank the developers for such a pleasant game in my favorite area of ​​games.

A game with huge capabilities and I see will more of them appear.

now move on to criticism, no offense.

I’ll say right away that I play on a legend. and I don’t have enough complexity. There is currently no balance in the game.

I will talk about the tactical side:

It’s very easy to play as soon as you pump the team a little.

if you compare the game with chess, then all soldiers are queens))

And then the question is, what concept did the developers put into the game?

a. fast battle, that is, the correct placement of fighters, a shot is a corpse, a battle takes 2-3 rounds. At the moment, the game is just that. a sandbox in which you choose how to quickly kill these stupid enemies. and the enemies do not have time to do anything.

and it quickly gets boring, as the player has a clear advantage, a jerk, a quick stripping and so on. Enemies have few lives and skills to successfully confront the player.

b. or positional war with breakthroughs while weakening the enemy. By the way, this is exactly how it turns out at the beginning of the game, while the team is still weak and has few skills. and it is interesting. strong opponents who do not die with one poke in one round. the need to move from the flanks, hiding soldiers in shelters. I certainly like the second option (strong tactics), when armor matters both on the enemy and on soldiers.

Particulars:

  1. acid weapons are useless, since it makes no sense to wait a whole round until the armor collapses. There are skills that allow you to remove armor and kill in the same round.

  2. living weapon is a cheat. free bullets, and in the trigger-lock mode a shower of free bullets.

  3. Enemies have few abilities. weak stats of armor and lives

  4. heavy armor is practically useless, since there is no point in exposing yourself to attack, it’s easier to take everything at speed and accuracy and run around the map and punish the enemy.

  5. class infiltrator: does not work without a bionic helmet.

  6. engineer, what an interesting class, but it is only needed when defending bases, since it can mount turrets. And in lairs or on missions it is useless, since there is no positional war and the turrets will shoot the allies in the back. treatment is also not used, as long as you heal the battle has already ended. Although his skills are very interesting.

the shaman class, also so-so, is needed only to instill frenzy

  1. transport. 3 slots, really? 3 fighters with a bunch of skills and weapons or one transport unit, the power ratio is completely different. generally useless. Well, only if the base is protected. And it is easily incapacitated. Shot in gun and that’s it)

  2. where the difficulty settings: more difficult, iron man, more difficult economy. where difficulty multiplier.

  3. aircraft: it’s easier to take 2 cars of 5 and fly them, it’s fast. all the rest are not needed. also unbalance.

  4. interface:

mouse sticking

inconvenient switching between ships

lack of equipment presets

warehouse, which is accessible to all at once)))) one armor for all teams))))

first-aid posts that are not needed at all, since it is more profitable to be treated with first-aid kits than to wait at the base. How does a soldier recover limbs after a fight?))

search for recruits, turn the globe look for icons.

In fact, probably this is a cry from the soul. since frustration has overtaken me now. There are many shortcomings in the game and I’m afraid that everything will remain so (although I believe in the best)

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At this point I would also like to thank the devs! This game can still develop into a masterpiece, depending on which direction it continues …

There are many contributions to this. Have you ever looked into this threads?

Nerf everything - #53 by walan

To prevent alpha-strikes

I would also be interested in what the goal of the devs is.

I see it the same way :wave:

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I agree with most of what you say, having played the game for around the same amount of time.

Currently I play on hero, self restraining myself to using each skill only once per soldier per turn and rally the troops only once per turn, and I find the balance to be much better, though not perfect.

As to what game the devs intented, IMO they wanted a “fast”, or “lean” tactics game, where all tactical decisions have a strategic importance for the battle. They didn’t want the players to play according to a set of routines (e.g. advance to cover, if enemy in range, engage, if not, go on overwatch). It makes sense when you are going to be doing perhaps a 100 missions per game.

The problem is they went too far, to the point where the player can kill all the enemies in the fist turn. Things like mobility, buffs to accuracy and damage, combined with the skills.

Playing with the self constraints I mentioned before, I think I kinda see the game that PP is/was supposed to be, and it is a very fast, or condensed positional war.

In the first turn you usually know where most of the enemies are, you make a plan as to how to take them and largely implement it (e.g. occupy a nearby defensible structure, set a choke point, or a killing field on the way where you know they have to move, cut them off, decide on a route that you will follow towards your objective and start moving there, etc.).

By the second turn your plan is already being executed.

Engagements are over fast, in my experience also in the early game. Kill, cripple or disengage - never stay in range of an enemy that can retaliate the next turn.

BTW, I do find heavy armor and high strength very useful to make the troops more resilient, which is very important for some roles, but it doesn’t mean that they can withstand prolonged engagements, because they get crippled very easily.

I like this quickness, or leaness about PP, even when this sometimes leads to the game playing similarly to something not entirely unlike a tactical puzzle game. (many players don’t, which is entirely understandable).

What I don’t like is when it becomes something like chess without any balance, where, as you put it, all the pawns are ueens and can all move in the first turn before giving a chance to the player playing with the blacks. And if the player playing the whites doesn’t take advantage of the situation and gentlemanly moves a single queen like a pawn (or doesn’t know how to turn pawns into queens), he gets slaughtered by the black queens on the next turn.

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love the game, but I am forced to agree with the shortcomings.

  1. expand to most DoT effects, be they viral, acid, fire or poison…they are potent but slow. in cold judgement that makes the direct killing method outright better and hence they are “useless”. (note that current direct killing method relies heavily on dash, adrenaline rush, rapid clearance, rage burst, mark for death, armor break, rally and quick aim…skills that increase movement, damage output or number of attacks in a drastic fashion because they can be spammed or chained)
  2. don’t have the living weapon, can’t comment on that.
  3. I disagree with that, health and armor is actually quite decent…I believe its the multipliers (bonus attacks, bonus damage, bonus movement) that can instantly wipe out the enemy. not the lack of armor/HP or defensive abilities.
  4. heavy armor has significant problems I agree…but again…stat stack on armors being a problem.
  5. bugs…but if its works its downright broken with the “always double damage” again multiplier problem.
  6. interesting class the would shine in a back and forth, however if you are playing and not holding back with the power combo’s…its simply not fast enough to do much.
    6.5. priests are definitely not bad, mind control and panic can be game changers…but frenzy is indeed the most powerful “mutation” skill…because it…multiplies…speed…sighn…
  7. vehicles have a way too large opportunity cost at the moment…even if you don’t power play.
  8. Ironman is in the game right? I never really look for it…however cranking up various strategical difficulty setting wouldn’t do much good with the current balance.
  9. speed is a key strategical factor…and the alpha squad brings the best tools…so bigger but slower craft could be a better if the game favored more teams over a few powerhouse teams. in the optimal way to play at the moment…double helios beats all…but that can swing if you change the ease of getting recruits and level the power curve.
  10. I could name a few more, but about the “all resources accessible at all times” its a convenience thing…but on the other hand it would be made awkward if a few pre-set clicks would teleport all the armor sets to another team. you can make this harder by only allowing loadouts to be changed at situation or location here but I don’t think that would benefit the game…as such I’d be inclined to leave moving equipment over clunky just to make sharing armor with a dude on the other side of the globe less “easy mode”.
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+1 to all of the above.
@UnstableVoltage, you should show this thread to the devs - it perfectly encapsulates the frustrations of the biggest fans (and defenders) of this game.

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Thank you all for reading and not disregarding.
I understand that different people have different opinions on the same thing and in games, some people want to see one another, but I see that I am not alone in my views.

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Believe me mate, to mix my metaphors, you are preaching to a small but dogged choir that has been banging this drum since December.

Welcome to the ‘Hardcore Power-Gamer’ Awkward Squad (even if we’re not really) :smirk:

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in fact, I also hope that if not the developers, then those great guys who made longwar for xcom will get to this game and make it a masterpiece.
I understand that everyone is pulling a blanket over themselves. Everyone wants their own. One hardcor, the other a clicker with casual difficulty. And the most interesting thing is that the game can be made for those and for others. Just by introducing a player’s game analysis tool and giving him the difficulty that he can handle. And additional complexity settings that will adjust this tool according to the degree of pressure on the player.
The trouble with most games is that there really is no adaptation of complexity anywhere. there are simply factors (multipliers, xp, and so on) that do not always adequately change depending on the success of a player’s game, or even are completely fixed (easy, normal, difficult, etc.). Those who can create a truly adaptable game will climb the Olympus.

but I also understand that games are the same product as bread or a jacket. Created to make a profit. But ambition, the desire to do something outstanding, the pursuit of excellence and similar traits inherent in not everyone is able to do something more than just a product. I am not familiar with developers and their aspirations. Whether they only want to earn money or they are including driven by higher aspirations.

again, I see that the developers have limitations, such as the fact that the game is not in Steam. incentive has a wonderful tool - player reviews, not popular sites. And on them people buy games. They push developers to hone the game if the reviews are not very good. If they want people to buy the game. So what am I talking about. Exclusive for epic games))) I think it also affects the development team. Maybe I misunderstand something.

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I’m definitely with you on the Difficulty Levels. In fact, I’ve posted a suggestion on Canny here:
https://phoenixpoint.canny.io/feedback/p/use-difficulty-settings-to-enablelimit-skills-exploitation

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Actually the ‘Hardcore Power-Gamer’ Awkward Squad fully and tirelessly endorses “easy to be easy”. I even think that a casual mode with no permadeath is in order.

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+1
EASY has to be REALLY EASY and completely forgivable. So that new players can join and try it out.

But: From a certain level of difficulty / game setting, a tactical game must also fill up like one.

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@Valygar, I want to point out that @helstads_dog never appeared on the forum in December with the Steam release (last activity in April).
All of his comments are still relevant. And the SG continues to follow the rails “everything for the DLC”.

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For late game when it appears it look weak. In my opinion, beside living weapons most of normal acid weapons take too little acid damage. Look at enemies - one spit can be 60 acid and such. So boosting acid damage to acid weapons might be the balanced answer, instead of dismiss.

Kind of, but there just two. They are my essentials for Palace, since they liberate way more health packs for this mission :slight_smile:

When they evolve latterly they have strong stats and quite many abilities.

While its great that heavy can be used as exposable punch bag, I do agree so I put more focus to speed and accuracy armors to everyone. Jet Jump keeps me using heavy armor.

Echo helmet that makes all weapon silent? Not if you move a bit, shoot and move again :slight_smile:

His ability to heal limbs, heal half cost seems to be essential for hard missions like Palace. If there was more of similar, he would be more worthy.

Priest can induce panic, mind controll, reveal the enemy - one most overpowered classes. And if
multiclassed … brrr … :slight_smile:

I would definite it as “so much that can be improved further!” :slight_smile:

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I agree that there are a lot of people who are willing to wait until “all the fish is done”.
But there are also many people who believe that “sorting and planning” is needed First. And if there is a problem in the First step, then “you can fry forever”.

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