Feedback on too many things

Phoenix Point Game Feedback
1

First of all, thanks for opening up the game while it is clearly not balanced or finished.
I was one of the guys nagging to release it, so I can’t blame it.

Overwatch:
You focus with a cone, narrowing your sight, shooting on anything that moves. I aim 3 guys on a window, all holding their guns at the ready for movement. Enemy soldier passes the window, but he walks faster than the animation of my guys taking aim, resulting all 3 shooting the wall. I would expect them to have their crosshairs at the ready, hence the cone, they narrow their sight, and be much quicker to respond.

Return Fire:
How would this look in real time. You have an overwatch that cant apparently shoot some guy passing a window. But then you have return fire. When a guy shoots behind full cover in the back of a soldier. Return fire goes so fast, that guy rotates and aims and always hits, while he just recieved a bullet in the back of his head. And when someone else, from a completely different angle shoots, he hits that guy too. Super hero stuff.

Medikits:
Perhaps a better name here is healing potion, and you have to spam them a lot too.

Rookies and damage:
Rookies have pro aim and nearly hit every shot, damage is to weak, a sniper bullet to the face and still 1/2 hp left?

Globe:
During the very first Live stream during Fig campaign I asked how will global tactics be, and Jullian Gollop said: Like an RTS… He had my money at that point. But I guess a lot has changed in 2 years.

In the very first XCOM, you had to find and scout for UFO’s and their bases etc. After that all games that were or resembled XCOM had ‘Nodes’ you had to explore untill you controlled the whole globe. In a sense, the first XCOM globe played like an RTS, all the other versions played more like the RTS “campaign window” where you selected the next mission.

Thrilling combat:
Every encounter in the squad tactics should be thrilling. You wanna come out if it unscathed. That is the real challange. Well that aint working here with the brain bugs and return fire on 100% always hit. I just get frustrated playing this, luckily i have healing potions and my enemies do not. There is no superior tactics here just an exchange of bullets.

Don’t copy all firaxcom stuff:
I think this game also takes too much inspiration from FiraXCOM. I have nothing against FiraXCOM, i started 105 campaings on legend mode, and XCOM 1 I played >200 games impossible iron man games. I love the game. They brought the genre back on a new level, stripped it to its basics and made that absolutely incredible.

But if you don’t want the game to feel like a boardgame. Look back at the original you made. Don’t use soldier ‘classes’ and ‘ability’ like firaxis did, but recruit with random parameters for aim, strength, dex, etc. Take those with good strength and equip them with an AC and heavy armor and those with good aim you give them a sniper rifle, light armor and a grapling hook. In the old game, you could really distinct a veteran from a rookie.
Give the aliens classes and abilities, but give the humans parameters and cool gadgets.

Time Units were cool, you could wait a bit and then have more TU on next turn, which makes sense.
Cover should also be better when a soldier stays put and discards action points. (he is hunkering down)

Starting with 4 soldiers. Again, looking too much at Firaxcom (and maybe console compatability).
Why not bring the old 12-16 soldiers like the good old days? The scale of combat is exactly like firaxis though I would love to see bigger realistic combat sizes.

Right now I can’t play this game and quit just after a few missions. The return fire and healing potions is too much for me.I thought this would be more realistic game.

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2

So many players are on the same wavelength with most of this. I’ve written pretty similar feedback across a dozen threads. You ought to check out my thread about reducing accuracy and adding fire modes, as I feel just the same about needing thrilling combat where getting shot is something to be avoided… instead of getting shot 6 times in the head on a good day.

Oh, by the way, @Wormerine, @Psiclone… you chuckle heads are no match for my typing speed, I get first response :stuck_out_tongue:

3 Likes
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Have you played the Long War mod? You’d usually have a large roster of soldiers. Medkits were used to stabilize downed solders so you could carry them back to the aircraft. That and stop bleeding status effects. Injured soldiers would rest at base for 2-12 weeks depending on injuries. Fielding an injured soldier or someone with a mental trauma after watching their friend die had consequences. Having an entire squad of injured soldiers defend the base when it get’s raided was a harrowing experience. Deaths were hard but expected. My first time playing this game I had 3 people die in the first mission because I didn’t fully understand the return fire mechanics. That hurt because there isn’t any coming back from that.

4

Well, it does play in real time. As far as time progression it is more or less what was pitched.

That said, plenty of previously announced mechanics seemed to get scapped. Also: no engineers/scientists? Who does the research? I don’t mind changing established expectations, but so many things feel like they are simply missing. There is base building, but not much base building and base management to do.

As to accuracy and HP pools - with the current system, I don’t see a positive effect of changing that - give units less HP and the limb system becomes completely relevant. Decreese accuracy for everyone, and combat will simply take place on shorter distances.

5

I played long war for xcom2. But I didn’t really like it. Heard it was really good in xcom1. The bigger soldier pool was ok, didn’t like the other stuff they did though. Medkits in firaxcom are good, and they do what they supposed to do: stabilize the soldier so he doesnt bleed to death. Not give them +120 HP so they can take 2 more burst shots to the head.

6

Well there is a fun to a goofing rookie. And it makes you appreciate a veteran and worship an elite. Snap, aimed and burst shot would be cool feature to return. I would have liked to see more of the original xcom in this game.

Return fire often has more damage output than the person attacking. It’s insane, even when he is out in the open, and I’m behind high cover. Return fire doesn’t even wait till im back in cover.

7

Agreed its real time. But all you do is scan this node or that one. Atleast with firaxcom I have a tactical choice: either i get a scientist, some intel or whatever. Here I just get a random reward afterwards. So the only tactical choice is find the shortest travel distance between nodes.

It didnt feel like I was at war, or on brink of survival.
Actually felt very techy and powerful.

As with base and research: It’s like they added core mechanics and missing any details, like engineers etc as you mention.

Ultimately I’m for high tech armored elite soldiers who can take a beating.
But at the start, I would like to see rookies in crap armor, who get shot in arm and their shooting circles doubles. This 4 starting soldiers (especially the heavy) already feels like I’m halfway the techtree.

8

I posted a poll for a classless system ages ago, the audience voted against it.

1 Like
9

Good points, but what I don’t like most is actually the balance for lategame. Why exactly the hardest enemy you fight is the basic one? Anthrons are insanely powerful with their heavy damage + shred + 6 burst machine gun, 95 dmg poison spit, 50+ grenade launcher, all of which cost 2 action points only and have cooldowns. Add to that their high hp pools and high armor at every limb, and relatively low profile and you get super soldiers. Compare it to the Sylla, which looked impressive, but in reality was anything but. ~1500 hp and 30-80 armor may sound like much, but truth is, for a huge target like that that rushes into your crosshairs itself it is nothing. Every Sylla I’ve met died in 1 or 2 turns, while Arthrons and Tritons with sniper rifles are the ones that are truly dangerous. Hell, I’d completely ignore Syllas if not for that juicy -15 will for every alien when it dies. Funny thing too, I think to field a Sylla aliens have to spent as much resources as they would for 4 or 5 Arthrons, which really means that any mission with a Sylla enemy gonna be far easier than the ones without. Please nerf Arthrons and buff Syllas please.

10

Lots of good feedback here. A classless system might be good, but I admit some class-like features make sense for various weapon specialists. Certainly, even if you have classes, it doesn’t mean you need to give each one fifty magic powers that break the game in many ways.

11

I had a 5th recruit, a heavy, and gave him the pistol from the sniper on his first mission, so he could scout jump/meat shield/point blanks. Good for his first mission, but as the game is made now, he will show no improvement with that pistol even after 100 missions.

For me it would be sensible if:
You start with a generic soldier, you give it a pistol. And after a few missions you notice he is quicker with it. He gets familiar with that weapon and gets better aim and quicker draw naturally over time.

But instead of 4 AP each turn. you would need ~80 TU. first firing rifle costs 40 TU and slowly goes to 38, 36… 30 and you start noticing difference.

If this game was about not making it feel like a boardgame and allow the pc to make complicated calculations, then why use simplified methods like 4 AP, classes and abilities.

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