I have played the newest patch for 6-7 hours on the 3 difficulty can’t remember the name and here is what I have noticed.
Pros
I like the panda evolution, don’t know if I need an update when the same evolution levels up every time.
Game seems more directional now. Previously I would have so many sites and tasks I never knew where to start. As soon as I got direction I would get 3 haven defenses in a row and had no clue what I was doing.
The panda evolution seems very well paced, but once they evolve a feature that feature maxes out quickly.
Tritions now using the diemos rifle! FTW.
Soldiers recruited from havens can be higher than level 1. That’s nice. But they have all the perks below their rank selected. Some of the perks I don’t use so I would prefer the points to spend but at least they can join the fight sooner vs later.
Cons-
Scanning? The only way to to expand your playing area is to scan from bases, the bases cost a ton of resources to Bring online and then repair the facilities.
My manticore is stuck in N america due to no POI to South America. Had to steal a helios, but still having resource issues. Been doing a ton of trading basically the Helios is a trade vessel.
There was such a big deal about the new fauna and scavenger sites… I have found one! Yes one! In 7 hours of play.
Due to my travel restrictions I’m stuck siding with synedrion. They are the only bases available due to my alliance with them. But have found one NJ and one DOA base.
Lack of resources. Lots of trading, having to wait on haven defense.
The nerf to dash still sucks. Sorry. I liked dash the way it was. Never used it more than once per turn, now I catch my self using it back to back to get in position. Maybe make is 3 movement bars again but limit 1 per turn.
There is more, but this is all I could think of now.
Ooh, I know, why not change dash so that instead of getting any movement you just stand still, lose all your ap and all your wp; that way we make completely sure noone will ever use that skill!
Dash is used a lot because the game forces you to. When half the mission objectives (in protect missions) are destroyed the first turn you either have to most fast or simply give up any hope of being able to be successful. This is not good game design. Using the nerf stick on anything that is used to overcome problematic situations in the game only serves to kill the game.
That isn’t a problem with Dash, that is a problem with the mission designs. If those missions you’re talking about where built properly, it wouldn’t be an issue. They need to stop messing with the outlying symptoms and start fixing the actual issues.
I’ve complained about those protect missions on here recently. “Go rescue people”. Ok, cool, I could use some new recruits. Get to the mission, the three recruits and the exit are on the exact opposite side of the map from me. Turn 1, 2 out of 3 of them are dead. What in the world?
Or the missions where you have to protect the equipment from getting destroyed, where the Pandas start out right next to it and get four melee swings a turn on it. 50% of the place is fucked before you can even get to them.
Dash is required to succeed in these missions, not because Dash is OP, but because mission layout is atrocious.
Finding new havens also reveals sites they found around them.
Yes, that’s what many of us have been complaining for a while. You give player godly power, you give enemies godly power to compensate. That’s also why argument “if you don’t like the skill, don’t use it!” was silly. I didn’t find PP too easy - just unenjoyable. Forcing players to hurry - good. Forcing them to dash across the entire map - not fun nor interesting.
Objectives get destroyed without player has chance to react? Improve on mission design. Enemies force players to rush them and kill them while abusing dash? Nerf enemies.
I didn’t play long enough to feel that dash was nerfed. So far everything was fine, but I didn’t get far enough for enemies to be able to wreck mission objectives in two turns.
Yes finding the new havens opens up a spot or 2 sometimes. No consistent.
On the enemy killing the objective by the end of the first turn! Just had that happen, still kind of early in the game, just got informed that sirens are a thing. But I was doing the “rescue so and so’s brother” from the Anu haven. First turn the “objective” sees 5 enemy units all within movement range of him. I move him as close to my guys as possible, move my guys as close as I can, able to take out one of the attackers. Objective takes a shot gun blast and then fire from a Viral gun. Dead! Mission says! Hope he wasn’t really the brother of …, but we will never know! WTF? Lmao.
I’m ok with losing some missions, havens and soldiers. But the costs have gotten up there. New base is 100 tech and 600 materials to activate. You can have a lot more than 8 now. 12 maybe more.
Overall I am liking where this game is going but one change needs some revision. Putting Food production behind Anu faction is not making me happy. I did 3 raids before giving up and making friends. I suggest the follwing options for revisions. Make ‘Fungol Growth’ part of the PP research tree [I suggest after the Trade protocol] OR force ‘Fungol Growth’ to spawn after the nth raid [I would like n=1 but as long as it is not a random thing]
I’ve always thought that giving objectives a small amount of armor would solve the issue of them being destroyed too quickly. It would still make the player feel like they need to hurry to defend them but would avoid them being instantly destructible.
This for objectives, and some panic room or tube for people. That is, if mobs are going to spawn right on top of objectives… if that is resolved so both sides have an equal trek/sprint to them, shields/armor/panic rooms won’t be needed.