As I have written someplace else I have modest expectiations for Festering Skies and being an optional DLC I expect it to be a selfcontained system that can be decoupled from main base progression.
While raiding UFO in, well, UFO was cool, we have scavenging missions already, and I don’t think a DLCs can be so deeply integrated with the core game as to mess with it’s economy (though it is not impossible as each DLC requires a seperate start and therefore a rebalance). The coolest idea I have would be adding some tactical side to map exploration - our transport troops could have shot down, and we need to establish aerial superiority in order to explore further from the base (think of it as replacement of “refuiling stations from PP beta”). That would also work nicely as currently discovering the maps if more automated then on launch.
A new mission type could be transport defence - like in FiraXCOM2. I think downright destroying the transport ship would be far too cruel.
Combat could happen between factions and Pandas. That way making friends/enemies would have a more meaninfgul influence on our access to the world map. And impactful adition, but one that doesn’t really mess with existing systems, outside possible the economy - we need to pay for ships and stuff somehow afterall.
I hope for flying queen-class and especially behemoth-class enemies I don’t think much of SCII: HotS, but they got Kerrigan’s ride just about right. Tactical battle on the back (or inside) of those would be pretty neat.
For those that didn’t play it, it’s the Leviathan here, scale here.
The other thing I’m interested in about Festering Skies, is how the faction’s different types of combat aircraft will be balanced relative to each other. According to the old, out of date Phoenix Point Trello board, the Phoenix Project were planned to have an ‘Interceptor’, New Jericho were planned to have a ‘Fighter’ and the Disciples of Anu were planned to have a ‘Battleship’.
Would the Phoenix Project Interceptor be a moderate all-rounder combat aircraft that has an even mix of firepower/survivability/speed but doesn’t excel at any one thing?
Would a New Jericho Fighter have decent firepower and survivability, but be a little slow?
Would a Synedrion combat aircraft be extremely fast and stealthy, but be relatively lightly armed and fragile?
Would a Disciples of Anu Battleship be too slow to intercept fast-moving enemy aircraft, but be so heavily armed and tough that it would be a good choice for shooting down Pandoran warships?
Each faction would probably have only a single type of combat aircraft, but could have a variety of weapons and upgrades to choose from in the relevant faction’s tech tree. However, I do think that if the player is able to obtain specific combinations of combat aircraft related research techs from across the different factions, they should be able to research special Phoenix Project hybrid tech combat aircraft weapons and upgrades, maybe even unlock the option to develop a second, more advanced type of Phoenix Project interceptor. If the Phoenix Project was able to obtain most or all of the combat aircraft related research and tech from New Jericho, Synedrion and the Disciples of Anu, surely the Phoenix Project could develop some unique combat aircraft related hybrid techs of its own from all that?
Scrap unit ships.
Scrap Landing pad in bases. (if our ship can bring ppl to missions in random places im pretty sure we can bring people to our own bases without a 4 slot big 99% useless landing pad thats undemolisable at the moment)
Deffense batteries (as they are shown on most screenshots in game already) that can be built to deffend or reduce the attack on a base, depending on amount.
Auto intercept feature. At some point you will be annoyed by them, just how you are with deffending heavens, or cleaning out pandoran bases, while you sit and wait for the final researches to complete. You want to have mechanics implemented that makes early or mid game mechanics irrelevant so you can focus on the late game that you are in.
Xenonauts had cool ideas in this matter.
Base batteries destroyed attackers 100% if there was enough.
Ability to bomb a site instead for raw resources or ignore and it will be gone that could be used for pandoran bases. In heaven deffence i suggest spending resources to “aid” the heaven or spending diplomatic percentages depending on theire like/hate ratio to ask nearby heavens with ships to do it for you.
And finally they had an ultimate technology that could one shot any aerial ship and they had absolutelly no chance of escaping either, it was really hard to make even one and constly to maintain, but in the endgame you likelly to be able to do that and swimming in resources.
Also it would be nice to have a HUGE nerf to resource gains. lowbie havens or decimated factions should not be able to shit out retarded amount of resources for killing a couple of aliens on deffense, and pandoran bases should give FAR less global reputation, and instead give reputation in nearby havens only in relevant amounts, maybe little too, and only a bonus on the one that revealed it after a heaven deffense.
Better resrouce implementation for pandorans. There should be a significant decline in both force deployments and frequency if they low on resources and the spawned encounters should reflect that they are after resources not just flat out destroying everything.
I don’t know about you guys, but it usually a really big bummer for me to see especially in sci-fi settings where you supposed to strugle to produce quality equipment, yet some rando pirates without backup shits them out by the dozens that you shot down day in and day out, it is a HUGE lore/setting discrepency gamy or not.
You might need to crash-land and send out another ship (with sufficient space on board) to rescue the squad. In the meanwhile, the squad would have to survive attacks on and on until it is saved.
To Developers: please add bash to the enemies’ arsenal. It looks clumsy when in the The Man Who Would be Pirate King mission you disable a hand of the Pirate King and he stands in full shining armour on and on until he bleeds out. His squad is a bunch of idiots, too: If they ran they would have smashed my three attacking troops. But they were coming in one by one with their short-ranged Uragan MGs, so the whole herd had done no harm.
There should be an opportunity to change aircraft weapons and armour, just like we can change them for troopers, even if the ship’s and weapon’s factions are different.
Well I don’t find the amount “retarded”. It’s a haven with thousands of people, and you usually get what, about 300 material and less than 100 tech? That’s about… 2 armor pieces? Not very much really. Do correct me if I’m wrong, my memory is terrible and I haven’t been able to play this week.
Came here to tell exactly this. While I believe Phoenix Point is on the right track to become a viable competitor in the “Like X-Com, but” market, it won’t be through DLCs, but rather with the free patches.No true game changing system can be introduced with Festering Skies, as it would put the game in a real awkward position with its players: “Oh, you just have the base game and want to finish it? Too bad, have to buy the latest DLC!”. And that’s pure evil. Although, not sure if some company like EA or the NU Blizzard has already attempted to do such a thing.
No it’s not. I would like to have a whole great experience with DLC’s included because I love PP and I like what PP tries to do and it’s cheap as hell compared EA cash grabs for 69$!
With all the DLC’s and base game maybe I will have a game for my whole life. I played first UFO for 20 years and people still play with mods. PP can this be too. And I don’t want to have limited experience because some people refuse to give some more bucks to something they like to play.
You and I can have different point of view and I respect that but I am totally disagree with you.
If DLCs are so essencial then they shouldn’t be sold seperately. The biggest problem is logistical. Base game has to be playable with none, all or some DLCs purchased. If DLCs have too much of an impact on the core game supporting various variants of the campaign will become very difficult. That’s why I prefer big expansions where you end up with two versions rather countless variations one could own.
Those years passed. Expansion days are from the past. You can’t add everything at launch too. So at least I want some dlc s act like an expansion together.
How so? PP direct competitor released expansions to a great effect. Paradox stands as publisher who effectively uses DLCs, but I didn’t play enough of their games to really know how they handle expansions. From what I read, DLCs are mostly a bad value as main additions come to base game for free. So if air combat was added for free to base game, and DLC would add something optional on top, then air combat could have been intergrated deeper - as it would become a core part of the PP experience.
How would that happen exactly? The very problem with DLCs is they don’t act as a cohesive whole. If WotC sold its individual parts seperately it would never be as good as it is, as they would have to work without each other. Even DLCs XCOM2 had, didn’t work well until they have been properly integrated into WotC. And they are different from developing game overtime, as it is not “all or nothing” deal. DLC3 can’t be connected to DLCs 1, 2, 4, 5 because one might own DLC3 but not the other. Or other way around.
Imagine WotC where Chosen, Factions, Resistance Ring, Hero Units aren’t interconnected and need to work without each other. There is a reason while Expansion2 for Civ games includes all the additions from Expansion1 minus Civs. Expansions build on each other, where’s DLCs add side content. Unless, all DLCs build on each other (you can’t play DLC5 without 1-4 active) I don’t see anything too interconnected happening - between DLCs or between base game and DLCs.
I said somewhere about Steam release. As you noticed, all DLC’s adding some new style of game play or feature at PP rather then a simple class or weapon set. They are not simple story missions either. They added more side factions, enemies, items, point of interests, mining and goes on. DLC 3 will add air fights. This is totally new feature too. So Snapshot can bring those 3 DLC together and with another big game update they can make the game a whole with everything. So imagine, we get WOTC but with 3 steps then making them together and linked.
Snapshot can do this and go for Steam like a whole another game with DLC’s and add more DLC’s to over this version. Yes there will be a main game without DLC’s like Xcom 2 alone. But it will be weak. Some price changes, they can make main game + 3 DLC special for steam and then use this with all platforms together. I see this a wise decision if they plan so.
Expansions are DLC too. So there are smaller and bigger DLC’s. Xcom 2 done by at 3A company with a huge budged. Xcom is just another game for them and it’s about money. Snapshot is a bit different. PP is everything for them and they work hard to make something great at this genre. Xcom 2 even wth WTOC is a very simple and hollow game compared PP. And WTOC was a huge let down as it added some mechanics which is not fitting to an xcom game. Fraxis Xcoms are not real xcoms anyway. Xcom 1 is a meh one butt at least it created a ground but xcom 2 was totally different thing…
But they can’t do that, because DLC3 doesn’t require DLC1+2. And DLC 4+5 won’t require DLC3. PP needs to work with or without DLC3 and any combination of DLC1-5. If all there was was PP base game and PP+Season Pass I would be more optimistic. As it is I keep my expectations modest. Still, I do hope that somehow you are right.
EDIT:
Whatever your thoughts of XCOM2 as a game or XCOM game, the fact remains that WotC is a content rich and detailed addition, which touches on every aspect of XCOM2 gameplay and attempts to fix every problem the base game had. It’s a great expansion to the game you might not like.
I think if you define DLCs just by name (aka. additional content that you download) then sure. Other then that a distinction between expansion and DLCs is rather obvious if you compare type of content such additions provide and depth of their integration. Civ: Gods and Kings, Brave New World, Rise and Fall, Gathering Storm are expansions. Civ packs and Frontier Pass are DLCs. Enemy Within, WotC are expansions. Slingshot pack, Shen’s Last Gift, Alein Hunters are DLCs. Pillars of Eternity: White March1&2 are two part expansion. Beast of WInter, Seeker, Slayer Survivor, Forgotten Sanctum are DLCs. You get the idea. PP has DLCs. It doesn’t have expansions, but receives maningful additions as “free updates”. I would look for those “free updates” for game changers, not for DLCs.
@drages, @Wormerine is right. That’s why some feel that PP’s LotA should’ve been an expansion and not a DLC. Festering skies is the same, if it is to be great. Maybe if Snapshot adds flying enemy mechanics and at least one flying enemy to the base game for free, Festering Skies can then expand upon it as a DLC successfully and with depth.
The problem is the enemy balance for default story. DLC 1 gives you some cool things, not game changer but cool. LoA gives you good guns… not most wanted or needed ones but still it improves your soldiers so it makes the game easier because the main game does not change. If you just patch main game to make it harder then people who got only main game will suffer. BUT… the game is already easy. I still think there should be more enemies, mostly at pandora side, per mission. Not bigger ones but little ones should be much more. Mid and Late game your soldiers can run and shoot much more, so enemies just dies when they are in LoS.
I’d like loads of stuff but I think it would be great if you could see them stalking the geoscape. Hope they make the air battles… Fun… And balanced I guess.
A few more Pandoran types (not mutations) would be nice as well.
Just do not put too much power in that.
I don’t think much of SCII: HotS, but they got Kerrigan’s ride just about right. Tactical battle on the back (or inside) of those would be pretty neat.