Impossible expectations of allies

Phoenix Point Game Feedback
1

When your relation to fractions reaches a certain level, they will reveal locations of all their bases. The problem is that if base on another end of the word will be attacked by Pandora, and we don’t have the way to reach that base yet, we will lose relation with that fraction because we did not defend something that we can’t reach.

Another thing is the question of what Phenix Point is in this game? Babysitter for another fraction? If they will be attacked and we will not defend them they will be grumpy about that?

6 Likes
2

it’s true, sometimes random locations make it harder. In the beginning I had only one base, next to Alaska, and Disciples of Anu diplomatic mission south America, so they didn’t reveal all their havens until mid game.

But at the end you will get as much REP as you want

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I meant haven defences. The situation looks like this now. I become an ally of some faction. The real all havens they have, one on the other side fo the globe is attacked by Pandora. They are loosing, and I can’t do a thing because I haven’t been there yet. Haven is lost, and my relation with the fraction worsen because I did not defend that haven. How I spouse to do that in the first place if I couldn’t reach it?

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You can’t , they lose the haven, not a great deal, they have a lot, eventually you will defend more territory if you want, with more bases and aircrafts

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I agree it is not a big deal in a long term, but still doesn’t make sense. It is just bad user experience for a new player as he has no idea how it will affect relations in a long term. He may feel like he should defend these havens at all costs to keep the aligmnent stable and game actually punishes him for not doing it. He should never feel forced to register forum account and ask about what is he doing wrong.

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6

Have no fear. While one can experience a minor drop in favor of a faction by not going to a heaven’s defense, one can still win the favor of a faction. In my last campaign, by the time I got to the Americas, there wasn’t a single haven left. However, I still managed a 100% standing with all 3 factions. This was achieved by defending what havens I could reach and destroying enemy bases. The only downside was the lack of havens available for trade or recruits. By the end, I had more resources than I could spend. All be it, I only had a squad of 17 units (all but 1 was at least leveled up to 7 in at least 1 class).

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7

This doesn’t change the fact that this mechanics is flawed.

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I’m not saying that there isn’t a possible fly in the ointment, just pointing out my observations from my play around the issue.

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9

The player shouldn’t have to consult forums for these kind of behavior of the game.
The relations with factions are still hilariously broken as you can leave a nest or a lair around and just raid havens for tech and resources then defend them to remover negative rep… what kind of gamemechanics is this?
If game consider this behavior to be normal, then it should be reflected in the game. It should be clearly communicated that lose of havens have no bearings on progression of the game in long term, instead of doing the drama of “Ohh no! Haven is attacked! Do something fast about it!”. Beside this not making any sense from a logic point of view, which most of the player would apply in absence of the experience with this system already.

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10

This is blackmailing, give me REP and resources and I will protect you :wink:

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11

That’s how it looks like but without all the flavor text it just looks silly when you discover it.

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A lot of this will be changed with new ODI system as it will be replaced with a population meter. The player will be trying to protect mankind. As each Haven falls, so does the Earth’s population. If it falls below a certain threshold, it will be a lose condition for the player. This will make Haven protections more important (but they will happen less frequently).

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13

And what about havens that we see, because of the reputation threshold, but we can’t reach? And how fractions will react on saving humanity? Now they are happy that we saving them, but upset if we saving others.

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14

Taking into account that one factions is totally ok with wiping out havens of adversaries, they will probably be liking pandas more than PP.

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15

Interesting! What will happen to the concept of ODI once the ODI meter is replaced? Will it still have a role, or will it be redundant? Will it just be a lore thing?

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What I don’t like is 2 things:

  • Losing rep for defending a Haven against Pandoran attack (since other factions don’t like that faction). That makes no sense.
  • Forsaken Haven attacks, because there is no way to regain the reputation lost, since even if you successfully defend the Haven, it won’t reveal the Faction base that the attack came from
18

Reputation lost in defending a haven under Foresaken attacks is very minimal compared to Pandoran attacks. It’s generally just a few points lost vs. 10-15 when defending against Pandoran attacks.

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Ok. That I’ve not thoroughly checked. Been awaiting a hotfix for the containment bug.

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On my current Cthulu play through, it’s nearing endgame - about 20% left on the pop metre. Rather than faction base defense missions happening less frequently, they’re happening more frequently than ever before! It’s bonkers - it’s literally all I’m doing.

What is happening is that I probably didn’t build enough research modules in my bases (although I think I have three or four), so it seems like time is running out, and I may not have enough left to complete necessary research. As a result, I’m having to attend every single base invasion and help out, even for enemy factions, or at least enemies of my ally in (Jericho, in this game). This led to me losing allied status with Jericho which I then had to do even more combat missions to win back.

For the last few hours of gameplay, I’ve felt a bit like a Pavlovian dog, constantly reacting to ‘A (faction) base is under attack’. It all feels a bit like putting the train tracks down in front of the train as it’s going along, which as a game device is fine, but in real life, the game starts to feel a bit grindy, and fatigue sets in.

To extend the time in the game world (and as a result extend the play time in the real world), I have to spend exponentially more time doing combat missions. It becomes a case of diminishing returns, as I have to invest another twenty minutes real-world time and energy to possibly extend the game by some smaller amount of minutes on the strategic map, to have a chance of victory, of which there is no guarantee. To clarify, I don’t mean there is no guarantee of victory (of course there isn’t), but there is a chance of victory not even being possible, past a point, which is never clearly identifiable.

What I’m getting at essentially, is that there comes a point where the player can no longer win, but they aren’t made aware. In the meantime, the player will put more effort into attempting to win than they might have done beforehand, as the situation worsens, only for the game to pull the rug and announce defeat, which had been a foregone conclusion for some time.

Effectively, the game is making me gamble with my own time and energy, and I’m not totally sure I’m into that.

1 Like
21

This is good feedback, but

  1. it needs to be sent to @Valygar
  2. you must understand that these are the consequences (of the lack of balance/ sustainability) after the introduction of new mechanics (groups of mechanics: Exploration, Evolution). And maybe more (new / changed) mechanics will be added, for example in Diplomacy.
1 Like