Interceptors were fun

In X-Com, combat between interceptors and UFOs, however basic, especially with the theme music, is still entertaining. I reckon this is because it fits so neatly with other events, and makes sense of the geoscape to round off the game.

PP promises otherwise to be quite complicated and I am really looking forward to it, while sometimes it is the simple things which can add to the sense of immersion and control.

I may have missed it but will there be some sort of similar minigame, or tussle, associated with setting up and going on each mission?

I donā€™t remember where exactly I read or heard it (might have been in one of the most recent PP plays of UnstableVoltage), but a Dev said there wonā€™t be any (air) interceptions in the game, as there are no ā€œUFOsā€, due to the nature of the enemies.

Of course, I suppose the lore allows the possibility of ground/water interception or ambush missions being included in PP, but so far I have not heard anything about something like that yet.

Yes I remember that too now, and noted too that the lack of UFOs did not seem to indicate that all ā€˜interceptionsā€™ would be ruled out.

I wonder how the presence and position of allied units might be detected to make contact, or enemies tracked for engagement ā€¦ and hope that aircraft or the tanks, in addition to their role at battle sites, might serve for these purposes instead of X-Comā€™s radar and ā€˜Interceptorsā€™.

Has anyone heard more in relation to human ā€œcontrol of the airā€ (could that mean Bombers?) or about the Behemoths which appear on the Geoscape?

Think that something similar should be, cos in order to land on a behemot you will need to fly.

ā€¦or maybe go there in a tank, which could also be employed for local exploration, to fill out the game ouside bases and missions?

X-Com was fine when it involved guiding a transport to a crash site on the Geoscape, but in the later XCom games just displaying the interior of transports for kitting out the soldiers, followed by a landing scene, seems very unsatisfying and a wasted opportunity for a lttle more variety.

Since X-Com there have been so many similar games, but I still much prefer the way itā€™s different activities are arranged and linked.

Glad that Free Aiming has been retained, love the graphics and think the demos evoke the same atmosphere.

Also hope there can also be the wide variety of scenarios including plenty in full daylight.

A bit of browsing revealed that the strategic aspects have been put on the backburner in favour of the tactical section. It is not the usual way things are done but was necessary for the relatively small team to be able to prepare the tactics demo, so that has received most attention.

Otherwise, in September 2017 Julian Gollop himself introduced the new Geoscape and provided interesting info about strategy, particularly from 24 to 29 mins in the video ā€˜From Laser Squad to Phoenix Point ā€¦ā€™

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipH85jOw82Y

In particular he said ā€œThe Strategic Layer is very important to meā€ so it should be at least as much fun as the tactical stuff we have seen already!

There is this old dev-update too, about the Geoscape, worth a read if someone missed it: https://phoenixpoint.info/blog/2017/8/29/geoscape-ballistics-and-more

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Thanks Potkeny, good stuff.

There was indeed more to the Geoscape than I imaginedā€¦

This was in one of the Q&As, and answer was, maybe, but it will be very basic if its included.