I suppose then we want different games. In my opinion such tactical combat games require sacrifices and losses. It looks strange that in game where you can have 30+ soldiers you play it and finish it with like 6 to max 12 soldiers.
This was also off for me in FiraXCOM where you had these few soldiers throughout the whole game. It was more like an RPG with story of alien invasion rather than tactical game. That is why I have welcomed Long War mod to nuXCOMs that made soldier roster more robust and forced to send multiple different soldiers to the field.
And I expect Phoenix Point to be more tactical game rather than hero-RPG-kicking-ass arcade.
In other words, each soldier could be considered as cannon fodder. The way you want to play it, there’s no reason for a player to get immersed and get an affinity with their soldiers. Your method of play goes counter to how I want to play as commander and squad leader. I trained and tailored my units to specific tactical and strategic goals. I’m not knocking how you wish to play, just pointing out that there are 2 sides of the coin.
I said nothing about realism, it just doesn’t work narratively. As Yokes puts it
Not the battlefield, you don’t. You control the game menu, saving and reloading, which is different.
But of course I care! Also @mcarver2000 my guys & gals are anything but ‘cannon fodder’ to me.
That’s the whole point - I care, but I can’t control who lives and who dies.
That’s the story. It’s not masochism, it’s drama.
That’s what the whole genre is about, imo. You have a strategic objective you have to achieve through a long series of short tactical engagements. No way all your troops are going to pull through, many of them will die, some in meaningful sacrifice, others due to your mistakes, because you took a gamble that didn’t pay off, etc. The player makes the characters come alive, forms an emotional bond with them and suffers when they die. That’s XCOM, X-Com, Phoenix Point. That’s the damn experience I’m signing up for when playing a game like this!!
(@Yokes I had the same experience in Firaxcoms: I sometimes had 20+ fatalities on a playthrough)
Who says that they are nameless cannon fodder? You can feel attachment to them, but don’t panic if you lose them. And definitely replace them between every few combats.
I get such a strong attachment to some of my Peeps that I recreate them in every game I play - I have even imported my favourites across the various XCOMs into Phoenix Point, and they each have their own personal backstories and rationales for how they got there.
But when they die, they die. That’s the point. But I’m so attached to them that I sometimes won’t risk the sacrifice play, or hold out to the last man, or expose them in a Dash for Victory, because I don’t want them to die. And imho, that’s how it should be: it makes me act & feel at least a little bit like the way I know that real commanders in the field act & feel. Because their men aren’t just meaningless cannon fodder to them - they’re men.
Personally, I think that’s one of the beauties of this style of game. Your Peeps become more than just a jumble of coloured pixels to be moved around the map willy nilly. They become people you care about and try to keep alive - and for me S&Ring every time I lose one of them detracts from that experience.
“They killed Beany (again) - B!s+^&ds!” only actually means something if I let Beany die when they kill him
I don’t play to put my units in undue circumstances. Over my many plays, I’ve only lost less units that can be counted on one hand. Those were either in my first run or due to just bad luck. Tell the Navy SEALS or any special forces that you intend to put them at unnecessary risk because that’s the name of the game. That’s what I build, special forces that are designed to take on the big challenges at the minimum of risk to the squad. We are not recreating the charge of the Light Brigade.
SEALs also suffer fatalities, and two dozen fatalities in the course of a prolonged conflict with an alien intelligence of unfathomable power hardly calls for a comparison to the Charge of the Light Brigade.
In any case, if you manage to beat the game losing only a few soldiers, that’s great, and it’s meaningful precisely because losing them is a real possibility. All I’m saying is the game is built and (being) balanced in the expectation that players will have fatalities.
Soldiers has levels, individual perks, skill points. It’s RPG like you or not. I have my party with future specialisation for everyone, forge them in battles. To trick DDA I agree to sacrifice rookies in the name of better future for mankind )))))
Rage Burst is surely part of the training of any Special Forces Unit anywhere in the world, but it can only be attempted after fully dominanting the Art of War Crying.
At the beginning of the game RB was absolutly to strong and i am happy, that they change it, if you ask me, i think another nerf is needed.
All big creatures you can kill them to easy in my opinion. Use Dash, run in front of it, and blast them with an LMG for example. Or use 2 Sniper and hit them twice with an Athena Rifle and paralyze with 2 RB.
I think, this Skill should use all of your AP at least and mybe the chance to hit should be reduced 50% to 75% Why i think so? The longer the Burst, less Bullets hits, easy calculation.
The other case is, casual player or not, if you can win only with RB skill, you should grow up yourself
In any war there are sensible and not so sensible choices being made, always with variable results. To suggest that there is a way of waging a war sensibly, without putting soldiers in undue risk, without fatalities… That, I think, is hubris.
And this is going wildly off topic so I’m going to stop there
If the problem is with the DDA, then disable “Save” in the mission, and “restart the mission” should activate a new map and enable the reduction of the enemy threat.
If the goal is “fair play”, then you need to explain and encourage the “Rules of the Game” this behavior / gameplay. (+ XP soldier, + Phoenix SP, pin map changes and increase its threat)
IMO is relevant for Beginner / Veteran Difficulty.
