On the hand made map it is not an issue at all, but on the randomly generated map the very second the large one spawns pretty much every single enemy on the map gains argo even if they are no where close to my soldiers, it’s a bit silly to go from a perfectly managed fight to “hey there are now 6 gunners 3 melee and a boss all argoed at once even though the only ones who should be attacking you are 2 melee 1 gunner and the boss”.
I get that a RNG map has a chance for that to happen, but seeing as most the maps will probably be slightly RNG maybe have better spawning restrictions so that the boss can not argo everything on the map the very second it appears.
Thanks for providing feedback, I have moved your thread in the appropriate Feedback area of the forums – this makes it easier for the devs to find it all in one place.
I am not quite sure that this is actually unintended, but only the devs could answer that for certain – the queen however does boost the morale of her troops, this much should be intentional, and part of that might be that she rallies her troops.
Phoenix Point is meant to be quite a bit more challenging than other games might be, it is meant to have an extra layer of horror as well, so that might all be part of it.
But as always, please bear in mind that this is the very first pre-alpha build, so nothing about it, but especially not the balancing, is anywhere near final – which is exactly why feedback is so important. =)
I fully understand that balance is not even really started, and I also know that boss stages will probably be scripted maps while the random mission maps will be RNG so this won’t really come up as an issue, but when you go from “ok I am half way into the map and only run into 3 spawns” to “ok everything argoed all at once when the boss did and so now every single shot I take I take like 7 pips of damage because all the gunners that where further in the map, so I literately die in two turns after the boss spawns just because all the enemies where clumped at the back of the map, I didn’t even turtle because the way this game is designed it very much discourages that type of play, it really wants you to move as far as you can each turn”
Again since boss maps will probably be hand crafted to where proper play isn’t punished by being instantly dead in 2 turns once the boss spawns because the “adds” all spawned to far away to fight before the boss came, but it does kind of make the RNG maps a bit more RNJesus then RPG as to wither or not even perfect play can deal with them when the boss spawns just because of bad or good enemy spawn locations.
Still really really enjoying it so far even with that slight oversight since it’s more about the mechanics and game play and not wither or not a RNG map is even close to doable or not… heck I enjoy Disgea even though the RNG weapon leveling up maps can literately be unbeatable depending on the generation which the game warns you about bringing items to escape the dungeon in case the RNG map is unbeatable.
I would just say that if boss argoing the whole map is intentional that hopefully bosses only spawn on handcrafted maps which are like hand crafted puzzles and are not a roll of the dice as to wither or not you will loss your entire squad just due to bad RNG map generation.
Julian Gollop, the man with the plan, posted a few tips actually that might make life easier:
Heavies should not get attacked by Alien Gunners currently, and the Queen cannot get at your soldiers when they are hiding in a trench, and last but not least always use high explosives to deal with the queen.
I am aware that this doesn’t solve your general problem of every enemy suddenly being aware of your team’s position and attacking, but maybe these tips might help anyways.
Like I said, feedback is important at this stage, and I would like to point out that you are providing excellent feedback with well-argued points, so I’m sure the devs will appreciate that as well and take your thoughts into consideration.
I myself am not affiliated with the dev team, so I cannot comment on how they eventually see boss encounters to pan out in the final game, I can only say that I know from prior dev comments that bosses will have their very own AI and will for example try to escape from a losing battle to try and stay alive, so they can come after you another time to take revenge.
Wether that would be on hand-crafted maps or could happen during any mission, I do not know either.
