Mind control flawed

Phoenix Point Game Feedback
1

Hello,

I am for 20 year game developer myself and I think there is one VERY flawed game mechanic.

Alien mind control:
When alien mind controls your party members, and they happen to be assault with perk return fire which i take, this just starts endless shooting loops between my own party resulting in unevitable deaths. They even protect the mind controller alien. I was rly lol9ing when i I was trying to kill the mind control snake getting 3 return fires every hit with taser I did against it. Just nonsense.

Why is this flawed? If I had full control over my characters i would command them not to return fire on mind controlled PP membeers because I know the mind control will go away in 3 turns, 15 or 20 sec real life time. I dont spend months training soldier to have him shot to bloody mess by my own team not being able to do ANYTHING about it, make gameplay setting button with option to disable return and reaction fire to Phoenix point soldiers!!! Its making the game feel like save scum cuz I lose soldier and I cant even run away with other soldiers. The mind control should imho also cease when i kill the mind controlling alien. He is dead so I believe he cant command the victims anymore.

(OR add some special attack button to knock out mind controlled PP members with 1 or 2 hits so theyre uncoscious if you wanna keep the game)

Perks:
Feels like half baked and untested, boring, why have several classes with mixes when there are no synergies at all? My berserker assault hammer guy is save scum cannon fodder, no evasion perks at all. If he runs to the frontline to hit with hammer he stays there waiting for all the doom to rain on him next turn. It seems hastily done, no synergies.

The game is kinda good, but these things jsut kill it.

5 Likes
2

Yeah, it’s another example of RF leading to ridiculous situations.

3

Well seem you’re more a dev than a gamer xD
There is, at minimum, 5 ways to deal with an assault mind controled, even in early game (by early i mean when you first start to encounter sirens);

1 - Use one of your own priest, that should obviously have more will than him, and control him on top of the siren control. It will instantly purge him. (you can them “free him” to not even wast your priest will point)
2 - Use a long range shooter and stay at more than 50% of his detection range, to either aim the siren head, or your soldier arm. It won’t kill him, it’s for his own good. If you think their is too much chance that you kill him, disable his weapond with a longshot. An assault gun isn’t that hard to craft.
3 - Just moove away before shooting. Again, the return fire proc only on units that are agresives in 50% of his detection radius. Most units are usualy able to do a 10 - 12 move cases with a single ap.
4 - Use any of the viral weapons oh him. (from afar) if he panick, he won’t return fire.
5 - Just move slightly out his line of sight (not even have to go far), just go through a wall corner to do silly things.
6 - To PREVENT it in first place, use a scout unit and be sure to spot sirens before they see you. They don’t have that much HP on the head and a siren’s head destroy mean that a- she can’t mind control again but b - she will still try and therefore, wast her own turn trying.
7 - Also, you’ll unlock, not so far ingame, a neural blocker that can prevent mind control, with a percentage based chance. Not perfect, but greatly reduce the mind panick

4

Sure, ‘shoot them first’ works, but only until it suddenly doesn’t. Once MC lands, you are really screwed. Priest is the only solution that’s reliable and doesn’t ruin your action economy.
Interaction with RF perk is strong argument for completely avoiding it, at least in Ironman play.

1 Like
5

This is hilarious and can happen at all difficulty levels :slight_smile:

He ends up losing 3 squad members in a regular mission … but it was fun to watch.

2 Likes
6

I have to say, I do like the knockout idea. Gives you a reliable way to shut down MC by sacrificing a gun in the fight, or maybe a medpack if devs feel generous.

Sure, there’s ways to deal with/help avoid Mc, but more options are usually better. If MC was a very rare ability, it’d would matter as much, but it’s pretty prevalent.

Another possible solution is to make MC “projectile” based, forcing siren to spawn a hugger or a special worm that has to go grab onto the soldier.

1 Like
7

And Xav is really GOOD at Games like this :smiley:
I really loved the Misson, it was a good showing of “what is wrong” with this mechaic.

1 Like
8

3 problems with mc:

  1. It is a free action, no ap needed, you can control infinite enemies at one turn if their will is at 0.
  2. It is not cleared if controller is controlled, panicked or stunned
  3. It completely switches unit team, your allies mercilessly rain down return fire and over-watch on your poor dude.

Also mind controlled unit does not mind doing return fire on his controller, it was a hilarious situation.
Siren used all remaining WP to get control of my shotgun dude with RF, i followed up with doing mind control on her, moved her close to controlled guy and used her ability to spit acid, targeting herself, this still counted as hostile action worthy of RF, so shotgun dude controlled by her blasted her away freeing himself.

1 Like
9

Thanks for tips, but I think this game needs game setting button, DONT USE RETURN FIRE ON MIND CONTROLLED PHOENIX POINT MEMBERS :D, who wants to use it is up to you but its 100% logical for the colonel to say to the squad members, hey look if johny goes wild and acts weird jsut hide and wait for it to go away dont toss 2 tn of dynamite under his feet, jsut hit him with flashbang

1 Like