New patch, or this is why we can't have nice things

[MichaelIgnotus]

@MichaelIgnotus

UV, I appreciate that you clearly weren’t told about the adjustment to the Difficulty Algorithm, but a friendly word to the wise: releasing only partial information which looks like PP has only nerfed the players’ crutches without addressing the underlying issues of why they are using those crutches in the first place is clearly not endearing PP to its core audience.

@icemann

I can only speak for myself. But I’m a XCOM junkie. Been obsessed with all XCOM-y games ever since Terror From the Deep back in the 90s. Trust me I’m used to difficult games. And I went into Phoenix Point completely obsessed with it. Was all I played for weeks for many hours daily. Went to bed not being able to sleep as too busy thinking of strategies within strategies.

[But…] This game is too hard. The devs are complete masochists who only listen to the 1% hardcore gamers, and so only nerfed players when they should have been nerfing only the Pandoran’s, and I’m just over it. I’d sooner go back and play Firaxis’s XCOM’s or Microprose awesome original games over getting completely stuck in PP.

You should not have to save scum to beat a game.

I rest my case.

[warbrand2]

Spawnery - Hit points are nearly doubled. It was too easily destroyed on Lair missions

this, this alone makes it so I will not pick up the game again. Teh spawnery was already near impossible for me to get to with a full squad of 7s and cheese now it has more health and all ways to take it down are nerfed.

Well Can’t get anywhere in the game anyway, so might as well stop playing.

[icemann]

And the whole tactic of upgrading the stats of specific troops, in order to be able to reach the spawnery’s fast to destroy them quickly, rather than doing the slog of trying to get all of your troops there was a valid tactic. Instead it’s been looked on (judging purely from the patch notes) by the devs as a cheese tactic.

Well that’s just being unfair and only catering for a specific type of game. The hardcore.

Hell I’d definitely call myself a hardcore gamer as well. One who loves XCOM-y games. I’m just not THAT type of hardcore gamer.

[gauthel]

TBH you can still reach spawnery with jetpack spam or Frenzy + 4xDash. You just can’t kill it on 1st turn.

[warbrand2]

Which means you have to hope you get a good roll and no enemies near it.

[icemann]

Which is fair. I’d just not want the dev’s to slip into the trap of having levels that can only be beaten one way.

If you look to Firaxis’s XCOM’s, those have skill point use + class and multi-class stuff, and all are valid paths to victory. And if you look at games like Deus Ex, they present the player with challenges that can be overcome via several different methods. That is good game design. Having only one way to beat it is not.

Also if the dev’s don’t want players “cheesing the game” then they shouldn’t have classes at all. Just have soldiers with stats that evolve over time as they gain combat experience, like in the original XCOM games.

[Barleyman]

@gauthel

TBH you can still reach spawnery with jetpack spam or Frenzy + 4xDash. You just can’t kill it on 1st turn.

Does one jump per turn really count as “spam”?

It’s rather easy for the heavy (or 2) to peel off and bypass enemies from the middle of the map where you usually run into serious opposition. I think I’ve done that once with a berserker + dash as well but Berzerkers can’t jump behind stalagmites etc.

[gauthel]

@Barleyman

Does one jump per turn really count as “spam”?

Jetpack spam is about using one or two heavies with jetpacks and complimenting them with 5+ Assaults that use their +1AP skill. That way you can do 3 jumps in one turn.

[Lorifel]

@Barleyman

It’s rather easy for the heavy (or 2) to peel off and bypass enemies from the middle of the map where you usually run into serious opposition.

My Lair rule #2 is: Don’t go to the center of the map! Go to the side. That way you shutdown one of the enemy respawn points on turn 3 or 4. And the other 2 points are so far away that reinforcements from them can’t reach you in any reasonable time.

Lair rule #1 is: Don’t try to shoot them all!

[N7-Bandit]

wtf is this update? been playing and having fun for 3 or 4 month why did they have to change the fun part ? ok can i go back to the version before?

[Yokes]

@N7-Bandit

been playing and having fun for 3 or 4 month

Game is only 1.5 months on the market

@N7-Bandit

month why did they have to change the fun part ?

It was released in hurry unprepared and unbalanced. And it is not an arcade game but tactical combat strategy.

[Caphillips]

I agree, Rage burst is now just about useless, I missed all 5 shots with the 50% aim penalty. Whats with that? Sniper missed all but 2. While the scyilla went around chasing my soldiers and smashing buildings they were trying to hide in, and killing them, while the bomb bursting chiron already killed 2 of my team with one bomb . Was this patch to help the already strong enemies be even stronger? I had two soldiers killed with two bomb throws from Crab guy. Did they make their grenades stronger? Nothing of our soldiers got stronger. This makes no sense at all. I can see limited the rage burst shot times, but the aim? come on!
It seems my guys aim across the board got worse. Did they nerf that too? I didnt see that in the notes but it sure seems like it.
So a few pro players complain and they get their wishes. And Dash! Whats the point of using it now. You guy can be left out there in the open if you want to shoot twice. The crab guys got no nerf like that. I thought balance was balance, some here some there. This went to far.

[N7-Bandit]

i played BB5!! play on the hardest difficulty now without save scum and show us

[Yokes]

I won’t play hardest difficulty until game will be balanced and free of bugs. First I need to finish it on lower difficulty and I don’t have time to do that.

[N7-Bandit]

ok well guess ill wait then and go to nexus mods to see if i can finish my campaigne

[N7-Bandit]

ok i found this for those who want to tweak it back !! https://www.nexusmods.com/phoenixpoint/mods/36?tab=description

[Dorrin]

@Lorifel

Actually, I don’t think so. I’ve tried Clearance/Adrenaline combo after this patch for the first time and had no problem dashing to a group of armored 340 HP Arthrons with one soldier and clearing them all in one turn (3 Arthrons and a Mindfragger). At the end of the turn my soldier was standing with 4 AP and almost all WP regained.

Sounds like dual classed soldiers is truly the issue then, not the skill or its cost in willpoints. Guess that’s the next thing for them to nerf. In the meantime anyone wishing to play is forced down a specific route… and if there’s only one path to victory i just don’t see the strategy in the game. I want to have a varied but viable team so i can do diverse tactics… not things like an assault/berserker clears the ridiculous enemy team in one turn.

[Lorifel]

@Dorrin

and if there’s only one path to victory i just don’t see the strategy in the game. I want to have a varied but viable team so i can do diverse tactics… not things like an assault/berserker clears the ridiculous enemy team in one turn.

To be honest I’ve tried this trick for the first time
“Varied but viable team so i can do diverse tactics” is what I do in my playthrough. Of course each of my missions takes about an hour to finish even if it is done in 5 turns… but am I in a hurry? Nope =)

[Yokes]

@Dorrin

I want to have a varied but viable team so i can do diverse tactics… not things like an assault/berserker clears the ridiculous enemy team in one turn.

So now Snapshot need to tune Pandorans. Just think about the game like it is still under development.

[1117]

Soo true!

What difficulty level do you play?