I have been playing this game since it released and it drives me insane how many of the mechanics dont make any sense. Now I dont know if these issues i have are intended or whatever but they can be game breaking at times. Most of these are so terrible that I will not play this game anymore till some update fixes all or most of these issues.
Overwatch - Why would an allie shoot through you to attack an opponent or cover for that matter? I am going to shoot through a rock, a pillar, a car, or an allie to hit something I saw for a split second. What?!
Weapons - Nothing scales?! Doesnt matter who I allie with…everyone has the same damn weapon with a different skin. There is almost no difference between weapons and yet enemies get stronger and stronger. Just wtf?!
Armor - Same as weapons.
Phoenix Point - Why dont we have our own research or tech tree? Are we not our own faction? I feel like a beggar/bum asking for charity from different factions. arent I some heroic faction trying to save the world…Yet the best I can do is a potato gun? shakes head
Enemies/Scaling/Difficulty - Why do these scale at a ridiculous rate and with no warning. One mission I can one shot them, the next the same shot barely tickles them. Not to mention they all of a sudden can one shot me and have armor for days. I changed difficulty to see if this would fix the problem…nope. It even makes less sense on easy mode. I couldnt believe how many enemies and with the amount of firepower they had when I was barely at 10-15% on the meter. Like the game has no flow whatsoever…I dont get this at all.
BASES - I have no idea how many times I have run into the situation where Phoenix Point is the only base I can find. So many ruined games because I am stuck on one base.
Mission for Story/Factions/Etc - I have no way of telling how hard these missions are and if my team is prepared. Nothing informs me that the enemies are stronger and can one shot me. the scaling is just stupid and chaotic.
Difficulty level - The option to change the difficulty to easy, veteran, and so on does not work at all. the same shit happens where all of a sudden the enemy is 10 times stronger for no reason. They outnumber you, they respawn forever, and the amount of hp and armor they get is so high while I am still trying to shoot them with a damn potato gun.
So much I could write but I got tired of typing and this game. If you like it, I am happy for you. There is a lot to like…but just as much and more to hate.
I agree with a lot of what you’ve said, but that point in particular is one that I don’t think has been made elsewhere. There’s no indication that you’re evening going to be starting the initial faction missions, and then you’re just kinda dropped right in there.
We’re scouting for scavenging sites already, might be an idea to make use of that and in general to colour code how difficult each potential mission might be before the player confirms that they want to start it.
Scouting is also terrible in the sense that it is so hard to tell where you have scanned and so much overlap in scans. Making it a waste of resources. Especially when you accidentally click on scan while you check the scanned area. They need to create a grid system on the geoscape and let us scan selected spot. No overlap or wasted resources.
Also why do things appear in scanned areas? I dont mind them taking the spot of a point that was taken over but…shit just randomly appears in an area i have complete control over and have burned every lair to the ground.
Some people just can’t abide nonlinear games that challenge orthodoxy and prefer games where the framework makes sense, A leads to B, 3 follows 2 and so on. One thing I like about the game in its present state is that it is not always fair or logical. Neither is the real world. Surprises happen. Unfairness abounds. Of course, many play to escape the real world, going into fantasy worlds where everything is orderly, predictable and linear. This game in its present state is not of that ilk. I can understand the frustration, though perhaps it does not bother me as much.
you assume too much. I dont mind the game being more open or nonlinear but it has to be within reason. you cant have a person fighting monster A then jump to monster ABCD version 3 with more armor and hp. When just last mission you were fighting monster A. Not to mention once the balance changes it doesnt revert and it only gets worse. This has nothing to do with unorthodox play and everything to do with poor flow and balancing.
the style of game we have right now wouldnt be bad if we ourselves had random spike ups in power like the pandorans. for example you randomly gain weapon/armor B that is a tier higher than anything you own or your class advances to a higher state/tier that increases the effectiveness of skills and proficient weapons. <= this never happens. except for an important skill at level 7 or a cheap stealth exploit…you never grow in power.
Yes you can, and that was one of the selling points of this game - the enemy evolves in response to the tactics you use. So the whole point of this game is that Monster A changes over time.
@cfehunter posted an analysis on another thread (which I now cannot find) that shows it does also revert, but only if you don’t Save Scum. The difficulty alters dynamically, based on how well or poorly you are doing in the game.
I will admit, it’s not properly balanced yet, which is very disappointing, but it’s a much more interesting and challenging system than constantly being faced by the same old same old every time you encounter Monster A.
Enemies do not scale all that much actually. I really appreciate the lack of ever increasing tiers. Mutual power creep is just boring and a pretty lazy way of implementing a tech tree. Research should only open up more and more tactics … more varieties to kill the foes. They do an OK job with that but it could certainly be improved upon.
Chaos is the world we live in. The game replicates this, intentionally or not. I do think that continued development will smooth out much of this random non-linear aspect of the game, making it much more comfortable for most players. I’ll enjoy that version as well. This present “chaotic” version is kind of a kick for now, but I can see how it gripes many.
You know what doesn’t make sense? I finish all the story missions and got the Yuggoth sphere by week 7 and there’s nothing left to do but sit in the base and watch time pass while defending against alien attacks on PP and just sit out the next month or so for the factions to come up with the solution to fight the pandorans! Thats nuts! Researching the yuggoth sphere should lead us to another new thing and eventually a solution of our own rather than sit around and aimlessly wait for weeks for the factions to come up with something.
I don’t understand this part of the marketing at all… how are the monsters “evolving in response to my tactics”? I see the same linear progression in the aliens no matter what tactics I use across multiple playtrhoughs. There was one playthrough I used fire almost exclusively and I don’t see the aliens have any solution to that. They should at least get more fire resistant or something but nope. Most playthroughs I have AP weapons and I still see the 150HP basic crabmen plenty without additional armor. So I really don’t know if that statement is real or not.
I 100% agree that Phoenix point needs some more progression of its own to make it more of its own faction. I know there’s systems in place to steal weapons you need if you go your own way, but PP itself lacks an identity of its own to some degree. Also would be nice to see a bit more progression in armor.
As far as difficulty spikes, the game AI keeps track of you… If you never take any losses, never lose havens, and beat the tar out of the missions you do take… It is going to come back to maul you. Much like original xcom, you are meant to lose some soldiers, lose some missions, lose some allies. This game has a built in compensator to make sure you do.
Here’s @ cfehunter’s analysis, posted in the AJS Review thread.
Basically, the more you Save Scum, the more difficult you make the game for yourself, as it’s dynamically adjusting itself to your success rate.
I think I can attest to this firsthand. I’ve only jacked out and restarted a mission once in the 40 odd hours I’ve played so far, and I have to say that I am not encountering any of the swarming problems reported by others. At most, I’ve encountered 2 Sirens on a mission, and while Crabbie MGs have got more powerful over time, they haven’t one-shotted me yet.
