Some feedback in the form of questions

Phoenix Point Game Feedback
1
Rocket Legs

The jump ability is pretty underwhelming. I understand it shouldn’t be on par with the jet pack but it has some issues not being intuitive on what can or cannot be jumped on. Does the roof look like it’s jump-able but you’re too far away? Whoops, you just moved and wasted AP only to find out that you can’t in fact jump on that roof. Also once on a roof level I have yet been able to find a building where it lets me jump to a second roof level; even if that roof level looks to be the same height distance the previous one was.

Deceptor

Why is this gun garbage? It needs either a higher rate of fire (burst) or a smaller cone of fire. I don’t want to have to wait until level 7 and/or cross class with sniper for this to be an effective option. A grenade launcher beats it every time for reliable damage output that doesn’t require a ton of support in ability points to use effectively. I really want to use it but it’s just not a good option and I don’t know why it’s not better balanced.

Overwatch

Why are a majority of overwatch shots being taken well after a target has reached cover? A good part of the time full overwatch bursts are shooting walls, pillars, etc when there was a clear line of fire to the target as it passed through open space. The timing is all off. It’s weird because the late activation timing makes The Pure more difficult to deal with earlier on when they’re using shields frequently and you have to rely on overwatch shots to help deal with them. Then later in the game as their use of shields decrease they actually become easier to defeat.

Non story path Missions

Seem pretty buggy. As I mentioned in another post, The Alchemist just straight up auto fails. I did the Honor mission where you have to raid an Anu post for a sword but the first time I tried it I canceled starting the mission when I immediately arrived but then I couldn’t choose to start the mission. I had to reload the game and accept the mission on arrival immediately or lose the ability to run it.

Weird spikes in lethality

Game has some spikes in lethality based on tactical map and enemy behavior that are difficult to anticipate without having played before and expecting them or just save scumming. Three recent examples come to mind.

Example 1
Soldier took a shotgun blast to the face from a cloaked Triton that I had no idea was there in the first place.

Example 2
Soldier gets killed behind full cover from 5 different Assault enemies that came out of the woodwork of which I had zero warning or indication of happening (soldier wasn’t flanked in any way).

Example 3
Chiron firing explosive shots at a group of soldiers under cover of a building. Turns out the building’s roof was paper mache and it just auto killed one of my soldiers due to an extra tick of 10 bleed damage on the next round. I reloaded the game from the Geoscape just to restart the tactical mission under a new map and enemy composition.

Visibility and Game information

In general the fog of war just seems odd. Maybe I haven’t done enough secondary research but I have no real solid understanding of who sees what and why, how stealth matters at all (who or what is stealthed and seen or not seen) and what “Alerted” status means.

What does the Silent Echo ability do for me? I have two snipers with the silent echo ability that really doesn’t seem to mean anything and it’s never explained in game. Any time I target and hit an enemy with one of these snipers, even at extreme ranges, the target is always “alerted”.

2

Alerted means that enemy is aware that there is some opponent and he will go investigate. But he didn’t spot you so he can’t attack you yet.

Stealth reduce range at which you are spotted.

Silent Echo helps Infiltrators stay hidden.

Garbage? One of the most powerful guns in the game. You just need to get closer to the enemy - not sit away like with Goliath lobbing grenades all over the map.

Those are not for horisontal movement, just for vertical movement and they work really fine in this role.

3

For the Triton to be cloaked you must have activitated it’s Pain Chameleon ability by injuring it. It then remains hidden until the end of its turn unless spotted by you by getting really close to it. So a few things have to happen for what you describe to take place, but it does sometimes.

Yes, and I dare say that few players understand what is going on with detection most of the time and nobody what goes on all the time, because there is a hearing aspect to detection that is completely unknown.

4

For the Triton to be cloaked you must have activitated it’s Pain Chameleon ability by injuring it. It then remains hidden until the end of its turn unless spotted by you by getting really close to it. So a few things have to happen for what you describe to take place, but it does sometimes.

That’s true, I had in fact shot it with my own shotgun and activated its pain chameleon. I might be able to pull up the save file but iirc even with my own shotgun, at close range, I wasn’t able to do enough damage to disable the pain chameleon ability. My soldier the Triton ended up shooting was some distance away and had already been moved so was out of AP. I also didn’t know how far the Triton was going to move. Finally it seems a little bit unfair to get one shot on something that I may or may not have mad a tactical error on and even if I had made an error the punishment, complete soldier loss,for the mistake seems overly punitive. A major wound, for sure, but one shot death not so much.

Yes, and I dare say that few players understand what is going on with detection most of the time and nobody what goes on all the time, because there is a hearing aspect to detection that is completely unknown.

There’s some comfort in knowing that it’s just me not picking up on something.

You might ( should , in fact) ask yourself, why can I see some of the enemies and can they see my soldiers? Detection is determined by the perception stat of the observer and the stealth stat of the observed. The perception stat is expressed in tiles and the stealth stat as a percentage (which can also be negative, meaning the observed is easier to detect), the stealth reducing the perception range vis a vis the observed.

So, if Bob has a perception of 35, he will detect all enemies with =<0% stealth within his LOS within 35 tiles. He will also detect enemies further away if they have a negative stealth stat (which is usually derived from wearing heavy armor). For example, Bob will detect enemies 49 tiles away within LOS whose stealth is - 40%. Similarly, Bob will be detected by enemies depending on his stealth stat and the perception stat of his enemies. Bob will also alert enemies to his presence by shooting a non-silenced weapon.

That all makes sense but there doesn’t seem to be any way to determine what perception values are on the tactical map and I have no idea what a , for example, Arthron’s perception might be. In fact I’ve noticed on several occasions that return fire doesn’t work when an Arthron or Triton fires on one of my soldiers and even though my soldier has clear unrestricted line of sight to the target, return fire doesn’t trigger. I’m assuming since return fire doesn’t trigger said Athron isn’t within half my own perception range but how would I know this?

5

Those are not for horisontal movement, just for vertical movement and they work really fine in this role.

Sorry if I wasn’t clear, I’m using them for vertical movement not for horizontal. I can’t seem to move vertically twice.

Sometimes I want to jump onto a structure but, horizontally, I’m too far away. So I’ll spend APs to get closer to the structure, horizontally. Then try to go vertical with the legs and often it turns out I’m not allowed to jump on said structure. It’s takes a while to figure out through trial and error what you can or cannot jump onto. It’s fiddly.

Garbage? One of the most powerful guns in the game. You just need to get closer to the enemy - not sit away like with Goliath lobbing grenades all over the map.

Not sure I understand the logic. Shotgun and getting closer I get. The Hel cannon and getting closer, I sort of get. A ranged mini-gun…not so much. I understand if I move closer it will be better but that’s true for all guns. What I’m saying is that you shouldn’t have to treat it like a shotgun in order to use it adequately. It’s a ranged ballistic weapon and should have somewhat decent damage over longer ranges. The same gun on the Armadillo for instance makes no sense to me either. It’s a vehicle stabilized weapon, there’s no reason it should be as inaccurate as it is.

6

I thought the same about Deceptor, and my prejudices didn’t let me see how god is this weapon.

Last gameplay I tried it, and it’s a Boss killer when you use it properly, in my case, Assault/Heavy multiclass

I completed Legend campaign, more easily, thanks to it

7

That’s easy - just select the enemy and click on “info”. It shows everything there is to know about it, just like if it was one of your own soldiers. The thing is you have to do the maths and count the tiles yourself…

Yes, you assume correctly. Again, looking at the Perception of your soldier and counting the tiles (IIRC, enemies usually have 0% stealth, so you don’t have to do any math there). Also bear in mind that perception is halved during night missions.

Not that any of this is obvious, or properly explained at any point.

1 Like
8

Except for what its perception is. Oh, and its Strength (for Paralysis calculation). Or the trigger radius of Pandoran Sentinels… :wink:

9

And yeah, the reason the Deceptor has such terrible range is it’s the most powerful weapon in the game - especially when twinned with Rage Burst. So it’s a balancing mechanic.

Otherwise, you’d be able to take out the Scylla in a Citadel without even bothering to move from your start spo - Oh wait…

To be fair on the devs, they are in the process of fixing that - and if the fix is as cool as the new Lairs, it will hopefully become one of the most interesting missions in the game.

10

Yes indeed…

It does show it - on the info screen.

It is kinda there - Strength is max HPs divided by 10. The reward for this obfuscation is that you are supposed to feel smart when you figure it out :smirk:

The trigger radius is their Perception (10) modified by the stealth of the character. The effect radius of the scream is basically half the map :sweat_smile:

Damn I feel smart :joy::joy: