Some game feedback

Phoenix Point Game Feedback
1

I think it’s time to post something else than troll and stupid photoshopthings.
This feedback involves myself only, so it will be alot of “I” in it. I can’t talk for other people.
And my english sucks a bit, so sorry. Or not. Or just a bit :stuck_out_tongue:

I guess I’m not the only one who’s bored by the quantity of games released unfinished. I don’t know the production process, so I keep an average whining rate, but the game industry seems weird to me actually.

Anyway. Time for some feedback.

First, we’re a lot to whine about things going wrong with this game. I am in this case, but I wanted to say : beside that, I love it. I love the universe, the background, the potential riches of all of this. I love the will to do a game with more mechanics than FiraXcom (which is an excellent game, I loved it too, but I miss the old XCOM with too much shit inside to understand them at first). I’m happy to have something different than ALIENS LOLOLOLOL. The “crumbled society”, the “Lovecraft stuff”, the differents points of view of factions, all of this gives a good mayonnaise.
Since the pre-releases, I can see the work achieved and the will to do a good game and I thanks the studio.
If we take time to complain about the game, it’s also because we like it and we wish to have a good game experience. If you - devs - did shit, we wouldn’t come here and post billions of tears.

Gameplay :
Despites the awful “console friendly” interface, the game is cool to play. Aiming system force us to remind our way of thinking strategies, and is WAAAAAY better than shitty % from FiraXcom. It is more similar with XCOM firing, and it’s a good thing. Friendly fire is immersive and forces to think. Even if everyone aims pretty well, but hey : we have trained soldiers, not hobos in pajamas !
Geoscapes still bugs a bit, really no smooth with a mouse, but it works. Specific indications (recruits, trade) appears at too high zoom level for me, but it’s not the big deal actually.

I understand the weapon upgrade system (someone called it “lateral”). But crab people have real upgrades, with tons of damages, ruining everything and making salvage missions a waste of ressources and time at mid/end game (“look dat crate, hooman !” BANG BANG). We’re supposed to have thousand years of DA TECHNOLOGY, railguns and pewpew, but crabs can shoot down an aircraft with one arm. Lethal if you try to play melee.

And maybe we could use a PC interface on PC. I know it’s a lot of work, but we have alot of possibilities with that machines. It’s THE support to work on quality of life. Multi-support is cool for studios (more selling, more moneeeey), but actually a pain in the ass for PC gamers.

Melee and combat :
Everything is wrong with melee combat : berserkers are slow, need 2 AP to land a hit, take return fire, have no gap closer or retreat skills, it’s just a good class to combo with another one. May need a rework. Especially when crabs have a 1 AP SMEGGING PINCER ATTACK and HEAVY LAZORMACHINESHOTGUN in the arm ! I have no problem with leathality, but don’t make a class useless :confused:
I tried some “30 bleed sword”, inflicts 10 when I hurt something. Pandorians have a lot of melee options.
I understand that we fight from a distance since centuries ago, but if we have some melee classes, go balance it :stuck_out_tongue:

And the “new” return fire system is weird : maybe it would be better if the target couldn’t riposte, but it’s allies could (with half rounds, as before). It may force us to think more about positioning and less fear to act. When you’re taking a bulletstorm or being hit by a sledgehammer, it’s more difficult to strike back.

Politic :
There is none. We have SO MUCH possibilities with that aspect of the game, it’s SO MUCH frustrating !
If we play a XCOM-like, it’s not to have some “mission-mission-mission” stuff : look at olders games, like Apocalypse (trade with corpos, economic system) or the Altar UFO serie ! In the actual state of Phoenix Point, you just pick your side then watch the world burn.
Give us more time ! Let us try to work with factions ! Set some politics ! Don’t destroy anything on the map so fast ! Personaly, I don’t mind if the game goes slower : I like immersion. I like to explore all the things I can. If I need to restart a game to try anything else, no problem. If I need to restart a game because everybody is getting nuked on the map in two weeks, it’s a problem.

I really love the little stories, the uniques enclaves, the background you distillate in the game. The “we’re no longer the dominant specie, and we’ll deal with it” thing. All that textual stuff that reminds me some Fallout or old game. It’s sad we can’t go DEEPAH into this.

Music :
Do something, please. Ankward loops in combat, randomly triggering, seriously… Even the wink to the first XCOM music can’t make me forget about the “others audio things” :confused: You cant put ‘nothing’ instead, for exeample :smiley:

It’s difficult for me to organize my thoughs and write it here in english. And I didn’t finished the game yet. I bet it’s a bit messy for you to read. But despite all the problems we have with Phoenix Point, I wanted to say that I’m full of hope : I really enjoy the game’s potential, I wish to see stuff from an eventual extended universe, maybe some RPG or better : tabletop RPG :stuck_out_tongue:

I’m waiting for patches, balancing and all you can add to this game. Even if Phoenix Point still needs A LOT of works, I thank you for this game. Fthagn :slight_smile:

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2

[angry madmad grr inside]
Seriously : “protect the objectives mission”. When you have ONE objective, shit-ton crab people starting ON it and destroying it in TWO turn -_-
When the game just want to watch you fail. Looks like a bad DM bullying a player :confused:

3

It is rather funny though, the game was an immense amount of BS leading up to a certain point… but now?
I got a setup where I can litterally beat EVERYTHING in a single turn with the right setup.

And this is late game, with Scyllas present.
I just did my first Pandoran Citadel (because I was uneccesarily cautios of them) and I beat it in 3 turns!

And if the stars align - it can get EVEN crazier! :open_mouth:
I just did a scavanging mission with ONE SOLDIER - and I killed every single unit present… before the enemy had a single turn!
NO JOKE!

Some caveats though, I restarted the mission once, because I did a silly misstake that allowed the enemy a turn and destroy a canister.
And secondly, there were not anything heavy present, like a Scylla or so - so it was a large force of squishies, and a lucky position of canisters, and WP zones that allowed me to just Dash Kill everything.

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So you suggest it’s fine, because exploit a lack of balance allows you to pass by impossible design choices ? :smiley:
Let me guess : something with an assault and a berserker mating together ? :stuck_out_tongue:

We’re supposed to fight, not to “find the OP build that will break the OP foes” :smiley:
In mid/endgame, crabs can potentially break all canisters with one attack. So basically, theses missions can just be a waste of ammo and time.
Of course there are some broken builds to kill them all before they can have one single turn, but is it really the game you wished for ? No-brain killing action with one or two meta builds ?

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Obviously I didn’t say that… -.-

I said that the balancing is shit in that it can be bruttaly impossible, and later on, you can just steamroll.

So take a freaking chill pill, mate…

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Yeah I’m at that point again when the game becomes stupidly difficult. One minute it was fine I was having fun the next it adjusted itself to ultra nightmare throwing everything that would fit onto the battlefield.
I see now what a lot of people are complain about. At a certain point in the game the balance goes of the rails. I can’t play this, there is no game there anymore. It’s just a load of nonsense.

A hour ago PP was awesome and now its bollocks.

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As shown by another post which took apart how the enemy difficulty scales, as long as you save scum to save your soldiers, resulting in perfect missions every single mission, enemy difficulty is going to spike. But if you play organically or ironman style, enemies don’t really become super difficult but remain around a very balanced way. That’s what I experienced. I have never experienced any form of difficulty spike in the game. A couple of difficult missions here and there but mostly at managable.

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Okay, maybe I misunderstood. But finally it’s fun 'cause we’re saying the same thing.

Ah, and I wasn’t triggered. In a good mood, in fact : that’s why I put some SMILEEEEEYS everywhere. :stuck_out_tongue:
I share my chill pills if U want :slight_smile:

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Maybe that’s my problem I’m playing it on easy. It doesn’t matter how much tech I have or soldiers levelled there comes a point were the game goes daft on me. From doable to not doable, and it happens in one sitting.
It did the same on me my last game but after getting some advice on how to level up I tried again. But it was all for nothing, a waste of time.
You hit a point in the game when it’s no longer fun.

I think they have the balance right up to 20 hours + but I think thats as far as they got in the re-balance.

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So you mean that the game adapts it’s difficulty to the player ? It means that the difficulties modes are pointless :v

Personnaly, I hate the auto-adjusting difficulty. It always gives stupid situations (ex : when the bears are harder to kill than dragons in Skyrim). For me devs set some difficulty level, you beat it or you don’t.

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yes, it adapts. This means that if you save scum and have perfect victories all the time, enemy difficulty is going to scale to a point where your tech just cant handle it… and then if you allow it to work out naturally, your troop dies, then the thing come back down again.

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100+ hours on Hero diff and I have never felt like the game got too hard for me. In fact, I find that after the first 5 weeks in game time, things just get so easy for me. By the time we get AP and fury missiles, the game is just a throw away walk in the park. By now, in this playthrough, week 8 in game, I can clear PP base defense in 1 or 2 turns. cos I basically kill EVERY enemy right at the gate on the first turn… 2 dudes outside launches 2 Fury missiles, throws 2 napalm grenades. Final 1 or 2 guys at the gate shoot down whatever is left. Even sirens all die at the gate this way.

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I have actually tried 3 times and each time I have hit this brick wall. For around the first 20 hours it all progresses well, the fights get tougher but are enjoyable, but then everything goes wrong and every mission you land you have to evacuate. It’s stops progressing slowly and then just dumps a whole load of OP enemy’s on you.
It’s like I say, I think the dev’s only got so far in the balancing and hoped no one would notice.

The thing that make me laugh is this is suppose to be EASY. Another team of developers who think EASY is another name for impossible.

Sigh!

14

As the OP mentioned I find the melee characters pretty useless. There is no overwatch, their speed is low and the bash and hit with held weapon buttons are back to front. Also melee characters should have a hide option. At the moment they are disposable short range grenades you throw at the enemy.

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Yes, they are just fun mates you’re happy when they do something. Like “wow, I can beat something ! Look, mum !”. But finally, another soldier will make the job.
It’s sad, because they are not far to be cool :stuck_out_tongue:

Or…

Or you break the game, comboting with another class and exploit the system to ROFLSTOMP everything :smiley:

There is a middle, normally :stuck_out_tongue:

Actually, i use a biclassed heavy to benefit from MOAR melee damage and try to oneshot things. But you need to get a soldier with a melee bonus in the random perks (another problem : random perks are often irrelevant) and some strength. I don’t dare to test the “ultimate bulldozer combo” yet :stuck_out_tongue:

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For me, its Heavy Assault all the way! Rage burst with dash along with a shot of Fury from the back for free isn’t funny.

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Anyone tested rage burst with unlimited ammo (aka “living guns”) ? Mine is broken a few missions after obtaining :confused:

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If you need to dissect and exploit the game to win then it ceases to be a game, it’s more like a challenge or job of work.

I don’t play the game to work out the hidden algorithm. I play a game to become that character, to imagine team members as friends, and in most cases to become emotionally invested. That to me, is a game and not homework.
This is why I play most game casually on easy. I usually find them more entertaining than normal to hard.
You might say there are two types of gamer. One that has to overcome the impossible, to be the best. And then there is the gamer that plays to be entertained and to have fun and not waste game time working out the averages of this and that.

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Yup. And this is not a rogue-like.
I’m tired of adaptive difficulty. The game is no longer fun.
I’m tired of stupid infinite return fire. I tried this morning, attacking a crab in it’s shell several times, it seems that devs doesn’t understand what “turn based” means. Riposting so much means that you act REALLY FAST !
I can handle full baskets of ennemies, lethal weapons or übertechnology of the deeps. But automatic leveling shit, no limit to skills, ultra-precise enemies with snipemachineguns (maybe it’s an automatic character sheet adjustement :v ) and no way to see your vehicles equipments or stats (even without numbers : something like “damage : can kill a crab” , “armor : lifetime on the battlefield around 10 sec” could do it :smiley: ), it’s using. I try alot, cause I love the game. It’s potential.
Maybe taking money from people with evil contracts is the real problem ?

20

This is my situation.
One mission I am faced with around 8 upgraded Pandorians and 2 Sirens. Some of the crab men are armed with grenade launchers which they can spam until their hearts content. (these kiss me off). It was a hard fight but overall enjoyable.
The very next mission I am faced with a bucket load of sirens, glue throwers, upgraded Pandorians and this big lobster that churns out mind fraggers at every turn as well as stun you with it’s bad breath.
Some of my troops are still on starter weapons as I have not had the time or resources to upgrade all of my teams. By my second turn my troops were either glued in placed, MC, stunned or dead. So I ask you, where is the game in this?

I’ve packed it in and started a game of Battletech. I am now in agreement with others that say this game needs a year or two. It’s one half brilliant the other half bollocks.

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