[SUGGESTION]: Post-game "Complete UFOpedia"

Phoenix Point Game Feedback
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Hey guys! I know in a previous interview that Julian said there would be a UFOpedia equivalent in Phoenix Point, just as in the original X-COMs. However, I was thinking: After you beat the game once, could you unlock an “amalgamated UFOpedia” containing all of the various alien parts/bases, weapons, techs, and other entries you’ve unlocked so far, and it would persist throughout multiple playthroughs and expand as you make a second, third, etc. playthrough and get the techs and/or see the enemy mutations you didn’t catch the first time around?

The reason I ask is that in the original XCOM, you could theoretically research/unlock every single UFOpedia entry in a single playthrough, since all the aliens would be the same on every game you played, there were no limits to the technology you could research, and so on. However, in Phoenix Point, it seems to me like we won’t be able to do the same in a single playthrough. Getting all the technologies from one faction would make it almost impossible to get all of them from another faction, there are lore related bonus notes, letters, etc. that Allen and Jonas are writing, and there seem to be so many different alien parts and mutations that the vast majority of them wouldn’t show up on one playthrough of the game. So I thought it would be cool to have the UFOpedia be “persistent” across playthroughs so the player has an idea of how much of the game’s content they’ve encountered. Each individual playthrough would have its own limited UFOpedia, of course, so that new games would remain challenging, but at the main menu screen after beating the game once you could see the “Total UFOpedia” of all the things you’ve unlocked in all your playthroughs :slight_smile:

This also has the benefit of opening possibilities for Steam/Xbawkz achievements! Here are my suggestions:

Xenobiologist: Unlock every alien part and creature type in the UFOpedia.

Resurrection of the Dead God: Unlock every Anu entry in the UFOpedia.

I Love The Smell of Napalm in the Morning: Unlock every New Jericho entry in the UFOpedia.

Technological Ascendancy: Unlock every Synedrion entry in the UFOpedia.

Rise from the Ashes: Unlock every Phoenix Project tech/entry in the UFOpedia.

Loremaster: Unlock every letter/journal entry/other lore-related bonus in the UFOpedia.

Phoenix Command: Completely fill out the UFOpedia!

What do you guys think? :smiley:

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I like the idea of some continuity between the campaigns and additional challenges or trophies for the collectors.
And even if there will be no New Game+, the game tracks the progress made by the player in earlier playthroughs - so besides a Complete Mutantpedia you could have a one-time small chance of discovering a complete research data for a given project, or meet a survivor like a named soldier, based on your previous campaigns. Something similar to a random encounter in Fallout 2.

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Yeah, that would be cool–they could implement a “meet a soldier from a previous playthrough” like they did in XCOM 2, where you could put soldiers in the random soldier pool.

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I like the idea, although we usually get pretty much everything in these type of games.

It brings up the idea of a Rogue-lite XCOM type game though. :slight_smile:

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I think some persistent progress and continuity is a must for this type of game. Be honest, does it bore you to recruit those 10 more scientist every game, or, if you are like me, replace those useless stingrays with avalanche missiles. Every start is the same. Persistent progress could shake it up a bit. I’m not saying give me more stuff in beginning, but maybe 5% research for things researched in last game, or one more soldier. Some small bonuses can go a long way, even if they are very weak, they do give some sense of accomplishment and progress. This is very good idea, OP.

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What about “PP legacy”? You can select some research/item/etc. (“unlocked” in a previous run, could be some kind of “challenge/achievement” and not just straightforward researching it) before starting the game, and you will find that in your starting base as “almost completed” (still need to understand the last X% of research, has to repair it to be useable, etc.), possibly having other (inactive at start) PP bases containing other similarly unlocked stuff, so your progression can be faster.

I do think it should be a second-wave option rather than default (balancing it could be a “little” difficult), but I could see myself using it (and the ability to select stuff which are then found in bases sounds cool for me, I believe the PP bases were planned to have a (chance for) “unique” tech).

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Lets say its a plasma cannon. You have 2 batteries for it. After that its a very elaborate, paperweight. Not that hard to balance. No unlimited ammo weapons, obviously. I said small bonus, kinda like what you said. As in not carbon copy of last start. Hell, it could even be random. And it could be anything from bonus item, one more person (possibly from one of the past games, probably not with all the stats) , to some resources or some research unlocked, but only something/someone we already had. It could be so many things, and if its random, it could really spice up new beginning, making people excited aka. “What will I get this time?” and not “Buy 10 tasers, sell 6 grenades, buy autocannon and put the rifles in the craft”. It should be something small, but big enough that it will change your opening moves.

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I’m not a supporter of this idea. I would rather have randomized start to be forced to make diffent decisions. Well game already is supposed to be simulated on geoscape that it will be hard to repeat previous playthroughs. Taking previous playthroughs into account will be immersion breaking for me - at least in most cases described above. Seriously you want to have something from previous game? Like from other parallel dimension? Naaaah for me.

And in case of ufopedia we can have such information outside of a given playthrough database. Once technology/information is researched it can be unlocked there. And another playthroughs can unlock some additional items ommited in previous iterations.

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You misunderstand and you are also wrong. Randomized start only goes so far. Big part of the Phoenix Point will be finding other bases and stuff in them. So some of that stuff can be in your base at the start, aka. no time travel and parallel dimensions, but something already made and lost by phoenix project, except this time its not lost, but it in your base. It can be item, research or person. Maybe even start with the prisoner? I kinda need more details to know what exactly can go and what can’t. I will, and many people beside, play game maybe one and then uninstall it if I have to do whole thing again same with slight variation in mid game. It has to have some persistent reward, or people will leave it after first play-trough, and if they fail, maybe even before that. Game is supposed to offer some bonuses for people who already completed the game for them to get back into it. If that reward is purple haired crab-men, sure, at least its different. Randomized start is absolute meaningless bullshit. I sure as hell won’t start fighting strongest opponents of the bat or have choice of dozens of things to research or make. No, I will start the same, every single time. Maybe I will kill first crabmen in snow or in the jungle, or at night, whatever, it changes nothing, I will still do the things in exact same order, with some variation mid-game.

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Starting new game you may find different faction in haven next to you, so your first contact will be different. You will have access to different tech and classes depedning on that faction. And you can steal, kill, barter or ally with that faction. It’s your choice? So you think that the difference will be somewhere in the mid-game? :slight_smile:

With parallel world I meant situation where let’s say you have 200 research projects to complete. In your first game you maybe do 140 of them. And starting new game you want to have one of those 140 projects almost completed in some abandoned base. I don’t like it. I want to do full research of that project again. I want to build all new items which i invented in current game on my own. I don’t want to find plasma pistol in some base because I discovered it in previous game. I don’t want to have almost completed project about queen abdomen because i discovered it in previous game. I really don’t see what can be transferred like that. In strategy game i really expect to have similar starting conditions whenever I press Start New Game, except randomized starting place / race / first few building - but I say no to any additional resources / buildings or units because previous game was fun or not.

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I waited to see the geoscape, so it confirms or denies what I said. I stand by my words that difference will start in mid-game. I’m not saying that every start will be 100% the same, but similar enough. Alliances will start maybe late in early game, doubt you will be able to attack havens before early mid, and trade will be limited because, you won’t have anything to trade with. Even if you somehow get the tech, there is only so much you can develop with your resources. It basically means “sitting on the back-seat until you grow up”. Now what I suggested is not staring as “adult”, just “growing faster” as an option. Easiest thing in the world to disable it. Many games have such “New Game+” mechanic, its nothing new and revolutionary. You can just pick normal new game.

Now, as for “almost completed projects in other bases” I believe it will be in game anyhow, as other bases started research same as you. Now, how many and what is almost complete is debatable, as they can be almost complete in lore terms, but it still take as much or longer as the other research to finish. I just listed this as one of the things that could be fun to use to “boost” you up, if you so desire, of course.