Vehicles... They need some love to be useful

Phoenix Point Game Feedback
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Here a few points that comes to my mind after having used and even fought against them:

-They have no upgrades

I haven’t played a full campaign yet, but as far as i know once you have them they are as good as they are going to be. No new weapons for them, no better armor or any new features for them.

-They are not that powerful

Early game they may be a good addition to a squad as their weapons are more powerful than what you have. However your people improve and become deadlier and better equipped, your vehicle remain the same. Also, for how big they are, they are not that durable, they are easily crippled by a few attacks be it factions or the Pandorans. It’s nice that they have immunities to a lot of damage types and effects, but as vehicles go they lack durability and firepower.

-They quickly run out of ammo

For those that have weapons, they don’t have enough ammo to last on larger battles. It’s also aggravating we can’t reload them.

-No secondary attacks

Besides their primary weapon they have no other form of attack. If they run out of ammo or their weapon is disabled, they become useless besides tanking some hits for the team.

-They tend to run though things too much

Destroying obstacles can be useful, but we should be able to tell them to avoid it too. Really annoying when they blow up stuff and take damage from it or when they destroy cover our team need.

-Pandoran melee attacks wreak them

I think it’s silly that an armored vehicle is so easily wreaked by Arthrons bashing at them. Make sense a Scylla be strong and large enough for this, but melee attacks from smaller Pandas and even humans works just as well. I think they should be resistant to melee attacks regardless of how much armor is remaining.

-Sniper Rifles works too well on them

As the game is, sniper weapons are the answer to everything. May not be the best damage dealer, but they work well against anything. It’s especially true against vehicles, we can disable their weapons or any of their parts with 2-3 hits.

I do think they need some love. More health, better weapons, alternate attacks, new unlockable perks. Also heavy weapons should be needed to deal with them, should be scary to take them on with basic infantry weapons like rifles and grenades…

6 Likes
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Have you seen Improve Vehicle Useage in the Canny Feedback Tool?

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Just started to read it[quote=“mcarver2000, post:2, topic:10100, full:true”]
Have you seen Improve Vehicle Useage in the Canny Feedback Tool?
[/quote]

Just started to read it. Lots of cool ideas there.

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  1. “they have no upgrades” this isn’t that big an isseu for me, as the game is side grade centered they don’t really need upgrades to their armory over time.

  2. “they are not that powerful” I completely agree here, I am “paying” 3 deployment slots for this piece of hardware…I better get some return of investment. at the moment the level of power I get from 3 troops is far higher then that of a vehicle, and the vehicles unique capabilities arn’t of a comparable level of application. as such…the opportunity cost of fielding a vehicle, in all but a few very specific missions is too high.

  3. “they quickly run out of ammo” agreed again, vehicles have a few advantages IRL that I would like to see in the game. notably, they can carry more stuff and are because of that excellent for carrying heavy and ammo hungry weapons (or weapons with very heavy ammo). being able to carry more bullets on a soldier then in a flipping APC makes no sense to me.

  4. “no secondary attacks” middling for me, lots of vehicles have a form of secondary armament and it makes sense to implement. but it has to actually add to the gameplay value. and “more guns” just doesn’t have that high a priority for me then making the primary gun/weapon the vehicle has actually solid first.

  5. “they tend to run through things too much” vehicles could definitely do with better control features so you can avoid having them run over explosive barrels and change their facing without having to use the gun sights.

  6. “pandoran melee attacks wreck them” well any melee attack can wreck them really…in a game where melee deals 65-180 damage roughly on par with getting hit by high caliber pistols to full on anti-material cannons. this has more to do with how the damage system works then it does with how vehicles perform.

  7. “sniper rifles wreck them” havn’t actually noticed that that much, yes they do start chunking vehicle Hp as they have enough damage to overpower the armor. but snipers tend not to wreck the vehicles (in the rare instance that I do field them) but this may be because I use the high health armadillo the most in missions that do have snipers (VIP extraction missions). and if enemy snipers are about…I much rather have then KO a vehicle gun then cap a trooper.

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Had a scavenging mission the other day and ran into a squad of The Pure supported by 2 Armadillos. The team I had wasn’t the A team, but 3 of them had sniper rifles. Disabling both Armadillos guns was done in 2 turns, after that they just ran away. The pure themselves were not much of a challenge afterward (5 of them).

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that makes a good case for putting secondary weapons on these vehicles, just so the player can’t knock them out of the fight by disabling their gun that quickly. it could also make for a strong case to reduce the threat value of vehicles if fielded by other factions.

enemy vehicles tend to be extremely, for lack of a better term…stupid…when it comes to deploying themselves…how often I have caught them going for a face hug against my troops without being able to attack, and I tend to carry a lot of armor shred…as such vehicle armor doesn’t do much to me and they end up dead before they can actually use their weapons…becoming ad hoc cover against their own infantry. I usually knock them out by firing a deceptor or hellcannon in the flank, followed by AR or shotgun shots. 1000 HP melts fast that way…I don’t bother disabling their gun.

But the AI isn’t using my tactics against me…and I rarely field vehicles for their damage potential (I use them as soaks mainly for smaller squads or to get VIP’s out, now soaking has failed several times…but not because the vehicle got destroyed…more because the enemy simply ignored the vehicle) I do this because their gun just isn’t good, and them (armadillo’s…been a long time since I last used a scarab or aspida) getting mangled isn’t that much of a problem. if the guns get better and I can actually use them effectively…and fielding them is somewhat cost effective…I would care much more about getting the turret sniped.

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By the way, the Synerdron vehicle seems to me to be the best of the vehicles. Paralysis takes an enemy (normally) instantly out of the fight and the duration is often long enough to make them out for good.