Looks like the addition of the Festering Skies DLC in the near-future might address your dot points 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 (maybe 5 too, we could get new types of Pandorans to capture in the DLC). Here is the basic (probably outdated) description of what is supposed to be in the Festering Skies DLC according to the old Epic Games store listing:
The skies darken with alien vessels, and Phoenix Point must rise to the challenge. An all-new interception mode, inspired by the original X-COM, lets players build and upgrade their own aircraft, fight aliens in the skies, and harvest tech from downed alien vessels. Festering Skies boasts an entirely new play style, new mission types, new vehicles, and much more.
I had no idea what that DLC was about, but that description would make my wish come true.
If i remember right, you would need to capture a pilot/tech alien in order to get the blueprints of the hybrid aircraft wich could both shoot down UFOs and have soldiers onboard to do the mission.
Hope DLC will bring us closer, but its already late and company is silent about it.
I do agree it made storyline tied to capturing live ranked aliens and far improved experience. Including research what weapons you find on dead bodies and every would have something.
I think that’s the part we have already had and it didn’t turn out well. This was the main source of difficulty spikes and basically “you are losing because you are winning” DDA main issue. It could be better, true, but it would have to be more… organic.
Interesting. I though that there won’t be any kind of alien vessel. And Pandorans would have something more like Mutalisks and Guardians from Starcraft’s zergs. So we will only fight off enemy interceptors and bombers, but not flying transports.
What kind of tech it can be? New strains of virus for new mutations? Some biologic bombs to create some new weapons?
I’m not sure if there was any release date so it is hard to say if DLC is late. Soon we will have some information. And probably Council will be able to see part of the content - which means that it will be released “Soon”.
This is what I miss the most. Interceptions and research about it I don’t really miss. Freedom of base building was also fine but I can get over it, with the exception that facilities should be more meaningful in Phoenix Point.
I also miss the devestating effect a strong bomb or grenade had in Xcom Apocolypse.
A smart grenade could follow an alien moving and blow up on impact and buildings could colapse if you took out parts of ground floor.
We are told its “spiritual successor” and we kind of miss something that was there.
Old players mostly tend to ignore Firaxis Reboot and we call it Fireaxis Xcom,
as it does not mention original UFO name And we see it as oversimplification, even good game that sparked and revived genre.
Absolutely. Just saying that this is a VERY different game to the Microprose XCOM’s. It’s a bit like the Firaxis ones, but even then it’s very different. Personally I quite like how PP differentiates itself. It’s far more in depth, strategy heavy and one where if you really invest time into it, it pays off long term. That said it is not AT ALL for casuals.
I agree on capturing live aliens. That was sorely lacking. More flavour text and better artwork for when researching dead Pandoran’s I’d very much welcome.
For the rest, whilst I wouldn’t mind seeing them in PP I fear that that would bring the game more in line with standard XCOM, and less of it’s own thing. That said if they were added I’d not object to it.
I’ve played and thoroughly enjoyed the Firaxis remakes. Their a different beast to the originals, but still great in their own right.
And my second UFO mention was not the Firaxis remakes. I was referring to the UFO series of UFO: Aftermath, Aftershock and Afterlight. I’ve only played the first one in that series. Difficulty level was off the scale, and was quite buggy so I never went beyond it.
If you’ve never heard of them, I don’t blame you :). From what I recall they went largely off the radar for many due to the reception of that first game.
This are very unofficial spin offs, trying to utilize the name, but having nothing to do with original makers. Not bad, but not great either.
Maybe not to main game. Some late special fan far away DLC? I agree that its not carbon copy in story or aliens, its some in game events and hardships that would be expected. Sadly, old publishers are not behind PP and Gallum, so some things cannot be reused because of copyright (aliens, ship look, story parts). But concepts can. If it can be done in way never engine and setting, the merrier.
I did play aftermath and aftershock, but i totaly forgot about them…
There is also Xenenauts 1 wich is fairly good, soon there will be Xenenauts 2 wich i also look forward too. Xenonauts also listen to community and try to make X as a worthy X-com EU and TFTD comparison.
Thanks guys.
Found this thread - I played aftermath, but never aftershock or afterlight, and they are all very very cheap right now on GoG
We know Phoenix point is expanding, and the festering skies mechanics will need to be balanced with what is at the moment very much focussed on haven defence. Not an easy job.
For example, in the original UFO: Enemy Unknown, if you got bored of constant ground missions like me, you started to intentionally shot down UFOs over the sea.
@ZXDKQS
One of my fave tactics to use in UFO: Enemy Unknown was to intentionally leave a base with no fusion ball launchers or only 3 so once in a while a battleship would fail to be nuked and I would leave a crack team of heavily armed soldiers to deal with the invaders =D
Sadly the early 2000’s ‘UFO’ games were no where near the original genius of Enemy Unknown or Terror From the Deep the last decent X-Com game before the Firaxis ‘reboots’ IMHO was Apocalypse … I played those other ones once each… never again, hell I bought and firmware cracked a PSP to play Enemy Unknown & TFTD again … best run had an avenger in March of the First Year… not much fuel lol but I had one but I might try aftershock again… I have a vague memory that one was pretty good, but the one before it Aftermath was trash, and interceptor was … I can’t even describe that one lol I think I uninstalled it about 20 mins in … and yes returned it … I even re-shrink-wrapped it which confused the guy at the shop lol
I played my mates early release of PP and I wasn’t overly keen on it, but I picked up the Year One Edition a few weeks back now after playing Halcyon 6: Lightspeed Edition (a freebie on Epic) and it made me want to play X-Com again, I haven’t stopped playing PP since… I can really ‘feel’ some of the original UFO:EU in the way it plays, and I’m over the moon to find out the next DLC includes the Ariel combat … I just wish the game wasn’t as stingy with npc loot one thing I miss is being able to kill something and then basically steal everything it was carrying!