[Phoenix Point] SMH at Year One Edition

TerribleMisathrope

Just checking in to see if anyone else is as annoyed as me that once again Slapshot Games, Phoenix Point devs, have broken all old saved games with a patch and made yet more questionable balancing choices.

Phoenix Point is a game that I actually really love, and, for me anyway, both really improves on the Firaxis versions of X-Com and restores features I liked about the originals from the 90's. I've been playing UFO Defence and TFTD on and off since they were released and completed both of the relevant Firaxis titles (without the meh DLC).

Things I like about PP:

1. Realistic Ballistics and actually useful aiming, including called shots to limbs and body parts.
2. LOS hints built-in without need for a mod.
3. Enemies don't suddenly react to you detecting them and jump in deepest possible available cover with a free move (that's just a stupid mechanic Firaxis and hopefully one you'll immediately drop for you next X-Com release).
4. Your character stops moving when you spot an enemy so you can reconsider your move, as one might do in real combat.
5. You get to move your full distance regardless of how much partial moves you make and this does not overly penalize your possible actions as a result. In the 90's games you had TU's, but in the Firaxis versions you just have an action block that could be a move or shooting/using some perk. I always found it annoying at best that if I moved short of total possible move, it counted for an entire move action, but with Phoenix Point I can take a step or several shoot and then move (maybe back into cover!) with my remaining AP balance, like a sane tactical game.
6. A good challenge, but not impossible.
7. You can multi-class!!

Things I hate about PP:

1. Rebalancing - Slapshot treats this game likea PVP MMO, and literally uses game data to rebalance skills, weapons and armor. They first did this to nerf the piercing assault rifles saying it was overused basically, but once armor shows up non-piercing weapons are completely worthless, especially assault rifles, because of how armor is applied to each individual projectile. Assault rifles go from a very strong and competitively powered guns to the least powerful, doing less damage than even pistols. Of course, the idea is to use shredding to winnow down the armor and then get in there with shotguns or assault rifles, but still an unnecessary nerf. Honestly, I don't understand the continued insistence on tweaking balance with literally every patch. It's not sane behavior in a single player game, especially when there are more pressing issues for the dev team. Just with the latest patch they finally made the game run at about 2X the FPS I had been getting, but the tradeoff was that they also replaced the Hel II cannon with a rapid-fire cannon that is less effective and will definitely be even less effective once armor shows up again. Some complained about the Hel II, but if you give your Heavies sniper armor and therefore improved accuracy, the Hell cannon was fantastic in mid-to-late game.
2. Patches breaking saved games. They went so far as to completely redo the mechanics for exploring the Geoscape and spotting Pandoran colonies in a patch at one point and everytime they tweak the mechanics too far the old saves break. I've not yet completed the game despite several promising starts on Veteran difficulty simply because they broke my prior saves.

On the one hand they made the game run a bit better and some of the saved-game breaking changes made some tangible improvements, but it is being treating like a rolling-release/MMO/beta work and it is just plain awful for me.

STOP.CHANGING.YOUR.GAME.

Just finish killing bugs, the final DLC and make a game with tweaked rules as a sequel or spiritual sequel!! So much good work ruined and I just want to start a game and finish a game without having all the rules change again. Also, I guess the game is very unpopular now, because I see no one on the Internet complaining about this insane way to treat a SP game, and that's just sad, because between patches it's actually really fun!

Anyway, would love to hear others' thoughts. Is everyone else just not playing it anymore? Have you checked your saved games recently? Are the changes worth the hassle?

Dracomicron

Phoenix Point has never worked for me. At first I thought it was just the Epic Launcher being crap, but I just downloaded it on Steam, and, nope, still doesn't even load. My 2016 rig needs to stick to Age of Wonders: Planetfall, I guess.

Dracomicron

Well, $1800 later, I have a new computer capable of running Phoenix Point. It's... good? So far. It's, as I mentioned in the holiday forum, some XCOM-ass XCOM, which is Frankly My Thing, My Dude.

I am simultaneously amused and disappointed that all of the cybernetics and mutations are exceptionally off-putting, visually. While I enjoy the option of turning my soldiers into cybermen or tentacle monsters, I wish there were more subtle options that left them as identifiably human.