melkathi

So I quit and am uninstalling the game. Here is the second feedback post I made on the Snapshot forum. And it is something I can't skip around, an ethical block I have I can't break for a silly game: I started the game with a bit of trepidation but also looking forward to the tension between factions. I expected hostilities would translate into raids, stealing resources, sabotaging structures, destroying aircraft. Then Synedrion went to war against New Jericho. A Synedrion death squad attacked a New Jericho haven in North America and murdered all 7500 inhabitants. With infiltrators and snipers, the haven inhabitants hadn’t even noticed they were under attack until people started dropping dead left and right. They panicked and tried to run, tried to hide. But Synedrion infiltrators appeared out of nowhere and shot them as they ran. The civilians were herded into the power station, locked in and the generators rigged to explode. Boom. 7500 humans killed. New Jericho of course retaliated. Synedrion families were hiding in basements, but the New Jericho soldiers just hosed every hole they could see with flame throwers. By the time Phoenix Project strike teams returned from defending havens from Pandoran attacks in Europe and clearing out a lair in southern Asia, over 30.000 people had been slaughtered across America and Australia. And the death squads were already attacking other havens. And the leaders send me messages as if we were allies? Where is the option to arrest them and put them on trial for war crimes? Or send in a strike team and execute them? They order the systematic slaughter of children. I don’t want to play with these factions. I just want to shoot their leaders.

The accompanying quote from the soldier was "Missed the shot."

Tonight I quit the game not to go to bed, as I did the other nights, but because I felt there was no point playing. I wrote some feedback on the snapshot forum and will copy paste it here: The name "Phoenix Point" creates expectations of the game. A world devastated by a deadly virus, overrun by lovecraftian, mutated monsters, the name suggests an initiative that aims to see humanity rise like the phoenix from the ashes. And it suggests that the game will be about this attempt. You are put in charge of the Phoenix Project and start discovering it's history. But you don't actually get to be the Phoenix Project. You read well written exposition about it, but the actual gameplay isn't about it: You recruit soldiers from the three major factions, who have split the world between them. Neutral havens are extremely rare. In the backer builds this was different and it created a different feel. In the launch game you are thrust into a world of three huge nations. So you get your personnel from them. You also get your tech from them. You have a research lab, but all you independently research is journal entries with Phoenix Point exposition. To get tech and affect your gameplay you either reverse engineer faction equipment or are granted knowledge by them. And then they start hostilities and instead of aliens humans fight each other. And they are committed. They wipe out each other's havens at a crazy pace. In the end the three factions dominate everything about the game: story, gameplay, aesthetic. And all that ties in with the game's name are a few cutscenes. They could have called it The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. It would have been more fitting: Synedrion, New Jericho and Disciples of Anu. Though I am probably being a bit unfair to New Jericho here. I tried to warm to the research system where you don't get to research but the npcs do. I tried to overlook how the map was swamped with havens of the three factions, greatly limiting exploration. But now that I am staring at a geosphere where those three factions are killing each other, and what I thought the game would be about - defending humanity from an "alien" threat - is sidelined so the factions can do their thing, I am feeling that maybe I should just let them play their game. After all, the Phoenix Project and I, the player, are just along for the ride and not important to the game.

Reached the point in Phoenix Point where the factions start all out war between them. All the fighting against the Pandorans they never did, they do now. Within 5 minutes New Jericho and Synedrion each wiped out two havens of the other.

Well, Phoenix Point is XCOM alright. Sniper has a "sure" shot. The whole enemy square within the reticule. Can't miss, what with this being true trajectory. As he fires, the idle animation of the target opens the tiniest gap between arm and torso. Obviously the bullet goes through that. Enemy breathes out, chest deflates and dodges the bullet.

You should have some time. Scyllas started showing up when I already had two manticores and 16 soldiers. Just that while my experienced soldiers are level 7, some of the newer ones I take out in the field aren't. Especially the priests, who I like to use even at low levels.

Today's Hotfix: We have just deployed a hotfix patch for Phoenix Point taking it to version 1.0.54580 Patch Notes: Fixed a crash that occurs when launching the game with certain locales. Fixed an issue with invalid targeting when behind cover. Fixed various sound issues. The main purpose of this hotfix was to resolve the crash at launch issue. We have a larger patch on the way later this week to address some of the other issues. We will continue to identify and work through the reported issues and release patches as soon as they’ve been resolved. We ask if anyone encounters bugs in-game to please report them with the F12 tool - as this sends important game-state data directly to our QA team and allows us to more easily identify the issues. It was rolled back and then applied again with this note: The patch was temporarily rolled back and has now been reissued. This should have resolved the missing save game issue. Please accept our apologies for the inconvenience and minor heart-attacks all around.

You'll do great.

With FF7 from the Squeenix store the irony is you had to download an installer from their site. But that went online and didn't actually have the game downloaded...

Today I searched for video game news in an attempt to take over the Computer and Console section of the forum.

Is that like my signature but better because it is yours?

First EA killed Darkspore single player, leaving me without a game. Then Squeenix killed their shop, leaving those of us who had a game on their site without games. Now gearbox is killing single player Battleborn? Yeah, I am going to limit my game purchases and concentrate on getting my money's worth out of what I got, while I still got it.

Maybe it's a nod to the old Sierra era?

Haven defenses starting with scary deployment: Raider in flames: And New Jericho getting tired of waiting for me to clear out that lair in Europe:

Screenshots of rather problematic LOS (for people not playing but interested in what is being criticized).

Yeah, the LOS preview is quite wonky. Sometimes it previews LOS, you walk there and there isn't, and when you zoom in and hunt manually for a target you can see the tip of the elbow of an enemy. I'd needs a check on LOS quality there - if less than X% are visible from the location, the line should show up in a different colour or not at all. For some of the issues I would like to believe that a number of assets are missing flags. Some items are missing the flag that they are crouchable, others that they block line of sight.

Mind sharing your line of sight, cover and door complaints with us?

I have 24 hours played and very few bugs. I had the game freeze once when I had loaded an older save and upon entering a mission, it tried to load a later save instead of the mission ??????

GOG Galaxy Argus Update added a cross platform friend list. So now I can see my Steam friends while playing GOG games.

This is the Battletech I bought in November: https://store.catalystgamelabs.com/collections/battletech/products/battletech-a-game-of-armored-combat It will keep me supplied with Battletech goodness for a while.

Some Goo Fighting:

Hmm, Yet another account that is created, creates a thread then doesn't log back in.

I sent him the link to this discussion so he doesn't think we are talking about him behind his back

I had send team 2 (in a damaged Manticore) to defend an Anu Haven in Scandinavia, while team 1 was wrapping up a mission in Northern America. Before team 2 even reached the Anu, and while team 1 was on the long way back to the main base in Northeast Asia, to recuperate, a Jericho Haven on the Iberian Peninsula got under attack. So after defending the Anu Haven, team 2, without rest rushed over there. They got there in the nick of the nick of time, just as the Haven was about to get overrun (defense had just ticked down to 0). Then the team figured out why the Jericho havens in this area have been going dark. They gathered the civilians and guided them away from the fighting (you get control of the civilians if you go near them). And the pandorans shelled the evac zone. But luckily it was the one time their artillery missed. Giving all civilians time to evacuate the area. (We won. Barely. Everyone is alive. And we won because the Chiron that had been bombarding us from afar retreated) And on a different note: a backer who may possibly have liked a certain TV series:

Found my third base. Also had the first instance of a New Jericho haven getting attacked were I could not reach it. Attack strength 16, defender strength 16, haven got wiped out With so many ambushes I am getting low on materials Also made the mistake of recruiting two Synedrion infiltrators and am seriously disliking them. Anu Berserkers are so much more awesome.