Anybody have opinions on the DLC and patch changes since release (I see the first DLC has been out for a little while now)?
I stopped playing due to bugs a while back but could always be lured back!
Diego
I got a new appreciation for the sound and music in XCOM after playing this game. Yeah, even the eventually-annoying Bradford voiceovers. That stuff creates an environment that Phoenix Point just doesn’t have at all.
The game is more fun and better balanced but still falls apart late IMO. Managing a larger team with more bases is tedious, the UI for managing gear and inventory is awful and they haven’t fixed the overpowered enemy artillery.
The patch notes from yesterday claim they’ve somewhat nerfed acid damage from the artillery and also added some quality-of-life changes to inventory management. But I haven’t tried it (yet), so can’t vouch for the execution.
Diego
See, if this were on Steam, I would have known there was a patch. But because it’s on Epic Games Store, I would have no way of knowing about the QoL updates if I hadn’t seen your post.
How come no one on this forum ever talks about what a huge pain in the butt it is when games aren’t on Steam?
-Tom
Here’s the complete list of changes for those interested.
Diego
Patch Notes - v1.0.57335 “Derleth” - 28/04/2020
Apr 28
1 / 2
Apr 28
15h ago
UnstableVoltageSnapshot Staff
Today we have released the “Derleth” patch which addresses a number of bugs, balance changes and gameplay updates. This includes a reduction to acid damage. We have plans to further address the way which acid works in a future patch.
Features
- Changed the Lair missions’ layout and objective. Players now have to evacuate all of their units after destroying the Spawnery.
- Units are no longer interrupted while they are using the Dash ability.
- Added a new model for the Scavenger Sniper.
- Added projectile penetration to all weapons. Now if a projectile hits and destroys a wall or body part the projectile will continue flying with the remaining damage.
- Virus damage ticks on the affected target’s turn just like other damage over time effects.
- Added event filters that trigger music according to the missions and factions related to them.
- Added new tactical music.
- Balanced sound levels for most of the tracks.
- Added an HP bar to weapons that appears when you select a weapon that is damaged while in the Tactical layer.
- Added a character info tooltip when hovering over a character that is not currently selected by the player.
- Replenish screen now gives the option to replenish ammo for weapons that don’t have any magazines in storage.
- Partially full magazines will not be visible in the equipment section of the Personnel tab. They will be used to automatically refill their respective weapons after a Tactical mission.
- Added more recruit info in Haven screens showcasing the recruit’s skills, stats and weapons.
- Havens with recruits now have an icon next to them showing the recruit’s class.
- Added a new trading interface accessible from Geoscape without going into Haven info that has a slider and trade all button.
- Added a new set of encounters when a player becomes Supportive, Aligned, or Allied with any faction.
Balance changes
- Disabling certain Spawnery body parts now causes the target to receive more bleed damage per turn.
- All mind control abilities can be used only once per turn.
- Reduced the damage on alien enemies’ acid weapons and attacks:
- Siren Acid Spray reduced from 40 to 30 acid per tick
- Acid Grenade Arthron reduced from 20 to 10 acid per tick
- Elite Acid Grenade Arthron reduced from 30 to 20 acid per tick
- Acid worm explosion reduced from 50 to 30 acid per tick
- Chiron acid mortar reduced from 20 to 10 acid per tick
Bug Fixes
- Fixed an issue that was causing only a smaller portion of the maps to be generated.
- Fixed a series of hangs that were caused by various edge cases involving the Panic status.
- Fixed a hang when Overwatch fire destroyed an enemy’s weapon right as they were about to shoot with it.
- Fixed an issue with the Microsoft Store version of the game causing users who edited their keybinds to have their UI corrupted after loading a saved game.
- Fixed a hang when the Scylla used abilities related to the Spitter Head body part.
- Fixed a rare hang that occurred when Spider Drones tried to move when they had few AP remaining.
- Fixed a rare hang that occurred after successfully defending a haven with low population numbers.
- Fixed a rare issue that caused the player-controlled aircraft to freeze mid-flight.
- Fixed an issue where the player’s aircraft couldn’t move after acquiring more than 10 total ships.
- Fixed an issue that made the overwatch cone bigger at night despite the player’s units having reduced perception.
- Fixed an issue with Gungnir SR-2’s overwatch cone being too short.
- Fixed a performance issue before activating the Dash ability on certain maps.
- Fixed an issue where players weren’t receiving the damage bonuses from certain alien vivisection researches.
- Fixed an issue which caused the camera to focus on the Pacific Ocean when loading a Geoscape save.
7 posts were split to a new topic: Phoenix Point with the v1.6 Cthulhu update (Cthulhu not included)
Look what’s out tomorrow!
The new content includes:
New means of exploring? New resources and ways of obtaining them? Hmmm. Also, a 1.7 update even if you don’t get the DLC.
If you’ve been waiting on a new content dump or fixes to the latest fixes, seems like tomorrow is the day to jump back in.
-Tom
played it
I decided to dive into this again and I’ve started a new game with both DLCs enabled though I’m not far enough along to have experienced it yet. The starting mission for both DLCs has popped up at least. Note I haven’t played this since launch so haven’t experienced the first DLC yet either.
Noticing some changes already such as scanning but the biggest one that snuck up on me was the new scavenging mission design. Those heavy boxes are pretty harsh on your weakling troops to carry but whilst I felt outnumbered the total lack of ranged weaponry on the pandorans at the start of the campaign (also a new thing?) made it relatively smooth going.
It still suffers some of the same problems, though. I won’t dwell on the poor soldier customisation options other than to state that we’ve been totally spoiled by XCOM2 and anything not matching at least the visual quality of Gears of War Tactics will disappoint. I’ll will, however, confess to restarting a couple of times right off the bat to reroll soldiers with natural perks that actually synergise with their primary class. I’ve no time for wastrels on Legend difficulty. Kinda wish you had a bit more say in the starting conditions for this sort of stuff.
Shuffling ammo about seems less tedious/confusing than I remember it to be. I seem to remember partially used up ammo mags being a thing but they (thankfully) seem to be gone now. You’re also prompted to refill your soldiers post-mission which works as you expect, which is great. That said I’m still not sure why they don’t equip soldiers in a new game with a couple of extra ammo mags to help prevent new players falling into the trap of starting a mission with insufficient ammo to see it through. Excepting the heavy they all have enough encumbrance for at least one or two more.
Oh, yes. The heavy. That weird cannon on which so much success or disaster seems to pivot at times. Weirdest thing on my first (only) playthrough was realising I’d never got an acceptable replacement for it throughout the entire game. The minigun was more a step to the side, worthy of taking on secondary heavy but not as a direct replacement. Wonder if there’s anything new to be had, there.
What you do with the heavy is build the grenade launcher, get the New Jericho rocket launcher attachment and then never use any of his primary weapons ever again. Using the above two you can fire user-placed explosives twice per turn and soften up all the enemies for your other guys to kill.
Or the day to jump in for the first time!
Man this is harder than I remember, playing on normal I wiped my squad second mission (friendly fire on overwatch trying to take out mindhuggers mostly).
I wrapped my Legend game up today. I did have to restart once after some costly mistakes in the new strategic layer became too much for my cursed perfectionism to bear. Top tip: steal an aircraft or two ASAP, preferably the fast one from Synedrion.
I have to say I’m impressed. For the most part. It still becomes a bit unglued in the closing act of the game which I’ll address in a bit but this is simultaneously a fairer yet more challenging and engaging experience than it used to be. If you’ve had misgivings about giving this a go due to the somewhat rocky start, don’t hold back any longer. The strength of this game has always been the combat model and while I have enjoyed XCOM’s streamlined abstractions the elegance with which Phoenix Point addresses some of my misgivings there frankly makes it difficult for me to want to go back. About the only thing I think this game misses here is a Max Payne/Sniper Elite style bullet cam for those desperate and spectacular shots that thread multiple needles (some friendly) on their way to glory.
The difficulty curve of the tactical layer is significantly smoother with the improved pandoran evolution scheme ensuring that you’re better informed of what you’ll be facing coupled with the fact that the nastier combinations are pushed further back in the timeline. The once notorious difficulty spike of your first encounters with sirens is muted somewhat, with early versions of this enemy lacking the mind control abilities and thick armour that to so much rage and bitterness in the early version.
That being said, I’m still of the opinion that the ‘modular’ enemy design is something of a mistake in the sense that I think gamers are better served with vastly different enemy archetypes being recognisable at a glance. Phoenix Point seems content to keep things muddied and muddled, constantly demanding you spend time to examine what weapon each enemy is carrying before firing. Triton snipers in particular should’ve been a separate species entirely.
This feeds into a number of frustrations that generally get worse as the game progresses. Performance gets pretty poor as the massive movement range of your soldiers in the late game causes noticeable pauses when selecting them due to the amount of work the pathing algorithm needs to do to compensate. UI issues start coming more into the fore with mounts being a particular sticking point since nowhere does the game tell you that certain mounts will only work with heavy chest armour equipped. Bionics/mutations that preclude the use of a mount in the associated slot still show the interactive slot for no discernible reason and when you’re having to manage 20+ soldiers by the end game keeping on top of who needs what gets frustrating. Other late-game items are missing pertinent information, such as a breakdown of damage values for the various (delightfully powerful) engineer turrets. Vehicles, even the new mutogs, remain terrible; little more than cumbersome bullet sponges that are viable only in the early game. Yet even so, still not worth taking in favour of the three soldiers that could be gaining experience instead.
Overall, much improved, enough to recommend though perhaps not quite unequivocally. Hopefully now that they’ve smoothed out the overall game experience and sorted out the difficulty, they can turn their attentions to bug squashing and QoL fixes.
See you at the next DLC.
OK loading this up right after wastelands 3! LOL