Turn-Based Tactics Phantom Doctrine - "tactical Cold War conspiracy thriller" by Hard West devs

[Lhynn]

TBH just based on how the initiative works, this is much better than any nuxcom game.

 

[agentorange]

snip

What have you made.

 

[Alienman]

TBH just based on how the initiative works, this is much better than any nuxcom game.

Initiative? I'm not sure what you mean?

 

[Lhynn]

Initiative? I'm not sure what you mean?

Upon encountering an enemy, they get a free positioning round, which is completely unnatural and can fuck you if you discover the enemy but have already moved with most of your squad, theres no such thing in PD.

 

[veevoir]

I also hate the 1 move + 1 shoot AP mechanic, but with nuXcom that's just the lay of the land now.

You start with 2MP and 1FR (Fire point), so wiht certain weapons on perk you can shoot-move and so on. MY main right now have 4MP and 2FP, so in general I have no idea what you are talking about. Sure, you don't get 127,9 AP per turn to spend on different activities, but this is far away from xcom ein move ein shoot.

Would love for movement to be discrete like in Phoenix Point though.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

So far the only thing I'm really disappointed with is the investigation board.

 

[Stavrophore]

So far the only thing I'm really disappointed with is the investigation board.

Ive tried linking lead only, but then i discovered that there's no downside to linking just everything with everything and you will always find the answer. Ive even ordered the board pieces orderly, but right now its just a mess with strings all over place. Shame, it could be so so much better and rewarding. Something that would relly engage your brain cells.

 

[Belegarsson]

That and finding keywords is pretty easy. I think this game would benefit from Orwell's data link system where you might encounter conflicting informations and have to deduce them by picking the logical piece. Right now investigation board remains way too simplistic after a while.

 

[veevoir]

Later in a game it is slightly more engaging - when you have 16-17 pieces and don't organize them somehow it becomes much harder (takes more time) to find the connections.
Though I am disappointed with another aspect - I really hoped at least the story related investigations will have non-random intel pieces, so the fluff in investigation would tell the story unlike for random investigations.



Anyway, finished as glorious KGB with SB help - it is good for what it is. Will try to get full story as Mossad, obviously (((they))) know it all.


BTW - there is a certain optional mission in Poland. I did using SB agents, does it confirm all the suspicions around Boldface?

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Also, whose idea were the Hard West cigarettes, Kacper Szymczak?

 

[veevoir]

Also - I was wandering why all that nagging about 2 disguises making game easy, after all 2nd disguise is a late game tech.. Then it turned out yeah, but in KGB campaign, amerikantsy get it almost in the beginning.

Fucking CIA.

GOG stats btw - 8% made it to KGB campaign achievement (a small milestone in the 1/5th of the game), 19% to CIA one.

 

[Stavrophore]

I think AI pathfiding should be improved -AI agent has no problem locating our operators, even if he never saw the kill, just by missing patrol report, but when you raise alert, enemy reinforcements or enemies have trouble navigating to location of your operators, despite shooting loud weapons, seeing bodies, having guards in sight the same turn or the following turn before being killed[they can report the position through radio, if they arent killed before having eyes on our operator]. Its really funny on one map the one with car mechanic workshop, when i hid for four turns on the highest room, the one that holds the enemy agent, without any guard coming into the room.They clearly had the capability to get there in four turns. Also a small suggestion, if enemy troops are already overly cautious as i showed above, at least make use of it -ie. introduce leapfrogging, two enemies move forward with all their moves, while rest move one MP and then overwatch with full auto or something like that. Then the earlier group that overwatched, move two tiles, while the latter overwatch. That would be really hard to counter, right now you can just catch 5 or more enemies[mainly reinforcements] without any overwatches, and just shoot flanking shots all the time. Its even worse with 1 ap move and 1 ap shoot and then move to cover, same with opening doors and taking shots.

Veevoir how much days took you to complete the game? Im on day 60, im taking my time, i want to try all things, upgrade all shit, generally i feel that im overpowered because of not rushing things in order the campaign wants me[ie. not doing story missions immediately as they show].

And the upcoming patch worries me greatly since i see lot of dumbing down. I might stay on 1.02 if such thing happen. The only thing i think is good, that sometimes reinforcements would just happen in your face, basically enemies could flank your operatives, coming out of nowhere, since spawn was very close. Reinforcements should spawn in logical places -ie gates, main entrances, rooftops if enemy heli can be present on the mission.This could also benefit/go well from increasing the info you get from scouting the mission prior, you should get information about approximate enemy presence, how highly armed they are, how much reinforcements there will be, delivery method of reinforcements -trucks or heli.

So slightly changing reinforcements could be good, but overdoing it, spawning the reinforcements as far away from player as they could be really bad for the game.
Ranges and sidestep -not a problem for me. LMGs could get more downsides as in current meta, they are really powerful. Give them detection like heavy armor, operative movement penalty etc.Assault rifles could also get some downsides, since there's no reason for non disguised soldiers to bring anything but assault rifle/lmg or sniper rifle. Late game shotguns have a niche though, but smg are outclassed by assault rifles, so only used on disguised operators, which is kinda meh.

Buffing the laser perk is also retarded, its already one of the most powerful perks, since even if you fucked up and move in such a way that you ended without movement points, and enemy flanking you, you could use it to deny him shooting you in the next turn. Stripping the enemy with all awareness will mean, that you can also kill said enemy without a problem with headshot on next turn. Brainless as hell.

Bitching about combat is the last thing i would consider, when there are things that should be improved in stealth department [and are quite glaring when your first time play the game], that is first and foremost the bread and butter of this game. But to steam retards, they see the problems in combat, and almost no complaints about some stealth mechanics. Make you think how these people play the PD... Combat is fine as it is, its the stealth that needs some love

And BTW does armor reduction is applied on flanked shots on enemy that has no awareness? Seems it isnt, since i had enemy with 12 armor and 50 health, and froma flanking shot that did 52 damage killed him outright, and he should be left with 10 health. Weird.

 

[veevoir]

Around 65 days.

The number of chapter story has is

Spoiler

More than 6 and less than 8

 

[Stavrophore]

Yuge incline for iconic polish map. I wont spoil it, since its tied to plot Also i didnt expect the game to have 3d gun model for every weapon in the game. This is real attention to the detail. I though there will be just generic submachinegun model, generic assault rifle, generic pistol in hands of operatives. Also policeman uniforms are historically accurate so far, at least the polish, american and soviet, also police force speaks different languages, and they match the country language. This is awesome details.

So far the game is very solid, and looks like the length of campaign is more or less XCOM 2 length. After finishing it up, ill write a mini review.

 

[azimuth]

And BTW the fact that guard standing is next to a player character and dont sound an alarm, while the PC does something illegal, might be explained by abstracting this, and not taking it literally. We dont know how long the one turn is, so you could for example do a hacking or photos sneakily, and then when guard turns you wont be there anymore.

Yeah, as someone who's enjoyed a lot of flawed gems in his time, I'm used to this kind of thinking.

But I just smashed a window in front of a stationary civilian (who was working a counter behind a window or something), ran past her, and snapped a photo of secret documents on a desk behind her in the same room. And she didn't notice or care because I'm "in disguise"...

Let's just say I ain't that imaginative.

 

[Stavrophore]

And BTW the fact that guard standing is next to a player character and dont sound an alarm, while the PC does something illegal, might be explained by abstracting this, and not taking it literally. We dont know how long the one turn is, so you could for example do a hacking or photos sneakily, and then when guard turns you wont be there anymore.

Yeah, as someone who's enjoyed a lot of flawed gems in his time, I'm used to this kind of thinking.

But I just smashed a window in front of a stationary civilian (who was working a counter behind a window or something), ran past her, and snapped a photo of secret documents on a desk behind her in the same room. And she didn't notice or care because I'm "in disguise"...

Let's just say I ain't that imaginative.

Devs said countless times, that breaking windows and parkour which dont sound alarm, is an intended mechanics, specifically added by them so the game flow is better. Yes it looks irky, and they might change it for hardcore mode if we ever get one, or the modding community will change it. Right now it doesnt bother me that much.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[azimuth]

OK, I just jumped through a skylight from the roof to the first floor of a building, shards of glass pouring down around me, and silently chopped not one but two dudes.

They never saw it coming.

Damn this game has flow.

 

[Jinn]

Does the game support such a hardcore mode, like with Invisible Inc rules? Sound detection radius etc?

Not as of now, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was added in the coming weeks/months.

 

[Jinn]

Trying out the beta branch patch right now. No more getting shot from across the map. I think people who felt they could get shot from any angle are going to be very happy with this patch. Have to play some more, but I'm hoping it doesn't make things too easy. We'll see. Besides that, cover works much more naturally than before in general. Creative Forge has openly stated that they are going to continue tweaking and changing the system after this patch until it's where they want it, so even if this messes with difficulty a bit, I have faith they'll be fixing it in no time.

Was very happy to find they actually added a feature I had requested on the steam forums and their discord, though I'm not sure if it was because of my request or not. It was to have more XP feedback while on a mission and to have acquired XP float above their head when you kill or knock out a target. Hope they are able to to someday add the other suggestion of mine, which was a detailed combat log that shows some of the calculations at work when you are attacking or being attacked.

Overall, really liking the feel the new patch brings.

 

[PrettyDeadman]

Why does the game have bad ratings? Is it bad?

 

[Jimmious]

The game feels like the ideal candidate for "wait until it's thoroughly patched out"

 

[PrettyDeadman]

Seems like it will always be a vastly inferioir version of Silent Storm: Hammer and Sicle with popamole gameplay and no destructability.

 

[Alienman]

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Silent Storm: Hammer and Sicle

Everything is inferior.