KickStarter Phoenix Point - the new game from X-COM creator Julian Gollop

[Alienman]

Graphics and UI, it's the whole combat mechanic. You really think that will change from alpha to release. It's nuXcom. They have already decided to use the boadgame system. So much stuff on in that video that just screams shit design. Automatically return fire is one thing. And lol at "well door out is that way", you think this is Reddit or something?

 

[ArchAngel]

Graphics and UI, it's the whole combat mechanic. You really think that will change from alpha to release. It's nuXcom. They have already decided to use the boadgame system. So much stuff on in that video that just screams shit design. Automatically return fire is one thing. And lol at "well door out is that way", you think this is Reddit or something?

No but what will you gain by shitposting here with wrong information?

 

[Achilles]

I don't mind the Firaxis-like interface, familiarity with a popular game will bring in more customers. These things are extremely important to me:

1. A proper line of sight and detection system. If my soldier hasn't been personally detected by the enemy he should be invisible to them.
2. No pod activation mechanic. By far the worst feature of the Firaxis XCOM games.
3. A proper ballistics system.
4. Deep strategic layer with meaningful choices and consequences.

If they can deliver on those then they can copy as much of the nuXCOM look as they like. I already pledged anyway because I really believe than Gollop can make a great game. At worst he will make a nuXCOM clone with slightly worse graphics and better gameplay, which I would be ok with. At best he will deliver a truly great tactical game which I would be elated to play.

 

[Alienman]

Graphics and UI, it's the whole combat mechanic. You really think that will change from alpha to release. It's nuXcom. They have already decided to use the boadgame system. So much stuff on in that video that just screams shit design. Automatically return fire is one thing. And lol at "well door out is that way", you think this is Reddit or something?

No but what will you gain by shitposting here with wrong information?

What wrong information? Did you watch the same video as me? nuXcom clearly have influenced the combat mechanics in the game, down to UI stuff. It has half-full cover mechanic and just by watching the video I can say it will play out as a boardgame.
Makes me sad seeing this old fanart:

Spoiler

 

[ArchAngel]

Graphics and UI, it's the whole combat mechanic. You really think that will change from alpha to release. It's nuXcom. They have already decided to use the boadgame system. So much stuff on in that video that just screams shit design. Automatically return fire is one thing. And lol at "well door out is that way", you think this is Reddit or something?

No but what will you gain by shitposting here with wrong information?

What wrong information? Did you watch the same video as me? nuXcom clearly have influenced the combat mechanics in the game, down to UI stuff. It has half-full cover mechanic and just by watching the video I can say it will play out as a boardgame.
Makes me sad seeing this old fanart:

Spoiler

I did watch it. I also have read this topic where people have been putting snipets from Gollop's comments in interviews and on Fig page. Go back and inform yourself.
Or you can ask nicely and I can give you everything I remember.

 

[Grotesque]

So this game will have everything BATTLETECH should've had but will feature:

1. Ballistic damage depending on range
2. Called shots on body parts
3. Simulated bullet trajectories with gameplay consequences on a miss

Too bad they used too many visual cues from Firaxis's XCOM. That's a campaign blunder of epic proportions.
Their audience target is all the disenchanted people by the new XCOM and they come out with a bare bones demo that looks and feels like a clone of it.

Will this game feature downed "UFO" missions and interception?

 

[ArchAngel]

I don't mind the Firaxis-like interface, familiarity with a popular game will bring in more customers. These things are extremely important to me:

1. A proper line of sight and detection system. If my soldier hasn't been personally detected by the enemy he should be invisible to them.
2. No pod activation mechanic. By far the worst feature of the Firaxis XCOM games.
3. A proper ballistics system.
4. Deep strategic layer with meaningful choices and consequences.

If they can deliver on those then they can copy as much of the nuXCOM look as they like. I already pledged anyway because I really believe than Gollop can make a great game. At worst he will make a nuXCOM clone with slightly worse graphics and better gameplay, which I would be ok with. At best he will deliver a truly great tactical game which I would be elated to play.

1. I don't know about this, I guess this comes down to AI implementation.
2. It will not have pods.
3. They are going to implement this and test how it works. It is not 100% it will be in final version but we can assume they also really want it since they are going to spend man hours trying to implement it.
4. With 3 factions, proper base building, base defense, being able to have multiple bases and needing to specialize them it will at least be more complex than both nuXcom 1 and nuXcom 2. It will not have air combat since aliens are not going to have UFOs flying around.

 

[Alienman]

Graphics and UI, it's the whole combat mechanic. You really think that will change from alpha to release. It's nuXcom. They have already decided to use the boadgame system. So much stuff on in that video that just screams shit design. Automatically return fire is one thing. And lol at "well door out is that way", you think this is Reddit or something?

No but what will you gain by shitposting here with wrong information?

What wrong information? Did you watch the same video as me? nuXcom clearly have influenced the combat mechanics in the game, down to UI stuff. It has half-full cover mechanic and just by watching the video I can say it will play out as a boardgame.
Makes me sad seeing this old fanart:

Spoiler

I did watch it. I also have read this topic where people have been putting snipets from Gollop's comments in interviews and on Fig page. Go back and inform yourself.
Or you can ask nicely and I can give you everything I remember.

I'm not even sure what you are talking about. Do you have any secret information that says that this game is not nuXcom? I know about the minor differences if that is what you are on about.

 

[Jimmious]

So this game will have everything BATTLETECH should've had but will feature:

1. Ballistic damage depending on range
2. Called shots on body parts
3. Simulated bullet trajectories with gameplay consequences on a miss

Too bad they used too many visual cues from Firaxis's XCOM. That's a campaign blunder of epic proportions.
Their audience target is all the disenchanted people by the new XCOM and they come out with a bare bones demo that looks and feels like a clone of it.

Will this game feature downed "UFO" missions and interception?

Who said that? Sorry mate but their target audience is also the (many) people that got and liked the nuXCOMs which is absolutely logical if they aim to make money.
I don't think they specifically stated anywhere that we target to the people that didn't like the nuXCOMs and I don't think it would be a good move to do so...

 

[ArchAngel]

Graphics and UI, it's the whole combat mechanic. You really think that will change from alpha to release. It's nuXcom. They have already decided to use the boadgame system. So much stuff on in that video that just screams shit design. Automatically return fire is one thing. And lol at "well door out is that way", you think this is Reddit or something?

No but what will you gain by shitposting here with wrong information?

What wrong information? Did you watch the same video as me? nuXcom clearly have influenced the combat mechanics in the game, down to UI stuff. It has half-full cover mechanic and just by watching the video I can say it will play out as a boardgame.

I did watch it. I also have read this topic where people have been putting snipets from Gollop's comments in interviews and on Fig page. Go back and inform yourself.
Or you can ask nicely and I can give you everything I remember.

I'm not even sure what you are talking about. Do you have any secret information that says that this game is not nuXcom? I know about the minor differences if that is what you are on about.

No secret info, I have just been paying attention. And because of that I know the full game will have inventory, ammo, you can move square by square (you already can in current version), any character can use any weapon and you will then give them skills that improve usage of weapons you gave them. No pod system, you will be able to target specific place and make holes in walls to step through, ballistic system is going to be implemented. Full environmental destruction more similar to old UFO than nuXcom. Only real difference is no Standard/Rapid/Aimed shot which is replaced by being able to target body parts.

 

[Alienman]

I know all that, but it doesn't really change anything. It's just fluff added to the nuXcom combat mechanics. Hiding behind a solid wall might make you 50% harder to hit etc.

 

[ArchAngel]

I know all that, but it doesn't really change anything. It's just fluff added to the nuXcom combat mechanics. Hiding behind a solid wall might make you 50% harder to hit etc.

Not really when they plan to implement ballistics. I guess you didn't know all or again have problems reading.

 

[Alienman]

So you mean they will ditch the half-full cover mechanics when that get ready? I don't understand.

 

[Jimmious]

So you mean they will ditch the half-full cover mechanics when that get ready? I don't understand.

It is interesting to see what happens if you try to aim at specific body parts which are clearly behind f.e. the half cover. If THAT is possible then it's pretty stupid tbh. For example dude crouching behind small wall and you can aim his legs = rofl

 

[ArchAngel]

So you mean they will ditch the half-full cover mechanics when that get ready? I don't understand.

It is interesting to see what happens if you try to aim at specific body parts which are clearly behind f.e. the half cover. If THAT is possible then it's pretty stupid tbh. For example dude crouching behind small wall and you can aim his legs = rofl

I would guess they will either block that attack from choosing or the shot will hit cover.
Maybe that is the way to balance this all. Cover will not provide much of a penalty but mostly limit body parts you can target. Like if a person is using full cover to shoot other can shoot at his gun arm only and maybe the head since they need to look as well where they are shooting at.

 

[lightbane]

Saw the demo, seems a fancier version of NuCom 2. Also, hopefully Jullian did stupid things on purpose, just as letting one guy right below the queen, asking for it when she took the chance to squash him. The animations are also a bit awkward.

I guess time will tell how it develops.

 

[ArchAngel]

Saw the demo, seems a fancier version of NuCom 2. Also, hopefully Jullian did stupid things on purpose, just as letting one guy right below the queen, asking for it when she took the chance to squash him. The animations are also a bit awkward.

I guess time will tell how it develops.

It looked to be on purpose to me to showcase queen attacks.
Longer version and with another combat vs only lots of small aliens can be found here:

 

[Israfael]

1. A proper line of sight and detection system. If my soldier hasn't been personally detected by the enemy he should be invisible to them.

This requires TUs in any form or shape (their existence can be concealed from the player, but they should be there nevertheless) as you can't control FOVs without fine granularity

 

[luinthoron]

Campaign update 17:

With just a short time to the end of our campaign the game play demo has finally been released.

You can watch the demo here, on IGN

UnstableVoltage will be streaming demo game play at 9pm BST / Midday PST tonight, June 6th with Julian Gollop on hand to answer your questions.

The livestream will start here

He has recorded a stream made last night here

And he has also made an informative video about the Action Point system

Many thanks UnstableVoltage.

There is a new story for you

Soulstealer, by Allen Stroud

Disciples of Anu Blimp
Slavi has created an excellent concept for a Disciples of Anu airship.

 

[ArchAngel]

1. A proper line of sight and detection system. If my soldier hasn't been personally detected by the enemy he should be invisible to them.

This requires TUs in any form or shape (their existence can be concealed from the player, but they should be there nevertheless) as you can't control FOVs without fine granularity

From what I seen in the live stream video you see alien last position even when none of your characters have line of sight during your turn. When it is alien turn they instantly disappear and can do whatever that you don't even see until they come into your sight again. This can be used for aliens as well. Tell their AI to ignore your troops they no longer see on their turn or if they are melee they move in direction of last place they seen someone until they find your troops.
In nuXcom enemy AI could know location of your far back snipers and if they are out of cover or not and know exactly how many squares to move to get into range of them. It was irritating.

 

[veevoir]

One of the linked videos is interesting, talking how it is different from nuXCom. Especially about how it is not really 2AP but a hybrid, as:

- movement uses discrete TU (so what Alexandros is asking about). So it is more as X TUs for movement + one attack action (exchangeable for movement) per turn
- During movement - spotting an enemy interrupts movement.
- obviously willpower, which is a resource for abilities as well, so no cooldowns
- clear LOS indicators from planned movement position
- return file (and apparently from multiple sources)

 

[Jack Dandy]

The gameplay is pretty nice. I liked NuXcom so I don't have problem with it-

However, it would be wise of them if they put in some grognardy elements -
even if they were "fake" aka some static examples of what they picture enviromental damage, random levels, ballistic physics would end up as.

 

[Jimmious]

Ok now I actually watched the gameplay video too. It looks like a mod of XCOM 2 to be honest. I understand the frustration of Alienman . I don't mind too much since I enjoyed the nuXCOMs but I was hoping for something more unique from Gollop.
It's very early though, that's my main hope.

*Pretty ridiculous to have an ability called "Gun and Run" which does almost the same thing as the "Run and Gun" of nuXCOM. To the level of a cheap replica ridiculous.

 

[ArchAngel]

Ok now I actually watched the gameplay video too. It looks like a mod of XCOM 2 to be honest. I understand the frustration of Alienman . I don't mind too much since I enjoyed the nuXCOMs but I was hoping for something more unique from Gollop.
It's very early though, that's my main hope.

*Pretty ridiculous to have an ability called "Gun and Run" which does almost the same thing as the "Run and Gun" of nuXCOM. To the level of a cheap replica ridiculous.

So you also understand how being a fool feels? Because only a fool makes stupid assumptions based on a video that has more than half promised features missing. This game is not even in Alpha state the moment.
And Gun and Run does not do what Run and Gun does. It does exactly the opposite. It lets you move and shoot and then move again. Run and Gun lets you 2x move and then shoot.

 

[Infinitron]

Hah, really? I guess they've very much intentionally replicated nuXCOM as a baseline prototype to expand from.