OpenXcom Forum
OpenXcom => Offtopic => Topic started by: michal on March 23, 2017, 08:20:17 am
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Lot of questions about Phoenix Point:
https://www.reddit.com/r/PhoenixPoint/comments/60tn6x/i_am_the_designer_of_xcom_and_phoenix_point_ask/
Also about OpenXcom:
No I haven't contacted the developer on openxCOM, but I have been following it. I have played several versions over the last year, and also the Xpiratez mod.
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That's great news that the master has taken notice of OpenXCom :D
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cool stuff!
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can't wait for Phoneix Point.
kudos to Dioxine! Well deserved.
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Just had a quick read through the whole AMA. I'm impressed with how much he's tried of open-xcom. Nice to see that going on. And his ideas for Phoenix Point sound really cool. I'm getting more and more interested to try that out. (At the very least I'll throw some money the project's way as a small thanks for the many many years of enjoyment I've received from UFO: Enemy Unknown, back in my Amiga days.)
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They released a comic and a soundtrack.
http://comic.strategycore.co.uk/#!/
Subscribe to the snapshot games updates for more.
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Kinda sad they spend resources on stupid comics instead of the game.
Seems like the modded-inside-and-out-like-hell community edition will be superior as it always happens.
Unless they don't do enough for modding, in which case it'll just fail miserably.
nothing changes - wanna do it right, do it yourself :(
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Kinda sad they spend resources on stupid comics instead of the game.
Seems like the modded-inside-and-out-like-hell community edition will be superior as it always happens.
Unless they don't do enough for modding, in which case it'll just fail miserably.
nothing changes - wanna do it right, do it yourself :(
The comic is not related at all to Gollop, despite what the post previous to yours say
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Well, not all is lost then :)
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(https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a71adf141d46c55f0b2b3724f/images/10dbfd11-7e74-4227-8257-7628a88192ac.png)They had survey results released. Should I post the results? Actually, might as well...
Phoenix Point Survey Results
Thanks to all of you who took part in our survey. Now I want to share the results with you and discuss some of the interesting points.
Good AI tops the poll, and this is slightly, but pleasantly, surprising. For me it is always important, but I also want enemies to have distinct behavioural traits and a bit of unpredictability (i.e. randomness) thrown in.
A large variety of mission objectives comes second, and this is understandable. This is one of the key mechanisms which can make missions interesting over the long stretch of a campaign. I also want missions to have a meaningful context in the wider, strategic level of the game - and I want them to have their own unique stories. It’s a tall order, but clearly a high priority.
Fully destructible environments rank 3 in importance. It’s great to know that people still want to blow stuff to bits. I was a little disappointed that in XCOM 2 I could barely raze one building to the ground with a squad of grenadiers. I want to see structures toppled crushing monsters beneath them. I want enemy cover obliterated. I want mass destruction to be a possible strategy - at least in some situations. Bring it on.
At number 4 the mutation system for the aliens is a key new and unique feature, so I am pleased that this is rated so highly. But, as they say, the devil is in the details. We have a basic system working already and it is already proving interesting. However, we found that it is important to convey visually in some way all the key abilities that an alien may have, and to let the player get used to a certain type before mutation occurs. You will be able to name the alien mutant variants yourself, by the way, which can help with your battle field assessments e.g. the next time you come across ‘vomiting b*****d’ you know not to get too close to it.
Multi-level terrain at number 5 is a mild surprise, especially given the difficulty of navigating a more vertically complex map. We will have to strike a balance between interesting topology and usability here. Good level design is key.
For the 6th most important feature It’s great to see value attached to interesting story elements and plot twists - and you can be assured that with the extensive world building we have been doing with our writing team (Jonas and Allen) you will not be disappointed on this score.
It’s nice to see base defence missions ranked high at number 9. I missed this with the new XCOMs. In Phoenix Point your bases can be attacked by other human factions, not just aliens. Furthermore, the aliens will steal technology from you and other human factions. This should spice things up a bit.
Pleasantly surprising for me was the desire to have a more detailed economic system. Phoenix Point has some distinct 4X like elements to the strategic side of the game. The human factions gather resources, build structures, establish new havens, build tech and enter into alliances. From the player’s point of view, exploration, resources and diplomacy are important. I am very excited by developments in this part of the game.
The bottom end of the table reveals that you clearly want the focus to be on a PC based, single player experience. It would definitely be wise of us to place our limited resources in this direction.
Finally, thanks for your support - and look out for some major news very soon.
Julian Gollop
Ok, the chart didn't come out, its an image file.... fixed....
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I actually participated on that survey, thanks for posting the results.
The commentary has a focus more on the most wanted features but there are some interesting bits about the least wanted features.
* TUs instead of 2 Action system - unlike the original XCom, people seem to prefer the 2 Action system of Firaxis' XCOM
* Squads larger than 8 units are also on the bottom choices, so no going back to the original's 14 unit squads
* Air interception system isn't much popular also
* Soldier class system like Firaxis XCOM seems to be discarded instead of a flexible development system
* Pod activations of Firaxis XCOM is definitely a no-no
* RNG dependent shooting is still a favorite as per the original and Firaxis XCOM instead of a system involving less RNG
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And how many people participated in the survey?
If only a couple, it might be of very little relevance.
The commentary has a focus more on the most wanted features but there are some interesting bits about the least wanted features.
* TUs instead of 2 Action system - unlike the original XCom, people seem to prefer the 2 Action system of Firaxis' XCOM
Score 3.2 doesn't mean unwanted, no?
It's actually slightly in favour of TU system (assuming 3.0 is the neutral middle)... definitely not in favour of the new Firaxis' system.
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And how many people participated in the survey?
If only a couple, it might be of very little relevance.
I read somewhere that they got close to 1800 replies
Score 3.2 doesn't mean unwanted, no?
It's actually slightly in favour of TU system (assuming 3.0 is the neutral middle)... definitely not in favour of the new Firaxis' system.
What numeric scores mean is up to anyone's interpretation, they could have used smileys instead. When I look at evaluation form quantitative results I usually analyze them considering the overall distribution of results, and the items I mentioned on my post are placed in low positions. That means that for the 1800 people who replied, those items were considered the least interesting, regardless of the numeric score they got.
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I read somewhere that they got close to 1800 replies
OK, that sounds quite representative.
What numeric scores mean is up to anyone's interpretation, they could have used smileys instead.
Of course, the units don't matter.
What I wanted to say is, the fact it's on the bottom (or close to bottom) is very misleading.
Imagine, there is a survey about 100 hotels, and you can score them from 1 worst to 10 best.
If we see results like this:
1. 10.0
2. 10.0
3. 10.0
...
90. 9.1
...
98. 8.2
99. 2.1
100. 1.6
... it doesn't mean that hotels on places above #90 are bad.
Quite the opposite.
It means, there are only two bad hotels (places #99 and #100)... and the other 98 hotels are good, regardless if they are on place #8 or #88.
PS: Your analysis is of course not "wrong"... but it doesn't say how interested people are in the feature... it only says how interested the people are in the feature relative to other features. That's a big difference.
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This is another kickstarter thingy whasisname... fig.
https://www.fig.co/campaigns/phoenix-point?type=fb
Phoenix Point is the new strategy game from the creator of the original X-COM series. It features turn based tactics and world based strategy in a fight against a terrifying, alien menace.
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So I supported this project. Now I feel bad that I gave them more than I ever gave Sup's team here for the finished beauty that is OXC.
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I've made donations to the warband mod gekokujo and I didn't get much out of chaos reborn, but I'd like to show my gratitude to Julian Gollop. Played his games throughout the 80's to the present. Can't remember whether I made some kind of donation to OpenXcom, if I did it must've been a long time ago.
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I didn't know I can donate to that author. Played Gekokujo endlessly. My favorite of all the Warband mods ever. I've never seen the GoT HBO show so I didn't enjoy CoK. That's been the top mod on Moddb for a long time.
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Gek was amazing. Had this annoying thing though, invest in the game, and a new version comes out which is not game compatible. Now that he's stopped working on it I'm sad but Bannerlord is coming out. Anyway, Julian also did other games, used to spend ages in the 80's playing rebelstar raiders. Rebelstar 86' had a lawnmower, you can actually interact with your environment. Sadly I've not seen anything to that effect since then unless you want to throw incendiaries and obliterate your environment.
Magic & Mayhem was a fun version of Lords of Chaos, rts, smoother although my first impressions was the graphics were quite disturbing. Then again, theres Wallace and Gromit.
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Anyone following the development of this?
I watched a video recently and it looked like.. a reskinned XCOM2012. At least the battlescape action.
I know the are some twists like evolving monsters but .. is the battlescape really 1:1 to the one from XCOM2012? I mean everything looks exactly the same, from the UI to soldier's classes-abilities, cover mechanics, movement-shooting mechanics...
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Yeah, I've been watching it too, however a recent pair of AMAs with Gollop bring up how it's going to be the best of both X-Com 94 and XCOM 2012:
First off, the battlescape mechanics you're seeing are mostly visually taken from the newer xcom. It's not a simple dice roll to hit, the bullets are actually simulated and traced to target, so you can hit different parts on the target, miss and hit terrain, oriss and hit your buddy. This also means taking cover is more of a visual thing too than a hard rule that you should always be in high cover. The classes and abilities are probably somewhat taken from XCOM 2012, but it's going to be a much less linear path down soldier progression, and it was stated that gear will play a large part in the abilities.
As for the geoscape, we'll get multiple bases. That's really most of what was lacking from the newer XCOM :P There's no interception minigame, though that doesn't seem to fit the game's setting anyways.
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Thanks
Do we get a proper grid inventory back for soldiers?
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Thanks
Do we get a proper grid inventory back for soldiers?
Not sure, but Gollop did state that you will be able to pick up items from the battlefield like extra ammo or things you want to bring back in case of a retreat.
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Thanks
Do we get a proper grid inventory back for soldiers?
Yes. You can choose 3 items from the inventory for quick access in the UI
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PS: Your analysis is of course not "wrong"... but it doesn't say how interested people are in the feature... it only says how interested the people are in the feature relative to other features. That's a big difference.
Yes, people might not feel it's very important to stress the time unit system features, while if they had to opt for one system over another, the answers might look very different. I'd imagine the new TU system being currently implemented into Phoenix Point will go over very positively with players. I have a hypothesis that what players like about either the original time unit system or Firaxcom's system are not incompatible, and that rather than select one or the other, you simply have to implement the best of both worlds, and I think that's exactly what Gollop and his team are doing. So if you asked people to choose which system is best, Firaxcom 2 time units or old X-Com 50-80 time units, you might get a good mix of responses. But if you let them try the PP time unit system and ask which of the three is best, you may have a nearly unanimous vote.
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Still haven't figured out how to start my game in xcom apoc. I watched a letsplay from start to finish mind you. I don't know, maybe its lack of time that I can't get into it myself.
Not sure if they should simplify it like xcom 2012. I spent a lot of time on it, but it felt like eating macdonalds, did the job but didn't feel good about it.
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I can't say for sure if the PP time system is better than Xcom 50-80 time unit system, but PP system looks like a great improvement over the XCOM 2012+ system after watching the demo.
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I think having the visual cue for your shot is really incredible. Openxcom has such a feature if you have confirm movement enabled, but it only shows the range after you choose a destination. With the PP system, you can immediately see all places you could reach and still be able to shoot. That's what was good about Firaxcom's TU system. It's the only thing that was good about it.
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I think having the visual cue for your shot is really incredible. Openxcom has such a feature if you have confirm movement enabled, but it only shows the range after you choose a destination.
The line of sight indicators I thought were neat. I got to thinking it would be nice if the battlescape cursor could blink a different color on a target and let you know if there was a "Line of Fire" on it from your current position. I'm really irritated of having targets "in sight", but no line of fire.
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I think its out. Downloading now, email was out in the last week. I think this is supposed to be the finished version, not the alpha beta or whatever.
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Unless you're trolling, no, this isn't the final version release, still a pre-alpha build for those who backed the game with a pre-order.
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I think its out. Downloading now, email was out in the last week. I think this is supposed to be the finished version, not the alpha beta or whatever.
Gollop is god. When Phoenix Point is released the skies will open and He will come down in a rainbow bridge, dressed in a white tunic and with lightning all over, and pass out copies to all with valid credit cards.
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Oh, had no idea. Taking a while to download, guess I'll have to resume on Fri, wa this is going.
Just says
Phoenix Point: Download the game (new update)
Hell, no idea if this is gamma or zeta... maybe I'll get to try it out this weekend. I thought I saw people playing it on twitch.