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I will also say that “Dicking around blindly trying to figure out how to react to an alien invasion” is in character anyways and it’s possible to get by even with dicking around
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Apr 25, 2024 18:14
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If I'm not mistaken the game even has a comeback mechanic. Basically if you play resistance, HF etc you can play to the point that Servants/Aliens achieve their victory condition and then in the ruins of Earth you can still fight your way back to beating them.
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Apr 25, 2024 18:18
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There's not a specific mechanic really, other than that it is possible. There is a Steam achievement for it though.
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Apr 25, 2024 20:37
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But there isn’t one for a much harder goal: reversing global warming to 2000 levels. 
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Apr 25, 2024 21:23
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Even if you directly control the entire world's economy and dedicate it to fighting global warming, it's still nearly impossible to actually combat it.
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Apr 25, 2024 21:26
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Tomn posted:I will also say that “Dicking around blindly trying to figure out how to react to an alien invasion” is in character anyways and it’s possible to get by even with dicking around This is how I won my first playthrough, it was actually pretty fun (as resistance) Had no real idea what I was doing a lot of the time
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Apr 25, 2024 21:33
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Alctel posted:This is how I won my first playthrough, it was actually pretty fun (as resistance) My first brutal game as HF was a slugfest on a devastated earth because of constant nuclear war against the aliens. Honestly the most fun game I've had of it.
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Apr 25, 2024 22:15
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Thanks, I think that gives me what I need to get started. The biggest thing is that I was worried I should be doing something other than research in the background and timeskipping to councilor missions in the foreground, but it seems like that's normal.
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Apr 26, 2024 00:48
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SettingSun posted:Even if you directly control the entire world's economy and dedicate it to fighting global warming, it's still nearly impossible to actually combat it.
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Apr 26, 2024 00:49
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Nessus posted:Doesn't xenoflora, ironically, help a lot? It helps a bit but the megafauna are annoying to manage. In my last playthrough (in 0.4X) by 2062 I’d dropped CO2 to below 400 ppm, basically just automating councillor actions after I’d eliminated all alien bases. Probably doable faster but I also got government 10, 30k GDP, 10 sustainability globally outside of SE Australia. Not bad for a Brutal game. Annoyingly the game has fixed events for climate change and alien paranoia that don’t care whatsoever that you’ve dropped the global temp anomaly to pre 2000 levels, or that the aliens have a single wrecked base in the Kuiper Belt.
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Apr 26, 2024 01:29
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Trip report: making progress. It's 2030 and I'm behind in the space race (it's annoying that the AI spams probes and then launches bases pretty much instantly when the tech unlocks - fastest finger on a task that computers are good at and people bad isn't great) but I'm not sure that matters because I'm in charge of the EU and have had a tech mogul advising it since pretty much the start of the game so it is very much [i]the superpower.
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Apr 26, 2024 07:36
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Alchenar posted:Trip report: making progress. It's 2030 and I'm behind in the space race (it's annoying that the AI spams probes and then launches bases pretty much instantly when the tech unlocks - fastest finger on a task that computers are good at and people bad isn't great) but I'm not sure that matters because I'm in charge of the EU and have had a tech mogul advising it since pretty much the start of the game so it is very much [i]the superpower. I've never had a problem with the AI beating me to first pick on a new body, as long as I remember to send the probe/colony when the popup happens. Be sure you didn't turn off the pause message for tech unlocks and that you have the probe speed engineering project. The tech descriptions say that scans are faster based on tech contribution, but I haven't seen that making any impact.
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Apr 26, 2024 16:31
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lmao at the dps on the new alien Gen3 Mag weapons. The Gen3 Light Mag Battery has about the same DPS as the human top-end Heavy Coilgun Battery Mk3. Don't let these things hit the field....
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Apr 27, 2024 18:32
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TheDeadlyShoe posted:lmao at the dps on the new alien Gen3 Mag weapons. The Gen3 Light Mag Battery has about the same DPS as the human top-end Heavy Coilgun Battery Mk3. Don't let these things hit the field.... Just arm your ships with enough point defense to handle old school alien missile spam by default and laugh off the effectively zero dps. Two size one lasers per ship minimum, and have dedicated PD ships for the flanks to make up for not having friends around to share the load. If I end up going for a long game I hope the aliens switch from plasma to those things because not repairing ships after battles like in the missile days is nice.
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Apr 27, 2024 20:06
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I wish the game had more flavour text and options for some of the ways humanity became better off from all the technical development. Like the socioeconomic impact of all those colonies and habitats. Also the effects of things like photonic and quantum computing on the consumer electronics market. How about hand held railgun tech for small arms? Then there’s commercially available fusion power for energy and various climate change mitigation techs? How about special events in America and elsewhere that boost public opinion on the controlling faction when you wipe out inequality? The game comes up with all kinds of ways you can research and develop major improvements to society but it doesn’t give you the payoff for how everyone might react to that or how society and culture changes post-contact.
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Apr 27, 2024 21:03
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Kraftwerk posted:I wish the game had more flavour text and options for some of the ways humanity became better off from all the technical development.
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Apr 27, 2024 21:23
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Kraftwerk posted:I wish the game had more flavour text and options for some of the ways humanity became better off from all the technical development. Yeah, there’s a ton of room for flavor events for stuff like fixing inequality, global warming, and so on. But there’s a lot of mechanics to fix first one assumes. I’ve been pretty happy with the pace of development although I’m going to take a break for a bit now.
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Apr 27, 2024 21:36
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How proactive do I need to be about detecting alien activity? In my current game it's 2026 and I've apparently never detected the aliens making contact with humans, so I'm locked out of researching Alien Operations/Alien Movement. Should I be sending my agents out to scan random areas, or am I just getting really unlucky? e: complaining worked Fister Roboto fucked around with this message at 01:24 on Apr 28, 2024 |
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Apr 28, 2024 01:00
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Fister Roboto posted:How proactive do I need to be about detecting alien activity? In my current game it's 2026 and I've apparently never detected the aliens making contact with humans, so I'm locked out of researching Alien Operations/Alien Movement. Should I be sending my agents out to scan random areas, or am I just getting really unlucky? I usually just wait. You can try actively searching for it for your agents, but I think when aliens botch a roll it shows up for everyone so that happens sooner or later. Their stats tend to go up and it rarely happens late game though, so don't wait forever.
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Apr 28, 2024 03:08
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You really, assuming you’re not servants/protectorate, want to eliminate all aliens on earth with extreme prejudice. Every time they run an abduction mission you should be tracking down the highest espionage counselor in the vicinity then assassinating until it sticks. The alternative is a bunch of mechanics that absolutely don’t favor you in the slightest. Kill every single alien on earth always. You can capture them for plot reasons from habs when you research the prerequisites.
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Apr 28, 2024 03:52
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Fister Roboto posted:How proactive do I need to be about detecting alien activity? In my current game it's 2026 and I've apparently never detected the aliens making contact with humans, so I'm locked out of researching Alien Operations/Alien Movement. Should I be sending my agents out to scan random areas, or am I just getting really unlucky? If you've already got space mining bases to cover upkeep, launch a station or five into LEO and build xeno labs. That bonus to detection pays off.
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Apr 28, 2024 03:54
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Also, I've found that the AI will go and bap you on the nose at undefended bases before defended bases. For a period of time in my most recent game I just kept putting stations in LEO and letting them get wiped out before the core structure was even completed to reduce Alien hate. It was surprisingly cost effective and kept the Aliens from whacking more valuable production facilities that would take a while to replace.
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Apr 28, 2024 03:58
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Are loyalty monitors worth it? Obviously -5 loyalty is bad, but it seems like a good trade for not having to spend agent turns keeping an eye on them.
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Apr 28, 2024 08:20
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They're usually worth it so long as you have some spare time at the moment to pump up dangerously low loyalty with an inspire councilor.Complications posted:Just arm your ships with enough point defense to handle old school alien missile spam by default and laugh off the effectively zero dps. Two size one lasers per ship minimum, and have dedicated PD ships for the flanks to make up for not having friends around to share the load. If I end up going for a long game I hope the aliens switch from plasma to those things because not repairing ships after battles like in the missile days is nice. I usually quit by the time i can afford such a humongous wall of battle that i can do that. I'm one of the weirdos that does maneuvering battles. I'll note that the gen3 mags have much bigger warheads across the board than adv mags as well, so their KG/sec is much higher. However I haven't done the math to see how many additional laser shots that translates to in practice. TheDeadlyShoe fucked around with this message at 09:19 on Apr 28, 2024 |
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Apr 28, 2024 08:55
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TheDeadlyShoe posted:They're usually worth it so long as you have some spare time at the moment to pump up dangerously low loyalty with an inspire councilor. Alien advanced mags are probably their most effective weapon system now, especially when they throw on multiple batteries along with a spinal mount on a ship then bring multiple along for the ride. The one late game fight I suffered significant losses pitted my fleet of 90 lancers (all fit with one 60 cm phaser UV, one phaser PD, and one spinal laser or siege coil, around 100 nose armor 15 side armor) vs about 250 alien ships over Base Alpha. The ships that were deadly for the aliens were these guys (pic coming) who just spit out enormous amounts of mag fire and perhaps coincidentally or perhaps emergently started to do high speed flanking passes nose in and nailed a bunch of my ships.  Apparently particle weapons are fixed now to be somewhat effective too, as of 0.4.21, so mounting some of those (particularly neutron or antimatter spinals) might be worth doing to deal with enemy flankers. Velius fucked around with this message at 14:05 on Apr 28, 2024 |
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Apr 28, 2024 14:00
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Setting your lighter ships to “evasive maneuvers” helps. Just gotta put enough armor on the sides that aren’t immediately ventilated when they turn to evade.
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Apr 28, 2024 14:19
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The alien endgame ballistics are deadly but what I encountered in the endgame was really really hilarious. They copied the human strategy and brought cheapo monitors with endgame missiles and parked them in front of their habs. Problem is those missiles are so goddamn fast and mobile that they not only take out their primary target but several chunks of your lancer wall as well - despite em being stacked in PD. Also the missile boats are extremely well armored so your lancers that slice through habs don't do much against them. Bonus points when your reinforcements come in a beautiful line and a single missile salvo gets them all. The record on my end was the aliens taking out eight ships with a single salvo. The solution was to bring cheap (nuclear) missile boats myself.
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Apr 28, 2024 15:38
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As of the latest experimental (.24) patch t3 alien missiles have been nerfed so that's good.
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Apr 28, 2024 19:37
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Ah I was playing the one right before that. So that is good to hear that they don't eat entire fleets anymore, as hilarious as it was.
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Apr 28, 2024 21:11
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The idea of the aliens repeatedly eating poo poo to human cheap missile boat swarms and eventually deciding to just adopt the tactic themselves is badass from a storytelling perspective though. It reminds me of UFO: Aftermath, where in the late game you can capture an alien-designed deployable stationary heavy weapon, notable because you have never seen such a thing up to that point, and upon researching it your team determines that the aliens deliberately adapted it from human designs you've been using against them. It's a great little piece of worldbuilding, it establishes that the aliens are starting to take you seriously as a threat, that they're starting to develop new weapons and tactics specifically with you in mind, that they're weaker than you initially believed they were (after all, why are they having to design completely new weapons in situ at all, and why didn't they already have heavy weapons of some kind?), and also that they're starting to respect you, which foreshadows the peace treaty option in the endgame
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Apr 29, 2024 06:29
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Out-jeune-écoling the jeune école
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Apr 29, 2024 06:41
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Game is better now, I'm happy to see they came to their senses regarding engine choices and removed some trap options. Imo I think the main thing the game lacks now is a more robust earth game. Earth dominates the early to mid game but you are heavily restricted in how you can change things and it's all just resource extraction to give you money to do things in space. There's a lot of cool flavor text with the various techs and I think it would be cool if you had more options for control points and building things that impact the world and society as a whole. There's like 5 total control points you can construct on earth, space control, launch site, planetary defense, resource and economy sites. This should be expanded upon heavily imo so that I can do things like revolutionize computing by building photonic computer data centers, cybernetic surgery hospitals etc etc. This all happens in the flavor text but the only impact photonic computing has on human society is a 5% increase to economy funding.
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Apr 29, 2024 06:58
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Should I worry about the effect of my Spoils on global warming causing me trouble later? Or, is it minor? Or, will the AI do it anyway so it's irrelevant?
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Apr 29, 2024 12:27
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Atopian posted:Should I worry about the effect of my Spoils on global warming causing me trouble later? Or, is it minor? Or, will the AI do it anyway so it's irrelevant? You should have some spoils on at first just to get a bunch of cash to buy good Orgs when they pop up but generally try to avoid Spoils after that. The AI will be spoiling every country from what I remember, racking up quite the amount of cash. I wish we could steal from their resources.
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Apr 29, 2024 12:46
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Mister Bates posted:The idea of the aliens repeatedly eating poo poo to human cheap missile boat swarms and eventually deciding to just adopt the tactic themselves is badass from a storytelling perspective though. The storytelling in those UFO games was actually surprisingly good, given the incredible jank and wonky presentation of the rest of it. They occupy a warm spot in my memory.
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Apr 29, 2024 12:47
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Comte de Saint-Germain posted:The storytelling in those UFO games was actually surprisingly good, given the incredible jank and wonky presentation of the rest of it. They occupy a warm spot in my memory. My understanding is that the story was all from Julian Gollop from when the first game was called Dreamland Chronicles, which chimes with both Apocalypse and Phoenix Point for his fixation on 'psychic bacteria are the real enemy'. I thought Afterlight (the mars one) was particularly interesting for the storytelling. Terra forming literally changed the maps, and the little conversations between the strategic advisors at each event/objective milestone went an awful long way to invest me in what was going on. E: it was also interesting that the final enemy in Aftermath is just never explained and only in Aftershock does the absolutely bonkers but far more interesting than 'imperialist aliens want an empire' story of what's going on come out. Alchenar fucked around with this message at 13:34 on Apr 29, 2024 |
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Apr 29, 2024 13:31
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Alchenar posted:My understanding is that the story was all from Julian Gollop from when the first game was called Dreamland Chronicles, which chimes with both Apocalypse and Phoenix Point for his fixation on 'psychic bacteria are the real enemy'. Yeah, the way they handled threat escalation across the whole series was super well done. You'd think, "the real alien enemy is just around the corner" would get old after doing it five times across the series would get worn out, but it actually doesn't. The third game was extremely well done, and the human management layer was so cool. Since your base has only 100-something people in it at all, and only a small number of those capable of doing useful jobs, everyone needs to double up as a scientist, doctor, researcher, soldier. Great stuff. Another thing I liked about the storytelling was having the bad end of the first game set up the second (something Firaxis XCOM would later do too) and having the second and third games taking place concurrently- just a lot of cool ideas. I wish the second game had been as polished as the third, because I think it had some of the most interesting storytelling potential, but it all kinda got lost in the bugs and the campaign being a *punishing slog*.
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Apr 29, 2024 13:57
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Meanwhile the Xenonauts guys just have a self-insert scientist making up whatever he thinks sounds cool, but in a "I'm an rear end in a top hat" tone.
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Apr 29, 2024 16:54
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Comte de Saint-Germain posted:Yeah, the way they handled threat escalation across the whole series was super well done. You'd think, "the real alien enemy is just around the corner" would get old after doing it five times across the series would get worn out, but it actually doesn't. The third game was extremely well done, and the human management layer was so cool. Since your base has only 100-something people in it at all, and only a small number of those capable of doing useful jobs, everyone needs to double up as a scientist, doctor, researcher, soldier. Great stuff. Something I think is really interesting about all these games is that in their own way they're chasing this dream of interacting with multiple factions with their own agendas, when in the original XCOM the fact that you had to keep multiple governments happy was literally just an expansion forcing mechanism. e: or rather, it's a dream they've all been chasing other than Firaxis XCOM, which introduced them as a purely cosmetic cover in WOTC to enable the actually fun bit of the game. Alchenar fucked around with this message at 17:40 on Apr 29, 2024 |
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Apr 29, 2024 17:00
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I really wish the tactical gameplay of Phoenix Point had grabbed me more than it did, because the strategic layer has a lot of great ideas I love that the game's equivalent of the 'Avatar Project' fail timer from XCOM 2 is just the surviving population of humanity, and it's a disturbingly small number even at the start of the game, can only go down, and you lose if it drops below replacement level.
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Apr 29, 2024 21:05
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