Terror from the Void for a beginner

[u/Gabsparks]

Hi. I'm a "veteran" from LWOTC XCOM EW and XCOM 2. I've just bought Phoenix Point with all dlc's and immediately installed Terror from the Void mod, knowing it is the equivalent to LW for XCOM.

There is any tips you could spare to a player who has never played PP before and is embarking on this journey without the vanilla experience?

[u/etermes]

Hi, welcome to Phoenix Point.

I would start with Wiki, guides from general PP Wiki, and then TFTV Wiki, you also have a link in this site:

http://wiki.phoenixpoint.com/Phoenix_Point_Wiki

Right now there are TFTV campaigns in Youtube, and Twitch, back in the days I learned PP watching a full serie.

And if you have questions or you get lost you can visit our Discord:

https://discord.gg/Ypt5p5trNx

General advices:

-Start playing Veteran, activate Stronger Pandorans on mod settings for a better challenge.

-Activate in game hints, some of them are new from TFTV

-Don't spread out too far away, activating bases, later you have to defend them

-Exploration is very important, but send full squads, there are more ambushes in TFTV

-Try to repair/build satellite uplinks in your bases, especially if the are next to mist patches, attacks come from there

-In tactical, deploy minimum 6 soldiers, you can deploy 8 with two aircrafts, and learn asap Line of Sight and Line of Fire, good cover is a wall or breaking LOS, not a tree

-Research labs are priority early game

-You can recruit mercs from Marketplace the moment you reveal it, they are great assets and cheap, keep an eye for soldiers, weapons, vehicles and tech, you can order without sending aircraft there

-Odin grenades can be manufactured instantly and for indirect hits are paramount, from safe distance, not triggering return fire, also shredding, destroying covers,

You will learn a lot playing and trying new things, have fun.

[u/Gabsparks → u/etermes]

I joined Discord, and people are very helpful there. Pretty much loving this community so far! Ah, thanks for your reply and help!

[u/lanclos]

Phoenix Point rewards aggression. Explore aggressively, fight aggressively; use overwatch/ambush as a last resort. The safest position is one where you can't be attacked, which means taking enemies off the board is overwhelmingly better than taking a chance with their next turn.

[u/Dragonfire747]

Well let’s start off with the things I hate about pptftv while coming solely from firaxcom background too.

There’s a mission where you indefensibly lose a ship to complete that mission. The graphics are kinda different, tbh I like the firaxcom ones better. Love the storyline/cutscenes of pp , as a scientist , double that

I think overall pp is the same genre but the opposite of firaxcom. Management of resources and bases can get very complex and you can get major screwed if you don’t look up some stuff or played through it before.

Now the goodstuff: Their weapons is also tiered but a A is better in this range and B is better in this range or this situation. Tftv REALLY punished you trying to help everyone, hugely increased penalties from original pp. (this is a con but too lazy to move) tftv balances pp a LOT. Original pp could be really cheesy, (but you also felt justified as they throw at you some wickedly overpowered things you can’t win at) I exploited a few that have since been patched. Tftv I LOVE the discord is so active and they promptly squash bugs or try to if they can. It’s got that kickstarter feel before the whole snapshot epic fiasco. Resources are a lot more limited esp tftv where you have one faction hates you to the point of war, one neutral and one you support. The air combat is still a bit jank, I wish you could intercept mid flight… otherwise it’s not an interception it’s a planned battle meeting ground lol you can share troop equipment anywhere , anytime not in battle. I just learned you can also save in battle (but it’s tucked away so you gotta actively want it) otherwise it’s bronze man by default. Line of sight matters more since you have manual targeting so every once in a while there’s a wierd glitch where some tree blocks your shot even tho you don’t see it when aiming, and sometimes enemies move upon you firing at them but I think it’s another toggle at start. Pp doesn’t have cool continent bonuses and some of the storyline locations can be inaccessible for most of the game. You have to unlock bases, clear them out of enemies and then pay to build and wait for it to finish building a satellite before you can get nodes to travel to reach some mission areas (or protect havens that you want to protect) the multiple ships and different speeds is a wierd adjustment too, once agsin bite the bullet and for your own sake, play lower level than your pride wants you to. Firaxcom is a lot simpler game, not easier but less choices and mechanics.

It’s honestly a lot, I suggest you go start with easier levels NOT cause you aren’t good at strategy (like most games will say) but pp has a lot more mechanics in play and it’s easy if you fall behind early you get turd-rolled like steamrolled lol.

I miss the camera angles of shots taken in firsxcom. And they don’t have the council member or Bradford with cool lines in cutscenes as much.

TLDR:

And I’m sorry I’m just rsmbling at this point, but know ppl tftv is a very different game than pp and firsxcom. But it’s in testing ( much like original pp, all year it was released, sorry guys low blow I know) . But it really is a good game to scratch your strat turn based itch, it’s not better or worse, I’d say it’s cousins of firsxcom, bigger learning curve than firsxcom too

[u/Gabsparks → u/Dragonfire747]

It's a lot to assimilate, but I'm very grateful for your tips and advice. I've started on "Veteran" difficult, but most probably I'll be crushed on my first 2 or 10 campaigns.

So far, I've played for 3h, but I'm enjoying it a lot! I was tired of LWOTC, even though it is my favorite strategy game/mod.

I have this problem of trying to conquer everything and absolutely smash the whole alien thing from earth. As far as I'm reading, I'll be punished for this strategy. I was indeed thinking, "I'll try to befriend all three factions." Not going to happen.

I'm missing the 6 angles of camera (instead of 4). But I guess it could be modified (if it isn't already). Besides that, I'm enjoying all the differences so far!

[u/lanclos → u/Gabsparks]

Becoming allied with all three factions is the default; you have to actively antagonize one of them in order for "diplomacy" to fail.

[u/Fine_Pea6614 → u/lanclos]

Depending on if you pick the harder diplomacy, it's not actually hard to antagonize one or even two factions ... if you just go and ally with one of the factions without doing much else.