Julian Gallop AMA 3/22/2017

>I'm not sure what specific, isolated question I want to ask, so if you could instead answer a broad question: if you compared Phoenix Point to its existing earth-saving peers such as the new Firaxis XCOM games, your original X-COM: UFO Defense, or anything in between, what would be the biggest differences that sets Phoenix Point's intended design apart? What makes Phoenix Point stand out from other games like it?
As a followup or in case you can't really answer that one without giving away too much - what's your favourite new feature of Phoenix Point that you can talk about, and what led you to implement it in the first place?

That's a mammoth question-and-a-half! Phoenix Point has several standout features - such as procedurally generated aliens, large scale monsters. However, I think the biggest difference is in how the world works. Phoenix Point is definitely more 4X-like - with exploration, discovery, expansion, diplomacy. The human factions are just as important as the aliens. They have resources, tech - and secrets - which would be valuable to you. I am taking some inspiration from X-COM Apocalypse here - but applied to a world scale. The aliens and human factions would do stuff - events would happen - even if the player doesn't intervene. This is something I have been wanting to implement in a game for a long time. I am also really happy about the modern Lovecraftian vibe the writing team are creating.

>Hi Julian, as you know Chaos Reborn thrives on it's multiplayer. Adding Co-Op to Realms was one of the best things Snapshot did. Are we expecting some Co-Op Multiplayer on PP, or are Snapshot still looking at the options here?

We are indeed looking at several multiplayer co-op ideas, but I can't talk much about them at the moment. We will certainly be taking some lessons from Chaos Reborn.

>Hi Julian, How have you planned to strike a balance between meaningful and diverse variation of mutated forms without creating an overwhelming number of perks and buffs to remember? Forgetting one vertebrae-centipede is immune to fire, or is capable of infrared vision compared to its vanilla cousin, and so on.

Good question. A specific alien does not have a large number of abilities and generally the aliens will retire old versions completely before introducing new mutations. At any time there won't be a lot of different mutations around. The basic evolutionary rule the aliens use is that if a particular alien is not performing well, it will be mutated. If an alien is performing well, then more of them will be deployed - until the player figures out how to deal with them.

>My question is, in original xcom you had quite a few soldiers and while losing some experienced ones was a blow, you could keep playing.
On the other hand in xcom 2012 the game was not incentivizing having a lot of soldiers and on top of stats, soldiers recieved skills that were game changers so losing your A-team that was 1/3 of your team was a loss.
So my question is, in terms of soldiers numbers and their power level is phoenix point closer to xcom2012 or original?
What is the technology? Unreal? Unity? Something else?
Are we going to have hats for soldiers? So we can spend hour dressing them up and watch them die to a 2% chance crit from other side of the map?

In terms of soldiers - its closer to XCOM 2012, but it will be more difficult for your soldiers to permanently die. We are using Unity 3D for development. Yes, there will be extensive visual customisation options - and like XCOM you will be able to save character to a character pool.

>How have you been prototyping the gameplay of Phoenix Point? Have you tried the paper-based approach of Firaxis' XCOM by designing it as more like a board game, or staying closer to the simulation of your originals?

We implemented a computer based prototype at first, since there was plenty of code we could re-use from Chaos Reborn. It was somewhat based on 'Ghost Recon Shadow Wars'. We now have a second version of the prototype which now has its own distinct identity.

>In the vein of the AMA; what's your thoughts on the OpenXcom project? They recently released a huge milestone in version 1.0 and it's effectively given the original game a new lease of life; lots of bug fixes, modern resolutions, easy to use mod support, etc. and I'm curious if you've ever been directly in contact with any of the developers working on it over the years.

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.

>There will be a Linux version on day one release?

Yes - will will support linux (as long as Unity do).

>But there is one thing that allways strikes me as missing: a good and engaging story line. Will the story of Phoenix Point be better and more engaging? Is that even possible in a turn based strategy game? (because i hope it is!) It's like all of them have B Movies stories... and i wish there was a turn based game made by Stanley Kubrik, or a turn based game which story was so intense as an Apocalypse Now game would feel like.
Or in a TLDR version, what will the story of Phoenix Point be like? Will it be more exciting and engaging? More cinematic? More mind fucking?

We have a great writing team already in place - so expect to see some really interesting things happening with the story. It won't be very linear though - certain events may or may not occur depending on the overall strategic situation. One thing we have decided on is that there will be more than one possible ending to the game. It's not likely that we will have the budget for extensive cinematics - instead there will be some high quality writing. The story itself is a rather modern interpretation of Lovecraftian themes.

>Assuming the project is funded and does well will a console release be considered?

We have no plans as yet for a console version - it depends very much on the funding (and it doesn't mean dumbing anything down either).

>In regard to the factions, will your relationships to each one change over time i.e. they could be friendly early on and hostile later on, possibly your relationship with rival factions?

Yes, the relationship will change according to many events and action (or inaction) by the player. Formal alliances can be made, but require obligations - especially to defend havens belonging to the allied faction. You will face a problem if you have two allies that start fighting each other. You will have to chose one side or the other if you are going to maintain any alliances. In some cases you may want to take something from a faction by force, and there will be long term consequences. It will be a dynamic system that reflects each factions objectives and concerns.

>Can you tell us about the turn-based system in Phoenix Point? Will it be similar to original X-COM/Laser Squad system, where every unit has a big pool of small "time units" which are spent on every little action like turning etc.? Or will it be more similar to the abstract "two actions per turn"-system like new XCOM have? Or maybe something in-between? Or something entirely different? :)
Are there any other ideas in the turn-based aspect of the game that worth mentioning?

The current system we have is something a bit in between. There is an implicit AP system, but the presentation looks like the modern Firaxis XCOM with an 'action zone' and a 'dash zone'. The action zone may be bigger or smaller depending on the weapon or equipment chosen. Your moves can be interrupted on spotting an enemy or taking a hit - and you can react as you see fit. A major feature of the system that a character's 'willpower' rating gives you will points, which you spend on certain special actions. There is also a hit location system with disabling wounds to different parts of the body having different effects. This is quite cool actually - especially when you shoot an alien's gun or shield of its wounded arm.

>So what is it that you want to archieve with this game, what is your goal?
I want to finish what I started with X-COM Apoclaypse - a dynamic world with different paths to success and more than one possible ending. Plus I want really scary monsters.

>Is its design much influenced by the X-COM-that-never-was: "The Dreamland Chronicles: Freedom Ridge"?

There are a few small elements of Dreamland Chronicles - specifically about how the aliens build structures and transform the earth.

>Is there going to be any focus on operational details? like, for example, how you get suplies from one base to another? and for logistics, how much will we need to focus on economy aspects of things?

We are still working on this aspect of the design and it will be prototyped soon. However, I can say that logistics are important, and you will definitely need to establish more than one base. You will need to pay attention to resources - everything is scarce in this world. Rewards for defending havens will often be some kind of resource. You will also need to scavenge for weapons and vehicles from abandoned military facilities.

>Although it's always super-exciting to hear that a game is aiming to "think on its own" and "evolve based on player choices", when it comes to reality a lot of the times companies scrap those types of mechanics (see STALKER). The reason for that (in most situations) is, although the underlying models defining behaviors are complex, the resulting output more often than not is underwhelming and subject to abuse, or is totally dull (see Spore & No Man's Sky). I guess the only really good example of such a system working well is when the scale of your role as a player is different from the scale of the mechanics (see SeaDogs, Space Rangers or Mount&Blade).
>Hence, my question is - how much of the "evolution" of aliens will be based on rigid feedback models, and how much of it will be "orchestrated" or "stirred" by game designers to at least have predictable progression curves and prevent situations of players totally abusing/accidentally breaking the whole system? Hm, am I making sense?

Good questions. Our current idea is to effectively have a dynamic difficulty system that somewhat reflects how evolution works. If the player humiliates the aliens, this will cause them to generate new mutations. One the other hand if the aliens are doing well with a particular mutation they will deploy more of them - until the player learns how to deal with them. There will be an element of randomness in the mutation side, so it won't be very predictable. We will, of course, be testing this thoroughly.

>A simple question, will we have in-game time of day on Geoscape\world map and relative day\night missions?

Yes.

> From what I've seen, the USPs of your game will be the darker setting (compared to XCOM) and, of course, the new game mechanics- like adaptive alien behaviour as well as the faction system. Did I get that right?

At some point the game will be in Steam early access, but this will be well beyond the prototype stage. The setting of the game is really cool, with some neat Lovecraftian twists - although I can't reveal too much about that. The faction system is central to the whole strategic level of the game - they are just as important as the aliens. The aliens will indeed mutate and adapt to your tactics. We have the basics of this system working right now in our tactical prototype.

>Something I've always wondered and I figured I'll never get a chance to ask again; where did Elerium come from? Is it a specific reference to something, or was it just thought up and decided the name sounded 'alien' enough?

It was made up - although based on 'element 115' which was alleged by Bob Lazar to be the fuel used by UFOs.

>Will enemies be active during a player phase like Valkyria Chronicles adding a more action feel?
Plus any consideration of unit turns, like Shining Force, rather than player/enemy phases?

Aside from overwatch fire, there will be something called 'return fire' which enemies can do during your turn. Otherwise it will be a player turn / enemy turn sequence.

>Hi, do the game have a set victory condition (do this thing) or there will be multiple choices how to end a campaign? Can we go full alien?

There will be multiple possible endings, but I can't reveal anything about them now.

>Can you share some info on how the story will be told? Will it be more impersonal and research driven like the original Xcom games, or more character driven like the Firaxis games?

It will be quite character driven, but not in the same way as the XCOMs. You will need to interact with the faction and haven leaders, and occasionally other NPCs - even during tactical missions.

>Firstly, does the procedural generation extend to the environments as well as the enemies, and if so, what kind of measures are you thinking about to avoid the kind of faux-variety that xcom 2 (great game although it was) arguably suffered from?
Secondly, can you let us know if modding will be supported?

We will have a generated map system similar to XCOM 2 (and for that matter similar to the original X-COM). I know what you are talking about with faux-variety, as you put it, of XCOM 2. I think this affected the city maps more than the wilderness ones (which I liked better). In XCOM 2 the 'plots' (which defined the layouts for the main elements) were fixed (which meant the roads were fixed). Maybe there was not enough variety in those. Modding is something we want to do, but it is quite a big thing to support, and will depend on funding.

>will there be an alien like the Tentaculat (still my fave alien from tftd)?

There is no alien like the Tentaculat, but there will be an infection/zombie/gestation system used by Tentaculat/Chryssalid.

>OK, so from the screenshots we've seen so far and the information already released about Phoenix point, we're seeing lots of themes of mutation and cosmic horror which has got me thinking of "The Thing"; so what about body horror? What if one of your fire team is killed in action and later down the line you come across a alien that has somehow incorporated that soldier's corpse into it?

There will be a lot of mutation themes in the game - I can't reveal too much, but you are along the right lines.

>What are some of your big influences other then new xcom. From what I remember there's a regional targeting system and that seems similar to vats from fallout.

I don't think there are any big influences apart from new XCOM. Possibly elements from Crusader Kings II, Stellaris and other grand strategy/4X games.

>I know that there will be factions, but what about individual characters for those factions? How deep will the mechanics be with them? Will there be specific human allies we meet multiple times? Can they turn into enemies or switch sides between other factions or the player's faction? Will all/most/some/none of them be procedurally generated? Do they have
personalities or traits that the player needs to keep in mind or do they simply reflect whatever their faction is like?

You will communicate directly with faction leaders and individual haven leaders. The faction leaders are fixed characters - but it is possible for the leaders to change (or, as in the case of once faction, to have multiple leaders). They will have traits and personalities that the player needs to bear in mind.

>Hi Julian, just how far along is Phoenix Point? And what is the next big development milestone?
Also, will you be organizing a Kickstarter crowdfunding-campaign? Or are you and your team funding the game yourselves?

We have been working on the game for 10 months. We have a tactical battle system working with AI and networked multiplayer. We have also started on the geoscape system. So far we have funded it ourselves, with some help from outside investors. I can't say at this stage how we are going to fund the rest of the project, but we are looking at several options.



>Even if there is not a lot of info on your game, it got me excited.
3 issues that bug me with previous UFO-themed games:
* all soldiers are equally horrible at the start. They forgot how to use conventional weapons beyond the most basic shooter. So much for the elite of all armed forces banding together to wipe out the alien threat. Are we going to run squads of barely-armed toddlers in Phoenix Point?
* guns variety. Compared to a Jagged Alliance, UFO/Xcom games do not offer much choice. Do you have more options planned?
* no twist, no big secret to uncover. Is there more to the plot than the usual : aliens invade, we rebel, we get stronger, we wipe them?

Nice questions!
No, soldiers will not be crap at the beginning.
There will be a lot of variety in guns and equipment compared to XCOM/X-COMs
The plot will be different to the typical alien invasion scenario - and there will be multiple possible endings.

>A bit too late as well, but what kind of plans do you have for multiplayer? Are you planning to support a large player base/different game modes? Are unit loadouts going to be customizable like in EW?

We are looking at several options for multiplayer at the moment, including co-op modes, but I can't reveal any details yet.