Pandorans are overpowered and it damages game enjoyment
complete
H
Hugo
I've playing this game for quite a while, as it evolved during all the patches/upgrades. I play on hero/legend and I always get the same feeling whenever I play: Pandoras become OP and remove any enjoyment out of playing the game. I feel like you always have to rush OR cheese in order to be able to win. Allow me to explain a scenario I just played:
Anu haven defense, protect food buildings:
- Pandorans start on top of structures to be defended, so everything will be destroyed in the first few turns
- Even with 2 extra faction soldiers, a chiron takes 2 turns to kill using my whole squad
- Sirens are bullet sponges, along with armored arthrons and even tritons. Everything has at least 30 armor and over 300 health
- Pandorans have 2+ ways of attacking you. So even if you disable something the pandoran unit can still cause massive damage, because at this point everything they have causes massive damage
- Finally the myrmidons come to play. Not only the base myrmidon can walk across the map (or fly) and hit once (aka damage guaranteed) but once you get to acird myrmidon, then it's clown world. It has so much movement that it can always attack you (70 damage + acid) and oh my god if it dies near anyone... In essence they are OP kamikaze units that have a acid/venom nuke on death.
All in all, if we compare the power both sides have:
- A single Pandoran can kill 1+ soldiers in 1 turn
- A single Pandoran takes your whole squad to be killed in 1 turn
To me this is just not enjoyable. Not sure if other players share the same feeling.
Now for constructive ideas, which I can break up to separate requests if people agree
- Either reduce myrmidon movement, health OR in the very least the death effect (I mean I got 270 acid on a single soldier after an acid myrmidon got killed!!!)
- Allow Phoenix Point to bring more than 8 soldiers. If we think about UFO enemy unknown, there was some balance between how many aliens the larger UFOs had and what the later ships could carry. This could mean a review on how many soldiers each ship can carry as well.
- Review how quickly Pandorans get armor upgrades. It does not take long pefore they all have 30 armor and then most of the weapons do nothing and missions become tidious and annoying
Kevin Culleton
I completely agree. I thought it was just me, but after having played all of the Xcom offerings, the Anu capabilities are simply outrageously overpowered. It bleeds the fun out because each mob becomes a mini-boss. I am very disappointed.
Vit Barta
complete
Patch 1.12 Ambrose (August 5 2021)
The rate of Pandoran evolution is slowed down with approximately 20% on Rookie, Veteran and Hero difficulty.
Vit Barta
Merged in a post:
Pandoran Research extremely fast after latest patch + useless early unlock of DLC (Legacy of Ancients)
F
Feenix
Hi guys, just played a new campaign on LoA patch , ended up against Sirens/Chiron/Lairs discovery on day 22 on veteran difficulty. Cthulhu patch gave me much more time with Arthrons/Tritons and I don't think you can be prepared for lairs and stuff 20 days into a campaign on normal difficulty. I understand some players were having a bad time with the slow research in Cthulhu, but this is WAY too fast. Also wanted to add that spending your resources to unlock LoA content is useless - I ended up against an EXTREME threat after spending SO MUCH time opening the DLC content.
Lex
To talk about myrmidons in particular, I think the biggest problem with them is their damage potential. Not movement. Maybe health, but mainly damage since they can sneak up on you so much better. They shouldn't outperform melee Arthrons who are much bigger and stronger.
So either cutting myrmidon damage or making their attacks take 2 AP instead of 1 would make them less punishing.
Руслан Байгузин
Have you tried playing on Veteran difficulty? If Legendary too hard for you, just take lower difficulty.
Lobo
Drages Oversky and Spock said all!
In the end, our soldiers seems Marvel X-Men or Avengers... Pandoras are slaughter all the way. I am very happy that Festering the Skies bring more powerfull enemies and making the game more challenging.
I finished twice in Legendary before and now i am having fun in the Festering Skies campaign with several losses and having to abandon haven defenses sometimes.
This is supposed to be a war and a difficult task, not a walk in the park target shooting pandoras. I hope game becomes even difficult in Corrupted Horizons.
PS - I play also never attacking other human factions because the lack of response in diplomacy providing aircraft and infinite resources almost free for player, and that is an economy game breaker...
Sean Sullivan
Later in the game shredding is your best friend. Explosives, Spider Mines (God I love Spider Mines), the Anu Shredder Shotgun, a Berserker with Armor Break, and Snipers with the level 6 skill that removes armor of destroyed locations, all produce conditions where your team can rapidly destroy even heavy Pandorans.
I have a Berzerker/Assault that carries a laser pistol and a shield. His job is to shred the armor off a hard target, let the others shoot, then move into the line of any return fire and set the shield to cover. It works really well.
As mentioned by others, Stealth is a big thing to give you the time to whittle them down, but so is hiding at end of turn so none of your units are visible.
On the Myrmidons I've taken to having a LOT of overwatch and spreading out my team. I also try to make sure they can't see any of my guys over the end turn. It prevents them from swooping in out of nowhere and lets me control the engagement more.
Juncheng Dong
What do you consider "cheese"? A Scarab makes nearly all early maps trivial, and driving a vehicle around with soldiers inside to drop shotgun blasts directly to an unarmored weak spot is still a decent strategy later. Vehicle protection also makes Sirens a joke because none of their psychic abilities work. Chirons also become basically ignorable since vehicles ignore fire and poison, and the actual worm explosion itself deals like 5 damage.
I do think Myrmidon death explosions should have less range, but it's not really that much of a problem. Again, vehicle protection makes it much easier.
I guess if you consider vehicles cheese and don't want to use then, then yeah, there's a serious spike in difficulty around midgame.
Protecting key structures can be annoying, but why does it matter? It's just EXP. You still get SP, resources, and diplomatic favor for clearing the mission even if all key structures are gone, and a complete structure wipe rarely happens unless it's that one big reactor map.
There are tools to make the game much easier. The developer has to take into account those tools. I do get that it feels a bit restrictive if you have to use them, but that's honestly to be expected on higher difficulties.
Spock
There's definitely an inflection point around midgame where you troops are overmatched if you just compare them 1:1 vs the Pandorans. I find at that point I rely heavily on Synedrion stealth units to create decoys and Jerico bombers to wear them down until they are manageable.
If there is a weakness it is that it is extremely difficult to win while playing with just one ally (unless you spend a lot of time stealing tech). Also, rapid transport is crucial, so having a couple of Synedrion Helios ships handy is important.
Another good strategy is to get a couple Anu priests with virus rifles. Once you can panic Pandorans, even the biggest ones are easy pickings.
Ramin Daneshvar
The issue is the Pandorians evolve armour carapace at an extremely fast rate, far quicker than research allows for the player to reasonably counter (on heroic). This invalidates the assault class and makes you have to rely on snipers or heavies at close range to deal with their armour. It makes missions cumbersome and dull as half or 3/4 of your team's weapons become obsolete until mid game.
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