What did I wrong? Game unplayable - unfun

[Robo]

Doing first playthrough - on Veteran.

2 Main story missions popped on Antarktis - unreachable unless I open like all bases in America?

But this is impossible .. I dont even have enough resources to repair my equipment after each mission.
Stolen one aircraft - have 2 teams.
Only thing what I am doing is firefighting with both teams and trying to fight back attacks on Havens - not all of them possible and they slowly drop one by one - but defending them is only way how to get resources ... but again, I can barely repair my equipment after each mission.

Also did the mistake that I gave 2 robotic parts to one of my soldiers - once he gets hit, the repair costs are insane to the point I stopped using him.

I feel like I am missing some crucial part of the game - this cannot be it, I am not fighting pandorans .. I am fightning against resources which is completely unfun. If you open new base, you cannot defend it because if it gets attacked, its over before you get there and you can start from scratch building it up.

What did I miss? This is not fun :(

[Tasi]

Bones Johnson님이 먼저 게시:

How are you having resources issues? Ammo is super cheap to replenish.

That is not correct.

Bones Johnson님이 먼저 게시:

And when the option comes up to resupply soldiers at the end of the mission since there isn't spare clips in storage, it costs only 1 tech and 1 material.

What?

Example:
You have 6 soldiers:

• 2 heavy + 2 assault + 2 snipers
  
• if you will have basic weapons and use only one single clip in a mission it will cost you 10 tech and 126 material. If you will use medkit or grenades or more advanced weapons it will cost you more, e.g. laser weapons have much more expensive ammo; basically, it will cost you double since tech is the most valuable resource. Basic weapons and one single clip.

Some missions have rewards while some others don't, so you have to average rewards across multiple missions (so your rewards per mission are lower but you still have expenses). This is not cheap at all (and definitelly not "super cheap").

Some suggestions:

• keeping low expenses is important (even using a weapon with cheaper ammo can help)
  
• cyberware means extremely high expenses and should be used scarcely (or later when you are not in desperate need for resources)

Unreachable places:

• it is, unfortunately, a stupid design. You need to discover locations since they serve as "gas stations" for your aircraft. The best way how to significantly improve your mobility is having 25 reputation with factions (preferably all of them). This by itself could be sufficient for long-range travelling. If you visit any heaven (and stop there! not just fly true) it may reveal few more locations around (basically they give you a "map" of their near area).

[Mork]

Voland님이 먼저 게시:

About trading: the easiest way to get resources is to trade food and materiales for tech from Synedrion, and then trade that tech to Anu for food and to NJ for materials.

That is very interesting... thanks

[Evil Nox]

magazines people.....MAGAZINES.

I don't even have two teams yet, I'm still a few soldiers short. I'm also in a resource deficit. I too don't see many scavaging missions and I did encounter not being able to afford ammo once. I had to scrap a bunch of medkits. Then later, I had to manufacture more medikits lol. I have a full team of 7 that I use for everything after stealing a quad copter ship then I have two soldiers sitting in base waiting for me to get enough resources to build them armor sets.

As stated above, I also went out and traded away food for other supplies to craft gear but I'm just barely keeping above my costs so far.

This leads me to a question. Is it possible for your ship to be ambushed just flying directly to a haven to trade or recruit a soldier?

[Tasi]

Voland님이 먼저 게시:

About trading: the easiest way to get resources is to trade food and materiales for tech from Synedrion, and then trade that tech to Anu for food and to NJ for materials. You can do it with an empty aircraft, or just every time you go somewhere with your teams, stop to trade at the havens on the way. Havens replenish their stock around every 2 days.

You can also get a lot of resources from random explorations, and of course scavenging ops.

You can look here for more info on the subject:

http://wiki.phoenixpoint.com/Geoscape#Where_do_resources_come_from.3F

That is misleading. Try to measure how long it will take to reach the nearest heaven. On average it will be (with Manticore aircraft) 4 hours. How long it takes to explore the location? Again: 4 hours. In order to call it an income, you need to travel there and back again.

• you start with resource A
  
• then you change it for B
  
• and afterwards you change it back to A but you will have appr. 20% more

so trading will cost you 8 hours (on average). It means it is the same as exploration (4 hours to fly to the next location and 4 hours for exploring).

How much you get? If you will be able to trade everything they have (raw estimate is 200 resources) you can get 20% from it which means (again, it is just raw estimate) 40 resources.

Exploration gives (on average) similar (I would say even higher) income. Trading should not be used as a source of income. It is just a waste of time. Explore.

[Yme]

Tasi님이 먼저 게시:

Voland님이 먼저 게시:

About trading: the easiest way to get resources is to trade food and materiales for tech from Synedrion, and then trade that tech to Anu for food and to NJ for materials. You can do it with an empty aircraft, or just every time you go somewhere with your teams, stop to trade at the havens on the way. Havens replenish their stock around every 2 days.

You can also get a lot of resources from random explorations, and of course scavenging ops.

You can look here for more info on the subject:

http://wiki.phoenixpoint.com/Geoscape#Where_do_resources_come_from.3F

That is misleading. Try to measure how long it will take to reach the nearest heaven. On average it will be (with Manticore aircraft) 4 hours. Now long it takes to explore the location? Again: 4 hours. In order to call it an income, you need to travel there and back again.

• you start with resource A
  
• then you change it for B
  
• and afterwards you change it back to A but you will have appr. 20% more

so trading will cost you 8 hours (on average). It means it is the same as exploration (4 hours to fly to the next location and 4 hours for exploring).

How much you get? If you will be able to trade everything they have (raw estimate is 200 resources) you can get 20% from it which means (again, it is just raw estimate) 40 resources.

Exploration gives (on average) similar (I would say even higher) income. Trading should not be used as a source of income. It is just a waste of time. Explore.

I treat trading more like a resource correction mechanism. Somehow I've always had more food than I need. Probably because I don't recruit as much and use vehicles to shore up secondary squads.

[Včelí medvídek]

Tasi님이 먼저 게시:

Exploration gives (on average) similar (I would say even higher) income. Trading should not be used as a source of income. It is just a waste of time. Explore.

This leads me to crticial question - does it pay off equip another team and make another aircraft to be able explore 2x much (even though it is huge initial investment)

[Tasi]

Včelí medvídek님이 먼저 게시:

This leads me to crticial question - does it pay off equip another team and make another aircraft to be able explore 2x much (even though it is huge initial investment)

You need at least 2 teams anyway so why not explore with them? If they would only sit in the base and waited for the next pandoran heaven attack it would be an only waste.

[Včelí medvídek]

Tasi님이 먼저 게시:

Včelí medvídek님이 먼저 게시:

This leads me to crticial question - does it pay off equip another team and make another aircraft to be able explore 2x much (even though it is huge initial investment)

You need at least 2 teams anyway so why not explore with them? If they would only sit in the base and waited for the next pandoran heaven attack it would be an only waste.

My big issue is aircaraft now - as it is super expensive and take 10 days to manufacture... people mentioned here they captured some.. how to?

[Elevrai]

Včelí medvídek님이 먼저 게시:

This leads me to crticial question - does it pay off equip another team and make another aircraft to be able explore 2x much (even though it is huge initial investment)

The game *will* force you to have many crafts around the map, moving non-stop 24/7 and just stop for healing. With that in mind, outfit the second aircraft(stolen synedrion is best) with a single guy and a vehicle (best if you get an armadillo) and use it to explore "?" on the maps: It's the least ressource and time-consuming setup in case of ambushes and do well in the 3 scavenging missions (drive straight to soldiers/vehicles and escape or tank shots while the assault loot everything into the trunk in scavenging missions). The "?" often results in free ressources too so it will pay itself.

To steal ships, look for havens with aircraft hovering on top: There will be a "Steal aircraft" mission available.

[Tasi]

Včelí medvídek님이 먼저 게시:

My big issue is aircaraft now - as it is super expensive and take 10 days to manufacture... people mentioned here they captured some.. how to?

Capture = steal from another faction (only some heavens have them). I don't do that. It would hurt my attempt for quick 25 rep to get heaven locations to be able to move around.

My preference for resources spendings:

• 2 more soldiers (to have 6 from the initial 4 at Legendary difficulty)
  
• Training Center
  
• 6 more soldiers
  
• 2 more Training Centers (total of 3)
  
• aicraft
  
• weapons (on Legendary soldiers come without any equip)
  
• activation of a new base on the opposite side of the globe
  
• armours

If I have not found Armadillo, I explore with the full team. Otherwise, as @Elevrai suggested: vehicle + single soldier (but I have not tested scavenging missions with this setup, which may be a good idea, I only use it for an escape from an ambush).

After that, I invest to: more aircraft (I usually have around 6 aicraft), more bases (I would say 6 is enough but I usually have around 10) and better equipment.

[Voland]

Tasi님이 먼저 게시:

Voland님이 먼저 게시:

About trading: the easiest way to get resources is to trade food and materiales for tech from Synedrion, and then trade that tech to Anu for food and to NJ for materials. You can do it with an empty aircraft, or just every time you go somewhere with your teams, stop to trade at the havens on the way. Havens replenish their stock around every 2 days.

You can also get a lot of resources from random explorations, and of course scavenging ops.

You can look here for more info on the subject:

http://wiki.phoenixpoint.com/Geoscape#Where_do_resources_come_from.3F

That is misleading. Try to measure how long it will take to reach the nearest heaven. On average it will be (with Manticore aircraft) 4 hours. Now long it takes to explore the location? Again: 4 hours. In order to call it an income, you need to travel there and back again.

• you start with resource A
  
• then you change it for B
  
• and afterwards you change it back to A but you will have appr. 20% more

so trading will cost you 8 hours (on average). It means it is the same as exploration (4 hours to fly to the next location and 4 hours for exploring).

How much you get? If you will be able to trade everything they have (raw estimate is 200 resources) you can get 20% from it which means (again, it is just raw estimate) 40 resources.

Exploration gives (on average) similar (I would say even higher) income. Trading should not be used as a source of income. It is just a waste of time. Explore.

Lol

1. Synedrion sells 2 tech for 8 food or 8 material. Anu buys 2 tech for 12 food and NJ buys 2 tech for 12 material. So I buy 1 tech for 4, and I sell it for 6. That's a 50% ROI, not 20% :)

2. The conclusion that time is wasted on traveling is predicated on the following assumptions: that I use a single aircraft to do the trade, that the aircraft is manned so as to be able to engage in exploration, that I only do the trade and that there are unexplored POIs nearby where I could otherwise I go, but I forego going there in order to do the trade. All these have to hold true for the trade to be a waste of time, but in fact none needs to be true, and some of these are actually rather unlikely:

- You have to be traveling through POIs all the time, so as to go from one place to another. You are not wasting any time by trading at a haven at which you have to stop anyway.

- You do not have to do return trips, since you are not carrying anything in the craft and it doesn't have capacity. You don't have to buy from Synedrion and sell to Anu or NJ in a sequential order: all you have to do is buy tech from Synedrion, and sell tech to Anu and to NJ when opportunity arises.

- You can trade using empty aircraft (and that's the only productive thing you can do with an empty aircraft, besides picking up recruits at havens)

- There aren't always opportunities for exploring or doing missions that you can take advantage of.

[Shuichi Niwa]

If you want to save on cost, build a melee-centric soldier. Melee does not cost ammunition, and a melee-centric soldier if build right can sometimes one man army a whole 6-7 Pandorans in a turn (even Siren and Chiron).

[Tasi]

Voland님이 먼저 게시:

1. Synedrion sells 2 tech for 8 food or 8 material. Anu buys 2 tech for 12 food and NJ buys 2 tech for 12 material. So I buy 1 tech for 4, and I sell it for 6. That's a 50% ROI, not 20% :)

Sorry, I have made the calculation months ago and done just quick raw estimate here without double-checking. The fact that trading is not worh remains.

Voland님이 먼저 게시:

2. The conclusion that time is wasted on traveling is predicated on the following assumptions: that I use a single aircraft to do the trade, that the aircraft is manned so as to be able to engage in exploration, that I only do the trade and that there are unexplored POIs nearby where I could otherwise I go, but I forego going there in order to do the trade. All these have to hold true for the trade to be a waste of time, but in fact none needs to be true, and some of these are actually rather unlikely:

- You have to be traveling through POIs all the time, so as to go from one place to another. You are not wasting any time by trading at a haven at which you have to stop anyway.

That is correct only for the first visit in that area (and free exploration of the nearby locations). It is far from "stopping on your way". By making "side trips" you only make exploration slower and thus having less income. The opportunities for trading "on my way to somewhere else" are not even enough for me to have resources I need (I usually have more of A but need B) so it is not income but as @Yme written:

Yme님이 먼저 게시:

I treat trading more like a resource correction mechanism. Somehow I've always had more food than I need. Probably because I don't recruit as much and use vehicles to shore up secondary squads.

Voland님이 먼저 게시:

- You do not have to do return trips, since you are not carrying anything in the craft and it doesn't have capacity. You don't have to buy from Synedrion and sell to Anu or NJ in a sequential order: all you have to do is buy tech from Synedrion, and sell tech to Anu and to NJ when opportunity arises.

You can't call it income if you have not traded that back. If you have at the beginning 80 food and you will swap it to 20 tech you only changed resources (sure, good rate but not an income). You need to trade it back to get an income.

Moreover, it actually needs those resources which you can't use. It is basically the same as building a facility on your base: your resources are "blocked" (dedicated for trading). So if you are planning to have income from trading 100 food, you know you have to keep 200 which can't be used.

Voland님이 먼저 게시:

- You can trade using empty aircraft (and that's the only productive thing you can do with an empty aircraft, besides picking up recruits at havens)

Aircraft cost is actually another investment just to trading. Why would you invest 150 tech and 1200 material for low income if you can use this investment to higher income from exploration? Do you consider this "extra aircraft" as something which goes free? Well, if you steal aircraft it may be definitely better. I don't.

Voland님이 먼저 게시:

- There aren't always opportunities for exploring or doing missions that you can take advantage of.

Really? My teams are permanently either resting or defending heavens or exploring.

[Shuichi Niwa]

The trading rates apparently changed with time (maybe due to the changes in the world, or leaders / factions attitude to Phoenix Project changed). In the beginning, I was trading 9 Food for 2 Tech / Material. Right now after 1 month I was trading 4 Food for 5 Material.

[lenswer]

I dont use NJ weapons, they are not accurate enough,
Best all around weapons are the Synedrion laser weapons. They have good accuracy, great range, and high ammo capacity per magazine.
Conserve your ammo, use precise shots only. DO NOT WASTE AMMO!
Shoot unarmored or lightly armored body parts.
If the enemy will bleed out in his turn, DO NOT WASTE AMMO ON HIM!
Use grenade sparsely, only if it a must.
Early do not produce or use grenade launcher, it is realy expensive to make, and the magazine is more so, better make hand grenade, it is cheaper (1 launcher + 1 magazine = 19-20 grenade)
Early do not try to make robotic implants, it is expensive and fixing your syborg soldier is more costly.
You dont need full 6-7 member squads to be effective, try 5 soldier teams (like 1 heavy, 1 sniper, 3 assault or 1 heavy, 2 sniper, 2 assault) and steal a Synedrion airship (5 cap 650 speed 3500 range) the best early/mid game.
I use vehicles only to base deffence and to send them on trade run (alone) and to activate excavation sites.
If you can, get a berserker, it has armor break at level 2 (30 armor shred) that will aply to the next attack, even for a grenade (shred armor from all the effected body parts)
Give him/her speed and multi class to heavy,(Brawler give 50% more melee damage, Boom Blast for explosives) or assault (Dash more mobility)
The melee weapon Marduk's Fist is op with Brawler and if you lucky and got Close Quarters Specialist skill then even better.
For melee only Arthrons, shoot the claw holding arm disabling them (they will only use the shield to defend)
Worms and Mindfraggers, let them come to you if you cant move and shot them. They will run to you, into a short range overwatch that you placed beforhand. Or bash/melee them, just watch out for the equipment damage, dont brake your weapons.
For humans......why do you want to fight with other factions? If you anger them, you cant trade with or recruit from the heavens. Defend the heavens, and use the defender forces like meat shield, scouts and damage sourse.
But if you desperate.......brake the arm = cant use 2 handed weapons or berserker in the face!

Worst place to start the game is South America, not much to explore, and you are cornered, only one way to expand (to North America)
The best starting point is Europe, North Afrika, Asia, Russia. Big place to explore and expand.