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Another carryover from the old forum.

There were some more interesting approaches than "just hold a psi-blocker in your hands". (or tin foil hats)

I'm curious about this, since there's clearly a lot of evolution being added into the x-com formula. I'm curious about whether there will be Psionics, and if, if there is, the game will keep them in balance. As much as I love x-com, it being my favorite turn-based strategy game of all time, I've always found Psionics in the original (and TFTD) to be ridiculously flawed, since players can abuse the line-of-sight (which was fixed in Apocalypse) and aliens could simply spam your characters who were tucked in hiding placea. This forced players into using methods of countering alien Psionics by bringing low Psi-strength characters and disarming them as bait. While I like the panic and turmoil Psionics cause, it also appears as a double-edged sword, with one end being atmospheric/daunting and the other being frustrating/annoying.

And for all I know, you won't impliment Psionics in this game at all. My point is, IF you do throw in Psionics, how exactly do you intend to handle it? Personally, I'd love to see various different Psionics beyond mind-control. Lots of potential for creativity in that department.

It has been stated that psionic abilities will be in the game but only for aliens. Your troops will not have access tot hose powers at all.

There has also been mention of several different powers rather than the simple panic or control of the original.

Exactly how they will be handled has not been stated (and probably will not be) but Chris is fully aware of the unbalanced nature of x-com psionics and seems to be intent on balancing them much more.

Yeah, psionics will only be in the game for aliens. We've not put them in yet, but they'll likely ignore LOS and be based on proximity to the psionic alien. There should be more than just mind control too.

The humans won't be able to use them, but we should put some measures in place to make it easier to defend against them.

I like it, I like it a lot. Removing human-psionics will definitely make the end-game more satisfying. I'm also in full support of the idea of proximity (I like LOS too, but proximity makes more senes on the alien-side). I look forward to seeing what sort of newer psionics get introduced.
Yeah, psionics will only be in the game for aliens. We've not put them in yet, but they'll likely ignore LOS and be based on proximity to the psionic alien.

So does that mean the humans will get indirect fire weapons after all?

If the aliens are allowed to attack without LOS, there is no other way to even get close to them when they are in a room or behind tall cover.

Well, not without leveling every structure on the map.

Oh, I'm not talking about a an off-map battery of 155mm artillery but if aliens are able to disable or even control the soldiers through walls and without LOS, soldiers should be able to do something on a similiar scale, such as short-range teleporting stun or frag grenades through walls.

Either that or play with a ground team of only vehicles. Smaller ones than "real" tanks so they can get to the aliens.

Basically like the Apocalypse androids that portugus mentions below.

If psionics are supposed to be a gameplay element then there needs to be a reliable counter.

Especially if it works without LOS.

It doesn't have to be infinitely powerful or permanent, or it would completely remove the feature from the game.

PCM grenades (Psionic CounterMeasures) that prevent all psionic effects within x tiles for 2-3 turns.

A PCM Emitter that soldiers can carry and that can be turned on and off.

While emitting, it prevents all psionic effects within (fewer) tiles.

The problem with that? If the aliens have psionic skills, they instantly know where the soldiers with the emitters are, regardless where they are on the map. Just like the PSI-Emitters in Starcraft.

It may shield your mind from their psionics but it tells their mutons where they can find a target.

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Or you need to adapt your gameplay to deal with the powers. Don't make assumptions about them being overpowered without any information on the subject.

Just because the aliens have psionics doesn't mean you need indirect fire weapons, just as the fact the aliens have longer range weapons than the humans doesn't mean humans need to be able to instantly teleport around the map (or something else) to counteract the advantage.

I was under the impression that bravery only mostly affected a soldier's ability ro resist panicking/berserking whenever things don't go so swell (with help from ranked-soldiers inspiring morale) in combat while psi-strength was the actual resistence vs. psionics. Back on the point you made about proximity, Chris, I see that as a valid 'nerf' against the aliens' psionics (referring to how the AI applied psionics in x-com 1 & 2) simply because it means the aliens can't spam your ship-crew, which means that if you have soldiers with low psi-strength, you can simply move them away from where the alien activity is (presuming you /can/ find where the alien is blasting him from, but that adds to the fun of anticipation).

My original point about the alien's use of psioncs from x-com 1 & 2 was how it seemed frustrating at times how weak-soldiers were spammed so much with psi-blasts each turn, regardless of distance from the actual mind-controller. Sure, you could counter them by either not bringing weak-minded soldiers (presuming you can figure out which are which before acquiring psi-labs) or disarming them completely as they start to lose morale-points from the blasts, but the idea of keeping distance from potential psionic-users seems more natural, strategy-wise. And again, I look forward to seeing what sort of new psionics show up on the battlescape.

Well given that you've just admitted have no real information on the psionic powers in game, it's probably unwise to write as if you are certain that there will be no way to deal with them except destroying everything on the map or using indirect fire weapons. No need to leap to conclusions.

Oh, of course there's no need to do that. It's a free service we provide! =P

Taking that grenade / MC example, it'd probably be unwise to group all your soldiers together when next near an alien that can mind control them. What might be prudent is to send a couple of high-bravery soldiers in to kill it.

It's never wise to group soldiers too closely, period. The aliens have grenades, too.

What I'm talking about is that in order to avoid getting your soldiers blowing up each other through mind control, they have to be spaced so far that they can't see each other.

A balanceable mind control could be that the aliens can not see through the controlled soldier's eyes.

Control, yes. See, no.

If aliens must spot your soldiers in order for a MC soldier to shoot them, then you can do something about it.

MC would still be dangerous if it caught you on the wrong foot but there would be a counter and it wouldn't be game-breaking.

You're always talking about wanting more tactics for the game Gazz, more strategy. Forcing the player to have to research and use one specific item is counter to your usual posts...

Not exactly.

It's one item to counter one specific ability and those Psi Grenades would have obvious, built-in drawbacks.

If bravery is the only counter then your soldiers either have high stats there or... you are screwed.

We don't know exactly what kind of vehicles there will be so that may also be an option.

Maybe a psi resist on certain types of armour would work. You could use them as psi breaching armour then.

That would give you some people to push forward while the other guys hung back out of psi range.

A one-handed psi-blocker would be the obvious candidate if we were adding items to deal specifically with psionics, as they make pistols more useful. Perhaps we should add something that makes the user immune to psionic attacks and also reveals the location and type of the psion on the map - a sort of psionic triangulator.
I think the 'nerf' (if we'll call it that) on the alien's ability to spam, regardless of distance, alone is a heavy positive change in terms of combating psi-users. Adding any sort of item to directly counter psionics seems a bit overkill. Psionics should be a constant threat to players throughout the game. It's why I'm glad we're removing psionics from player-control, since that adds a lot more difficulty to the end of the game.
I like the idea of a psi tracker though, even if it doesn't help resist the attacks. Give psi resist on the combat shield instead of armour and you have a bulldog sniffing out the psi users.
A one-handed psi-blocker would be the obvious candidate if we were adding items to deal specifically with psionics, as they make pistols more useful.

Only if the psion is unarmed.

If you don't know where the bugger is hiding, you'd be advancing with combat shield and psi-blocker so pistols are only marginally more useful.

An always-on blocker is very powerful, though. Not nearly as bad as a "have in inventory to work" item but if you can choose complete and permanent immunity at will, that makes the "scary psi thing" rather harmless.

The only thing that this would add to the game is more micromanagement... every... single... turn.

- Equip everyone (who is close to possible hiding spots) with psi-blocker

- End Turn

- unequip psi-blocker and go about your business during your turn.

Sounds more like a chore than gameplay.

Perhaps we should add something that makes the user immune to psionic attacks and also reveals the location and type of the psion on the map - a sort of psionic triangulator.

A psi-detector could be interesting but should not give immunity as well.

It wouldn't even have to tell you exactly where the psion is.

Just a distance display so the player has to triangulate. =P

How about... a drug?

The soldiers call it... "brake fluid" because that's how it looks and what it does to the soldier's head.

Once psi-stuffs are researched, the medkit is equipped with a psi-technobabble drug that temporarily makes the patient resistant to psi attacks.

Or simpler, make it a 1 tile syringe that can be applied by dropping it on the soldier's body in the inventory screen.

The resistance starts somewhere at 130 - 140 % and is reduced by 10 % every turn.

A side effect is reduced reaction.

Applying brake fluid to the same soldier more than once per mission hurts the soldier, leading to a guaranteed vacation at the Betty Ford Rehab Center. =P

Otherwise it would be a permanent effect again...

Use the injection on all your troopers too early and you may run into trouble later, especially with larger UFOs.

Then you have to decide. Tough it out or briefly hospitalise a few soldiers from overdosing?

The player would have to balance the application between his soldiers and couldn't just send in a team of 100% immune troopers to nail the psionics.

In combination with the psionic triangulator, "psi combat" could actually become interesting while giving neither complete power nor complete/permanent immunity to either side.

I like the idea of a psi tracker though, even if it doesn't help resist the attacks. Give psi resist on the combat shield instead of armour and you have a bulldog sniffing out the psi users.

Awesome! A tin foil combat shield !!!

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Hmmm I'm finding it hard to comment without knowing too much, but I do have a couple of points to make. I really like Gazz' idea here (though this obviously only applies to mind control as an example, we don't know the other powers so a little bit moot)
A balanceable mind control could be that the aliens can not see through the controlled soldier's eyes.

Control, yes. See, no.

If aliens must spot your soldiers in order for a MC soldier to shoot them, then you can do something about it.

MC would still be dangerous if it caught you on the wrong foot but there would be a counter and it wouldn't be game-breaking.

This would essentially allow an alien to hide. When his mind's eye "feels" a mind in his vicinity he can control it, but that essentially just means he can do some random actions, maybe spray a few bullets in one direction, perhaps begin to choke your man to death (slowly so you have incentive to either get a man in there and drag him away, or hunt that alien down!). If the alien really wants to 'cause havoc though he needs to move to a window so he can see your man, control him properly, but that exposes him to risk.

So the alien can essentially just waste your man's turn (or a little bit worse), or risk themself for greater gain. That is what I call balance! Good work Gazz!

The only thing that this would add to the game is more micromanagement... every... single... turn.

- Equip everyone (who is close to possible hiding spots) with psi-blocker

- End Turn

- unequip psi-blocker and go about your business during your turn.

Sounds more like a chore than gameplay.

Here you're excluding the idea that these psi-blockers might block an area. You may only need one per group...

I'm not so sure about the psi-detectors or psi-blocking drugs. perhaps, though personally I'm not sold yet

Here you're excluding the idea that these psi-blockers might block an area. You may only need one per group...

Of course I'm excluding this possibility.

What would then be the downside to complete and permanent immunity for your troops?

That 1 in 5 soldiers has to hold the thing while he can still do his job 100 % with a combat shield in the other hand?

Me, I like the drug version best.

It's the most limited tool both in duration and uses per mission as well as allowing to exceed these limits... again at a price.

That's a whole bundle of balancing options right there.

Psionics should be scary super villain stuff and not something every deck sweeper alien does instead of karaoke.

That I wanted these psi-detectors to only display the range (with a good margin of error!) is meant to support the creepiness.

You know it's coming but you can't see it. You know it doesn't even have to see you.

If you take the blue pill now, will it last long enough to find it?

good points. But then again isn't it something that every soldier will have to do?

- unequip weapon

- equip pill

- close inventory

- take pill

- open inventory

- equip weapon

sure they may not all be doing it at the same time, but it'll still be tedious no?

No, it couldn't work like that.

The main UI would need to have a display for the declining resistance level of the soldier.

This area would also be the button for taking the pill without even opening the inventory.

If the soldier has none with him, it's greyed out.

If the effect has run it's course but he has another pill, the button would be yellow as a warning that pressing it now would mean to overdose the soldier.

Having to open windows to get information that is required for playing should be avoided.

The weapon window is another example of "improvement required" but... wrong topic. =)

I really liked the psi-triangulator idea. Would give some psi protection and point out the psycker's location but the psi attack could only be traced if it's made against the soldier using/wearing the device. Would make for interesting psi & seek. :)

High bravery soldiers could become dedicated anti psyckers by being able to use the triangulator to send a kind of negative psi feedback signal (or whatever) to harm and/or stun the attacker. Whether this happens or not would be decided by a bravery roll (just like aiming).

So even if the soldiers can't use psi powers themselves they could have a kind of aggressive defense.

@Gazz, the method you just described basically FORCES every player to have to research your special pill idea, which is exactly the kind of thing I remarked about here
You're always talking about wanting more tactics for the game Gazz, more strategy. Forcing the player to have to research and use one specific item is counter to your usual posts...

Now you've gone so far as to make this method require a change in the UI. Don't get me wrong, if such a method was to go through, a change in the UI would be for the best, but again you normally come up with ideas that expand on strategy, not force players to do research and play in one specific way.

Also lets just think hypothetically how the research for this would come about. First you meet psi aliens, then you have to capture one of them. Now you want to do tests sending people into it's vicinity while taking different combinations of drugs to see if maybe this pill will work...?

@ Jean-Luc

I really liked the psi-triangulator idea. Would give some psi protection and point out the psycker's location but the psi attack could only be traced if it's made against the soldier using/wearing the device. Would make for interesting psi & seek.
while I do like this method, it does have a couple of flaws. Mainly, if the alien has the option, why would he attack the person with the best bravery/chance to resist him.

Personally I prefer the psi blocker idea. Each one carried nullifies the psi effects in a small area, or perhaps just makes them weaker. While you may think, why not just have a guy with a combat shield and psi blocker then, well you totally can. But he's next to useless now except in the psi blocking roll, so you lose out in manpower in that regard.

Also, and this is the biggy, it limits you greatly. Not only will you only be able to have as many groups as you have psi blockers, but you'll need to bunch up your men so they get within it's radius. That might mean not getting the best cover available, or not fully supporting your flanks, or not being able to check everywhere as easily.

Sure, you might just suggest taking more psi blockers, but that then limits the amount of soldiers you have with the bigger guns...

So it's a balance of will I risk sending a couple of men to scout out that last corner, or should move a 5 man team there and take longer reinforcing the boarding party. Do I send that soldier to cover all the way over there, or do I keep him close and hope I don't get hit with a grenade. etc.

Obviously now if you select high bravery characters preferentially then you may not need as many/any psi blockers, and so those men can do all the 'risky' jobs. But then they might be lacking in other skills...

Sorry for the long post

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Personally, I don't like either the pill or blocker ideas. Psionics should be something that is troublesome to deal with, rather than just using some 'magic' item to resist. The alien version of player-guided blind fire killing.

From what Chris has said about resistance, keeping everyone alive and using skilled troopers should give a strong chance of avoiding shenanigans.

As for Psi-triangulator, why not a motion-tracker type thing that marks the direction of any psi-power activation from the previous alien turn. So a small screen with arrows and glowing dots if the psion is close. No terrain of course, its just a black screen.

interesting Sathra. Obvious balance things are that the alien might have moved after using his psi attacks, so not right where the locator says, and the aliens don't always have to psi, so you'll still need to check everywhere to make sure there isn't an alien being sneaky

Another point to make about the blocker is that it could perhaps just increase resistances, not block out psi attacks completely. Also it could be less powerful the further soldiers are from the person holding it.

Furthermore, if the man is holding the blocker, and he's the one going after the psi attacker, then remember he's only got a pistol. The alien on the other hand isn't only armed with his mind, he may be armed with a death cannon +4!

He might need to actively watch it and counter any psi-surges that come his way? Maybe his agility (reflexes) skill would help boost his ability to protect others? I'm not sure how it would work, but any sort of sci-fi explanation could work. Maybe he just has to hold down a big red button, and his fingers are getting real tired...
What kind of interaction with a hand would a psi-blocker require?

None, really. A "must hold" restriction makes no sense at all.

That's part of the reason why I don't like such permanent immunity items.

It's hard to attach logical gameplay restrictions to them.

@Gazz, the method you just described basically FORCES every player to have to research your special pill idea, which is exactly the kind of thing I remarked about here

With the same reasoning you could complain that the player is FORCED to research armour if he doesn't want to lose many soldiers to hostile fire.

The special pill is very optional in comparison. You could choose to research HE / WP ammunition instead and go about flattening the map.

So nope, noone is forced to research it. It's a useful tool.

I think the thing I am most hesitant about with the drugs is that they are just that. Drugs. Sure they're helpful, and sure they are not psychodilic mass murder drugs, and sure I am just against drug use in general, but think about it, is giving frontline soldiers, the best of the best, experimental drugs (at best) the kind of message that xenonauts wants to send across? Another way it might be viewed is 'we have an insurmountable problem, how do we deal with insurmountable problems? drugs.'

Obviously not everyone is going to think like this/take that away from the game. And this is my own pet prejudice (never ever gave my marines stim packs in starcraft, never ever took mentats etc in fallout). But I think the much better picture to put across is one of human ingenuity, not one of human testing and mind alteration (and we don't even know the long term effects yet)

Also on a separate note, Gazz I know you wanted to have the drugs only usable for a small amount of time before negatives appear, and that's fine. But lets be realistic. If one of your soldiers gets psi attacked, then you're going to make all your soldiers (or at least all the low bravery) soldiers take the pills. Because why risk them fending off an attack on their own low bravery stat. when if they fail to fend it off they may kill half your men? So now, near the beginning of the mission, everyone is fairly immune.

But maybe you're not a streamlined commander, or you like to be cautious or your on a base assault mission which takes forever. Now the people who need this help most are running out of time. Do you risk going faster and getting your men shot up? Or do you stay at the same pace and risk your own men killing each other? Or do you make them take more kills, and kill them a little bit yourself, leading them to easier deaths down the line?

No matter how I look at it, it seems to me if you act early and try to prevent your men getting their mind taken off them (a good thing) then if you don't hurry up (or if you're just unlucky) you're going to be penalised for it. You should never reward a commander who is trying to protect his men with only negatives... in my opinion

sorry for the long post

Hmm, instead of drugs or blockers or whatever, why not have a hand-held item that boosts the bravery stat of troopers within say, 10 squares radius to equal that of the holder.

Some kind of cybernetic telepathy common-spirit thing that needs contact with a living mind and nervous system to work. Or biotech like UFO's Reticulan guns.

It'd be useful even when not facing psionics since it complements the officer morale-boosting aura. Officers reduce the loss from morale dropping effects (death, injury, psi, etc), bravery booster makes it harder for effects to gain purchase.

To balance it, maybe having the holder die while in hand causing a major morale drop effect. That and it takes up a hand.

My suggestion for psi training was an 'aura' effect similar to the way the officer morale bonus *may* work.

Higher training could increase area or resistance.

It is similar to having a device that projects an umbrella shield effect but its really just a big shouty man telling the people around him to stop messing about and focus.

You train a psi specialist who is there to monitor his squad and help them defend against intrusion.

Sort of like the W40K commissar but without so much shooting in the face.

I don't think having a resistance to psi attacks rather than outright immunity makes the training / item useless in any way.

In the same way having armour to help protect from a plasma bolt wouldn't make weapons suddenly obsolete.

I imagine the weaker enemies will have weaker psi attacks as well. Little training may be needed to deal with these effectively.

When you start coming against tougher enemies their psi strength will also increase so that you may need to do some extra training.

It is not a simple train and you will be immune or don't train and you will all die situation.

Yes you may find that someone who has been training for psi protection may still fall foul of a psi attack. How many would he have successfully avoided previously though?

Someone who has been training hard with a rifle may miss an important shot but you wouldn't throw your rifles away and say that training them was useless.

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Well that does sound a lot more balanced now, I didn't think of it that way.

It still isn't very tactical however, it's still a matter of do I have enough training for these soldiers or not, and it seems like if you lost an experienced trooper then it would be a lot of training before you'd feel at all comfortable taking a replacement who wouldn't turn round and kill half your team...

If you take someone less experienced then team them up with a psi defence trained trooper.

Keep them close to maximise the benefit of the aura while they build up experience.

It isn't exactly a perfect way of doing it but it just makes more sense to me than having items for psi resist.

There will probably be many ways to balance the whole idea.

I don't like the idea of items for protection as they would end up being something everyone carries if they were the only protection. That only leaves the choice of taking the item or risking the consequences. It could otherwise be pretty much the same as the aura effect.

An active ability doesn't really work in turn based either as you have no control while the aliens are attacking you.

Training lets you choose how many psi trained troops to take at least.

If you have to balance how much psi training they have, compared to say sniper training, then you would not want everyone to have huge amounts of time invested in psi training but be weak at other roles.

with the training it just seems to me that you'd want everyone to get it. Then if you happen to have 2 soldiers close together they'll boost each other as well. at least that's what I'd probably aim for.

With the psi protection taking up one hand you have to actively balance how many men carry it because they can only take a pistol/grenade with them in the other hand, and you also need to worry about keeping your men close enough as well. So not everyone could take it, because then you'd have a very underpowered strike team...

Spending action points... sounds like an alright idea but it seems like a lot of hassel, especially if they don't attack any of your soldiers. Imagine if there is only one alien left, you have to manually assign the action points to every soldier you fear may get attacked, and yet only one of them may get attacked...

what about a hybrid of all the ideas (not Gazz' though sorry, it's not a bad idea I just don't like the quick and easy 'drugs' fix). You can have training that boosts sodiers psi resistance to a point. You also have these devices that have to be carried in one hand, that emit an aura (more than one square) of white psi noise or something. But these devices have to be carried and used, and you spend AP increasing the strength/distance that this aura covers.

This adds in another aspect now where you may have a man with the psi blocker and he may see an alien. Does he shoot the alien, and not have such a great aura of psi blockingness, or does he hope that the alien doesn't outright kill him/a team mate...

thoughts?

Having to hold an item AND having to spend action points shifts the balance of psionics too strongly in favor of the aliens IMHO.

anotherdevil's criticism of the "plain" action point spending method is mainly a UI issue. That could be solved by a kind of default rule you give the soldiers: If you or one of your comrades see or have seen a live, psi-capable alien in your vicinity or you felt a psi attack in the last alien round: use X action points for psi-protection. X being the default value that can be overridden each round by the player the way the player can ask the soldier to reserve points for kneeling and shooting.

The hard choice, the player has to make is to decide a) whether or not he thinks the soldier is threatened and b) how close and strong the psi-capable alien is. If he uses too many action points to psi-fortify the soldier, he will risk losing the battle by being shot. If he is too careless about psi attacks he risks his soldier being turned. In neither case the soldier has complete immunity to psi-attacks. He just raises his likelihood of withstanding an attack by spending more time and energy fortifying his mind.

Training will ease the cost of fortifying his mind in terms of likelihood of withstanding per AP.

My association to a soldier "fortifying his mind" was him reciting the litany against fear http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bene_Gesserit#Litany_against_fear. This clearly works better in a book, where your close to the character and can hear his every whisper and feel his every shiver. How would you guys depict a soldier "fortifying his mind"?

Fortification

The simple implementation of that is just as you said; add a reserve button for it under the shot reserve.

It would be easier to make it a flat resistance amount for a set percentage of ap though rather than a sliding scale.

The scale would add more control but also more micro management. That would be up to the team if they want it that way.

Training adjusting the ap or resist amount would work either way to improve it but again becomes practically essential.

Psi Distorter

The hand held psi distorter sounds like a weapon. You could treat it that way for game play purposes.

Click on it to fire then use the existing right click method to spend more ap's for higher protection.

The other way is that it has a minimum amount but always uses however many ap's you have left.

That shows that you wouldn't be able to do anything else while using it, or use it on yourself.

If it had a medium range you could try hanging back to protect a scout while he advances.

The truly cautious could even form a chain right out of any potential psi range.

Maybe you could aim it at the alien as well if you see it and give that resist percentage to anything it tries on any target.

I think of it as an oscilloscope type screen and a transmitter.

When the display starts to twitch you can to try and distort the incoming attack by fiddling with the dial and switches.

Psi Resist Aura

with the training it just seems to me that you'd want everyone to get it. Then if you happen to have 2 soldiers close together they'll boost each other as well. at least that's what I'd probably aim for.

There would be no real need if only the highest bonus had an effect.

Having everyone highly trained would be useful if they were spread out and alone.

It would be up to you if you want to spend a lot of time training psi resistance on everyone.

You could just as easily train a few specialists while training others in sniping or better burst firing with a little psi resist in case they get caught alone.

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Hmm some good points guys. I'm just wondering how all these methods would work (I know it has come up before), perhaps that would help explain them and make them seem more real.

Fortification = reciting words or fortifying your mind some other way

Anti-Psi Drugs = you take the blue pill

Blocker/disrupter = perhaps you use it to form a sort of shield against psi in one direction, or a sort of white noise generator for a small area.

Now these are only my opinions, so please don't take offence if I don't say nice things...

The fortification sounds alright, and it seems like it goes hand in hand with the training, so perhaps it is something that would be unlocked or improved by training (learning better fortifying words, more practice etc.)

The disruptor could indeed perhaps be used as a weapon, and perhaps you could choose an individual (including the holder) who you could aim the psi disruptor at. The range to the individual could affect the bonus to psi (shown by accuracy), and the types of attack (aimed etc) both cost more AP and increase the resistance.

So if you aim it at someone perhaps 3 squares away (a medium distance), with an aimed shot (high AP) then in the area between those 2 individuals could have a medium amount of psi resistance? If the individual aimed it at himself however, then a small area around him (1-2 squares) could have a high resistance boost.

Thoughts?

Just to make certain I understand the disruptor right: The disruptor does not give the soldier psi-attack ability. Instead it reflects psi-powers to the sender, which damages his brain. Thus it is not an active but a reactive weapon. If the soldier using the disruptor does not get attacked (or more generally there are no attacks in the range of the disruptor) nothing happens, right?
The disruptor could indeed perhaps be used as a weapon, and perhaps you could choose an individual (including the holder) who you could aim the psi disruptor at. The range to the individual could affect the bonus to psi (shown by accuracy), and the types of attack (aimed etc) both cost more AP and increase the resistance.

So if you aim it at someone perhaps 3 squares away (a medium distance), with an aimed shot (high AP) then in the area between those 2 individuals could have a medium amount of psi resistance? If the individual aimed it at himself however, then a small area around him (1-2 squares) could have a high resistance boost.

That is pretty much what I was aiming at. I saw it more as protection on the actual target rather than covering the area though.

Longer range as well (more like pistol range than shotgun) but that would probably be a balance thing.

myth I was working more along the lines of a shield than doing any damage but that might be nice as an updated version of it.

MC could also be split up in Mind Control and Body Control with MC being something only the REALLY bad-ass guys could do. the difference would be that in the case of BC, the operative does not retain any memories and therefore cannot use his weapons (or use the really badly) and will have to go smash someones face in instead. after all, we can't use their weapons as soon as we lay eyes on them (or couldn't in X-COM at least) so neither should they.

While a MC'd operative keeps his memories and therefore not only his use of weapons and his stats, he also gives the aliens info about where the closest other operatives are hiding (since i assume they keep some sort of radio contact so as to not blow each other up).

Don't know how much work this would be or if it would be good or not but I'd like to have degrees on the enemy psy-users.

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Interesting discussion here. Triangulation is a nice idea as are psionic drugs.

Might I add some suggestions that I didn'tsee discussed? Well I'm going to anyway.

For triangulation to work irl you need three points of reference. How about making the triangulation rely on psionic detection grenades, for lack of a better term. Basically you give a few of your men psi grenades that they then throw into an area. Between the three points any turn that an alien attempts a psionic attack reveals their location. It works wether they are thrown or not and only on the current(?) Z level.

If thats too complex then an psi detection grenade that simply lights up when psi is used within a 20 tile radius of it?

Or how about an anti-psi grenade? After some hefty research you lock onto the aliens brain wave patterns and find a way to temporarily jam them. You devise a grenade that emits a one time pulse in a 10 tile radius strong enough to disable an aliens psi abilities for 2 turns. If you're lucky you even have a small chance to knock him out with the blast.

The suggestions above mine are probably enough but I thought I'd put these out there just in case chris could use them.

As for the drugs idea it might be worth making it part of an advanced medikit. In game terms you have one of the medikit options give a flat increase on Moral. As there could be kids about I'll not say the drug I'm reffering to but you get the picture. I'm assuming that psi attacks use moral as they did before? Would be nice to read a wiki on psi if and when you get the time Chris.

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Or how about an anti-psi grenade? After some hefty research you lock onto the aliens brain wave patterns and find a way to temporarily jam them. You devise a grenade that emits a one time pulse in a 10 tile radius strong enough to disable an aliens psi abilities for 2 turns. If you're lucky you even have a small chance to knock him out with the blast.

That sounds like a PSI version of a smoke grenade, that could also work.

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As for the drugs idea it might be worth making it part of an advanced medikit. In game terms you have one of the medikit options give a flat increase on Moral. As there could be kids about I'll not say the drug I'm reffering to but you get the picture. I'm assuming that psi attacks use moral as they did before? Would be nice to read a wiki on psi if and when you get the time Chris.

*shrug*

Some people get hung up on "drug" but it's merely a technical term.

As soon as you call something like morphine medicine... hey presto... instantly it's all kinds of good.

There might already be psychopharmaca that would increase resistance to some kind of psi control - although most likely they hadn't been developed with that purpose. =P

Antidepressants (against "morale loss") don't even have to be illegal / restricted...

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