Psionic Soldiers?

[Goldminermac]

Is it completely against the design philosophy of the game to allow psionic abilities for soldiers? It would be an interesting additional form of strategy to add to the game and maybe psionic abilities could be balanced by having them tied to a specific armor with low defense and/or some other downside (possibly researched by interrogating psyons?), meaning your psionic soldiers would have to be highly specialized into psionics and you couldn't just give a psi-amp to everyone.

[Komandos]

Then the use of alien weapons should also be allowed. The technology of using alien weapons is simpler than the technology of using psionics.

P.S.

From the experience of playing UFO:1-2-3, psionics breaks the battle tactics too much and makes the aliens defenseless even against 1-2 player soldiers.

[Raffik]

1 hour ago, Komandos said:

From the experience of playing UFO:1-2-3, psionics breaks the battle tactics too much and makes the aliens defenseless even against 1-2 player soldiers.

I believe this is one of the leading factors why xenonauts do not use psionics and are not allowed to use alien weapons as well atm. 

I red somewhere, that there will be psionic defense, so hopefully we could see usage of alien weapons as well, at least in similar fashion as with cleaner weapons or in a way "you can use whatever you can gather until the mission is over"...

Edited September 23, 2023 by Raffik

[Pietje666]

In all the games i played in the past psionics had a nice extra touch. X-COM UE made sure your best soldiers doesn't have to be the best psionic soldier. You had to train them to be decent. And if it isn't for attack, then training your soldiers to have better defense isn't a game-breaker 

[SoulFilcher]

I believe that it can be re-balanced just like any other game mechanic. Mind control is very strong, but it could be toned down to a point where only certain alien species could be controlled, or maybe it simply fails too often to be reliable. But starting with a focus on defense sounds like a good approach. Maybe a very strong defense like the Mentarch's shield is less game breaking than a very strong offense.

[Goldminermac]

11 hours ago, Komandos said:

Then the use of alien weapons should also be allowed. The technology of using alien weapons is simpler than the technology of using psionics.

To be fair even though you can't use weapons made by the aliens you can reverse engineer the technology used to make the weapons to make human friendly models (Like making accelerated ballistic weapons after reverse engineering alien magnetic weapons). I see no reason within the game's lore why you couldn't just study a psyon's brain implants to make some kind of primitive psychic device at the very least which would be fit for use by humans.

I believe psionic abilities could be balanced and they don't even need to be an optimal tactic, just an option that is available to add some precious strategy. Also maybe mind control could be balanced by only working on panicked enemies so you aren't able to just snatch a powerful alien on to your side without doing some work first.

[Komandos]

7 hours ago, Goldminermac said:

I see no reason within the game's lore why you couldn't just study a psyon's brain implants to make some kind of primitive psychic device at the very least which would be fit for use by humans.

1. The presence of psionics: devalues any tactically advantageous position. No matter how profitably (successfully) the player would place his troops. Regardless of how profitable (successful) the aliens would take tactical positions inside the UFO, inside the building, behind the shelter - the presence of psionics from the enemy - makes these shelters; positions; lines of defense - meaningless.

2. If the player's soldiers have psionics, then the aliens should have much better psionics. After all, the aliens thought (worked) on this technology not day-week-month (like the player's scientists), but for centuries. And this means that in every battle where the player's psionicist takes one alien under full control, there should be two cases where the aliens completely control the player's soldiers. And if a player's team of 9 psion soldiers encounters a large UFO with 18 alien psions (or even a Small UFO with 9 alien psions), then the aliens must have much less psionic abilities than humans in order for the player to have a chance to cope with this, and not destroy most of his team at the same time.

As a result, it turns out that psionic abilities are primarily the advantage of humans over aliens, and not the advantage of aliens over humans.

Edited September 24, 2023 by Komandos