Question about mind control or psionics

[Bou]

I've read a few negative reviews where people mentioned that enemies are able to mind control you from the other side of the map and you can hardly counter it. Is this true? I don't want to play an ironman game of at least 10 hours and get cheapshot by psionic abilities.

[Greb]

Yeah enemies can psionically attack you from anywhere on the map, but mind control is pretty rare. Most of the time it's berserk you have to watch out for. It doesn't happen every turn, usually every two or three turns.

It's been a while since I've been through the game but if I remember right the first psions capable of mind controlling you are the caesan leader guys, the super armoured elite guys you'll find late in the game, and of course those praetor guys too. Most of the time they'll proc a panic effect on you though.

It's not that bad. By that point you'll be using soldiers with high bravery and thus high morale, as well as a high ranked Colonel in each group who will provide a morale bonus to boot, and the morale bar is tied to how effective psionic attacks are, with lower being more successful. It's really not all that common, not like every three turns another guy is a thrall, for sure. Plus you usually get a good bit of forewarning who the enemy is slapping with psionic attacks and can prepare in advance anyway. As far as I know, it doesn't cost any TU to drop your weapon, so you could drop your weapons at the end of each turn and scoop them back up after (assuming you're not using reaction fire)

If you're playing Ironman then you'll be playing with a more strict set of unit loadouts, capable of dealing with any situation with rigid formation anyway - why not chuck a lightweight stun baton on all your guys and IF a nasty situation pops up with mind control, just thwack them unconscious.

[Ozone]

mind control has a distance limit so no, they won't mind control you from all over the map. but they can make you hallucinating which can be just as dangerous.

the mod 'hold the line' improves the psionic gameplay. you should try it.

[Bou]

Ok thanks for the comments. This gives me a better insight.

[Charon]

Originally posted by OzoneGrif:

mind control has a distance limit so no, they won't mind control you from all over the map. but they can make you hallucinating which can be just as dangerous.

the mod 'hold the line' improves the psionic gameplay. you should try it.

I think you are confusing this a bit, no psionic ability has a distance limit, the psionic ability just gets weaker with distance, and not all that much. At one point the AI decides that chance is too low to even try it, but thats no distance limit, even more than when you realise that the "chance" is based on your morale.

[Ozone]

Thanks for the precisions Charon, that's interesting.
I always pick troops with good morale on Caesan missions so it really did feel like a distance limit. But I totally see what you mean now.