Thought cabinet value vs just buying skills?

[Detective Costeau]

So, I love the idea of the thought cabinet, but the actual execution of it seems a bit... questionable, to be honest.
My major issue so far (midway through day 2) is that a pretty significant number of the thoughts just don't seem to add much to your character, and there's no way to know whether you're wasting a skill point until after the fact.
The most common benefit seems to be raising the learning cap on your skills, but unless the rate of skill point gain increases a *lot* later in the game, I can't see how more than 1 or 2 of those thoughts can be useful- you already have far too many places to spend skill points as it is, and spending skill points to open slots for more thoughts (or to forget the ones that are actively unhelpful) just makes that shortage even worse.
So, from what I can see you're almost always better off just spending your skill points on skills after your first three thought slots are full- there's not much point in raising your learning cap on skills if you don't actually have points to invest in those increased caps.
Am I missing something that makes the thoughts more useful than just getting better skills?

[Aria Athena]

https://discoelysium.gamepedia.com/Thought_Locker

[Xander77]

Check my thought guide in the guide section. Several thoughts increase several skills at once, help you gain more $ / xp, or are otherwise a more interesting investment than merely another skill point.

[Kameradoktorn]

So they give no additional dialogue options, just skills and traits?

[Sisyphus]

No, they will change dialogue. For example, once you internalise race theory you get the option to use more abusive language towards others.

In terms of gameplay utility, it's a question of tradeoffs and roleplaying a character, because you've committed to a concept. However, some thoughts are way better than others in almost all circumstances (Caustic Echo, Searchlight Divsion, Apricot-Scented One, Col Do Ma Qua Qua).

[Kameradoktorn]

Cool. I´ve also noticed that if I click on a though several times, the electricity that flows through the thoughs change paths. Does this do something or is it just cosmetic?

[Aria Athena]

A role playing example of a thought is Detective Costeau. If you get that, it's a crime not to internalize it.

[Du-Vu]

Skill point gain definitely increases a lot. It never costs more than 100 XP to gain a skill point, but later quests and checks hand out a lot of XP very quickly. Thoughts get better as the game proceeds, and they unlock dialogue, descriptive text, and even whole sidequests you might not get otherwise.

[Smauler]

Originally posted by Aria Athena:

https://discoelysium.gamepedia.com/Thought_Locker

There are 6 there tagged as "Currently bugged and not working". FFS, that's way too many.

[Professor Hobbton]

its not listed on there but finger pistols is also not working. does not provide suggestion bonus

[brooklyncontrivance]

Originally posted by Du-Vu:

Thoughts get better as the game proceeds, and they unlock dialogue, descriptive text, and even whole sidequests you might not get otherwise.

Can you provide any examples of that? I haven't seen it myself. What I've seen is the fundamental cop types supplying dialogue options regardless of whether you've unlocked them as thoughts or slotted those thoughts. Same for the political ones, and same for a number of the flavor options - Remote Viewer Division, Inexplicable Feminist, Detective Costeau, Guillaume Le Million, etc. Many of those being driven by your history of having passed or failed various (mostly passive) skill checks.

The only examples I know of where a thought actually impacts gameplay in an active way are:
- Having internalized Jamais Vu makes a skill check with Joyce possible/much easier
- Advanced Race Theory offers a means of dealing with Measurehead
- Advanced Race Theory can lead to unlocking an additional thought in conversation with Measurehead

Beyond that though I can't think of anything at all like what you're describing. I'd love to wrong about this though, so if you have examples to the contrary please share them.

[Sisyphus]

You always have preset options but they become more extreme as you develop your archetypes, and will pop up outside of the 4 political + 4 personality. For example, when speaking to Acele as a communist you will talk about "the golem of capital" let loose on the world, etc. etc. Fascists will become more misogynist or racist.

So yes, it definitely changes dialogue outside of those preset conversational options.

[Jackdaw Mask]

Hobocop gives you dialog that allows you to call yourself hobo.

But yeah, some of thought cabinet options are clearly mechanically traps or "you are really dumb to internalize this" like the remote viewer thing. It is worth it to fill all slots, but if you want to test out all of them and get the bad ones(coach physical instrument wasn't really good fit for my character on first playthrough :p), it can feel bit annoying to spend point to get rid of them.