Psionics - Armour Penetration

[Strayed]

Loving this game so far

I'm enjoying Psionics now that Psi skills are working better and damage scales better; now my MC doesn't feel useless anymore

But...

Can someone explain to me how physical armour can deflect a "mind" attack?

It is somewhat bemusing to see a target that has, for instance -20 to Psychic resistance, and my MC has 10 psyche and has 100 Psionics (unbuffed) watching it's armour "reflect" my Psi attack and with no harm done. More so ridiculously funny when this also occurs for the crowd control skills Psy-Confuse, Psy-Terror and Psy-Stasis on the same target with the deficient Psychic Resistance (of course, Psi skills are useless on targets with strong Psychic resistance).

While I'm discussing Psi skills, I have a couple of other points/suggestions for the Devs to consider:

1) In dialogue, perhaps the option to use Psionics? Eg: A psionic dialogue option 'Dominate' would work similar to Intimidate, dialogue option 'Control' would work similar to Charm, dialogue option 'Manipulate' would work similar to Conviction... Sort of like Vampire the Masquerade if you take my context of mesmerising your audience. I note that there's "Telepathy" in the skill tree which "allows one to read another's thoughts", is this a combat skill or a dialogue skill? it would seem to me it could be both? I'll discuss this one later...

2) I can't fathom why you'd need to wear gloves for "mind attacks"; it would make more sense to wear a helmet or hat or something on your noggin, noting the Encased Lore talking about Psyche being your mind...

Perhaps if we're talking about the Force from Star Wars, I guess I can kind of see why for telekinesis purposes you'd need gloves as a channelling focus for lifting and moving things, but for the other skills it makes more sense that it'd be something you wear on your head since the electrodes touching your skin/body are closer to the brain/brain activity/psionic activity (see: Dr Xavier from X-Men)... targeting would simply be you'd look at your target and imagine them blowing up into tiny pieces, bursting into flames, telepathically sending them images of their worse nightmare (maybe this is being naked in front of a large group of people and they run off to hide their shame) or be "panicked" (stunned) because if they move the T-Rex will gobble them up Jurassic Park style...

3) Is it possible to rename the "basic" Psi attack, 'Psy-Shock' (as shock implies electrocution/stunning) into something like Psy-Blast or Psy-Shove?

4) Some suggestions for Psionic skills / attacks (noting Light weapons got a whole bunch of weapon specific skills) and Psionics doesn't seem to have a DoT?

Basic attack:
(instead of Psy-Shock) Psy-Blast
Description: Blast your target with a focused telekinetic shove. Using this ability increases fatigue.
Damage: as per weapon + 'Psionic Damage bonus' (PDb)
Action Point cost: AP2 (AP3 is a bit steep for simply lifting you hands to point at someone, considering you can shoot a Pistol at AP2 which involves lifting the pistol, taking a sight picture, squeezing the trigger and follow through on target)
Cooldown: 0

Special skill attacks:
(Instead of Psy-Stasis) Psy-Grip
Description: Focus your mind grappling your target with telekinetic force by holding and restraining them in place while squeezing the... er... juice... out of the target with your mind. The target is unable to perform any actions and takes Damage over Time. Using this ability increases fatigue.
Damage: DoT for duration, as per weapon + PDb
Action Point cost: AP3 (as above; AP4 is way too steep for a mind ability)
Cooldown: 3
Duration: basic 2 turn duration even if hit in combat however duration can last as long as not having being hit in combat (ie you're able to maintain concentration - eg, Darth Vader Force Choking someone remotely or Luke Skywalker lifting his X-Wing out of the swamp)

Psy-Terror
Description: Dominate the targets mind with their greatest fear. Using this ability increases fatigue.
Special Conditions: target will suffer 1 of the following three effects: 1) may either flee (run away from attacker), 2) become stunned and not perform any actions or 3) attack random enemies.
Damage: 0
AP: 3
Cooldown: 3
Duration: basic 3 turn duration, if target is not hit can last as long as 3 to 5 turns (edit: also their Psychic Resistance)

Psy-Confusion
Description: Cloud the targets mind with suggestions that everyone is out to get them. Quick! Get them before they get you! Using this ability increases fatigue.
Damage: 0
AP: 3
Cooldown: 3
Duration: basic 3 turn duration, if target is not hit can last as long as 3 to 5 turns (edit: also their Psychic Resistance)

Psy-Befuddlement
Description: Dominate the targets mind with rapid fire suggestions of inferiority or superiority. Using this ability increases fatigue.
Special Conditions: reduces Psychic Resistance by 'Psionic Damage' (stacks)
Damage: 0
AP: 3
Cooldown: 3
Duration: basic 3 turn duration, if target is not hit can last as long as 3 to 5 turns (edit: also their Psychic Resistance)

Not sure what "Telepathy" does at the present moment, however I propose it to be a dialogue and combat skill. Combat skill:
Telepathy
Description: Read your targets thoughts and go for your guns first! or dive to cover! hurry act now! Using this ability increases fatigue.
Special: AoE, increases Evasion by Psyche * 2 and Precision by Pysche * 2, to targets under the AoE (targets outside of AoE hit you as normal at normal evasion).
Damage; 0
AP: 3
Cooldown: 4

Mind-Blank/Sleep
Description: Blanket a number of targets with feelings of tiredness. Using this ability increases fatigue.
Special: AoE, if a target saves vs sleep (ie doesn't fall asleep) then Psychic resistance is reduced by Attackers Psyche * 2
Damage: 0
AP: 3
Cooldown: 4
Duration: base 3, if targets are not hit, duration can last as long as 3 to 5 turns (edit: also their Psychic Resistance)

psy-Control.. not sure, will give thoughts when it becomes available

Pscyhokinesis.. same as above, will give thoughts when it becomes available



Thanks for reading!
<3

(edited post: added (edit: also their Psychic Resistance) )

[xarfaks]

I am pretty sure the glove comes from "Full Metal Alchemist" anime....
So I guess it is a stilistical choice.

I agree with the whole armore deflection thing being nonsense.

On dialogs etc... I will hold off until those skills get implemented. Before judging.

Now I understand why this has to work like any other weapon for code simplicity etc.... But why is psionics and melee hand to hand mutually exclusive. I would seriously consider making psyonics usable as sort of a third weapon.
I know that the interface might lack the slots to accommodate so many skills. Still wearing a glove and not being able to punch someone feels wrong.

Also anyone who played further into the game. Right now even with 10 in the psychic attribute the damage for AP seems to fall off rapidly vs guns. Do we get better focus items later? For higher damage?
The higher lvl gloves seem not to boost damage but the ability number. But that has little impact on damage so the basic glove with higher base damage seems to be better than the more advanced gloves.

What is psychic fatigue? After using psychic attacks at somepoint a message pops up that your character is psychologically tired. But this is really not explained. How many attacks can I do before it kicks in? How to recover from this? What is the penalty?

I would suggest the devs consider moving away from damage dealing psyonic abilities towards more specialised ones like stuns debuffs and crowd control. As balancing damage around weapons and ammo seems a bit complicated.

[Strayed]

Originally posted by xarfaks:

Now I understand why this has to work like any other weapon for code simplicity etc.... But why is psionics and melee hand to hand mutually exclusive. I would seriously consider making psyonics usable as sort of a third weapon.
I know that the interface might lack the slots to accommodate so many skills. Still wearing a glove and not being able to punch someone feels wrong.

Yes, this struck me as odd as well

Originally posted by xarfaks:

Also anyone who played further into the game. Right now even with 10 in the psychic attribute the damage for AP seems to fall off rapidly vs guns. Do we get better focus items later? For higher damage?
The higher lvl gloves seem not to boost damage but the ability number. But that has little impact on damage so the basic glove with higher base date seems to be better than the more advanced gloves.

Precisely why I was saying the AP for just the basic Psi Attack is too "expensive" for what it is. I was going to suggest that the basic Psi attack cost 1 AP but I thought I won't suggest that due wanting to avoid causing a stir so early after the update heh ;P

Originally posted by xarfaks:

What is psychic fatigue? After using psychic attacks at somepoint a message pops up that your character is psychologically tired. But this is really not explained. How many attacks can I do before it kicks in? How to recover from this? What is the penalty?

I think I can answer this one; after seeing the "exhausted" floating text briefly pop up on the screen over your character, you'll see an icon next to your portrait in the top left corner of screen. You'll notice that your character is "Psi-Exhaustion".. I generally cast Psi attack twice in a row and I get 2 ticks of exhaustion, each tick it seems is about 5 seconds. Two ticks last for about 10 seconds and each second I get hit with -3 initiative, +25 fatigue, +10 hunger and +10 thirst.. I'm not too sure, but I think Resilience also plays into countering the "harder" effects of the exhaustion.. on my new run through I've taken guts 5 (6 if I keep the food buff running) and Psyche 10 and picked the Hard Boiled perk because cryolasers are cancer and I'm noticing since I picked Hard Boiled I'm not suffering as bad effects of Psi-exhaustion (except the -3 initiative, which honestly doesn't really make much difference as my character has initiative for days, except when I get hit by those eff'n cryolasers) as my other crappy Psionicist MC

To recover from the Psi-Exhaustion its just your basic character stats for Fatigue; fizzy drink and or coffee, Hunger.. food, Thirst.. water etc... the penalties though do show up after you keep draining yourself consistently and you don't address your characters statuses as the hungrier and thirstier you get the more your Attribute stats take a hit (but oddly you get more initiative the more you starve... how does that work o.o?)

Originally posted by xarfaks:

I would suggest the devs consider moving away from damage dealing psyonic abilities towards more specialised ones like stuns debuffs and crowd control. As balancing damage around weapons and ammo seems a bit complicated.

I tend to agree with this point. The basic attack could be a shove or stun attack dealing no damage but pushes target away and or stunning them for 2 rounds.. I still think a Force Choke / Force Grasp is a good one to have and would be a DoT... Darth Vader can do it so gosh darn it so should I! :) (my MC is basically Darth Vader......)