Originally posted by Nukular Power:

My brief thoughts, most of which were posted in the general comments:

1) Neural heat and psyfocus used feel way too low for most of the spells

2) it's too easy to get XP

3) psycasting is too easy to get with this mod - it doesn't feel special/"royal". Much easier than getting a colony of Rimworld of Magic-ians, even. If options are possible, would love to see one to require neuroformers to unlock trees, or to unlock psycasting at all (like vanilla).

4) Higher tier psycasts should cost more level-up points to get - 2 points for a level 2 psycast, 3 points for tier 3, etc

5) It would be neat if maximum trees learnable were limited by psychic sensitivity - perhaps 1 tree for normal pawns, 3 for 1+ sensititivity, 5 for high, unlimited for highest. Or require a ritual to unlock new trees? This could also apply to maximum tier learnable

6) there are too many "free colonist" spells - that KO enemies for easy capture, one way or the other. Should have shorter durations and not be so spammy (going back to point 1)

Overall, love the mod, but it is quite overpowered, far more than Rimworld of Magic, even

I really like the idea of neuroformers being required to unlock individual trees. Tribals could still use the anima tree in their place.

the crop burst spell is capable of producing absurd amounts of wealth practically instantaneously when used by a high level caster. i'd drastically lower the radius, i think

also, the leap ability under the warlord tree instantly kills a pawn when it's used in a cave. this will happen on autocast as well, with no warning or explanation.

Reccomended improvement:
Either shrink the psycast interface down a touch, or render the pawn selection bar over the top. At present, it's tricky to compare psycasts and progress (need to select pawn, open interface, close interface, select new pawn, re-open interface, etc.). Being able to change the pawn selection without closing the interface would make those things much easier.

Originally posted by Nukular Power:

My brief thoughts, most of which were posted in the general comments:

1) Neural heat and psyfocus used feel way too low for most of the spells

2) it's too easy to get XP

3) psycasting is too easy to get with this mod - it doesn't feel special/"royal". Much easier than getting a colony of Rimworld of Magic-ians, even. If options are possible, would love to see one to require neuroformers to unlock trees, or to unlock psycasting at all (like vanilla).

4) Higher tier psycasts should cost more level-up points to get - 2 points for a level 2 psycast, 3 points for tier 3, etc

5) It would be neat if maximum trees learnable were limited by psychic sensitivity - perhaps 1 tree for normal pawns, 3 for 1+ sensititivity, 5 for high, unlimited for highest. Or require a ritual to unlock new trees? This could also apply to maximum tier learnable

6) there are too many "free colonist" spells - that KO enemies for easy capture, one way or the other. Should have shorter durations and not be so spammy (going back to point 1)

Overall, love the mod, but it is quite overpowered, far more than Rimworld of Magic, even

Couldn't agree more. Especially 1.) and 3.)

I see in your modding document that you have the possibility for a requiredMeme node.
Would you consider also adding the option for a requiredStructure node? And then perhaps add the Archist structure as an alternative default to the Archotechist path?

It was surprising that you chose to lock two of the most common level 1 vanilla psycasts to somewhat uncommon backgrounds.

I didn't see a suggestion thread yet, but this is somewhat related: Nodes for 'forbidden' and 'favoured' memes. So that f.ex. Light worshippers are forbidden from unlocking the Nightstalker path. And the favoured one is for pawn-generation so that factions that worship Darkness are more likely to raid you with a caster that have unlocked Nightstalker casts and Light worshippers will never raid you with Nightstalkers.

Also, where did Vertigo Pulse go?

Originally posted by Daeharde Trihardt:

Originally posted by Nukular Power:

My brief thoughts, most of which were posted in the general comments:

1) Neural heat and psyfocus used feel way too low for most of the spells

2) it's too easy to get XP

3) psycasting is too easy to get with this mod - it doesn't feel special/"royal". Much easier than getting a colony of Rimworld of Magic-ians, even. If options are possible, would love to see one to require neuroformers to unlock trees, or to unlock psycasting at all (like vanilla).

4) Higher tier psycasts should cost more level-up points to get - 2 points for a level 2 psycast, 3 points for tier 3, etc

5) It would be neat if maximum trees learnable were limited by psychic sensitivity - perhaps 1 tree for normal pawns, 3 for 1+ sensititivity, 5 for high, unlimited for highest. Or require a ritual to unlock new trees? This could also apply to maximum tier learnable

6) there are too many "free colonist" spells - that KO enemies for easy capture, one way or the other. Should have shorter durations and not be so spammy (going back to point 1)

Overall, love the mod, but it is quite overpowered, far more than Rimworld of Magic, even

Couldn't agree more. Especially 1.) and 3.)

I literally don't know what you mean: You need neuroformers to even become Psycasters. What are you guys talking about, you can't level up psycasts without having psylink, which is granted either by neuroformer or anima tree meditation.

Originally posted by Halley:

I see in your modding document that you have the possibility for a requiredMeme node.
Would you consider also adding the option for a requiredStructure node? And then perhaps add the Archist structure as an alternative default to the Archotechist path?

It was surprising that you chose to lock two of the most common level 1 vanilla psycasts to somewhat uncommon backgrounds.

I didn't see a suggestion thread yet, but this is somewhat related: Nodes for 'forbidden' and 'favoured' memes. So that f.ex. Light worshippers are forbidden from unlocking the Nightstalker path. And the favoured one is for pawn-generation so that factions that worship Darkness are more likely to raid you with a caster that have unlocked Nightstalker casts and Light worshippers will never raid you with Nightstalkers.

Also, where did Vertigo Pulse go?

Structures are memes with a different name, code wise.

Vertigo Pulse will make a stunning return soon. Literally.

Originally posted by Oskar Potocki:

Originally posted by Daeharde Trihardt:

Couldn't agree more. Especially 1.) and 3.)

I literally don't know what you mean: You need neuroformers to even become Psycasters. What are you guys talking about, you can't level up psycasts without having psylink, which is granted either by neuroformer or anima tree meditation.

I believe what Nukular was implying, (potentially poorly worded as it may be), is that it's too easy to splash into every psycast pool without additional investment outside of an additional psylink point, which is simply just a waiting game, rather than a quest/trade resource such as the neuroformer.

However, I could imagine separating psylink neuroformers from natural psionic progression would be a massive technical difficulty, which, doesn't fall under the scope of your parameters of mainly numerical changes. So I see no reason to pursue that avenue of discussion at this time.

Back onto the topic of numbers--

I still wholly agree that the psyfocus and heat costs on average, are too low. (In addition to my prior post pointing out some pretty amusing interactions in the Warlord tree)

I would definitely lean towards increasing heat, over psyfocus costs. Psyfocus cost increases could make caravaning quite tedious due to having to rest and restore psyfocus at a slow rate.

As for Nukular's point on XP gains, that's correctable via the options.
Though, perhaps change the default from 1.0 to 0.5 for new users?

Thank you for your hard work as always, Oskar.

Ok so, the new Time Skip Meditation. I think this is a good balance now, you get instant full psyfocus with the XP that comes with it and with 5 years and no psyfocus reduction, it's going to cost just about a full psyfocus bar to cycle back that cost with Age, with a 1 year reduction benefit. At low levels, it's a considerable investment to entirely dedicate a pawn to Time Skip Meditation since you basically have to spend all that colonist's time aging and deaging, which isn't as readily available on extreme biome maps when there's low or no animals. It's still good, but no longer feels like it's 100% better than regular meditation.

The only issue now is that I can't really imagine a scenario where I would want to use Time Skip Meditation. It's going to be important to roll back those years after gaining some since it will eventually kill the pawn and that can be done over a few days so you don't drain all of your psyfocus and then be left vulnerable in case of a raid. I feel that the coma component is still too much and that the only cost should be the extreme aging, which could perhaps be even higher than 5 to really emphasize that it's a powerful trade off. Then it sits happily as an "oh snap, I need psyfocus RIGHT NOW" button rather than some alternative to regular meditation. Plus, the idea of "skipping time to get immediate results" feel kind of awkward since you're still going to be out cold for 6 hours, so you might as well just meditate for 6 hours instead, especially once you're able to get a powerful meditation shrine built and have some leveled up stats for the psyfocus gain per day.

not really a balance thing but more QoL:
Psyfocus cost reduction isn't displayed in the upgrade stats hover box would be pretty cool to be able to see that instead of guessing how many upgrades youve done

I have been unable to target self with Word of Healing or Word of Immunity. Is this an intentional limitation, or am I missing something? Would it be possible to add targeting information to the tooltips?

EDIT

Checking the defs, I can clearly see the self target tags on some Protector casts and not others, which answers my question with a 'yes, intentional' . Added here for anyone else interested.

Originally posted by Oskar Potocki:

Originally posted by Daeharde Trihardt:

Couldn't agree more. Especially 1.) and 3.)

I literally don't know what you mean: You need neuroformers to even become Psycasters. What are you guys talking about, you can't level up psycasts without having psylink, which is granted either by neuroformer or anima tree meditation.

They're saying that instead of using psylink levels (that you gain from simple meditation) to unlock the individual psycast trees, neuroformers or anima ceremonies would be required to unlock the first tree (in which you become a psycaster), and also additional trees.

Right now, Neuroformers and anima tree ceremonies don't feel special anymore. They used to allow a psycaster to use a whole new range of abilities by unlocking the next level of psycasts. Now (after the first one) they just give a generic level you could also gain by meditating. I'd love it if there was at least an option to make unlocking additional trees require them ha.

Originally posted by Sprankles:

Originally posted by Oskar Potocki:

I literally don't know what you mean: You need neuroformers to even become Psycasters. What are you guys talking about, you can't level up psycasts without having psylink, which is granted either by neuroformer or anima tree meditation.

They're saying that instead of using psylink levels (that you gain from simple meditation) to unlock the individual psycast trees, neuroformers or anima ceremonies would be required to unlock the first tree (in which you become a psycaster), and also additional trees.

Right now, Neuroformers and anima tree ceremonies don't feel special anymore. They used to allow a psycaster to use a whole new range of abilities by unlocking the next level of psycasts. Now (after the first one) they just give a generic level you could also gain by meditating. I'd love it if there was at least an option to make unlocking additional trees require them ha.

I agree, psylink neuroformers and anima trees feel kind of pointless after getting the first psylink, especially since you can spend points to unlock new foci. You can't build around the anima tree due to the huge radius so you can't really combine it with a bunch of other foci and with multiple foci being usable at the same time now, tribes are pushed towards utilizing every foci except natural. Anima grass still has uses I feel since it can instantly gain a level or awaken a psylink in another pawn but with the tree being unable to support foci other than the group meditation one, I feel like you're better off just building a nice throne room with some art and fires to benefit from multiple foci.

Having neuroformers or anima links unlock the different trees would make them valuable and unique again, and it would also allow the player to unlock a tree and their first psycast at the same time. Having to spend your first point on a tree and getting no psycasts feels bad. Gaining royalty ranks would feel like a big achievement again. The psycast to liquefy another paycaster would be much more valuable as well. Most importantly imo, it would make one psycaster feel more unique when compared to another. You could still put points into upgrading stats even if you only have one tree unlocked or something, meaning you can still become stronger from continued meditation.

Originally posted by Sumatris:

I haven't yet had the opportunity to test it myself, but it feels to me that the Plant Timeskip being a level 1 psycast is severely OP even if the radius is just one square around the caster. There are many high-value plants that're balanced only by long growth times, and being able to instantly grow them to maturity for a moderate focus cost could be abused in any number of ways, from practically unlimited food to unlimited silver. Don't get me wrong, I really like the idea, but I think it should be way higher up in the skill tree, or at least far more taxing on the caster.

Agreed, Plant Timeskip is incredible. Each pawn can cast Plant Timeskip three times before exhausting their pool. At a 5x5 area, that makes it 25 plants per cast, with 75 total. Just taking from other Vanilla Expanded mods, since we can hardly expect Oscar to balance considering every other mod in existence, celery from Vanilla Plants Expanded - More Plants will yield 4425 celery, all for a single day of meditating.
I think it would be far more balanced to have it advance the growth by a set number of days (perhaps scaled by psychic sensitivity), so that quick-growing crops can still be produced instantly while not being (as) wildly imbalanced.

Originally posted by Thirsk:

Originally posted by Sumatris:

I haven't yet had the opportunity to test it myself, but it feels to me that the Plant Timeskip being a level 1 psycast is severely OP even if the radius is just one square around the caster. There are many high-value plants that're balanced only by long growth times, and being able to instantly grow them to maturity for a moderate focus cost could be abused in any number of ways, from practically unlimited food to unlimited silver. Don't get me wrong, I really like the idea, but I think it should be way higher up in the skill tree, or at least far more taxing on the caster.

Agreed, Plant Timeskip is incredible. Each pawn can cast Plant Timeskip three times before exhausting their pool. At a 5x5 area, that makes it 25 plants per cast, with 75 total. Just taking from other Vanilla Expanded mods, since we can hardly expect Oscar to balance considering every other mod in existence, celery from Vanilla Plants Expanded - More Plants will yield 4425 celery, all for a single day of meditating.
I think it would be far more balanced to have it advance the growth by a set number of days (perhaps scaled by psychic sensitivity), so that quick-growing crops can still be produced instantly while not being (as) wildly imbalanced.

Can you believe originally it was map-wide?