other psionic powers

[Daiky]

I wonder if there would be room in x-com (later stage) for other -well known- psionic powers:

- psionic healing: increase morale level of a friendly target, slightly increase health and chance on healing a fatal wound
- psionic intuition: can reveal enemy location(s)
- psionic translocation: teleport to any location on the map

I know they could be very powerful and unbalance the game a lot, but I was just brainstorming :p I'm always thinking of suggestions that hardly cost anything in terms of development, and nothing in terms of adding graphics

[michal]

- telekinesis - grab items from distant
- psionic shield - creates small shield around soldier for couple of turns
- astral projection - use astral body for reconnaissance
- precognition - after using, for couple of turns, it will show whether you will hit and kill enemy during firing

Maybe for balancing, there could be only one such extra power per soldier? You could choose after researching "Advanced PSI powers" .

Another balancing thing, could be cooldown - everytime you use psi power, you need to wait couple of turns (depends on power) for next use.

[Daiky]

you could use the energy bar for that, once you do such an advanced psi move, it uses all your energy and you need to wait until you are back at full energy

[hellblade]

great idea.  I want to contribute as well

Telekinesis - yes, reverse the throwing animation to empty hands
Psionic healing - yes, makes sense
Psionic intuition - YES and give it to Celatids !!!
Precognition - takes all time units, make the 1st shot at the psyker miss when it should have hit (like Next where Nicolas Cage moves out of harms way beforehand)

Psionic shield - way too powerful, and you need to draw new graphics
Astral projection - this isn't psionic at all, more superstitious and related to souls and ghosts
translocation - way too powerful, and you need to draw new graphics, and it's not really psionic, maybe levitation instead?

And balancing?  As daiky says, it uses energy and time units.   And like magic users, they CANNOT wear armour to hinder their abilities.
Explains why Ethereals wear cloth and sectoids are bare naked (because sectoids are weaker psykers)

[winterheart]

Ha! Pyrokinesis!

[Yankes]

 i would  prefer simple PSI powers, not some magic system

i prefer something like that:

mind blast - inflict big amount of pain to target
force grip () - deal dmg to target
blind - blind
telekinetic - allow remotely detonate bombs

and good idea is to use energy bar to limit usage of PSI powers.

[luke83]

*****Resurrection spell activated*****

Hey can us modders get some more PSI skills?

PSI Ball- A targeted attack ( like a PSI BULLET ) - maybe with secondary effects ( for FOXC mod later, Burn, Poison, Weakness Etc)
PSI Blast - A PSI explosion that  moves out in or directions from unit ( looks  similar to a explosion if you hold the grenade to long)

[moriarty]

I like all of these ideas. I think the proposed ideas can be grouped in one of three categories:

mind-to-mind:
"Panic" (-->vanilla)
"Mind Control" (-->vanilla)
"Mind Blast" (deals Damage, and/or perhaps Stun Damage)
"Blind" (decreases vision? reduces accuracy?)
"Fortify" (increases morale)
"Psionic Intuition" (reveals enemy locations)

mind-to-matter
"PSI Ball"
"PSI Blast"
"Force Grip"
"Telekinetic"
"Telekinesis"
"Psionic Shield"

supernatural / spirit-stuff / don't know-what-to-call-it
"Translocation"
"Astral Projection"
"Psionic Healing"
"Pyrokinesis"


I think the "nature" of psionics as used in vanilla X-Com is mind-to-mind-effects. I don't really feel that any of the others fit with the general context. I still like them, though, and I think that (for other conversions and mods) the mechanics for these should be implemented.

Maybe the hardcoded "weapons" of the terror units could also be included in a system like this? most of them are more like "abilities" anyway, aren't they? they cannot be unequipped; they have unlimited ammo; they are only available to certain units (the reaper's bite attack, for example).

perhaps it would make sense to implement a true "ability" system that can be used for this? the units could simply have an "abilities" field, and somewhere in the ruleset those are defined, with cost, effect, damage (where applicable), range (where applicable) and the like.

(with this, some aliens could finally become what they were supposed to be: take the celatid, for example. it is supposed to move towards hidden humans by detecting their brain waves. also, it is said to be able to clone itself: perhaps it would be possible for them to have an ability "mitosis", which allows the creation of a second celatid - replacing the original celatid with two that each have half the previous health, combined with a slow "regeneration" ability...)

once we have a system like that, possibilities could become endless...

[kharille]

Stun damage, but none of the force lightning stuff or boulder hurling stuff.  Or maybe do a 'bend forks' ability on the alien weapons....

[luke83]

Or maybe do a 'bend forks' ability on the alien weapons....

Using a ability to disarm a enemy and throw there weapon in random direction would be pretty cool

[moriarty]

Using a ability to disarm a enemy and throw there weapon in random direction would be pretty cool

hmmm... what about this:

"Spasm": if successful, affected alien will suffer from random muscular spasms in the upper extremities, causing one or more of the following actions: drop weapon / fire weapon in random direction / throw weapon or object in random direction / nothing at all

[Warboy1982]

supernatural / spirit-stuff / don't know-what-to-call-it
"Translocation"
"Astral Projection"
"Psionic Healing"
"Pyrokinesis"

molecular transmission:

this briefly moves the user into a pocket dimension which then allows them to move to any location instantly. However, the user cannot travel to an area they have never been to unless they can detect someone familiar to them to use as a homing beacon.

suggestion/greater suggestion:

this technique gives the target/group of targets the distinct impression that there is definitely something much more interesting/dangerous at the desired location, causing them to react accordingly.

cellular reconstruction/deconstruction.

with a tremendous degree of concentration, a psionic wielder may be able to use his telekinetic powers at the cellular level, allowing them to form scar tissue in skin to stop bleeding, or knit broken bones. conversely, he can also de-stabilize tissue, causing severe internal hemorrhaging.

pyrokinesis.

further focusing one's telekinetic powers to the molecular level can cause particles to vibrate rapidly, similar to how a microwave oven works, though not limited to water particles, this affects ALL matter. in a sufficiently oxygen rich environment, for example, earth's atmosphere, this rapid heating will cause the targetted object to burst into flames.

[kharille]

Hm...  how about something more empowering from the alien's perspective?  As it is....  psionics tends to take away the challenge.  Good ideas of course but it doesn't help the aliens that much with all these force powers....

Maybe if the aliens could project themselves into a 'new alien' piece that distracts, immune to psionics but can fool the humans...  one that seems to take 3 Heavy plasma blasts before the players figure something is wrong and its not going down....

[Warboy1982]

that's essentially what greater suggestion was getting at. from a player's perspective the aliens would always be using greater, as it would effectively be duping all of your units, because it is in fact you, the player that is being fooled.

[kharille]

Hm..  this might be hard, but year, a wall could have soldiers taking massively long detours...  and think of the fun of aliens failing to shoot because of a 'wall' created between them and soldiers....  Hard to implement but doesn't wreck the difficulty too much....