Nerfed Alien PSI setting and Laser/Plasma autocannon modifification

[Taberone]

Nerfed Alien PSI setting
With "Nerfed Alien PSI", alien Psionics work the same way as the player. That means no more ignoring line of sight and psi spamming the Commander all the way in the back of the skyranger they can't even see. No more auto-targeting the psi weaklings that their friends can't see. Aliens can only psi spam at those their friends can see.

On the downside, it makes determining who is PSI-Weak harder, as the aliens actually play by the rules when it comes to Psionics.


Laser/Plasma Autocannon modification
Because I really love the Auto Cannon. I wish there was a laser/plasma version of it.

[Solarius Scorch]

Nerfed Alien PSI setting
With "Nerfed Alien PSI", alien Psionics work the same way as the player. That means no more ignoring line of sight and psi spamming the Commander all the way in the back of the skyranger they can't even see. No more auto-targeting the psi weaklings that their friends can't see. Aliens can only psi spam at those their friends can see.

On the downside, it makes determining who is PSI-Weak harder, as the aliens actually play by the rules when it comes to Psionics.

............
Wait...
Like...
Doesn't it already work like this? O_o

Laser/Plasma Autocannon modification
Because I really love the Auto Cannon. I wish there was a laser/plasma version of it.

Doh, make it. I made a [urlhttps://www.openxcom.com/mod/minigun]laser minigun[/url], for example (named Scatter Laser).

[the_third_curry]

Nerfed Alien PSI setting
With "Nerfed Alien PSI", alien Psionics work the same way as the player. That means no more ignoring line of sight and psi spamming the Commander all the way in the back of the skyranger they can't even see. No more auto-targeting the psi weaklings that their friends can't see. Aliens can only psi spam at those their friends can see.

On the downside, it makes determining who is PSI-Weak harder, as the aliens actually play by the rules when it comes to Psionics.


Laser/Plasma Autocannon modification
Because I really love the Auto Cannon. I wish there was a laser/plasma version of it.

For the first one, use UFOextender Psionic Line of Sight (though this will affect your soldiers as well.) It should come prepacked with OpenXcom 1.0 in the mod section. There have been reported problems with the AI with this setting, namely that it causes the aliens to almost never use psionics at all. There is also an option to reveal soldiers' psionic strength immediately after the psionic researches are done in the Advanced options menu.

[Solarius Scorch]

Yeah, of course what I meant was that it already existed in the form of that mod. Sure, as Curry-kun mentioned, it has its issues, but I still use it.

[pkrcel]

Hi there everybody.

I hijack the thread for a question about PSI: it seems to me that Aliens *cannot* PSI attack any of your troops that they haven't *at least* seen in the current turn (or more depending on Alien intelligence and difficyulty level), much like you in the game are forced to only PSI attack aliens you can currently see.

I always use a PSI strong rear commander and as long as I am sure he never gets outside the craft he hasn't been PSI attacked once.

I haven't played all that much, but can anyone confirm that PSI works this way? Sorry if the quesiton is dumb but I know that OpenXCOM AI does not strictly follow the original (of course!)

Thanks for any reply and sorry for the partial OT.

[Solarius Scorch]

Hi there everybody.

I hijack the thread for a question about PSI: it seems to me that Aliens *cannot* PSI attack any of your troops that they haven't *at least* seen in the current turn (or more depending on Alien intelligence and difficyulty level), much like you in the game are forced to only PSI attack aliens you can currently see.

I always use a PSI strong rear commander and as long as I am sure he never gets outside the craft he hasn't been PSI attacked once.

I haven't played all that much, but can anyone confirm that PSI works this way? Sorry if the quesiton is dumb but I know that OpenXCOM AI does not strictly follow the original (of course!)

Thanks for any reply and sorry for the partial OT.

I don't really know, but I doubt it works like this. Once spotted, your troops seem to be attackable until the battle ends, regardless of aliens' intelligence.

The reason your commander wasn't attacked was because aliens know psi strength of your soldiers, and attack the weak ones first.

[Taberone]

For the first one, use UFOextender Psionic Line of Sight (though this will affect your soldiers as well.) It should come prepacked with OpenXcom 1.0 in the mod section. There have been reported problems with the AI with this setting, namely that it causes the aliens to almost never use psionics at all. There is also an option to reveal soldiers' psionic strength immediately after the psionic researches are done in the Advanced options menu.

There should be a way to have it only affect aliens.

[pkrcel]

I don't really know, but I doubt it works like this. Once spotted, your troops seem to be attackable until the battle ends, regardless of aliens' intelligence.

The reason your commander wasn't attacked was because aliens know psi strength of your soldiers, and attack the weak ones first.

Bummer, this means that once spotted there is NO WAY to shield yourself from psionics?

Would it be possible to prepack a mod similar to the Xcomutil line of sight, only with "spotter" behaviour? Would it need to touch the code or could a mod possibly make it?

[BlackLibrary]

Psionics...its whats for dinner.

Why water it down so much?  Sectoids are push overs until Psionics kicks in midgame.  Thats what seperates the paper tigers and sheep from the real wolves on your team.

Once your spotted, the aliens have the same abilities you do...they just don't need a Psiamp to do it.  Reasonable exchange for having human supertroopers who can out fight a muton, and pull out a psiamp and cripple an ethereal in late game.  Reasonable exchange.

Line of sight is alright...but it really weakens only one alien race...the Sectoids.

[pkrcel]

> Once your spotted, the aliens have the same abilities you do

Seems not, that's why I was asking for a way to have PSI behave the same for humans and aliens (which would NOT need a PSI amp anycase).

It's not for the diffculty factor, it's only that I find it *really* unbalanced....and from a tactical point of view it's no fun playing not having an *actual*  countermeasure...other than storming in wiping the entire Ethereal battleship as quickly as possible.

Using line of sight on PSI makes the Sectoids close to a non psi race (and thus really really a pushover), while Ethereals are greatly nerfed even if not completely.

I'd like to have it balanced in a gameplay sense, not on a difficulty standpoint.

Is PSI hardcoded or can be tweaked by rulesets?

[LeBashar]

For me the only way to make psi power "realist" should be to give a range, independant of line of sight, so for exemple 20 square radius. And alien, or human with psi amp, can only psi-strike something within this range. So even if another soldier have spoted something, if it is too far, psi attack can't be possible.

But, in this range, any aliens (or human) should be spoted, even if it is hide and not visible with eyes. This is in my mind how should work something like mental power.

[redv]

Is PSI hardcoded or can be tweaked by rulesets?

PSI actions and alien behavior is hardcoded.