A quick suggestion on Psicorp

Tortanick · **Joined:** Sat May 26, 2007 8:05 pm **Posts:** 576

Currently it stands as this:

Code:

It is now possible to identify the nascent psionic abilities inherent in rare individuals at birth. But to truly cultivate their gifts, it would be necessary to create an academy dedicated to psionics. Graduates of this academy, would comprise a highly trained task-force of Psi elite that could be assigned to research projects as conduits and amplifiers for the greatest researchers of an empire.

I think it should have a small addition to create something along these lines

Code:

It is now possible to identify the nascent psionic abilities inherent in rare individuals at birth. But to truly cultivate their gifts, it would be necessary to create an academy dedicated to psionics. Graduates of this academy, would comprise a highly trained task-force of Psi elite that could be assigned to research projects as conduits and amplifiers for the greatest researchers of an empire. In addition a thorough course on ethics could protect untalented citizens from abuse and encourage social tensions to heal

Two reasons why I think that's a good change: firstly if you do have people with the power to make personality alterations and mind control you really need a strong ethics course, the potential for abuse, and the damage it would do is just too huge. And secondly it was one of the motives for creating the original psicorp.

Josh · **Posted:** Thu Jul 10, 2008 10:51 pm

I always thought PsiCorp would make a much better espionage organization. Saying it would be used for research is an incredible stretch. Perhaps it should be nixed or held off until v.07? (or the part of the road map that deals with espionage)
Additionally, I think the decision to add Psicorps in the first place was not very well planned out, possibly caused by a hasty decision under pressure to add buildings. It's not just Piscorps either, many buildings need to be reconsidered, maybe even revised, and the fact that nobody has disagreed with me (yet) strengthens those convictions.

With that said, I like your touch of flavor text, it's very nice

Are you also going to list the in game effect in the same paragraph?

Tortanick · **Joined:** Sat May 26, 2007 8:05 pm **Posts:** 576

Josh wrote:

I always thought PsiCorp would make a much better espionage organization. Saying it would be used for research is an incredible stretch.

I must have been sleepy when I wrote that, or I would seen that for myself, your right but espionage isn't the only real use for Psicorps, they could work in commerce with the connect of both parties to ensure no one's backstabbing. I'll probably propose a more general use later. Espionage is probably the only use ingame we'll see but the fluff description can be a bit wider than reality since I assume we'll have a separate list of effects either below it, or in the manual.

I'll post an updated version a bit later.

Josh wrote:

Perhaps it should be nixed or held off until v.07? (or the part of the road map that deals with espionage)

held off IMO but nothing stops us doing fluff work early

Josh wrote:

Additionally, I think the decision to add Psicorps in the first place was not very well planned out, possibly caused by a hasty decision under pressure to add buildings. It's not just Piscorps either, many buildings need to be reconsidered, maybe even revised, and the fact that nobody has disagreed with me (yet) strengthens those convictions.

Its not that there was a rush but that its a test, much like the current ship parts was just a list Geoff took from the top of his head so they could test ship design and combat.

Josh wrote:

With that said, I like your touch of flavor text, it's very nice

Thank you. I was "inspired" by the best.

Josh wrote:

Are you also going to list the in game effect in the same paragraph?

Nah, it wont read as good with a list of gameplay effects (besides we don't know them yet). I'd rather gameplay effects were next to that paragraph rather than in it.

Tortanick · **Joined:** Sat May 26, 2007 8:05 pm **Posts:** 576

Ok, here's an updated version where they're not used for research, comments welcome

Code:

With greater understanding of the latent psionic abilities in the population it is now possible to create an academy dedicated to nurturing and encouraging these gifts. Graduates of this academy would comprise a highly trained task-force of Psi elite that could serve the common good in a verity of roles including: commercial and diplomatic negotiations, warfare, criminal justice, psychiatric therapy and espionage. In addition a thorough course on ethics and regulatory oversight could protect ungifted citizens from abuse and encourage social tensions to heal.

For gameplay balance most of the above effects will probably be negligible, but I think they would occur in the background just not enough to be noticeable to the emperor. Commercial negotiations would rarely employ an expensive telepath, but when Microsoft tires to buy Yahoo, or something on that level then its worth the cost. Really only espionage and warfare are real examples, the last one was an idea I just had while writing this, basically instead of spending your psychic resource generated by the corps on espionage you could spend it to build ships with psychics on board, although I'm not sure what they'll do.

Josh · **Posted:** Sat Jul 12, 2008 2:04 am

That's excellent IMHO. I like the suggestion of the Psi Corps being multi-faceted.

I'm no English major, but here are my two cents for the last part:

Tortanick wrote:

In addition thorough course on ethics and regulatory oversight could protect ungifted citizens from abuse and encourage social tensions to heal.

Green is a suggestion,
Red is a correction

Josh wrote:

In addition, thorough courses on ethics and regulatory oversight could protect innocent civilians from abuse and [reduce social tensions].

Tortanick · **Joined:** Sat May 26, 2007 8:05 pm **Posts:** 576

edited. Thanks for the advice. It was supposed to be course, singular, so I changed it to "a thorough course". Also I prefer encourage social tensions to heal, but if others agree with you I will change it.

Bigjoe5 · **Posted:** Tue Jul 15, 2008 12:04 am

I think "reduce social tensions" would probably be better if its referring specifically to social tensions caused by having a bunch of psychic supermen around, which makes more sense to me.

Tortanick · **Joined:** Sat May 26, 2007 8:05 pm **Posts:** 576

Looks like I'm outvoted. I gracefully accept defeat

Code:

With greater understanding of the latent psionic abilities in the population it is now possible to create an academy dedicated to nurturing and encouraging these gifts. Graduates of this academy would comprise a highly trained task-force of Psi elite that could serve the common good in a variety of roles including: commercial and diplomatic negotiations, warfare, criminal justice, psychiatric therapy and espionage. In addition a thorough course on ethics and regulatory oversight could protect ungifted citizens from abuse and reduce social tensions.

Josh · **Posted:** Wed Jul 16, 2008 7:58 pm

"Variety" is misspelled.

Tortanick · **Joined:** Sat May 26, 2007 8:05 pm **Posts:** 576

Fixed, That the only one? I always have problems with spelling and grammar.

Bigjoe5 · **Posted:** Sat Nov 28, 2009 8:03 pm

I've used a slightly modified version of this description for the latest revision of the tech tree, found here. It reads as follows:

Code:

With a greater understanding of the latent psionic abilities present in the population at large, it is possible to create an academy dedicated to nurturing, developing and understanding these gifts. Graduates of this academy would comprise a highly trained task-force of Psi elite that could serve the common good in a variety of roles including, but not limited to commercial and diplomatic negotiations, warfare, criminal justice, psychiatric therapy and espionage. In addition, a thorough course on ethics and regulatory oversight would be able to protect ungifted citizens from abuse and reduce social tensions.

Geoff the Medio · **Posted:** Sat Nov 28, 2009 11:35 pm

Bigjoe5 wrote:

Graduates of this academy would comprise a highly trained task-force...

The whole comprsies the parts, not the other way around.

Quote:

including, but not limited to

Content descriptions shouldn't (generally) read like legalese.

Bigjoe5 · **Posted:** Sun Nov 29, 2009 1:30 am

Geoff the Medio wrote:

Bigjoe5 wrote:

Graduates of this academy would comprise a highly trained task-force...

The whole comprsies the parts, not the other way around.

I believe both have come into common usage. However, I will adjust that part of the description (probably very few of the current descriptions are in their final form anyway).

Quote:

Content descriptions shouldn't (generally) read like legalese.

Point taken.

Code:

With a greater understanding of the latent psionic abilities present in the population at large, it is possible to create an academy dedicated to nurturing, developing and understanding these gifts. Graduates of this academy would become members of a highly trained task-force of Psi elite that could serve the common good in a variety of roles including commercial and diplomatic negotiations, warfare, criminal justice, psychiatric therapy and espionage. In addition, a thorough course on ethics and regulatory oversight would be able to protect ungifted citizens from abuse and reduce social tensions.

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A quick suggestion on Psicorp

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