Psychogenic Domination

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vossnick
Space Krill
Posts: 7
Joined: Wed Jan 29, 2014 12:26 am

Psychogenic Domination

#1 Post by vossnick »

I think the deal where you can take control of enemy ships just by being close is WAY OP. If it need be left in, I think there should be counter measures other than researching the same tech. I like the boarding parties from Orion 1, not that I ever used them, but I could defend against it. Just my two cents. Well, maybe one cent.

vossnick
Space Krill
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Joined: Wed Jan 29, 2014 12:26 am

Re: Psychogenic Domination

#2 Post by vossnick »

BTW: I am running v0.4.3

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MatGB
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Re: Psychogenic Domination

#3 Post by MatGB »

I agree. As indeed do several others, various replacements/changes have been discussed, I hate it, I hate losing ships to it and I hate gaining AI hulls that should've been scrapped 50 turns ago at random times. Having a part, or completely rethinking the tech and what it does,, have been discussed, there are several threads on the subject.

Question for more experienced scripters, is there a way to reassign control of a planet in a script? Because if so combining translinguistics and psychodom as an alternate invasion system that gets better with tech in some way, with a part that could steal ships, strikes me as a better use for the idea.
Mat Bowles

Any code or patches in anything posted here is released under the CC and GPL licences in use for the FO project.

vossnick
Space Krill
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Re: Psychogenic Domination

#4 Post by vossnick »

Or if there would just be an option to disable that part of the tech tree, that would be nice.

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MatGB
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Re: Psychogenic Domination

#5 Post by MatGB »

You can do that manually if you want, go into the 'default' folder of the game install directory, find the techs.txt and comment out the effects, there are basic instructions for doing that on the Wiki. I've done that several times myself as the tech just annoys me, I particularlly loath it when I've simply forgotten to go down that line and a middling AI has it and I have to leave them alone for multiple turns while I catch up just so they don't steal too many of my far superior ships.

Of course, my fault as the RP I'd spent on guns and hulls could've gone down the research line, but as most of those techs give research boosts, well, I think it balanced.

Techs.txt, you need to use find (ctrl+f on windows) to find the entry LRN_PSY_DOM, perhaps the easiest way to stop it working is change the trigger effect, there's a section that looks like this:

Code: Select all

        EffectsGroup
            scope = And [
                Ship
                WithinStarlaneJumps 1 And [
                    Planet
                    OwnedBy TheEmpire Source.Owner
                    TargetPopulation low = 1
                ] 
that last bit says it'll trigger if you're in range of an enemy planet with population of 1 or more. Change that to, say, 100, and it'll basically never trigger. There are more elegent ways, but this is simple enough for an after midnight forum post ;-)
Mat Bowles

Any code or patches in anything posted here is released under the CC and GPL licences in use for the FO project.

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Ta'Lon
Space Squid
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Joined: Sat Feb 01, 2014 5:03 pm

Re: Psychogenic Domination

#6 Post by Ta'Lon »

I have to say, when this happened in one of my last games (I'm new to the game), it came as a complete shock to me when the foe I was in the middle of steamrollering suddenly started taking over some of my ships. It decimated several of my attacking stacks, and I was forced to retreat backwards two systems so I'd be out of range of the psychic attacks, while I spent the next 12 or so turns frantically rebuilding while the tech guys were researching the 'relevant/counter' tech.

This has never happened to me before in a 4x space game...

So yes was a very unpleasant surprise, but KUDOS to the game designers for throwing that wrench in my plans! I wouldn't mind seeing this tech branch fleshed out a bit more, and perhaps (as discussed in other threads) having some species (exobots for example) being immune. As suggested by someone else, having the exobots, etc. being vulnerable to computer viruses instead would be a nice counterbalance. It's nice to have more things to worry about than physical attack, defense, and shield strengths...
Conquering the galaxy, one planet at a time...

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Dilvish
AI Lead and Programmer Emeritus
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Joined: Sat Sep 22, 2012 6:25 pm

Re: Psychogenic Domination

#7 Post by Dilvish »

MatGB wrote:find the techs.txt and comment out the effects
If that's all you do then the AI will waste a significant chunk of RP getting a worthless tech; if you want to get rid of it then comment out the entire tech (probably best to also do that for Transcendence then too), or at least adjust the cost to be 1RP.
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MatGB
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Re: Psychogenic Domination

#8 Post by MatGB »

True, I remember once going through and making all my shipbuilding species telepathic just because I was really annoyed by it. I love the idea of the tech, hate it's current all/nothing implementation and want to do something about it at some point, but it's such a late-game thing that I normally workaround it's not a priority.

I think having some sort of chance, based on either a building or a ship part, that's modified by various factors including tech level, if it's to be tehre then being telepathic or having the tech shouldn't negate it completely, but make it far less likely, but it should just trigger because you're at or near a system.

Need to do more brainstorming on it though.
Mat Bowles

Any code or patches in anything posted here is released under the CC and GPL licences in use for the FO project.

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em3
Vacuum Dragon
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Re: Psychogenic Domination

#9 Post by em3 »

MatGB wrote:I think having some sort of chance, based on either a building or a ship part, that's modified by various factors including tech level, if it's to be tehre then being telepathic or having the tech shouldn't negate it completely, but make it far less likely, but it should just trigger because you're at or near a system.
How about small chance that accumulates as long as the ship is within range?
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