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Author Topic:   PSI Armor PSI Weapon *SIGH*

Knight_Errant posted 04-24-99 04:36 AM ET
PSI shielding and PSI Weapon
I am not entirely clear on how these items work in the game. Can anyone explain it more clearly than the datalinks?
Al Gore Rythm posted 04-24-99 10:49 AM ET
Psi Weapon turns the units attack into Psi. So, in other words, it will attack all units in Psi combat.
Psi Armor will cause all units that attack you to engage in Psi Combat.
Schoop posted 04-24-99 11:00 AM ET
PSI weapon is especially nice if you have a high Planet and/or the Dream Twister.
PSI defense is great if you are facing superior weaponry or have the Neural Amp.
Ghost posted 04-24-99 03:22 PM ET
Here's the deal. You can put a Psi attack into your weapon slot. This will substitute for your normal weapon, and cause you to obey the rules for psychic combat in any encounter you are in, i.e. victory determined by morale comparison, with the victor having a 3/2 advantage in ground combat. It entirely replaces the normal combat system, so there is little point in having a unit with psi attacks have heavy armour (am not sure about barrages).
OR you can put the special abilities Empath song (+50% psi attack) and/or Hypnotic Trance (+50% psi defense) on a unit. These abilities are incompatible with the Psi weapon choice. They do exactly what it seems like they would do; the former increases the damage inflicted by your side's psi attacks by 50%, while the latter decreases the damage you take by 50%. Units with Hypnotic Trance and Empath song can (should) carry normal weapons as well, to allow them to fight against normal troops and use the standard combat system. Thus, you can have a singularity statis gravship with song and trance (although it will be quite expensive), or a psi gravship (sometimes called a Locust of Chiron).
One of the nice things about Hypnotic Trance is that it's cost is determined by Attack / Defense, while empathy is cost 2 (i think... maybe its one). Therefore, you can make a 1/ best (t) /1 defense trooper (the t by armour stands for trance) for the same cost as a 1/best/1 troop, and troops with two values at 1 are quite cheap... thus you can have an alright defensive trooper who is very capable against worm attacks.
--Ghost
Plato90s posted 04-24-99 05:36 PM ET
A Psi attack unit still needs armor. When it's on defense, combat will take place with normal system, not the Psi system.
Knight_Errant posted 04-26-99 05:46 PM ET
So to see if I have this right.
It would be somewhat silly to build a psi armor psi weapon hovertank as that is just an expensive worm. However, I could have a singularity hovertank with psi armor and anyone attacking me would have to do psi combat instead of shoot at me with their guns?
Or I could have a psi weapon mounted on a hovertank with neutronium armor and go after non psi units with poor morale, the armor protecting me from attacks I do not initialize.
Is this close?
Plato90s posted 04-26-99 08:21 PM ET
Knight_Errant, you are correct in your conclusion of the Psi combat model. But a PSI unit can be very useful
Unlike a worm, a Psi hovertank can attack multiple times.
Also, a Psi-Tank can be equipped with Singularity Engine for greater power, whereas it's impossible to improve the basic design of mindworms.
There are also 2 Special Projects which benefit Psi combat, along with your Planet rating. Consider this - the best weapon has a 2:1 advantage against the best armor [Sing. Laser vs Stasis Field = 24 vx 12]. That's the same ratio Psi combat gives. But you can take a 50% bonus in Psi Combat by having the Neural Amplifier, so that reduces your vulnerability. In elite vs elite Psi combat, it's 2 vs. 1.5, which is only a 4:3 advantage. When attacking, you can have a +4 planet rating by using Green/Cybernetic. After adding in Dream Twister, you can get a 50% bonus plus 40% from Planet rating.
Finally, in the end game, it's cheaper to build PSI units than conventional units.
K posted 04-26-99 08:46 PM ET
The real beenfit of using Psi is that while Morale boosts for worms are quit hard to get(Bio lab, Pholus Mutagen, etc), your standard Command Center + Bioenhancement Center or Morale bonus social choice cab crank out Elite units quit easily. Hell, with the Spartans on Power and no minus morale with the Command Nexus and cyborg Factory SPs, and all of my units are Elite.
And don't forget that non-worm units can have special abilities added.
Of course, worms are nice because the Isle of the Deep are combo water attack/transport units(Only two units, but hell, it can be tasty) and the Locusts of chiron are the only air unit that can enter and take a base without units.
Urban Ranger posted 04-27-99 03:57 AM ET
The number of units an Isle of the Deep can carry depends on its life cycle. Therefore a demon boil Isle of the Deep makes for a huge attack carrier, which would be very nice if you put a bunch of marines on it.
sandworm posted 04-27-99 10:18 AM ET
I don't think singularity helps in psi combat - all reactor types are supposed to be reduced to 10 for psi combat, but a singularity actually ends up reduced to 7.5/10 (during game design it was reduced in power from 40 to 30 to balance combat, but is still divided by 4 in -psi- combat -> 30/4=7.5)
This all may be different with psi "weapons", if that's true then singularity psi tanks would have hp=30 to any native psi units maximum of 10, which would be a massive advantage. Sounds a little too good to be true though.
If psi units don't get the extra h.p. for the larger reactor, you can probably build them even more cheaply by downgrading the reactor type to fission(or do better reactors -reduce- cost?).
Plato90s posted 04-27-99 12:48 PM ET
Against native lifeforms, all units have only a base of 10 power points. However, if you build a Singularity Engine unit armed with PSI weapons and attack another faction, you are given your full 30 power points.
If you attack a Mindworm with a PSI Singularity Tank, you have attack of 2 PSI and 10 power.
If you attack an enemy unit with the same PSI Singularity Tank, you have attack of 2 PSI and 30 power.
Urban Ranger posted 05-02-99 01:48 AM ET
Shouldn't it be Psi 3?
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Author	Topic: PSI Armor PSI Weapon SIGH
Knight_Errant	posted 04-24-99 04:36 AM ET PSI shielding and PSI Weapon I am not entirely clear on how these items work in the game. Can anyone explain it more clearly than the datalinks?
Al Gore Rythm	posted 04-24-99 10:49 AM ET Psi Weapon turns the units attack into Psi. So, in other words, it will attack all units in Psi combat. Psi Armor will cause all units that attack you to engage in Psi Combat.
Schoop	posted 04-24-99 11:00 AM ET PSI weapon is especially nice if you have a high Planet and/or the Dream Twister. PSI defense is great if you are facing superior weaponry or have the Neural Amp.
Ghost	posted 04-24-99 03:22 PM ET Here's the deal. You can put a Psi attack into your weapon slot. This will substitute for your normal weapon, and cause you to obey the rules for psychic combat in any encounter you are in, i.e. victory determined by morale comparison, with the victor having a 3/2 advantage in ground combat. It entirely replaces the normal combat system, so there is little point in having a unit with psi attacks have heavy armour (am not sure about barrages). OR you can put the special abilities Empath song (+50% psi attack) and/or Hypnotic Trance (+50% psi defense) on a unit. These abilities are incompatible with the Psi weapon choice. They do exactly what it seems like they would do; the former increases the damage inflicted by your side's psi attacks by 50%, while the latter decreases the damage you take by 50%. Units with Hypnotic Trance and Empath song can (should) carry normal weapons as well, to allow them to fight against normal troops and use the standard combat system. Thus, you can have a singularity statis gravship with song and trance (although it will be quite expensive), or a psi gravship (sometimes called a Locust of Chiron). One of the nice things about Hypnotic Trance is that it's cost is determined by Attack / Defense, while empathy is cost 2 (i think... maybe its one). Therefore, you can make a 1/ best (t) /1 defense trooper (the t by armour stands for trance) for the same cost as a 1/best/1 troop, and troops with two values at 1 are quite cheap... thus you can have an alright defensive trooper who is very capable against worm attacks. --Ghost
Plato90s	posted 04-24-99 05:36 PM ET A Psi attack unit still needs armor. When it's on defense, combat will take place with normal system, not the Psi system.
Knight_Errant	posted 04-26-99 05:46 PM ET So to see if I have this right. It would be somewhat silly to build a psi armor psi weapon hovertank as that is just an expensive worm. However, I could have a singularity hovertank with psi armor and anyone attacking me would have to do psi combat instead of shoot at me with their guns? Or I could have a psi weapon mounted on a hovertank with neutronium armor and go after non psi units with poor morale, the armor protecting me from attacks I do not initialize. Is this close?
Plato90s	posted 04-26-99 08:21 PM ET Knight_Errant, you are correct in your conclusion of the Psi combat model. But a PSI unit can be very useful Unlike a worm, a Psi hovertank can attack multiple times. Also, a Psi-Tank can be equipped with Singularity Engine for greater power, whereas it's impossible to improve the basic design of mindworms. There are also 2 Special Projects which benefit Psi combat, along with your Planet rating. Consider this - the best weapon has a 2:1 advantage against the best armor [Sing. Laser vs Stasis Field = 24 vx 12]. That's the same ratio Psi combat gives. But you can take a 50% bonus in Psi Combat by having the Neural Amplifier, so that reduces your vulnerability. In elite vs elite Psi combat, it's 2 vs. 1.5, which is only a 4:3 advantage. When attacking, you can have a +4 planet rating by using Green/Cybernetic. After adding in Dream Twister, you can get a 50% bonus plus 40% from Planet rating. Finally, in the end game, it's cheaper to build PSI units than conventional units.
K	posted 04-26-99 08:46 PM ET The real beenfit of using Psi is that while Morale boosts for worms are quit hard to get(Bio lab, Pholus Mutagen, etc), your standard Command Center + Bioenhancement Center or Morale bonus social choice cab crank out Elite units quit easily. Hell, with the Spartans on Power and no minus morale with the Command Nexus and cyborg Factory SPs, and all of my units are Elite. And don't forget that non-worm units can have special abilities added. Of course, worms are nice because the Isle of the Deep are combo water attack/transport units(Only two units, but hell, it can be tasty) and the Locusts of chiron are the only air unit that can enter and take a base without units.
Urban Ranger	posted 04-27-99 03:57 AM ET The number of units an Isle of the Deep can carry depends on its life cycle. Therefore a demon boil Isle of the Deep makes for a huge attack carrier, which would be very nice if you put a bunch of marines on it.
sandworm	posted 04-27-99 10:18 AM ET I don't think singularity helps in psi combat - all reactor types are supposed to be reduced to 10 for psi combat, but a singularity actually ends up reduced to 7.5/10 (during game design it was reduced in power from 40 to 30 to balance combat, but is still divided by 4 in -psi- combat -> 30/4=7.5) This all may be different with psi "weapons", if that's true then singularity psi tanks would have hp=30 to any native psi units maximum of 10, which would be a massive advantage. Sounds a little too good to be true though. If psi units don't get the extra h.p. for the larger reactor, you can probably build them even more cheaply by downgrading the reactor type to fission(or do better reactors -reduce- cost?).
Plato90s	posted 04-27-99 12:48 PM ET Against native lifeforms, all units have only a base of 10 power points. However, if you build a Singularity Engine unit armed with PSI weapons and attack another faction, you are given your full 30 power points. If you attack a Mindworm with a PSI Singularity Tank, you have attack of 2 PSI and 10 power. If you attack an enemy unit with the same PSI Singularity Tank, you have attack of 2 PSI and 30 power.
Urban Ranger	posted 05-02-99 01:48 AM ET Shouldn't it be Psi 3?