Willpower And Psions

[hector212121]

Basically, this is a two part idea, though the willpower part could be implemented without actually doing the other one.

The first half of the idea is a "willpower" skill. It's built up by enduring pain or poor conditions and gives small bonuses to healing and immunity, reduces your mental break threshold or severity of negative moods, and of course gives you resistance to psychic effects.

The second half is for some characters(or characters with certain items, like a mental amplifier or something) to be able to use that skill offensively--with effects based on how much willpower their target has and how far away they are. With a Legendary piece of amplifying gear and 20 willpower, it should be within the realm of possibility to force a mental break on someone with 0 willpower from all the way across the map, while someone with 0 willpower should never be able to so much as irritate someone with 10, even when right next to them. They should also be able to psionically soothe--good for when, say, one of your prisoners is nearly insane.

[MarcTheMerc]

Love this idea reminds me of psyonics from Xcom, maybe armed with a glitterworld psi-amps?

[Toggle]

This could work as a mod. I doubt it would be added into main game though, doesn't seem to be within the theme.

[hector212121]

Well, at least the willpower 'skill' should be. To represent desensitization like DF's "doesn't care anymore"

[blub01]

I second willpower as a stat that reduces break thresholds. I also think psionics would be a nice addition to the game, although it would have to be very high-tech (at least the good psi amps). Also, I think if a pawn can use psionics or not should be independent from willpower, and a rare gift (so only, say, every pawn in ten actually has any skill at psionics). possibility for some endgame procedure that can create modest psionic gifts in anybody. also, I suggest a "leading" skill, describing the ability of a pawn to increase their allies' willpower (so having a leading 20 colonist would make mental breaks incredibly unlikely). of course, that effect would need time to reach its maximum, nobody respects somebody that joined their colony 20 minutes ago a lot. possibly, one could also implement a kind of colony "governor", the effect of the leading level of that colonist would be amplified.

[Zombra]

I don't think a stat is really necessary.  We already have the "sensitive" and "insensitive" Traits; I think that's quite sufficient to differentiate certain characters.  As for building up resistance to psychic effects, that would only serve to make psychic events less interesting later in the game.  You'd just start ignoring them.  Not great gameplay.

I like to think of the psychic disruption attacks like a noisy neighbor I can't do anything about.  I keep complaining to the landlord, but the 4AM dance parties keep happening.  No way to build up an immunity to that.

[blub01]

I don't think a stat is really necessary.  We already have the "sensitive" and "insensitive" Traits; I think that's quite sufficient to differentiate certain characters.  As for building up resistance to psychic effects, that would only serve to make psychic events less interesting later in the game.  You'd just start ignoring them.  Not great gameplay.

I like to think of the psychic disruption attacks like a noisy neighbor I can't do anything about.  I keep complaining to the landlord, but the 4AM dance parties keep happening.  No way to build up an immunity to that.

You are right, willpower should be mostly static, and should need many many years to really increase. However, while the "noisy neighbour" will of course always be annoying, it will certainly become easier to ignore it and soldier on. and I think finer nuances in psychic resistance would be a nice addition to the game, apart from adjusting effects of negative mood modifiers. also, colonists cheering up/increasing morale of other colonists I suggested would be a lot harder to implement without it.

[Toggle]

Yeah, building up psychic resistance and stuff in this thread is an interesting idea, just not as a skill or trait, but probably some percentage in their stats. The sensitive trait would make them have a low tolerance but also incapable of building up any(Or just to a lower point then normal), insensitive one would start higher and make it build up to a higher maximum then normal.

It's something that could be added and would be interesting to see added. I think it would be more for show then practical use in general though.

[mumblemumble]

I honestly don't care for psionics, but willpower as a stat would be amazing, instead of a ton of traits wasted on it exclusively.

Could, too smart and neurotic could stick, but still.

[theapolaustic1]

I think the easiest and best way to handle the "increased willpower" over time would just be a blue event: "[Colonist] has hardened up over the seasons and gained the _____ trait.".

Which really could be used for a lot of things for colonists to gain positive/negative traits as time goes on, using the same type of "memories" used for art. Forcing cannibalism might prompt someone to go cannibal, installing a prosthetic on someone in a horrible mood might make them revolt it, etc.

[MAKAIROSI]

Implementing psionic powers is a bit of a longshot i think. Maybe after the version becomes 1.0 they could start thinking of expansions to add this. But until then there are other matters that need to be added to reach that 1.0.

As long as willpower is concerned someone said "the colonist has hardened up through the years and gained increased willpower", i think that would suffice.

[hector212121]

I think the easiest and best way to handle the "increased willpower" over time would just be a blue event: "[Colonist] has hardened up over the seasons and gained the _____ trait.".

Which really could be used for a lot of things for colonists to gain positive/negative traits as time goes on, using the same type of "memories" used for art. Forcing cannibalism might prompt someone to go cannibal, installing a prosthetic on someone in a horrible mood might make them revolt it, etc.

Only acceptable way to do that is to remove the arbitrary trait limit.