Expand Psionic Ascension and the Shroud

[Ninjamestari]

I always thought that the shroud was a cool idea but the implementation always felt kinda shallow, slapped on bare-bones mechanic. I'd really like to see that mechanic expanded and improved. Here's a small reimagining of the concept.

Firstly, instead of operating on cooldown and energy, the shroud could be accessed via a new resource called "psi" or "shroud energy" or whatever, which would either be generated by your telepaths or some special "shroud priest" job from some special building. These jobs could also determine the storage cap for this resource. Accessing the shroud wouldn't have a cooldown, but rather simply require 1000 of this psi-resource, and once in the shroud, you could spend psi to reroll failed attempts at boons. There could also be other "shroud abilities" which you could use inside the shroud to help you "navigate" the shroud, maybe rerolling your set of random shroud options at the cost of 500 psi; let's call this set of shroud options a "shroud location" from now on.

To expand the concept, there could be an ability that allows you to "mark" a shroud location so that once you've found a particular corner of the shroud you could attempt to revisit that "location" at the cost of 1000 psi once you've entered the shroud. If this attempt fails, you're either ejected from the shroud completely or given a new random "location", being ejected would give you an opportunity to spend 500 psi to attempt to remain in the shroud and get a new random location instead, while failing the navigation roll and being assigned a new random location would give you an opportunity to spend 500 psi to attempt to get to your target destination again.

What this would do is allow you to compensate for the RNG of the shroud and make it a little bit more reliable, and give the player a modicum of control so that they can get what they want from the shroud.

Another thing that could be done to expand this concept is to have "Layer tiers" to indicate how deep you are in the shroud. Every single shroud option would have an associated tier; the first tier, the one you get to when you enter the shroud, would be the tier where you get your temporary boons, as well as some simple shroud technologies such as the ability to try and delve deeper into the shroud, which would cost 500 psi and allow you to make an attempt to get to a second tier location with second tier shroud "boons" to pick from. Second tier could include things like those Psi jump drives, more powerful and less temporary boons, shroud avatars, psi shields and the technology that gives you the ability to mark and revisit Shroud Locations. A third tier shroud would give you stuff like the chosen one and covenants.

This is a system that could be easily built and expanded upon, with the added tools to control the balance of when you're able to theoretically get certain boons, so that you can't get the most powerful stuff immediately if you're just lucky, it would give you a progression path and a little control over what you're trying to get from the shroud instead of having a situation where one empire gets psi jump drives and a powerful covenant in two tries while the other is going to have to endure one curse after another for a goddamn century with a couple of corrupted avatars thrown in for good measure just for being unlucky with their RNG.

 

[GOLANX]

Like a lot of these ideas, I would run it through the espionage system though. Tier would be roughly equivalent to infiltration level, Delving through the shroud would happen like operations you choose an operation for how deep you want to go, which directions you take. the further you go the more psi it consumes.

All psionic pops would add psi energy based on their living standards (Utopian Abundance has pops with lots of free time to meditate). Telepath jobs give an extra bonus and allow you to develop assets, Meditating on the force the shroud is their job after all. Telepath jobs get a small bonus for non psionic pops on the planet, it's not as much as just having psionic pops but reduces the penalty that not everyone is psionic. For Slaver Empires they can have Psi Overseers in addition to be excellent for keeping slaves in line they provide an extra bonus from mind linking with slaves (you really shouldn't want psionic slaves).

 

[Ninjamestari]

Using a espionage/archaeology type system sounds like a neat idea. I'll have to think on that. The system definitely has the potential with small tweaks here and there to accommodate for the shroud, and perhaps be more visually pleasing UI interaction than the current one as well.

I was juggling between having specialized pops generate the psi and having every psionic pop generate it myself, but I came to the conclusion that it makes more sense that free individuals are not going to take part in what might effectively amount to secret government controlled psionic black-ops, so only specialized pops would be actually working on the shroud.

 

[Ninjamestari]

I was thinking on this some more and maybe instead of a new "Psi" resource, a Psionic empire could use Zro in the same manner I proposed for the Psi, and Psi empires would gain the ability to synthesize Zro from exotic gasses and energy, maybe 2 exotic gas + 10 energy = 1 Zro or something like that. Zro would obviously also be used for Psionic ship components and such.

Another option, one that I'm not completely sold on myself but felt like it could be mentioned, is that since there can now be numerous specialized tradition trees, maybe one could be added for the different ascension paths at ascension tier 2, the psionic one would obviously deal with the Shroud in some manner, and certain "Shroud abilities" could be tied to that tree.

 

[GOLANX]

I think zro should be able to boost your Psi income but I wouldn't make it the resource, that should still require pops, maybe there would be an edict that applys a zro upkeep to telepaths and Psi Overseers that then increases your Psi income. Synthetic Zro should also be a thing and also more things to use it on, potentially you could use Zro to reroll your Shroud outcome. The issue with Synthetic Zro though is that it should still be limited, inflating zro's value shouldn't be a thing, you use the zro to reroll is nice, but it shouldn't be infinitely rerollable like leaders are, after a point you should accept the less desirable outcome.

I would actually give the tradition with mind over matter, it would evolve you from latent Psionics to Full Psionics, getting the intelligence and diplomatic buffs and everything that isnt the Shroud. Transcendence would only give you the Shroud and it's beneficial to have completed that tradition, but the Shroud would be buffed to the extent that it can stand on its own. You would get synthetic zro technology from the shroud itself as well as some of the stronger empire effecting benefits, empowering allies, damaging enemies and persuading neutral parties to your side. You could even use zro to reduce influence costs of almost anything, freely using favors in the GC, conquer without costly claims, increase edict capacity.

 

[Ninjamestari]

Perhaps rerolling has a progressive cost? Say first reroll costs x amount of psi or y amount of Zro, while the second reroll costs 2x and 2y, respectively.

As far as limiting synthetic Zro, what if it wasn't synthetic but was instead conjured from the shroud through some pseudo-portal? let's say there's a shroud interaction that allows you to build a single planet-unique Zro-pseudo-portal that would give you Zro income, and building another requires another planet and repeating that same shroud interaction. Or maybe if the Psi resource is implemented, there could be a psi-upkeep for conjuring Zro from the shroud.

As for getting the tradition from mind over matter, I had the exact opposite idea; what if you gained access to the shroud with mind over matter, but you'd unlock higher tier interactions and rerolling capabilities with the traditions you gain after transcendence, or if the tradition tree is not going to make it, then transcendence would simply make you significantly better at navigating the shroud. I also always felt like the shroud should be experimented with before transcendence even became available; so lets say there would be another, lower tier 0 shroud events where you're at the threshold, where you could get the most rudimentary bonuses and a chance at an opportunity to try and breach into the shroud itself, which would then unlock Transcendence and eject you with some "your minds simply are not powerful enough to progress past this point, but you did get a glimpse from the other side. Something has changed within." It just always felt a bit lackluster that you get shroud simply by picking a perk, and that it should've been more of a journey than just a perk.

I like where you're going with reducing influence costs with zro/psi, although that could easily become insanely op, so limitations are required. I think it's just a great example of psionic abilities that could be unlocked through shroud interactions. I also had in mind simple spells that affect the galactic terrain, perhaps you could temporarily destabilize hyperlanes (add a chance for ship damage/slowing down travel time), block jumping to a certain system with jump drives, disable shields in a system, summon avatars, create temporary unstable hyperlanes etcetera etcetera. All of these could also have technological variants for non-psionic empires that require some other manner of achieving the same thing, perhaps by constructing specific spacestations that can cause these effects or something along those lines.

Also, imagine the possibilities that could be added to the espionage system through this, establishing shroud based communications, creating mind-slave-cults, summoning hostile avatars and other psionic disasters, maybe allowing the target empire to initiate witch hunts to find rogue psionics. Man there's just so much untapped potential with the shroud.

My only fear is that both genetic and synthetic ascension paths would also need more flavor and content added to them, if one goes too over the board with the shroud, but I'd really like to see all three ascension paths expanded upon.