new psi ascension tech suggestion: Psi Disruptors.

[ZeeHero]

this weapon would do no shield or armor damage, and not a lot of hull damage compared to other weapons, but it ignores shields and armor entirely like normal disruptors AND applies a large tracking penalty to the ship it hits.

If the ship is using Sapient combat AI, this penalty is halved, since theres minimal crew at best.

 

[Bezborg]

A simple tin foil hat is all the defense you need

 

[ZeeHero]

Tin foil hats have never been proven effective. the only way they would be is if psionics was transmitted by some kind of wave that could be reflected by it.

Considering in Stellaris psi abilities are capable of transcending dimensional barriers, I think it's a given you need something more advanced than aluminum foil. or tin. or uranium foil even. that might just give you brain cancer though. might give you some psychic powers of your own before it kills you.

 

[Slaughter]

Reminds me of how Space Empires IV had special ship weapons for psionic races.

Funny, you could do quite a bit with psi weapons: Telekinetic Beams, Thermokinesis weapons (either increase or decrease the target's temperature directly), weapons which directly attacks the mind of enemy crews...

 

[Bezborg]

Reminds me of how Space Empires IV had special ship weapons for psionic races.

Funny, you could do quite a bit with psi weapons: Telekinetic Beams, Thermokinesis weapons (either increase or decrease the target's temperature directly), weapons which directly attacks the mind of enemy crews...

That would be awesome tbh... Psionic everything, weapons, shield, drive, modules... psi-active hull plating, why not. Insert any thematic effects at all

 

[Slaughter]

That would be awesome tbh... Psionic everything, weapons, shield, drive, modules... psi-active hull plating, why not. Insert any thematic effects at all

That... would be an interesting way to improve Psionics as an ascension.

I like the idea of going "Full Eldar" and making your technology psi-integrated.

 

[NHunter_rus]

I wish, weapons' on-hit effects were a thing, but other than direct, instant damage the game just doesn't support any.

You can simulate some via messy, resource-hungry copy-pasted mod-unfriendly monstrosity of an event that checks what components opposing ship has (but not which weapon actually landed any hits) every time a ship drops below X% hull, but... There is still no way to make DoT and/or AoE weapons.

 

[ZeeHero]

I don't want damage over time I just want kinetic themed/fx weapons that can be more effective vs armor so I can make my fleet kinetic flavor and not gimp myself vs armor bois.

theres some kinetic weapons at high tier which do bonus to hull, but none I can think of that do bonus to armor. closest thing is proton launcher which isn't kinetic, but is shooting energy packets. has to be close enough I guess.

 

[Bezborg]

maybe a x-slot psionic weapon that makes the crew drop in a coma?

 

[Zagreb 887]

ACOT mod give you a bunch a psionic weaponry once you defeat the (upgraded) Unbbidens, wich go from the classic garbage Unbbiden weapon to X and T slots who basically are Warp storms. All those news weapons have intresting modifiers (weak against shields, but armor pen and hull bonus and so on)

IIRC, Gulli's mods and ESC have a set of psionic weapons if their own. Oh, btw, and all of those mods have their own SFX

 

[ZeeHero]

Thing is if the ship runs on AI it wont have much in the way of crew.
Such a weapon should still have an effect on an AI driven ship but much less of one.

 

[NHunter_rus]

Thing is if the ship runs on AI it wont have much in the way of crew.
Such a weapon should still have an effect on an AI driven ship but much less of one.

Psionics aren't limited to stuff that affects just conscious - though a lot of it does. It can also affect physical reality (at the very least, the avatars are ships/armies that are literal manifestations of psionic energy). I'm pretty sure that creating a very short-lived angry psionic manifestation inside and enemy ship will do structural damage regardless of whether the ship has any organics aboard or not.

IIRC, Gulli's mods and EC have a set of psionic weapons if their own.

ESC maybe? Anyway, there is also now mostly-forgotten "Bunch of Ship Parts" (which the original ESC was heavily inspired by, though the two mods went in their own directions since).

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And as a bit of shameless self-marketing:

theres some kinetic weapons at high tier which do bonus to hull, but none I can think of that do bonus to armor. closest thing is proton launcher which isn't kinetic, but is shooting energy packets. has to be close enough I guess.

The NEXT iteration of Extra Ship Components will split Magnetohydrodynamic cannon into it's own sub-branch of kinetic weapons that trade shield damage for armor penetration. They are still explicitly supersized water-jet cutters that use molten metal as fluid. (no horn sounds, sorry)
No ETA for the release yet, but I've finished the component lineout and a bunch of assets will be reused from 3.0