XCOM EU Expanded Psi Skills?

[Mittur]

I was wondering if it would be possible to do one or both of the following:

 

1. Expand the Psi Tree

In Vanilla, there are only three "normal" ranks of Psionic Soldiers, plus the special Volunteer. I was wondering if it would be possible to add more Psi ranks and powers, maybe expanding the tree to 5 or so ranks.

 

2. Add New Psi Powers

This one seems to be the more plausible of the two to me, since making whole new perks and restructuring the perk trees have been done. Maybe having two seperate Psi classes (Like the choice at Squaddie in Long War between two normal classes) or just adding more choices per rank would be cool.

 

I am suggesting this because the Psi Soldiers, while powerful, feel like they lack the depth and progression that makes the rest of the game rewarding.

Edited October 27, 2013 by Mittur

[Amineri]

The psi tree is already expanded slightly with the Expanded perk tree mod -- in the sense that up to 3 psi perk choices per rank can be selected. Technically the vanilla game has 4 psi ranks, but the 4th rank is only attainable by the volunteer and is only available for the final Temple Ship mission. The psi tree with the mod is already using the regular psi tree sprite, which means there could easily be up to 7 psi ranks -- if there were psi perks available.

 

One issue with adding new perks : I've done it, but you may not have noticed that every single truly new perk added to Long War is a passive perk. One that doesn't generate an ability button on the hotbar. Currently all five (or six, counting the Volunteer) psi perks are active perks. Currently I haven't figured out how to add new active perks.

 

With EU there were balance issues with adding more psi perks, as the gulf between psi/non-psi soldiers would widen. In EW this looks to be less of an issue given the power-increases from Gene-mods and MECs.

 

Also, in EW there are going to be some new 'behind the scene' data structures for perks. The current EU system wouldn't support the Training Roulette SW option being added.

 

So ... definitely a possibility for EW. One option I like is to disallow MECs from getting psi powers at all, and to reduce the chances for gene-modded soldiers, thus giving "regular" soldiers that pass psi testing a ticket to the "big boys league".

[Mittur]

That's good to hear. Since I am VERY new to the features a mod can and can't support, it's nice to hear a veteran modder respond with an explanation that makes sense.