Kefren on 9/11/2006 at 20:25

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As mentioned in another thread, I finished SS2 again (4th playthrough) earlier. The main thing for me is that I went PSI for the first time. I had used one or two powers in my first ever game, but then never used it again. This time I was excited about playing OSA because it was still all going to be new, and would change the play experience. (I did use a Talon M2A3 Handgun, Apollo H4 Laser Pistol, and wrench/crystal shard as backup).

By the end of the game I had every power and tried each one out in different situations, but some didn't seem very useful at all. I just thought I'd post my thoughts on the powers, in case I misjudged any of them, or other people have interesting uses for them that I never thought of.

1st tier
******

Psycho-reflective Screen
[Protects you from 15% of combat damage.]
Handy to use before tough battles for a slight edge.

Neuro-reflex Dampening
[Eliminates all weapon kickback.]
Never seemed useful - kickback didn't cause many problems on the rare occasions I used it (generally preferring single shot to save ammo).

Kinetic Redirection
[Pulls an object toward you.]
Few of the things I couldn't reach with traditional methods were really worth getting. And it didn't seem to work on some items e.g. [SPOILER]the cyber modules in the steam pit on the Ops deck, that Xerxes tries to fry you in. I had got the power just to get round that trap![/SPOILER]

Psychogenic Agility
[Increases your Agility by 2.]
Occasionall used for if I had to drop down or run faster.

Psychogenic Cyber Affinity
[Increases your CYB by 2.]
Used by me a lot, because of very poor hacking skills.

Projected Cryokinesis
[Launches a heat-draining projectile at a target.]
Not very powerful, but I did use it a fair bit on weaker enemies, and occasionally security cameras.

Remote Electron Tampering
[Makes active alarms time out faster.]
Handy the few times I triggered alarms. Keep using it to knock off 20 or so seconds each time.

2nd ties
******

Anti-entropic Field
[While this discipline is active, your ranged weapons cannot
break, and their condition will not degrade.]
Hardly used it - even with rubbish maintenance skills, I still had ten spare maintenance tools at the end of the game.

Adrenaline Overproduction
[Increases hand-to-hand damage by a factor equal to PSI.]
I was quite surprised by this in the endgame - killed a rumbler in 1-2 hits or a crystal shard with this.

Neural Decontamination
[Shields you from 80% of radiation damage.]
Used a lot in areas with radioactive canisters. Still required rad hypos, but a lot less of them.

Cerebro-stimulated Regeneration
[Regenerates lost hit points.]
Used loads! Really useful.

Psychogenic Strength
[Increases your Strength by 2.]
Always used before hand-to-hand fighting, right up until the endgame.

Recursive Psionic Amplification
[Increases your Psionics by 2. Psi point costs are doubled while
active.]
Tried it once, hardly seemed useful at all, so then ignored it! Tried it when using PSI to hack as well, but that seemed to fail.

Localized Pyrokinesis
[Damages all creatures within a five foot radius.]
Cast before melee fights with groups of enemies. Not sure how much use it was, but it made me mroe confident about going into the breach.

3rd tier
*****

Molecular Duplication
[Use some Nanites to duplicate one ammo clip or hypo.]
Once I realised I couldn't use ti on psi hypos it lost its edge. Now and again it was of limited use when I was nearly out of toxin or med hypos, but I could have done without it.

Electron Cascade
[Recharges a single charged item or weapon.]
Handy for the laser pistol (since I was so reliant on it), and also once I installed the wormheart implant (if that is the one that protects you from toxin but is bad if it runs out fo power or gets removed?)

Energy Reflection
[Provides 50% immunity to all energy-based damage sources.]
I preferred teeh general shielding abilities to this energy-specific one, so hardly experimented with it.

Neural Toxin-blocker
[Shields you from 100% of toxin absorption.]
Used whenever I heard the sound of an archnid! Especially when low on toxin hypos. I learnt my lesson on Ops - at one point I had no toxin hypos, and was slowly dying. I saved the game. I realised if I died of toxin I would be reconstructed - but then also realsied I only had 9 nanites, so it would be game over, with no good save to go back to! A tense half hour of continuous healing and exploring, looking for just a few nanites to buy a toxin hypo, or to reconstruct.

Enhanced Motion Sensitivity
[Shows the location of all nearby creatures.]
I preferred the surprise factor, and listening out for enemies (I turned the music off for this playthrough, for the first time ever, just to get an even more realistic atmosphere).

Projected Pyrokinesis
[Launches a fiery projectile at a target.}
This didn't seem to harm robots or turrets at all, so I rarely used it.

Psionic Hypnogenesis
[Target non-robotic creature will stand still and docile.]
It just meant I had to fight them on the way back, so I didn't use it much.

4th tier
******

Photonic Redirection
[Renders you invisible to all creatures.]
This was really powerful. Very useful for the deck above recreation, for speeding safely along the annelid corridor. [SPOILER]And the final tunnel in the body of the many. In some ways it was too easy - e.g. knock out the psi reaver stems, then go invisible again before the monsters find you, then stroll off to another place. [/SPOILER]Probably the most useful PSI ability of all. [SPOILER]SHODAN could still see me though... :-( [/SPOILER]

Remote Pattern Detection
[Shows the location of many useful items, including nanites,
ammo, hypos, implants and audio logs.]
I only tried this once. True, it did lead em to an object nearby I had never noticed before (behind a crate) but it seemed to take soem fun out of the game.

Electron Suppression
[Immobilizes any robotic target.]
Occasionally used on security bots, so I could bash them with my wrench or shard, but it didn't last long enough to fully kill one...

Psychogenic Endurance
[Increases your Endurance by 2.]
Just used for a health point boost before some battles.

Molecular Transmutation
[Turns ammunition and hypos into nanites.]
It seemed to give hardly any nanites, for lots of PSI. Stopped experimenting with it and just left ammo where it lay.

Remote Circuitry Manipulation
[Allows you to hack psionically.]
When I used this, it seemed to make hacking harder, even after using a PSI booster! I tried it on various tough crates, then just gave up.

Cerebro-energetic Extension
[Turns your Psi-Amp into a powerful melee weapon.]
Used a few times, but I actually preferred teh shard, because I could switch back to the Psi-amp for somethign else. This power took the Psi-amp out of action for a while.

5th tier
******

Advanced Cerebro-stimulated Regeneration
[Regenerates lost hit points.]
Very powerful, but I still used the cheaper healing ability for smaller wounds.

Soma Transference
[Drains target non-robotic creature of hit points, and
adds those hit points to your total.]
Hardly used - it didn't take enough health off them really, and it was fiddly to try and use tactically.

Instantaneous Quantum Relocation
[Teleports you to a marked location.]
Got it a bit late in the game unfortunately. I also didn't realise that once you teleport to a marker, it disappears. You have to set it again.
I had planned to go back to the Von Braun after entering BOTM, but it wouldn't let me... :-(

Imposed Neural Restructuring
[Causes a non-robotic target to become hostile toward all
non-human creatures.]
Tried it on annelid arachnids and they still attacked me, so seemed too buggy to use.

Metacreative Barrier
[Creates a wall of psionic force directly in front of you.]
Sometimes this was good cast at an angle, so there is a small gap at the side. I could then shoot rumblers through the gap with anti-personnel ammo, and they couldn't get through to me.
Then had to destroy the barrier to get past... :-(

External Psionic Detonation
[Drops a psionic proximity mine.]
I tried dropping these while running away from arachnids, which was fun, but some didn't seem to prime quickly enough.

Psycho-reflective Aura
[Protects you from 60% of all combat damage.]
Once I got this I never used the lighter shield again. This really improved my chances of surviving - one of the best powers.

Hollowtip on 9/11/2006 at 21:45

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Where did he say this? The Neural Decontamination gets rid of radiation, Neural Toxin Blocker stops toxins, the stuff arachnids poison you with.

Hollowtip on 9/11/2006 at 23:10

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Oh, missed that.

Bjossi on 10/11/2006 at 14:18

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And if you only knew how useful Soma Transference is when dealing with the Many's brain. :sly::cheeky:

Bjossi on 11/11/2006 at 15:47

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I didn't know they stack, so their overall protection would be 75%, if we use simple maths?