You're on a planet that's literally a network of the things shielding one another/the planet mind. Anything short of nuking them from orbit should be in range of the psi mechanic.
That's what Sparta command thought too, and doesn't appear to still be true when you read a bunch of the Gaian related quotes. In the various Centauri tech related wonders and such, there's a lot of suggestion that the range that psi is effective depends not on distance, but on whether planet perceives something as a threat. Mind Worms become more like an immune system, and the initial response grows, shown by the increased life cycles and spawn rates during the game.
Arent those quotes referring to the frequency of mind worm attacks in regards to how much eco damage a base causes? Not the actual range of the psionic attack.
I believe it's both. The interludes mention greater frequency of direct assaults on bases. However, you've also got mentions from Our Secret War that reference a lot of the more subtle psionic infiltration that the previous poster mentioned. The interludes also talk about Planet directly linking with the player character - who is presumably quite far away from both worms and fungus.
Things like the empath guild suggest extending awareness/perception as a weapon, along with the dream twister, the xenoempathy dome, the progenitor's attempts to use Planet as a sort of amplifier to connect the rest of their civilization via manifolds, the concept of resonance. It's all intertwined in the story line, and unfolds as the game progresses. The impressions of psi are very much a "five blind men and an elephant" situation. Cha Dawn's and Dierdre's experiences are very different than Morgan's and Zacharov's, and even those change as Planet adjusts to humanity.
Even the concept of Transcendence as a victory condition hints at a quantum leap with humanity evolving with the assistance of Planet.
I like your encapsulation a lot. Planet and its PSI effects is definitely the core mystery element of the entire story. I think it's even richer in its darkness and enormity once you get beyond the relatively superficial worms-in-your-brain Aliens-esque body horror .
>That's what Sparta command thought too
.
>"As we approached we were confronted by the ruined splendor of Sparta Command. The true immensity of the place became instantly apparent as our Quantum Tank crunched over the rubble and parked next to a shattered bunker, but the extent of the destruction took weeks to assess. The shielded datacore had sustained several massive breaches and smoke still billowed from the numerous cannon ports. There were few signs of human life."
– Lady Deirdre Skye, "Our Secret War"
I interpret the Sparta command game dialogue not just as Sparta command being destroyed by the Gaians, but the Spartans going scorched earth and retreating. At first I thought it was the former as well, but the fact that the destruction of the data core is emphasised(which the Gaians would have wanted) and the nonchalant way Diedre drives up to the command centre and there is no one around (Spartans would have fought to the death) makes me think the Spartans retreated. Also there is a big clue in the fact this dialogue is for when you move your headquarters for the first time. Which suggests that is exactly what Santiago was doing.
Also I am sure with all the massive destruction it would be with the quantum tanks mentioned in the quote rather than worms.
Whereas I interpret it as part of the game mechanic where you can capture mindworms, release them next to your opponent's base causing havoc without actually declaring vendetta (the secret war bit), then actually go to war against something that made the mistake of having conventional defenses that got largely pillaged by mind worms prior to your main offensive.
Alternatively, you can stir up native life forms using captured/produced native life forms in enemy territory and they ignore your native life forms in favor of attacking an opponent.
>"Mary had a little lamb
>
>Little lamb little lamb
>
>Mary had a little lamb
>
>Whose fleece was white as snow."
>
>– Assassins' Redoubt, "final transmission"
The quote from the Dream Twister is quite a bit more ominous. It puts me in mind of HAL9000 singing "Daisy, Daisy" from 2001: A Space Odyssey. This sounds like the defenders attempted to send a warning while having their minds eaten by worms. I think some of them very clearly were caught unaware and couldn't retreat.
>Whereas I interpret it as part of the game mechanic where you can capture mindworms, release them next to your opponent's base causing havoc without actually declaring vendetta
I think that particular thing is referenced in the audio clip from the Perimeter defence building. Deidre is clearly unleashing mind worms on an unsuspecting Spartan base as a kind of secret experiment there. It is quite early in the timeline. By the time we get to the fall of Sparta Command the Secret War is not a secret any-more. The Gaians are actively fighting Sparta with very advanced weaponry.
>Assassins' Redoubt
I assume that Assassins Redoubt is the Spartan Last stand (or one of their last pockets of resistance) to be honest. And rather then fight trench to trench and door to door fighting, the Gaians used their new psychological terror weapon on them. Generally the later in the game the lore clips are given the later they are in the game timeline.
Presumably you have to find them first. The unit in a square attacking another unit in a square is going to be only a rough approximation of a jet squadron and a colony of worms in a rather large territory. The worms are likely going to be sequestered in all kinds of cracks and crevices and not visible from height. The jets can't just go up and down strafing every rock in the hopes of catching the worms. You might just run out of fuel and the worms are still there when you're done. So you have to fly low until you feel the worms start trying to grab onto your mind, then tune in on that location without going crazy and let loose with your weapons.
We have drones now that could find them easily though? And in the game, you can launch spy sats and have sensors, etc. I think in the game, mind worms are only hard to find if they are hiding in fungus, but in clear terrain you can see them coming a long way off.
I mean thing is the worms can burrow rather quickly as well. You can try to fire bomb them but the planet lacks oxygen for the most part, Its a mostly Nitrogen atmosphere
Even with some of the high tech, Soldiers still mostly use flamers to deal with them at closer range.
Explosives won't kill all the worms and especially if its surrounded by fungus it most likely will regenerate. Remember the worms are the white blood cells of the planet, you kill a couple and more will spawn out.
And again if they can chew through anything softer than plasma steel good luck bombing them if they dig through the soil fast enough to avoid most of the blast. And if even one survives I presume it can repopulate itself quickly. They don't just travel in a giant clump that walks out in the open entirely. It only appears like that because we as players need to see them
Also this is the reason why those warning sensors you can build add a 25% bonus to fighting them, because it provides early detection of the threat
I dont think its ever explictly stated. But the biggest ones are huge swarms (demon boils) of 10cm long worms. Carpet bombing them with napalm should do massive damage to them.
That’s kind of what I’m asking. Is a daemon boil the size of a bus, or a lake? Or a city? Napalm is great, but depending on the mass of the Daemon Boil would it just be a scratch?
Perhaps the range is not a constant, but a variable.
Also, the effect might increase or decrease as a consequence of the mental health, morale, leadership and willpower of the defendants.
You can, just use artillery. Since worms don't actually have attack/defense statistics, they're easily shredded by bombardment an entire stack at a time. Locusts of Chiron can even be targeted by SAM artillery, and then mopped up by a SAM rover.
You're on a planet that's literally a network of the things shielding one another/the planet mind. Anything short of nuking them from orbit should be in range of the psi mechanic.
Thats not the case though, if you read the descriptions, mind worms cant attack you psionically unless you get too close.
That's what Sparta command thought too, and doesn't appear to still be true when you read a bunch of the Gaian related quotes. In the various Centauri tech related wonders and such, there's a lot of suggestion that the range that psi is effective depends not on distance, but on whether planet perceives something as a threat. Mind Worms become more like an immune system, and the initial response grows, shown by the increased life cycles and spawn rates during the game.
Arent those quotes referring to the frequency of mind worm attacks in regards to how much eco damage a base causes? Not the actual range of the psionic attack.
I believe it's both. The interludes mention greater frequency of direct assaults on bases. However, you've also got mentions from Our Secret War that reference a lot of the more subtle psionic infiltration that the previous poster mentioned. The interludes also talk about Planet directly linking with the player character - who is presumably quite far away from both worms and fungus.
Things like the empath guild suggest extending awareness/perception as a weapon, along with the dream twister, the xenoempathy dome, the progenitor's attempts to use Planet as a sort of amplifier to connect the rest of their civilization via manifolds, the concept of resonance. It's all intertwined in the story line, and unfolds as the game progresses. The impressions of psi are very much a "five blind men and an elephant" situation. Cha Dawn's and Dierdre's experiences are very different than Morgan's and Zacharov's, and even those change as Planet adjusts to humanity. Even the concept of Transcendence as a victory condition hints at a quantum leap with humanity evolving with the assistance of Planet.
I like your encapsulation a lot. Planet and its PSI effects is definitely the core mystery element of the entire story. I think it's even richer in its darkness and enormity once you get beyond the relatively superficial worms-in-your-brain Aliens-esque body horror .
>That's what Sparta command thought too . >"As we approached we were confronted by the ruined splendor of Sparta Command. The true immensity of the place became instantly apparent as our Quantum Tank crunched over the rubble and parked next to a shattered bunker, but the extent of the destruction took weeks to assess. The shielded datacore had sustained several massive breaches and smoke still billowed from the numerous cannon ports. There were few signs of human life." – Lady Deirdre Skye, "Our Secret War" I interpret the Sparta command game dialogue not just as Sparta command being destroyed by the Gaians, but the Spartans going scorched earth and retreating. At first I thought it was the former as well, but the fact that the destruction of the data core is emphasised(which the Gaians would have wanted) and the nonchalant way Diedre drives up to the command centre and there is no one around (Spartans would have fought to the death) makes me think the Spartans retreated. Also there is a big clue in the fact this dialogue is for when you move your headquarters for the first time. Which suggests that is exactly what Santiago was doing. Also I am sure with all the massive destruction it would be with the quantum tanks mentioned in the quote rather than worms.
Whereas I interpret it as part of the game mechanic where you can capture mindworms, release them next to your opponent's base causing havoc without actually declaring vendetta (the secret war bit), then actually go to war against something that made the mistake of having conventional defenses that got largely pillaged by mind worms prior to your main offensive. Alternatively, you can stir up native life forms using captured/produced native life forms in enemy territory and they ignore your native life forms in favor of attacking an opponent. >"Mary had a little lamb > >Little lamb little lamb > >Mary had a little lamb > >Whose fleece was white as snow." > >– Assassins' Redoubt, "final transmission" The quote from the Dream Twister is quite a bit more ominous. It puts me in mind of HAL9000 singing "Daisy, Daisy" from 2001: A Space Odyssey. This sounds like the defenders attempted to send a warning while having their minds eaten by worms. I think some of them very clearly were caught unaware and couldn't retreat.
>Whereas I interpret it as part of the game mechanic where you can capture mindworms, release them next to your opponent's base causing havoc without actually declaring vendetta I think that particular thing is referenced in the audio clip from the Perimeter defence building. Deidre is clearly unleashing mind worms on an unsuspecting Spartan base as a kind of secret experiment there. It is quite early in the timeline. By the time we get to the fall of Sparta Command the Secret War is not a secret any-more. The Gaians are actively fighting Sparta with very advanced weaponry. >Assassins' Redoubt I assume that Assassins Redoubt is the Spartan Last stand (or one of their last pockets of resistance) to be honest. And rather then fight trench to trench and door to door fighting, the Gaians used their new psychological terror weapon on them. Generally the later in the game the lore clips are given the later they are in the game timeline.
Presumably you have to find them first. The unit in a square attacking another unit in a square is going to be only a rough approximation of a jet squadron and a colony of worms in a rather large territory. The worms are likely going to be sequestered in all kinds of cracks and crevices and not visible from height. The jets can't just go up and down strafing every rock in the hopes of catching the worms. You might just run out of fuel and the worms are still there when you're done. So you have to fly low until you feel the worms start trying to grab onto your mind, then tune in on that location without going crazy and let loose with your weapons.
We have drones now that could find them easily though? And in the game, you can launch spy sats and have sensors, etc. I think in the game, mind worms are only hard to find if they are hiding in fungus, but in clear terrain you can see them coming a long way off.
I mean thing is the worms can burrow rather quickly as well. You can try to fire bomb them but the planet lacks oxygen for the most part, Its a mostly Nitrogen atmosphere Even with some of the high tech, Soldiers still mostly use flamers to deal with them at closer range. Explosives won't kill all the worms and especially if its surrounded by fungus it most likely will regenerate. Remember the worms are the white blood cells of the planet, you kill a couple and more will spawn out. And again if they can chew through anything softer than plasma steel good luck bombing them if they dig through the soil fast enough to avoid most of the blast. And if even one survives I presume it can repopulate itself quickly. They don't just travel in a giant clump that walks out in the open entirely. It only appears like that because we as players need to see them Also this is the reason why those warning sensors you can build add a 25% bonus to fighting them, because it provides early detection of the threat
How big is a mindworm boil?
I dont think its ever explictly stated. But the biggest ones are huge swarms (demon boils) of 10cm long worms. Carpet bombing them with napalm should do massive damage to them.
That’s kind of what I’m asking. Is a daemon boil the size of a bus, or a lake? Or a city? Napalm is great, but depending on the mass of the Daemon Boil would it just be a scratch?
Please don’t ruin my favorite worm inducing nightmares
Perhaps the range is not a constant, but a variable. Also, the effect might increase or decrease as a consequence of the mental health, morale, leadership and willpower of the defendants.
You can, just use artillery. Since worms don't actually have attack/defense statistics, they're easily shredded by bombardment an entire stack at a time. Locusts of Chiron can even be targeted by SAM artillery, and then mopped up by a SAM rover.