The Mentality

[inigma]

5. Is it true that if you take the religious trait, and you employ tailismans, that your attack bonus is effectively overkill, and as such you can drop it to 50% in the race creation window without any adverse effect?

[douglas]

Except that Aggressiveness has a minimum of 75% instead of 50%, yes. It will drastically reduce the effectiveness of your direct fire combat ships until you get the Talisman, but once you have the Talisman all normal offensive combat modifiers, including racial and cultural, are completely meaningless. This is a major reason why Deeply Religious is considered overpowered and banned in many PBW games, as the normal importance of combat bonuses in stock makes 120% Aggressiveness almost mandatory, and you can save 2050 points off of that by dropping it to 75% instead - 550 MORE than you would have to spend on Deeply Religious. Considering it this way, you actually gain a major benefit for a NEGATIVE cost when you take the Deeply Religious racial trait.

[Phoenix-D]

inigma said:
5. Is it true that if you take the religious trait, and you employ tailismans, that your attack bonus is effectively overkill, and as such you can drop it to 50% in the race creation window without any adverse effect?

Yes, for any ship that has the talisman installed.

Up until you get that, you'll be hurting.

[Wolfman77]

Yes, but there is a catch. You don't get the tailsman right away. If you start close to another empire, they will walk all over you untill you get it.

You will also fall behind in other areas of reaserch if you want to get it sooner.

It's kind of a gamble to do that, but it could work out for you. If for example you start a game with a large galaxy with only a couple of players, then you could reaserch it and enough other techs to make it useful. On the other hand if you start a small galaxy with 20 races they will likely crush you before you get anywhere.

It also might be considered a bit gamey in a PBW game, so if it doesnt't say in the game description it might be best to check with the owner before trying it.

I have done (80% I think was the lowest I could go) it in a single player game once. Got crushed in about 20 turns.

Alot of mods reduce how far you can drop attack and defense, some remove the tailsman, others change it to just an attack bonus, so it isn't so overpowering in the late game.

[inigma]

6. Would the psychic trait be a good trait to take in a high-tech game where everything is allowed? Or should those 1500 points be better spent elsewhere since most people would employ MCs to counter the psychic subverting advantage?

Aparently, pairing up subverters with computer viruses is a worthless endeavor.

[Alneyan]

Note that having a very bad attack rating and the Talisman can backfire, should your Talisman be destroyed. That scenario is only likely to happen often with leaky armour in place, though... or a mod creating some sort of weapon able to easily destroy the Talismans.

I have never seen much use for the Psychic trait, except in the early game where the other players might spend valuable resources countering your Psychic traits, even if you do not actually use it. If all tech is available right from the start, Master Computers are a lot cheaper than human components, so your trait isn't all too great.

[douglas]

I think the only significant bonus of the Psychic trait is the system training facilities, and that's mostly just because they can stack with normal training facilities for a faster training speed. I don't think this is worth 1500 racial points.

[inigma]

So the psychic trait would pretty much be out the question in a high tech game. The Mentality should instead then focus on boarding parties, which can be countered by shields and security stations which are more effective per kT than bording parties and depleters.

hmmm...

In a high tech game, for the Mentality to survive then, they would need to focus on specialized ships: dampners, dispersers, depleters, and boarders. Would that be your assesment - and still keep the Mentality as a pacifist missionary-boarding/capturing race intent on taking over your friends and eventually you too? Would they survive in such a game?

[Fyron]

douglas said:
...system training facilities... can stack with normal training facilities for a faster training speed.

Which is made more or less irrelevant when you build moon training centers.

[inigma]

system training facilities...

7. ...which are made even more irrelevant when you employ talismans?