Game Data

[Zombie]

Not only does the game hide your psi-strength while your psi-skill is 0, but it also hides the psi-skill too! For example, if you would look at Samuel Bryant's stats in the soldier screen of your base before he went through 1 month of training, the psionic info is not shown. There is really no natural way to know (other than the Psionic Training screen) that a soldier's psi-skill always starts at 0. Sure, you can crack some game files to find out, but that's cheating!

[NKF]

Well, I did.

 

I got a game editor to edit in some psi-skill for a soldier when I was trying to do one of my old tests (I think it had something to do with a chryssalid). Naturally the soldier only has 0 skill (and all the others too). Lo and behold, back in the game, the psi abilities were visible once I'd set psi-skill to a non-zero value.

 

- NKF

[Bomb Bloke]

If having some psi skill is all thats need for an alien to make a psi attack, then if the aliens took control of one of your units that had psi skill but no psi amp, then that unit would in turn be able to make psi attacks. Doesn't seem right to me.

[Zombie]

That's exactly what I found out with my tests, Bomb Bloke. If one of my psi-weak soldiers had a psi-amp and was MC'd by the Sectoid, he was able to wage psionic warfare against the rest of my troops. If the psi-weak soldier did not have a psi-amp at the time of the attack, that soldier never waged an attack.

 

What surprised me the most however, was how smart the alien AI really is. Usually, when I am trying to MC a large group of aliens through the daisy-chain strategy, I panic attack the first alien in the chain until his morale is 0. The next round, I will try to mind control the panicked alien. If I cannot gain control of the alien at least his morale is at zero, so the worst thing that would happen is the alien fires his gun off. If I was still unable to mind control that alien the next round, I panic him again until morale is 0. I call this secondary panic attack a "maintenance panic". Since the alien is already hovering below the 50% mark, you will not need to panic the alien as much as the first time.

 

The aliens also seemed to use this tactic against my psi-weak soldiers. They would panic one guy first to test out the waters so to speak, and then mind control him and use that soldier as a scout to detect other targets the second round. If another target was found, that soldier got the same treatment as the first guy. Then, the alien would just maintenance panic the first soldier, and run the second guy around to look for additional targets. For rather unintelligent aliens, they sure have a fairly decent arsenal of psi-tactics to draw upon!

[Stewart]

I didint realize an alien could capture your guy and use HIS psi against YOU. If the psi amp is in the backpack will they still do it or if the psi is the ONLY thing they're carrying?

[Zombie]

Absolutely, Stewart! The psi-capable aliens will go after your psi-weak soldiers and try to MC them. Once they gain control, they will take a Psi-Amp out of the soldier's backpack (if he has one) to wage psionic warfare against the rest of your troops. Though, if that soldier was also carrying a weapon, the aliens will much rather use that first than the Psi-Amp!

[Bomb Bloke]

I'd say they'd chose psi only if they have no LOS on your other units.