Difference between revisions of "Psychic reader"

Revision as of 21:06, 16 March 2023

The Psychic Reader gives a pawn that's been implanted with it a bonus of +50% Negotiation Ability and +10% Trade Price Improvement based on the pawn Social stat, both scaling proportionally with the user's psychic sensitivity. Negotiation Ability affects the speed of prisoner recruitment, impact on faction relations when giving gifts, and the outcome of peace talks, while Trade Price Improvement obviously improves trade prices.

Acquisition

Psychic Readers can only be acquired through trade or as a quest reward. They cannot be crafted.

Summary

The psychic reader applies an offset of +50% Negotiation Ability, and a multiplier of ×110% Trade Price Improvement of the pawn it is installed in. These bonuses are then multiplied by Psychic Sensitivity. Note that the TPI booster is a multiplicative modifier of the Social skill. A Social 20 pawn at 100% Psychic Sensitivity will have its Trade Price Improvement go from 30% to 33%, equivalent to 2 extra levels of Social skill. At lower Social skills, the psychic reader has a smaller absolute effect.

Other factors to TPI, such as the faction base bonus, are not impacted.

Installation

Installing the part requires ??^{[Detail needed]} of work, 2x medicine of herbal quality or better, and a Medical skill of 5.

Removing the part requires ?^{[Detail needed]} of work, 1x medicine of herbal quality or better, and a Medical skill of 5.

If the operation fails, the part has a chance^{[What Chance?]} to be destroyed.

Analysis

The psychic reader helps recruit prisoners, and increases trade profits by a small amount. Installing the psychic reader on your best Social pawn will generally the greatest benefit. Psychic Sensitivity helps, but a good Social pawn with 100% Psychic Sensitivity is a better trader than a 0 Social pawn with psychically hypersensitive.

For the sole purpose of trade, psychic readers are generally not profitable until the late game. Assuming you buy a psychic reader at 1000 silver, it takes a massive amount of trading to get a return on investment. At 20 Social skill, the psychic reader increases TPI by 2%. You'd have to buy/sell 50,000 silver^[1] worth of goods before you start making a profit. Even with high Psychic Sensitivity, you will have to trade a lot. You'll have to trade even more if Social skill is lower than 20. In the late game, where you have lots of money and can continuously call in traders with a comms console, this implant can be worth it.

Therefore, for most of the main value of the psychic reader is the boost on prisoners. It can be useful if you wish to recruit many prisoners, or many high resistance prisoners. For example, a New Arrivals colony may want to recruit Tribal pawns to exploit the anima tree for psycasting. This can save a few days on prisoner recruitment, per prisoner.

As the benefits of a psychic reader are small, it is usually not worth buying until it is easily afforded. Should you happen to obtain a psychic reader through other means, you should also weigh the benefits to the risk of brain damage, in case of a failed surgery.

¹ For example, you can buy 25,000 silver worth of goods, by selling 25,000 silver worth of goods, and this results in a 1,000 silver profit. This number can be confusing. You'd have to buy/sell 50,000 worth of goods, after considering the natural trade disadvantage (x0.6 price for selling, x1.4 for buying), but before considering other factors to TPI, including the TPI from having 20 Social skill in the first place.

Version history

Royalty DLC Release - Added.
1.3.3066 - Now improves Trade Price Improvement, previously it had no effect on trade prices.

Artificial body parts

Arm/Hand: Archotech arm • Bionic arm • Power claw • Prosthetic arm • Wooden hand • Drill arm • Elbow blade • Field hand • Hand talon • Venom talon • Flesh tentacle • Flesh whip
Head: Archotech eye • Bionic eye • Bionic ear • Bionic tongue • Cochlear implant • Denture • Aesthetic nose
Head implants: Joywire • Painstopper • Circadian assistant • Circadian half-cycler • Gastro-analyzer • Learning assistant • Mindscrew • Neurocalculator • Psychic harmonizer • Psychic reader • Psychic sensitizer • Venom fangs • Control sublink (Standard, High) • Mechlink • Mech gestation processor • Remote repairer • Remote shielder • Repair probe
Spine: Bionic spine • Revenant vertebrae
Stomach: Bionic stomach • Nuclear stomach • Reprocessor stomach • Sterilizing stomach • Fleshmass stomach
Heart: Bionic heart • Prosthetic heart • Heart • Adrenal heart • Corrosive heart • Metalblood heart
Lung: Lung • Detoxifier lung • Fleshmass lung
Kidney: Kidney • Detoxifier kidney
Organs: Liver
Visceral implants: Death acidifier • Aesthetic shaper • Coagulator • Healing enhancer • Armorskin gland • Stoneskin gland • Toughskin gland • Immunoenhancer • Love enhancer • Ghoul plating • Ghoul barbs
Leg/Foot: Archotech leg • Bionic leg • Prosthetic leg • Peg leg • Wooden foot • Knee spike
Related: Psylink neuroformer • Xenogerm
Deprecated: Scyther blade • Psychic silencer

[1]

@@ Line 27: / Line 27: @@
 == Summary ==
 {{stub|section=1}}
-The psychic reader applies an offset of {{+|50%}} [[Negotiation Ability]], and {{Good|x110%}} [[Trade Price Improvement]] of the pawn it is installed in. These bonuses are then multiplied by [[Psychic Sensitivity]]. Note that the TPI improvmeent is a multiplicative modifier of the [[Skills#Social|Social]] skill.  A Social 20 pawn at 100% Psychic Sensitivity will have its Trade Price Improvement go from 30% to 33%, equivalent to 2 extra levels of Social skill. At lower Social skills, the psychic reader has a smaller absolute effect.
+The psychic reader applies an offset of {{+|50%}} [[Negotiation Ability]], and a multiplier  of {{Good|x110%}} [[Trade Price Improvement]] of the pawn it is installed in. These bonuses are then multiplied by [[Psychic Sensitivity]]. Note that the TPI booster is a multiplicative modifier of the [[Skills#Social|Social]] skill.  A Social 20 pawn at 100% Psychic Sensitivity will have its Trade Price Improvement go from 30% to 33%, equivalent to 2 extra levels of Social skill. At lower Social skills, the psychic reader has a smaller absolute effect.
 Other factors to TPI, such as the [[faction base]] bonus, are not impacted.
@@ Line 39: / Line 39: @@
 ==Analysis==
-With the addition of trade price improvement offset, the psychic reader is an important tool for any colony that trades heavily. Even with a pawn with a standard psychic sensitivity,  it will pay for itself as long as you have a pawn with a very high Social skill or Psychic Sensitivity or ideally both. For colonies that do not trade, the value of {{Icon small|silver||1000}} [[silver]] and the limited niche for its application makes it a low priority for targeted acquisition. However since there are no negative effects of having one installed, if one is available, installing it on the colony's [[Skills#Social|Social]] pawn is a good idea, as they will likely be recruiting [[prisoners]] and be the one giving gifts when on caravan.
+The psychic reader helps recruit prisoners, and increases trade profits by a small amount. Installing the psychic reader on your best Social pawn will generally the greatest benefit. [[Psychic Sensitivity]] helps, but a good Social pawn with 100% Psychic Sensitivity is a better trader than a 0 Social pawn with [[psychically hypersensitive]].
-As both effects scales with psychic sensitivity, it performs best on pawns with the [[Psychically sensitive]] and [[Psychically hypersensitive|Hypersensitive]] traits]] and synergizes with equipment that buffs sensitivity such as the [[psychic sensitizer]] and [[Eltex]] equipment. At the maximum possible psychic sensitivity of 408%, it provides the equivalent of about 8 levels of Social skill for a Social 20 pawn for trading, as well as more than doubling the Negotiation Ability of that pawn.
+For the sole purpose of trade, psychic readers are generally not profitable until the late game. Assuming you buy a psychic reader at {{icon small|silver}} 1000 [[silver]], it takes a massive amount of trading to get a return on investment. At 20 Social skill, the psychic reader increases TPI by 2%. You'd have to buy/sell {{icon small|silver}} 50,000 silver{{ref label|Total|1}} worth of goods before you start making a profit. Even with high [[Psychic Sensitivity]], you will have to trade a lot. You'll have to trade even more if Social skill is lower than 20. In the late game, where you have lots of money and can continuously call in traders with a [[comms console]], this implant can be worth it.
-Should the player wish to employ a strategy involving recruiting pawns with with high recruitment resistances, such as hiring [[Tribes|Tribal]] pawns as a New Arrivals colony to exploit the [[Anima tree]] for [[Psycast]]ing, or hiring large numbers of pawns over the soft limits imposed by their [[AI storyteller]] then the value of the psychic reader increases.
+Therefore, for most of the main value of the psychic reader is the boost on prisoners. It can be useful if you wish to recruit many prisoners, or many high resistance prisoners. For example, a [[New Arrivals]] colony may want to recruit [[Tribes|Tribal]] pawns to exploit the [[anima tree]] for [[psycast]]ing. This can save a few days on prisoner recruitment, per prisoner.
+As the benefits of a psychic reader are small, it is usually not worth buying until it is easily afforded. Should you happen to obtain a psychic reader through other means, you should also weigh the benefits to the risk of brain damage, in case of a failed [[surgery]].
+:{{note label|Total|1}} For example, you can buy 25,000 silver worth of goods, by selling 25,000 silver worth of goods, and this results in a 1,000 silver profit. This number can be confusing. You'd have to buy/sell 50,000 worth of goods, ''after'' considering the natural trade disadvantage (x0.6 price for selling, x1.4 for buying), but ''before'' considering other factors to TPI, including the TPI from having 20 Social skill in the first place.
 ==Version history==