Difference between revisions of "Psychic harmonizer"

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| name = Psychic harmonizer
 
| name = Psychic harmonizer
 
| image = Health item archotech.png
 
| image = Health item archotech.png
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== Summary ==
 
== Summary ==
{{stub|section=1}}
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Once implanted in a pawn, the harmonizer projects a psychic effect with a radius of 30 tiles that affects nearby pawns (of the same faction) with a [[mood|moodlet]].  
Once implanted in a pawn, the harmonizer projects a psychic effect with a radius of 30 tiles that affects nearby pawns with a [[mood|moodlet]] whose value is dependent on the current mood of the implanted pawn. It base value scales from -? at 0% Implantee Mood up to +10 at 100% mood.  
 
  
This value is further proportionally scaled by the [[psychic sensitivity]] of both the implantee and the subject of the effect, so a pawn with 200% psychic sensitivity affected by a completely happy implantee would have a +20 mood buff, and that buff would increase to +40 if the implantee's sensitivity was increased also increased to 200%.
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This moodlet is dependent on the implantee's current mood value. It is linearly interpolated between these values:{{Check Tag|Rounding?}}
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* {{--|8}} moodlet at 0% implantee mood.
 +
*  '''0''' moodlet at 50% implantee mood
 +
* {{+|10}} moodlet at 100% implantee mood.
  
It only impacts members of the same faction, and pawns ''without'' a psychic harmonizer of their own. Mood bonuses from different harmonizers stack on pawns that meet the prior two criteria, however.
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This value is then multiplied by the [[Psychic Sensitivity]] of ''both'' the implantee and the subject of the effect. for example, if a 100% mood implantee has 200% sensitivity, they'd give +20 mood buff. If both the implantee and subject have 200% sensitivity, the subject would receive a +40 mood buff. The final value is uncapped and limited only by the maximum achievable psychic sensitivities of the pawns involved.  
  
[[Slaves]]{{IdeologyIcon}} are considered to be part of their owners' faction for the purposes of the psychic harmonizer, not of their original faction.  
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The effects of multiple psychic harmonizers can stack. However, if a pawn has a psychic harmonizer implant, they cannot be impacted by another psychic harmonizer.
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 +
It only impacts members of the same faction. [[Slaves]]{{IdeologyIcon}} are considered to be part of their owners' faction for the purposes of the psychic harmonizer, not of their original faction.  
 
=== Installation ===
 
=== Installation ===
 
Installing the part requires {{Ticks|2500}} of work, 2x medicine of [[Herbal medicine|herbal]] quality or better, and a [[Skills#Medical|Medical skill]] of 5.
 
Installing the part requires {{Ticks|2500}} of work, 2x medicine of [[Herbal medicine|herbal]] quality or better, and a [[Skills#Medical|Medical skill]] of 5.
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Removing the part requires {{Ticks|2500}} of work, 1x medicine of [[Herbal medicine|herbal]] quality or better, and a [[Skills#Medical|Medical skill]] of 5.
 
Removing the part requires {{Ticks|2500}} of work, 1x medicine of [[Herbal medicine|herbal]] quality or better, and a [[Skills#Medical|Medical skill]] of 5.
  
If the operation fails, the part has a chance{{Check Tag|What Chance?}} to be destroyed.
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If the operation fails, the part will be destroyed.
  
 
==Analysis==
 
==Analysis==
Psychic harmonizers can be an extremely powerful tool to keep your pawns happy if you install it in a pawn who is easily pleased however as the description states, it can easily cause problems as well.
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Psychic harmonizers can be an extremely powerful tool to keep your pawns happy, if you install it in a pawn who is easily pleased. But if the pawn gets upset, it can quickly cause a "death spiral" of mood.
  
===Traits===
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If used on a prisoner: the harmonizer is effective on pawns of the same faction as the prisoner. This can be used to keep other prisoners of that particular faction happy, or it can be used to reduce the mood of their faction's raiders.
Several [[traits]] lend themselves to use with the Psychic Harmonizer:
 
* Positive Natural Mood traits: The [[Sanguine]] and [[Optimist]] traits obviously synergize ideally with this implant, providing both a better effect and greater resistance to negative moodlets.
 
* [[Masochist]]: Exceptionally easy to buff their mood and not only eliminate one of the biggest risks i.e. injury lowering the mood of the harmonized pawn, but turn it into a benefit. Some of the pawns non-mood effectiveness is lost because of [[pain]]'s effect on [[consciousness]] however.
 
* [[Psychopath]]: Immune to many of the largest [[mood]] penalties.
 
* [[Bloodlust]]: Similar to psychopath, they are immune to many penalties but also often get significant mood buffs just by participating in raid battles.
 
* [[Body modder]]: Perhaps the best pawn to have it in, since it counts towards an implant total improving their mood but also exceedingly easy to keep happy. Bionics also improve the base pawns efficiency as well as their mood, so there is not the trade-off seen with Masochist.
 
*[[Psychically hypersensitive]]: As the mood buff scales with psychic sensitivity of the implantee, this directly increases the mood buff by an additional +4.
 
  
Most of these traits' benefits stack, making ideal candidates.
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===Pawn Choice===
 +
The following aspects lend well to being a (mobile) harmonizer pawn:
  
Traits that harm the default mood, such as [[Depressive]] should obviously be avoided, however traits like [[Nervous]] that affect [[Mental Break Threshold]] are largely irrelevant to harmoizer effectiveness.
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* Positive [[mood]] traits. [[Sanguine]] and [[Optimist]] have the most straightforward effect on the implantee's mood. Other traits like [[Body modder]], [[Masochist]], and [[Bloodlust]] also work well. Note that traits that impact [[Mental Break Threshold]], like [[Iron-willed]] and [[Nervous]], have 0 impact on the harmonizer.
 +
* High mood in general: [[Joywire]]s and [[Bliss lobotomy|Bliss lobotomies]]{{AnomalyIcon}} provide a {{+|30}} and {{+|20}} mood boost respectively, or a {{+|50}} mood boost together. If a pawn is happy all day, they are a good candidate.
 +
* Pawns that have the [[Genes#Happy|Happy]]{{BiotechIcon}} or [[Genes#Very_happy|Very Happy]]{{BiotechIcon}} genes, which give {{+|5}} and {{+|10}} mood, respectively.
 +
* High [[Psychic Sensitivity]]. The mood effect scales with the implanted pawn's sensitivity, so assuming you can keep the pawn consistently happy, a higher sensitivity is better. High sensitivity also means a greater effect from a [[psychic drone]], so be very careful with this. [[Eltex]] gear and [[psychic foil helmet]]s can be used to modify psychic sensitivity as needed.
 +
* Pawns that will naturally be near other pawns. For example, a [[psycast]]er can meditate all day (which also counts as [[Recreation]]) in 1 place, a passionate crafter can sit in a chair all day, gaining mood from the passion and the [[comfort]] of their chair, and a genetically happy, joywired, lobotomized, limbless torso can keep other patients happy in your hospital.
 +
* "Disposable" pawns. [[Drug]]s, [[joywire]]s may slow the work of a hauler, but do you really need that extra work speed?
  
===Pawn jobs===
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Unconscious pawns are especially good with a harmonizer, though with the downside of being unable to move. See below for details.
What the pawn does besides act as a mobile [[psychic emanator]] is a valid question - ideally the best jobs for them involve the least upsetting interactions and the most interaction with other pawns. Thus, [[Electric crematorium|corpse burner]] is likely out because of the former, while growers or [[caravan]]eers are likely out for the latter reason. There are several options however.
 
  
Having your implanted pawn being a [[psycast]]er has merit - as meditation is [[recreation]], they can be kept meditating all day and ensuring that:
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===Comatose pawns===
* They are in an optimum position to grant the buff to the most pawns
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A pawn's mood does not change when unconscious. If you can stack mood to 100%, then make a pawn comatose, you'll end up with a permanent {{+|10}} moodlet in the area (so long as the pawn is fed). Because the pawn is unconscious, even a [[psychic drone]] won't bother them, meaning you can stack Psychic Sensitivity as much as you want.
* They maintain a full recreation bar, resulting in another mood buff despite tolerance slowing it.
 
* They maintain a full psyfocus bar, allowing repeated and/or ready use of powerful psycasts like [[Psycasts#Berserk pulse|Berserk Pulse]] or [[Psycasts#Word of inspiration|Word of Inspiration]]
 
 
 
Dumb-labor-only pawns are also options - drugs, pain, and joywires might slow the work of cleaners, haulers and stonecutters but they don't significantly impede their effectiveness otherwise, allowing stacking of mood buffs with little regard to side-effects.
 
 
 
Passionate crafting pawns are also strong candidates - they can sit in a chair all day, in a central location for maximum effect, benefiting from both the comfort bonus and the passion bonus.
 
  
===Other strategies===
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* The easiest way to do this is with the [[Biotech DLC]]. A pawn with the [[Deathrest]] gene{{BiotechIcon}} can willingly enter deathrest, where mood is frozen, and stay in this state indefinitely. A deathrester can be woken on-command, allowing you to replace [[eltex]] gear as needed.  As a side benefit, pawns don't need food during deathrest.
A [[joywire]] can be installed to keep the mood high, however this comes at a significant detriment to a pawn's effectiveness in almost all matters due to the [[consciousness]] penalty.
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* An alternative method is to use brain damage. The goal is to get Consciousness below 30% (but above 0%). You can use an already comatose pawn, but if needed, the fastest way to cause brain damage is to fail to install a brain implant (like a [[painstopper]]). If further Consciousness reduction is needed, you can use a [[joywire]] (-20%) and [[circadian half-cycler]] (-15%). If you need to make the pawn conscious again, then either [[go-juice]] or [[wake-up]] can be used for a Consciousness boost.
 +
 +
Regardless of method, your patient should have the highest mood and highest Psychic Sensitivity as possible. Using some combination of [[yayo]], [[flake]], [[psychite tea]], [[beer]], [[lavish meal]]s, and [[fine meal]]s should get all but the most devastated pawns to 100% mood (assuming they can take drugs at all).
  
As the effect scales with the [[psychic sensitivity]] of the pawn implanted with the harmonizer, another efficient method is to enhance the psychic sensitivity of a pawn. A full set would look like the following: [[eltex skullcap]], [[eltex shirt]], [[eltex vest]], [[eltex robe]], [[eltex staff]], [[psychic sensitizer]], [[Psychically hypersensitive]] trait. This significantly increase the mood effect, up to +50 on highly sensitive pawns, but also receive increased modifiers from [[psychic drone]]s, soothe pulsers and [[Psycast#Word of joy|Word of Joy psycast]].
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=== Defensive use against Enemy Raids ===
 +
[[File:Psychic_Harmonizer_Defense.png|400px|right]]
 +
Always remember that installed harmonizers only affect pawns of the same faction, and that a psychic sensitivity of >0 is essential for both the prisoner and raider.
 +
* Ensure the prisoner is as unhappy as possible; use [[mindscrew]]s, feed them [[kibble]], and do whatever else you can to unappease their ideological requirements ([[Ideology DLC]]).
 +
* Build a long corridor/maze to maximize the time enemy raiders spend in the influence zone of the harmonizers. The spacing of prison cells will depend on the width of your corridor; for a 5-tile wide corridor, a spacing of 25-tiles between cells is optimal. Building the corridor underneath overhead mountain is ideal to stop drop pods from skipping the corridor.
 +
* It's advisable to make the prison cells at least 3-tiles in area so as to fit a sleeping spot, and a heater or cooler. Again, refer to the prisoners' ideologies when creating the worst possible cell for them.
 +
* It's also strongly recommended that you remove all prisoners' legs to prevent them from having mental breaks and escape attempts.
  
[[Drugs]] can be used to increase the mood of the pawn, however this is expensive and tolerance will lead to diminishing returns. Further the risk of overdoses and organ damage exist. Thus, they are best kept for emergencies where they can turn a single dose of [[yayo]] into a colony-wide effect.
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A single prisoner at 0 mood, with a psychic sensitivity of 125%, will cause -14 mood in a raider with 100% psychic sensitivity. This will stack by adding more prisoners within the harmonizers' range, but remember that harmonized prisoners cannot be affected by the harmonizers of other prisoners. By pairing this with other negative moodlets (or simply using enough prisoners), it is possible to make a raiding party go berserk and attack each other until they flee or give up. The longer the corridor, the more chance they will break before reaching your colonists.
  
If the implantee does end up with a negative mood, exiling them in a self contained area more than 30 tiles away from other colonists may be possible.
+
This strategy is expensive to set up, but requires only kibble (and potentially power/wood for temperature control in prison cells) to maintain.  
 
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Eventually the prisoners will die of natural causes and need to replaced, so be sure to harvest their installed implants before they die.
===Comatose pawns===
 
A pawn's mood does not change when it is unconscious. Thus, a significant and permanent mood buff can be obtained by stacking mood and psychic sensitity buffs on a comatose pawn, with the only recurring cost being nurses to feed the pawn. This strategy stacks with many of the other strategies listed here.
 
  
A simple way of creating such a pawn is to wait for a pawn to become brain-damaged. Ideally their [[consciousness]] will be below 30% and result in unconsciousness, but if not penalties from other items such as the -20% from a [[joywire]] or the -15% from a [[circadian half-cycler]] can be used to lower it below the threshold. If the brain-damage itself is sufficient to induce unconsciousness, dosing the pawn with [[wake-up]] and/or [[go-juice]] will temporarily allow them to operate. Regardless of whether it is pre-op or while dosed, while they are conscious they should be equipped with [[eltex]] apparel, as it cannot be done once they're unconscious at the time of writing, and their mood should be made as high as possible so that when they fall unconscious once again their mood is locked at the highest possible.
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This will not be effective against sieges unless you can force them to attack.
  
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Above is an example image (the plans in the image show the 25-tile spacing for the corridor width of 5-tiles) of an optimized corridor of psychically-harmonic deterrence, made for 1 specific enemy faction:
  
 
{{nav|body parts|wide}}
 
{{nav|body parts|wide}}
 
[[Category:Medical Item]] [[Category:Body Part]] [[Category:Implant]]
 
[[Category:Medical Item]] [[Category:Body Part]] [[Category:Implant]]

Latest revision as of 01:38, 7 November 2024

Psychic harmonizer

Psychic harmonizer

This brain implant projects the user's mood in a spherical psychic field, forcing others nearby to feel a blurred, simplified version of their emotions. It can be an powerful tool to keep morale high, but if the user becomes unhappy, it can lead to collective disaster.

Base Stats

Type
Medical ItemsBody Parts
Tech Level
Archotech
Market Value
1030 Silver
Mass
4 kg
HP
50
Flammability
100%
Technical
thingSetMakerTags
ImplantEmpireRoyal
techHediffsTags
ImplantEmpireRoyal
tradeTags
ImplantEmpireRoyal


The Psychic Harmonizer is a special psychic implant that projects the mood of the user to other pawns.

Acquisition[edit]

Psychic harmonizers cannot be crafted, and instead must be acquired through trade or as a quest reward.

Summary[edit]

Once implanted in a pawn, the harmonizer projects a psychic effect with a radius of 30 tiles that affects nearby pawns (of the same faction) with a moodlet.

This moodlet is dependent on the implantee's current mood value. It is linearly interpolated between these values:[Rounding?]

  • −8 moodlet at 0% implantee mood.
  • 0 moodlet at 50% implantee mood
  • +10 moodlet at 100% implantee mood.

This value is then multiplied by the Psychic Sensitivity of both the implantee and the subject of the effect. for example, if a 100% mood implantee has 200% sensitivity, they'd give +20 mood buff. If both the implantee and subject have 200% sensitivity, the subject would receive a +40 mood buff. The final value is uncapped and limited only by the maximum achievable psychic sensitivities of the pawns involved.

The effects of multiple psychic harmonizers can stack. However, if a pawn has a psychic harmonizer implant, they cannot be impacted by another psychic harmonizer.

It only impacts members of the same faction. SlavesContent added by the Ideology DLC are considered to be part of their owners' faction for the purposes of the psychic harmonizer, not of their original faction.

Installation[edit]

Installing the part requires 2,500 ticks (41.67 secs) of work, 2x medicine of herbal quality or better, and a Medical skill of 5.

Removing the part requires 2,500 ticks (41.67 secs) of work, 1x medicine of herbal quality or better, and a Medical skill of 5.

If the operation fails, the part will be destroyed.

Analysis[edit]

Psychic harmonizers can be an extremely powerful tool to keep your pawns happy, if you install it in a pawn who is easily pleased. But if the pawn gets upset, it can quickly cause a "death spiral" of mood.

If used on a prisoner: the harmonizer is effective on pawns of the same faction as the prisoner. This can be used to keep other prisoners of that particular faction happy, or it can be used to reduce the mood of their faction's raiders.

Pawn Choice[edit]

The following aspects lend well to being a (mobile) harmonizer pawn:

  • Positive mood traits. Sanguine and Optimist have the most straightforward effect on the implantee's mood. Other traits like Body modder, Masochist, and Bloodlust also work well. Note that traits that impact Mental Break Threshold, like Iron-willed and Nervous, have 0 impact on the harmonizer.
  • High mood in general: Joywires and Bliss lobotomiesContent added by the Anomaly DLC provide a +30 and +20 mood boost respectively, or a +50 mood boost together. If a pawn is happy all day, they are a good candidate.
  • Pawns that have the HappyContent added by the Biotech DLC or Very HappyContent added by the Biotech DLC genes, which give +5 and +10 mood, respectively.
  • High Psychic Sensitivity. The mood effect scales with the implanted pawn's sensitivity, so assuming you can keep the pawn consistently happy, a higher sensitivity is better. High sensitivity also means a greater effect from a psychic drone, so be very careful with this. Eltex gear and psychic foil helmets can be used to modify psychic sensitivity as needed.
  • Pawns that will naturally be near other pawns. For example, a psycaster can meditate all day (which also counts as Recreation) in 1 place, a passionate crafter can sit in a chair all day, gaining mood from the passion and the comfort of their chair, and a genetically happy, joywired, lobotomized, limbless torso can keep other patients happy in your hospital.
  • "Disposable" pawns. Drugs, joywires may slow the work of a hauler, but do you really need that extra work speed?

Unconscious pawns are especially good with a harmonizer, though with the downside of being unable to move. See below for details.

Comatose pawns[edit]

A pawn's mood does not change when unconscious. If you can stack mood to 100%, then make a pawn comatose, you'll end up with a permanent +10 moodlet in the area (so long as the pawn is fed). Because the pawn is unconscious, even a psychic drone won't bother them, meaning you can stack Psychic Sensitivity as much as you want.

  • The easiest way to do this is with the Biotech DLC. A pawn with the Deathrest geneContent added by the Biotech DLC can willingly enter deathrest, where mood is frozen, and stay in this state indefinitely. A deathrester can be woken on-command, allowing you to replace eltex gear as needed. As a side benefit, pawns don't need food during deathrest.
  • An alternative method is to use brain damage. The goal is to get Consciousness below 30% (but above 0%). You can use an already comatose pawn, but if needed, the fastest way to cause brain damage is to fail to install a brain implant (like a painstopper). If further Consciousness reduction is needed, you can use a joywire (-20%) and circadian half-cycler (-15%). If you need to make the pawn conscious again, then either go-juice or wake-up can be used for a Consciousness boost.

Regardless of method, your patient should have the highest mood and highest Psychic Sensitivity as possible. Using some combination of yayo, flake, psychite tea, beer, lavish meals, and fine meals should get all but the most devastated pawns to 100% mood (assuming they can take drugs at all).

Defensive use against Enemy Raids[edit]

Psychic Harmonizer Defense.png

Always remember that installed harmonizers only affect pawns of the same faction, and that a psychic sensitivity of >0 is essential for both the prisoner and raider.

  • Ensure the prisoner is as unhappy as possible; use mindscrews, feed them kibble, and do whatever else you can to unappease their ideological requirements (Ideology DLC).
  • Build a long corridor/maze to maximize the time enemy raiders spend in the influence zone of the harmonizers. The spacing of prison cells will depend on the width of your corridor; for a 5-tile wide corridor, a spacing of 25-tiles between cells is optimal. Building the corridor underneath overhead mountain is ideal to stop drop pods from skipping the corridor.
  • It's advisable to make the prison cells at least 3-tiles in area so as to fit a sleeping spot, and a heater or cooler. Again, refer to the prisoners' ideologies when creating the worst possible cell for them.
  • It's also strongly recommended that you remove all prisoners' legs to prevent them from having mental breaks and escape attempts.

A single prisoner at 0 mood, with a psychic sensitivity of 125%, will cause -14 mood in a raider with 100% psychic sensitivity. This will stack by adding more prisoners within the harmonizers' range, but remember that harmonized prisoners cannot be affected by the harmonizers of other prisoners. By pairing this with other negative moodlets (or simply using enough prisoners), it is possible to make a raiding party go berserk and attack each other until they flee or give up. The longer the corridor, the more chance they will break before reaching your colonists.

This strategy is expensive to set up, but requires only kibble (and potentially power/wood for temperature control in prison cells) to maintain. Eventually the prisoners will die of natural causes and need to replaced, so be sure to harvest their installed implants before they die.

This will not be effective against sieges unless you can force them to attack.

Above is an example image (the plans in the image show the 25-tile spacing for the corridor width of 5-tiles) of an optimized corridor of psychically-harmonic deterrence, made for 1 specific enemy faction: