Hello! This is my first time posting here, and my first time modding a game! Don’t worry though, I’m a programmer by trade, so this should be doable (famous last words…).
In recent years, I’ve taken a liking to the kinds of game-play rogue-likes and other systems-driven games provide. I found Cataclysm: DDA about a week ago, and have been progressively dying slower every game! 
I was particularly interested once I saw the unwilling experiment scenario in the game, and instantly thought of Akira and all the pseudo-military, experimental bio-weapon tropes in sci-fi shows, anime, and movies. And while mutations are a fairly big thing in the game, psionics are non-existent. So, I decided to add it. And after reading through all the psionics threads I could find on the forums, here’s some of my ideas:
#Background Info
There are Lovecraftian creatures in setting. As such, there are possibly elder-gods, and most likely, things the human mind was not meant to comprehend. IRL, there is a theoretical physics theory called Quantum Space Theory, which essentially asks the question: What if the “fabric” of space-time was not continuous like most theories suggest, but actually quantized. This has a number of interesting consequences, but for our purposes the important part is that there is a fundamental “unit” of space-time called quanta, which supposedly could be manipulated. Complicated background information aside, what does that mean for C:DDA?
#In Game Lore
Whether through the unknowable machinations of elder-beings, or the unchecked experiments of last-ditch scientific efforts, your mind has been altered. Rewired to better fit your creators whims, underlying physical forces of the universe are no longer silent to you. You can feel the cacophonous ebb and flow of reality. The tiniest quantum bits of the universe are now within your conscious perception. And while it may be possible to manipulate these quanta, sadly, it seems the human brain was not meant to function this way. Your head aches as your brain tries to process this constant stream of new information. Now that your masters are dead (or simply ignoring you), maybe you can find a way to use these new insights.
#Mechanics
This is all a work in progress right now, but these are my thoughts so far:
Psionics will work mainly through manipulation of the player’s pain status. I don’t know if this is a viable route, but it seems most fitting with the theme I’m going for.
After gaining the Psionic trait, the player’s pain will have a constant, fairly high penalty (not sure how high though, this will need balance testing).
The Psionic trait grants the Focus skill, which increases as you use psionic powers, read books on meditation and mental self-control (probably not too many of these), or take damage (sort of the opposite of Dodge).
Raising the Focus skill lowers the pain penalty, and since psionic powers use pain as a “power pool” of sorts, this gradually makes the character “stronger” (less racked with pain). Much like crafting, Focus grants new powers as you level, representing the character’s growth of understanding the relationship between the quantum level of the universe and the Newtonian level, as well as their ability to ignore their headache and create their intended effect.
##Progression
- More explosive, “attack/defense” oriented powers are gained first. These are like the crushing bubbles and psychic nukes from Akira. They deal a massive amount of damage to creature, item, building, and player(!) alike, cause a huge (additional) spike in pain, and possibly cause the player to black-out for a bit. These are not “god among men” powers, these are “get out of jail, and hopefully don’t die from the fallout” powers.
- More subtle, utility based powers are gained later. These are the balls of light by creating photons, and moving things with telekinesis powers. These may have a passive pain penalty (protective sphere so you don’t get wet, but can still breath), or increase pain each active turn (ever expanding energy/matter-wave to push creatures away from you).
##Gaining Psionics
Since I haven’t looked through all the source and data files yet, I haven’t decided exactly what to add, but a few ideas are:
- An elder artifact of some kind which warps your brain.
- A starting scenario or two similar to the mutant experiment ones.
- Possibly, getting attacked with psionic powers by other-worldly creatures.
#Conclusion
I don’t know if I’ll need to mess with the C++ code to implement any of this, but it’s my go-to programming language, and I’ve already forked, cloned, and branched the git repo if it does become necessary, so it shouldn’t be too much of a hassle if it is necessary. Anyway, this may just end up being my own personal version of C:DDA, but I figured I’d let everyone know in case some people wanted updates. Let me know what you think! And by all means, give suggestions. I may not use them, but they’re still welcome!
