[Secret Master]

I just wish they'd get rid of Psionics. Isn't this supposed to be sci-fi, not fantasy?

Well, let's see if there are any well known science fiction settings that use psionics, shall we?

1) Star Trek: Besides the Vulcans and Betazoids, there are so many instances of psionic activity, I can't even list them here.

2) While they requires the use of an awareness spectrum narcotic, various mental abilities in Dune can certainly qualify as psionics: Guild Navigators, Bene Jesserit, and Paul/Paul's children. (Other Memory makes most psionics pale in comparison.)

3) Star Wars: The Force. Even if you discount using the Force to physically move objects (telekinesis), mind tricks are certainly psioincs in the way the game depicts them. There are even troop types that match up well with Sith and Jedi led-armies.

4) In various Isaac Asimov works, there are characters who can read minds or move objects with their minds. Including sentient robots who can do these things! (And even a sentient robot who works with a galactic collective human intelligence that posses powerful telepathy to subtlety manipulate galactic events for a better future.)

5) Babylon 5: Not only are psionics a thing, humans have an entire law enforcement/oppressive secret police dedicated to dealing with telepaths.

6) Warhammer 40,000: While psionics are incredibly dangerous, they certainly exist in the setting. (Along with demons, space ships, planet cleansing weapons, and ravenous hordes of aliens that just consume all biomatter in a galaxy. Oh, and space orcs. Because why not?)

7) Some of the Invid in the Robotech series (American version) have what amounts to telepathy. And giant mecha. And vehicles powered by mystical power sources.

8) Telepathy makes an appearance in various Stargate series.

These are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head.

 

[Dalinski]

Judge Dread?

 

[Shatterfury]

Well, it's certainly not exclusive to scifi- plenty of fantasy uses the idea of "mind over matter" too.

It might not be exclusively seen only in Sci-fi but it was theorised in science as possible, it`s not made up magic, that is for sure.

 

[Chaos_TLW]

It might not be exclusively seen only in Sci-fi but it was theorised in science as possible, it`s not made up magic, that is for sure.

Can you elaborate on what, exactly, do you mean by that? Most of the cases of mind-over-matter and similar I can recall off the top of my head use some wishy-washy hand-wavey Phlebotinum to make it work, bordering on fantasy. A lot of soft sci-fi is quite similar to fantasy with a shiny chrome veneer exploring specific themes, which is not necessarily bad or good at all.

 

[TheAtreides84]

I just wish they'd get rid of Psionics. Isn't this supposed to be sci-fi, not fantasy?

Psionics has actually more real-world research and speculative theorizing going on than half of the techs in the game. For what we know right now, FTL travel itself is impossible.

 

[TheAtreides84]

Can you elaborate on what, exactly, do you mean by that? Most of the cases of mind-over-matter and similar I can recall off the top of my head use some wishy-washy hand-wavey Phlebotinum to make it work, bordering on fantasy. A lot of soft sci-fi is quite similar to fantasy with a shiny chrome veneer exploring specific themes, which is not necessarily bad or good at all.

Some strict readings of the Copenhagen interpretation of QM could be considered as (and have been accused of being) "mind-over-matter" things. We are talking Wigner, Stapp, Von Neumann here, not some tarot cards reader, mind you (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Von_Neumann–Wigner_interpretation).

 

[Secret Master]

Von Neumann

What von Neumann might look like:

 

[Seon]

Will going fully synthetic also cause changes to your race's portrait? Will all races be converted to that standard robot look, or will there actually be unique machine-version portrait of each races?

 

[henzington]

Will going fully synthetic also cause changes to your race's portrait? Will all races be converted to that standard robot look, or will there actually be unique machine-version portrait of each races?

I would probably guess yes as part of a cosmetic dlc

 

[BlackUmbrellas]

Can you elaborate on what, exactly, do you mean by that? Most of the cases of mind-over-matter and similar I can recall off the top of my head use some wishy-washy hand-wavey Phlebotinum to make it work, bordering on fantasy. A lot of soft sci-fi is quite similar to fantasy with a shiny chrome veneer exploring specific themes, which is not necessarily bad or good at all.

I'd say that Psionics does have the distinction of being an outgrowth of legitimate interest in the possibility of IRL human psychics.

It's pretty obvious that nothing ever came out that interest, but there was a good while where a lot of people (even scientific people) were caught up in the idea that the human brain was an incredibly powerful device and that perhaps it might be possible to explain "mystical" phenomena through some sort of measurable psychic ability. Once upon a time the concept of "ESP" got a lot of media attention.

It's always been relatively "fringe", but it had the same sort of alluring potential as a lot of technologies that were in their relative infancy.

 

[GAGA Extrem]

What von Neumann might look like:
[snip]

OH GOD!
All the buried memories.

Stop raiding my colonies!
Make him stop. PLEASE!!

 

[obolisk0430]

Finally there are the three 'Species Endgame' paths: The biological path, the spiritual path and the synthetic path.

Could we have at least one option for people who don't feel like having their empire become radical trans-humanists/trans-speciests/whatever? Or just some alternative end-game strategy to pursue for those kinds of empires?

 

[Dunaedine]

Could we have at least one option for people who don't feel like having their empire become radical trans-humanists/trans-speciests/whatever? Or just some alternative end-game strategy to pursue for those kinds of empires?

Already answered in the previous comment, but you have twenty ascension perks, 6 are transspecist, the 14 others can be tacked by the bioconservative (in particular the terraforming perks).

 

[Ikael]

This sounds great, but it would seem to me that victory-condition ascension perks come too soon. I mean, you only need what, 2 completed tradition trees in order to become sentient robots, demigods or Forerunners? And you can even add up to 8 ascension perks as well?

Either each tradition tree would need to be absolutely massive, or there simply need to be far more tradition trees than the ones shown so far. Either way, I love this feature for its role playing possibilities, but I am not too sold on how well will it blend with the unity system and tall gameplay.

 

[Milten]

This sounds great, but it would seem to me that victory-condition ascension perks come too soon.

These are not victory-conditions. And first tier of them requires any other two perks unlocked before it.

Either each tradition tree would need to be absolutely massive, or there simply need to be far more tradition trees than the ones shown so far.

Not sure why they would, but with traditions you can only unlock 7 ascension perks, but perks also can be unlocked by exploration and such.

 

[Secret Master]

OH GOD!
All the buried memories.

Stop raiding my colonies!
Make him stop. PLEASE!!

It was all worth it in the end to plunder and mine the Von Neumann planet with mining ships. You have to kill the planet killer, of course, but what's life without a little danger.

All the resources they took, repaid. Well, repaid to me at least.

 

[Endless Rain]

What game is that from?

 

[Secret Master]

What game is that from?

Sword of the Stars. The first one.

 

[Belaaron]

Psionics isn`t magic or fantasy, it`s sci-fi.

Sci-fi is a speculative form of fiction with a foundation based in real-world science. It includes (when composed and developed properly by a SKILLED writer) aspects which, while not scientific fact, are at least plausible within currently known facts and the systemic models that are formed from them. Psionics does not, in any way, fit this classification. It is pure nonsense, and nothing more.

Well, let's see if there are any well known science fiction settings that use psionics, shall we?

1) Star Trek: Besides the Vulcans and Betazoids, there are so many instances of psionic activity, I can't even list them here.

2) While they requires the use of an awareness spectrum narcotic, various mental abilities in Dune can certainly qualify as psionics: Guild Navigators, Bene Jesserit, and Paul/Paul's children. (Other Memory makes most psionics pale in comparison.)

3) Star Wars: The Force. Even if you discount using the Force to physically move objects (telekinesis), mind tricks are certainly psioincs in the way the game depicts them. There are even troop types that match up well with Sith and Jedi led-armies.

4) In various Isaac Asimov works, there are characters who can read minds or move objects with their minds. Including sentient robots who can do these things! (And even a sentient robot who works with a galactic collective human intelligence that posses powerful telepathy to subtlety manipulate galactic events for a better future.)

5) Babylon 5: Not only are psionics a thing, humans have an entire law enforcement/oppressive secret police dedicated to dealing with telepaths.

6) Warhammer 40,000: While psionics are incredibly dangerous, they certainly exist in the setting. (Along with demons, space ships, planet cleansing weapons, and ravenous hordes of aliens that just consume all biomatter in a galaxy. Oh, and space orcs. Because why not?)

7) Some of the Invid in the Robotech series (American version) have what amounts to telepathy. And giant mecha. And vehicles powered by mystical power sources.

8) Telepathy makes an appearance in various Stargate series.

These are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head.

And? Everything has its flaws, and even decent sci-fi is no different. Most of the older works you cite were done in a time period when they sincerely believed drugs could give you powers. We now know that's bunk. Psychic powers simply do not exist in reality, and never will. That discussion is over. No technology or knowledge in the future will ever change that. It's pure fantasy, but since it was once part of sci-fi, it has somehow maintained its presence by "tradition". And no, the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics is not a valid argument. It is, in fact, not used by mostly anyone in the field, because it doesn't work when compared to other much more mathematically and empirically sound hypotheses.

Psionics has actually more real-world research and speculative theorizing going on than half of the techs in the game. For what we know right now, FTL travel itself is impossible.

Except not. There is precisely ZERO statistical or empirical evidence to support even a single claim of the most minimal instance of any kind of psychic ability. While there is at least some very functional mathematics that indicate it may indeed be possible to exceed, bypass, or negate the limit of the speed of light.

Could we have at least one option for people who don't feel like having their empire become radical trans-humanists/trans-speciests/whatever? Or just some alternative end-game strategy to pursue for those kinds of empires?

Yes, it's called extinction. Adapt...or perish.

 

[BlackUmbrellas]

Sci-fi is a speculative form of fiction with a foundation based in real-world science. It includes (when composed and developed properly by a SKILLED writer) aspects which, while not scientific fact, are at least plausible within currently known facts and the systemic models that are formed from them. Psionics does not, in any way, fit this classification. It is pure nonsense, and nothing more.

Besides the fact that at one point "psionics" was taken a lot more seriously than it is now, you'll have to find me where "science fiction" is defined, in the sense of "these are the commandments from god about what science fiction can and can not be".

I'll wait.