SMGs, ARs, Snipers, Pistols, all have totally different playstyles from each other, and they fall under the larger category of guns.
I knew someone would try out "but they're all guns." That's fairly irrelevant. As you point out, despite sharing a skill, each of these weapons are their own distinct thing—and because feats are used to lock you into a given path (since, without them, your mode of offense becomes steadily more inadequate as the game progresses), most are used to the exclusion of the other types of firearms.
Yet despite this, the singular Guns skill allows you to use all types of guns, should you choose. Psi schools each have their own, separate skill line. That's actually one of the key issues here that I haven't yet mentioned, because there's a lot to cover. I could have Guns, Throwing, and Crossbows, if I wanted, and none of them would cause the others to consume more ammunition because I'm carrying more than one type of weapon or some such gibberish. If I invest a full raft of skill points and feats into a skill, I damned well expect to be able to use the skill to its fullest.
Not only that, but psi is now tied to Intelligence. That is not merely three (or four!) skills needed for omni-psi, but two attributes, whereas Guns relies on one attribute and one skill (though to be fair, Dexterity can also play a part).
Guns had a ton of different ways to play, while all Psi builds literally played the same since there was no reason not to spec into every single Psi school.
That is provably false. School-specific feats (such as
all four Metathermics-specific feats), not unlike firearm- or melee weapon-specific feats, did actually exist before the psi nerf. I may have had access to two of the three (or all three) schools in which I chose to invest, but I still had to emphasize some over others, or choose to emphasize none and be more versatile but not super-strong.
Let's review our
three dimensions of choice for pure/emphasized psi, prior to the nerf:
- four possible school combinations (three combinations of two, or all three)
- a dozen or so specialization feats
- Tranquility or Psychosis
Yes, if you went absolutely full-blown psi to the exclusion of all else, you could level all three schools, choose most of the best feats, and would then be left with two notable choices—Tranquility or Psychosis. There were gradations of less psi, though, all of which were viable.
I mean, I never use TM in any of my builds since I don't like it very much either. But whether or not TM is overpowered or bad design or whatever has nothing to do with the psi rework introducing psi reserves and innervation. You're making two different arguments here.
I am arguing on two fronts, yes; and I know it's a bit obnoxious, but they're inextricably linked. I realize Styg stated in the initial announcement that he'd been planning to rework psi for a while, and perhaps that's true, but in my opinion he did it mainly to make room for TM, so that pure psi didn't become truly overpowered with no restrictions (and with TM, it would have). TM and the nerf are interrelated.
Your ability to find some psi builds that exclude TM doesn't alter the fact that TM has taken over like super-AIDS—apt term, by the way. TM has really pozzed the Underrail neghole.
There is a third front: Although I loved having all of my abilities available in any scenario, I do objectively agree that the capacity to do EVERYTHING went too far; and as you say, full-blown pure psi wasn't quite varied enough build-wise (though not "literally the same" as you've hyperbolized). As usual, though, Styg went too damn far. I won't get into specifics, but in my view he broke its (psi's) elbow, poked its eye, stomped its instep, and kicked it in the groin—a thorough torturer.
It was fucking boring to have every single tool for the job, every time, and not have to challenge my brain to think of creative solutions against enemies or situations my build is not optimized for. Sounds like decline to want it any other way tbh.
People can still do this now by either using their meta knowledge to innervate just the right 5-6 psi abilities for a given situation, or else sneak a peak and then scurry off (or reload the game) to innervate same.
And as I've said, before the nerf (and particularly before the expansion), you still had to pick and choose feats. It's just that more (mostly psi nerf-counteracting) feats have been added, forcing you to choose fewer. For example, if you want to innervate two schools without burning more psi, off goes one of your feats. There are a lot of them, as well as nerf-related psi headband parts and medicines, and they're clearly intended to sap power from pure psi.
Long story short, I can see your point; I just think you're over-exaggerating in order to make that point. There was never any "you get absolutely everything" build due to limited feat selection and at least a dual choice between Psychosis and Tranquility. Even if that had been the case, by God Almighty, I invested in three skills, a bunch of feats, and lost 20% (used to be 25%) of my health for the privilege. You can actually feat up two different firearms, such as the sniper rifle and shotgun, at the same time and use both, though not quite as well as if you exclusively selected one; but both of them do only one thing (kill), whereas psi has utility. But both of those firearms also rely on just one attribute and one skill, and don't delete 20% of your health.
