I love the idea of making the Broken Psi Amp useful in-game, it just ties things together neatly.
Goals:
1. Should be a reasonable power level. This one is kind of tricky, since you can potentially get the Broken Psi-Amp fairly early, so it can't be at end-game power level, but is said to be super-powerful. It's also locked behind resolving 3 quests a specific way. That's either a good excuse to make it powerful (you had to work for it). or borderline useless (you don't want people feeling bad for accidentally permanently missing it years ago).
(I don't know if they tune numbers or anything after things get submitted.)
2. While it makes sense for it to be primarily for Kineticsts, ideally, it should be reasonably useful (but not 'mandatory') for all classes.
I think firstly, considering it is "A broken Psionic Amplifier, removed from Captain Zaalt Kandar's skull." it should be an implant, but I suppose it could be remade to be an accessory. It does require all of the Karaquests I think, so yeah I don't think having it be fairly powerful would be too crazy. I do think because it is a Psionic Amplifier, it should benefit Kineticists who are the only ones we know of to be psionically inclined and use that as their primary mode of combat. Alternatively, maybe just a percentage extra bonus psychic damage, which would make it useful to all classes, if the psi-amp makes you psychically tuned like a kineticist?
Psi-Noise Generator has the Psionic Recovery (Lesser) Flag, but there are two stronger versions in the code that are unused. Since they only work for Kineticists, that would be a class=specific benefit. Alternatively, when implanted, it lets non-Kineticists get the benefit of the Psi-Noise Generator (& others, if they're ever added).
This sounds pretty good too, but class specific yeah. I mean, there's multiple drones that can be upgraded only as Tech Specialist, and a couple instances where you can hack data and get decent credits payout as one, but yeah for something that you had to really work for, it should probably be a decent item for the non-Kineticists too. Maybe a Psionic Shield Boost? It's not really all that useful then though, but I suppose everyone could use bonus shields?
Also, how does it get repaired? Turn it in to Dr. Lessau? Synphia got her Psi-Amp off the Extranet, but she presumably knows the manufacturer. Maybe it was stolen from that company. It just seems to me like there should be a bit of a process for it.
Making it an Implant instead of an Accessory would probably give it a higher power budget, but it would also be a one-off. Implants cannot currently be uninstalled without destroying them...
Unless Dr. Lessau (or Anno?) can sell them after you've repaired it. You've gotten the schematics, after all.
That's true. Synphia is a great catch, she does have a psionic amplifier, it would be interesting to have her involved, but also if it is a combat implant, maybe concluding the quest to fix it by handing it to the implant NPC on Dhaal who can then now have it as a part of her shop's wares for repurchasability could work, and this would also prevent getting too much power early on because you would need to reach Dhaal to fix and implant the chip?
Maybe when repaired it gives the player one of zaalts unique psi attacks as an extra power? Mind Leech or Psi Shockwave?
Also bringing it to Dr. Lessau doesn't make a whole lotta sense to me, nothing in dialogue suggests cybernetics/implants are really in his wheelhouse. Oddly enough, I feel like Dr. Lash would be a better candidate for this task.
This would be really cool too. A specific psionic attack that even non-Kineticists could use would be balanced. I agree that Dr. Lessau probably isn't the best contact in regards to psionics or cybernetics even if nanomachine immune system is kind of his whole thing, his lab is literally called 'Steeletech Biomedical', he seems more on the biological side of things rather than mechanical. Doesn't quite seem like something up his alley, even if he is the most plausible SteeleTech contact. He did help out if asked with a lot, but there's also stuff he couldn't help with even if in his expertise like a cure for Amber because he has a bunch of projects, and in the end we got help from Lumi. It was because the damage was particular and any research done would be focused on a singular targeted cure for Amber, which he couldn't really justify taking time out of his ongoing stuff to do, and I think the same applies for a personal upgrade for his prospective-boss-to-be, especially not his field of specialty. It seems everything he's helped in so far has to do with transformatives and ones that could be mass produced or to do with genetic data.
On the other hand, he helped Paulette and designed a system of shapeshifting nanomachines that could be controlled by thoughts, as a part of his research on prosthetics for disabled people I believe. That doesn't seem very biological, although it does track with the nanomachine immune system. But thought controlled, that could definitely be tangentially related to Psionics and one could very well make the case!
