Maybe we should make the Exterminator able to choose between the basic Mind Shield and the ability to have its kill be Psychic instead of up-close-and-personal, with the upgraded mind shield tech becoming a normal mind shield device. Or give him a mind shield on nights he doesn't kill.
Psychic killing is definitely something to look into, possibly as a Large Tech, possibly as a whole separate role. I'm not a balance guru, I think I've proven that.
For the rest of it, I think you have some good ideas there. For Round 16 I think we'll just go with what we have and we can continue to discuss Aliens and Tech and how we want all of that to evolve.
Get cracking on it, I expect some good techs from you when Round 16 is over
. One idea you should stew over is giving all the Aliens different tech choices (with a healthy amount of overlap, of course) to being them in line with the new Mad Scientists. More aliens would be good. One problem is that most Aliens are defined by their win-con since any abilities would be better as techs, and there aren't many third party win-cons.
Here's another tech idea:
Doppleganger Controller: One of the Dopplegangers will be randomly chosen and placed on the Alien's team. That player becomes a "Controlled Doppleganger". If the Alien doesn't already have a Quicktopic, one will be provided.
Might be a little powerful if an Exterminator already has an Operative. There are ways to fix this, including making the Operative not automatically aligned with the Exterminator. Instead, make the Operative a Mercenary. If the Mercenary exists, any other Alien may use one of their tech slots to hire the Mercenary. The largest tech slot gains the Mercenary's services. If there's a tie, one player will randomly be given the Mercenary's services. The Merc may then use that tech slot however he wishes.The Merc then join the host Alien's team and gets a Quicktopic set up if one doesn't already exist, and the Mercenary's win con then becomes the same as the host Alien (IE: If a Survivor hires a Mercenary, the Mercenary wins if the Survivor survives. If a Scientist is hired, the Merc wins if the Scientist gets all the species he needs (Which is awkward, I know, but hey, why not?)) If no player offers the Mercenary a tech slot, the Mercenary's win con and goal become "Survive". Tech may not be offered after the tech slots are chosen.
Alternatively, make the Aliens only find out about the Merc after they've picked their tech. Then, they offer their tech to the Merc and the Merc chooses which tech he wants. They may do this at any time, but the alignment change only happens at the end of any day or night phase. Certain techs should be impossible to give away (It'd be a little strange to have a Controlled Dopp working for a Merc working for an Exterminator, for instance). Another thing to consider is making the Merc's win-con be both "Survive" and "Host alien's win con", which means he has to be careful not to join up with a Scientist.
The actual Operative could be changed to not be assigned to any one alien all the time, but automatically assigned to one alien at the beginning of the game. For instance, while the Op could still be assigned to an Exterminator, he could also be assigned to a Survivor. It's totally random.
These ideas all need work; they're pretty confusing. Still, I like the idea of seeing a Mercenary or Operative and not knowing who he was working for, or even if a Merc was working for anyone. Both should obviously only appear in games with one or more aliens in them.