1.6 Beta 5

New releases and announcements from George and the staff.
george moromisato
Developer
Developer
Posts: 2997
Joined: Thu Jul 24, 2003 9:53 pm
Contact:

Beta 5 is ready for download: https://kronosaur.com/downloads/TranscendenceNext.zip

This new release has several new features, including a revamp of mining and some UI enhancements for dock services. Please check it out and let me know what you think.

You can learn more about the mining features in this (somewhat long) stream that I did for IRC day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMcr-uJXI0o

And the full list of fixes is available at the Ministry: https://ministry.kronosaur.com/program. ... sed&tag=27

Thanks to everyone for their feedback!

p.s.: This version implements API 27, so there is a new TransData for it: https://kronosaur.com/downloads/TransData.zip
shanejfilomena
Fleet Officer
Fleet Officer
Posts: 1533
Joined: Tue Mar 22, 2011 8:43 pm
Location: Alaska
Contact:

Just got it :)

And I was just complaining about the way the loot screens were annoying me - you Fixed it :)

AND besides fixing it - you made it easier to read and far better to use:)

Did I say thank you? THANK YOU!! :)

I Love this Universe :)
Flying Irresponsibly In Eridani......

I don't like to kill pirates in cold blood ..I do it.. but I don't like it..
JohnBWatson
Fleet Officer
Fleet Officer
Posts: 1452
Joined: Tue Aug 19, 2014 10:17 pm

First impressions:

Like the new dockscreens and fixes there. Use of pgup, pgdown, and esc is awkward, however. I'd prefer keys closer to the center of the keyboard, like the old ones.

New mining system appears to work well, at least in early systems. Well balanced, and overall much more enjoyable. The only change I'd suggest is making mining and scanner pods nullify their momentum a bit when launching, to make it easier to line them up.

I've not gotten up to the mining union or Korolov missions yet, but I'll certainly check those out and report any glitches.
PM
Fleet Admiral
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 2570
Joined: Wed Sep 01, 2010 12:54 am

Have not much time to play with the beta yet. However...

Big long names in LRS (blip radar) are very annoying. It is a distraction when I am looking for blips.

There may be a bug in the mining damage table. There are twenty-five elements, but since lists have an index of zero, there should be twenty-six elements (or item check level minus one, that is (subtract (itmGetLevel ...) 1) instead of (itmGetLevel ...) ) so that the mining code does not reference Nil on level 25 ore, or reference ore one level above.
Download and Play in 1.9 beta 1...
Drake Technologies (Alpha): More hardware for combat in parts 1 and 2!
Star Castle Arcade: Play a classic arcade game adventure, with or without more features (like powerups)!
Playership Drones: Buy or restore exotic ships to command!

Other playable mods from 1.8 and 1.7, waiting to be updated...
Godmode v3 (WIP): Dev/cheat tool compatible with D&O parts 1 or 2.
george moromisato
Developer
Developer
Posts: 2997
Joined: Thu Jul 24, 2003 9:53 pm
Contact:

JohnBWatson wrote:First impressions:

Like the new dockscreens and fixes there. Use of pgup, pgdown, and esc is awkward, however. I'd prefer keys closer to the center of the keyboard, like the old ones.

New mining system appears to work well, at least in early systems. Well balanced, and overall much more enjoyable. The only change I'd suggest is making mining and scanner pods nullify their momentum a bit when launching, to make it easier to line them up.

I've not gotten up to the mining union or Korolov missions yet, but I'll certainly check those out and report any glitches.
FYI: Mining Union requires Corporate Command--I haven't added content to CC in a while, so I thought it was time.

Long term, I'd like to use a tabbed interface for the dock services screen. But maybe I can add some key accelerators for each pane in then meantime.
george moromisato
Developer
Developer
Posts: 2997
Joined: Thu Jul 24, 2003 9:53 pm
Contact:

PM wrote:There may be a bug in the mining damage table. There are twenty-five elements, but since lists have an index of zero, there should be twenty-six elements (or item check level minus one, that is (subtract (itmGetLevel ...) 1) instead of (itmGetLevel ...) ) so that the mining code does not reference Nil on level 25 ore, or reference ore one level above.
You're totally right. I hate off-by-one errors.
PM
Fleet Admiral
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 2570
Joined: Wed Sep 01, 2010 12:54 am

M5 Nemesis missile does LESS damage than the M2 Vulcan!

Radius damage problem seems reversed. If an attacker overlaps the center of a big target and fires, radius damage has no effect. Works fine if it hits the edge of the target. Admittedly, the new way is more useful than before, and hides the problem much better.
Download and Play in 1.9 beta 1...
Drake Technologies (Alpha): More hardware for combat in parts 1 and 2!
Star Castle Arcade: Play a classic arcade game adventure, with or without more features (like powerups)!
Playership Drones: Buy or restore exotic ships to command!

Other playable mods from 1.8 and 1.7, waiting to be updated...
Godmode v3 (WIP): Dev/cheat tool compatible with D&O parts 1 or 2.
kay.py
Militia Lieutenant
Militia Lieutenant
Posts: 139
Joined: Mon Dec 28, 2009 10:33 am

PM wrote:Big long names in LRS (blip radar) are very annoying. It is a distraction when I am looking for blips.
And a real pain when shooting long distance.
There may be a bug in the mining damage table. There are twenty-five elements, but since lists have an index of zero, there should be twenty-six elements (or item check level minus one, that is (subtract (itmGetLevel ...) 1) instead of (itmGetLevel ...) ) so that the mining code does not reference Nil on level 25 ore, or reference ore one level above.
Does this mean that all the drops are off by one level? If so any balance info we collect isn't going to be right...
PM
Fleet Admiral
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 2570
Joined: Wed Sep 01, 2010 12:54 am

kay.py wrote:Does this mean that all the drops are off by one level? If so any balance info we collect isn't going to be right...
It means player needs more damage to mine a ton of ore from an asteroid. If not, player cannot mine at all because weapon is too weak. Assuming you have the damage, you should be able to mine as much ore you expect.

Damage threshold from level 1 to 10 should look like this:
(1 1 2 2 3 4 5 7 9 11)

Instead, we have this due to one-off error:
(1 2 2 3 4 5 7 9 11 15)

Your mining weapon needs to hit minimum damage to mine a single ton of ore, and the minimum damage scales upward as you progress to higher level systems.

Mining laser hits for a maximum of 4 damage. Plasma cannon hit for up to 20 damage (highly unlikely) if clouds can stack hits on asteroids.

Mining in late-game systems is not feasible with current mining weapons because mining weapons are too weak. Even class C pods have difficulty mining late-game systems, despite 8d12 thermo damage (average of 52).
Download and Play in 1.9 beta 1...
Drake Technologies (Alpha): More hardware for combat in parts 1 and 2!
Star Castle Arcade: Play a classic arcade game adventure, with or without more features (like powerups)!
Playership Drones: Buy or restore exotic ships to command!

Other playable mods from 1.8 and 1.7, waiting to be updated...
Godmode v3 (WIP): Dev/cheat tool compatible with D&O parts 1 or 2.
JohnBWatson
Fleet Officer
Fleet Officer
Posts: 1452
Joined: Tue Aug 19, 2014 10:17 pm

I've suggested this before, but now it's much more needed: destroyed stations should have their names' appearance altered.

I would suggest removing the names of destroyed stations from the radar, and changing them to grey on the map. It'd make navigating systems a lot easier on the eyes, and I imagine it wouldn't be that difficult to program in. It's also a very useful thing to have for CSC America, given how chaotic RTS maps can get.
PM
Fleet Admiral
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 2570
Joined: Wed Sep 01, 2010 12:54 am

Question to George: Does (sysCreateWeaponFire ...) play sounds now? I noticed that my script-heavy mod multishot weapons are much louder than before, and one of them mixes two different sounds together. If (sysCreateWeaponFire ...) does play sound, this hurts. I now need to use some sort of counter (charges for some) to keep track of shots, and need lines of code to try to stop it from happening. It would be nice if (sysCreateWeaponFire ...) does not play sound anymore by default (and accept optional parameter for sound).
Download and Play in 1.9 beta 1...
Drake Technologies (Alpha): More hardware for combat in parts 1 and 2!
Star Castle Arcade: Play a classic arcade game adventure, with or without more features (like powerups)!
Playership Drones: Buy or restore exotic ships to command!

Other playable mods from 1.8 and 1.7, waiting to be updated...
Godmode v3 (WIP): Dev/cheat tool compatible with D&O parts 1 or 2.
george moromisato
Developer
Developer
Posts: 2997
Joined: Thu Jul 24, 2003 9:53 pm
Contact:

PM wrote:Question to George: Does (sysCreateWeaponFire ...) play sounds now? I noticed that my script-heavy mod multishot weapons are much louder than before, and one of them mixes two different sounds together. If (sysCreateWeaponFire ...) does play sound, this hurts. I now need to use some sort of counter (charges for some) to keep track of shots, and need lines of code to try to stop it from happening. It would be nice if (sysCreateWeaponFire ...) does not play sound anymore by default (and accept optional parameter for sound).
You're right--I made that change. But I'm happy to change it back and add an option to sysCreateWeaponFire. Please add something to Ministry and I'll take care of it.
josh19967
Militia Lieutenant
Militia Lieutenant
Posts: 162
Joined: Mon Aug 30, 2010 10:52 pm
Location: Vacationing at ModWorld... :D

Image

This happened while I was trying to refuel at a CSC after reaching master sergeant rank. No problems before then >.>
I really don't care if I get my hair cut... *snip* NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!
User avatar
Song
Fleet Admiral
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 2801
Joined: Mon Aug 17, 2009 4:27 am

I'm liking the new Arena AI.

Possible bug (not ticketing it because I'm not sure): the enhancements that can randomly generate on the "special" centurions seem to have become a bit more homicidal. I just looted a dual turbolaser enhanced up to ten shots per second, which has an effective perfect DPS (which on a gunship is impossible except for base-busting) of one hundred and fifty average damage per second. That's awesome, but possibly a little excessive since Katami didn't give me a special heads-up beforehand besides the usual "your shield isn't strong enough".
Mischievous local moderator. She/Her pronouns.
PM
Fleet Admiral
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 2570
Joined: Wed Sep 01, 2010 12:54 am

Shrike wrote:Possible bug (not ticketing it because I'm not sure): the enhancements that can randomly generate on the "special" centurions seem to have become a bit more homicidal. I just looted a dual turbolaser enhanced up to ten shots per second, which has an effective perfect DPS (which on a gunship is impossible except for base-busting) of one hundred and fifty average damage per second. That's awesome, but possibly a little excessive since Katami didn't give me a special heads-up beforehand besides the usual "your shield isn't strong enough".
Centurions had super-fast lasers for a few versions at least. X-ray laser also has 150 DPS. That said, it may be better to give the Centurion X-ray laser so that Katami knows about it (and warn player if necessary).
Download and Play in 1.9 beta 1...
Drake Technologies (Alpha): More hardware for combat in parts 1 and 2!
Star Castle Arcade: Play a classic arcade game adventure, with or without more features (like powerups)!
Playership Drones: Buy or restore exotic ships to command!

Other playable mods from 1.8 and 1.7, waiting to be updated...
Godmode v3 (WIP): Dev/cheat tool compatible with D&O parts 1 or 2.
Post Reply