What's new?

[Lmoy]

I've been away from Transcendence for quite a while, and haven't really played since pre-1.1. I think my last full playthrough was on 1.06 or something around that, I can't quite remember. Would someone mind summing up the major changes since then? It looks like a lot of progress has been made!

[Song]

I've been away from Transcendence for quite a while, and haven't really played since pre-1.1. I think my last full playthrough was on 1.06 or something around that, I can't quite remember. Would someone mind summing up the major changes since then? It looks like a lot of progress has been made!

I'll do my best!

Administrative and content:
- New (paid) expansion to the main storyline: Corporate Command
- New (also paid) campaign: Eternity Port
-The game's on steam now, bundled with those two expansions
- There's an HD graphics pack that's free to peeps on Steam....I can't remember how it works on Multiverse. It gives all the big ships 120 facing graphics.
- Part II is in development
- George does a weekly stream (but not this week because of Thanksgiving) in which he tries to play through Stars of the Pilgrim. This is probably the first full playthrough he's done in many, many years.
-There's also an RTS being worked on that uses the same engine. CSC America lets you command a star carrier against the Ares, and that's about all we know about it right now since we haven't heard much about it lately. I'm not supposed to call it CSC America: Universe Police.

Juicy stuff:
- Non-critical armor is gone, there's an internal hitpoint system that....doesn't work very well, but has potential
-Mining got nerfed to hell but also has potential to be good with a few other things
-An equivalent system to RPC's Visible Damage mod got integrated into the game. Things now emit smoke when you're hitting internal compartments.
-New graphics for most engine-generated effects. Blast and thermo were most recently overhauled. 1.7 [coming Soon(TM) ] will redo a heck of a lot more effects and also put in some rebalancing.
-New graphics for some ships (Eg. the UAS ships, the larger marauder and charon ships)
-Playerships have 120 facings.
-Gravity is implemented on a total of one star in the paid campaign (Sirius B, in Eternity Port), but works in vanilla if you mod it in. It's a bit game-breaking if you're not careful though.
-New star backgrounds and shadows from planets and the like. You can adjust it in Settings.xml
-The game's been upgraded from DirectX7 to DirectX9. Mostly to support the steam overlay, but it's cool anyway.
-New graphics for asteroids and some stations
-Lots of little stuff. Apart from some power-creep and balance issues the game's generally working pretty well.


1.7 will add a lot to that list, by the look of it.


Oh, and other stuff:

-There's a new bug tracker that uses your Multiverse login (same that you use ingame if you want to post highscores) at ministry.kronosaur.com
-Xelerus is dying a slow death (still) but we still don't really have a replacement yet. Steam Workshop is apparently on the way for Steam users but no one knows what's gonna happen for the non-steam crowd.
-The Stars Beyond (AKA: TX2) is still unfinished, but is due to be completed shortly before the time in which it is set.

[AssumedPseudonym]

- There's an HD graphics pack that's free to peeps on Steam....I can't remember how it works on Multiverse. It gives all the big ships 120 facing graphics.

 It’s free to all players. I think this link will work.

- George does a weekly Thursday stream (but not this week because of Thanksgiving) in which he tries to play through Stars of the Pilgrim. This is probably the first full playthrough he's done in many, many years.

 I fixed a few things in there.

- The game now has a soundtrack that can be downloaded through Multiverse.

 …Okay, they didn’t say that, but I’ll attribute it to them anyway because I’m nice like that. It can be found here.

[Song]

- There's an HD graphics pack that's free to peeps on Steam....I can't remember how it works on Multiverse. It gives all the big ships 120 facing graphics.

 It’s free to all players. I think this link will work.

- George does a weekly Thursday stream (but not this week because of Thanksgiving) in which he tries to play through Stars of the Pilgrim. This is probably the first full playthrough he's done in many, many years.

 I fixed a few things in there.

- The game now has a soundtrack that can be downloaded through Multiverse.

 …Okay, they didn’t say that, but I’ll attribute it to them anyway because I’m nice like that.

See, I don't say thursday...because for me (and about half the world) it's actually on Friday.

And yeah, I forgot the soundtrack.

[JohnBWatson]

- There's an HD graphics pack that's free to peeps on Steam....I can't remember how it works on Multiverse. It gives all the big ships 120 facing graphics.

Free there, too. A very good addition to the game, so anyone who hasn't gotten it ought to give it a go.

[TheLoneWolf]

Oh! And APA got particle effect! Somebody please explain the new mining to me...

[Lmoy]

Wow, that's a lot of really exciting changes! I can't wait until I get a chance to play it again. Especially with the HD graphics pack and increased facings. I was always bothered by the choppy turning (though it did have its own unique charm, I think). I recall that the reason ships couldn't have more than 40 facings was due to AI issues that were inherent to the engine. Were those ironed out?

[AssumedPseudonym]

I recall that the reason ships couldn't have more than 40 facings was due to AI issues that were inherent to the engine. Were those ironed out?

 Mostly, at least. It’s working well enough that most mods that add new NPC ships — including the official ones like Corporate Command and Eternity Port — make them with 120 facings by default now.