About topology and (larger) playerships

[DeltaIsaire]

Hey folks,

been a while since I played Trancendence. Once again I feel myself wanting for a single-player space exploration game, and transcendence is pretty good. There are however a few things I don't like about Vanilla, and I was wondering what mods are available to change that.

First, the topology. There is one really cool thing about vanilla: the steady progression in system difficulty, from one side of the universe to the other. That's cool. But there should be more systems, and a bit less linearity.
Ideally, I imagine a cluster of 6-10 systems for each system "level" (of which there are 10 IIRC). Within each cluster the systems link to each other in a branched pattern, so there would be like 3-4 gates in each system (instead of 2). Then the clusters line up neatly, and to get from one cluster to the next you need to cross the important systems (Rigel, St Ks, Sanctuary, etc). This topology would be larger and more varied, but still very structured (not totally random) and without links from say charon space to Ares space or anything silly like that.
How close does Beyond the Mainline come to this?
How difficult would it be to make a topology mod like this?

Second, the playership. I'm not a huge fan of small, nimble figher ships. I prefer something bigger, more sluggish and with more than 1 gun. A bit like the Xenophobe Defender, with 1 forward-facing main gun and 2 secondary guns on the sides. The Playership Drones mod should be able to help with that, right?
Are there any playership mods that happpen to be like this?
Also, how balanced would it be? Given that 1. the drive upgrades enhance max speed, so you can still outrun most things; 2. the secondary guns increase firepower (even if their fire-arcs only cover the sides, not all the way to the port and aft) and 3. 12 armor segments provide more total HP? Of course lack of turning rate and acceleration will hurt your dodging ability, and your shield ain't getting stronger.

[TheLoneWolf]

There is a mod that lets you play as THE FATHER OF ALL Phobos class destroyer!

[Song]

Balancing a larger ship is very difficult, but there are a few mods around that do it. I know there's ships in The Stars Beyond (registered extension, still in development when Wolfy un-vanishes again), and I think there might be one or two in The Backroads (also still in development) that fit the bill. There's likely a few single-ship mods as well. Playership Drones will definitely do what you want, but does sometimes unbalance the hell out of the game (the mod itself is fine...the game just isn't built for the player owning a really large ship).

In terms of the system network.....it's a tricky thing to rework, so there's relatively few mods that do it. It's become a bit more common in recent years though since the system got a little less horrible to work with. The classic mod is 'The Network', but that's an old one and may not even work anymore. I haven't tried 'Beyond the Mainline' personally, so I wouldn't know exactly what it does.

[AssumedPseudonym]

Second, the playership. I'm not a huge fan of small, nimble figher ships. I prefer something bigger, more sluggish and with more than 1 gun. A bit like the Xenophobe Defender, with 1 forward-facing main gun and 2 secondary guns on the sides. The Playership Drones mod should be able to help with that, right?
Are there any playership mods that happpen to be like this?
Also, how balanced would it be? Given that 1. the drive upgrades enhance max speed, so you can still outrun most things; 2. the secondary guns increase firepower (even if their fire-arcs only cover the sides, not all the way to the port and aft) and 3. 12 armor segments provide more total HP? Of course lack of turning rate and acceleration will hurt your dodging ability, and your shield ain't getting stronger.

Balancing a larger ship is very difficult, but there are a few mods around that do it. I know there's ships in The Stars Beyond (registered extension, still in development when Wolfy un-vanishes again), and I think there might be one or two in The Backroads (also still in development) that fit the bill. There's likely a few single-ship mods as well. Playership Drones will definitely do what you want, but does sometimes unbalance the hell out of the game (the mod itself is fine...the game just isn't built for the player owning a really large ship).

 The Backroads currently does not have any playable capital ships, and this is largely because of balance issues. I know the ship that Shrike is talking about from The Stars Beyond, and while it’s fun enough a ship to fly, it’s also grossly overpowered. The secondary weapons are auto-targeting (much like an omnidirectional weapon without a targeting ROM is which can actually be both a blessing and a curse depending on the situation, now that I think about it), and it’s entirely possible to just forego a primary weapon altogether with that sort of setup. That said, I’m now tempted to try my hand at it, though it would require a few dockscreen additions for various dockscreen services — specifically for weapon installation (since Wolfy’s Velociraptor being able to change which weapons are its primary or secondary weapons is part of its issue with being overpowered) and for armor (to handle repairing interior compartments). Also, I’m not at all sure how I’d go about displaying interior HP without having to check it on the in-ship dockscreen.
 The game does have a few built-in balance measures that could help make piloting a capital ship less overpowered. For one thing, having twelve armor segments will make for expensive upgrade and repair bills. Another thing is, with interior compartments, the probability of having weapons being damaged. While primary weapons can be fixed with either a weapon optimizer ROM or the appropriate damage type enhancer for the weapon, there is currently no mechanism in the game for repairing installed secondary weapons. Without being able to repair secondary weapons, you’d have to replace them — again, this gets expensive. As far as drive devices go, I haven’t experimented with them enough at all to know how long it takes to accelerate to top speed, stop from top speed, or reverse direction in a capital ship with just its stock drive, let alone with an after-market drive. If it turns out to be any more gamebreaking than a capship already is, though, it wouldn’t be difficult to just code the ship not to allow drive upgrades.
 …Dammit Shrike why did you have to drag me in on this conversation. Now I’m going to have to look into the possibility of a TBR player capship at some point. *Fistshake!*

[DeltaIsaire]

Yup, the strong point of larger ships is definitely the increased firepower and auto-aiming of secondary weapons.
At the very least, the weapon arcs can be tuned to not overlap. For example, the starboard gun could have a 120 degree arc, from 15° to 135°. That way no 2 guns can fire on the same target unless they are omni, and it leaves a 90° blind spot at the back of the ship.
In addition, dodging incoming fire will be much more difficult with the larger profile and sluggish maneuvering. In a way it forces you to kill opponents quickly, and to be careful what you get yourself into. Also, I guess that if you don't have the top-speed to outrun stuff, you can end up without an exit option in a fight you cannot win.

What is the deal with interior compartments?

[AssumedPseudonym]

 Interior compartments are basically used as secondary HP after armor for capital ships, and works like multi-hull stations (only takes 1 HP damage per shot without WMD weapons). It’s why the second half of a capital ship’s HP bar is so slow to go down after the first half most of the time.

[relanat]

Repeated attempts at running Beyond the Mainline (written for 1.3) with version 1.5 have resulted in game crashes when entering St Kats for me. I like the look of the adventure but I wouldn't be too hopeful about it working with 1.6.

If you have any modding ability you could get one of the capships from PSD6 and cut and paste it for PSD7. PM has extensions for a couple of modder playerships in there which makes this "fairly" easy. This would balance becasue you only get one weapon at the moment in PSD7.