[YAAP] [1.7] Finished the game without firing a shot or installing any devices

General discussion about anything related to Transcendence.
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BlastEndedSqrt
Anarchist
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Joined: Sat Jul 08, 2017 1:40 am

Transcendence is pretty easy so I figured I'd try a few custom conducts - the first one that came to mind was beating the game using only Domina powers, no weapons. My rules for the conduct were:

At the start of the game, disable your weapons and never turn them back on.
Never install anything to your ship. (I figured this was the logical extension of "never using weapons" - never installing shields and armor forced me to make strategic use of Sustain).

I also ended up never using any items (barrels, autons, ROMs etc) other than the Gem of Sacrifice. Not sure it's winnable without the Gem since I'm pretty sure a Shatter+Circle of Wrath won't kill the ICS in one go.

Strategy: Scrounge for wrecks and random containers you find. Goals here are money and anything illegal (to get a Black Market ID). Once you do, buy slave coffins (I think 20 is enough) and give them to Sisters. Once you get Shatter, do the Antarctica mission for the Gem, then go to Heretic.

Heretic's kinda hard - Shatter and Circle of Wrath are your only damage-dealers and they don't kill the pteravore lairs, so I lost the Svalbard Explorer and had to get 3 ROMs instead of just 1. I got 1 from the neurohack mission, and I don't think any of the others are doable: MRAD needs you to install a device, I don't think Shatter can kill the Iocrym outpost or the Ark, and I killed the Huygens Explorer with Shatter which obviously didn't get me the ROM. Might have been able to do that with CoW but idk.

So I had to cheese the sentinel waves to get the other two ROMs. There are two strategies I know of here: hide out on an asteroid near the Commonwealth station by the gate - the guards will wail on the sentinels but they won't fight back since they're focused on you (Bug? They really should attack the settlement since they're killing everything else). OR you can kite the sentinels around the middle of the system and let the pteravores eat them. I got one ROM using each method.

Once I had the 3 ROMS it's just Sustain (actually I used Defend on a whim) - Gem - Shatter (You can't shatter the ICS) and you're done. In a way it was actually a bit easier than a normal game.

Might try another conduct sometime. I know the game tracks "No backtracking" so that sounds interesting.

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BLASTENDEDSQRT

Adventure	Domina & Oracus I: The Stars of the Pilgrim
Black Market rank	Smuggler
Domina relationship	Canon
Fate	Left Human Space on a journey to the Galactic Core
Game	Registered
Genome	Human male
Money (credits)	21
Score	39,948
Ship class	Wolfen-class gunship
Time played	3 hours and 59 minutes
Version	1.7

ACHIEVEMENTS & REGRETS

Defended the CSC Antarctica	

COMBAT

Enemy ships destroyed	10

COMMERCE

Profit on arms	151,330
Profit on ship's equipment	21,854

CONDUCTS

Honored permadeath	
Never destroyed friendly ships or stations	

DAMAGE SUSTAINED

light plasteel armor	1,115
class II deflector	3,430

ENEMY SHIPS DESTROYED

Iocrym command ship	1
Huygens Explorer	1
Iocrym sentinel	1
Aquila-class cruiser	4
Meth enforcer	1
Wind slaver	2

EXPLORATION

Systems visited	25
Never reached the Galactic Core	

EXTENSIONS

The Stars of the Pilgrim HD	

FINAL EQUIPMENT

dual laser cannon	
NAMI missile launcher	
class II deflector	
4 damaged segments of light plasteel armor	
Nova-10 reactor	

ITEMS INSTALLED

light plasteel armor	
NAMI missile launcher	
class II deflector	
dual laser cannon	
Nova-10 reactor	

MISSIONS & ACTIVITIES

Slaves offered to Domina	21
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Xephyr
Militia Captain
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I like the idea of a "powers only" conduct. Might be cool to do that in Eternity Port as well.

Have you tried doing a speedrun yet? If you get good topology generation you can get to Heretic in less than 5 minutes, then its a matter of arming up (not hard with Terraformer wrecks everywhere in previous systems) and doing the Heretic missions.
Project Renegade (Beta) : "The Poor Man's Corporate Command!"
Real programmers count from 0. And sometimes I do, too.
BlastEndedSqrt
Anarchist
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Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Jul 08, 2017 1:40 am

Speedruns aren't really my thing (I like slow and thinky roguelike gameplay - my only attempt at a Nethack speedrun was based on overflowing the turn counter. kek) Might check it out though. I was scrounging for random wrecks a lot though and didn't find any Gaians or that many Xenophobe wrecks, which are the usual loot pinatas I look out for, so it seems like getting kitted out in a matter of minutes would be really up to chance.
shanejfilomena
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Posts: 1533
Joined: Tue Mar 22, 2011 8:43 pm
Location: Alaska
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Storyline kind of answer...
The Iocrym will not attack the "basic" Commonwealth station near the entry gate in Heretic...it is not in the target listing for the Sentinels because (as a station), it isn't violating the terms of agreement with the Iocrym ( but I have got them to destroy the station trying to get at me).

reasoning?
In STK you observe the Monument, so long as the Commonwealth abides and does not attempt to tamper with Heretic, the iocrym "shouldn't attack them" without provocation, only the stations that were making an effort to tamper with Heretic are attacked.
==================================
You must remember that a ship ordered to 'attack is not like a ship ordered to attack a specific target. it will not defend itself until it's orders are complete ( unless otherwise instructed to take out defenders or respond if taking too much damage)

The Iocrym have orders to attack the Player once all interfering stations are destroyed - it is not a bug that they don't defend against the station guards BUT they can & will take out the guards if they continue to attack the Sentinel after it's orders are complete.
I have seen several Corporate Cruisers & other commonwealth militia ships lost in Heretic because of this.
Flying Irresponsibly In Eridani......

I don't like to kill pirates in cold blood ..I do it.. but I don't like it..
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