Some ideas to make transcendence more fun.

[TheLoneWolf]

So, well, i had this idea and said "Why not? Lets share it". This idea can change the Transcendence we know completely. Im suggesting tradational RPG elements to be added:

1. XP and Fame system
Alright. You all know XP. Experience. So a ship doesnt earn xp. You do. So when the next time you knock some ships down, 'level up' will appear (if you have enough xp to do so ofcourse) and this level will grant you some realistic skills. Like 'Engineer' which lessens the rate of devices being damaged and increases the armour repaired by using patches, etc. Also, overly using a weapon to destroy enemies will grant 'class xp' which increases profeciency. For eg, if you use a turbolazer too much, the damage done by all lazer weapons is increased according to the xp in the particular class. Fame means that smaller enemies fear you. No more sandstorms come to harass you after you knock out a phobos. But risk is increased also, as now the ares send high class ships to kill you. Also fame is fractional. Only significant feats gain you multi-versal fame. Like killing the kronosaur or Arco.

[TheLoneWolf]

2. Upgradable Ships OVERHAUL
So transcendence ships are upgradable, eh? I think so that George gave quite large upgrade freedom to ships. Ares plasma archcannon on a wolfen? Lol. A 1 GW reactor on a sapphire? Its like an excavator engine on a scooter. The engine is bigger than the transport itself.
So there are these imbalances all around. Solution? SHIP UPGRADE PATHS! Example? Here:
{btw make Ronin A playable. Remove Sapphire (lol fans, including George, will slaughter me. But my favourite start ship is Wolfen and all around is Manticore!) or just make it available}
RONIN-A =(with 100xp + 2800 credits)> RONIN-B =(with 250xp + helped Kolorov destroy a Charon station once + defeated the kronosaur)> RONIN-C =(500xp + got military id)> CENTURION I =(1550xp + completed all missions of atleast 2 commonwealth fortress)> CENTURION II =(3750xp + protected point juno)> BRITANNIA =(10,000xp + destroyed csc antartica + retreived project lamplighter + destroyed an Ares Shipyard + retreived 5 ares war ribbions)> AQUILA.
So the ship upgrades require special tasks to be completed. Atlast, the humble Ronin becomes an Aquila. Please notice that you only pay once to upgrade. The string of events ensures the rest. And we are in need of more ships, as the upgrade paths of the other ships are not as rich (the sapphire and E1500 upgrades are crap) but i was able to do justice to Wolfen:
WOLFEN =(got black market id + 425xp + 5000 credits)>* MOLTOK =(won the arena + 3000xp + have insurance)> MANTICORE =(have corporate command + 10,000xp + defeated the chimera)> SVAROG.
*WOLFEN =(800xp + reached the Ranx + have trade with Ranx + 10,000 credits)> RANX GUNSHIP =(8500xp + helped the Ranx defeat 3 Ferir colonies)> RANX DREADNOUGHT.

See the alternate paths? One requires corporate command and one requires George to open Ranx ports.
So for reactors, the ronin line support upto 200MW+enhancement, the centurion line upto 500MW+enh, the britannia upto 750MW/800MW+enhancement and the Aquila the most uber one. The weapon adjustment coming in no.3.

[TheLoneWolf]

3. Weapon installation OVERHAUL
One big factor discussed in ^^^ was the way large freedom the ships got. So now they are limited by their reactor range. But lets now add another hurdle. WEAPON SIZE AND WEAPON MW RATING! The latter first.
So we know that in Transcendence, there are 3 types of chains till now (as per part 1 of domina and oracus trilogy) which are:
i). MATTER--- Kinetic => Blast => Thermo => Plasma.
ii). ENERGY--- Lazer => Particle => Ion.
iii). SITH LORD WEAPONARY--- Antimatter & Dark Acid.
So we must conclude that matter weapons just launch the projectile (save for plasma, who first charges the particles) and thus require low power (MW). So these weapons should have a relatively lower power requirement. Hence they must fall under 100MW (save for plasma).
In energy weapons, pure energy is produced and fired. Hence they should have a relatively higher requirement. So their requirement has no limit.
Only the ones of the Dark side get their tech.

[TheLoneWolf]

So with ^ in consideration, matter weapons are of a large size, but low power. Only some ships can fit them, but those who can, can fit a huge array of them. So prepare for a volley of howitzers . The energy weapons hence have an awesome damage : power ratio, but the more its powerful, the more of a slug it is.
Energy ones are small, but require large power, and hence only some ships can power the most uber of them, but not many at a time. They have a low damage : power ratio, but match it with a fast rate of fire. So while 5 kinetic guns and give you a volley, 5 lance cannons can give rain.
Hence the weapons are balanced as per my trans multiverse.

[TheLoneWolf]

4. Visible Weapons
Who doesnt want to see the gun they installed appear on their ship? But who doesnt want to see the weapons individually, and not all with the same image. So first change the image of each weapon from that blue turrent to unique pictured for each weapon.
Also, let the installed guns be visible on the ship. Let the installed solar panel be seen too. Heck, let everything you do be seen!
And make damage more realistic. For example, after armor is at 0, you cant ohko the ship. Let the bullets hit the hull and let it be seen how the ship slowly dies. Another example is that when we are EMPed, the ship doesnt rotate, but the little currents fly throughout the ship. The defected visual is nice, but let it cover the map too.

[TheLoneWolf]

5. MAP OVERHAUL
I have been posting this all over the transcendence fb page, but it has went unnoticed so im posting it all again here.
So make the map more informative.
Let there be a hover feature. So when in the map you hover your cursor over a station you have visited, you get a list of of the services it provides and the commodities it sells. Also on stations like Korolev shipping, provide a list of available missions.

[Xephyr]

Interesting suggestions. Have you considered trying to implement any of these yourself in a mod?

[TheLoneWolf]

At last! A reply! Thanks Xephyr! Yup, i have considered doing so, but all i can do is C++. I have applied to Wolfy for some solution. Lets see what can be done, eh?

[DigaRW]

Well, that's very big project. But it's possible to apply your ideas to game at once?
It's will be turned from simple game to heavy game (It"s may fill your disk up to 1GB).
And it will take a very long time.

[TheLoneWolf]

Thanks for reply DigaRW! It won't be that drastic. Maybe fill up to 100mb. Not more. Images will take max 25mb more and destruction animations 80-150kb per ship. And damages can be tweaked readily enough! I will start working on it when Domina and Oracus part two appears! And it would be available as a mod, not in the vanilla game!

[sun1404]

I particularly like your map suggestions. We could use some pop-up information on the map. Unfortunately I believe it'll be very difficult to mod in, since the map doesn't support anything that could be used for that purpose, as far as I know.

also, antimatter is actually classified as 'energy'.
EDIT: This is false: It is in the same tier as plasma, one tier higher than ion. The Dark weapons are of a much higher tier.

This is true: Antimatter is in the same tier as nano, one tier higher than plasma and positron.

[TheLoneWolf]

Thanks for reply sun1401!

We cannot mod the map readily, i think. We must modify the map in the engine itself. As it is coded in C++, i will work on it easily as im learning C++. Also i know that a compartments feature has been added now. Maybe all we need to do now is show micro explosions throughout the hull. It would take a lot of time per ship though. And i am not sure that it would be compatible, because by the time i will be done new versions would have popped up. But no harm in trying, eh?
Also i am reading Stephen Hawking at the moment (A BRIEFER HISTORY OF TIME to be exact) and accordingly antimatter is such a thing that destroys matter along with itself. Like 5 and -5. If both meet, 5-5=0. So 0 is dark matter imo. And when firing antimatter weapons, there must be opposite effects of matter. So if it takes reactor power to fire a matter weapon, the power taken to fire an antimatter weapon should go negative. If firing a matter weapon produces heat, the antimatter weapon should cause a huge cooldown. The engine should be under enough pressure to cope.
Also we need black holes in the game. Black hole mining!

[sun1404]

If you want to get technical, well, antimatter is produced when energy is converted to matter, in equal amount. When matter and antimatter collide, they are instantly converted into energy. So no, dark matter isn't the middle between matter and antimatter.

As for antimatter's properties, they have opposite charge and spin to their matter counterpart, but not negative mass, as far as experiments have shown. Forces acting on antimatter will propel them in the same direction as if they were acting on matter. It also takes positive work to move or stop antimatter. As for heat in weapons, they are mostly generated from the use of energy (as some will inevitably be converted into heat) or from friction (in case of moving parts/kinetic guns with direct-contact barrel) and will most likely also be generated in the attempt to create and fire antimatter.

Also, apparently antimatter is actually one tier above plasma. The energy type one the same tier as plasma is actually positron. Antimatter in Transcendence is on the same tier as Nano.

[TheLoneWolf]

Thanks for info mate!

[pip]

Save & Continue.

In order to do this currently you have to Save & Quit, then reload.
Seems like an oversight to have your players using what is essentially a workaround to access basic functionality like that.