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JohnBWatson
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I believe the game ends in the Jakarta system. I have used a map ROM and found no forward stargate. I have yet to encounter any Star Destroyers, so I've got to wonder where I'd get one of those. I encountered one pod using enemy, though I don't know whether I died or killed it. Ditto one or two alien gunships.

What I know so far:

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	Stations:
		Neutral(have guards, will retaliate if provoked by you or an enemy):
			Metropolis
				Contains a shipyard, a shop, and assorted other things
			Shipyard
				Contains a shipyard.
			Shipping station
				Gives shipping missions. Reward and flavor text changes (up to a certain point?) as player completes missions. Blacklists player at 3 mission failures.
			Corporate metropolis
				Contains a shipyard and a shop
			Military stronghold
				Contains a shipyard and an ID - restricted shop
			(Black Market station) ???
				(seen but not interacted with - couldn't get in)
			(Archaeological station) ???
				One of these spawns in every archaeological system. I have no idea what to do with them, but you can store items in them if you want to do so.
				
		Enemy(Will shoot you on sight):
			Pirates:
				The standard enemy. Over the course of the game, they gain turrets and better ships. They'll send squadrons after you until you kill them all.
			Survivalists:
				Pretty chill guys, actually. They've got heavily armored stations that shoot on sight, but they just want nothing to do with you, and will let you be if you do likewise. They have lots of ammo, but nothing particularly valuable, and aren't really worth the effort to kill.
			Outlaw miners:
				Criminal scum that force out legitimate miners and take their jobs. They don't send attacker squadrons, and they'll try to run off with some loot in a super - heavy freighter if you happen upon one of their bases. Their stations are invincible, but can be docked with to loot them. 
			Mojadrin: 
				Aliens with a powerful laser weapon. Very rarely, they'll show up and attack the player.
			Terrorists:
				Basically pirates, but they don't spawn attacker squadrons.
			CLA: 
				They have very well - guarded shipyards in terrorist systems that spawn attacker squadrons, but beyond that, we know nothing about them. "Chorin Liberation Army"? "Cocaine Lovers Anonymous?" "Communist - Libertarian Alliance"?
			Arakrin:
				I have no idea what these things are, but they steal fuel and are surrounded by shipwrecks. I made it my goal to eradicate them. The wrecks surrounding their stations occasionally have valuable loot, including a legendary item I found in one of them.
	System types:
		Eridani(hard - coded): 
			Contains a shipping station, a cryoship station, a metropolis, and some pirate stations.
		Spartacus(hard - coded):
			Pits the player against some early to mid - game enemies for credits. Player gets a moderately priced trophy upon winning against all of them. Guided missiles make this easy.
		Outlaw miner territory:
			Contains many outlaw miner stations, and occasionally a survivalist and/or Arakrin station.
		(Archaeological system?)
			Contains abandoned Mojadrin outposts surrounded by enemies and an empty arcaeologist station from which you can loot or dump items. Enemies appear to continuously spawn against the player, and I've seen everything from stealth fighters to the Mojadrin themselves show up and try to kill me.
		Pirate - occupied system:
			Contains a friendly station at the start, which congratulates you on surviving an initial attack by 3 pirate ships(regardless of whether you've killed them). Upon clearing the system, they give you a valuable weapon or device.
		Pirate system:
			Contains pirates, but nothing else of note.
		Terrorist system:
			Contains terrorist outposts and a CLA shipyard.
	Weapons:
		Recoilless cannon:
			Basic kinetic weapon.
		Dual recoilless cannon:
			A pair of recoilless cannons. Useful due to the 8 facing system - easier to aim and block shots.
		Recoilless cannon battery:
			3 recoilless cannons. Best non - ammo weapon in the game that I've seen, due to its effectiveness at any range.
		Pulse laser:
			Basic laser weapon. Fires a fast shot. Can be intercepted by other lasers.
		Missile launcher:
			Lets you launch every missile in the game:
		Alien laser:
			Best laser weapon in the game, but still only fires in one direction, so not particularly useful
		Positron cannon: 
			Powerful non - ammo weapon with decent range. Can destroy stations at a reasonable pace.
		Plasma cannon:
			Powerful ammo weapon that devastates early to mid - game enemies. Loses its usefulness later on. 
		EMP cannon:
			Inflicts EMP on the target, disabling navigation and weapons. Drifting will continue.
		(Pulse laser turret):
			An omnidirectional laser cannon. I haven't been able to get one, but I would assume it's one of the game's top - tier guns.
		(EI pod launcher):
			Lets you spawn AI allies called 'pods'. They're much more affordable than autons, but I haven't gotten to use it yet. You get lots of pods as drops, so it could definitely be worth having.
		(Antimatter Sprayer):
			Backwards facing antimatter weapon that sells for a lot of money. Not tested yet.
	
	Devices(* means initially unknown):
		Deflector shield, laser shield, etc.
			Different shields. I couldn't change shields, so I don't know any more than that.
		Cargo bay expansion:
			Multiplies player's cargo by about 5
		Reactor upgrade(I, II):
			Increases fuel capacity and power output
		Drive upgrade(I, II):
			Increases speed
		*Anti - missile lasers:
			Fires (up to 3) lasers at nearby enemy missiles
		*EMP shield:
			Presumably defends against EMP when active, but did could not test due to lack of INS key
		*Repair droid:
			Automatically repairs minor armor damage
		*Emergency jump device:
			Jumps to a random location when it detects damage
	
	Barrels:
		Reflective coating:
			Improves laser resistance and reflects them
		Carbon-bond compound:
			Reduced kinetic damage
		Neutron - enhancement:
			Greatly strengthens armor. May make endgame armors very useful.
		EM - nullifier barrel:
			Prevents EMP
		(other enhancers):
			Enhance armor against various damage types
		Organic acid:
			Damages armor
		Nano - corrosives:
			Ditto
		Plasteel regenerators:
			Gives plasteel armor fast regeneration while above 25% health
	
	Armor:
		Plasteel, Light Plasteel, Heavy plasteel
			Decent armor. Heavy can be upgraded in endgame with plasteel regenerators to become the best armor in the game.
		Reactive armor:
			Kinetic - specialized armor.
		Light Carbide Armor:
			Endgame anti - kinetic armor
		Phased Compound Armor:
			Endgame armor
		
		(Some other armors):
			Assorted endgame armors with fancy names. At this stage, it's hard to tell what's useful for what, but the descriptions tell you most of what you need.
		Laser plate(light, medium, heavy)
			Resists lasers really well.
	
	ROMs:
		System map:
			Maps the system.
		Visual display enhancement:
			Same as in Transcendence
		Long Range Targeting:
			Allows missile targeting at extreme range. Vital to surviving later systems.
		Technical Specification ROM:
			Analyzes a random pod or unknown device. Install your unknown devices before using one. It's much cheaper than wasting a ROM.
			
	Legendary items:
		(Legendary jewel)
			A jewel forged in the heart of a star. Only 1 of them. Found in a wreck near an Arakrin station. Worth 4,000 credits. No idea of its unique purpose, but the game won't let me sell it without going through a confirmation message.
		(Legendary missile)
			Insanely powerful 4,000 credit missile. I wasted it before I could see what it did when I tried to sell it.
My remaining questions:

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	What do the architectural stations in the Mojadrin systems do? Can I stop the constant flow of enemies?
	How does the Black Market work?
	How do I sell illegal goods?
		(I managed to sell a damaged Mohadjrin laser weapon, an alien artifact that's normally not sellable, but I don't recall exactly where.)
	What happens if I keep doing shipping missions? Is there an ending?
My remaining objectives:

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	Try to find and access the Black Market
	Return to Earth with my wealth and see what that does
	Buy some more unknown devices and check out what they do
	Hang out in a Mojadrin system and see what insanity the game throws at me(I've already seen stealth fighters, aliens, and gunships armed with thermonuclear missiles.
Edit: I've managed to run out of device slots.

Edit: Completing the impossible first 6k credit mission appears to have broken the shipping mechanic. First attempt at getting more missions resulted in two missions that spawned enemies that attacked each other, second crashed the game. It appears that I was not supposed to progress any further.

Edit: The military ID is invalid at Black Market stations, and they'll fine you 1k credits for trying to use it. I disliked being fined for my character's entirely legitimate military service record that was in no way stolen from a dead guy, so I killed them all and looted their station to find out what's inside. Found some very powerful weapons and armor: pulsed-laser turret, antimatter pulse cannon, Coulombe blaster, radiation cannon, plasma furnace cannon, assorted unknown devices, endgame armor, and an endgame shield. There's got to be a way in, though. Otherwise there's nowhere to sell illegal goods!
JohnBWatson
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In the interest of separating the weapons a player is likely to encounter from the ones that can only be found through winning the war on drugs (by setting all the dealers on fire), I've described my new arsenal below. Note that, because I've already killed everything hostile to me except the last remnants of the drug dealers(who await my return in terrified silence), testing data will be rather sparse. I've just got the remains of an archaeology system to work with.

Laser turret: You can find this elsewhere, but here's the testing data: Low damage, extremely short range, very balanced for an early - game weapon. It avoids facings, but it requires that you be close enough that the enemy is always a threat. It's fair, and it's worth trying just to observe the tradeoff and see how it feels.

Plasma furnace cannon: Powerful long range circular spread fire. I am become death.

Antimatter pulse cannon: Ammo weapon. Insane damage. AOE. It will kill everything.

Coulombe blaster: Slow fire, single shot. Explodes on proximity. Would have been incredibly useful in late game fights.

Radiation cannon: Presumably inflicts the radiation delayed - kill mechanic, but I wasn't able to observe anything.

*Optical deflector: oh my God it makes you invisible
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AssumedPseudonym
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 Bravo, sir. I always felt I should have a bowl of popcorn reading through updates on this thread. ^.^
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JohnBWatson
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In case anyone wants a map:

Eridani --> Hamedas --> Chorin --> Spartacus --> Amundsen --> Kolonius --> Pender's Star --> Juno --> LLorius --> Queren --> Remora --> Nakura --> Piori-pyu --> Torin --> Urion --> Nino --> Jakarta

I am not sure, but I believe that this is consistent across games.
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digdug
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This was beautiful ! I loved reading about your progress!
Also, you are the first person in 11 years here at transcendence forums that decided to really play Frontier !
Maybe we should make a wiki post with these informations :)
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