1.7 Beta 4 and Part II Alpha Test

General discussion about anything related to Transcendence.
PM
Fleet Admiral
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 2570
Joined: Wed Sep 01, 2010 12:54 am

Due to how extensionAPIVersion blocks extensions, it is fun setting it to a ridiculously high number (like, say, a million) to let an adventure block any and all meddling from any extension. Handy for adventures that are arcade game remakes; all extensions banned (unless George makes a million revisions years from now).
Download and Play in 1.9 beta 1...
Drake Technologies (Alpha): More hardware for combat in parts 1 and 2!
Star Castle Arcade: Play a classic arcade game adventure, with or without more features (like powerups)!
Playership Drones: Buy or restore exotic ships to command!

Other playable mods from 1.8 and 1.7, waiting to be updated...
Godmode v3 (WIP): Dev/cheat tool compatible with D&O parts 1 or 2.
erwgd
Miner
Miner
Posts: 34
Joined: Sun Jun 14, 2015 2:17 pm

The Swift's mature stage appears to be unfinished, but I've noticed that growing to that stage removes your occular torquandis and replaces it with a plasmaphorus jaxii. I don't know if this is intended but I'd much rather be allowed to keep the torquandis. It's better than the jaxii when it comes to facing Grome monitors and heavy gunships head-on, where the jaxii shells tend to get shot down.

Fuel consumption on the adult Swift is too low, I think. Most of the time I only need to refill my healing reserves. It would make sense for the carapace regeneration to consume energy.
PM
Fleet Admiral
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 2570
Joined: Wed Sep 01, 2010 12:54 am

I just tried to use Omni and tracking weapons against the (non-hostile) space wildlife, but they do not aim and fire at them. I need to aim manually with Omni and tracking weapons to hunt space wildlife, which defeats the point of using Omni/tracking in the first place. If I want to kill non-hostiles as easily as hostiles with appropriate weapons, I should be able to do so!

The targeting changes introduced in 1.7 beta 3 are maddening, which part 2 made more obvious, and I am tempted to post a ticket to clamor for restoration of old targeting behavior, which was not broken in the first place.
Download and Play in 1.9 beta 1...
Drake Technologies (Alpha): More hardware for combat in parts 1 and 2!
Star Castle Arcade: Play a classic arcade game adventure, with or without more features (like powerups)!
Playership Drones: Buy or restore exotic ships to command!

Other playable mods from 1.8 and 1.7, waiting to be updated...
Godmode v3 (WIP): Dev/cheat tool compatible with D&O parts 1 or 2.
User avatar
AssumedPseudonym
Fleet Officer
Fleet Officer
Posts: 1190
Joined: Thu Aug 29, 2013 5:18 am
Location: On the other side of the screen.

PM wrote:The targeting changes introduced in 1.7 beta 3 are maddening, which part 2 made more obvious, and I am tempted to post a ticket to clamor for restoration of old targeting behavior, which was not broken in the first place.
 Seconded. Wholeheartedly.
Image

Mod prefixes: 0xA010 (registered) and 0xDCC8 (miscellaneous)

My mods on Xelerus: Click here!

Of all the things I’ve lost in life, I miss my mind the least. (I’m having a lot more fun without it!)
JohnBWatson
Fleet Officer
Fleet Officer
Posts: 1452
Joined: Tue Aug 19, 2014 10:17 pm

AssumedPseudonym wrote:
PM wrote:The targeting changes introduced in 1.7 beta 3 are maddening, which part 2 made more obvious, and I am tempted to post a ticket to clamor for restoration of old targeting behavior, which was not broken in the first place.
 Seconded. Wholeheartedly.
At the very least, it ought to be an opt - in option for the controls. I can see the desire to target a freighter you're escorting and have your omni laser still aim at nearby hostiles, but there should be a key that can be pressed to switch back to the previous setup when it's time to kill that Molotok.
s71ck
Anarchist
Anarchist
Posts: 4
Joined: Tue Mar 27, 2012 5:37 am

Early notes on part2:
  • I was able to loot enough enemy stations to jump straight from the Sapphire to the Tor Quan Swift.
  • The tip to disable the shield generator was key to having enough fuel to do so. Perhaps a hint should be given in game that there aren't many hostiles nearby, so one knows the shield generator isn't necessary and can conserve fuel that way.
  • No military ID for the sapphire meant I couldn't replace the damaged armor with the same kind I looted from a station.
  • No targeting computer installed in the sapphire was really annoying
  • It seems the feed bioreactor screen always says my fledgling ship will only derive partial benefit from the consumables, even though I've grown it past fledgling
  • It would be great to have nebular vision in the sapphire since the Exsillium system was nebular in my game
Last edited by s71ck on Mon Dec 26, 2016 6:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
PKodon
Militia Lieutenant
Militia Lieutenant
Posts: 127
Joined: Sat Apr 18, 2009 6:03 pm
Location: "Minocs. I've got a baaad feeling about this.... This is no cave!"

Okay, George, I tried to log into Multiverse to enter the key for Part 2. I tried logging in in the game, and it never logged me in. I used what I thought was the password, but it never showed me online. I tried a different password (thinking I had messed up), and it popped up a "Wrong Password" overlay. I went to the web page and tried to log in there, and got a "Too many login attempts, wait an hour." message.

Not sure what's going on there.

PK
"Don't ask ..., I don't wanna know, and I don't wanna care!" - PK
Meet us on IRC --> Image
"... the hornet battlepod is the closest we have ingame to flying into battle in a wheelbarrow
with a bathtub nailed upside down to the top of it to provide armor."
- The Shrike
mistere
Miner
Miner
Posts: 42
Joined: Tue Sep 13, 2011 9:26 pm

s71ck wrote:Early notes on part2:
...
  • It seems the feed bioreactor screen always says my fledgling ship will only derive partial benefit from the consumables, even though I've grown it past fledgling
That's the reason it says that. Once you outgrow the first tier, you will only get partial benefit from the lower level consumables. Try the higher level consumables like Wyron Scales, which you can't use until you "grow up".

Other than missing some stuff (like insurance and the arena, autons etc.) I'm really enjoying Part II. Unless I missed something it seems like a dead at Contemplation Point though, so I look forward to seeing where this goes once all the missing content and features are implemented. Fingers crossed for station enslavement capabilities :lol:
PM
Fleet Admiral
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 2570
Joined: Wed Sep 01, 2010 12:54 am

@ mistere: You missed nothing. Whatever plot is supposed to happen there simply does not exist yet.
Download and Play in 1.9 beta 1...
Drake Technologies (Alpha): More hardware for combat in parts 1 and 2!
Star Castle Arcade: Play a classic arcade game adventure, with or without more features (like powerups)!
Playership Drones: Buy or restore exotic ships to command!

Other playable mods from 1.8 and 1.7, waiting to be updated...
Godmode v3 (WIP): Dev/cheat tool compatible with D&O parts 1 or 2.
PM
Fleet Admiral
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 2570
Joined: Wed Sep 01, 2010 12:54 am

Since hexacoral is "subsapient", they should not be yelling "Watch your targets" when shot at, and they blacklist and deny docking when shot at enough. (How can they do that when they are just rocks?) Currently, hexacoral is defenseless and free money, and a place to dump loot after it is destroyed.
Download and Play in 1.9 beta 1...
Drake Technologies (Alpha): More hardware for combat in parts 1 and 2!
Star Castle Arcade: Play a classic arcade game adventure, with or without more features (like powerups)!
Playership Drones: Buy or restore exotic ships to command!

Other playable mods from 1.8 and 1.7, waiting to be updated...
Godmode v3 (WIP): Dev/cheat tool compatible with D&O parts 1 or 2.
avorite
Anarchist
Anarchist
Posts: 6
Joined: Tue Jun 05, 2012 11:28 am

The Cargo hold disappears when the Tor Quan Swift is upgraded from "Adult" to "Mature". This upgrade is coincidental with the one that upgrades your "Occular Torquandis" to the "Plasmaphorus Jaxii".


This bug reduces your cargo hold to 0 tons: You can still jettison or sell stuff, but not loot or buy stuff. Also, shipyards seem to reject the cargohold-less ship, all stating that "Your ship is worthless to us"

Other than that, an amazing glimpse of Part II. Feels like a Savannah Safari where all the different races do their own thing, with added wildlife and plant-like life.

Thank you so much George for an amazing game thus far!
Watch TV, Do Nothing
Militia Captain
Militia Captain
Posts: 803
Joined: Sun Feb 05, 2012 12:22 am
Contact:

Played around with the mechanist patrol ship and archaeotech explorer. My thoughts that have not already been conveyed through others' Ministry posts:

Both ships' starting weapons are garbage, huge steps down from the Lamplighter. The variable fire rate on the Efreet blaster isn't really flavorful since damage output is minimal even at the fastest firing rate, and the range is atrocious. I can't see how you could effectively get more RUs if you blew your first 3500 RUs on either ship other than looking for plasmaphores and Reenu stations exclusively, everything else is way too strong. The blaster on the patrol ship is too weak to kill hexacoral!

Got a Nabul T1 on the patrol ship, weapon feels well balanced for the cost/level despite its inferior damage type and the current targeting problems. I assume this is the Jax weapon? Not sure how SolarGalaxy was able to upgrade it.

I haven't figured out the rules for who installs what where- only saw Olam Haz in one game, it showed up in the Mourner system! Efreet ship will take mechanist shields but NOT mechanist weapons?

Enemies ranged from abjectly bugged (Reenu, Jax) to only somewhat bugged (Grome with their range issues, Plasmaphores with their single barrage and lag on reentry) to seemingly working fine (green vespids were terrifying, hadrotheriums only slightly less so).

No random wrecks makes exploring considerably less rewarding. You have to fight for every last RU (unless there are viable trade route that I haven't worked out).

Subduing Reenu monoliths didn't seem to have any meaningful effect since the only effect I could get was "recharge weapons" and I didn't appear to have any rechargeable weapons. The Reenu stations always seem to be able to halt any number of TL11 systems effortlessly. Not sure what the ego, intelligence, willpower stats mean or what effect suppressing anything other than ego has. Not sure how daemons/programs work and what corresponds to what.
Last edited by Watch TV, Do Nothing on Wed Jan 04, 2017 4:03 am, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
Xephyr
Militia Captain
Militia Captain
Posts: 857
Joined: Fri Dec 14, 2007 1:52 am
Location: Orion Arm, Milky Way
Contact:

Watch TV, Do Nothing wrote:Not sure what the ego, intelligence, willpower stats mean or what effect suppressing anything other than ego has.
To subdue an artifact you just have to bring any of those three values to zero; since artifacts have these randomized there should be different tactics in theory
Project Renegade (Beta) : "The Poor Man's Corporate Command!"
Real programmers count from 0. And sometimes I do, too.
mistere
Miner
Miner
Posts: 42
Joined: Tue Sep 13, 2011 9:26 pm

avorite wrote:The Cargo hold disappears when the Tor Quan Swift is upgraded from "Adult" to "Mature". This upgrade is coincidental with the one that upgrades your "Occular Torquandis" to the "Plasmaphorus Jaxii".


This bug reduces your cargo hold to 0 tons: You can still jettison or sell stuff, but not loot or buy stuff...
I experienced this as well. I used PM's godmode mod to re-install a cargo hold and eventually found it also happens when the ship grows to "Elder" stage.
JohnBWatson
Fleet Officer
Fleet Officer
Posts: 1452
Joined: Tue Aug 19, 2014 10:17 pm

Watch TV, Do Nothing wrote:Played around with the mechanist patrol ship and archaeotech explorer. My thoughts that have not already been conveyed through others' Ministry posts:

Both ships' starting weapons are garbage, huge steps down from the Lamplighter. The variable fire rate on the Efreet blaster isn't really flavorful since damage output is minimal even at the fastest firing rate,
Archaeotech starting weapon doesn't work like the variable shield from part I. Slower fire rate has higher WMD and better damage per shot.

That said, I agree that it's lackluster.
Got a Nabul T1 on the patrol ship, weapon feels well balanced for the cost/level despite its inferior damage type and the current targeting problems. I assume this is the Jax weapon? Not sure how SolarGalaxy was able to upgrade it.
They're different weapons, but the fact that you couldn't tell brings up an important point - they're basically identical in functionality, save for the fact that the T1 uses ammunition. The Jax weapon is a biotech gun that fires long range seeking projectiles with WMD and high damage, and is thus all kinds of overpowered, especially when you upgrade it. The mechanics should probably be altered to change that, making the two weapons more distinct.

The Jax weapon could probably get a range and tracking nerf, in exchange for better firerate. I don't think we've got a weapon like that yet, and if the Jax ships were buffed to be as fast as they look, it'd work pretty well in their hands too.
I haven't figured out the rules for who installs what where- only saw Olam Haz in one game, it showed up in the Mourner system! Efreet ship will take mechanist shields but NOT mechanist weapons?
I think that's due to the fact that we haven't got any non - weapon artifacts yet. Biotech and Mechanist paths are pretty fleshed out, but Archaeotech is basically just a proof of concept right now. The most recent stream on Twitch explains things fairly well.
Enemies ranged from abjectly bugged (Reenu, Jax) to only somewhat bugged (Grome with their range issues, Plasmaphores with their single barrage and lag on reentry) to seemingly working fine (green vespids were terrifying, hadrotheriums only slightly less so).
Seen one of the Xenophobe equivalents yet? Somewhat underwhelming in combat due to their lackluster armament, but terrifying when you first see the things.
No random wrecks makes exploring considerably less rewarding. You have to fight for every last RU (unless there are viable trade route that I haven't worked out).
I think the profit from exploration in part II will involve the subsentient fauna we've seen. The stealthy asteroid - based life is easy enough to kill when you find it, but isn't all that easy to locate. Similarly, Hadrotherium herds are incredibly lucrative, and will likely continue to be worth hunting even after the inevitable nerf to their loot.
Post Reply