Transcendence

I've just released 1.9 Alpha 4.

You can download at: https://downloads.kronosaur.com/TranscendenceNext.zip

This is mostly a bug fix release.

I've fixed the bug with out-of-plane stations. Unfortunately, you will have to start new games to see the fix.
I've also fixed the docking bug that caused game-locks.

The one feature I added is a re-worked Abbasid outpost. In addition to having a new image, it now uses destructible walls to defend itself.

Complete list of fixes: https://ministry.kronosaur.com/program. ... ed&tag=122
API 48: https://ministry.kronosaur.com/record.hexm?id=88609
New TransData: https://downloads.kronosaur.com/TransData.zip

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this release. As always, please let me know what you think!

it now uses destructible walls

I'm thinking you meant to say 'indestructible' walls?

Abbasid walls need WMD to smash. However, player can now easily smash Abbasid stations by sitting on top of the station to bypass the walls and unload his weapon of choice to hit the station directly for an easy fast kill provided the playership can survive the explosion from the station.

Previously, player needed WMD to kill the station quickly enough. Now, player can fly through walls, sit on station, and kill it quickly with any weapon.

Personally, I think all weapons needs to have WMD1. This would make early game destructible walls much more easier for newer players to deal with. I can very much imagine new players endlessly shooting at the walls and not understanding why they don't break.

I am considering putting WMD:1 or WMD:2 on several more of my mod weapons (that fire high-powered beams) that do not have any WMD now due to the walls, although it may not help too much because weapons with WMD:1 take a long time to smash anything.

On my mod continuous X-ray laser, I almost put WMD:2 on it, but took it off because I did not want to hear that jackhammer sound of too many hits and I did not want to see too much ejecta spewed from dead stations or asteroids.

Also, WMD weapons can explode wrecks with ammo, fuel, or other volatiles on board. Once or twice, I lost Arco's wreck (which always has loot) because the last missile I fired was unlucky enough to denotate his missiles inside the wreck and destroy it.

One more thing about the Abbasid stations: their explosions when they die are weak. The go-to strategy for killing them is fly past the walls, sit on station, and fire until it dies. The Abbasid station itself is so weak that even normal laser shots cause significant damage.

The first Abbassid outpost I encountered was when I only had a Valjor laser (on the Freyr) and after shooting at the outpost for about 30 seconds without effect I realised that the laser would not break the wall.
So I installed a MAG launcher and enjoyed the cloud of debris that was created when launching a few MAG 600 grenades. The explosion of the station was next. Unfortunately all the outpost had to offer was a broken laser array and a single He fuel rod. But I had fun with it!

I must say, this alpha is very good.
Has there been a change in the occurrence of Tinkers for this alpha? So far they were in all systems except Rigel, Eridani and Tau Ceti for my current run. All my previous games (1.8 and 1.9) had only one Tinkers station in the entire game. Now I've already had 8 of them and have yet to reach St. Kats...

Compliments for the addition of the Helgoland class. It is a fine ship that makes trading easier. It can also stand it's own in a fight so far. The Arena was a blast with it! With the aid of a 50% enhanced Flenser in the omnidirectional Rasiermesser slot....

I love that there are more Tinkers. Not only does it only make it easier for experienced players to dump junk goods, but players now have a more obvious and easier place to dump the goods they hoard.often, many new players hoard as much as they an and get frustrated with how much damaged goods they have occupying their storage. Now, players have a higher chance to know what and where to drop their damaged goods.

I've noticed that items sold in Black Markets are still unknown.
Curious about it, should they still be unknown, or should The Black Market know what they are selling?

 I’m fine with the Black Market selling unidentified items, personally. The Sindikat almost certainly do know what they’re selling; if you don’t know, that’s your problem, not theirs.

Then perhaps at higher ranks, the things they selling would be identified to you.

Finally got a chance to have a good look. Awesome!

The name change feature at game start is great. The ability to save games with a different character name is really helpful. The saved game list can be a bit confusing when there are multiple games there.

The rings around Voerms in Eridani look spectacular. Well done.
The updated Eridani system is great too.

Armor dealers selling patch spiders is excellent.

All the new field crystals, ROMs and barrels are great.

relanat wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 30, 2020 5:01 am

Finally got a chance to have a good look. Awesome!

The name change feature at game start is great. The ability to save games with a different character name is really helpful. The saved game list can be a bit confusing when there are multiple games there.

The rings around Voerms in Eridani look spectacular. Well done.
The updated Eridani system is great too.

Armor dealers selling patch spiders is excellent.

All the new field crystals, ROMs and barrels are great.

Exactly what I was to say : excellent work.
I like the New Player Friendly thing it has going on...But I swear my first encounter with the game was Pure Murder..
but I did beat it in the freighter .. this latest version I am really liking it.

I am really enjoying it right up til the last couple of systems. The new corvette is especially fun, as having a linked omniweapon is some tactical novelty.

Heretic remains frustrating, and makes little narrative sense. The Iocrym are so effective at killing stations that they only serve to prevent me from getting to see the story you wrote. I keep self destructing and respawning in annoyance. It's unclear why the human bases weren't wiped off the map while the player was still back in Eridani. As opposed to say Point Juno, which builds up a story of the Ares preparing for a massive offensive.

Iocrym Sentinels are not a huge threat to the PC, but they are a major threat to the player's enjoyment. If you have sufficiently big guns or the Shatter power, they're less dangerous than the Ares bases (no omnis, no capital ships, short range, etc), but they rip the plot stations to shreds. They're not a fun fight, they are just a game of whack-a-mole where you try and smack down Iocrym Outposts before they kill a station and you lose your one chance to do a quest.

They also seem to be able to spawn in from directions where I've already killed the Iocrym outpost. Unless there are outposts outside the nebula, which would be a nightmare to hunt down.

Issues

• The warnings are often pointless, since even with a jumpdrive and a +20% Fracture cannon I usually fail to arrive in time to kill the Sentinel wave. The stations have little enough HP that if they get surrounded they're dead, unless I burn time stop gems to kill the waves.
• The stations are weak and the garrisons oddly pitiful, considering the system is a super important research area and it's full of Iocrym murderbots. You'd think that Heretic would have a CSC, Corporate Cruisers, anything else that could go toe-to-toe with some Iocrym and live.
• The sentinels themselves are a mountain of HP, and the optimal strategy is to sail backwards just out of their range, spamming a plasma cannon/Kyrtryn/high level missiles.

Suggestions:

• Drop the randomly spawning waves of Iocrym, they mostly serve as a "sucks to be you" if they trigger while you are on the other side of the system.
• Replace them with hard coded base defence missions that trigger as part of each base's questline.
• Include a friendly capital ship on each mission, so there is a big dramatic fight as opposed to a player rush to strafe or Shatter some Sentinels that aren't bothering to shoot back. I'm suggesting a capital ship here because one big thing is less of a friendly fire hell than a swarm of Britannias all running in front of your plasma cannon. You've written some excellent big fights in Corporate Command, Point Juno, etc.
• Rather than have the Outposts all hostile at the start, you could have them marked Indestructible like the Archive and running an obvious glowing forcefield. Once each one goes to Red Alert, its shield drops as it's swapped its energy into manufacturing waves of Sentinels.
• Give half of the Sentinels artillery weapons. The Fracture cannon is annoying because it's so short range that when you try and shoot an enemy attacking the station, you have a good chance to just hit the station if it moves. And you can't shoot the projectile down or desperately block it with your ship.
• tl;dr: If you made the fights more like the Ares, with good pacing and a variety of ships, they'd be fun.

Killing all outposts do not stop the waves. Sentinels can spawn from the Iocrym Command Ship, the final boss, which you cannot reach until after the quarantine and sentinel waves are shut down. The sentinels also do not always take a straight line from their spawn point to their target. That makes intercepting them before they reach their target difficult.

Yes, Iocrym sentinels are annoying because if you babysit a station and wait until they come, it is often too late. Sentinels are sturdy enough that they can kill stations before you can kill them. What would be really nice is when a station gets an attack warning, it points to the enemy ships so player does not need to guess where they are. Player needs to intercept the sentinels before the target station becomes visible, assuming the station continues to remain nearly defenseless against Iocrym.

People should not (be forced to) rely on exploits to protect human stations by shutting down quarantine and waves almost immediately.

Rather than have the Outposts all hostile at the start, you could have them marked Indestructible like the Archive and running an obvious glowing forcefield. Once each one goes to Red Alert, its shield drops as it's swapped its energy into manufacturing waves of Sentinels.

That does not work because the Ares mission (unlocked by saving Antarctica) is to destroy an Iocrym outpost. Making them indestructible will defeat the point of that mission.