Planning for the 7th Transcendence succession game

[PM]

I think being able to use any old missile whenever you want can be overpowered except as a late game item/feature. After all, if playership can fire any missile anytime he wants, he can dive through systems, scavenge through wrecks for loot (missiles or salables that can buy the missiles), then backtrack and crush the early to mid game.

As for the Wasp Launcher, I made some changes to it; namely, it is a Tinker weapon, and made Dragonfly and thermo cannon ammo compatible with it.

As for using whatever ammo you have, rather than break the Wasp Launcher to try to make it use whatever ammo (not sure if this is possible), I have an idea (for a new auton) to try out. More details later after I experiment with some code.

[FourFire]

I think being able to use any old missile whenever you want can be overpowered except as a late game item/feature. After all, if playership can fire any missile anytime he wants, he can dive through systems, scavenge through wrecks for loot (missiles or salables that can buy the missiles), then backtrack and crush the early to mid game.

As for the Wasp Launcher, I made some changes to it; namely, it is a Tinker weapon, and made Dragonfly and thermo cannon ammo compatible with it.

As for using whatever ammo you have, rather than break the Wasp Launcher to try to make it use whatever ammo (not sure if this is possible), I have an idea (for a new auton) to try out. More details later after I experiment with some code.

Oh I don't mean missiles, I agree that would be immensely overpowered, I mean projectile weapon ammo, and you could cut out anything with greater than Tier three damage types, most of the clutter ammo is kinetic/blast/particle/thermo anyway.

I look forward to testing whatever it is you have in mind.

[TVR]

-Updated to 1.3b2
-Updated PSD and BME

I would say the core issue is that ammunition is difficult to manage in Transcendence, mostly because there is never a certain supply of it. One usually ends up with plenty of ammunition but no launcher, or a launcher and none of the correct ammunition for it. As a future feature, I suggest treating ammo like fuel and letting stations Reload like they Refuel.

@Pixelfck

Don't worry about downloading all the new mods, there will be another testing modpack to be posted shortly.

bmscratch2 and blackmarketscratch are temporary scratch pads for mixing code, they won't load in game.

Can confirm that Huaramerca is often generated before St. K's. Besides minor fluff (St.K itself is not in the Ungoverned Territories, but rather the last system before it), it's not a bug, and the gameplay effects might be interesting.

The attachment topo_cro.jpg is no longer available

On a side note, perhaps a no-edge-intersections topology mode for the next version of Beyond The Mainline would be more intuitive.

Great work on debugging nestedScreens, it seems that dsExchangeSell and dsChooseItemCategory do not share the same (scrSetData) scope, which seems to imply that any screen switched to by (scrShowScreen) in <OnGlobalPaneInit> does not count as a nested screen, or perhaps the hack used to reset the list filter somehow interferes.

But if removing nestedScreen="true" in dsExchangeSell solves the problem without side-effects, let's just settle for that.

@FourFire

Already fixed #1, which will be available in the next version of the modpack.

Can confirm #2, though it isn't a bug, but rather a feature of Beyond The Mainline's non-linear topology generator.

Will check out #3.

Updating ship classes may take a while.

Could you use the Map Galaxy option in GODMod and post the Galactic map?

[PM]

I am putting the finishing touches on a new mod called Wizard Battle Auton. The Wizard's special ability is it can fire ammo types it is equipped with, and it accepts most types of ammo. Invoking it opens dockscreen with UI similar to assembly hangar, but much simpler - just pick ammo then launch. Defenses include R1 shield and blast plate. It should be a viable midgame option to blow off excess ammo. (Worst case, order one from Trading Post.) Its weapons vary (by ammo used), and the NAMI auton bay cannot interfere with them. The mod should be uploaded sometime tomorrow.

UPDATE: Finished and available at Xelerus.

[TVR]

-Further improvements to "View by Category", added cursor position persistence and drop-in support for PM's 24px item images from Resource Library 912.
-Converted virtual Long Range Scanner from "Nerefir Carrier POC" to Advanced Long Range Scanner, which appears ingame and combines realtime LRS coverage from all networked ships for tactical display on the map screen.
-Added Wizard Auton, Trade Assistant.

[PM]

I am updating DrakeTech and Items912 and, hopefully, reupload them later this week. Did some experimenting and added basic but functional mining AI to one of the DrakeTech autons (they target and shoot asteroids only).

Will also update Wizard Auton soon. Found a copy-and-paste error in the AI Settings I need to fix, and I will probably slow down the fire rate of its plasma torch (so that player almost always has incentive to give it ammo, even if it is low level junk.)

[pixelfck]

@Pixelfck
Can confirm that Huaramerca is often generated before St. K's. Besides minor fluff (St.K itself is not in the Ungoverned Territories, but rather the last system before it), it's not a bug, and the gameplay effects might be interesting.

In Beyond the Mainline, St. Kath's is neitherthe New Beyond nor Ungoverned Territories; it is placed in the level 4 system with the highest number of star gates. (label placement is tied to certain key-systems, so it may appear otherwise).
Huaramarca is branching of some level 5 system tagged 'ungoverned. Due to the branching and merging, it may well be possible to reach Huaramarca before reaching St. Kath's.

On a side note, perhaps a no-edge-intersections topology mode for the next version of Beyond The Mainline would be more intuitive.

This is a major pain in the ass to get fixed. Calculating edge-edge crossings is *very* CPU-intensive and the problem scales with O(n*n). I can improve on the generated layout at the cost of a scarily increased topology generation time (15 minutes or more can easily happen) The optimal solution would be to have the GPU do the heavy lifting on the floating-point math, but that is obviously not an option in tLisp

Cheers,
Pixelfck

[FourFire]

Calculating edge-edge crossings is *very* CPU-intensive and the problem scales with O(n*n). I can improve on the generated layout at the cost of a scarily increased topology generation time (15 minutes or more can easily happen) [...]

Cheers,
Pixelfck

Perhaps you could just bite the bullet, put in a temp version of the mod for succession that does this, and then the first person to start the game can just wait 15-40 minutes, since it's for the succession, and you need not update your uploaded mod version otherwise.

[PM]

I will need to spend some more time updating mods to RC1.

I might take another look at New Factions (but only after I finish updating my mods first).

[pixelfck]

Calculating edge-edge crossings is *very* CPU-intensive and the problem scales with O(n*n). I can improve on the generated layout at the cost of a scarily increased topology generation time (15 minutes or more can easily happen) [...]

Cheers,
Pixelfck

Perhaps you could just bite the bullet, put in a temp version of the mod for succession that does this, and then the first person to start the game can just wait 15-40 minutes, since it's for the succession, and you need not update your uploaded mod version otherwise.

Maybe I can offer an alternative: I can select a good seed and the succession game topology can be build from it. It saves a lot of time and gives the same result for us players.

~Pixelfck

[TVR]

-Mixing launchers from "Weapons Extended 6" with "StelliFer Labs" and "Elemental Shift: Shrike's Mines and Missiles"
-Will update to 1.3 RC1

May update WE6 launcher effects, currently WE6 is using 1.2 effects.

@PM

AE ships beta was recently updated with 120 facings, could I request an update to the PSD patch for AE ships beta?

@Pixelfck

Sounds good, though always consider that number of star systems may be a vote option.

[PM]

Updated and reuploaded some mods to Xelerus. Work progressed slower than expected.

I still have DrakeTech and Items912 to finish, and I also need to update PSD6+ soon. I will look at AE ships and New Factions when I can.

[TVR]

-Finished mixing "Weapons Extended 6" with "StelliFer Labs Item Graphics" and "Elemental Shift: Shrike's Mines and Missiles"
-Mixed "Companion Framework" with "Upgraded Wingmen"

The next version of the modpack is finished, will upload it this weekend.

[digdug]

-Mixing launchers from "Weapons Extended 6" with "StelliFer Labs" and "Elemental Shift: Shrike's Mines and Missiles"
-Will update to 1.3 RC1

May update WE6 launcher effects, currently WE6 is using 1.2 effects.

@PM

AE ships beta was recently updated with 120 facings, could I request an update to the PSD patch for AE ships beta?

@Pixelfck

Sounds good, though always consider that number of star systems may be a vote option.

What effects have been changed in 1.3, that are not in 1.2 and we6 ? If you are taking about thermo effects, then we6 uses a custom placeholder effect for thermo, that looks like blast but it's red-ish.

[TVR]

@digdug

All the missile trails with the exception of the NAMI launcher missiles are still using the old vaporTrail, instead of the new ParticleCloud effect.

M2 Vulcan, M5 Nemesis, and Kiloton Cannon explosions have changed and will need updates as well.