Nobuy Transcendence self-imposed challenge game

[Blitz]

If you think Trans is too easy and want a challenge to make it more interesting, then this thread is for you....

I just got this idea.

1. The basic rule is that you are not allowed to purchase or order any weapon, launcher, armor segment or shield generator (whether damaged or not). You are meant to find or loot all your eq.
2. You are allowed to purchase everything else - including ammo of all kinds, and any weapon upgrade items, collimaters, optimizer ROMs, shield crystals, longzhus, cargo hold upgrades, reactors, propulsion upgrades etc.
3. You are allowed to receive items that you get for free such as the disposable DM1500 rack from Raisu, Class V from Korolov, all items from the "I need a better ..." menus from the BM stations, items from hospital CSCs, lamplighter from CSC Terra and the repaired Archcannon from the Huari.
4. You are allowed to repair your items using the tinkers (meaning custom work) or Rasiermesser factories etc. as long as you find the damaged items and not buy them.
5. You are allowed to buy autons and repair them.

I haven't had the time to try this yet. So, how possible do you think this is on a vanilla game? Does it unbalance the game in any way? Does it overly nerf any of the default ships? Opinions please.

PS. Before someone says that the freighter is nerfed cuz omni weapons are much harder to come by and that it cant use the regular weapons properly, note that since you will have a lot of money left over from not buying weapons, armor or shields, it will be possible for you to stockpile ammo for weapons or launchers - and the freighter can stockpile a lot more missiles than the other ships as you won't have to worry about being encumbered. Not to mention the fact that freighter players usually end up with a lot more money from all the trading...
Oh, and if you want to mine, you will have to find a mining laser, or the ferian torches. You can buy the mining cargo hold from the mining stations....

EDIT: Buying reactors or fuel is allowed.
EDIT2: Most players, including myself, tend to buy specific armor/weapons/shields, that they are comfortable with. This would force the player to make do with whatever's available... I got the idea from looking at the tons of items that I never use and wondering how I'd do with them...
EDIT3: Changed the title and updated content. Tell me if there is something I've missed/is unclear
EDIT4: Clarified the Tinker line. Tell me if you think otherwise.
EDIT5: The idea is to make it possible to complete the game or atleast most games without making it too dependent on the RNG as long as you were good enough.

[alterecco]

I think I will try this challenge. One of the things I never found particularly interesting in the vanilla game is getting to know the items well enough to be able to pick a winning combination. And the random nature of it appeals to me.

[Blitz]

Oh, I don't think I covered autons in the first post... I'm not sure which way to go with this but I'd say that you can buy all the autons you want since
1. You can't win with just autons,
2. Autons can get very annoying if you have too many as they block your shots/ fire on friendlies...
3. The are typically most effective when you need them - i.e. in the first few systems right St.Ks where the difficulty ramps up a LOT and this challenge would make those systems even harder as you won't be able to use all that money you normally hoard by this time on fancy upgrades...

[Aury]

how about no-mining challenge... with the freighter? (been there done that actually)

[Psycholis]

eh, that's not really a challenge because i rarely ever mine. the no buy one is interesting because you almost never loot a collimiter or any of the higher level omnis (unless you get the omni-tev9 from the kobol)

[Atarlost]

Can't you loot omni thermos from the Gaians and lightnint turrets from the Ares?

In the midgame you would be allowed to trade in Dwarg stuff to Dvalin. I'm not sure if you can reasonably find enough to get an Akan 600 from him though.

[Aury]

eh, that's not really a challenge because i rarely ever mine. the no buy one is interesting because you almost never loot a collimiter or any of the higher level omnis (unless you get the omni-tev9 from the kobol)

Then why does everybody mine?

[Blitz]

i don't think no minig is much of a challenge either. If you run trade routes correctly, you can get enough money to finish the game with ease... remember the older versions in which there was no mining?

[Blitz]

Also, with regard to the omnis, they do become harder to get - which means that you would need to use different tactics with the freighter. Such as using all the extra money from not buying armor,weapons or shields on ammo and stickpiling missiles and relying on the launcher.

Also, you could buy/order a particle enhancer device and partcle source upgrades and make particle omnis or omni Tev9s last longer. Or use hexagene upgrades on blast weapons...

There's plenty of ways to manage.

The idea of this challenge is to test your adaptability. I mean, all of us have our fav weapons that we stick to. We tend to get lots of money and get just those high level/awesome weapons that we want. But what about all those weapons we never use cuz we always prefer the alternatives which suit us better?
But what if you couldn't? And you had to depend on something you just found, whether you like it or not, even if it's below average? How would you do then?

[Aury]

i don't think no minig is much of a challenge either. If you run trade routes correctly, you can get enough money to finish the game with ease... remember the older versions in which there was no mining?

No, I don't. I wasn't here then.

Anyways, my point was to watch people who usually sit for hours shooting at rocks to... not sit for hours shooting at rocks... IMO, /that/ (shooting at rocks for hours) is more of a challenge, especially when the rocks don't move...

[Prophet]

I like this idea so I threw together a little code to make the temptation of buying something impossible.

Link to Xelerus

I overwrote dsExchangeBuy and dsRingerBy and changed the criteria so stations will not sell you any weapons, armor or shields.
Everything else is still available.

I rewrote the mining function so no ore will ever be extracted. (not tested, please let me know if there are any unexpected results)

The Corporate Trader will not allow you to order any of the prohibited equipment.

[Blitz]

Playing this right now. And seems fun so far.

Random question to anyone who's playing this... Is it too hard to gather Rins without mining?

[Psycholis]

at the rins - no, because most rins come out of teraton trading anyway. longzhus became very valuable when you can repair ares positrons and get 10k rin a pop each.

[Prophet]

I have been quite lucky so far.

Playing the Wolfen, found a 25mW reactor in 2nd system, bought a laser collimator, found a Nephren P25 shield. 3rd system I found a tinker, started farming vikings for damaged turbolasers. Started the arena, my first one-on-one fight I looted my fourth turbolaser off his wreck, backtrack and I was set.
Got a Nami launcher off of another gladiator.

Charon was nearly my undoing, I got jumped by 2 frigates and 2 drakes after killing 3 of the charon stations, made it back to the gate. Backtracked and bought all the autons I could find, used Sustain power and ran to St Katharines. Luckily there was an auton dealer and I dropped 40K on autons. Went back to charon and was able to finish it off (only to get the military ID).

I've found 3 more tinkers which are my main source of income (and XM900 Lucifers) and managed to loot enough duranium for a full set (enhanced with rad-proof).
I am about to enter sanctuary and I still have the same equipment, hoping for a new shield real soon...


There's some glitches in the buy screens I will fix and reupload along with any other bugs you guys find.

So far it's real fun!

[kay.py]

What you dont want to see on a nobuy game:

"[Only installed weapon] damaged by defective ROM"

Luckily, I had a Xiphon Cannon (in Eridari!) that went quickly from "this will be nice when I have a bigger reactor" to "OK, how close to overloaded can I go before shutting down?"