The Stars Beyond

[Aury]

Well, no- a corsair CAN'T get a downgrade...
I've charted out (on paper so no, I can't easily put it up ATM) the possible configs of the different ships.

Because Transcendence will be considerable harder due to there being a higher chance of an enemy having an upgrade rather than a downgrade (I'm doing my best to make sure that the barbary IS NOT going to be any more annoying than it already is. It's probably the ONLY ship that'll get any easier...) I'm going to add better loot to ships- ALL ships will now have a reactor- from the 1MW micro-reactor in the hornet battlepod to the 5GW Iocrym reactor there will be SOMETHING to look forward to in facing those stronger enemies. (hint- micro reactors from the battlepod work kinda like the heliotrope fuel rods). There may also be a bit more in the way of items in the wrecks. But don't expect to see any of this come easily- that phobos you're facing could end up with HEAVY KAIDUN SHIELDS and an ADVANCED ARES PLASMA CANNON (as well as positron guns on the side)... O_o Of course you will be able to loot all this and the 5GW reactor that comes off of it (if you're lucky that it's intiact)

Because the Iocrym will also be harder, as I think I've stated, there are many oportunities to get a weapon or power or item or something to beat the Iocrym...

Lamplighter, GoS, Phobos-II ROM, any of the special Luminous items from the meta assembler, the secret of the lost CSC (CSC Australia), project Twilight (a bit of a side adventure... with my decision to extend topography I also decided to merge my other mod with this... So we may or may not be seeing D314 and E314 UNID's in there) and more- all to lead up to battle the Iocrym fleet at the end of the game... (Yes Iocrym FLEET... Aslo, heretic now has a "graveyard" - these are all ships that have tried and failed to get into the core- some were disintigrated, but not all of them- and these are those that were not... (incuding those that simply died from the radiation surrounding the gate)

The Topography has also been re-expanded...

*hidden* means that it's not actually hidden, but it's spawned a ways outside of the system when certain events are met

Eridani ---> special link to St.Kat's *hidden*
5 systems
Rigel
2 systems
Charon
St.Kat's ---> special link to Dantalion *hidden*, special link to Sol *hidden*
lots of stuff till sanctuary (as usual), direct link to Eridani (when used, creates a new gate outside of outer Eridani asteroid belt)
sanctuary ---> special link huari system
more stuff till PJ
PJ
2 systems
Ardanylis ---> special link to luminous system, special link to Danthoria/Sol storyline, special link to Project Twilight storyline
lots of systems till Dantalion
Dantalion ---> special link to st.kats (used by csc antarctica)
2 sytems
Heretic
??? <--- :O ?

Danthoria/Sol storyline is a long and complex storyline that involves a couple alien races within the quarantine zone and the mystery behind the Sol system... (we've got items from there, we've heard of Earth and Mars, the war, Earth getting "torched" but what really happened? Where is Earth? What's going on now?)

Project Twilight isn't as long, but it is also partially intertwined w/ Danthoria/Sol story line (though you can opt to do only one or the other or both) since the systems in each link to eachother. The factions Twilight appear in Danthoria/Sol too though.

So yes, this will come with an adventure extention included (as well as several more system types! Even a black hole! (exclusivly limited to one system though- the black hole CAN suck you in and kill you "killed by a black hole in the <censored> system", thanks to F50

The new system types included are:

Black hole (special system)
Trinary (3 stars)
Jovian (planets around a gas giant)
Rogue (just a planet, maybe it's moon or ring too, but that's about it)
White Dwarf (white dwarf)
Brown Dwarf (small dim wanna-be star)
Neutron Star (can sorta affect you w/ gravity, but it won't kill you, just slow you down/speed you up)
Void (special system for a new arena system )
Sol (A realistic representation of our solarsystem- includes new images for neptune and uranus (I think a jupiter like jovian is in there already). maybe ceres and pluto too)
... and surprises! (both Twilight and Danthoria are very special systems)

more to come!

BTW- more explosions to come once I figure out how to make a luminous color palette (there isn't an example file )

[Aury]

Kineticore pseudo 48x48 40 facing playership (is technically a 64x64 but that was because the gmax renderer was being evil... long story, everything works)

Role- Fighter/Gunship- weapons oriented, low cargo capacity

Stock reactor- 20MW Kineticore Reactor
Stock armor- 4x reactive armor
Stock shield- Class I deflector
Stock weapons- 1x dual Kineticore Bolter (A narrow dual weapon that fires high-velocity rods. Puncture* rating of 3)
Stock Cargo Hold- 15 Tons (upgrade ASAP!)
Stock engines- .22c Engines
Max Weapons Slots- 4
Max non-Weapon Device Slots- 2
Cargo Expanded to- 110 Tons




*Puncture is basically a respawning projectile. A weapon's puncture rating is the number of respawns. IE- railguns are often 5 or 10. Kineticore bolter is 3... etc... These respawns allow the projectile to "travel through" a target- the thinner a target, the more likely it will pass though. This does mean though that less damage is imparted to the target. It also results in more damage being dealt to the target.

[F50]

looks good, just could use some texturing.

[Aury]

looks good, just could use some texturing.

I might add more details to the big version, but the in-game version is so small it would be a waste of time (it's too small to see)

BTW- for now, the kineticore recoiless just acts like a high velocity recoiless- I have to dig up the process I used for getting the fragments to travel straight...

[Aury]

Well, besides minor tweaks, the kineticore seems ready. I've got all the graphics (shield hud included) working.

Once I get back home today after about 6 hours of travel (3 by car, 3 by plane) I'll start working on some more ships: (see the list below, quoted from my thread on playership balance. feel free to reespond to that post in this thread or that thread. Either one- it doesn't matter to me)

Well, I've been doing some thinking today and these are some configurations I've come up with- totaling to 9 new playerships for 12 playerships total in Trans-X. Unfortunately, some of the things I'd like to implement (Yay for globals!) will make other custom playerships semi-incompatible- (a large number of new missions and even some old ones will become inaccessable... Or I just may tie "nil" with either "combat" or "freight" to make them somewhat usable)

Depending on the manufacturer of your ship, you can get discounts on various items (ie, a Zubrin Luxuries ship will get cheaper anemities/luxury goods than a Canis Industries and Shipyards ship.)

Some ships/manufacturers will have very particular lines of weapons limited to only that class/manufacturer (one or two may appear outside in wrecks, loot, or Xelerus stores) such as the Asabe-Class Cruiser's Quad omni weapons or the Zubrin Dual omni weapons)

About missions-

There are now several different types of missions: Any ship can do any of them- HOWEVER, depending on your ship, the mission may yeild lower profits (don't expect poverty stricken families riding in your SL9000's cargo bay to pay much money) or higher profits (rich people on a luxurious cruise ship tip well *hint hint*. And a job well done means the company shells out a nice check for you too)

No star means that this type of ship is recommended for this mission
* means that this type of ship can do this mission, but at a lower level
** means that this mission is NOT recommended for your class of ship either for difficulty reasons or logistic reasons. It WILL be offered offered however.
*** means that this mission is NOT recommended for your class of ship either for difficulty reasons or logistic reasons. Thus unless you really pester the people offering (there will be an option or way to pester them) they will never offer it up front unless it's the only mission avaliable.
Each ship has it's own special military mission set however in addition to some more classic military missions.

F = freighter C = combat P = passenger
Bounty Hunting-
Kill target ship to receive payment. ship is usually unusually strong
F** C P**
Escort-
Protect targeted ships to destination
F** C P**
Transport Cargo-
Deliver cargo to destination. If armor designated as noncritical="cargo" (or whatever it was) gets destroyed you lose your cargo and fail the mission.
F C* P*
Transport Passengers-
Deliver passengers to destination
F* C* P
Space Tour-
Easy mission- just fly by various stations that the passengers wish to see
F*** C*** P
Luxury Cruise-
F*** C*** P- take your passengers from resort to resort. The more luxury devices you have (they do NOT take up normal device slots, but special luxury device slots listed in the ship's globals) the bigger your tip will be
Valuable Cargo-
Take a small amount of very valuable cargo to it's destination. Watch out for unusually large numbers of hostile ships.
F C* P
Blockade Running-
Get past a blockade to get your cargo to where it's needed (blackmarket and CSC mission)
Military Cargo Run-
Deliver ammunition, weapons, armor, and shields. You can make off with the goods (sell them) but doing so will get you kicked from the military. Losing them in a hull breach will just earn a scolding.
F (no C P)
Military Assassination-
Assassinate an enemy ship. Ship will be buffed like in the bounty hunter missions.
C (no F P)
Military Transport Diplomat-
Bring diplomat into enemy territory and dock with non-hostile enemy station. Expect to come under heavy fire. Don't kill the non-hostile station.
P (no F C)

Then there are all the classic missions, still in there and intact, but often with more things added to them.

====================

The ships

Original-

EI500 - med. freighter
Freighter/Earth Indus
Max cargo- 500
Starting cargo- 200
Devices- 7
Weapons- 1
Armor- 20
Armor: 4x titanium
Shields: Class1
Weapons: omni laser
25MW
Speed .18c
turn 3

Wolfen - gunship
Combat/Canis Indus
Max Cargo - 100
Starting cargo- 35
Devices- 5
NonWeapons- 3
Armor- 10
Armor: 4x L plasteel
Shields: Hullplate Ionizer
Weapons: dual laser
10MW
Speed .25c
turn 2

Sapphire - yacht
Passenger/Zubrin Lux
Max Cargo - 150
Starting cargo- 75
Devices- 6
Armor- 6
Armor: 4x reactive
Shields: class 1
Weapons: recoiless
15MW
Speed .20c
turn 2

New ships

VY800 - armored cargo shuttle (40 facings)
Freighter/Earth Indus
Max cargo- 200
Starting cargo- 100
Devices- 6
Weapons- 2
Armor- 25
Armor: 4x Plasteel
Shields: Class1
Weapons: omni laser
15MW
Speed .19c
turn 4

Kineticore - heavy gunship/fighter (40 facings)
Combat/Canis Indus
Max Cargo - 130
Starting cargo- 20
Devices- 7
Weapons- 4
NonWeapons- 3
Armor- 20
Armor: 4x reactive
Shields: Class 2
Weapons: dual Kineticore bolt recoiless
20MW
Speed .22c
turn 2

Radiance - luxury transport (40 facings)
Passenger/Zubrin Lux
Max Cargo - 300
Starting cargo- 100
Devices- 4
Weapons- 2
Armor- 5
Armor: 4x reactive
Shields: class 1
Weapons: recoiless
10MW
Speed .35c
turn 1

HV100 - vault ship (80 facings)
Freighter/Earth Indus
Max cargo- 150
Starting cargo- 100
Devices- 5
Weapons- 2
Armor- 50
Armor: 8x QuadTitaniumBarricade
Shields: Hullplate ionizer
Weapons: omni laser
45MW
Speed .14c
turn 5

gryfalcon - light fighter/gunship (40 facings)
Combat/Canis Indus
Max Cargo - 75
Starting cargo- 25
Devices- 5
NonWeapons- 2
Armor- 10
Armor: 4x L plasteel
Shields: Class1
Weapons: gryfalcon massdriver
15MW
Speed .40c
turn 1

Diamond - luxury cruiser (80 facings)
Passenger/Zubrin Lux
Max Cargo - 200
Starting cargo- 75
Devices- 5
Weapons- 3
Armor- 10
Armor: 6x plasteel
Shields: class 2
Weapons: Zubrin dual laser (basically 2 omni lasers but w/ half the rate of fire)
35MW
Speed .16c
turn 3

SL9000 - aupwe freighter (160 facings)
Freighter/Earth Indus
Max cargo- 1000
Starting cargo- 500
Devices- 5
Weapons- 1
Armor- 25
Armor: 18x titanium
Shields: Class1
Weapons: omni light recoiless
50MW
Speed .12c
turn 5

Asabe - cruiser (160 facings)
Combat/Canis Indus
Max Cargo - 150
Starting cargo- 50
Devices- 8
NonWeapons- 4
Armor- 25
Armor: 12x L plasteel (4x outer hull, 8x inner hull)
Shields: Hullplate Polariser
Weapons: quad omni laser (also at half the rate of fire- so the fire power of two regular omni's)
30MW
Speed .14c
turn 3

EveningStar - luxury cruiserliner (bigger than luxury cruiser) (160 facings)
Passenger/Zubrin Lux
Max Cargo - 300
Starting cargo- 100
Devices- 5
Weapons- 2
Armor- 10
Armor: 8x plasteel
Shields: class 2
Weapons: Zubrin dual omni laser
40MW
Speed .12c
turn 4

---
While some of these starting configurations may seem outrageously powerful or not so powerful, not all the statistics are being shown, such as passenger capacity. Also, look at the speed- some of these ships are quite slow and combersome, thus you'd expect a superfreightor to be compensated with massive armor or a cruiser with it's double hull and extra firepower. The Gryfalcon may seem weak, but it's massdriver (unlike the urak ones... ) has MUCH greater range, and it also has tremendous speed.

Also, with 300 tons in the evening star, remember it's a luxury cruiserliner with passengers and their luggage. Passengers take along lots of luggage, and you also need plenty of space for luxury items to keep your luxury devices working (a beverage dispenser won't run w/out beverages...)

==================

So do you have any suggestions as to how i've set up these configurations?

[schilcote]

I have an idea, maybe you can use some sort of hyperdimentional transponder (Stephinian of course) to contact the ghosts of the dead starship captains who will help you somehow (the code to a weapons vault, an Iocrym weakness, maybe even inplementing ghost ships.)

[obsidean]

One thing I've tossed around back and forth would be sort of sort of like being able to "hail" ships, have certain ships able to carry on a short conversation with you, similar to the stations. I figured that way you could put the pilot's image in and you could see what the various groups looked like if nothing else. Then I read that most of the groups are human, which kinda killed that idea.. that and I tried to figure out how the heck you could make the game pop up sometimes random ships that could talk to you.

Anyway, I'm rambling.. about nothing at all, for some reason.

[Aury]

Well, let's see-

I split up the canis industries ships- canis industries makes only heavy playerships (heavy combat ships- a cruiser, a destroyer, a siege fighter, and a battleship (the dreadnought CAN be playable, but it'll be deactivated in the official mod)
The cruiser, destroyer, battleship and dreadnought have a bunch of custom weapon sets. You can use normal weapons on them, or dock at a canis industries shipyard where you can convert a few normal weapons for free into a configuration meant for your ship (ie, the projectiles actually come from the outer weapons ports.). These weapons take only one to two device slots and are free to make, but they will only appear if you are using that particular ship. The NPC canis indus. ships will use individual standard weapons so if you find a wreck, it won't have a special config weapon. Why is this? This is to prevent a player in say... a gryfalcon installing a dreadnought weapon set that would look utterly STUPID when firing- all sorts of projectiles are emanating from AROUND the ship, not from the ship.
Thus it's just an aesthetics decision.
FYI, say, a dreadnought full weapon set of lightning cannons creates 8 individual steams of lightning cannon bolts. You need 8 lightning cannons to make one then.
You can choose to use configurations of: (via the shipyard dockscreen)
Wing: 2, 4, 8
Body: 2, 4
configs of 8 are available only to the dreadnought (they will be programmed in, even though the dreadnought is not immediately available for use. the dreadnought is more of an easteregg.)
configs of 4 are not available to the siege fighter and cruiser. Siege fighter has no special configs. It does allow you to get canis industries thermo and long-range weapons at a discount.

I've got all the concept art done. I might upload it tomm. and/or I might make some ships and possible upload pics.

The other ships- wolfen, gryfalcon, and kineticore will be manufactured sepparatly. Wolfen might end up being Earth industries and the other two as some 4th company. I'm not sure yet.

[Periculi]

hmm... you found a way to set the firing angle and position for the weapons installed on a playership, or are you using a bunch of specific weapons?

[Aury]

hmm... you found a way to set the firing angle and position for the weapons installed on a playership, or are you using a bunch of specific weapons?

Unfortunately just specific weapons- no major breakthrough . You can't install a weapon to a specific arc and position- you can have the playership created with one, but you already had known that...

[Periculi]

I already had known many things!

8)

Fortunately, I don't let that get in the way of trying new ideas.

[Aury]

Now if there was some script to set that data in an event (such as oninstall or whatever it's called) then it would be very easy.

[Aury]

I've been brainstorming recently.
There will be several major (and minor) storylines in each section of the game as well as several giant story arcs through the entire thing. I'll post more on these later.

There are now four major subgroups in the Charon super-faction of illegals

1)Charon Marauders (these are the original marauders, except weaker with custom paint jobs)
The Charon Marauders have a small array of ships with which to attack you. While they may be less organized and thus weaker than the Pirates House or Shadows, their ships tend to be made out of the ships they loot- thus their configurations tend to vary greatly. Their ships are marked by vertical red markings. They are hostile to all non-marauders (except the House of Charon)
Marauder Corsair- The cheapest craft in their fleet, it's logically the most common. Their armament tends to include various level 1 weapons from lasers to recoiless cannons.
Marauder Viking- Also a relatively cheap craft, while it tends to have relatively low HP, it makes up for that with greater firepower. Common weapons include a light missile launcher, a turbolaser or a heavier recoiless varient. There can occasionally be a variant with shields, but to make up for the extra reactor load, the weapons are weaker.
Marauder Drake- A large but not terribly intimidating ship (unless you're flying a freighter), this ship is equipped with lasers and light missiles. Occasionally there may be one with shields and only the lasers. The missiles may also be swapped out for a kinetic weapon.
Marauder Illyrian- This ship is nothing more than a cargo vessel to shuttle loot around. It is lightly armed however with a pair of lasers and has fairly heavy armor for it's level. It will be accompanied by several escort ships.
Marauder Barbary- Nothing more than a support ship for them it's armed only with an EMP or blinder cannon due to reactor constraints. The blinder variant may have a weak shield.

2)Charon Pirates
These guys are stronger and will even adventure into ares space on occasion (with heavier ships of course). They have huge amounts of resources but must still tribute the House with a certain percentage of loot. Their ships are marked with black crosses. They use stock ship models. They are hostile to any non-charon/non-blackmarket (they will attack marauders though as they see them as lower than themselves)
Corsair- This is the same base model as used by the marauders. Armed with a single laser cannon.
Corsair II- This is a heavier variant. The two main loadouts are with a dual laser and a missile launcher or with an omni directional laser. All come with light shields
Corsair III- The heaviest varient. They come with dual turbolasers and a kinetic or blast weapon. 10mm railguns are not too uncommon, but the Slam Cannon seems to be quite popular. They have heavier shields than the Corsair II.
Viking- This is the same base model as used by the marauders. Armed with a single turbolaser.
Viking Advanced- This is a Viking I with an omni turbo instead.
Viking II- A viking with dual turbo, shields, and a microwave laser (the mw laser has much longer range but is quite weak. It surpasses the range of even the particle cannon.)
Viking III- A viking with a particle cannon or on occasion, even two particle cannons. They may occasionally pop into ares territory. They have relatively heavy shields.
Drake- The same base model as used by the marauders. Dual lasers and a missile launcher. May come with turbo lasers and no launcher.
Heavy Drake- A drake with shields and heavier armor. May include a MAG launcher or strelka launcher. Has two turbo lasers.
Advanced Assualt Drake- A drake with dual particle cannons and good shields. May have either a missile system or an ICX and a microwave laser turret (functions like ares lightning turret but continuous firing)
Frigate- Quad turbolasers and a missile launcher. Nicely armored as well.
Heavy Frigate- Quad xray lasers (NOT the original dual variant, but a single beam variant) and either a light missile launcher or a light shield system
Advanced Frigate- Either Quad particle cannons and a missile launcher and shields, or a Quad teleforce particle cannon loadout with light shields. Certainly ventures into ares space.
Tripoli- Quad turbolasers, missiles and shields.
Tripoli II- Quad xray OR microwave lasers. Also includes a missile launcher and heavier shielding (on the microwave version)
Tripoli III- Quad particle cannons and shields and a missile launcher OR Quad teleforce cannon with a light railgun.
Illyrian- This ship is nothing more than a cargo vessel to shuttle loot around. It is lightly armed however with a pair of lasers and has fairly heavy armor for it's level. May have an omni microwave laser. It will be accompanied by several escort ships.
Illyrian II- A heavier variant of the above, it also has an escort as well as light particle weaponry, shields, and possibly a light howitzer.
Barbary- Similar to the marauder version, this one has a heavier reactor and dual turbolasers (As well as an EMP cannon) as well as light shielding.
Barbary II- Comes with a dual xray laser and light shielding or quad omni microwave lasers and shielding. Both variants have a light EMP cannon.

3)House of Charon- these are the leaders of the main group of charon pirates but do not rule over the Shadows of Charon. They are hostile to goverments and corperations. Their ships are unmarked. They use the same ships as the pirates do. Their leader's Tripoli IV however has a loadout using weaponry developed by the House.

4)Shadows of Charon- the other founding members of the Charon super-faction were idealists now unhappy with how the House of Charon managed to collapse the Charon empire to just an organized crime system. Until the player gets initially involved in the Charon system, they hate, but do not attack the House of Charon. They are hostile only the highest certain governments (there is a mission against a corrupt CW polition- you get to steal the loot on a freighter filled with bribe money followed by a series of other missions, and a few of the Ares sects as well) and a few warlord factions and the sung slavers ( and vice versa for the House)
They too use the same ships as the Charon pirates, but as well their Leader's Libertalia Class Cruiser is also outfitted with experimental weaponry- except this time developed by the Shadows of Charon.
Libertalia (stock)- Quad forward Tev9's (2 aft tev9's) OR same configuration of light ion cannons (like lighter ion blasters), omni pulsar cannon. Has heavy shielding, acts as a fighter base like a CSC.


---More info to come---

[Aury]

Hmm... I may do the following color scheme rather than color patterns instead:
Mauraders- redish
Shadows- greyish
Pirates- plain white
House- blueish white

[Aury]

Illyrian freighter (stock pirate version)

Decided to give it four lasers instead of two. It'll probably just get an escort of corsairs. If you join the Shadows of Charon, you can dock and interact with the Illyrians of both the pirates and shadows. house and marauder illyrians will refuse docking.