Query about posting

[A yacht called Sapphire]

Hi there, I wanted to clarify something, and I think my query belongs in this part of the forum (if not, feel free to move it to a more appropriate section please). Anyway, I have a list (not too long) of small bugs and possible small changes to Transcendence; however, as I'm still a new member to this forum; and in all fairness, am a relatively new player to the game as I've only been playing for the last three weeks: I'm concerned that such a list, despite all the bugs/changes being small, would come across as complaining or insulting (of which the intention is neither, and I really do appreciate the hard work the creators of Transcendence put into it), and especially so since my first post here was to create a "Bugs & Brainstorms" thread. As such, I'm posting here first. Thanks.

[digdug]

Looks like this is a brainstorming thread, so it should go the Bug&Brainstorm forum...Teleported!

(btw, the community discussions part of the forum has been created to deal with the wiki, Xelerus mod repository and technical details of the forum itself.)

Hi, A yacht called Sapphire, we always welcome more ideas. So feel free to post about any idea you had in the last three weeks. New players like you are extremely valuable because they can bring a new point of view to old questions.

However we appreciate if you could do a little research (I know, the search function is not great) before posting your list.

Moreover complaining can come in 2 flavors: constructive or ranting. The first is always welcome, and can lead to improvements to the game. The second, if polite, usually is not problem, we are a faily small community, there are no flame wars here.

[A yacht called Sapphire]

Looks like this is a brainstorming thread, so it should go the Bug&Brainstorm forum...Teleported!

(btw, the community discussions part of the forum has been created to deal with the wiki, Xelerus mod repository and technical details of the forum itself.)

Hi, A yacht called Sapphire, we always welcome more ideas. So feel free to post about any idea you had in the last three weeks. New players like you are extremely valuable because they can bring a new point of view to old questions.

However we appreciate if you could do a little research (I know, the search function is not great) before posting your list.

Moreover complaining can come in 2 flavors: constructive or ranting. The first is always welcome, and can lead to improvements to the game. The second, if polite, usually is not problem, we are a faily small community, there are no flame wars here.

Thanks for everything, digdug.

I can assure everyone that I have no complaints, and I have been using the search quite a bit for my list. I don't think anything I'll mention here has been discussed before, though if it has I couldn't find it. When I post the list later, I'll ensure to be as helpful with it as possible. Until then, thanks again.

[A yacht called Sapphire]

Here's my list, and I hope it's not a case of tl;dr (sorry if it is, because it is quite long). Some items are trivial and probably not worthwhile, but I thought I should mention them anyway. Feel free to tell me if any of these have been discussed elsewhere, if some of the bugs are actually features, or have already been fixed/added in since version 1.01 (my current version). I did use the search quite a lot, but I may have missed some things (clicking on every thread would have taken a long time).

I'll list the bugs first. I've numbered them for readability due to the length:

1. Really longs titles don't seem to fit in the targeting program's display. For example, the wreck of a CSC shows up as "Commonwealth Star Carrier wrec". In addition, when the player gets killed by a CSC, there's an extra "a" where there should be either no word or "the" instead, i.e. "Destroyed by a CSC Antarctica" is incorrect.

2. The battle arena: I did the mission where Katami must be saved. Rather than finding him, I destroyed Kate Morgental's transport, looted it, then went back to the main arena building. Rather than get punished in any way, Kate gives me the standard order to help rescue Katami, even though she would have been killed on the transport. In addition, is there any way the Heretic mission could be changed if Kate was killed at all during the arena mission, or would that be too big a plot change?

3. I purchased an unknown alien device, and it said it was a shield with 400hp. When I installed it on my ship, it said it was a Jotun deflector and still said it had 400hp, but it only charged to 100hp despite this. Is this a bug? I don't think that the Jotun deflector needed additional technology to reach its full hp (I had a Hyperion reactor and few high-powered weapons).

4. On one go, I saved the Antarctica and got the gem of sacrifice. However, it called itself the "Glowing Ruby Halo Gem" instead. Fortunately, it still had the same powers, but the name change was confusing, and I haven't found anything on the forum about the name of the gem changing.

5. There's an exploit with Volkov's wife: if Volkov finds the ship, all the player needs to do is reload the game and destroy the freighter with her on and Volkov stays until Heretic. Even if this isn't a bug, it's still a downright evil thing to do.

6. I've had one with a CSC mission, the refugee convoy escort. At least twice, I've had it win by default on the second run even though I did nothing at all (not even move my ship), but on the third run, two convoys come, but what would be the second convoy is the only one that has to be saved (fortunately). I've had at least one Korolov mission win by nothing as well.

7. Finally there's an exploit with the abandoned cargo crates. If you access one and don't get anything good (or get something bad), reloading the game will result in the contents changing, and can get the player great items (currently very useful in Eridani).

Now for the suggestions.

1. The first small changes I thought of is once the player has saved the Charon Korolov Shipping. I noticed the "Escort freighter" button when docked with the building, but as the player doesn't escort anything it should read either "Command center" (since that's where the player goes to according to the text) or something else, though for consistency's sake I can see the point of leaving it as is. I also noted that none of the other Korolov Shipping centers note in your service record that you save that Korolov Shipping. Since the player gets commended for participating in attacks on Charon strongholds or for defeating the Kronosaurus, they should get commended for this too.

2. Make the battle arena match the level of technology you have on your ship. A lamplighter/ferian plasma cannon with strong shields and armor eliminates all the opponents, and the Slicer becomes a joke (a bit extreme but can be done).

3. I thought it may be a good thing to have something like the Korolov "service record" to keep track of all the ranks, achievements, and occupations the player holds, which could be accessed when in the screen for the ship's interior, and therefore be accessed at any time. I did read something about a "stats" thing for future versions, and am not sure if this is a repeat of that, but I thought I'd mention it anyway if it could possibly be incorporated with that.

4. Mineable planet rings (which are made up of asteroids) and mining on certain types of planets. There is one type of ore, though I can't remember what it's called, that says it comes from volcanic worlds, but when I've tried to mine a volcanic world, nothing happens. This really isn't important due to the vast amounts of asteroids, but would probably be easier and a bit more fun than mining them.

5. This is a much bigger change: I was thinking of a way to use the Ferians without killing them. Currently, there's no reason to dock with a Ferian colony (even though you can). I thought that maybe missions could be done for the Ferians (such as fighting something that keeps raiding the Ferians) in exchange for their ore, technology or rin. You could still attack them if you wanted, but this provides a kinder way to get things from them.

6. In addition to 5, Ferians and Tertons pretty much don't care that their outposts get destroyed (other than the base getting attacked). I thought that maybe if you destroy any/too many Ferian or Teraton buildings, either that faction turns against you, a "super" ship from each (like the Kronosaurus if you kill the heavy Charon pirate vessels) attacks you, or the game ends if you dock with them. Corporate cruisers triggered by ships other than you can also currently be destroyed without repercussions.

7. Out of curiosity, I killed Decker before meeting Helios and looted his ship. While I couldn't dock with any CSCs (except for the Antarctica) after that, smaller Commonwealth stations let me off. I was thinking that, like the black market bounty hunters that constantly come after you if you destroy one of their stations, if you destroy a CSC or Point Juno, the gain of looting them for advanced equipment is negated by swarms of Aquilas or something like that constantly pursuing you, and/or all Commonwealth military vessels and stations fire upon you. This to me seems better than docking with them and getting executed for treason (which can easily be avoided). I also think that CSCs should return fire when attacked by you like other ships do, as currently they don't.

I hope this list wasn't overwhelming. A couple of the changes I listed were a bit bigger than "small", but I think most were minor changes. I might think of more, but that's it for now. I welcome input. Thanks.

P.S. now that the thread is in this part of the forum, can the title be made more descriptive? Thanks.

[PM]

Kate could have insurance. If she dies, she just resurrects like any other insured player.

[Aury]

1) Known bug
2) She gives different dialogue, and I do think she has insurance
3) Jotun must be sed in order to change its max HP charge
4) The gem name you saw was a randomly assigned name from a list for the unknown gems (you have to use it before it gets known)
5) Known, but intended
6) I think its intentional that you get freebies. The extra convoy was a bug though.
7) It's called savescumming; doesn't look good, but some people will do it, and it will not be changed.

1) That was for consistancy; though yes, they should be commended in the records of the stations
2) No, the arena is in rigel - a level 2 system. By the time you have that equipment, the money from the arena is rather useless.
3) Stats are already impemented in versions 1.02+
4) No comment [I don't bother with mining]
5) Stuff like this has been proposed before; we're waiting and seeing what happens right now
6) Teratons do react; they build more and more defenders, for each station killed (by anybody). Their nests are neutral to eachother however; they don't care if other get killed - they are only interested in protecting themselves. For ferians, once again, each hive is sepparate, and they do spawn super-ships as well. (The ferian warriors), though it is by ships of a hive killed, rather than total hives killed.
7) CSC's don't have very good loot.

[george moromisato]

Thanks for the excellent suggestions, Yacht!

The game definitely needs to keep better track of the player's consequential actions. The two about killing Kate Morgenthal and Admiral Decker are great examples.

Though it is easy to solve specific cases (just add more code), I'm not sure exactly how to solve the more general case (other than adding lots more code).

The problems are:

1. It is difficult to represent characters across systems. For example, anything that happens to Kate in Rigel Aurelius should be reflected when you meet her in Heretic. Right now, this information is stored in global variables attached to a certain ship class, but there is no consistent way of doing this (e.g., Admiral Decker's status is stored in a different way).

Perhaps we need a way to track objects across systems in a consistent way. Every character in the game (Kate, Decker, etc.) could be represented as an object (generally a ship) and it would be possible to (e.g.) inquire about their status (dead, alive, etc.)

2. Another problem is state representation. At any point in time, Kate is in one of several states: alive and waiting for the player; mad at the player; dead; etc.

At each state, Kate should have different dialog with the player (and transitions to other states should depend on the current state). But today this state representation is spread out over multiple places. Sometimes it is at a station that the player docks at; sometimes it is at Kate's ships; etc.

It would be great if there were a single point at which one could program Kate's entire state-machine and all her responses and actions.

3. Ultimately, what I'd like to do is give characters more autonomy in how they respond to events. For example, right now the Kate storyline is entirely hard-coded. But what if we could program general goals and have the character attempt to accomplish those goals in whatever way possible. For example, if the player refuses to help Kate, perhaps she hires someone else.

This is extremely difficult to program correctly, but it might open up some very interesting interactions.

[Atarlost]

Your final goal sounds too much like true AI, but for better data storage what I'd do is create a new NPC type structure.

This structure would store all the currently global variables, but would also store multiple dockscreens. An access function would then take the unid of a npc and a key by which to select a dockscreen. A hash would be best, but a numerically indexed array would be acceptable.

This would put everything related to a character in one place, allow npcs to be abstracted out of ships so that missions and the ship or station from which they're given can be overridden separately, and allow npcs to be more easily added.

Kate's object for example would have at least three unrelated dockscreen structures for Rigel, the Svalibard, and the Iocrym control station.

[digdug]

can the title be made more descriptive? Thanks.

You can edit your own posts and by editing the first post of the thread, you can change the title.

[PM]

Since bugs are getting reported here, I have a trivial one to report.
Line 1919 of KorolovShipping.xml has a misspelled word "successfull".

[A yacht called Sapphire]

Thanks, Wolfy, for responding to my list and addressing each point individually. I admit there were a few things about the game I didn't know (like the Jotun deflector and the Teratons building more defenders, which I've recently observed in my current game), so thanks for letting me know about them. About the only one of your points that I would like to respond to is on CSCs, which, regardless of their loot value, I think they should at least fire back at you, as should their own defense ships (everyone else and their ships seem to), but, of course, that is only my opinion.

Thanks also to you as well, Mr. Moromisato, for your response. I understand that there are complexities with programming, and do appreciate the work everyone has made to the game. I noticed another thread spawned by this one about the points you raised.

As this is primarily a thread on bugs/suggestions, there was another thing I just recently came across, and I'd be surprised if this was a feature. I made an order for 24 medical supplies from a Corporate Trading Post, and the shuttle carrying my supplies was destroyed. When I went back to the trading post, they told me they weren't liable for the loss. Luckily, I managed to find the shuttle with my supplies and I looted it. However, when I went to a second trading post in the system and pressed "Order item" to buy something else, amazingly, they told me that the 24 medical supplies had arrived and were in my cargo hold, even though I had just been told beforehand by the first trading post that the cargo had been destroyed and couldn't be replaced, and I hadn't ordered anything from that trading post! Plus, the second trading post gave me 24 medical supplies, at no cost. There doesn't appear to be anything saying that trading posts cover each other's items if the player doesn't have insurance, but I may be missing something.

Finally, I'll leave the title of the thread: it doesn't appear to have any effects on the discussion. Thanks again, digdug.