RPG syle

[Czert]

For killing enemy ships, you gain EXPs. If you have enough exps, you gain new level and give you choise to invest skill points (to trading, shooting, charisma etc.) and after certain levels you gain perks (ala Fallout). Some special abilitie can be gained only if perfoming missions for certain sovergin. (e.q. more powers of domina only if you accomplish mission for them, discount in trading post - competing missions for Korolev Shiping (perk Trade defender)).
Of course, some perks disallow some actions - perk TD prevents joinig pirates etc.

[F50]

I think if George had wanted this it would have come with the first few releases. This is also simply copying another game and I don't think this fits with Transcendence.

[Betelgeuse]

but a mod that does it might be interesting. It is already possible to make something like exp and levels in mods.

[ThorWarriorX]

Betelgeuse, if you can do a template it would be helpful... Of course, I'm saying this to you because youre the best around.

[Revolver]

I don't know if the RPG elements would be all that logical in a space sim game. What if there was an option that gave you experience based on the amount of activity that you put into the game. If you played long enough then you would get access to other ships.

[ThorWarriorX]

No... I counter that with the Shipyard idea, Revolver. Well, one thing I thought, was that we could have a skill attribute to calculate the aim level of omni weapons, but I don't know if they're manually controlled.

[OddBob]

No... I counter that with the Shipyard idea, Revolver. Well, one thing I thought, was that we could have a skill attribute to calculate the aim level of omni weapons, but I don't know if they're manually controlled.

What do yuo mean by a 'shipyard idea'?
Omni weapons are computer controlled. It says so in the definitions of most of them.


I am pretty strongly opposed to RPG elements in Transcendence. I don't like being told I can't use this weapon because my "laser skill" isn't high enough or saying I can't eat this because my "cutlery skill" is lacking. Your pilots abilities are your abilities. Make this work into the game. If you (henceforth you means you, not your character) have poor reflexes, introduce something that allows you to get around this (Surprise!
Omniweapons). I, uh, had some other examples, but that's the only real "skill" a pilot needs. Repair? You're not allowed to repair you're own devices.
If it's ever implemented, I'd absolutely love to have to read an instruction manual and have to do it myself, but I'm a sick little freak who likes that sort of thing. I know most people don't. so I won't actually suggest it.
Charisma? You don't really talk to anybody. If you ever do, it'll probably be by way of dialouge trees, which require a bit of thought anyway.
Haggling? Make the player do it. Heck, angband has this.


I've never played Fallout. How do the "perks" work? The word makes me think like feats in D&D (special things you can do, like use two weapons or whatever), but your desricption sounds more like a promotion.

[ThorWarriorX]

The said shipyard idea is that discussion we had on UTF about buying new ships, which came about a "shipyard idea". And OddBob, I mostly agree with you in your post, but I have an idea. What about a more direct "skill" system, which you can only pick one? Like, you can have "tinker" which lets you repair/upgrade items based on your skill, which would raise as you use it. Of course there would be limitations. Other would be "prayer", which would let you have some unique "requests" from both Oracus and Domina, and things like this. What you think, guys?

[Czert]

I don't like being told I can't use this weapon because my "laser skill" isn't high enough - laser skills (beter energy weapons) - affects only how effective you control energy based weapons (bonus to damage/fire rate... etc.).
Charisma affect trading prices/how many (human, not autons) companion can trawel with you.
How many skills and what skills, are to discusion.

Perks are special abilities to gain unique charakteristics, unable to reach normal leveling. E.q. (for this game) master of weapons vs. master of shields.

[the_holy_thom]

The game already has an RPG element:

In an RPG, the character recieves "experience" from killing enemies, which he then uses to to do more damage by "getting stronger"

In Transcendence, the character recieves "money" from killing enemies, which he then uses to to do more damage by "buying the Fusionfire"

Money works best as experience because you - increase HP, strength, agility, dexterity and buy misc. stuff as well. Potions etc aren't needed, as you have constant regen due to your shield anyway.

Dexterity, as OddBob said, relies on the player themself.

Charisma - maybe for recruiting wingmen, but haggling would be more fun than just having the price lowered automatically.

Anyway, if were going for a experience-money metaphor, then you need more "experience" to gain the later "levels". This is just making it easier to get the big things earlier, which wouldn't make the game better IMO.

Laser skill - don't even get me started. If you can get close enough and point the ship in the right direction, you hit. If you want more damage, you trade your "experience" to buy better "weapon skills" - a laser collimator. You can mod more if you want.

Perks - why not just have some special equipment that you need to do a certain activity to obtain? It would be useful, but not nesseccary.

We don't need to add experience levels and statistics into Transcendence, we basically have everything under a different name.

[george moromisato]

I've struggled with these concepts a lot in the game. At heart, I think Transcendence is an RPG of sorts, but many of the traditional game mechanics of an RPG are mutated or altered. I like Thom's perspective on it...it is close to my own.

There are really two "characters" in the game that you develop. The first is your ship. As Thom said, your ship improves as you progress. The second is the player himself/herself. Part of the goal of Transcendence is to be a replayable game. In theory, people should get better at playing the game--not just because they have better reflexes, but mostly because they know more about what works and doesn't work in the game universe.

But at the same time, I think there is room for improvement. Traditional RPGs have some/all of the following:

Level: There are a couple of analogs for character level in Transcendence. One might argue that reactor output is the closest approximation to level. Also, the player can have a "level" in each of the major friendly sovereigns (e.g., Commonwealth Fleet level, Black Market level, etc.)

I can imagine many improvements that would make the above connection stronger. Perhaps there should be more intermediate reactor sizes. Perhaps some (higher-level) reactors require other ship improvements. For sure there should be more stuff to do as part of the Black Market and the Commonwealth Fleet, etc.

Player stats (e.g., strength, intelligence, etc.): There is no strong analog in Transcendence for these. The player's relationship with Domina could substitute for wisdom/piety--but that needs to be developed further. I don't see any use for strength or dexterity in the game, but perhaps intelligence could be introduced for using cyber-tech stuff (but I think that would unnecessarily complicate the game). Charisma might also be interesting, at least in so far as it could influence your relationship with other characters in the game--but I would much rather that be based on actions that the player does or does not do.

Equipment: Here there are very strong analogs. Obviously armor, weapons, and (to a lesser extent) shields are directly inherited from RPGs. I have always thought of ROMs and barrels and scrolls and potions.

[palmiche]

... some (higher-level) reactors require other ship improvements

Other ship "types/sizes" perhaps?

[ThorWarriorX]

Has anyone seen my post? I think it flew from the hard eyes of the forum

[george moromisato]

Has anyone seen my post? I think it flew from the hard eyes of the forum

Did you write some long post that took you a long time and then when you hit submit did you get an error and lose the whole thing? It's happened to me before too. Now I select my whole post and hit Ctrl+C to copy it to the clipboard before submitting.

I don't know if there is a bug in the forum software or not--I'll upgrade it to the latest version.

[OddBob]

Yes, Thor, we have all seen your post. EDIT: Unless we haven't.
This one?

What about a more direct "skill" system, which you can only pick one? Like, you can have "tinker" which lets you repair/upgrade items based on your skill, which would raise as you use it. Of course there would be limitations. Other would be "prayer", which would let you have some unique "requests" from both Oracus and Domina, and things like this. What you think, guys?

I don't like it any more that the other system, because now it's exactly the same thing except you can only have one skill.