Thoughts from a current RC2 playthrough

[Viperion]

Some possibly random thoughts stemming from two recent games, one where I tried mining but got bored after several systems and quit, and a new one with a wolfen.

Since this is a bug/balance testing play through, I allow myself to resurrect.

Playing through with a wolfen.

First thought - the RNG seems to be much wilder in RC2 than previously. I have scored 4 weapon optimizer roms from drops, and most games I usually have to order one from a Corp Trading Post. I also can buy a Hanzo Blaster from a Bushido merchant in St K's. This coming on the heels of a freighter run through where my best weapon was an omni-particle AFTER sanctuary. Seems a little random.

Next thought - I just played through the Arena and it seems a little off - the Arena Adviser (can't remember his name) will tell me that my shields aren't good enough when they are, and he also doesn't seem to be concerned with Armor. This might be a good chance to help players realize they should balance armor and shields - if you have a particle resistant shield but blast vulnerable armor, you could be in serious trouble.

The new Manufacturing stations provide a lot of income if you have the cash to buy their stock. It is slightly frustrating that they usually want heavy items and pay virtually nothing for them but will sell you lots of light items for a load of cash. It would seem to me that some of the prices (especially Water Ice) should go up for things you can sell to the manufacturing plants. It's basically impossible to make money selling to the plants unless you have a freighter and hit a station that happens to buy what you have been hoarding.

Tinkers feel rarer, although that may just be the capriciousness of a the RNG.

I hit a Korolov station about system 4 that had no freighters that I could escort. All Antares and that was the only Korolov other than in Charon. And after I saved the station in Charon, waxed the pirates and got a reward, I still couldn't use the dock. Slightly frustrating to be tantalized by the possibility of making money from the Korolov station and then not being able to get any missions since no low-level freighters were in system.

I found a CSC (the Antartica) 1 system before Sanctuary. I don't remember seeing this before. It's also odd that I had seen only one Sung Slave camp (and 1 Huari fortress) until this system, but then had two Fortresses right next to each other. RNG capriciousness again, I guess.

I have seen several binary systems this play through. Usually I might get one in a game and that's always lower-level. Is there something in the system generation that says there can be no high-level binary systems? Might be faulty memory, but I can't remember hitting one.

In a system with a BM Shipyard, I ran across a dead E100 with dockscreen text reading in part [paraphrase] "There is a body of a dead woman strapped to the bridge chair." I assume this is some plot content related to the BMShipyard, but I've not seen it before. I have not dug into the XML, but either way, I think it's cool. I would like to see more of this type of thing, if possible, or some random vengeance or rescue missions from these kind of dead ships?

A Dual Flenser +Fast and a Cannon Accelerator is a killer weapon! It will plow through stations as fast as a Mark III. While this is a dually enhanced weapon, I think it might be slightly OP.

I got an M1 Battle Auton off a Abbasid outpost in the second system, and it proved to be a tide-turner in the Arena. I also had Volkov with me in the Arena in an earlier playthrough. I have him wait on the far end, start the match, and then target the opponent and have him attack. I killed the slicer without having to use the Shield Optimizer! Not sure if this is exactly the behavior desired, maybe keeping the wingmen out of the Arena somehow would be best.

I like that we are now friendly and can dock with the Ferian station, but is there any way we can conduct commerce with them? I never see Ferian Freighters or any other kind of ship near their stations. Are they some kind of autonomous constructor force intending to build superstructures out in space (ala Ringworld or Halo?) Do they even have a human background? And why, o why, can't I mine the Asteroids the Ferians do?

Final Thought from just past sanctuary - I'm going to try this playthrough not taking my usual tack and using the Transspace Jumpdrive to skip Point Juno. (I usually jump past Point Juno until I have an IM90 or Heavy Ion Blaster so I can knock out the first wave of Ares easily.) Also going to try the same thing with the Huari system., if I can find enough Sung to kill to get on the Huari good list. Am I the only person who skips Juno? Would you consider that cheating?

Lots of thought here, thanks for reading.

The Hyper Viper

[Fossaman]

Nice report. A few points I want to comment on:

Is there something in the system generation that says there can be no high-level binary systems?

Nope. Just bad luck on your part. I've run into high level binaries in both of my most recent games.

In a system with a BM Shipyard, I ran across a dead E100 with dockscreen text reading in part [paraphrase] "There is a body of a dead woman strapped to the bridge chair." I assume this is some plot content related to the BMShipyard, but I've not seen it before.

It's not black market related. Not going to spoil it, though.

Am I the only person who skips Juno? Would you consider that cheating?

I don't skip point juno. I usually just go for it with whatever equipment I have on hand. Typically I manage to complete the encounter.

[Aeonic]

I've encountered the 'woman in the cockpit' ship several times and still have no clue what its all about. I really wish they'd provide more clues in the game to help you locate these side missions. Its kind of annoying knowing that they're out there but being unable to figure out how to get them.

Now the real question is, does your dual Flenser +Fast with a Cannon Accelerator compete with the X-ray laser +fast +155% (laser collimator) that I had in my last game?

[Prophet]

I have noticed that the randomness is now less random...
Stations:
-----------
I only see one tinker station per game now.
Adventure Outfitters are everywhere, one system had 4.
Raisermesser, Busido and Mayakev shops only show 2-3 times each, and usually have less selection than a CW colony.
Ferians are EVERYWHERE!
I only found one trader station and it was just after St. K
My most recent St K was really weird, all the stations around the arcology were residentials, slums or factorys. Not much to do. move along.
Every system seems to favour a certain race and really feels like I'm moving through different territories. It is kind of neat, but when you get 2 systems of mostly penitents, I almost ran out of creds!
In my latest playthrough there was only 1 heliotrope station, the only marauders were in St Ks, one Huari fortress, no sapiens, tons of Ranx, Kobol, sung and Ares.

Items:
--------
Nearly all the shops seemed to stock the same items. There were probably 20-30 Akans for sale, and every wreck has a barrel of Ion paste in it?!
I saw one flenser, one PK25 Morningstar (my favorite early game weapon)
and I finally, FINALLY looted a Katana.

Did something major change in the randomization or did I just roll an Epic fail?

[Wurmish]

I think sir, you have rolled a failure.

In my current playthrough (where I did loot my shiny Nova-100 in Groombridge) I have already seen several Bushidos starting at St. K's, most stocked with Hanzos and/or Katanas.

I think the lack of selection is made up for in they have their specialty items more, at least on this run for me.

I have seen 2 to 3 Tinkers up through Sanctuary.

Most of my games have had me scrounging for everything, so far my most recent playthroughs I have literally been riding high most of the game in my Wolfen.

[Fossaman]

Ferians are EVERYWHERE!

That should be

Money is EVERYWHERE!

Get to hive cracking! Just because they're green doesn't mean they're not crunchy!

[Psycholis]

Am I the only person who skips Juno? Would you consider that cheating?

I usually do the same thing, though I think the IM90 is overkill for point juno. By the time you've come back with it, you've saved up enough rin to buy 4 plates of light iocrym plate, a taikon 200 AND a omni ion cannon (the second best omni)

[Viperion]

I finally hit a High Level Binary - with 4 adventure outfitters, just like Prophet. The RNG seems far wilder in this release.

And I have had 4 commonwealth fortresses, but only one is really worthwhile since I can only get a mission set from one. Oh well.

Fusionfire Howitzer +Fast is an awesome mid level base-cracker. Time to go back and farm some Ventauri.

The Hyper Viper

[Aeonic]

Has anyone ever played the little space simulation game called Noctis? That game consists of a pseudo-randomly generated galaxy, which is pretty cool because you can explore any of billions of stars even to the extent of landing on their orbiting planets and walking around.

Anyhow, there was an anomaly in that game where at some point in the randomly generated galaxy, the star configuration turned into a big wall of stars that were all parallel on a single axis. Perhaps Transcendence uses a single number for each play through as the random number generator's seed, and you just ended up with the seed that happened to create an effect in Transcendence similar to the wall effect that occurred in Noctis.

[Song]

The fast fusionfire +high speed loader is both an insane basecracker, and a great dogfighting weapon it your enemy isn't so agile.

I haven't come across the EI100 thing......I'm curious as to what part it plays......

[Prophet]

I'm in a playthrough in RC3 now and I was finally able to trigger the sequence with the EI100.
Without any major spoilers I wanted to make some notes.
There is little information given to the player when it happens and could be frustrating for new players that manage to trigger it. I can just imagine the posts "WTF!!!?!?-- WHAt HapENed?!?!" It's not a big loss right now as I have been lucky so far, but it did seem to happen earlier than I had hoped (just past sanctuary, a level 5 system) This game I've already encountered at least 5 BM stations, 2 tempus labs and a BM shipyard which helped me with most of my cash problems.