All reactors should be non-military

[PM]

Targeting ROMs... I considered starting a thread about that, but I might as well discuss it briefly here.

If I play the EI500, I startscum for it until I get it. Start, check, and restart only takes a few seconds, and it saves much grief during the game over the long run. I may or may not do this with other ships because solar equipment is of higher priority. If I am willing to forgo solar equipment, I scum Starton Eridani for targeting ROMs, and reset if I fail to get one.

Targeting is great for putting the player on a level playing field against other NPC ships with long range weaponry (they aim as if they have it), it saves much grief when wrecks overlap each other or drift too close to a friendly station (and you cannot clear them without hitting the station), and lets you command your wingmen and autons to attack a specific target.

In short, I think targeting is as basic and vital as autopilot, and the player should be given one for free, either at the start of the game or with the missiles from Raisu station. It is a very important part of the user interface, and makes the game a little more user friendly.

[Aury]

And the damage meter it displays is critical in the late game, what with exploding stations & capships and all.

[PM]

(To Wolfy) Good catch!

[Amilir]

If you've gotten george to agree, why the topic? Since you haven't, the purpose of this topic is to debate if it should be the case, and it isn't final yet. Forums are not 'my way no disagreement '. I am arguing that your position of hyperion being a necessity is inaccurate, and that this change isn't needed.

That's everything I've beaten the ICS with since RC5, when I started. Is it really that hard to avoid a few ships with seriously pathetic range, or just smash them? You shouldn't be getting hit by significant amounts of plasma.

Getting 40k rin is, as I said, easy. Blow 2-3 ares communes and repair a few positron cannons. If you're too stingy with your longzhus or rins that's your problem, not the game's.

Now targeting ROMs ARE critical, that's what corporate outposts are for: Low level parts of your setup you couldn't find before St Kats. Not endgame level equipment.

Really, as far as I can tell your motivation in this is to fix the unspeakable tragedy that is no mail-order hyperion. Even if A: Hyperion is critical, and B: There is no reasonable way to get rins for it, the solution isn't to make it non-military. The solution is to make rins more obtainable. Lack of fair ways to get rins is MUCH more critical if true.

[PM]

I know I can wait until Trading Posts for the targeting ROM, but why? Unless I make a mad dash past St.K's immediately after the game starts, I will commit hours playing the early game without targeting, and that is no fun. Why suffer this when I can just startscum for it? The EI500 may even start with one in its cargo, and it is armed with an omni-laser. Thus, I have every incentive to scum for the targeting ROM. Scumming Starton Eridani for the ROM is also relatively quick.

Besides, I would rather use the Trading Post to order more longzhu spheres or other endgame consumables.

[Aury]

Technically, the topic was there so george would see it perhapse a little sooner, since he hasn't been checking the trac very often it seems (well, no milestones have been added for quite some time). And for atarlost to say whatever he needed to add. (Because the tickets don't show when they get updated unless you manually check them)

You need 100k for the hyperion at the ringer shipyards, not 40k (hyperion got a big price-hike sometime recently, not sure when though, at least as far back as 1.02 anyways.), IIRC. Not having enough rin is still a sepparate, if just as pressing, issue however. The only reason it ever become as big of an issue as it has was because the hyperion got made military to begin with.

Also, you have epic piloting skills, and I congratulate for that. Either that, or lots of patience, pteracnium, ICX's/longreaches', repair kits, and a freighter or at least a sapphire. All of which are things I don't have, nor would want to have during the iocrym fight. (Wolfen player here, as is Atarlost)

But making reactors non-military fixes the reactors issue anyways; as you have continually failed to prove, nothing bad would come from removing 24 specific characters from transcendence.xml. Thus both the non-military reactor issue can be fixed, while the hard-to-get rins issue can be resolved at a later date, because that is something that would need to be discussed.

[Atarlost]

I wouldn't mind it having cannotorder too badly actually. As long as you can get it outside the rin economy.

Missing it occasionally because of bad luck is okay. Missing it all of the time because it's only available to rin farmers is not.

[Aury]

That would push it back to level IX & X systems however. I'll take it still being accessable in VII and VIII systems, by extending the range of what the CW settlements carry.

[Aury]

Actually, now that I think of it, if I can order a koshiba, that's still fine.

[Amilir]

I checked, it's 40k. I fly wolfen, though I did have a longreach when I was running meteorsteel.

Why not make reactors non-military? Why not make drives non-military? Shields? Armor? Even weapons? Why not make level X weapons available for credits? Why the military classification for anything? To make sense in game. Other high level devices are military, reactors should be too. Making an exception to keep a symptom of another problem under control is bad design. Acceptable as a temporary fix, but still bad design.

My point of this making equipment available to corporations but not military also applies.

@PM
Why startscum in any roguelike? It's a personal choice.

[PM]

(To Amilir) I do not startscum in every roguelike; but in Transcendence, why not? Little difference between resetting and a suicide run to end a game I do not want. Surviving in Transcendence is much easier than in Nethack and Angband. What I mean by that last statement is the RNG can instakill starting players easily in other roguelikes, no matter how much the player tries to twink them. Transcendence tries to be fair, and will not try to kill you (unfairly) unless you play dumb. Also, I treat Transcendence as a Star Control 2 variant rather than a roguelike unless I count Diablo as a roguelike. I like Star Control 2; but I care less for most roguelikes, although I play them occasionally. (I like DoomRL, and Diablo I is amusing. "Ah, fresh meat!")

[kay.py]

Ok, it is possible to deal with Heretic with a SN2500... But since I debug-spawned my equipment and jumped straight to the end system I need a vanilla playthrough before I claim my superhuman piloting skillz

[Atarlost]

Ok, it is possible to deal with Heretic with a SN2500... But since I debug-spawned my equipment and jumped straight to the end system I need a vanilla playthrough before I claim my superhuman piloting skillz

Howitzer abuse will let you kill anything. The question is whether you can kill sentinels fast enough to save stations with anything that runs on a sn2500.

[kay.py]

That may be the question, but according to my experiments, the answer is "yes"

[Aury]

In a freighter or sapphire?