Rookie Questions & Musings

[Cambrian]

Hello! This thread can double as my introduction: I've been playing space simulator and science-fiction computer games since the late 1980s, and was delighted to discover Transcendence a year or two ago. Although I've known about the game for a while, I'm just now getting around to playing it seriously. It's been sucking up all of my gaming time for the past week or so.

I've played a half-dozen or so games at this point (not counting false starts), and have gotten as far as a system or three past the first battle arena before deciding to give up and start over. I tend to become frustrated with that one system that's full of enemy bases and a huge asteroid belt, because there are a lot of spawns to deal with and by that time, fuel usage is an issue. That's all right though, since this game is essentially a roguelike.

I've gone ahead and installed the Captain's Log and Ore Scanner mods. Mining without an ore-scanning mod gets really old really fast, and people fib when they say you only have to shoot an asteroid "a few times" to see if it has ore. (I've had to shoot some asteroids six to eight times to get that first chunk of ore to pop out). When I first started playing the game I did a forum search to find out about mining, because I was shooting a bunch of asteroids, nothing was happening, and I had no idea what was going on.

Here's how I usually start the game: I find solar panel arrays absolutely indispensable early on, so I restart until I see that the Commonwealth Station in Starton Eridani is selling one. I know this is a bit cheap, but I've gone past the first battle arena and found none for sale anywhere before, which is rather annoying. Once I get a 100 MW generator, a good weapon and powerful shields (for that point in the game), the ship slurps up fuel like a starving herd of elephants, and a couple of solar panels really help out quite a bit.

Anyway, I always choose the Sapphire yacht at this point. I do missions, blow up Centauri stations and sell Centauri rice until I can afford a mining cargo hold, mining laser and ore scanner, then mine as much ore as possible (hoarding it in a destroyed station for max resale value). With that cash I buy the solar panel array and upgrade to a 50 MW generator, monopole shield, slightly better armor and some type of 6-7 MW weapon.

My biggest question is, where can I store my extra crap? I figured out quickly that Commonwealth stations and corporate enclaves offer diminishing returns when selling them stuff, which naturally makes me want to hoard ore until I can sell it in bulk. I've been using destroyed Centauri stations to store ore (and illegal goods, etc.) in, but I have a strong feeling those scavenger Nomads might come along and clean them out, so I assume it's risky. I've seen people mention "Mule Autons," but I have yet to see one for sale within the first half-dozen systems or so.

I guess I don't have much more to say, except to fish for general tips for beginners. I know I need to bulk up my offense and defense a bit more in the beginning to get further than I already have (at least without a lot of frustration), but ore is my main source of income other than lucky drops, and storing and selling it can be a real pain.

Also, something I find amusing: Every time I deactivate my shields to save fuel while mining, enemies spawn nearby. I'm starting to think this might be hardcoded.

[Datal]

Welcome in the forum Cambrian
I'm Datal and I'm very happy that you decided to join to the community.
I hope that you will spend nice time in this forum.

I've gone ahead and installed the Captain's Log and Ore Scanner mods. Mining without an ore-scanning mod gets really old really fast, and people fib when they say you only have to shoot an asteroid "a few times" to see if it has ore. (I've had to shoot some asteroids six to eight times to get that first chunk of ore to pop out). When I first started playing the game I did a forum search to find out about mining, because I was shooting a bunch of asteroids, nothing was happening, and I had no idea what was going on.

You did the same thing what I, exactly 3 months ago.
If you really like to mining you need to have adequate weapon, most popular are:
1.Mining laser
2.Plasma torch
3.Ferian plasma cannon
With plasma cannons mining will be much easier. Of course if you likes mods, you can always play with they.
Personally I don't mining, so I haven't effective method for that.

Here's how I usually start the game: I find solar panel arrays absolutely indispensable early on, so I restart until I see that the Commonwealth Station in Starton Eridani is selling one. I know this is a bit cheap, but I've gone past the first battle arena and found none for sale anywhere before, which is rather annoying. Once I get a 100 MW generator, a good weapon and powerful shields (for that point in the game), the ship slurps up fuel like a starving herd of elephants, and a couple of solar panels really help out quite a bit.

I have to to admit that I never used to Solar panels.
~All the game time you need control the fuel in reactor and in ships cargo. In my opinion the best way to obtain a fuel is loot this from enemy wrecks. A lot is in viking-class ships. This white looking like cisterns (I recommend you to check every wreck you will see)

Anyway, I always choose the Sapphire yacht at this point. I do missions, blow up Centauri stations and sell Centauri rice until I can afford a mining cargo hold, mining laser and ore scanner, then mine as much ore as possible (hoarding it in a destroyed station for max resale value). With that cash I buy the solar panel array and upgrade to a 50 MW generator, monopole shield, slightly better armor and some type of 6-7 MW weapon.

I think it will be better if you go forward and obtain equipment in parallel with progress in the game. Staying in few systems and saving money aren't good idea in my thinking. I made a big money because I found a lot of stuff in wrecks in pasts systems. Your strategy is also effective but quite harder. Just go forward and try to save some fuel. And remember to checks wrecks, they are useful.

My biggest question is, where can I store my extra crap? I figured out quickly that Commonwealth stations and corporate enclaves offer diminishing returns when selling them stuff, which naturally makes me want to hoard ore until I can sell it in bulk. I've been using destroyed Centauri stations to store ore (and illegal goods, etc.) in, but I have a strong feeling those scavenger Nomads might come along and clean them out, so I assume it's risky. I've seen people mention "Mule Autons," but I have yet to see one for sale within the first half-dozen systems or so.

Autons aren't good idea to store your staff, imagine that you can destroy it by accident.
You have in game a few cargo hold upgrade:
1 Miner cargo hold
2 Smugglers cargo hold
3 Cargo hold extension
~Smugglers cargo make that bases doesn't see your illegal stuff
~Miner cargo is for miner and give the biggest extension
~Normal cargo extension gives you only biggest cargo
I think that collecting stuff in bases isn't needed. You need to sell your unnecessary equipment at once. Don't collect them. Useless stuff like damage weapons or weak weapons, you need to leave in wrecks. Get only this
best and valuable. Then you will no problems with places for them.
~Of course if you minning a lot then you can have a little problem, because ore takes much space. I think then you have too sell it out instantly. Without flying around with them.

I guess I don't have much more to say, except to fish for general tips for beginners. I know I need to bulk up my offense and defense a bit more in the beginning to get further than I already have (at least without a lot of frustration), but ore is my main source of income other than lucky drops, and storing and selling it can be a real pain.

I never checked ( without mods ) the mining strategy but shooting strategy is very good so...)

My tips for you :
1. Don't mining just shooting...
2. Checks every wreck you will see.
3. Take care about the amount of fuel in yor ship and reactor.
4. In the middle of game you will find a lot of valuable and useful stuff.

I hope that my answer was good and will help you a little
Greetings from Poland.

[PM]

Some call start scumming cheap. It is, in a good way. I call it saving time. Those who say otherwise are deluded by false pride.

Short of mods, there are no tricks. You are doing what I do. You store extra stuff wherever you can. I frequently travel from system to system to stash items in a no Salvager system. Salvagers can appear from the second system to Sanctuary system. They do not appear in Rigel Aurelius and St. Katharine's Star. After Sanctuary, there is nothing that can loot wrecks, aside from occasional Commonwealth traffic scuttling ships too close to a stargate. Late game, you will encounter Gaian Terraformers, who seek out wrecked ships and other debris to destroy, but they will not loot (from wrecked stations).

Inventory management is a major part of the game, and one of the more obnoxious parts. Mule autons are usually not available until about midgame, but by then they are too fragile to withstand enemy attacks, and too slow to avoid enemies or keep up with your ship. You will probably want to download mods that feature ships that haul stuff for you. (Self-promotion alert: If you want something that functions like a bag of holding that cannot be popped, try the Immortal Shenlong. If you want to be more fair, Playership Drones lets you buy more ships, although you need to be rich to upgrade multiple ships.)

Fuel drain is obnoxiously fast. Solar armor helps, but it is weak defensively. There are other fuel tricks you can exploit, but those require reading spoilers and are more effective later in the game.

Domina powers can save your life. Learn to use them.

Some factions have unlimited reinforcements until their base is destroyed. Early in the game, you can farm Charon Pirates for missiles and (turbo)laser cannons. Some of their damaged equipment can be converted into new undamaged items by Tinkers. You will find more lucrative targets later in the game.

The Charon system is a meat grinder for the unprepared. You can skip it if you want. The next system is St. K's, the Commonwealth capital. It is like Eridani, only bigger. It is less hectic than Charon, but it is not completely safe. After St. K's, the game often becomes harder. By that, you may find a bunch of relatively harmless outlaw miners or pirates, or you may get a new one ripped by midgame enemies such as Dwarg, Sapiens, or Sung.

[Cambrian]

Thanks for the advice, guys.

@Datal:
Thanks for the welcome! Regarding solar panels, I can use up almost all of my fuel, then go sit in a star on Autopilot with shields and other systems deactivated and regain all that fuel for free. With a 100 MW reactor and level IV shields, I think this saves a whole lot of money in the pre-St. Katherine's game. It allows me to explore the early systems more leisurely without worrying about wasting money.

I might try your suggestion about just shooting my way through, but I've noticed that there's very little really good loot before St. Katherine's; not a lot of methods for making money to buy the best weapons, armor and shields available, outside of mining. (I could be wrong.) There's some decent stuff right before St. K., though, I think. There are quite a lot of fuel rods to be had past the first couple of systems, though.

@PM:
Yeah, I've noticed that inventory management and fuel consumption can be rather obnoxious. Now that I know there are places to hoard ore and loot safe from scavengers, though (before I assumed Nomads could spawn anywhere), the early game should be a lot easier for me. It will be a bit tedious, but I think I'll use a destroyed station in Starton to store everything for a while, then sell the max amount to each station that's willing to purchase ore.

As for Domina powers, I know I start with Sustain and I assume tithing and donating items eventually grant more. As for stuff like figuring out how to access the black markets and other obscure things (like having the Tinkers combine broken weapons), I have no idea how people figured that out legitimately! It's been a mystery to me for a while, and I've seen a few spoilers about that sort of thing but I don't actively seek them out.

I'll look into farming infinite spawns. As mentioned previously, the very early enemies don't seem to drop much if anything of value, but I'll see if I can locate some that do pre-St. K.

Charon wasn't impossibly difficult for me the first time I reached it, but it was... iffy? Yeah, that's a good word. Being harried by a dozen ships is pretty nerve-wracking, but I'll see what I can do the next few times around.

[PM]

About Domina: Tithing does not count towards earning rank and powers. Unless you know what to do (read: been spoiled), tithing is a trap. If you want to get more Domina powers, you need to donate multiple psionic or sentient items. Hint: Sung are an excellent source of such items.

How people figure out this stuff? It is in the source, which is easily accessable.

[Curudan]

I'd recommend checking out the wiki, if you haven't already. Although it doesn't have anything about Domina powers, I know that it has a helpful list of all misc items, and the best places to buy and sell them, and a page on the Tinkers and what they combine.

[Resident-Pyromaniac]

Welcome to The forums, Cambrian.

I really have no advice for you, seeing as PM and datal have pretty much told you everything you need to know, and I never Mine or Hoard myself.
(I favor the wulfen, big time)

My strategy is Generally upgrading my Reactor
In large jumps,(like looting 100MWs or getting enough money to go to 25MW,
then 50MW, sell the 25MW, upgrade to 100MW, and sell the 50MW, etc.)
and then taking whatever weapon comes up, and somewhere around sanctuary
I try to Get a Jumpdrive or Halo Gem and Fabricate my stuff in the end-game.

btw, Am I the only one who avoids the Cyclotron and Yoroi shield generators?
in my mind they are the cheapest and Cruddiest Shields out there. a good
1T/5T-Qausi-armor is the best early to mid-game.

[Anterwerp]

I like to use solar armor of solar arrays because solar arrays use up device slots, you can find them on Heliotrope sunflare-class destroyer, they are usually not in the beginning systems i usually find them after the st. Kathrine system.

[Datal]

Welcome in Forum Anterwerp.
I recommend you (new users) to write somthing in "Welcome and Introductions" topic. Thanks.
Thanks also for your opinion about solar devices.


And one more think : Greetings from my Poland