Newbie player bugs

[PM]

You get more XP for completing missions with more wingmen. From a min-maxing perspective, that is a bad thing (after I reach rank 4 or 5) because the munchkin wants unlimited missions to keep the loot piñatas called Polars, Deimos, and Phobos coming. Player can even sacrifice a few Britannias in rank 5 missions and hope they leave valuable loot behind. (Despite what lore says, Fleet has unlimited ships and can always spawn as many as it needs for missions.) For those who want to save Antarctica, fleet demotion is a reward, although regaining rank 4 should be top priority for free dock services.

Player needs rank 5 to complete Lamplighter quest (which is impossible in Eternity Port). Rank 6 is only needed if you want Lamplighter but cannot kill Antarctica yourself. In Eternity Port, rank 4 is all that is needed for free stuff, and completing missions then is only good if you want to smash loot piñatas.

Another side gripe in Eternity Port: Morana archcannon is lame and weak. I think (Ringer) positron lancer is weak for level 10, but Morana is even worse. Only 60% DPS of positron lancer, when the latter has already fell behind due to power creep. What is more, Morana is less powerful than level 9 Ares positron cannon (which has shield-buster and more DPS, and less powerUse), and the player can easily get Ares positron cannon by looting a damaged one from a Chasm or sentry and use a Longzhu to fix it, Much easier than trying to loot an intact Ares plasma archcannon from the killer Phobos. For me, APD is the no-brainer side to pick because Baihu archcannon is good, or at least useful (plus red Raijin working for team blue/ED feels weird).

[NMS]

Another side gripe in Eternity Port: Morana archcannon is lame and weak. I think (Ringer) positron lancer is weak for level 10, but Morana is even worse. Only 60% DPS of positron lancer, when the latter has already fell behind due to power creep. What is more, Morana is less powerful than level 9 Ares positron cannon (which has shield-buster and more DPS, and less powerUse), and the player can easily get Ares positron cannon by looting a damaged one from a Chasm or sentry and use a Longzhu to fix it, Much easier than trying to loot an intact Ares plasma archcannon from the killer Phobos. For me, APD is the no-brainer side to pick because Baihu archcannon is good, or at least useful (plus red Raijin working for team blue/ED feels weird).

It is worth noting that the Morana has omni. With 81 positron DPS, that makes it the best non-ammo, single target, sustained fire omni weapon, beating out the omni TeV-9, omni (light) ion, and Sova-900. That is a lot of qualifiers though. You could conceivably prefer the omni thermo cannon, Ares lightning turret, or IM90.

[PM]

Did not know that Morana is omni. If so, that makes Morana good - very good - then. I test drove it with no enemies nearby, and the description did not indicate that it was omni.

An omni positron weapon would be very good in SotP, especially now that IM90 is not so good anymore for ships with many weapon slots. (I prefer using two or three Ares lightning turrets over IM90 on a Wolfen, if I cannot enhance IM90 to +150%.)

I dislike omni thermo cannon without CorpCom's thermo shell nanofac. Ammo gets in the way too much for me.

EDIT: Got a chance to try the Morana near enemies, and it is omni! If I made a Morana knock-off for a mod, I would probably put it at level 11! It would be helpful if the weapon name or description made it clear that Morana is omni. Without knowing Morana is omni, I would have tossed Morana aside and use Ares positron cannon instead without thinking twice.

[JohnBWatson]

You get more XP for completing missions with more wingmen. From a min-maxing perspective, that is a bad thing (after I reach rank 4 or 5) because the munchkin wants unlimited missions to keep the loot piñatas called Polars, Deimos, and Phobos coming. Player can even sacrifice a few Britannias in rank 5 missions and hope they leave valuable loot behind. (Despite what lore says, Fleet has unlimited ships and can always spawn as many as it needs for missions.) For those who want to save Antarctica, fleet demotion is a reward, although regaining rank 4 should be top priority for free dock services.

I agree. A possible solution would be to make loot - bearing Fleet missions a bit more scarce. For example, have the "destroy commune" mission only trigger when a commune is present in the system, and limit the unknown hostile and Ares squadron missions with a timer, to make it a bit more realistic.

Player needs rank 5 to complete Lamplighter quest (which is impossible in Eternity Port). Rank 6 is only needed if you want Lamplighter but cannot kill Antarctica yourself. In Eternity Port, rank 4 is all that is needed for free stuff, and completing missions then is only good if you want to smash loot piñatas.

According to the timeline, EP takes place after SotP. Decker mentioning the Lamplighter is therefore a bit strange, as is Dall's alien sphere being right there where it was in SotP.

Further complicating things is that George has said that the two adventures might be integrated. Honestly, I've no idea how I'd go about fixing that.

Another side gripe in Eternity Port: Morana archcannon is lame and weak. I think (Ringer) positron lancer is weak for level 10, but Morana is even worse. Only 60% DPS of positron lancer, when the latter has already fell behind due to power creep. What is more, Morana is less powerful than level 9 Ares positron cannon (which has shield-buster and more DPS, and less powerUse), and the player can easily get Ares positron cannon by looting a damaged one from a Chasm or sentry and use a Longzhu to fix it, Much easier than trying to loot an intact Ares plasma archcannon from the killer Phobos. For me, APD is the no-brainer side to pick because Baihu archcannon is good, or at least useful (plus red Raijin working for team blue/ED feels weird).

Morana may be omni, but it's also un - enhanceable beyond the 20% of the Longzhu or +fast. The ALT is a fairly close competitor, especially with full enhancements, and is much easier to obtain. Given the difficulty of the mission chain, it could use a small buff. Perhaps a very low WMD level?

The Lamplighter is more desperately in need of a buff, but that's a different story.

[PM]

Knowing that Morana is omni, I think it is slightly overpowered for its level, like most quest rewards, if adhering to the damage curve (power creep of thermo and plasma weapons notwithstanding). That said, I find it funny that none of the positron weapons have any WMD. Fiction likes to portray antimatter of any form (including positron weaponry) either as a gigantic super-WMD or a pocket nuke, yet Transcendence treats it as yet another energy damage type (which does scratch damage to ships' interior or multihull stations) on the gear treadmill.

As for enhancing ion weaponry, it is HARD! Ion enhancers are rare, and you can order only one per trading post, instead of three thermo enhancers. Enhancing an ion weapon to +150% may not be a sure thing.

Yes, Lamplighter desperately needs more damage. EI's plasma cannon outperforms it against everything except the ICS (but even then it is close).

[Song]

We're getting a bit off-topic here peeps. Let's stick to the newbie-stuff for now and leave endgame balance for somewhere else (although I personally feel that discussing lategame omnis and fleet balance would be a good thing to do....elsewhere).

[JohnBWatson]

The EI500 is the easiest ship to get started with, due to its omni weapon and the somewhat challenging facings system, so might it be useful to recommend it to first time players?

Perhaps even locking the other two until the Benedict tutorial is complete would be a good idea. I know I'm glad I picked it for my first playthrough.

[AssumedPseudonym]

The EI500 is the easiest ship to get started with, due to its omni weapon and the somewhat challenging facings system, so might it be useful to recommend it to first time players?

Perhaps even locking the other two until the Benedict tutorial is complete would be a good idea. I know I'm glad I picked it for my first playthrough.

 I must respectfully disagree with this idea. Even if a player is new to Transcendence in particular, they might still have played games similar enough that aiming isn’t really an issue. I did quite well in my first run of the game in a Sapphire, in fact, and I had (and still sort of do have) lousy aim.

[PM]

My first Transcendence game was with the Wolfen. Players who think Transcendence is similar to more brutal roguelikes may pick the fastest ship because speed is king in those games (esp. Angband or DoomRL).

EI500 is the mule. Sapphire is the Mario or Jack. Wolfen is the sleek hot-rod.

[shanejfilomena]

My first Transcendence game was with the Wolfen. Players who think Transcendence is similar to more brutal roguelikes may pick the fastest ship because speed is king in those games (esp. Angband or DoomRL).

EI500 is the mule. Sapphire is the Mario or Jack. Wolfen is the sleek hot-rod.

I am Mule Jockey

My first games I died - many times - and that inspired me to keep going ...

after beating the ICS I tried the Sapphire , wasn't impressed at all.

The Wolfen is a sweet ship - It will blast it's way to STK on just the stock shield.

bOTH the EI500 & Wolfen are my picks, usually
But I would get up the credits for an Omni TurboLaser and be on the look out for one ASAP

[KaoS]

The EI500 is the easiest ship to get started with, due to its omni weapon and the somewhat challenging facings system, so might it be useful to recommend it to first time players?

Perhaps even locking the other two until the Benedict tutorial is complete would be a good idea. I know I'm glad I picked it for my first playthrough.

 I must respectfully disagree with this idea. Even if a player is new to Transcendence in particular, they might still have played games similar enough that aiming isn’t really an issue. I did quite well in my first run of the game in a Sapphire, in fact, and I had (and still sort of do have) lousy aim.

For me, aiming isn't terribly hard, really, it's just terribly annoying. You can practice up and get pretty good at it pretty quickly, but if EVERYTHING else in the game is more important to you than simply blowing up some sh*t, you would probably be rather annoyed with having to make extra time to get good at aiming before you can move on, as I was. Beginning the game with an omni weapon, though it's a pretty weak one, made me more interested in what else there is to do. When I wanted more speed I started modding instead of trying the wolfen.

[Atarlost]

The EI-500 is certainly not the easiest ship. It can't run away worth beans and can't fight well without an omni because it steers like a boat. Since there are so few omnis and even fewer that are any good someone driven into using just omnis by the EI-500's terrible maneuverability will face a much steeper average difficulty curve than someone flying a Wolfen. And more variable. There are only two first upgrade omnis. There are dozens of upgrade paths for fixed axis weapons. There is only one second upgrade omni that doesn't require tinkers and it sucks. There are two third upgrade omnis, but one uses ammo and the other sucks. There are lots of chances to not get the next gun you need when you need it if the RNG isn't in a friendly mood.

A beginner ship needs first to be fast so the player can avoid dieing. Ease of killing things is secondary.

[PM]

EI-500 also only has two weapon slots. This hurts me more than low cargo space or lack of non-weapon slots of the Wolfen, despite my hoarder/packrat mindset.

[Song]

Eh....the EI500 isn't that bad, and it's definitely the most forgiving of mistakes (I've used it for gimmick runs in the past because of that). Good cargo space and the potential for great armor means that you can tank things reasonably well. But I wouldn't call it "easy". (Edit: Or 'exciting' for that matter. Unless you can get a titan or megadrive, which both make it hilariously fun)


Ultimately, all the playerships need some learning in order to fly effectively, and they all have their strengths and weaknesses. This isn't really a bad thing.

[catfighter]

EI-500 also only has two weapon slots. This hurts me more than low cargo space or lack of non-weapon slots of the Wolfen, despite my hoarder/packrat mindset.

And that's exactly why I've been forced into the Sapphire's cockpit (or my custom-built battlepod). I strongly dislike that flying bathtub you call a freighter for the weapon limit and the gosh darn "maneuverability." (More like "splat-ability." Trying to do a 180 in the Arena: *splat*. Trying to get away from the mouth of the Phobos: *splat*. Desperately "speeding" away from a gravity well after a momentum shot: *SPLAT*.) The Wolfen's really fun to pilot, but I can't carry anything. I even had to ditch my poor Microsaur once!

I've heard ideas of a tutorial adventure specifically for new/hopeless pilots bouncing around in deep space, so it would definitely help to let them try out each ship type there.