What are those tech types in VOTG (Mechanist, Biotech, Archeotech)?

[DigaRW]

I see these are exist in VOTG, but I yet fully understand what exactly they are and how they work. I have not venture much on VOTG. I thinking mechanist are crafting path. You got part, then you could craft. For biotech, I imagine it as a pet evolving path. You grow your ship from juvenile to adult stage. Meanwhile, Archeotech from what I see is magical stuff path. Old artifact with powerful magic can be used by player. That's all i can catch from what i see in general on these tech types.

Just curious how George will do and implement them on part 2. Perhaps I could add some ideas and suggestions if possible.

[Arisaya]

VotG is still rather far from being completed, so go ahead w/ suggestions!

You've got the right idea - Essentially these are 3 incompatible branches of tech:

mechanist stuff is basically like (most) human tech, just going up to a much higher level. There are crafting mechanics for it too, yes - it should be noted that most of the disparate crafting systems will likely get unified with one underlying framework as part of 2.0

biotech stuff is "essentially" the old 0.99 wyvera living ship mod (...Still need to re-implement that in a modern version)

archaeotech stuff doesnt really have a proper part 1 equivalent yet, but essentially its largely centered around the pre-extinction wars technology ecosystem which is essentially lost tech

[DigaRW]

I see. I do have some ideas for them.

So if general idea of three tech types is to offers whole different playstyles experience, I suggest each tech have their own exp progress. Player can choose what path they want to start, but also should be able jump easily into other tech mid game. Here is what I thought:

Mechanist as it similar with part 1 tech, perhaps can be more focused on crafting and enhance stuff? Each mechanist races have foundry that can be used by player to craft and enhance equipments. Doing so will give crafting exp. Reaching certain treshold will unlock more crafting recipes and player even can craft in their own ship for ammo and enhancement items.

For Biotech, I never tried the mods so I'm not sure what it is. But I'm thinking of somekind of Pokemon (?) playstyle. Player's ship is treated as living pet. The ship can be grow and evolve from juvenile up to adult (or elder) stage. The growth is by default progressed by consuming fuel and energy items. The process is slow, but it can be boosted with certain items that the ship love. Reaching certain growth stage can unlock more abilities for the ship and perhaps can produce offspring (auton-like) to aid player journey.

Lastly as for Archeotech since they are mostly artifact and old tech, perhaps they inclined to magical stuff. I mean in supernatural-like power beyond what alien races currently have. I read somewhere in code source that equipment in Archaeotech even have their own conciousness. As for progress, I thinking it should be on battle-oriented. Each battle give player more experience on handling archeotech and unlock more power and abilities beyond what mechanist and biotech able.

All in all, these are my ideas which of course it's George will decide. But hopefully I'll see to it being implemented on VOTG.

[Arisaya]

So Transcendence 2.0 is getting skill systems that touch on a few of these different aspects!

Mechanist:
* there are crafting mechanics! The UI for it is just ABJECTLY inadequate though (George himself was complaining about it during a recent stream) compared to some of the other systems already in the game and in need of an update. These mechanics will be expanded with 1-2 of the upcoming skill systems in Transcendence 2.0

Biotech:
* Yeah thats more or less how it works - growing your ship through life stages. George's version is largely linear, but the Wyvera Living Ship mod (and the planned remake for TSB) involve branching growth paths.

Archaeotech:
* A future version of transcendence (POSSIBLY 2.0) will be getting crew mechanics w/ morale & motivations to keep track of - its possible that the archaeotech AIs (they have a specifiic term but idr offhand) could tie into that system with their own twists, since they are integrated into installed hardware rather than crew who might shirk their duties or outright bail on you at the next port.

[DigaRW]

Good to know crafting were going to be expanded. I remember tinkers crafting somehow bugged while pairing with my mods, so I avoided it for a long time. The bug is I can't craft an equipment due not enough cargo space; while there still 100 tons free. Not sure if it already patched, but hopefully it does.

I like the idea of skill branches for each tech. One for general stats increase, other for specialist stats. Maybe skill branch could happen on middle and highest level on skill.

Crew mechanics gonna be in Transcendence? Interesting....
Though for SOTP, I kinda not sure how it gonna relevant. In story, we are pilgrim that specifically chosen alone to visit Galactic Core. Having a human crew unrelated with the task maybe don't fit the lore. There are other human who join the pilgrim as wingman, but they have good reason. Despite that, it still can be used for VOTG with archeotech or other scenarios.

I have some opinion for crew mechanic, or rather ship configuration in general. It need a lot of changes. Current ship configuration is suited for small ship, but really bad for large and capital ship. A framework for hull compartment, basic info like currency and rank, better slot customization, better UI, etc.

[Arisaya]

The 'not enough space' bug also impacts vanilla, but its not consistent. Its still under investigation.

Yeah, the UI definitely needs to get some work done to support bigger ships in CoHS (Chornicles/Sandbox). For CoHS, there aren't restrictions on hiring crew beyond things like rep, local availability, etc. For SotP, George wants to make it so you can hire other Pilgrims specifically (the player character is not the only pilgrim - you find info of other pilgrims existing (ex, see Arco & Volkov's related details))

[DigaRW]

Yeah, the UI definitely needs to get some work done to support bigger ships in CoHS (Chornicles/Sandbox).

I have my own thoughts about ship dockscreen UI improvement. I'll write them on a proposal later.