Galactic Questions - Eridani, Sol and Alpha Centauri

[ThePrivateer]

[Warning : Potential Spoiler Thread]

So, I was thinking, each 'level' of Transcendence, or each system, is quite obviously one solar system. Are we to believe that the entire Part I game takes place within one Galaxy? And is that Galaxy the Milky Way Galaxy? (I'm assuming that because we are dealign with Human Space, this is the case)

If that is correct, then Sol must be relatively close to the QZ (if not inside of it) and be somewhat close to Eridani. I reason this because of the "Centauri" pirates, which of course, must come from Alpha Centauri, the closest star to Sol.

Thus, like all other star systems, which let the player go from star to star, Sol must be the star system directly behind Alpha Centauri, which must be close to, if not bordering, Eridani.

Is this correct and is there any plan to incorporate Sol into Transcendence, or this prime picking for modding?

PS: I realise that this has been brought up occasionally, but I wanted one thread. I also have heard rumours that there is a 'chain of stargates' from Sol, but is this correct?

[Aury]

Actually, the QZ's topology is non-linear - the game simply railroads you along a specific path during part 1. In part 2 however you will not be. Actually, there are going to be official extensions that expand other sections of the QZ (as in, making them playable)

[ThePrivateer]

Actually, the QZ's topology is non-linear - the game simply railroads you along a specific path during part 1. In part 2 however you will not be. Actually, there are going to be official extensions that expand other sections of the QZ (as in, making them playable)

Ahh. Interesting, so the chains of stargates are just the only ones that the Greater Beings (whomever they are), decided to build?

Official extensions sound good, it would be nice to have other things to explore, kind of like The Network mod, which has those maze-like diversions.

I do find Transcendence too....nethack like. I know that's what George is basing his game upon, but the linear gameplay sometimes bores me, so some nice side attractions would be good - especially going to Earth. Didn't something bad happen there? I can't remember the exact storyline though.

[Aury]

Earth was bombed in the syrtian war, but has recovered since then - and it wasn't nuked as badly as mars was, which was reduced to a smoldering lump of radioactive rock

There were two waves of stargate construction, hence the two designs.

[ThePrivateer]

OK, so I found out some good info here : http://neurohack.com/transcendence/expl ... eline.html. I assume most people have read that and I had a few years back, but a refresher course is always nice.

So....Earth was divided. After we discovered the Kuiper Stargate, some people didn't like the gene-changing ban that the newly emerging Commonwealth made and so they split off to mars (or deep space) so they could live a life they wanted, others went to colonise St Kats. That explains why St.Kats is the center of the Commonwealth.

Now this I never knew:

The Commonwealth grew and prospered throughout the 23rd century. Meanwhile, the Martian colonists who fled the genetic engineering ban formed the Syrtis Conclave—an almost utopian civilization with genetically engineered neo-humans living on the Martian surface. In 2243, however, guided by what they believe to be a divine intelligence in the Galactic Core, the Syrtis Conclave decided to annihilate Earth.

The war left the Solar System in ruins and it was only with the help of the Commonwealth that the Syrtis were defeated. Most of the martians left Sol as refugees, for Mars was left uninhabitable, and today Syrtis refugees are found in many systems. The Syrtis leadership, however, escaped into deep space and they formed the Ares Orthodoxy out beyond Jiang's Star. The old Commonwealth Fleet fights them still, but few people in St. Katharine's System (far from the fighting) believe that they are a threat.

The Syrtian way, what Wolfy you just described destroyed Mars but Earth was able to survive, and and the Ares was formed. The Ares are the ones the Commonwealth is fighting in the outer Systems, correct? And the ones that feature in Hell's Trinity after they take over the Trinity (a fictional system of stars)

Then the Iocrym visit, say the will return, never do and place the whole of human space into a quarantine. Why? I have never been to the new updated heretic, so why did they do that? Does anyone know yet?

[kay.py]

Is there anything that implies that gate network topology corresponds to realspace topology? Or to put it another way, any reason that a given gate doesn't go halfway across the galaxy instead of next door?

Elysium would seem to imply that it is possible, unless you spend the entire game going in a circle... (Of course, the Elysium gates are a little odd in any case)

[Aury]

I'm not sure, but it would seem that the older, circular gates are lower in power than the newer magellan gates (the square ones)

[digdug]

This.

george moromisato
Posted: Wed Aug 05, 2009 12:11 am
The Kuiper stargate leads to the Centauri system (which is not included in v1).

There is a chain of gates leading from Sol to St. Katharine's, but it is not included in v1 (it probably will be in future version).

Part 1 won't be linear in the future. For now we can think that the player is going Inbound because that is the direction that Domina "asked" him to go.

[quils3]

Wait... So the Magellan Stargates in Elysium are NEWER??? By what standards? I thought the normal stargates were, given their 'cleaner' and Mac-ish streamlined design compared to the Elysium ones. That would imply some alien activity going on in those parts. Imagine in 1.05, you go to Elysium and BAM! Some Iocyrm having tea time in Tan Du Dorem suddenly mobilize against you with their Fracture cannons.

The way I remember the chain of stargates was like this:
Earth-> stargate in kupier belt->St. Kat's-> ----Huari-> Dwarg etc. Sung Space->Ranx -> Ares-> Heretic
--------------------- |
--------------------- \/
--------------------- Centauri -> Eridani.
Since Earth was closer to St. Kat's [The PLANET is called Incandecent and the STAR called St. Kat's, right?] it explains the heavy colonization of Incandecent and explains why Eridani is in the backwaters because of its distance to St. Kat's. Eridani is only ~7 systems away, which means that St. Kats, being the center of the CW, is probably used as a springboard to colonize other systems like Eridani. However, given that Trans gate system is nonlinear, it might throw all of this out of the door.

What would fix this problem would be an awesome map by George using the galaxy [Milky Way?] with the Sapphire in the beginning of Trans.
Although I don't know how the Sapphire got outside of the galaxy....

[Aury]

The result of a directionally challenged pilgrim and 25,000 years. Or a few minutes and some leet hax (and opaque glasses to withstand the epilepsy zone)

[quils3]

Epilepsy Zone? Is that when you go too fast and the game starts to get buggy?

[Aury]

Not to fast, but too far.

[Drako Slyith]

I seem to recall that George once said that Sol has become something like the middle east; habitable, people live there, but there is a lot of war and damage to the area.
Also, I find it interesting that there is one stargate in both Eridani and Sol. That implies that somewhere along the line the stargate path splits. Also, what makes Sol and Eridani unique? The stargates were shut down after Humans began developing. The Iocrym already had their stargates in that area running and completed.
As for the stargates, I imagine actually that the majellen stargates are made by the same species that made tan ru dorem. The style is the same. When you dock with the stargates, they say it is the only mode of faster than light travel known to humans. I think the standard design are stargates humans retrofitted or redesigned so as to be easier to use. For example, all the stargates humans don't know about are majellen (Huaramarca, Elysium) That is actually why I always thought the Heretic stargate was an ill fit.

P.S. Has anyone ever noticed that the majellen stargate's rotation has the rotating part go sometimes out and sometimes inside of the other part?

[ThePrivateer]

Not to fast, but too far.

Do you mean when you fly out side of the system during a level? I have never done that....is there secret easter eggs out there?

Regarding:

Is there anything that implies that gate network topology corresponds to realspace topology? Or to put it another way, any reason that a given gate doesn't go halfway across the galaxy instead of next door?

I suppose not. When I made the original Galactic Map, i made the stargates in a single file line - but I'm now thinking because of this quote:

What would fix this problem would be an awesome map by George using the galaxy [Milky Way?] with the Sapphire in the beginning of Trans.

I might re-do the GMap to make the stargates in some kind of circle. With the new found knowledge I have picked up here, I might get a good looking chain of gates going. Any thoughts on that? I'm going to use a galaxy image of the Milky Way, if I can get one!

[Aury]

Theres an "easter egg" but it only "works" in eridani *cough cough*