The Stars Beyond

[Atarlost]

Only if your goal is to kill all players. Ranx DNs are allmost invincible at long range. They're spectacularly vulnerable at short range. With high RoF/nonfragmenting guns added the extreme vulnerability goes away without making them invincible at all ranges. With momentum weapons if becomes very difficult to remain within the safe envelope of the kilotons and without that safe envelope omni-kilotons are drasticly overpowered when ranx fortresses first appear. For balance reasons every enemy must have some vulnerability and I'm not sure your ranx capships do.

[Stormhawk]

You have a good point. To avoid kiloton shells hitting the player and not fragmenting, I modded it so that the kiloton isn't very accurate. So a lot of times even at close ranges they explode That is pretty cool.

[Aury]

The system structure has been completely rearranged (it’s also non-linear), and lots of things are getting buffs/nerfs, in general, totally rebalanced. BTW- I may change the warlord’s use of main-stream weapons… They may get their own custom weapons later on. Every ship though has it’s weaknesses (though capships will always be harder to kill than the equivalent faction’s fighter). The ranx warlords are vulnerable to energy weapons (there are also a good number of EMP devices now available for use)- they have low end shields, and rely on their heavy armor to protect themselves against kinetic/explosive type weapons (since they fight the ranx empire who uses such devices- the empire on the other hand has tailored their armor to their long-time enemy, the sung (whom almost everyone seems to hate, though logically)

Anyways, the enemy capships aren’t usually seen until you can safely delve deep into enemy territory- ie, if you wanted, you could take your starting ship and sprint over to the ranx systems, in say, 10 jumps (not using Elysium), but there’s no way you’d have gotten past the commonwealth borders in the starting ship (the up-gunned charon pirates would have wiped you out.), but TX2 is designed so that the player can advance quickly. Also, when you see a big enemy ship, it’s still usually never after you (unless it was guarding a station you killed or sent to kill you on a mission). The cap ships are meant as the rare challenge as well as decoration in fleet battles (be careful looting afterwards- not all the scavengers are friendly- they can range from civilians in old freighters to escorted military cargo-ships)- by the time they get rather common (though generally only for the lower classes), they can be dealt with by the player.

Every resource is renewable in TX2- stations restock (the freighters bring items and cash), big fleet battles tend to yield good items, and, perhaps, if left alone, stations can get rebuilt (a small fleet will guard the wreck- if the main ship is left alive, the wreck will get rebuilt later on… just a concept idea ATM). TX2 isn’t designed to funnel you on a set course of systems- the multiple factions and storylines encourage you to explore the entire quarantine zone- you don’t even have to complete any of the storylines- you CAN finish the game as a civilian with civilian hardware (and there is a much wider selection of hardware this time around, even civilian equipment at higher levels (though they usually have some sort of aspect that makes them less desirable than military/illegal equipment).

[Atarlost]

While the nonlinearity assuages my concerns greatly mere damage type vulnerability is not what I'm talking about at all unless it's so extreme the ship is a glass cannon against certain damage types. What's important is that there's some method by which you can hit a ship without being obliterated. In default that's usually "stay out of range" but with the Ranx DN it's "stay really close" The Ares capships are "run away when they fire and charge back in while their capacitor is recharging".

Hmm. Another fix for the lack of vulnerability would be to replace the omni kiloton with a kiloton mounted at angle 0 with 135 degrees of swivel. That would give it a 90 degree aft blind spot. I'm not sure if that would be easier or harder to stay in than the current mindist defined vulnerability. If mounted on the crossways beams there'd still be 2-3 akans hitting you, but the kiloton would be out of action.

[Stormhawk]

Like the Tripoli! You're right of course, my love of the Ranx makes me kinda want them to destroy everything in sight...

Wolfy, are you going to make it so that the player can join these other factions? Say he joins the Charon and suddenly Commonwealth hates him and Charon and Marauders like him. That would be pretty cool and actually rather easy, there's a mod on Xelerus already that lets you do that.

[Bobby]

even with the blind spot the Ranx would still destroy everything in sight, except the player, because the npc ships aren't smart enough to stay in that blind spot.

[Aury]

Ok, I did some comparison testing, and the warlord cruiser is OP when compared to the imperial cruiser, so I'll be making the ranx warlords their own custom weapons for their ships that are a bit more balanced (And leave room for vulnerability). BTW- IMO, the phobos w/ a fast ship is "take rather random paths to mess w/ the turret tracking, then get behind them and blast away" and with the freighter is run away and let friendly's kill them (unless you have the pteracnium megadrive)

Yes, you can join other factions: most of the friendlies have embassies/HQ's in stk's or other capital systems (Ranx, IPC, corporate HQ, rebel ares (if antarctica is saved)), the CI (canis industries)HQ is located in the IPC capital system, Hauri is kill sung, Shadows of Charon is dock at their fortress in Charon, black market is sell illegals at a hotel/get unmarked ID, and so on.
A good number of the enemy factions can be joined as well; centauri (kill a certain station in eridani*), sung (sell slaves), ranx warlords (kill an imperial station), house of charon (must be "evil", see note), ares orthodoxy, etc.

*this determines your starting alliance- you won't get arrested, just the commonwealth will now deem you as an enemy.

Multiple memberships are possible (ie, a dual citizenship and participation in the corporate hierarchy.), though certain combinations are not: you cannot be an employee of both CI and the CH, you cannot be in both the ranx empire and warlord's sides, etc.

Some factions cannot be joined. These include the benin xenophobes, the solarites, the mauraders/standard charon (this is because they will end up following which side that wins, house or shadows, so it would be redundant), the order of penitence (cuz you're with domina) (though they do get a story line which allows interaction with them), as well as some other "small-time" factions which simply have too little depth and significance to matter.

"enemy" stations get buffed and "friendly" stations get nerfed a little, so you arn't at a disadvantage from the start.
Factions will generally send ships out in revenge if you kill their station. But not the sisters of domina. Domina takes care of you personally (she deems you too much of a danger and too unstable for her tasks and thus removes you from existence)- though the fireworks that ensue generally make trying it once worthwhile (if only to see yourself go up in a big explosion, and since it has a delay, you can go into a cluster of stations and watch them go up with you)

Stations also tend to form little clusters now- IE, a bunch of corporate stations may appear in a cluster, each with a different service (or perhaps even some of the same), in the ungoverned areas, they also tend to be surrounded by some defenses (armored CW urban stations and fortresses may be seen alone however). Penitent shines spawn alone however, I think we know why... (there are also others that spawn alone, like Himal refuges).

[edit] post 700 ^^

[Stormhawk]

Again: Sounds amazing!

[CFG]

The more I read, the mroe I'd want to try your mod out. Seems like youre creating the SLASHEM for Transcendence here

But did I miss something:

I dont see any link to a download location, not even in your forum...

Considering the amount of stuff youre putting into this, Im surprised there is no test/beta version to try out

[Aury]

There won't be a test version until I can get the non-linear topology working and weed out a few glaring balance bugs (mostly typos on weapon stats, and some of my older, but way too cheap weapons)
I'll have one out before the end of the summer (I hope)

[Stormhawk]

I hope so to.

[Aury]

Today I came up with some more brain storms...
and some announcements first:
1) expect the last of the ranx empire ships to get polished off soon (just their 4 freighters (2 civilian, 1 military, one in between) and civilian shuttle left to do)
2) the next things to work on include (but are not limited to):
-the warlords' destroyer
-luminous/terraton/charon ships
-the IPC
-non-linear topology
3)The ranx warlords now have their own faction specific weapons a shield line shared with the sung... and the empire's weapons get changed a bit

Warlords:
coil guns (10mm, 25mm, 50mm, 100mm) - similar to the imperial railguns, but deal less damage per shot, fire faster (for a higher damage per second), use less energy, and have shorter range, cost more and are military
fission pulse cannon - weaker than the imperial fusion pulse howitzer, but provides a nice blast at the end... fires rather slowly though.
Patrol craft: 1x 10mm coil gun
Gunship: 1x 50mm coil gun, ED2 shield
Destroyer: 2x 25mm coil gun (one on each side), 1x 100mm coil gun, ED3 shield
Cruiser: 4x 25mm coil guns (one on each cross beam), 1x Fission pulse cannon, ED3 shield

Empire:
rail guns (10mm, 25mm, 50mm, 100mm) - fire slowly and deal a nice amount of damage and have a good range as well as an affordable price tag. However they are otherwise inferior to the faster firing, higher over-all damage dealing coil guns of the warlords and are thus relegated to the freighters (only the 100mm is military level).
Gauss cannons (25mm, 50mm) - combine the favorable aspects of the coil and rail guns, but have the highest price tag and energy use or either model. They also fire a bit slower than the coil guns and have a little less range than the rail guns and are limited in gun diameters.
Fusion pulse cannon (light, medium, heavy, howitzer)- deals more damage than the fission pulse cannon but can only hit one ship.
Ranx dragon antimatter howitzer- a specific weapon for the ranx dragon
Ranx Repeller- a light kinetic/momentum weapon used as a point-defense system against projectiles and occasionally used on light ships as a weapon
IF100- 2x 10mm rail OR 1x 10mm rail OR 2x repellers, Class A shields
IF500- 2x 25mm rail OR 2x 10mm rail, 1x repeller, Class A shields
IF1000- 2x 50mm rail OR 2x 25mm gauss, 4x 10mm rail, Class B shields
IF1500- 2x 100mm rail, 1x light FPG OR 2x 50mm gauss, 4x 25mm rail, Class B shields
Fighter- 2x 25mm gauss, Class A shields
Gunship- 2x 25mm gauss, 1x med FPG, Class C shields
Cruiser- 4x 25mm gauss, 2x heavy FPG, 1x repeller, class D shields
Dreadnought- 6x 50mm gauss, 1x FPG howitzer, Class E shields
Dragon- 1x antimatter howitzer, 6x 50mm gauss, Class F shields

Ok, now on to those brainstorms...
1) ships for the sisters of domina: I noticed how their stations have a particular architectural style and felt it might be interesting to play off of that... The ships would most likely be "neutral" and defensively oriented (the sisters don't strike me as the type of go off on a crusade, but they do intend and need to defend themselves, so a high-momentum, low damage repulsion beam seems adequate for most of their ships... I could possibly give them some sort of dark energy/matter domina weapon, possibly a short-range dark lighting cannon? That would only occur on their larger ships, and only be used as a defensive weapon...The sisters and order ARE hostile to each other (mostly since the order will attack them and the sisters have to defend themselves somehow). Then their stations could also have some pilgrims' ships docked at them, or possibly just random civilians of faith come to contemplate or something...
2) more ships for the centauri- in TX2, they hold a few systems of their own, (sort of anyways), and arn't as weak and defenseless as they appear in eridani (though they could still be sqaushed easily by a fleet of centurions). I was thinking of giving them a small destroyer and a turret-esq ship, similar to the tenhove sentinel. Also, the heavy raiders arn't seen in eridani any more except arco.

[Aury]

Ranx IF100 freighter, a ranx civilian craft- the oldest of Ranx freighters, the IF100 is a common sight, and has even been exported to the IPC and commonwealth, though it is more popular with individuals than buisnesses.
200 tons cargo capacity, Ranx class A shields, random weapon (usually a 10mm railgun)



Ranx IF500 freighter, a ranx civilian craft- a slightly newer version of Ranx freighter, the IF500 is rather popular in the empire, and also sees some limited use in the CW and IPC. Buisnesses prefer to use the larger IF1000's and the rare IF1500 when they can get their hands on them (which is difficult considering the military's orders have filled up most of the production queue).
500 tons cargo capacity, Ranx class A shields, random weapon (usually a 25mm railgun)



Ranx civilian shuttle- often used by citizens of the empire to get from point A to point B. Similar to the SpaceBus or crate ship seen in the Commonwealth, though passenger space is limited to only 4 people + pilot- the SpaceBus holds up to 30 commuters + pilot + 2 staff. (The crate ship is more for the poorest in the commonwealth who live out of their ship)
10 ton cargo capacity, chance of Ranx class A shields, random weapon (none or ranx repeller or 10mm railgun)



Ranx IF1500 superfreighter, a mainly military craft- this ship is the Ranx's analog to the CW's scarab, though with (relatively weak) shields. A few ships are seen in the hands of civilians, but it's pretty hard to get a hold of them as the empire's military has bought most of them ahead of time and fills up most of the production queue.
Civilian: 8000 ton cargo capacity, Ranx class B shields, 2x 50mm railguns to 1x 100mm railgun
Military: 8000 ton cargo capacity, Ranx class C shields, 1x 100mm railgun, 1x ranx repeller and 1x NAMI mine launcher

[edit1]- added IF500
[edit2]- added shuttle and fluff text
[edit3]- added IF1500

[Aury]

Because of a stupid BSoD, I lost the models for the IF1000 and IF1500, so I've decided not to redo the IF1000, so the only ranx freighters will be the IF100, 500, and 1500. Also, I will not be able to edit the IF1500 due to not having the model any longer.

[Aury]

Canis Industries C22 heavy battle auton
This auton (though very expensive), boasts incredible survivability, armed with a ion blaster and protected by a YoroiMX and 2 heavy blast plates. Will be upgradable (all autons are in TX2), thanks to Bobby (I got permission from him a long time ago to use his upgradable wingmen code and dockscreens): max 1 weapon, 1 shield, 500MW base reactor, 5 tons cargo capacity