What's new in Transcendence 1.8 Beta 2
Jun 30, 2018
- New graphic images, including images for dual and omni weapons, plus new image for Corporate enclaves.
- The auton bay in Corporate Command now repairs autons automatically (instead of forcing you to consume armor segments).
- Corporate Command finally implements the Uzun targeting scanner, which vastly improve Burak missiles.
- Modders have been asking for PNG support for many years and now the engine finally supports it.
New in Transcendence 1.7 Alpha 2 (Jun 29, 2016)
- Mouse Controls:
- Though I was skeptical at first, controlling the ship with the mouse feels pretty good. Mouse control is enabled by default: use the mouse to point your ship in a particular direction. The right-button thrusts and the left-button fires.
- I've found it much easier to aim, though maneuvering seems a little harder. Try it yourself and let use know what you think.
- Of course, keyboard controls are still supported. If you move with the keyboard, mouse control will be disabled until you move the mouse again.
- Keyboard Mapping UI:
- We've received lots of feedback about providing an easy and discoverable way of mapping key controls. In Alpha 2 we've added a new button on the intro screen that allows you to map keys with a visual UI.
- To map keys, select the Custom layout and click on a key to select it. Then click on a command to assign the key to the given command.
- Galactic Map Improvements:
- The galactic map gets an overhaul in 1.7 Alpha 2. In addition to upgraded visuals and mouse control, the map also remembers key stations in each system. You'll no longer have to remember (or write down) where you found that Corporate Trading Post.
- Click on any system node to see the list of known stations.
New in Transcendence 1.7 Alpha 1 (Feb 10, 2016)
- Weapon Balance:
- The diversity of weapons is one of the highlights of Transcendence. There are over a hundred different playable weapons in the core game, and dozens more in the expansions. With 1.7 Alpha 1, we've gone through every core weapon and tweaked their stats to improve game balance. We hope these changes will increase the set of weapons suitable for player use.
- We've made the following major changes
- Many weapons have been changed.
- More weapons now have WMD, allowing them to damage capital ships and stations.
- Missiles and ammo are more common, cheaper, and lighter.
- Weapons have been balanced against cost, so more powerful weapons within a level are more expensive.
- The damage algorithm no longer has round-off errors for low-damage weapons.
- The mix of damage resistance in the Ungoverned Territories has been altered.
- Quest weapons such as the Slicer cannon, Qianlong, and Lamplighter have been improved to reward the difficulty involved to obtain them.
- Many of these changes have been validated algorithmically, but the ultimate judgement will come from playtesting. Please try out Alpha 1 and let us know what you think. Which weapons are overpowered or underpowered?
- Weapon Effects:
- The graphical improvements introduced in 1.6 have brought Transcendence into the modern era. 1.7 Alpha 1 continues these efforts with improvements to weapon and explosion effects.
- Since the beginning, Transcendence has used bitmap explosion graphics (usually rendered in Luminous). While these graphics are high-quality, they cannot be generated at runtime. In Alpha 1 we've introduced procedural explosion graphics which can be altered based on circumstance. For example, the size of a hit effect is now proportional to the amount of damage done.
- There are two trade-offs, unfortunately. First, generating the graphics at runtime is expensive. You may notice lag when there are lots of explosions on screen. We'll work to improve this over time with various caching and optimization techniques. The second problem is that we sacrifice some quality to speed up the painting of explosions. Whereas Luminous could take many minutes to render a single explosion, we need to do it in much less than 1/30th of a second.
New in Transcendence 1.6.2 (Sep 21, 2015)
- In this version we're using DirectX 9, a modern 3D graphics API. While we're not (yet) using any 3D effects, DX9 gives us compatibility with the Steam Overlay and other add-ons. Of course, there is the potential for compatibility problems. If you're having problems running 1.6.2, please consult this support entry: Solving Graphics Problems
- We are now working on two separate development streams. The 1.6.x stream will continue with bug fixes and updates for the remainder of the year. In particular, we hope to get Steam Workshop support in a future release.
- Meanwhile, we are also working on a 1.7 stream, which will contain features required for the beta of Part II. This release is still many months away, but we'll post updates as we make progress.
New in Transcendence 1.6 Beta 2 (Apr 4, 2015)
- This version implements the most significant graphical upgrade in the history of the game. Over the last few years I've concentrated on building up the infrastructure (e.g., the Multiverse) and creating more content (Corporate Command and Eternity Port).
- Now, as development begins on Part II, I've decided to upgrade the graphics engine.
- Graphics:
- The most obvious changes are the new space backgrounds: wispy nebulae and starry scenes floating behind the stations of a star system. Volumetric shadows convey depth and make asteroid fields a visual pleasure to fly through.
- Several images, including stargates and Commonwealth metropolises, have been updated with more complex designs and better textures. This work is not quite done in Beta 1, and I expect to create more images for the final release, including a re-rendered Arcology in St. Katharine's Star.
- Under the covers, the engine has been updated to render at 24-bit color (upgraded from the previous 16-bit color). The increased dynamic range was necessary to render the subtle shades of space backgrounds, but it will also reduce the banding previously visible in glow effects and star shine.
- Lastly, because some of these new effects are processor-intensive, I've added a graphics quality option to Settings.xml (graphicsQuality). There are currently four setting implemented:
- maximum: This turns on all visual effects.
- standard: This will turn off the most processor-intensive effects without degrading the visual quality too much. This setting is recommended for any machine with less than four processor cores.
- minimum: For all those netbooks out there, which Transcendence supports, this setting turns off all optional visual effects (leaving only those required to play the game).
- auto: The default setting is auto, which does a quick performance test at launch time and sets the graphics level to one of the three settings above.
- More
- Concurrent with this release, I've also updated both Corporate Command and Eternity Port. Corporate Command finally implements the new dock services screens. And Eternity Port adds 6 new missions to the early game (though no new Atlas missions yet). If you own either these they will download automatically after you run 1.6.
- Because of the extensive nature of engine changes, I expect there to be many new bugs. If you notice something, particularly in graphics or in graphics performance, please file a bug with Ministry or email me at: [email protected]
New in Transcendence 1.6 Beta 1 (Mar 31, 2015)
- Overview:
- Transcendence 1.6 will be a minor release focusing mainly on the engine and user interface. We have three major goals for the release:
- Upgrade graphical quality.
- Improved usability.
- Expand Eternity Port content.
- 1.6 will include several bug fixes and it will also include some API changes to support the upcoming CSC America game.
- Graphics:
- Transcendence is a game of space exploration. We want players to feel the thrill of visiting wondrous megastructures and exotic star systems. We need to make sure the graphics are worthy of that promise.
- In 1.6 we propose the following changes:
- Space Backgrounds:
- The game should show beautiful space backgrounds instead of the current starry black. This will give us an opportunity to further differentiate each star system. We need the following features:
- 24-bit color support: The subtle shades of background nebulae need more than 16 bits of color. We need to upgrade the engine to full color support.
- Unique system backgrounds: We need to generate unique backgrounds for each system type (or class of systems). We should consider creating custom backgrounds for key systems such as Eridani, St. Katharine's Star, Point Juno, Heretic, etc.
- Starshine: We should consider painting the star color as a wash over the space background. This will continue to give the player feedback about their distance to a star.
- Volumetric lighting: Once I did the starshine effect, I really wanted to have planets and asteroids cast shadows. Fortunately, it didn't take that long to do, so this will also be in 1.6.
- True shadows: Unfortunately, volumetric lighting clashes with the statically rendered shadows on planets and asteroids. The next improvement is to dynamically add shadows to planets and asteroids based on the direction of the star. We can use the same (relatively cheap) technique we did on Anacreon. See: Star-relative shading for planets.
- Option to disable: In order to deal with slower machines we need a Settings.xml option to disable space background. See: Graphics quality option.
- 120 Rotation Frames:
- Many of the larger ships in the core game need to be upgrades to 120 rotation frames. This should either be part of the core download or it should be an automatic extension download (which we need to implement).
- Ideally, all ships should be have 120 rotation frames, but we can start with just the capital ships and freighters. See: Large ships in core should have 120 rotation frames.
- Station Images :
- Many station graphics need to be updated to fit the new scale. In addition, we should add better textures to convey the sense of scale in these large structures.
- Dock Screen Images:
- The dock screen images have not yet been upgraded to cover the new larger dock screen size (which was implemented in version 1.5). For this release we should re-render most of the images to cover the larger space.
- We should also consider dynamically compositing a station image (possibly from a different angle) on top of the system background.
- Usability:
- We propose the following usability changes for 1.6:
- Option to buy missiles in dock services
- Eternity Port:
- We will release version 1.1 of Eternity Port concurrent with the 1.6 release. We propose the following additions:
- Near Stars Expansion
- Add more low-level UAS missions
- Add more low-level NAU missions
- Add option to retire on Eternity Port
New in Transcendence 1.01 (Apr 14, 2010)
- Fixed bug in which not enough memory is allocated to save system. [Thanks to Eric James]
- Fixed a crash when Salvager tries to dock with a destroyed object. [Thanks to namer4]
- Fixed a crash when zoanthrope is killed by its own follower. [Thanks to darksider]
- Added (sysCalcFireSolution).
- Fixed bug in which installing armor at Ringers checked credits instead of rin. [Thanks to Salvagebot 1.0]
- Fixed bug causing "Nil is under attack" message. [Thanks to raelz]
- Fixed a problem in which Kate hates the player if she gates out. [Thanks to Xephyr and Bobby]
- If player saves Antarctica and gates, Antarctica should count as 'escaped'. [Thanks to Shrike]
- 'W' should not select disabled weapons. [Thanks to Manekineko]
- In Heretic, fixed description of manipulators after they're disabled. [Thanks to Shrike]
- #335: If player has disposable launcher, Raisu should give launcher (instead of missiles). [Thanks to Nate879]
- #333: Superfreighter should have piracy-check code. [Thanks to sdw195]
- In Heretic, if Xenophobe ark wreck is destroyed, mission should fail. [Thanks to Ho'okoa]
- Typo: "Have you every..." -> "Have you ever..." [Thanks to Ho'okoa]
New in Transcendence 0.99c (Sep 29, 2008)
- Fixed a bug in which 0.99a game files were corrupted by 0.99b
- Fixed a bug in which AI does not use missiles.
- Fixed a bug in which gates led to the wrong system because the saved game system map was corrupted.
- Fixed a potential bug in the order that the topology was created