Matt_W
6168
There’s no spacier game than KSP, so it seems on topic to me. As @rhamorim pointed out, planets and moons do move in KSP. They’re in pre-defined elliptical (Keplerian) orbits, so aren’t actually under the gravitational influence of the local sun, but the orbits are calculated as if the sun had gravity. Vessels travel under Keplerian rules: conic section (elliptical or hyperbolic) orbits with gravitation dependent solely on the body of greatest influence. Each body has a pre-defined sphere of influence (SOI) where its gravity dominates. Conic orbits are matched up or “patched” at the SOI boundaries, so the system of trajectory projection in KSP’s solar system is called “patched conics.” This gives a pretty good approximation to reality, but doesn’t permit oddities like Lagrange points and the Interplanetary Transport Network, which depend on gravity from multiple sources.
There is a mod to give KSP full Newtonian physics with all of the bodies and vessels moving under the gravitational influence of all of the bodies in the game.
One star system with multiple worlds/ moons (you discover/unlock more as you play. You never go to the surface however, its all space stations, asteroids, artifacts. The star system feels kind of cramped. In part this is because they chose a compact scale all the stations and ships “feel” dozens or hundreds of meters long not thousands of meters long. Silly things like adding tiny windows would fix this tbh I am surprised they didnt. However as you can see you defintley get that “alone with fantastic spacey views” vibe.
As is mentioned is non fantasy SF though (ie: no magic / FTL travel) , which is rare and great.
@SamS and others have responded more and I agree with all their praise.
On the negative side however the game DOES lead to conflict. Which kind of sucks for an economic game, it can be quite a jarring shift as well.
So I like the game a lot but while the game concept is strong I feel it whiffs in the mid to late game. or at least changes tone.
Its good and bad. Sometimes (like the sector screen) it presents information in a clean and elegant way while allowing you to interact easily to get what you want done, done.
In others (like the trade route screen) it seems to both use up too much real estate and give you less understanding of what is going on.
Oh wait sorry, economical! That’s far less interesting.
That’s my wife’s favorite Father Ted episode!
Probably mine too, and I’ve always conflated economical and ecumenical ever since!
Hey all, for anyone who’s played 3030 Deathwar Redux-- when you highlight a nearby station with the Q key, what’s the keyboard button for opening comms? If you use the mouse button to select the antenna looking thingy you inevitably fire a few shots of your ship’s gun, and I don’t want to do that in case a random shot should get me in trouble.
You’d be surprised how few of the controls are documented in-game. Makes it hard to come back after a hiatus.
Depends on your control scheme; hit F1 and you’ll get the list of commands (I use a controller, and for me it’s the Y button)
Well, that’s the weird part: when I hit F1 in-game I don’t get a list of keyboard equivalents. I use m+k myself, maybe that’s why. I’ll try setting it to keyboard only for a bit and see if it gives me a full list.
Ahh - for m+k, you need to hit the space bar to go into “menu mode” and exit “target/shoot mode.”
Thanks, I figured it out. Turns out it’s the Tab key to communicate.
Hey friends, welcome to another week of spacey gaming! This week’s game of the week is the long-running top-down challenging roguelike game of combat, trade and exploration, the amazing Transcendence. I hope to do more for next week, time permitting, but life’s been crazy of late, so I’m putting out what I can. :)
The podcast this week (Tuesday, 5:00 PM Pacific, Twitch, YouTube, Mixer) we’ll talk about gamepads. Their evolution, their adoption, and why there’s still a resistance to them.
Finally this week, for the LAN Party (Thursday, 5:00 PM Pacific, Twitch, YouTube, Mixer), we’ll be returning to the Parkour-based killing of Dying Light for a lot more mayhem!!!
Thank you for being wonderful, my friends!
Transcendence is fantastic. One of my favorite all time roguelike games.
It really is excellent. And hard. And fun. And hard.
Wow, that is giving me major Escape Velocity vibes.
As it should! It’s VERY Escape Velocityish.
Sounds like a game I need to play, then 😁.
Maybe something to look at after we get into our new place.
You can play the base game for free. The Steam version includes extra stuff like an expansion pack and what not.
https://transcendence.kronosaur.com/
