[GAMESTART] Transcend - No Highways (updated Dec 30, 2014)

[Observe]

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Transcend universe with NO LOCAL HIGHWAYS. All ships traverse between zones using booster drive. Compatible with Rebirth 3.x and Teladi DLC.

For those who prefer, there is a Highways version here. MAKE SURE YOU DON'T USE TOGETHER. Only one of these versions (Highways or No Highways) can be installed at the same time.

Preface:

You were born into one of the wealthiest families in your sector. Now that you've come of age, you have inherited a powerful empire. You have only just begun taking the reins of your business affairs, when a long hoped-for event has occurred.

The jump-gate connecting your isolated corner of the galaxy to the rest of civilization has spontaneously reactivated. Once again, your people can traverse the great interstellar void and connect with other systems.

What are you going to do? This is an unheard of opportunity for exploration and the possibility of great profit. Should you concentrate on upholding the responsibilities you have for maintaining your family empire, or should you throw care to the winds and go where no one from your sector has been in ages?

NOTE: DO NOT USE WITH TRANSCEND LOST COLONY. This mod replaces Lost Colony - which is now obsolete.

Installation:

Download (Subscribe) from Steam Workshop here

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Description:

Once the extension is installed, when you start a new game, you will see a new game-start for "Lost Cluster" with a description about the mod.

You start out in Transcend System, Tree of Life Sector in your home zone of Voice of Silence. You own a couple of stations and a reasonable fleet of ships ranging from Traders to Destroyers. There are empty zones waiting for you to place more stations!

The rest is up to you!

Compatibility:

There are no known conflicts with other mods. However, I suggest you avoid other mods which remove the highway system when using this one.

Notes:

This mod REPLACES Transcend Lost Colony - which is now obsolete.

Local Highways are one of the aspects of Rebirth that I've never liked. This mod suites my personal preference as an explorer. Unknown zones can be discovered by observing or following other ships.

Another significant change, is I removed masstraffic for the same reason as I don't like highways - they are "stupid" and break immersion for me.

This mod was developed in conjunction with my modding tutorial for X Rebirth. Various files within this mod are described and used as examples in the tutorial found here

[w.evans]

YAY! Oh no! Do I start over? Does Transcend require a new game start?

[Observe]

YAY! Oh no! Do I start over? Does Transcend require a new game start?

It depends. Possibly you don't have to start over, but I recommend you do so.

[w.evans]

Uh oh. Hm. I'll sleep on it.

[NZ-Wanderer]

Welcome back Observe, we missed you

New game start. - Hmmm well I can't sleep on it like w.evams cause I just woke up.

Maybe I try deactivating old Transcend and activating new one and load save game to see what I break before starting over

Mod list updated, Old Transcend removed, New one inserted

- Link to my Mod List

[Observe]

New game start. - Hmmm well I can't sleep on it like w.evams cause I just woke up.

Maybe I try deactivating old Transcend and activating new one and load save game to see what I break before starting over

Yes. Definitely DO NOT try to run both at the same time. It is quite likely your old saves will work fine. Most of the old stuff remains unchanged. I'm not sure if the new sectors will show up without a fresh start, but please let me know if you try.

That said, probably the added player-owned ships won't show if you use a save from the original mod and changes to Jobs (masstraffic and others) may also not take affect.

[NZ-Wanderer]

Well I tried

x Rebirth tells me I cannot load any of my saves cause the old transcend is missing even tho I have the new one installed..

I am guessing it is because of this:

Code: Select all

<patch extension="ws_264342602" version="134" name="Transcend - Lost Colony"/>

Hmmm, wonder, if I start a new game, find out what the new transcend line is in a new save, then replace the old one with the new one..

UPDATE: That worked

w.evans, in your save game, simply replace this line:

Code: Select all

<patch extension="ws_264342602" version="134" name="Transcend - Lost Colony"/>

with this line:

Code: Select all

<patch extension="ws_364987775" version="200" name="Transcend - No Highways"/>

and you will be good to go. - I have not tested it further as yet, but will report back after I have a play

[Observe]

Update: Added missing aiscript; extended radar range for no-highways exploring.

@NZ-Wanderer: Perhaps I could have made the new mod compatible with the original, but I am so severely limited in time that it didn't make sense to put forth the effort. It was a case of either release what I am personally playing with, or do nothing.

Thanks.

[NZ-Wanderer]

@NZ-Wanderer: Perhaps I could have made the new mod compatible with the original, but I am so severely limited in time that it didn't make sense to put forth the effort. It was a case of either release what I am personally playing with, or do nothing.
Thanks.

That's fine Observe - I am happy to go along with what you are doing - If I can make my saves work then fine, if not then that's fine as well.. - as I just edited in my post above, replacing the old transcend line with the new transcend line allows me to load the saves, so that's a start...

[Observe]

Thanks N.Z! Please let me know if you find any issues or have suggestions. Some of the problems with the old mod may still exist, but I first wanted to see how things play with the various Rebirth updates.

[w.evans]

Couldn't resist, so I installed Transcend into my plot gamestart where I didn't have the old Transcend installed. (Currently switching between three game starts at the moment depending on what I want to do.)

It's running ok. But I don't know where Transcend is! Can I find this information somewhere? I like exploring, and am looking forward to exploring Transcend, but I'd like to verify that the mod's playing nice with my save before I save it in first.

[Observe]

But I don't know where Transcend is! Can I find this information somewhere?

Well, the easiest way to find where Transcend is would be to start a new game, because that's where you start.

Otherwise, I remember talking to an old miner, who mentioned something about a "lost colony". He said it could be found by traversing Xenon Maelstrom cluster, in sector Blurred Reflection. There can be found a zone called Twisted Faith with a jumpgate to Transcend. Who knows if it was the booze talking, or how accurate his info was. I've also heard a jumpgate in Distant Fume has recently opened up to Transcend.

[w.evans]

Thanks! Maybe we should delete this exchange to keep it on the hush-and-hush? I'll be sure and take a swig of Space Fuel and a puff of Space Weed before trying to traverse Maelstrom.

[Observe]

Keep in mind, one of the nice things about starting a new game in Transcend, is you get a whole bunch of ships, marines and a couple of stations from the beginning (since you inherit an empire).

[w.evans]

I heard about that, but I kind of like starting with nothing. That's the thing I'm finding hard to drop with my new game. I did a plot start, and am going extremely slow, and I just got to the point that I'm capping Titurels to turn into freighters, and I'm rather attached to them. (They're slow, and ugly, and they have blind spots the size of planets (just like the trucks they are!) but I captured them fair and square! They still have the scorch marks to commemorate it!)

Running euclid's Autotrader, and they're supposed to go anywhere there's trade, so I'm keeping an eye on them to see if they wind up in Transcend anytime soon.

[w.evans]

Hi Observe,

Thanks for your work, but I ended up uninstalling Transcend. I didn't realize that the mod removes highways everywhere, and I actually like highways. I like how they look, and smell, and sound. Well, ok, maybe not how they sound -- can get loud in there. But, yeah.

I have that game start of mine with your old Transcend installed though, and I haven't even left Transcend in that game start yet, so maybe I'll reinstall the old version and poke around there some time.

Thanks, though.

[NZ-Wanderer]

I didn't realize that the mod removes highways everywhere, and I actually like highways. I like how they look, and smell, and sound. Well, ok, maybe not how they sound -- can get loud in there. But, yeah.

If you do the fix I posted to load an existing save then you will find hiways are still there (well in the couple of sectors I been to they are

[w.evans]

If you do the fix I posted to load an existing save then you will find hiways are still there (well in the couple of sectors I been to they are

They are? Ok, I'll try that. Thanks!

[Observe]

I didn't realize that the mod removes highways everywhere, and I actually like highways. I like how they look, and smell, and sound.

In that case, you are in LUCK. I have uploaded a Highways version just for you.

The Highways version is effectively the original version updated for compatibility with Rebirth 3.x for those who prefer. It is identical to the No Highways version - except is has highways and masstraffic put back in. It can be found here.

MAKE SURE YOU DON'T USE TOGETHER. Only one of these versions can be operating at the same time.

[w.evans]

YAY! Thanks! Downloading now. I'll tell you how it works when just spliced into a running save. Otherwise, hmm, I'll give it a go. NZ-Wanderer's been telling me some wonderful things -- mostly that the Space Weed's greener on the other side of that particular jump gate.

edit: just took a quick peek inside, and it looks like it's compatible with every single mod that I have! (Except boosted the plunder quota so I could disable my unpublished MorePirates mod.)