Kronosaur Productions is excited and relieved to announce the immediate release of Transcendence 1.8, the greatest version of our epic-scale indie space opera. This release contains major new mechanics, graphical improvements, and hundreds of stability and quality fixes.

Ship Brokers

The ability for the player to change ships existed in previous version, and several mods made use of it. In version 1.8 we've added ship brokers that sell ships to the player, either to replace their own ship or that of their wingmen.

In addition, we've introduced three new playable ship classes:

• The EI200 is an older, though larger, version of the EI500 freighter. With 500 tons of cargo space standard, this ship is the ultimate trading vessel.
  
  
• The ubiquitous Centurion is also available for purchase. This heavy gunship supports massive armor and heavy weapons, and comes in a wide variety of load-outs.
  
  
• The new Minotaur-class corvette is the ultimate combat ship: 6 armor segments, 8 all-purpose device slots, and a linked omnidirectional cannon. This ship will serve you well—if you can afford it.
  

Ship brokers are available at Commonwealth dry docks, Commonwealth metropolises, Commonwealth fortresses, and at the Fleet base of Point Juno.

New Mechanics

Version 1.8 adds a new trade-off between armor mass and speed. Depending on your ship class, certain heavy armors will reduce your maximum speed. This adds another dimension for play style as you decide to either optimize for a fast, lightly-armored ship or a slower but heavily armored ship.

In addition, different ship classes are optimized for either light or heavy armor. The Sapphire class, for example, loses a couple of points of speed with heavy armor, but a heavy gunship like the Manticore is unaffected.

Another revamped mechanic is trading. In 1.8, prices of trading goods vary more significantly across star system. For example, systems with lots of mines will pay less for ore, while systems with lots of populated stations might pay more for food and luxuries.

A new trading computer option—which is built in to the EI500 freighter—gives you pricing information and suggestions for where to get the best price for your goods.

New Images

This latest version adds news images for over two dozen ships and stations. We've increased the detail level and scale for many old stations. Below are some examples of redone Marauder stations:

Stability & Extensibility

As always, the new version adds API enhancements for modders, including (finally) PNG image support. Many of the new API changes are being used to support The Vault of the Galaxy, but many others have been added by request.

In addition, we've fixed over 400 bugs, which greatly improves the stability of the game.

Thanks to everyone who submitted bug reports and who contributed to this release!