TX 2

Transcendence eXtended 2 (TX 2) is a Game Mod and Expansion Pack for the game Transcendence. The design behind it was to not only expand the linear world of Transcendence into a non-linear one, but to add numerous factions, much more plot, many more ships, stations, items, and so much more.

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Tropes used in TX 2 include:

• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Subverted a little when compared to Transcendence - the Luminous aren't so rogue as they once appeared - the AI is just being a bit of a Magnificent Bastard
  • Subverted and defied completely with the Collective Project, who's fluff text is absolutely laden with suspiciously specific denials, shout-outs to an example of this trope played straight, and just shmuck bait in general, looking like a perfect Cliché Storm about to happen, the failsafes the designers put in do not fail - thus subverting and defying the trope in one blow.
• Imported Alien Phlebotinum: Even more of this gets added in with the Therrusian traders, who import it from beyond the quarantine zone.
• Bigger Is Better: The scale of so many things in this Game Mod are increased.
  • Cool Starship: A large number of the spacecraft added are substantially larger than the average ship from the original game - and with good reason: this was done to balance a number of the factions against each other by giving them Standard Sci-Fi Fleet; otherwise Fridge Logic would ensue and people would wonder why the more powerful factions wouldn't just squash their weaker enemies.
  • BFG / Wave Motion Gun / Impossibly Cool Weapon: There are a number of Cool but Inefficient weapons that are ridiculously powerful but cannot be used by the player (without cheating, of course), all for various plot-related reasons.
  • Fleet battles are just epic.
    • The gigantic fleet battles which take place at the end of some story arcs are just EPIC.
  • So are big explosions.
  • No, nothing was being compensated for in the making of this mod.
• Crapsack World / World Half Empty: This describes the backwaters of the commonwealth and the war-torn regions between the clashing superpowers accurately (especially the latter).
• Dyson Sphere: The Therrusian Worldship/Mother Ship contains a miniturized version of this (it's still very large however).
• Earth-That-Was: Played straight with Mars, as straight as it will get in that situation anyhow, and to a lesser degree with Earth itself - Earth however isn't entirely dead.
• Everything Trying to Kill You: Averted; this is nolonger true with the new encounter tables introduced in Transcendence RC4
• Freud Was Right: Hopefully averted. All the ships added were designed to intentionally avert this trope - one even went under re-design for good measure.
• Friendly Fireproof: Subverted everywhere but in a few areas where shipwrecks needed to be immutable to prevent the game from becoming Unwinnable
• Grey and Grey Morality: TX 2 avoids meddling with the extremely ambiguous (both morally and in terms of information) main plot of the original, and instead builds many StoryArcs to compensate.
• Killed Off for Real: Played straight with everyone but the player - even Kate Morgental can die now. (Doing so does NOT result in an Unwinnable game anymore.
• Living Ship: Played straight with the wyvera faction of genetically engineered ships.
• Lockdown: The entire point of the first part of the game (like in vanilla transcendence) is to break out of the quarantine zone.
• Made of Explodium: Everything explodes all so beautifully! (Like in the original, but with even more explosions!)
• More Dakka: Ships such as the Ranx Imperial Dragon and the Commonwealth Monitor follow the mantra of "bigger with more guns!" to the letter.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: A number of ships fall into this category, namely the Therrusian's largest ship...
• Nonstandard Game Over: Even more-so than the game its based off of.
• Numbered Sequels: Averted in that this isn't a true sequel: the first one was abandoned and the ideas re-incorperated into this version
• Organic Technology: The wyvera exhibit this as well (well, they ARE the technology), not just the Teraton fabricators anymore. The Wyvera arn't squishy though.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: The Luminous are much more fleshed out and have loot that is actually worth something. Autons are now actually useful, throughout the duration of the game (you may still need to upgrade however).
  • The Ventari are still jerkasses In Space, just with some backstory.
• Sliding Scale of Shiny Versus Gritty: For the most part, TX2 lands on the gritty end.
• Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: For the most part, TX2 lands on the cynical side, but some factions and people do offer hints of idealism.
• Shown Their Work: No squishy organic 'armor' here! Where the laws of physics were broken in the original game and again here, that was due to playability and the fun of the game taking precedent to reality. (Trope only noticed in some lampshading done for the humor of it in the Wyvera story arc.)
• Standard Sci-Fi Fleet: Every major faction worth its beans is given one. Even some of the lesser factions.
• Used Future: The ships are designed to reflect a realistic and utilitarian world, except when it comes to rich business leaders who are more concerned with Spaceship Luxury. This trope is very prominent in the backwaters of the commonwealth.
• Was Once a Man: Aside from the Teratons and the Ringers and the Ares of the original, the added Therrusian faction is composed of a people who were formerly human, however they found their fragile bodies too weak and augmented them to live on the new planet they settled.
  • This actually becomes their saving grace by preventing the Iocrym and other alien races from recognizing them as humans because of how drastically they had modified themselves... to the point that, yes, one could validly say they weren't human anymore anyways.
• Word of God: Self-Demonstrating Article - Azarwolf (who created the page) is the creator of the mod, but its justified and not because he's a Shameless Self Promoter with a Small Name, Big Ego - its because quite simply, he'd know the tropes best and thus could get this page started (this can get removed once the next beta comes and other people can start adding tropes).