Sirius Business - a C# Aurora forum game. v2.5

[blue emu]

We are up to 46 Labs... five more than we started with. We can only increase our research establishment slowly, because of the outrageous cost of maintaining Labs. We have to build up our economy, then buy ONE lab, then build up again...

Maximum Engine Power is for Fighters and Missiles (and indirectly, for Carriers since that's what Fighters are for). Terraforming rate is, of course, for Mars. Jump Point Stabilization is for a Gate to Alpha Centauri... to allow Freighters and Colony Ships and Tugs towing OMPs to cross through the Star Gate. Gauss Cannon is for Point Defense AA guns.

 

[blue emu]

Our terraforming efforts are beginning to have some effect on Mars.

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I've hit a bizarre bug. The game allowed me to "assisted jump" the three Beetles into the Alpha Centauri system, but it won't let them out.

I'll try a few work-arounds, and if nothing works I'll just use my credentials as game-master to manually place them on the other side of the jump point.

 

[Yvanoff]

The beetles are simply having so much fun in that mineral crazy system they don't want to leave, and who can blame them ?

 

[Blaaat]

We really struck the motherlode in Alpha Centauri, time to build a gate and colonize it?

Commander Blaaat in ESNS Charles Darwin has discovered the nearby star system of Psi Ceti.

Minor correction I should be in Oppenheimer while happycats should be in Charles Darwin.

 

[blue emu]

The shipyards are now preparing to build Gate-class Jump Point Stabilization ships.

The engines in this design are just place-holders... the actual engines that we will use are under research now.

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Gate class Stabilisation Ship 69,492 tons 208 Crew 1,444.6 BP TCS 1,390 TH 480 EM 0
345 km/s Armour 1-150 Shields 0-0 HTK 48 Sensors 6/6/0/0 DCR 1-0 PPV 0
MSP 12 Max Repair 1000 MSP
Lieutenant Commander Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months
Jump Point Stabilisation: 180 days

CIV NT Engine EP80.00 1954 (6) Power 480 Fuel Use 8.94% Signature 80 Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 10,000,000 Litres Range 289.3 billion km (9705 days at full power)
Refuelling Capability: 60,000 litres per hour Complete Refuel 166 hours

CIV Search Sensor AS20-R100 1955 (1) GPS 1000 Range 20.3m km Resolution 100
CIV EM Sensor EM1.0-6.0 1955 (1) Sensitivity 6 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 19.4m km
CIV Thermal Sensor TH1.0-6.0 1955 (1) Sensitivity 6 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 19.4m km

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Stabilisation Ship for auto-assignment purposes

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Since it's going to spend months sitting on a jump point anyway, I've also given it fuel pumps and ten million litres of tankage... so that it can make itself useful.

 

[blue emu]

Minor correction I should be in Oppenheimer while happycats should be in Charles Darwin.

Fixed. Thank you.

 

[blue emu]

Mineralization in the Alpha Centauri system.

As you can see by the scroll-bar on the right, there's about two-and-a-quarter pages of this.

 

[blue emu]

We really struck the motherlode in Alpha Centauri, time to build a gate and colonize it?

In addition to the mineral bonanza, recall that our initial survey found TWO HUNDRED AND SEVENTEEN habitable points in the Alpha Centauri system... 217 places where a colony could be built. Granted, 90% of them will be just worthless barren rocks, but that still leaves us a wealth of potential colony sites.

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Blaaat in ESNS Robert Oppenheimer has finished shore leave and overhaul, and is now returning to Psi Ceti to continue the Geo-Survey. Meanwhile, three other survey vessels are cooperating to map the jump points leading OUT of Alpha Centauri.

 

[blue emu]

Our current shipyard situation and tasks.

Our Naval yards are topping out at 25,000 tons (for now), and our Commercial yards depend on the task... 110,000 tons for space stations, 70,000 tons for large Civilian ships (like Gate constructors) and 40,000 tons for Freighters and Troop Transports.

Ships and space stations under construction:

Four Grinders, three Refineries, two Terraformers and a Gate constructor.

Notice that at this early stage of our expansion, 90% of our construction is space stations.

First we build the infrastructure. Then we build a war fleet and get spicy.

 

[blue emu]

The ESNS Charles Darwin finishes overhaul and shore leave, and Commander Happycat takes it up and out... headed for Luhman 16 to search for jump points to further stars.

EDIT:

We can define directions for this map. Assume that the core of the galaxy is off the top edge of the map (a long way off, in fact) and that the edge of the galaxy is off the bottom edge. If the galaxy rotates counter-clockwise (as it does in real life) then for purposes of our map it spins from left to right.

So our four cardinal directions (up, right, down, left) are core-ward, spin-ward, rim-ward and widdershins.

 

[blue emu]

July 25th 1966

We're up to 12 Grinders, deployed half at Crommeln and half at Halley's. Building four at a time now. Each Grinder holds 21 robot mines.

 

[blue emu]

Commander Happycat in ESNS Charles Darwin has completed his Grav-survey of the Luhman 16 system (directly to Widdershins of Sol, opposite to Alpha Centauri) and has found three new jump points leading out deeper into unexplored space.

Commander Happycat sets course for the first one...

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... and he discovers the new star system of Tau Ceti.

A very compact system, all (except the comets) fitting within a volume only a third of a billion km across.

This puts almost the entire system within the "Goldilocks" zone, where colonization is as easy as on Mars (except for the microgravity conditions, which do change things quite a bit).

Two hundred and three (203) habitablr colony sites.

... only a handful of which (six moons of the gas giant, in this screen-shot) have acceptable gravity.

 

[blue emu]

These are the normal-gravity colony sites that we've found (note that "normal gravity" includes everything from 0.1g to 1.9g)

The numbers change a bit when we include the micro-gravity colony sites:

Dark blue is Earth. Light blue is Mars-like. Dark grey is Ganymede-like. Light grey is a comet. Orange is an unexplored jump point.

 

[Deleted user]

Looks like the Darwin is continuing its stellar service. I will let the crew know that the celebratory bubble tea will be served at the cafeteria. Thankfully we stocked up on some during our shore leave.

 

[blue emu]

Wagonlirz continues to streamline our logistics. That tech speeds up the transfer of ordnance (missiles, drones, probes, etc) between ships and bases, or between ships and other ships (eg: Ammunition Tenders).

Now Wagon starts working on a tech that similarly speeds up refueling and fuel transfers... more efficient pumping systems.

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Our fourth Gaia class Orbital Terraforming Platform has been delivered to Mars orbit, and our terraforming rate has increased to roughly 1/40th of an atmosphere per year. That sounds like very little... 0.025 atmospheres... but people on Earth who live in high mountainous terrain (the Nepalese, for example) get by fine on an Oxygen concentration of 0.1 atmospheres. It shouldn't take too many years to change the atmosphere of Mars. Giving it an ocean will be a bigger headache.

 

[blue emu]

Our Stargate Construction Ship is finished!

It will sit on a jump point for half a year, constructing the star gate, then jump through to the other side and do the same again at the far end.

I am sending it to build the Alpha Centauri star gate first, of course.

 

[Wagonlitz]

> More money is good. - It isn't FREE, Wagonlitz. Everything has a cost. The Life Support Infrastructure that the colonists use must be made in our factories... which uses up TN minerals (and also money) and also ties up the factories for a time, so that they can't be used for other purposes. The population sent there cannot be used to do other jobs, like running financial centers on Earth. Moving the Colonists out to Jupiter's moons uses fuel, which itself costs TN minerals. Everything has a cost.
Wouldn't the population over time become overall higher, though?

Our fifth interstellar survey vessel has been launched, and an NPC has taken command of the ESNS Richard Feynmann.

No ship named after me.

What does SL mean?

en comets

I thoguht it was limited to 6 per system.

We can't complain about the lack of colony sites in the Alpha Centauri system... there are 217 habitable points in the star system (nearly all of them airless rocks).

Can we extract the resources without building colonies tehre?

A binary system composed of two Red Dwarves (M5 and M6), it contains four potential colony sites (three of them as good as Mars, one as good as Ganymede).

How good is Ganymede cmopared to Mars?

The alternative is to keep them and use them. Even though they have no jump drives, they can make "assisted jumps" if they travel together with a jump-capable vessel of appropriate mass. So we could use them for checking out that asteroid belt in Alpha Centauri, for example. They're just a bit of a headache because that requires some baby-sitting.

Can't the scientist class explore asteroids just as well as beetle class, or is it more a case of many ships do it faster than fewer?

Are there any "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" fans here?

I've read the trilogy, but it was like 15 yeras ago. Why?

After exploring two star systems and finding nothing but comets... no planets at all... Culise jumps through to the Sirius system and finds... one planet.

But it's as good as Mars for colonists!... err... except that it's a low-gravity world, requiring special infrastructure.

Does it have any minerals?

EDIT: No. But there's always the comets...

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The Sol system and its environs:

View attachment 1075706

The number in brackets indicates the real-space distance (eg: Sirius is 8.6 light years away). Cyan dots are the number of potential Mars-like colony locations. Dark grey dots are potential Ganymede-like colony locations. Light grey (10) dots are no-planets-here-just-comets.

The red rims indicate "not fully checked for jump points". The survey at Sol is nearly done.

... so the Alpha Centauri system is FULL of potential colony sites, and is also highly mineralized.

The systems with the falcon indicates a ship there, right?

Since it's going to spend months sitting on a jump point anyway

I thoguht it'd be there permanently?

A very compact system, all (except the comets) fitting within a volume only a third of a billion km across.

Why not give it in AU to make it easier understandable?

The numbers change a bit when we include the micro-gravity colony sites:

What are micro gravity colonies?

Our fourth Gaia class Orbital Terraforming Platform has been delivered to Mars orbit, and our terraforming rate has increased to roughly 1/40th of an atmosphere per year. That sounds like very little... 0.025 atmospheres... but people on Earth who live in high mountainous terrain (the Nepalese, for example) get by fine on an Oxygen concentration of 0.1 atmospheres. It shouldn't take too many years to change the atmosphere of Mars. Giving it an ocean will be a bigger headache.

How did we terraform before that platform?
Also, what athmosphere do we aim for?
What do we use to create the athmosphere?
And how would we create an ocean?

 

[blue emu]

Wouldn't the population over time become overall higher, though? - Yes. Population grows fastest on frontier worlds (up to +10% plus modifiers per year, compared to +1.5% per year on Earth)... but of course those nice numbers only apply to small populations, which is what makes it a frontier world. So we would get a benefit, of course, but the question is RoI (Return on Investment), and at the moment Alpha Centauri looks like having a much better RoI than Jupiter's moons.

No ship named after me. - Soon.

What does SL mean? - Survey Location. A place that should be checked for possible jump points to other star systems. All those SLs disappear as you survey the system.

I thoguht it was limited to 6 per system. - I set it to 10 this game.

Can we extract the resources without building colonies tehre? - Yes, but manually operated mines cost half as much, and Earth is about to start running out of minerals.

How good is Ganymede cmopared to Mars? - Much colder. Harder to terraform to Earth-normal.

Can't the scientist class explore asteroids just as well as beetle class, or is it more a case of many ships do it faster than fewer? - The more the faster.

I've read the trilogy, but it was like 15 yeras ago. Why? - The Golgafrinchians built three Arks, and sent one off in a random direction to get rid of what they considered a useless third of their population. Telephone Sanitizers, Marketing Consultants, and so on. You had just researched the Ark module.

The systems with the falcon indicates a ship there, right? - Yes.

I thoguht it'd be there permanently? - The Star Gate that it builds will be there permanently. The Construction Ship will go off and build another elsewhere.

Why not give it in AU to make it easier understandable? - My instruments are calibrated in km.

What are micro gravity colonies? - Micro-gravity is what the newspapers call zero gravity.

How did we terraform before that platform? - We didn't. We've sent four to Mars so far.
Also, what athmosphere do we aim for? - Just over 0.1 atmosphere Oxygen, enough Water Vapor to create a 25% ocean (Earth is around 70%), enough greenhouse gasses to raise the temperature up above freezing, and enough Nitrogen to dilute the Oxygen concentration down to less than 30% of the total atmosphere.
What do we use to create the athmosphere? - Robots brought in and controlled by the Orbital Terraforming Platform.
And how would we create an ocean? - Add water vapor as a gas. It equilibriates with the liquid phase.

 

[blue emu]

Advances in Power Systems and Engine techs allow us to design a second generation of Scientist II class Survey Vessels, Mule II class Freighters, New Hope II class Colony Ships, Strongman II Tugs, Cow II class Tankers, and so on. Our existing ships will be gradually upgraded to the new models.

One important difference is operating range... aside from being faster overall, the new generation of ships has nearly double the operating range of the old.

 

[blue emu]

July 21st 1968

We are up to 16 Grinders, 14 Refineries and 5 Gaia Terraformers.

In all, 35 space stations of varying types.

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The Scientist class Survey Vessel ESNS Wagonlitz has finished searching for jump points in Psi Ceti, and heads back to Earth for overhaul and shore leave.

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August 21st, 1968.

Today we cut the ceremonial ribbon opening the new Star Gate linking the Sol system to Alpha Centauri!

Now... where exactly should we colonize and/or mine first?

The orange box surrounding the Sol jump point (JP2) indicates that a jump gate is in place.

My own favorite spot for our first colony in Alpha Centauri is the fourth planet of the main star... Alpha Centauri A-IV (highlighted below):

This is NOT the easiest place in the system to live, or to terraform. Temperature -85 degrees C. There are, in fact, at least 217 potential colonization spots with milder temperatures (most of them just barren rock, of course).

What does this place have to offer if it's so cold?

It is the largest colonizable body in the A-star system, so it can eventually hold the largest population. Part of the reason it's so cold is that it is covered by a planetary ice sheet... so the planet already has a hydrosphere, currently frozen solid but it will become an ocean once we terraform the planet. It even has a trace (just a trace) of a Nitrogen / Oxygen atmosphere... which at least means that we won't need to remove any gasses from the mix, just add to them. The planet is heavily mineralized... in particular holding eight million tons of Corundium (for building more mines and Grinders!) at 100% concentration.

Alpha Centauri A-IV gets my vote, despite the frigid climate.

Naturally, over time we will end up establishing multiple colonies, on several bodies. But this looks like prime real estate to me.