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

[blue emu]

That Defense Squadron is about 90,000 tons, and the pair of space stations shown above totaled 20,000 tons... so if we had Maintenance Facilities for about 120,000 tons Naval Cap on the planet (that's 60 buildings), both the Space Stations and the Defense Squadron would be fine for maintenance and repairs.

 

[Wagonlitz]

Will every important mining colony and terraforming operation need to be guarded against Bandits appearing and shooting the place up?

I say so. Though, in case there already is a major colony in the sytem, then perhaps have only that one fuly protected and the rest be protected by a smaller fleet stationed on the main colony and GTO on teh smaller ones? Like in alpha centauri then fortress at Nessus and a squadron tehre and then jstu GTO ta Nike and other, smaller colonies in the system.

Like, I do think we shoud have squadrons in any system with a major colony, aside from fortresses.

I think the Sol => Alpha Centauri jump point is vital enough that it makes sense to spend resources fortifying it... perhaps even stationing a deep space population there, to maintain the orbital fortresses.

Even if we ended up losing the whole thing, a million people is even less than the population of Nike.

Would we need a fortress on each side of teh JP?

 

[Wagonlitz]

The third set was intended for Claymore in Luhman 16... but perhaps I should send it to Nike in Alpha Centauri instead, so that we can resume terraforming operations.

Well, dont' we have a colony on Luhman too? and the fleet is in alpha centauri atm.

Would dpedend on hw fast you can build a 4th set, I guess, but Luhman might get targeted too.

How does this look for a Squadron to guard an important system like Alpha Centauri:

View attachment 1078492

One AWACS, one Carrier with a Fighter Squadron aboard, one Ammunition Tender for the Carrier, one Laser PD gunship (with a spinal 18.75cm boomer), one AMM Missile PD Frigate and two Gauss PD Frigates. About 90,000 tons of warships in total (requiring 45 Maintenance Facilities on the planet below).

Does that sound reasonable for anti-Bandit protection? Too much? Too little? Add a Tanker?

Looks fine.

That Defense Squadron is about 90,000 tons, and the pair of space stations shown above totaled 20,000 tons... so if we had Maintenance Facilities for about 120,000 tons Naval Cap on the planet (that's 60 buildings), both the Space Stations and the Defense Squadron would be fine for maintenance and repairs.

Is 60 maintenance buildings expensive to get?

 

[blue emu]

Check this out :

With our improvements in Laser Aperture (beam size) technology, we designed and researched a new Spinal Laser for the Blaze class... 25cm aperture instead of the old 18.75cm. We also incorporated the latest developments in ceramic composite armor.

The result? A Blaze II version of the ship, that can be built in the same shipyard without retooling.

 

[blue emu]

Well, dont' we have a colony on Luhman too? and the fleet is in alpha centauri atm. - Yes. But I'd rather get one place sorted out, and then the other. And Alpha Centauri is the important system (minerals!), now that we're pretty sure the Galapagonians are just a Hazard, not a Player.

Would dpedend on hw fast you can build a 4th set, I guess, but Luhman might get targeted too. - Yeah, they build rather slowly. I've got a bunch of ground forces training centers in the build queue, to speed up STO construction.

Looks fine.
Is 60 maintenance buildings expensive to get? - About the same as 60 mines or 60 financial centers. Different minerals get used to make different buildings, though.

I say so. Though, in case there already is a major colony in the sytem, then perhaps have only that one fuly protected and the rest be protected by a smaller fleet stationed on the main colony and GTO on teh smaller ones? Like in alpha centauri then fortress at Nessus and a squadron tehre and then jstu GTO ta Nike and other, smaller colonies in the system. - Precisely my own thoughts.

Like, I do think we shoud have squadrons in any system with a major colony, aside from fortresses. - We seem to be thinking along the same lines.

Would we need a fortress on each side of teh JP? - Don't need to, since one side of the jump point is worthless without the other. We could, of course, if we could afford it.

 

[Wagonlitz]

Check this out :

View attachment 1078505

With our improvements in Laser Aperture (beam size) technology, we designed and researched a new Spinal Laser for the Blaze class... 25cm aperture instead of the old 18.75cm. We also incorporated the latest developments in ceramic composite armor.

The result? A Blaze II version of the ship, that can be built in the same shipyard without retooling.

Can we upgrade the old one, then, given it's in the shame yard without retooling?

 

[blue emu]

Can we upgrade the old one, then, given it's in the shame yard without retooling?

Yes indeed. And the upgrades will be quick and cheap, with so little difference in the two designs.

 

[blue emu]

With the new tech, we can design a nasty Spinal STO mount.

Advantages: extra range (240,000 km instead of 180,000 km), extra damage (16 points per hit instead of 6 points).

Disadvantages: one barrel instead of four, tracking speed 5,000 kps instead of 10,000. Somewhat slower recharge (20 sec instead of 15).

Good for punching BIG holes in BIG ships. Not so good against chaff.

NOTE: Spinal Mount weapons cannot be turreted. "Spinal" means "running down the center, through the center of mass", so only one is allowed.

 

[blue emu]

The third STO array has been delivered to Nike in the Alpha Centauri system. The first two arrays went to Earth itself and Nessus, of course.

The fourth one will probably go to protect a major mining colony. Mars?

 

[blue emu]

We'll just ship in a crap-load of maintenance facilities to Nessus, re-base the Defense Squadron there, and then withdraw the fleet.

Problem 50% solved (where the Hell did they COME from?).

EDIT:

We are now refitting the first four Blaze class (PD + Spinal) to Blaze II class. Six weeks.

 

[blue emu]

Our fourth STO array is ready (they're popping out faster!) and I'm sending it to Mars instead of Claymore.

Claymore is (strategically speaking) a side-show at this point. Mars is a major mining center.

EDIT:

Jeeze... there's something popping out of my ground unit construction queue every five days. These are just Garrisons, but still... that's fast.

EDIT again:

Look at this:

Two new ground unit builds on the SAME turn.

This used to be a thing, because in earlier versions of the game each Ground Forces Training Center used to have its own construction queue, so it was entirely possible for several units to complete on the same turn. But in v2.5 there's only ONE ground forces construction queue per PLANET, not one queue per training center... and building multiple training centers only increases the speed at which units are built.

... so we're now building them fast enough to pop out multiple units per turn. Of course, these are just Garrisons. STO are more than ten times as expensive.

 

[blue emu]

The Blaze II class, Point Defense / Spinal Gunship. Range 192,000 km, damage 16 (at point blank), rate-of-fire one shot every 20 seconds.

 

[blue emu]

I do like this design of putting a Spinal Laser running down the axis of my Laser PD ships.

It makes it much harder for an enemy Gunship to bully them (ordinarily, heavily armored Gunships can simply ignore the Point Defense), without detracting much from their efficiency at their assigned PD role since they need to carry both power reactors and beam fire controls for their Laser PD turrets anyway.

 

[Deleted user]

With the new tech, we can design a nasty Spinal STO mount.

View attachment 1078509

Advantages: extra range (240,000 km instead of 180,000 km), extra damage (16 points per hit instead of 6 points).

Disadvantages: one barrel instead of four, tracking speed 5,000 kps instead of 10,000. Somewhat slower recharge (20 sec instead of 15).

Good for punching BIG holes in BIG ships. Not so good against chaff.

NOTE: Spinal Mount weapons cannot be turreted. "Spinal" means "running down the center, through the center of mass", so only one is allowed.

Honest question, is STO designed to take on big ships that useful? I'm assuming if they are getting close enough for us to shoot them from the ground that they have destroyed whatever fleet we have above and that a few big ships will have the fire power to quickly silence any attacks from the surface, but those assumptions could be wrong. I get that any damage we might be able to inflict on a fleet would be a bonus at that point but will that justify the cost and time to produce them? Also, I appreciate the posts on fleet design philosophy. I find it interesting that a specialized fleet model works in this game since so much sci fi seems to make ships generalists.

 

[blue emu]

Honest question, is STO designed to take on big ships that useful? I'm assuming if they are getting close enough for us to shoot them from the ground that they have destroyed whatever fleet we have above and that a few big ships will have the fire power to quickly silence any attacks from the surface, but those assumptions could be wrong. I get that any damage we might be able to inflict on a fleet would be a bonus at that point but will that justify the cost and time to produce them? Also, I appreciate the posts on fleet design philosophy. I find it interesting that a specialized fleet model works in this game since so much sci fi seems to make ships generalists.

Good question. You do indeed have a point... ground defenses in general are less effective against major fleet elements.

I might approach it from a few directions.

1) Big ships are not always battlecruisers. Drop ships (for dumping Space Marines into your upper atmosphere, for a planetary invasion) are also big and armored.
2) Not all enemy assaults will include an AWACS, so he might not have the sensors to SPOT the ground units before they open fire. We ambushed that Jerx ship at Nessus, for example, even though it had already shown (at Nike) that it could open fire at about 35,000 km beyond our maximum range.
3) Regardless, the extra range of a Spinal Mount (240,000 km instead of 180,000 km) might be very handy against all opponents, not just the big ones.

 

[blue emu]

Found some info on the Aether Raiders.

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Aether Raiders

v1.14 includes a new 'spoiler' race, known as the Aether Raiders. They are inspired by the Dark Eldar in the WH40k universe and will function as a pirate faction. High level mechanics details follow, so stop reading now if you want to avoid spoilers.

The Raiders are based in a system that has no jump points and cannot be accessed via normal travel. As a result, they developed a technology known as the Aether Gate, allowing them to create their own pathways between their home system and other systems in the galaxy. The Aether Gates are temporary energy structures, although they can exist for months or even years before they are closed down. They cannot be detected by normal surveying methods, although the sudden appearance of a raider ship within existing sensor range will be a very good guide to the potential location.

As a result of basing their technology on Aether Gate travel, the Raider ships cannot travel via jump points.

The goal of the Raiders is to accumulate slaves and raw materials. They do this by scouting out systems to find alien shipping, preferably undefended commercial shipping, or small colonies. Shipping is destroyed and colonies are captured, allowing slave transports to collect life pods or colonists and salvage ships to loot the wreckage before heading back through the gate.

The Raiders wish to preserve their forces, unless a very good opportunity is presented, so they are more likely to avoid combat with warships than NPRs or other spoiler races. Raider ships are designed with that philosophy in mind. Generally, they will operate solo or in small groups, although a larger force may be encountered occasionally.

The Raiders are not interested in capturing territory or destroying other races, so they do not pose an existential threat. However, they can prove to be very disruptive to shipping lanes and frontier colonies and their ability to open gates to any system means that they can potentially appear anywhere without warning. New Raider ships will be built over time and their technology may improve too. The individual Raider ships are tracked, so you may encounter the same ship over time in different systems. Destroying ships will reduce their forces and consequently reduce the size and/or frequency of future raids.

Raiders must exit a system via the same gate through which they entered. However, once all raiders leave a system that gate will be shut down. If Raiders return to the same system, a new gate will be opened in a different location.

Aether Raiders have been added as a option to the Game window. There is also an option to prevent them appearing in NPR-claimed systems.

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This sounds exactly like the Jerx.

 

[blue emu]

I've got about 120,000 tons worth of maintenance facilities either on, or en-route to, Nessus.

Now that we have STO on both Nessus and Nike, I am withdrawing the fleet for shore leave and overhaul.

With a refueling station transferred to Nessus, I am sending several tankers to transfer millions of liters of space fuel to their storage tanks.

This can support operations in-system.

 

[blue emu]

Over my Naval cap again.

I have to say that the logistics side of the game is much more difficult now... and probably a lot more realistic.

 

[blue emu]

Now that we have both a refueling base in the Alpha Centauri system (for our Tugs), and a set of STO on both Nessus and Nike (to guard the operation), we will resume transferring terraformers from Nessus orbit to Nike orbit.

 

[blue emu]

The number of Maintenance Facilities on Nessus reaches 45, which allows us to send the Squadron Alpha Centuri to a permanent station at Nessus.

Those 45 Maintenance Facilities will support 90,000 tons.

Our Colony Defense Squadron is a bit over 89,000 tons.