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

[blue emu]

Nearly five billion liters of space-fuel in storage, and a third of a million repair parts.

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How big a fleet should we send into Lalande 21185?

As far as we know there are only two opponents there... the immobilized Achernar near the first planet, and the bad-ass STO on the second planet.

We could send a squadron of Sabres in a couple of Mountain class Tenders... they pack six Sabres per Tender. That will test this method of deploying Sabres.

 

[blue emu]

Force Iche Bins has left Earth, headed for Lalande 21185.

The Space Marines are boarding now.

 

[RobbieAB]

Will you redesign the sabres for the new faster laser or will you wait for additional upgrades? While the upgraded rate of fire is nice, it doesn’t strike me as that relevant in an engagement where the enemy can’t strike back.

 

[blue emu]

Will you redesign the sabres for the new faster laser or will you wait for additional upgrades? While the upgraded rate of fire is nice, it doesn’t strike me as that relevant in an engagement where the enemy can’t strike back.

We've also researched a new Engine tech level. About +25% speed.

So with both a weapon upgrade and an engine upgrade available, we should be thinking seriously about a redesign.

We have one more critical tech under research now... improved fire controls. Maybe we should wait for that one.

 

[randakar]

Sounds good, these are all core technologies. It should be a significant upgrade.
As a side note, higher rate of fire probably also translates into a higher rate of breakdowns...

 

[blue emu]

Sounds good, these are all core technologies. It should be a significant upgrade.
As a side note, higher rate of fire probably also translates into a higher rate of breakdowns...

Yes, I already gave the Sabre VI additional Engineering sections, to reduce the per-shot breakdown chance by 50%.

This might be the combat debut of the Sabre VI... if there's anything there to fight.

 

[blue emu]

The Tugs have taken the Lizard II class drop racks under tow, and the troops are now boarding.

 

[blue emu]

When we do upgrade the Sabres...

I was thinking of using that Engine upgrade (which works out to around +20% power per hull square of engine) to make the engine more compact while putting out the same thrust. That would allow us to use the mass thus saved for either (1) more fuel, (2) more repair parts, (3) more engineering, or (4) more powerful weapon.

 

[randakar]

How much smaller can you make them? There's also something to be said for packing more of them into a squadron if you make them smaller...

 

[blue emu]

How much smaller can you make them? There's also something to be said for packing more of them into a squadron if you make them smaller...

I would have to drop them to... 1714 tons?... to fit in one more. That's if I'm using a Mountain as a Tender.

If I'm using a Constellation as a Tender, I'll need to shrink them to 1600 tons.

With the new engine tech, I can reduce the size of the engine by two hull squares while keeping the same thrust. That's 100 tons.

 

[blue emu]

Earth has an actual Spaceport rather than just a shuttle station like a colony world. So the troops are loaded in less than a day.

Being paranoid and having WAY more naval vessels than peacetime service actually requires, I've decided to give the troop transports some escorts.

And some Carriers, and some AWACS, and some Spinal Mount Destroyers, and so on.

Nobody dicks around with my troop transports.

 

[blue emu]

Force Iche Bins (which includes everything except the Space Marines and their close escort) has arrived in Lacaille 9352, at the end of our Gate network and one jump from Lalande 21185.

The Gate into Lalande 21185 will be ready for use in three weeks, so we might as well wait for it. Then the Space Marines can come through with the Fleet.

 

[Blaaat]

We have one more critical tech under research now... improved fire controls. Maybe we should wait for that one.

Might be better to start now, upgrading them with the new beam fire controls probably doesn't require retooling, unless of course the technology is almost researched.

 

[RobbieAB]

We've also researched a new Engine tech level. About +25% speed.

So with both a weapon upgrade and an engine upgrade available, we should be thinking seriously about a redesign.

We have one more critical tech under research now... improved fire controls. Maybe we should wait for that one.

Now the engine tech is definitely a reason to upgrade on its own! Improving the performance in the “dictate range” space is kind of critical for the sabre doctrine.

Improved fire controls should improve the performance of the ship in the “perfect” engagement, so might be worth waiting for, depending how busy the ship yards are. I assume they aren’t sitting idle!

 

[RobbieAB]

When we do upgrade the Sabres...

I was thinking of using that Engine upgrade (which works out to around +20% power per hull square of engine) to make the engine more compact while putting out the same thrust. That would allow us to use the mass thus saved for either (1) more fuel, (2) more repair parts, (3) more engineering, or (4) more powerful weapon.

Would a more powerful weapon give you better range?

In terms of how they function, the other three options all appear to not help against a foe who can invalidate the out-range or out-run doctrine in use here. Personally I would take the extra speed, unless the bigger gun allows me to hit you from further out.

 

[blue emu]

Would a more powerful weapon give you better range?

In terms of how they function, the other three options all appear to not help against a foe who can invalidate the out-range or out-run doctrine in use here. Personally I would take the extra speed, unless the bigger gun allows me to hit you from further out.

Improved Fire Controls will give better range.

Our current best FC range is 80,000 km (and our best multiplier is x4 for 320,000 km). We are researching FC range 96,000 km (x4 = 384,000 km).

That's what... +20% range?

Remember that Laser damage is scaled from one hit point at extreme range up to full damage at point blank range. So extending your range also increases your damage at every range band, since a target that used to be at 50% of your max (ie: 50% damage) might now be only 40% of your max range (60% damage).

Extra speed fits our doctrine, as does extra range. Extra damage at all range bands, or faster recharging, will fit any out-of-doctrine fights.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Whew, finally caught up. Thanks for telling us on the Aurora forum about this. Good work so far, Blue Emu!

Just one minor nitpick - in C# Aurora, a HQ unit can control as many sub-units as the player wants. The only limitation is the tonnage size of the HQ module. Many players go square formations because, as you explained, the transport modules go from 5,000 tons to 25,000 tons so it is logical from logistics viewpoint, but nothing is preventing players from going triangle or even pair/dual formations. And you can also have as many layers in your chain of command as you have ground commander ranks - well, you can actually have more layers than that, it's just that there's no commander bonuses.

Here's a screenshot as proof:

You can see that the 1st Luna Fortress Division is controlling an artillery regiment and four fortress regiments for a total of five sub-ordinate formations. If I wanted, I could add all the other formations to it as well but they will go to other divisions once those HQ formations are constructed and transported over. The Eagle and The Bear will soon duke it out over Lunar domination!

Also, while it is important to protect STO formations from any sneaky attacks by fast assailants, you should never put them in the same formation as the STO guns itself, for two reasons. One, because they will never ever hit anything thanks to the "avoid combat" box you ticked when designing the STO units, and two, their presence will make it more likely for the enemy to randomly target the STO instead of other formations present. Targeting is wholly based on tonnage, after all.

 

[blue emu]

We're already designing Lasers that could reach millions of km... if only we had Fire Control that could hit a target at that range.

 

[blue emu]

Just one minor nitpick - in C# Aurora, a HQ unit can control as many sub-units as the player wants.

Well... I stand corrected on that point.

Did you want a character? We're about to take on the Goons (the Rakhas). We're actually sitting on the jump point waiting for the Gate to open.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Sure, I might as well lead the first space marine division!