Only cheaters prosper - Aurora Forum Game II½, run by Scandinavian

[Scandinavian]

Welcome, Director, to your office. As you can see, the Directorate offices offer a pleasant view of the New Berlin skyline, a cafeteria boasting competitive prices and superior quality, several lounges dispersed throughout the topmost three floors of the building, as well as the Assembly Hall where the general assembly is held and from which important public announcements are made. Please note that your presence is expected at the opening of the Rheinmetall Orbital Yard later today.

The Game
Your task, should you choose to accept it, is to play the role of Director of the United Solarian Empire. The Directorate is the executive body of the Empire, and holds broad powers to set policy in spheres of industry, exploration, commerce, diplomacy, warfare and many other aspects of managing an imperial polity.

What this means in practice is that I will play the role of the Imperial Bureaucracy (that is, actually run the game), but will pause the game at year end and provide an end-of-year report, whenever an important decision has to be made, or when an important event occurs. At any of these junctures (or when I have to delay game progress due to unfortunate intrusions of real life commitments), the Paradoxians can set or alter policy and doctrine, which will then provide the guidelines for playing the next stretch of the game. Whenever a decision must be made, the Civil Service will have prepared one or more policy recommendations, and should not input be forthcoming from the Directorate, the Civil Service will simply implement their own recommendations.

Game setup
Starting Year: 2100
Empire Name: Solarian Empire
Empire Type: Conventional
Government type: Player Race
Starting population: 500 million
Starting shipyards: 1
Starting research facilities: 5
No missile bases (upgrading them is broken and sans upgrades they are pretty useless)
Swarm and Precursers on, Invaders off
Realistic and political promotions, training, maintenance and orbital motion all on

An Annotated Map of Known Space:

The map is updated on request and when the Civil Service produces new maps to supplement policy recommendations.

 

[Scandinavian]

2100-01-01 Annual Report

Populated Systems
(All population figures in mio of inhabitants)
(Shipyard capacity given as maximum naval and civilian capacities, followed by total yard and slipway numbers.)
Sol
Earth
- Population: 500
- Industrial Capacity: 1,000 (1,000 Conventional Factories)
- Mining Capacity (nominal): 1,000 (1,000 Conventional Factories)
- Shipyard capacity: 1,000 N1/1
- Maintenance capacity: 1,000 t
- Research capacity (nominal): 1,000 RP/yr
- Military Academies: 1
Automated Mining Colonies
None.
Civilian Mining Colonies
None.
Listening Posts
None.
Other Outposts of Note
None.

Military:
5 Armoured divisions - Earth
10 Infantry divisions - Earth

Wealth:
20,000

Miscellaneous status updates
Our mineral outlook is critical. No strategic mineral is present on Earth in greater quantities than 83,600 tons (tritanium). Of the four minerals absolutely crucial to civilian expansion (duranium, tritanium, mercassium and corundium), two (mercassium and corundium) are present in only 10,000 t, with accessibility 0.2.

Our science division is pitiful: Five labs, and three 20 % bonus scientists (two Defensive Systems, one Power and Propulsion).

Decision required. Priority: Critical.
Our labs are idle. We must decide upon immediate research goals.
Recommendation: Research Trans-Newtonian technologies with all possible haste.

Decision required. Priority: Critical.
Our industrial plant is idle. We must decide how it is to be employed. At present, we can construct only financial centers, infrastructure, military academies and maintenance facilities and supplies.
Recommendation: Construct military academies to improve research rate by increasing our pool of researchers.

Policy decision required. Priority: Moderate.
We should decide on a research doctrine. The civil service has drawn up several alternatives for your consideration:
- Research First (civil service recommendation): Set best scientist to conduct research rate improvements (and mining and build rate improvements to boost lab construction speed) at maximum possible speed, then maximise research points by matching research to available scientists.
- Economic support: Give priority to civilian expansion technologies such as terraforming, construction and mining rate and propulsion.
- Military support: Give priority to armaments, propulsion and defensive systems.
- Make it up as you go along: Decide on a case-by-case basis.

Decision required. Priority: Moderate.
Our shipyard is idle. We must decide how it is to be employed. At present, we have no ship blueprints, but the shipyard can be expanded either in terms of slip size or number of slips.
Recommendation: Expand to 3 slipways, then idle until military survey vessels can be laid down.

Decision requested. Priority: Low.
The best geology team we can put together has skill 110 (required for optimal use of planets: 140). Should we assemble them and let them go over Earth in the hope of improving our mineral outlook?
Recommendation: Wait. We have several years' worth of mining at present rates before our mines run out. We can afford to wait and hope for more skilled survey officers.

Policy decision requested. Priority: Low.
The civil service wishes to know what macroeconomic indicators the Directorate wishes routinely included in the annual reports.
Recommendation: Location and capacity of
- Industrial plant
- Shipyards
- Ground unit training facilites
- Mines
- Research Facilities
- Military academies
- Empire Wealth

 

[Scandinavian]

Officer roll

Paradoxians in office:
KzS Rendap von Rabenstrange, CO, GEV Johannes Kepler
Kom Adamus - CO, CivCom
KzS Stuckenschmidt, CO, FT Jakob Fugger
FrK Blue Emu, Operations Officer, CivCom
FrK Kiwi - Chief Logistics Officer, Home Fleet
FrK Son of Liberty, CO, GEV Tycho Brahe
Scientist Kingepyon, Defensive Systems specialist
KvK the_hdk d'Harcourt, Press Liaison, CivCom.
Civilian Administrator Kai Allanrd, Governor of Earth.
FrK Randakar, CO, GEV Johan Galle
Scientist Brigitte G. Caltar, Propulsion specialist
FrK Stamasd, General staff
KvK Deaghaidh, CO, AM Wayland H 001

Retired Paradoxians:
FrK Richard Misiame

KIA/MIA:
Dr. Gaius Caltar, Propulsion specialist

 

[Rendap]

Rendap von Rabenstrange signing up for Service with the Solarian Naval Survey Command.

Policy votes:

Research Trans-Newtonian
Produce Infrastructure OR Idle
Research - Focus on Survey and Cargo Ship deployment to solve Mineral crisis
Shipyard - Idle
Geology Team - Assemble and get them working

 

[Scandinavian]

Rendap von Rabenstrange signing up for Service with the Solarian Naval Survey Command.

Kapitan zur See Rendap von Rabenstrange promoted to Chief Survey Officer of the Civilian Command.
Skills:
Fleet movement 282
Survey 30 %
Communications 10 %
Political favour 10
Traits:
Dishonest
Doesn't accept change easily

Geology Team - Assemble and get them working

Moving ahead with the present geology team will cut total expected geology team successes before they give up from 10 to 4. At present extraction rates, we have at least 5 years' worth of mining before production begins decline for the scarcest of our minerals on Earth.

 

[Adamus]

Private Adamus at your service, signing up for the Solarian Naval Command.. SIR!

Concur Rendap's policies though we certainly need to get some automated mines constructed for when we find ourselves a mineral rich planet as it seems we are in dire need already!

Votes initial military designs based around Laser tech.

 

[Rendap]

Moving ahead with the present geology team will cut total expected geology team successes before they give up from 10 to 4. At present extraction rates, we have at least 5 years' worth of mining before production begins decline for the scarcest of our minerals on Earth.

Valid point, yet the dire need for raw materials for conversion of Conventional Industry to TN Industry will need minerals. And the two smallest deposits are Research Facilities and Mines. We have to take a chance of getting one of them (preferably Corundium) increased.

Can you post a complete Survey report of Earth?

 

[Stuckenschmidt]

Stuckenschmidt reporting for duty.

Votes:

Industrial: Prioritize building financial centers and military academies
Research: Research Techs, then Economic support
Reports: Mining / Resource status is vital plus Financial Situation

 

[blue emu]

Blue Emu reporting for duty. I'll take any available post, wherever you need me. I might request a transfer later to something more interesting.

The recommendations put forward by the administration have my support.

One suggestion:

Rather than expanding our Military Shipyard at this point... which would be useful only for Grav-Scouts... I suggest that we build a Civilian Shipyard and start expanding it. Geo-Scouts are our first priority, to find more Corundium and Duranium for the construction of Automated Mines and Asteroid Miners.

Military-grade ships are not required for Geo-Survey. Geo-Sensors are a non-military component, which can be fitted to small civilian ships.

This has several advantages... a 10,000-ton civilian yard costs no more to construct or expand than a 1,000-ton Naval yard does, and civilian ship tonnages are similarly discounted at 10-to-1. Unlike a 2,000-ton (or a two-slip, 1,000-ton) naval yard, a 10,000-ton civilian yard will be immediately useful, and will help us to solve our critical resource shortage. So a 2,000-ton civilian Geo-Survey vessel will be as quick and cheap to build (especially in minerals) as a 200-ton naval vessel would be, and far more useful to us.

Also, we will need civilian yards in the 40,000-ton to 60,000-ton range (for Freighters and Colony Ships) long before we will need military vessels in the 4,000-ton to 6,000-ton range.

tl;dr: I suggest that we postpone expansion of the naval yard until Grav sensors are ready, and instead build a civilian yard and start expanding it... with an eventual target size of 60,000-tons and five slips.

Sample early-tech civilian Geo-Survey ship:

Petrae A class Geological Survey Vessel 1,800 tons 70 Crew 169 BP TCS 36 TH 62 EM 0
1722 km/s Armour 1-13 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/1 Damage Control Rating 1 PPV 0
MSP 59 Max Repair 100 MSP

Nuclear Thermal Engine E1 (1) Power 62.5 Fuel Use 10% Signature 62.5 Armour 0 Exp 1%
Fuel Capacity 50,000 Litres Range 499.9 billion km (3360 days at full power)

Geological Survey Sensors (1) 1 Survey Points Per Hour

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes

Costs only 169 BP, 169 total minerals, nine months to build. 60% of that cost (in credits, minerals and time) is the single Geo-Survey sensor... which can be pre-built in a factory, further speeding up the assembly of the ship.

I am also in favor of deferring the Geo Team deployment to Earth until after we've scanned the moons of Jupiter and sent the team there to practice up to 140 skill. Sorry Rendap.

Recommended use of our Industry: Idle until we have a few minerals in stockpile (Duranium and Neutronium), then construct a Civilian Shipyard (and start upgrading it for Freighters), then work on a Military Academy until we get a few techs researched, then start pre-building components for assembly into civilian-class Geo-Survey Vessels. Conventional Industry should be upgraded to Mines and Factories when possible, and Automated Mines and Mass Drivers constructed using any spare capacity.

 

[son of liberty]

LCDR SonofLiberty reporting for duty. I would like a grav survey vessel to start with if it is available.

 

[blue emu]

LCDR SonofLiberty reporting for duty. I would like a grav survey vessel to start with if it is available.

Geo-survey equipment will likely be perfected a couple of years before grav survey sensors (fewer techs to research), and is a much more urgent priority anyway.

 

[son of liberty]

Ok, I can start there.

 

[Capt. Kiwi]

I'm here about the job advert for a janitor, who do I need to speak to?

 

[Scandinavian]

Votes so far:
Immediate research:
3x Trans-Newtonian
Production:
2x Infrastructure
3x Idle
1x Financial centres or Milacademies
Research doctrine:
2x Focus on Survey and Cargo Ship deployment to solve Mineral crisis
2x Research, then Economic
1x Laser-based military doctrines
Shipyard:
3x Idle
Geology Team
2x Assemble and get them working
1x Wait for better officers
Reports:
1x Resource and Financial status
1x Everything mentioned

Private Adamus at your service, signing up for the Solarian Naval Command.. SIR!

Kommodore Adamus serves as the CO of the Civilian Command.
Skills:
Crew training 125
Fleet movement 178
Survey bonus 15 %
Espionage bonus 20 %
Intelligence bonus 25 %
Logistics bonus 10 %
Traits:
Atheist
Methodical
Wealthy
Will not listen to advice

Valid point, yet the dire need for raw materials for conversion of Conventional Industry to TN Industry will need minerals. And the two smallest deposits are Research Facilities and Mines. We have to take a chance of getting one of them (preferably Corundium) increased.

Geology teams work on O(months). Even reaching declining returns on our mineral deposits works on O(years). The reason to deploy geologists would be to improve the rather dismal extraction rate (0.2 for both).

Can you post a complete Survey report of Earth?

Ask and ye shall receive:

Ultimately recoverable reserves, Earth (rounded down to nearest thousand)
Dur 50k, .9
Neu 10k, .4
Cor 23k, .2
Tri 83k, .5
Bor 15k, .9
Mer 10k, .2
Ven 20k, .2
Sor 30k, .7
Uri 10k, .9
Cor 10k, .2
Gal 14k, .7

Stuckenschmidt reporting for duty.

Kapitan zur See Stuckenschmidt assigned as chief operations officer to Civilian Command.
Skills:
Crew Training 100
Fleet Initiative 325
Fighter Ops Bonus 25 %
Logistics Bonus: 10 %
Traits:
Conservative
Rude

Industrial: Prioritize building financial centers and military academies

We currently generate 10,000 wealth per year. Running everything flat out, we can maybe spend half of that, and we don't have the minerals to run everything flat out for any extended period of time together.

Blue Emu reporting for duty. I'll take any available post, wherever you need me. I might request a transfer later to something more interesting.

Fregattenkapitan Blue Emu assigned as chief of fighter operations to Civilian Command

One suggestion:

Rather than expanding our Military Shipyard at this point... which would be useful only for Grav-Scouts... I suggest that we build a Civilian Shipyard and start expanding it. Geo-Scouts are our first priority, to find more Corundium and Duranium for the construction of Automated Mines and Asteroid Miners.

We do not at present possess the technology to produce more shipyards from scratch. But yes, the Civil Service recommendation will be to build civilian rather than military geoscouts. They can get ridiculously long endurance if you go down the fuel efficiency tech tree.

So a 2,000-ton civilian Geo-Survey vessel will be as quick and cheap to build (especially in minerals) as a 200-ton naval vessel would be, and far more useful to us.

Civilian vessels do not gain a discount on their build cost. They simply tend to be cheaper per ton because the (per ton) most expensive components are military.

Everything else in your analysis is true and on point, though.

Recommended use of our Industry: Idle until we have a few minerals in stockpile (Duranium and Neutronium), then construct a Civilian Shipyard (and start upgrading it for Freighters), then work on a Military Academy until we get a few techs researched, then start pre-building components for assembly into civilian-class Geo-Survey Vessels. Conventional Industry should be upgraded to Mines and Factories when possible, and Automated Mines and Mass Drivers constructed using any spare capacity.

We mine Dur faster than we can use it, unless we go all out infrastructure builds (and if the industrial modernisation plans in the pipeline are approved, will keep doing so for the forecastable future). Neu is consumed slightly faster than we use it if we go all out shipyard builds, otherwise not.

LCDR SonofLiberty reporting for duty. I would like a grav survey vessel to start with if it is available.

Fregattenkapitan Son of Liberty assigned as chief Intelligence Officer to Civilian Command.
Skills:
Crew Training 25
Fleet Initiative 164
Political Reliability 10
Survey Bonus 25 %
Factory production bonus 10 %
Terraforming bonus 10 %
Traits:
Motivated
Personable

I'm here about the job advert for a janitor, who do I need to speak to?

Fregattenkapitan Kiwi assigned as chief Logistics Officer to CivCom
Skills:
Crew Training 100
Fleet Initiative 111
Factory bonus 20 %
Diplomacy bonus 30 %
Logistics bonus 20 %
Traits:
Many social interests

 

[blue emu]

Do I have any skills?

What is our warship design philosophy going to be? Monolithic or modular ships? General-purpose or specialized ships? Beam or missile main armament? Carriers? FACs? Missile, meson, beam or gauss point defense?

My thoughts:

1) Monolithic vs modular ship design:

Monolithic (all-in-one) ships offer some important advantages... they minimize micro-management, they can form up into large groups for squadron transits, and they simplify our forward planning since we will then be thinking in terms of complete ships rather than bits and pieces of ships. They also get more protection from each ton of Armor or Shield, and need not carry Tractor Beams unless their mission-role requires it (eg: Tugs).

Modular ships (seperate Engine, Jump and Mission sections, held together by Tractor Beams) hold all the other high cards. They can be built far more quickly, in much smaller shipyards (and therefore, earlier in the game). They require far smaller Jump engines, which represents a major saving in Research costs... for example, early in the game it costs 25,000 Research points to create a design for a 15,000-ton Military Jump Drive. Break that same ship up into three 5,100-ton modules, and the Research cost of the Jump Engine falls to 2,890 RP... a discount of -88 percent!

Of course, going this route means that if you are planning to make Squadron (combat) jumps, then every "assembled ship"... every Tractor-locked cluster of Engine section + Mission section + whatever... would require its own Jump section, rather than a single jump tender being able to jump-in a whole Squadron. Still, the advantages are signifigant, especially in speeding up component Research.

Another advantage of modular design is that you can hot-assemble your ships on-the-fly, for specific missions. Has an enemy force moved into your territory, within your jump-gate network? Then you won't need your jump engines... just leave them home, and bring along extra Box Launcher modules instead. Found an enemy planet, guarded by tough PDCs? Bring along some Bombardment sections and Ammo Magazine sections. An enemy force hiding out in a distant binary, tens of billions of kilometers from your jump-point? Bring along some Hyperdrive Ram sections, to move your whole fleet across the gap at Hyperspeed. Small enemy forces raiding your shipping? Have some of your commercial designs tow a military module behind them. Fighting a desperate battle and some of your ships are immobilized with drive sections destroyed, while others have lost weapons sections? Re-assemble the undamaged sections into "new" ships, and continue the fight. The possibilities are endless.

2) General-purpose vs specialized ships:

My own preference is to keep a small core of general-purpose ships, while the bulk of the fleet is composed of specialized designs: Battle-Management Vessels, Jump Tenders, Point Defense Frigates, Line-of-Battle Ships (Missile or Beam), Ammo Tenders, Carriers, and so on. The small core of general purpose ships can perform the role of any ship that is forced out of battle by damage, thus reducing the risk of losing our whole fleet to a single point-failure (eg: if our Battle Management Vessel gets destroyed, leaving the remaining fleet of ships blind).

3) Beam or Missile main armament:

With Beam combatants, speed kills. Beam ships need to be fast. Early in the game, engines are too weak for us to create really effective Beam combatants. Missile-armed ships will have the advantage until about mid-game. At that point, Beam-armed ships will come into their own.

If we are planning Beam combatants, we should push forward with Gauss tech, and make sure that our Frigate (Gauss PD) designs are a good speed-match for the Beam vessels. They will be needed, since a Beam combatant must usually weather a severe missile-storm before they can close to firing range.

4) The remaining minor points (Carriers? FACs? Missile, meson, beam or gauss point defense?):

I'm a big fan of Carriers, especially once we reach or surpass Ion Tech Engines. I like small, light, agile Fighters rather than heavily-armed, slower Fighters. I also use Carriers to carry Assault Shuttles (Drop-FACs for boarding actions or planetary invasions), Hyperdrive Ram FACs, and for reloading towed Box Launcher modules without need to leave the contested system and return home for reloads.

My usual PD system is a layered defense in which incoming enemy salvos are engaged first by fairly long-range (~9 m-km) AMMs, then by 10cm Laser turrets, then by Gauss PD turrets, then deflected by Shields, and finally absorbed by Armor. The AMMs, Lasers and Gauss PD are typically mounted on seperate ships (or seperate modules, if pursuing that design philosophy).

 

[randakar]

Subscribed.

 

[Stuckenschmidt]

Kapitan zur See Stuckenschmidt assigned as chief operations officer to Civilian Command.
Skills:
Crew Training 100
Fleet Initiative 325
Fighter Ops Bonus 25 %
Logistics Bonus: 10 %
Traits:
Conservative
Rude

High Initiative plus Logistic Bonus. Yep, that`s me. Wait...rude? RUDE?! Hm...maybe it`s my evil twin?

We currently generate 10,000 wealth per year. Running everything flat out, we can maybe spend half of that, and we don't have the minerals to run everything flat out for any extended period of time together.

That`s not nearly sufficient for all the added value we`ll need to establish a classless society with evenly distributed wealth.

 

[son of liberty]

Don't forget the "Rock" class decoy vessels.

I am really interested in your modular design ideas BE. Do you have various build examples of the modules and even more importantly your doctrinal development ideas for those units? Do you need crew quarters on each module? Are the modules small enough to be factory built?

One GP design I prefer(around midgame and later) is to combine grav and geo survey ships into 1 vessel. I always find myself wanting one when the other is much closer. I also tend to make them jump capable, since my jump tenders always seem to get attacked first.

 

[Adamus]

I find modular designs so complicated when it comes to combat. I would prefer all in one furthermore i would say we go for the laser based approach rather than missles. Just preference though.

 

[blue emu]

Don't forget the "Rock" class decoy vessels.

I am really interested in your modular design ideas BE. Do you have various build examples of the modules and even more importantly your doctrinal development ideas for those units? Do you need crew quarters on each module? Are the modules small enough to be factory built?

One GP design I prefer(around midgame and later) is to combine grav and geo survey ships into 1 vessel. I always find myself wanting one when the other is much closer. I also tend to make them jump capable, since my jump tenders always seem to get attacked first.

Here's an example from one of my Conventional-Start campaigns... it's quite a ways into the game, over 40 years after the start.

A fleet of seventy-two 5,000-ton modules, assembled into twelve 30,000-ton, six-module ships:

In order to make that a bit more clear, I've moved a couple of the ship assemblies out into their own Task Forces:

This one is a Command Ship, assembled from an Engine module, a Jump Module, an Anti-Ship Missile module, an AWACS (sensor) module, a Box Launcher module, and a Gauss PD module. Obviously, I need the "Jump Squadron Size 6" tech in order to have six modules per assembled ship.

All of the modules except the Engine section carry Tractor Beams, to lock them into place in the assembly.

This one is a Carrier, made up of an Engine module, a Jump module, an Anti-Ship Missile module, an Ammo/Fuel Magazine module, a Hangar module (containing 15 Fighters) and an Anti-Missile PD module. Again, only the Engine section lacks Tractor Beam equipment.

By using Hyperdrive Ram modules (as always, locked in place with a Tractor Beam), you can get an impressive turn of speed...

... ever see anyone "lay rubber" in outer space? 143,770 kps is nearly half of light-speed.

Yes, every module needs crew quarters, and I also put ONE engine and a bit of fuel in each module... in case a few ships are crippled by battle-damage, the modules can "disassemble", creep around under their own power, and re-assemble into new ship assemblies.

Modules cannot be built in a Factory... you need either a Fighter Engine or an Orbital Habitat Module to qualify for that. On the other hand, 5,000-ton shipyards can be ready much earlier in the game than 30,000-ton yards... not counting the saving on Jump-drive research costs (more than 10-to-1).

I also combine my Geo and Grav scouts, later in the game. Early on, though, it pays to butld cheap commercial Geoscouts.

EDIT: Did you want to see the designs for some of the individual modules?