Reach For The Stars - a C# Aurora 2.1.0 Forum Game - Hosted by Blue Emu

[blue emu]

I haven't been able to try the new version yet, so I definitely look forward to seeing what the raiders throw at you.

New triggers have been added to the set-up parameters, whereby you can specify at what point in the game each hazard activates. You could set it so that the Swarm become active as soon as 10 star systems have been explored, but Raiders require 15 explored systems before they start appearing.

EDIT:

We have begun to deploy our first 20 automated mines to ore-rich comets, moons and asteroids. Our first priority will be to secure additional sources of Corundium and Duranium, which are the elements required to build more automated mines.

 

[blue emu]

Our early focus on research into ground units is bearing fruit. In addition to our four brigades of Garrisons (each composed of four battalions plus an HQ), we are now building Mobile Infantry equipped with powered armor. Still one tech short of being able to build Troop Transports to move them around, though.

 

[blue emu]

With that last required Troop Transport Bay tech researched, we were able to begin our pre-builds to speed up ship construction.

Our factory run of space ship component pre-builds has finished, and on-orbit assembly of our first Troop Transport has begun. Thanks to the pre-builds, it will take less than four months to complete the ship.

 

[blue emu]

Our shipyards have expanded further:

Our current research:

We still have only our starting labs, because our economy is still too fragile to support many more. Research labs are one of the biggest expenses.

 

[blue emu]

We now have colonies on the Moon, Mars and Europa. None of them is really up to much, but they have stimulated the civilian sector into buying some ships and setting up trade routes.

 

[jacob-Lundgren]

Still expanding our flag locations.

 

[Jam1301]

Can we sign up for roles?

 

[blue emu]

Can we sign up for roles?

Sure.

We have roles available for several civilian ship pilots... seven Freighters, two Colony Ships, two Troop Transports; and we are currently researching the techs needed to send out interstellar explorers. Our current mission is to expand our mineral resource base.

We have posts available in the Naval Administration hierarchy (Navy Minister, Survey Command, Logistics Command, Freight Section, Colonial Section, Transport Section... and we will soon have a Production Command set up, as the first Orbital Fuel Refineries and Orbital Mining Stations come off the ways.

We have Administrative posts for Governors of our Moon colony, our Mars Colony, our Europa Colony, and our Mining Outpost on the comet Tempel-1.

We have more than a dozen Research Scientist positions available, at least one each in Biology, Construction, Defense, Energy Weapons, Missile and Projectile Weapons, Sensors, Power and Propulsion, Ground Combat, and Logistics.

We require Ground Forces Officers for Garrisons (four Brigade HQs and sixteen Battalions), Mobile Infantry (two Brigade HQs and eight Battalions); and within a few years we hope to design and start building weapons that can fire from the planet's surface against attacking spacecraft (called STO - Surface To Orbit - units).

Eventually we will build a space navy... but we are still more than a decade from being able to design an effective warship.

 

[blue emu]

We have completed research on a number of critical technologies.

We can now build ship modules to enable both orbital terraforming stations and orbital fuel refining stations... and two of the latter are under construction. We won't be able to actually deploy them until our research into tractor beams is complete and we can design and build a commercial tug. Research on orbital mining stations continues.

On another research front entirely, our scientists have completed the turn-key tech which unlocks all the other techs required for interstellar (as oposed to interplanetary) travel. So we are now researching that newly opened field, and in another five or six years we may be able to launch our first interstellar scout ship.

 

[hyme]

@blue emu
There is a patch that save game compatible patch out. Did you get it?

​

 

[hyme]

Sure.

We have roles available for several civilian ship pilots... seven Freighters, two Colony Ships, two Troop Transports; and we are currently researching the techs needed to send out interstellar explorers. Our current mission is to expand our mineral resource base.

We have posts available in the Naval Administration hierarchy (Navy Minister, Survey Command, Logistics Command, Freight Section, Colonial Section, Transport Section... and we will soon have a Production Command set up, as the first Orbital Fuel Refineries and Orbital Mining Stations come off the ways.

We have Administrative posts for Governors of our Moon colony, our Mars Colony, our Europa Colony, and our Mining Outpost on the comet Tempel-1.

We have more than a dozen Research Scientist positions available, at least one each in Biology, Construction, Defense, Energy Weapons, Missile and Projectile Weapons, Sensors, Power and Propulsion, Ground Combat, and Logistics.

We require Ground Forces Officers for Garrisons (four Brigade HQs and sixteen Battalions), Mobile Infantry (two Brigade HQs and eight Battalions); and within a few years we hope to design and start building weapons that can fire from the planet's surface against attacking spacecraft (called STO - Surface To Orbit - units).

Eventually we will build a space navy... but we are still more than a decade from being able to design an effective warship.

Make me a ground pounder this time.

 

[blue emu]

@blue emu
There is a patch that save game compatible patch out. Did you get it?

I'm getting a "suspicious content" warning from my anti-virus when I try to download v2.1.1

 

[hyme]

I'm getting a "suspicious content" warning from my anti-virus when I try to download v2.1.1

Has any other people on the forums got the same? Could just be the browser being overly cautious. Have virustotal scan the link.

 

[blue emu]

Building two additional research labs (bringing our total from 41 to 43) has dropped our daily income from 26 megabucks per day down to zero.

Research is EXPENSIVE. Time to build more Financial Centers.

 

[hyme]

Building two additional research labs (bringing our total from 41 to 43) has dropped our daily income from 26 megabucks per day down to zero.

Research is EXPENSIVE. Time to build more Financial Centers.

What did you found out about the patch?

 

[blue emu]

I think it might have just been my Malwarebytes trial version freaking out. It expires in two days, and I'll try again then.

We have launched our first two Fuel Harvesting Space Stations. Still no Tugs available to move them into place, but we are retooling a shipyard for Tugs.

We have advanced in Jump Drive technology far enough to design and begin researching our first interstellar jump drive unit!

 

[nuclearslurpee]

I'm glad I still poke my head into this subforum every once in a while.

I always thought this was stuff for the AI and doesn't do anything for the player. Is that right?

View attachment 872898

Some of that affects the rate of increase (or decrease) of opinion when confronting an alien race. If the opinion gets too low (-150?), they go hostile.

There are a few small mechanical effects, as blue emu said some of these relate to NPR diplomacy, but there are also effects relevant to occupation, policing, and unrest mechanics. Expansion and Trade are pretty much AI-only personality traits though, AFAIK.

A civilian company has established a mining settlement on one of the Earth-grazing asteroids, Apophis.

... not sure quite how, since they don't have any ships.

Wormholes probably

Can we sign up for roles?

Dibs on being the senior staff scientist this time around!

@blue emu
There is a patch that save game compatible patch out. Did you get it?

This patch is a must-get as it changes a behavior which makes the Raiders...stronger than they probably should be. Unfortunately since you've already advanced several years it's not going to be as impactful but I still recommend to get it ASAP to take the edge off some of the extreme results people were reporting prior to 2.1.1.

What naval doctrine will we be pursuing this time around? With the 2.0+ changes I'd be interested to see a doctrine based on beam fighters in place of the usual bomber CAG strategy, sure Steve already did it in his BSG campaign but there's more than one way to skin a Prix...erm, cat.

E: Next time I around I highly recommend the Limited Research Admin option, it makes the game pace feel more realistic and your stable of scientists feel more meaningful as it grows over time.

 

[blue emu]

We are now within one tech of being able to design Tugs. We already have all the required research and design work done for Orbital Fuel Stations, Orbital Mining Stations and Orbital Terraforming Stations; hence our need for Tugs to move them into position.

We are also within one tech of designing our first interstellar space ship... a Scout (both Geo- and Grav- capable).

Regarding Laser Fighters: It sounds interesting, agreed. I've always wanted to run a Gun-based campaign instead of always using missiles. But I've always been deterred by the steep requirements of a Laser-based fleet. It's true that Fighters could make use of Lasers decades earlier than Destroyers or Cruisers could.

The reason I always go for a Missile-armed main fleet is simple: far fewer techs are required, and your Navy can become combat-effective decades earlier.

A Laser-based Navy will need to close to point-blank range before it can even open fire. The definition of "point blank range" will of course change with our tech level, but early in the game it might be only 20,000 km. An early-game Missile-armed Navy can open fire at about 1000x that range (20 million km). Even in the late game, when our tech level is topping out, we would need to close to 1,500,000 km or so to do any damage at all, and perhaps to 750,000 km to fire effectively. A Missile-based Navy at that late stage of the game could fire accurate fleet salvos at targets more than a billion km away.

Since a Laser-based Navy must close to point blank range, it must be able to chase down and overtake the opposing fleet, and must do so before you run out of fuel. This required a sizable edge in speed, and lots of fuel tankage as well. It also requires that your ships be able to survive everything the enemy can throw at you WHILE you are chasing him down. You'll need pretty good Armor, Shields and/or Point Defense, in addition to high speed and long fuel endurance.

There are just too many constraints on the design for a Laser-equipped main fleet to be practical before you've tech-ed up to mid-game levels.

I've always wanted one, even so.

But Fighters are another matter. They are attrition weapons anyway, so "surviving everything the enemy can throw at you" isn't really relevant. "Chasing the enemy down" (the other main requirement) is also much less of an issue, since Fighters are DESIGNED to be as fast as practical anyway. Even the short range of Laser weapons is not quite as great a handicap for Fighters, since even when armed with Missiles they rarely fire from maximum range.

A Laser-armed Fighter force would be possible much sooner than a Laser-armed main fleet.

Dibs on being the senior staff scientist this time around!

Any favorite field of research? So far I've been giving most of the labs to Power and Propulsion, but we've pretty well turned the corner on that, and we're going to start ramping up our weapon and sensor tech.

---

We have installed the 2.1.1 patch, by the way.

 

[blue emu]

Current deployment of our Ground Troops:

Our primitive Geo-Scout craft have explored all of the Sol system that they can reach... about 10% of the outer system is beyond their operating radius... and we have found TN minerals on 60 different bodies. Roughly 90% of those deposits are basically trash, of course, but that still leaves us at least half a dozen decent mining sites.

 

[blue emu]

The ESNS Aristarchus has been laid down. Due to be launched in late April 1975 (two years from now).

Astronomer class Gravitational Survey Vessel 5,489 tons 146 Crew 832.1 BP TCS 110 TH 250 EM 0
2277 km/s JR 3-50 Armour 1-27 Shields 0-0 HTK 36 Sensors 6/6/2/2 DCR 3 PPV 0
Maint Life 2.59 Years MSP 284 AFR 80% IFR 1.1% 1YR 60 5YR 895 Max Repair 125 MSP
Captain Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 24 months Morale Check Required

J5500.0(3-50) Military Jump Drive 1973 Max Ship Size 5500 tons Distance 50k km Squadron Size 3

Military Nuclear Gas-Core Engine EP250.00 25 HS 1970 (1) Power 250 Fuel Use 50.60% Signature 250 Explosion 10%
Fuel Capacity 950,000 Litres Range 61.6 billion km (312 days at full power)

CIV Active Search Sensor AS22-R100 1966 (1) GPS 1200 Range 22.2m km Resolution 100
EM Sensor EM1.0-6.0 (1) Sensitivity 6 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 19.4m km
Thermal Sensor TH1.0-6.0 (1) Sensitivity 6 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 19.4m km
Geological Survey Sensors (2) 2 Survey Points Per Hour
Gravitational Survey Sensors (2) 2 Survey Points Per Hour

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Survey Ship for auto-assignment purposes

Make me a ground pounder this time.

Any preferred posting?

We have Garrison Brigades (each of one HQ and four Garrison Battalions) on Earth, Mars, Europa and the comet Tempel-1. We have two Mobile Infantry Brigades (each of one HQ and four Mobile Infantry Battalions) in reserve on Earth. More forces are building.