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

[Wagonlitz]

I guess for the mines then it's.all the infrastructure being mobile.

All of the star systems adjacent to Sol have now been thoroughly analyzed for jump points (red rims gone).

View attachment 1076757

Note how common barren star systems (no planets or moons) are to Rimward of us.

Rimward was to the south, right?
Is it norma to have that many barren systems?
Is it possible to have a system with no comets at all?

Also, we don't want to have any colonies in Bernard's Stsr for obvious reasons.
But perhaps we can still mine it, if there's worthwhile deposits?

The Martian climate is getting close to tip-over. The ice sheet has just melted. The atmosphere should turn breathable within a year or so, and then we can focus on giving Mars a proper ocean.

View attachment 1076759

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We have brought the Galapagonian jump point within sensor range of our Deep Space Tracking Stations based on Claymore in the Luhman 16 system.

View attachment 1076762

... of course, that indicated range is vs a 1000 Thermal or 1000 EM target. The ship that escorted us was significantly hotter than that. Very much so.

Is it possible they might use a colder ship to slip past out sensors?

Also, whys rhe jump point called Galapagonia when the system is called Struve?

 

[blue emu]

I guess for the mines then it's.all the infrastructure being mobile. - To be honest, it's probably just game balance rather than any real-world explanation. With other stuff being mobile, mines should either be mobile too or should be immobile and cheaper. And making them cheaper would impact other game systems.

Rimward was to the south, right? - Yes
Is it norma to have that many barren systems? - It's random.
Is it possible to have a system with no comets at all? - Not with the settings I'm using. With other settings, yes.

Also, we don't want to have any colonies in Bernard's Stsr for obvious reasons.
But perhaps we can still mine it, if there's worthwhile deposits? - Yes.

Is it possible they might use a colder ship to slip past out sensors? - Yes, but there are limits. Engines make heat. Anything small enough to slip through our detectors shouldn't be much of a threat once we have some weapons. We still have none. Soon, though!

Also, whys rhe jump point called Galapagonia when the system is called Struve? - I renamed the star system and planets.

Commander Nikolai II in the ESNS Wagonlitz has discovered a new star system to spinward... again, no planets or moons, just a scattering of comets.

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Whoops... we were getting 5-second chops (turn interrupts) but they stopped. Somebody fighting somewhere else in the sector?

 

[blue emu]

Our Diplomatic Jump Tender has come off the ways.

We'll need to tow it into position with a tug, then we can send the diplomatic ship through.

We'll send a tug, towing the jump tender, and the diplo-ship into Luhman 16 and set up for the jump to Galapagonia.

 

[blue emu]

Still waiting for a Tug to become available to tow that jump tender.

I'm already building a new line of larger and more powerful Tugs anyway. With Ion engines!

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Sumo class Tug 37,287 tons 286 Crew 1,187.7 BP TCS 746 TH 3,125 EM 0
4190 km/s Armour 1-99 Shields 0-0 HTK 121 Sensors 8/8/0/0 DCR 1-0 PPV 0
MSP 19 Max Repair 100 MSP
Tractor Beam
Lieutenant Commander Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months

CIV Ion Drive EP156.25 1973 (20) Power 3125.0 Fuel Use 7.83% Signature 156.25 Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 10,000,000 Litres Range 616.8 billion km (1703 days at full power)
Refuelling Capability: 60,000 litres per hour Complete Refuel 166 hours

CIV Search Sensor AS29-R100 1967 (1) GPS 1600 Range 29.6m km Resolution 100
Thermal Sensor TH1.0-8.0 1969 (1) Sensitivity 8 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 22.4m km
CIV EM Sensor EM1.0-8.0 1967 (1) Sensitivity 8 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 22.4m km

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

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Compared to our current Tugs:

Strongman class Tug 19,773 tons 166 Crew 548.1 BP TCS 395 TH 800 EM 0
2022 km/s Armour 1-65 Shields 0-0 HTK 71 Sensors 6/6/0/0 DCR 1-0 PPV 0
MSP 17 Max Repair 100 MSP
Tractor Beam
Lieutenant Commander Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 24 months

CIV NT Engine EP80.00 1954 (10) Power 800 Fuel Use 8.94% Signature 80 Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 5,000,000 Litres Range 508.6 billion km (2911 days at full power)
Refuelling Capability: 50,000 litres per hour Complete Refuel 100 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 Tug for auto-assignment purposes

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The difference in mass is important. Our new Tugs move their own 40kt mass at over 4000 kps. Our old Tugs move their own 20kt mass at 2000 kps... so they would move a 40 kt mass (themselves plus 20kt towed cargo) at about 1000 kps.

Our new Tugs look to be twice as fast as the old, but that's an illusion. When towing some standard mass (such as a 110,000 ton Grinder, Refinery or Terraformer) the new Tugs are FOUR times as fast, not twice as fast.

 

[Culise]

As an aside, we can expect to find plenty more barren systems given the game settings. Real Stars tends to include a lot of smaller stars, which are disproportionately weighted towards proximity to the Solar System because we can see them more easily if they're closer. With our starting settings, every jump point has a 50% chance of spawning a "local" star system based on database ID, which are somewhat loosely correlated to distance. In the game, smaller stars tend to form smaller systems from which planets are less likely to coalesce. Proxima Centauri, Ross 128, and Teegarden's Star are solitary red dwarves (at least in-game; Proxima Centauri is part of the Alpha Centauri system, but far enough out it's represented as a separate system). Groombridge 34 and V1581 Cygni are binary systems of two red dwarves each. For the sake of completeness, it is worth noting that 61 (G.) Hydrae is not a red dwarf: assuming I have the right star, it's an A3V main sequence star that is larger, hotter, and brighter than our own Sun.

(Another EDIT: I finally found 61 Hydrae - it's a brown dwarf, not an A3V main sequence like 61 G. Hydrae. I don't know why I can't find it in SM mode, though; I started looking for it online, then in the game, then finally in other AARs because it was going to keep nagging at me otherwise. It might have a catalogue number without Constellation Names on)

As an aside to the aside, a side effect of the random generation mentioned earlier is that the game does not represent real exoplanets that we've discovered. For example, we know that there are two Earth-mass exoplanets orbiting Teegarden's Star. As we can see, short of using SpaceMaster/admin/god mode to spontaneously generate them, these are not represented in the game.

 

[blue emu]

The climate on Mars continues to shift towards Earth-like biomes. "Desert" (with a breathable atmosphere) might be as good as we can hope for, on Mars.

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The Tug is on its way to the Galapagonian jump point, with the jump tender in tow. I've sent a Tanker to rendezvous with the Diplomatic ship and send it through with full tanks... because why not?

EDIT:

Our Jump Tender Space Station, sitting on the Luhman => Galapagonia jump point with its active sensor ON.

 

[Culise]

The Tug is on its way to the Galapagonian jump point, with the jump tender in tow. I've sent a Tanker to rendezvous with the Diplomatic ship and send it through with full tanks... because why not?

Spoiler

Hee.

 

[blue emu]

Edited my above post.

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Hi! We're back! Hope that's OK.

 

[blue emu]

I was thinking of putting our diplo-ship in orbit around their moon... that might seem less threatening than orbiting their planet.

 

[blue emu]

... looks like they don't want to talk.

We are now at war.

 

[blue emu]

Twenty-six ships in orbit, but a pathetically tiny colony.

Thermal 65, EM 50? There can't even be any live PEOPLE on the planet, with readings that low. It must be just automatic machinery.

Precursors?

If so... we dodged a bullet there! Precursors are no threat to Luhman 16. They don't jump out unless they SEE you jump in.

 

[Culise]

Twenty-six ships in orbit, but a pathetically tiny colony.

View attachment 1076803

Thermal 65, EM 50? There can't even be any live PEOPLE on the planet, with readings that low. It must be just automatic machinery.

Precursors?

If so... we dodged a bullet there! Precursors are no threat to Luhman 16. They don't jump out unless they SEE you jump in.

That would be my guess as well. The conditions you outlined pretty much match them.

Spoiler: Actually serious metagaming spoilers

The threat NPRs - at least, I'm fairly sure of the Precursors, Raiders, Invaders, and Rakha, though I haven't run into the Star Swarm in C# yet - always use consistent portraits. The portrait on the race page you posted is the Precursor one.

 

[blue emu]

So... our Diplomats have had their ship destroyed, and they are helplessly floating in a life-pod in an enemy held system, doomed to die; but they gave us some priceless information on our opponents.

Let's try to make some sense out of this.

Instead of starting with our first contact (Commander Happycat), let's start with what just happened... and work backwards.

Read the combat report. BOOM. They blew up our Diplomatic ship.

With converging fire from two different ships (Facekicker 001 and Axeshooter 001) and at least one planetary-based GTO installation. The weapons used were in all cases outrageous energy weapons with a half-a-light-second range (over 150,000 km) and 18 damage points (our best lasers are 6). And they deployed this firepower so liberally that our Diplomatic ship was hit 28 times in the first five seconds... and disintegrated.

Interesting point:

They could easily have killed us with missiles while we were still approaching. Well before we came into range to be a threat (if we had been armed). If they have missiles. Apparently they don't?

Are they super-vulnerable to a Fighter strike?

 

[blue emu]

Of course...

... it's also possible that they DO have missiles, and for some bizarre reason that makes perfect sense to a 40,000-year-old robot, they didn't fire them.

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Either way, if these are the Precursors, we are no longer in mortal peril. Precursors can't find jump points unless they observe a transit. They won't be coming out.

That really takes the pressure off!

 

[blue emu]

What a relief!

Even without spoilers, I would be convinced that we are dealing with robotic Precursors in the Galapagonian system. And that they won't be coming out.

Consider the evidence:

There were 26 ship in orbit around a 65 Thermal colony which included GTO weapons in that 65 thermal signature.

That doesn't leave any Thermal to represent people. So no life on the planet. No organic life, anyway.

... and nobody puts a massive fleet in orbit around a dinky little mining colony (which is about what that 65 Thermal could represent if it were actually people). You couldn't MAINTAIN it there. Not enough maintenance workers (because if there WERE enough workers, it would show a much higher Thermal than 65). Not unless you were robots.

So I find the evidence pretty compelling, even without spoilers.

Nice to know what they LOOK like, though.

 

[blue emu]

We have developed our first Fighter engine! It's intended for a twin-engine Strike Fighter.

At almost the same time, Box Launchers (size 6) will be completing in a couple of months. These can be used as missile racks for Fighters.

 

[blue emu]

Commander Happycat in ESNS Charles Darwin has discovered the new star system of AX Microscopii. A comparatively bright Red Dwarf (near the K => M transition) with one Mars-like planet and full suite of gas giants, moons, asteroids and comets. Worth investigating, certainly.

Note the distance scale at the top of the image. This is a sprawling, spread-out system. Most of the asteroids will be prohibitively far away.

 

[blue emu]

It begins.

 

[blue emu]

Blue Emu in ESNS Aristarchus finds a nice star system a couple of jumps beyond Alpha Centauri. A binary system with the two stars in a VERY eccentric orbit (like... perihelion distance 1.3 billion km, aphelion 24.5 billion km) with lots of colony sites, distributed between the two stars.

The A and B stars.

Annoyingly, there is a good Lagrange point in the A-star system but none in the B-star system. Well... we'll just watch for a perihelion passage and BUILD one.

Gate Constructors can do that now.

 

[blue emu]

Commander Happycat has found a nice mineral strike in the new AX Microscopii system... both Sorium and Mercassium in high concentration and large deposits. Those are two of the three minerals that we haven't found a good offworld source for yet.

... and a Destroyed Outpost!

We shouldn't get too excited about this... a Destroyed Outpost will probably contain nothing of value... but it will offer role-play clues as to the races that formerly inhabited this part of the sector, before the great Invader vs Precursor war tens of thousands of years ago.