Space 4x titles -- a pet peeve (and silly pointless rant)

[GDS_Starfury]

todays US Navy destroyers are Cold War crusiers that would have been WW2 battle crusiers by weight.

[Martok]

Aurora

That one still scares me, although I love the concept.  Simply reading about it makes me feel completely overwhelmed.  Where the heck does one even begin? 

This is over on the Matrix Forums and it sounds very promising improvement for DW

The messaging and information regarding resource shortages is also greatly improved and planets now consume resources for their own growth needs whether they are building something or not.

Regards,

- Erik

I read that as well.  Hopefully it'll help. 

That's another thing that turns me off at some point in most 4x games is the super ships. 

I think that's one of the reasons why I still enjoy games like Birth of the Federation and Armada 2526 that lack ship design, and instead have predefined ship types -- there's a role for most vessels to play.  Granted, you still need to balance them properly (and both games I just mentioned do have issues with this), but when done right, it's not only viable but almost essential to maintain a mixed fleet...which is as it should be IMO, if only for reasons of fun/gameplay. 

While DW doesn't have formations, and not a huge reason to have smaller ships at some point, it does allow the smaller classes to grow as the game goes on.  So an escort class ship may be bigger than an early game destroy by the end of the game.  This kind of mirrors the Honor Harrington books.

Heh, I've that exact same thought (how Distant Worlds mirrors the HH books in that ship classes gradually become larger). 

todays US Navy destroyers are Cold War crusiers that would have been WW2 battle crusiers by weight.

Damn, really?  I had no idea. 

[GDS_Starfury]

battle crusiers might be an overstatement.  but our destroyers are still crusier weight.

[mikeck]

Martok, go to the aurora forum, "tutorial" sub forum and start with tutorial #1. That simple...1-13. Use the Aurora wiki to fill in the details once you get the basics. It's a great game if you have an imagination to go along with it

[Martok]

Thanks mikeck.  I'll check it out. 

It's a great game if you have an imagination to go along with it

Indeed, that's part of why it appeals to me. 

[mikeck]

The best part is the challenge of designing something that works. In other games, you design ships by just adding components which always work. Add a laser? It will fire and hit. Want more missiles? Add a missle pack, etc

In aurora, you research and design everything. To fire a missile and hit a target you have to research and design an active sensor, a missile fire control system, the missile engine, the launcher and the missile itself (which includes picking a warhead, agility, fuel, and ECM). Then, when you install it on a ship, you have to link the fire control to the missile launcher. You could do all this and find out it doesn't work. You find out that while your active sensor can see 10 million kms, your fire control has a resolution too large to see the small ships your enemy uses until they are within 50,000 kms. Or hour enemy is using ECM and your 1million km rnge missiles are useless outside of 50k...It's a trip.

[Yskonyn]

The concept of the game is very interesting, but I need at least some rudimentary form of graphics or throw at immersion from the game.
The 'visual basic' menus of the game just make me feel I am looking at a very advanced spreadsheet.
I have tried several times, but just can't get over that. :D
Still, a cool concept no less!

[republic]

Aurora is great, but I never really feel like I know what I should be doing.  I wish it were multiplayer so you could try out crazy designs with a friend.  Course with the turn system there's no way it could work multiplayer.

However, as rudimentary as the game is, I should think it could work hosted on a webserver and run at a set speed, then allow players to log in and play when they could.  Wish he'd do a kickstarter, I imagine he'd get the funds to do that, add some art, etc.

[GDS_Starfury]

hes working on a new version of the game.

[Longdan]

Maybe I will take another run at it soon.  I got bogged down in a hurry but I am a game flirt.
I have so many I just move from one to another.

[OJsDad]

The best part is the challenge of designing something that works. In other games, you design ships by just adding components which always work. Add a laser? It will fire and hit. Want more missiles? Add a missle pack, etc

In aurora, you research and design everything. To fire a missile and hit a target you have to research and design an active sensor, a missile fire control system, the missile engine, the launcher and the missile itself (which includes picking a warhead, agility, fuel, and ECM). Then, when you install it on a ship, you have to link the fire control to the missile launcher. You could do all this and find out it doesn't work. You find out that while your active sensor can see 10 million kms, your fire control has a resolution too large to see the small ships your enemy uses until they are within 50,000 kms. Or hour enemy is using ECM and your 1million km rnge missiles are useless outside of 50k...It's a trip.

I think this is the one concept I still need to wrap my head around.  It's not so much any single part, i.e. the missile fire control system you design will work.  It's just whether or not it works for your situation or not.  Is that correct.

[OJsDad]

The concept of the game is very interesting, but I need at least some rudimentary form of graphics or throw at immersion from the game.
The 'visual basic' menus of the game just make me feel I am looking at a very advanced spreadsheet.
I have tried several times, but just can't get over that. :D
Still, a cool concept no less!

All empire building games are speadsheets with some kind of graphics on top.  Aurora is just more bland than most.

[GDS_Starfury]

designing components isnt that hard after youve done it once or twice. 
for anti ship missiles make sure the fire control has a resolution of 50
for point defence make the resolution 1
search systems should have a resolution of 500
resolution directly relates to range and size.  I like to have a dedicated AWAC ship that sees everything and has massive sensors.

[Yskonyn]

The concept of the game is very interesting, but I need at least some rudimentary form of graphics or throw at immersion from the game.
The 'visual basic' menus of the game just make me feel I am looking at a very advanced spreadsheet.
I have tried several times, but just can't get over that. :D
Still, a cool concept no less!

All empire building games are speadsheets with some kind of graphics on top.  Aurora is just more bland than most.

Well you could say every game is a spreadsheet in some form or another, but I do need a bit more on the visual Side of things to get comfortable.
Not much, though, I very much liked Dwarf Fortress, but Aurora in its current form is presented a bit too technical.

[mikeck]

I agree, it has about the same amount of graphics as harpoon. I just watch the f3 system screen and go from there