C# Aurora

[Geezer]

I keep thinking of coming back to this but I've been playing Stellaris lately and that is scratching the 4X itch for me right now.

[Jarhead0331]

Version 2.0 of C# Aurora was released this weekend. It represents the largest update since version 1.13. Huge amount of additions and changes...if you can actually imagine that. In any event, I've started a new conventional empire and once I get a feel for the game again, I may also start a new AAR along the lines of this one....sorry this one never made it any further. Not sure why the screenshots aren't showing up.

http://www.grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=25095.0

[solops]

Thanks JH.

[Geezer]

Thanks for the heads up.  Might have to get back into it.

[Jarhead0331]

I've got a pretty good game going right now. The Sol system wasn't the richest in terms of mineral resources, but three of my nearest neighbors have proven to not only be mineral rich, but there are a number of affordable locations for colonies.



There is Proxima Centauri, where I have already establish a growing colony.





Alpha Centauri, where I've begun staging some worlds for colonization with infrastructure and where there are some interesting bodies with rather eccentric orbits.



Finally, there is Struve 2398 that has at least one good spot with a ton of Sorium. This will be a vital fuel production point for deeper expeditions into the unknown.

I'm playing it pretty smart this time and not expanding too far before I'm ready. As I find new locations for colonies, I train Garrison police battalions to maintain law and order in the new colonies and to suppress any rebellion.  I'm really  beginning to understand the Aurora ground force features and learning how to create formation templates, classes and to place them in hierarchies.



I also build Police Cutters to provide orbital security and planetary protection.  I'm keeping costs down by not putting jump drives on my vessels for now. I'm just stabilizing each jump point and transiting with conventional engines. I figure I won't really need jump drives until I'm ready to build a real war fleet. 

Of course, I've also colonized the moon and Mars, which both have thriving colonies which are supported by major civilian shipping lines.



There is something about this game that just always sucks me in.

[Jarhead0331]

Man...after years of playing this game off and on, it has finally happened. First contact, and they do not seem to be nice.

[Tripoli]

Man...after years of playing this game off and on, it has finally happened. First contact, and they do not seem to be nice.

...

You are going to need a bigger boat..... ;D

[bobarossa]

The most common alien I used to run into was a horde of tiny ships with energy weapons.  I used tons of AMM`s on them.  Hoped to eliminate enough to survive when they got into energy range.

[Sparhawk]

Goodness, I hope you have tons of missiles and a good missile fire control system.

[GDS_Starfury]

kinda surprised it took you this long.

[Jarhead0331]

The long awaited 2.2.0 patch has finally been released. I've been waiting a little over a year for this one. A very long list of fixes, changes and additions.

Steve, as always, is such a stud.

[Jarhead0331]

Been a long time since I posted in this thread, and almost as long since I played any significant amount of Aurora. However, I started dabbling again with the release of 2.6.0 and really got sucked in again with 2.7.0 and 2.7.1.

I have a great game going now that has been very intriguing. I'm about 150 years in playing as the Terran Space Command.



I have been very fortunate to have found some valuable mineral rich and relatively low-cost planets and moons to colonize in nearby systems.





One system, Alpha Centauri had a nearly intact city that had been inhabited by a race of ancient aliens. Xenosurvey and construction teams were able to investigate and recover useful installations, technology, artifacts, minerals and resources.

 

The race of ancients seems to have colonized a few nearby systems and I found another gem of a planet with a breathable atmosphere that also had some ruins and an abandoned outpost. These structures also yielded some valuable structures and technology, including several terraforming centers.



I'm building some nice ground formations that mostly pull planetary garrison duty, but I'm starting to organize heavier ground units that will be broken down into various services with infantry, mechanized and armored forces for attack and defense.



My next goal is to really build up my navy, which so far, I have fortunately only needed for system patrol and general monitor and protection duty. I have a small force of beam frigates that have been suitable for the necessary tasks, but I feel ready to begin manufacturing much heavier ships for combat against unknown threats that are sure to be lurking. I'm relatively comfortable with direct fire weapons, but am still learning how to design and use missile based and carrier type vessels. Beam ships can be effective, but only against slower ships that do not have substantial missile or fighter defenses of their own. Due to a very capable civilian commerce industry, I am able to manage with a relatively small logistics command that is needed really only for emergencies, troop transport and getting colonies started. Otherwise, the civilian industry is very effective at fulling supply and transportation contracts. This should be helpful in focusing my resources and attention on designing a formidable deep space fleet.



If anybody out there has been playing and has any tips about designing effective missiles and fighter craft, I'd appreciate some tips. Mistakes can be costly in time and resources!

[undercovergeek]

Been a long time since I posted in this thread, and almost as long since I played any significant amount of Aurora. However, I started dabbling again with the release of 2.6.0 and really got sucked in again with 2.7.0 and 2.7.1.

I have a great game going now that has been very intriguing. I'm about 150 years in playing as the Terran Space Command.



I have been very fortunate to have found some valuable mineral rich and relatively low-cost planets and moons to colonize in nearby systems.





One system, Alpha Centauri had a nearly intact city that had been inhabited by a race of ancient aliens. Xenosurvey and construction teams were able to investigate and recover useful installations, technology, artifacts, minerals and resources.

 

The race of ancients seems to have colonized a few nearby systems and I found another gem of a planet with a breathable atmosphere that also had some ruins and an abandoned outpost. These structures also yielded some valuable structures and technology, including several terraforming centers.



I'm building some nice ground formations that mostly pull planetary garrison duty, but I'm starting to organize heavier ground units that will be broken down into various services with infantry, mechanized and armored forces for attack and defense.



My next goal is to really build up my navy, which so far, I have fortunately only needed for system patrol and general monitor and protection duty. I have a small force of beam frigates that have been suitable for the necessary tasks, but I feel ready to begin manufacturing much heavier ships for combat against unknown threats that are sure to be lurking. I'm relatively comfortable with direct fire weapons, but am still learning how to design and use missile based and carrier type vessels. Beam ships can be effective, but only against slower ships that do not have substantial missile or fighter defenses of their own. Due to a very capable civilian commerce industry, I am able to manage with a relatively small logistics command that is needed really only for emergencies, troop transport and getting colonies started. Otherwise, the civilian industry is very effective at fulling supply and transportation contracts. This should be helpful in focusing my resources and attention on designing a formidable deep space fleet.



If anybody out there has been playing and has any tips about designing effective missiles and fighter craft, I'd appreciate some tips. Mistakes can be costly in time and resources!

I did have some good missiles for 2.5 which is the last I played including an extended range one with a booster rocket - lost to the great uninstall now but I've just uploaded 2.7.1 and hoping to get into it in the new year

[Jarhead0331]

What are some of your core design strategies?

For example, I tend to avoid equipping my armed naval vessels with jump drives. Instead, I use jump drive equipped scouts with geological and gravitational survey sensors to enter new systems to perform full surveys and and reconnaissance of system bodies and potential new jump points. If the system has some value, I will then bring, via tug, a Jump Point Stabilization Station to stabilize the jump points into and out of the system. Military ships are then moved into the new system with conventional drives and the various planets and moons can be prepped for colonization, usually with a heavy reliance on civilian logistics and transports.

This leads to a mostly defensive overall strategy as I almost never go on the offensive. I try to contemplate what it would take to develop a real navy and ground force that would be capable of taking on an advanced civilization and it seems extremely out of reach for my current abilities in the game. But, I am slowly getting there.   

[undercovergeek]

What are some of your core design strategies?

For example, I tend to avoid equipping my armed naval vessels with jump drives. Instead, I use jump drive equipped scouts with geological and gravitational survey sensors to enter new systems to perform full surveys and and reconnaissance of system bodies and potential new jump points. If the system has some value, I will then bring, via tug, a Jump Point Stabilization Station to stabilize the jump points into and out of the system. Military ships are then moved into the new system with conventional drives and the various planets and moons can be prepped for colonization, usually with a heavy reliance on civilian logistics and transports.

This leads to a mostly defensive overall strategy as I almost never go on the offensive. I try to contemplate what it would take to develop a real navy and ground force that would be capable of taking on an advanced civilization and it seems extremely out of reach for my current abilities in the game. But, I am slowly getting there.   

You might be over estimating my approach to the navy - purely for personal preference I've only ever been a missile guy - so it's always been destroyers maybe 30-40k tonnes with as many engines shields and missiles as I can fit on

I really wanted to get into the ground forces and organisational set up but 2.5 didn't really support it and it was just as useful to make a blob of 10k men than it was to create officers and brigades regiments and divisions

The main big game I played had a setting that after I'd investigated 10 new systems there would be an exponential increase in the chance of enemy arrivals - I got the ones with no home planet that didn't use jump gates so they could just appear and disappear at their leisure - it did make me create patrol fleets or at least home planet based security fleets I could send out to attack them

I did find a genuine alien race orbiting a neutral planet and tried to initiate diplomacy but no one on the forums there had a definitive 'do this' to remedy the issue - the difference here between a fully built fully understood published title and aurora is there is no 'if you do this that will happen' - having played many a RTS or 4x game it would be nice to know 'to initiate diplomacy build a diplomatic ship and approach the alien between 5-10m kilometres and press the diplomacy button' not 'this didn't work for me' or 'what I did was XXX but in the next game it didn't' which is why I put it down til now - in the end it came down to attacking them but they had longer range missiles than me - many scouts and experimental design ships were lost that day until I worked out a missile with a booster rocket

I'm currently engrossed in a few games and then there's the 1.0 release of terra invicta but I will get back into it