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Posted by: Wolfius
« on: May 21, 2014, 04:28:01 AM »

I guess you could set it up so PDCs only provide PPV for their planet, while ships provide systemwide PPV.

But what about my poor Interplanetary Missile Batteries? :(

My plot to wage war against a aliens in the distant component of a binary 7400 AU (ie, 0.12 lightyears) away with missile launching PDCs was only thwarted because sufficently insane ranges evidently break missiles; persumably a variable isn't big enough for the value or something.
Posted by: NihilRex
« on: May 20, 2014, 08:36:27 PM »

Have to be a PDC, OHs with engines are considered military ships...

EDIT -  OHs with engines AND military components are considered military ships and need naval yards
Posted by: Rich.h
« on: May 20, 2014, 06:29:53 PM »

Not wishing to hijack this thread but I never realised that the defensce level provided came just from weapon HS used. If I remember correctly PDC's only contribute to the planet they are on and any space based system contributes to the entire system defence level.

Does that mean I could simply slap on an orbital habitat and fill it with honking big space guns and watch the defence level for all system planets skyrocket?
Posted by: JacenHan
« on: May 20, 2014, 02:38:17 PM »

Or actually ability to fire. A PDC with weapons but no fire controls or active sensors counts for PPV.

ICBM bases also work, despite the fact that the only target they can fire at is the population they're protecting.
Posted by: Steve Walmsley
« on: May 20, 2014, 02:24:43 PM »

Not to be a downer, but if your PDC weapons can only reach Mars (for example), how would this contribute to alleviating unrest on Titan?

A better suggestion would be that unrest is decreased within the scope of the PDC's weapons.


From the perspective of the local complaining politicians, Big Visible Guns = Good. They don't bother with all those technical details like range or effectiveness.

Posted by: Nathan_
« on: May 20, 2014, 01:52:32 PM »

Defenses on earth can also cover some approaches to titan, and usually an enemy would want to eliminate a center of resistance first if they were doing anything more than raiding, atleast thats the way my propaganda officers would spin my laziness.
Posted by: Paul M
« on: May 20, 2014, 05:55:38 AM »

Admittedly, anything can be gamed...infact that is why munchkins are munckins they find ways to game the un-game-able.

Your defences are per system, so defences in Sol are based on what you have on Earth mainly.   The NC deploys smaller bases for defences of colonies, but as they found out that only works if the colony in question has minimal atmosphere since they are laser bases.  So the development of a short ranged meson weapon that can be used instead is prioritized.

But still, any sizable colony would probably like to have defences.  Now if you say "the game only requires me to defend one place per system" then fine, against picketing settlers you are safe.  Against marauding alien scum you are easy pickings.  My view is that taking a step back from the spread sheet and saying "if this was real, what would I do" often helps avoid these sort of essentially fundamentally absurd situations.  The cost in terms of time, and resources to establish any sort of extra solar presense makes defending it a requirement at some stage.  Failure to do so will have more than "role playing" consiquences regardless of how much you dodge the bullet in terms of game mechanics.

Aurora allows you to many things, a lot of them rather less than wise...playing silly buggers with your defenses heads my "less wise" list.
Posted by: TheDeadlyShoe
« on: May 20, 2014, 03:26:56 AM »

why would the average citizen care about the range of the PDCs on earth? the intricacies of military capability are an arcane topic for most people, they have their own stuff to do.

per-planet PPV just tries to get around being gamed, but it's equally easy to game PDC range - a high-efficiency missile combined with a res 10000 (or w/e) fire control for solar-wide coverage, for example. 

PPV might as well be 'propaganda value' -  the notion that the systems security isn't being ignored.

I guess you could set it up so PDCs only provide PPV for their planet, while ships provide systemwide PPV.
Posted by: MarcAFK
« on: May 20, 2014, 12:02:13 AM »

Eric's suggestion is reasonable, but as well know your obsolete earth ICBM bases provide more than enough protection for colonies anywhere in the system.
However for roleplay reasons I like to establish actual protection for my planets :P
Posted by: Haji
« on: May 19, 2014, 11:36:58 AM »

Not to be a downer, but if your PDC weapons can only reach Mars (for example), how would this contribute to alleviating unrest on Titan?

A better suggestion would be that unrest is decreased within the scope of the PDC's weapons.


It's not a suggestion, but an observation. I've made a test game, built a custom PDC as follows:

Code: [Select]
Weymouth class Planetary Defence Centre    15 350 tons     245 Crew     454 BP      TCS 307  TH 0  EM 0
Armour 5-55     Sensors 1/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 288
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months    Spare Berths 1   
Magazine 288   

Fuel Capacity 250 000 Litres    Range N/A
ICBM Silo (12)    Missile Size 24    Rate of Fire 43200


This design is classed as a Planetary Defence Centre and can be pre-fabricated in 7 sections

added ten of them to Shipyard TG on Earth, made a colony of thirty million on Venus and according to the economic sheet, Venus demands 20 protection points and receives 2880, exactly the same amount as Earth, despite the fact that not only the base's armament can't reach Luna (much less Venus) it's not even armed. And yes, I run the game for several months and the unrest did not increase. Whether this is a bug or feature, I don't really know.
Posted by: Erik L
« on: May 19, 2014, 11:14:33 AM »

All defensive installations provide a system wide "planetary protection value" which means you can build PDCs on Earth and they would count as protecting Mars - or any body in the Sol system for that matter - limiting unrest.

Not to be a downer, but if your PDC weapons can only reach Mars (for example), how would this contribute to alleviating unrest on Titan?

A better suggestion would be that unrest is decreased within the scope of the PDC's weapons.
Posted by: Prince of Space
« on: May 19, 2014, 10:27:20 AM »

It just occurred to me that a lot of people might not know that "PDC" = "Planetary Defense Center", as in the Dahak books by Weber (and possibly/probably others).  This might be why the question "Can I move my PDC" keeps popping up.


I never read the Dahak books, myself. My closest reference when I was learning the game was Twilight Imperium's planetary defense system (PDS) unit, which can be moved in that game. I don't think we can rely on the name itself or similarities to planetary defenses in other properties to signify that Aurora's PDCs are immobile once assembled.
Posted by: Haji
« on: May 19, 2014, 09:48:53 AM »

All defensive installations provide a system wide "planetary protection value" which means you can build PDCs on Earth and they would count as protecting Mars - or any body in the Sol system for that matter - limiting unrest.
Posted by: sloanjh
« on: May 19, 2014, 06:21:04 AM »

It just occurred to me that a lot of people might not know that "PDC" = "Planetary Defense Center", as in the Dahak books by Weber (and possibly/probably others).  This might be why the question "Can I move my PDC" keeps popping up.
Posted by: Prince of Space
« on: May 18, 2014, 04:59:55 PM »

Yeah, but warships require either periodic overhauls or an in system maintenance base stocked with minerals. PDCs frontload the hassle. Once the Seabees finish spackling the walls you can relax and forget about it.