Post by: Erik L on February 01, 2010, 09:11:39 PM
One thing I like to do with the new construction scheme is dedicate 10% to replication. This gives me a continuously growing manufacturing rate, with occasional jumps from tech. I usually set it up to build 1000 CF at 10% capacity. This usually starts off with a completion date 2 centuries in advance.
Post by: sloanjh on February 01, 2010, 09:48:38 PM
Quote from: "Erik Luken"
And old ones.
One thing I like to do with the new construction scheme is dedicate 10% to replication. This gives me a continuously growing manufacturing rate, with occasional jumps from tech. I usually set it up to build 1000 CF at 10% capacity. This usually starts off with a completion date 2 centuries in advance.
I do the same thing (although at a higher rate), plus adding mines so that about 0.7-0.8 mines are being built for every CF. The reason for the mines is that one unit of production costs the work of one factory and the minerals of one mine (hmmmm guess I should up my ratio to 1.0 or higher, once shipyards and fuel refineries are taken into account). I tend to build automated mines in the early game in anticipation of the mineral crash that will force me to move my manned mines off Earth.
John
Post by: Erik L on February 01, 2010, 10:14:35 PM
And anyone should feel free to post things that they feel are good tips.
Post by: Jetman123 on February 02, 2010, 08:51:23 PM
Post by: Erik L on February 02, 2010, 08:55:26 PM
Quote from: "Jetman123"
What do you mean by "replication"?
Having the construction facilities build more construction facilities.
Post by: VariousArtist on February 03, 2010, 11:49:19 AM
Jump tender ship design: The mass of the jump tender may limit the mass of the ships that can jump with it. (e.g. jump drive with 6k tons but tender mass is only 5.5k tons then the max ship size that can jump with the tender is only 5.5k tons.) Also, ships with military engines cant jump with jumpships with commercial jump drives vice versa!
Anti-Missile Missiles: are a very common defense strategy. They should be only size1, have 1 damage, be fast and agile and a range of approx 2-3m km. Floating point numbers can be used in missile design. They are supported by resolution 1 (aka "zero") scanners (to spot incomming missiles) and missile controls of the same range. Common strategy is to set them to point defense with 3-5 missiles per incomming missile.
Combat: Only active sensors give a target to lock on!
Post by: Father Tim on February 03, 2010, 11:51:30 AM
Post by: Balibar on February 07, 2010, 06:52:07 AM
Quote from: "Father Tim"
Large military jump drives are very expensive in terms of Research Points - so much so that it's generally cheaper to research Jump Drive Efficiency up to 6 and design a jump engine half the size.Good point! The research cost for a jump drive of given efficiency goes up much faster (square?) than the size of the engine. For example, with basic jump efficiency of 3 a 3000 jump engine costs 1000 RP and a 6000 jump engine costs 4000 RP.
Post by: Tnx on February 19, 2010, 11:44:24 AM
Post by: Brian Neumann on February 19, 2010, 03:16:26 PM
Quote from: "Tnx"
Hi all, I'm pretty new to this game, I like to do conventional starts and so far I've found out that you can make Diplomatic teams and they gain skill from practicing with themselves on Earth... This probably isn't a big tip but I overlooked it for awhile, does anyone know any other things to do at the beginning of a game to help yourself out later?
I know it is tempting to put all of your science labs under just a couple of leaders to get the fastest reasearch rate, but it actually will help you a lot to save 5-10 labs for developing leaders. Pick leaders that you want to get better, assign them a task that won't be finished soon and give them one lab. The code only checks scientists that are actively being used for advancement. This way over the next ten years or so you will probably see those leaders get a promotion or two in their reasearch rating or administrative rating. I tend to pick good admin ratings over reasearch ratings as in the end how many labs you can use will make more of a difference. I have gotten one scientist up to a reasearch bonus of 55% and a admin rating of 8. I have heard of someone getting a reasearch bonus over 100%. That would equate to x5 of your basic reasearch rate in thier field.
Brian
Post by: Tnx on February 19, 2010, 04:50:48 PM
Gah so many questions.. sorry. Oh and, how do I increase my chances of getting more civilian administrators? Am I right in assuming that the military academy gives me more guys for ground forces/naval commanders right?
Post by: Brian Neumann on February 19, 2010, 06:29:51 PM
Quote from: "Tnx"
Oh, in my conventional starts I start myself out with 10 research labs, and then I just research one technology at a time with my best guy for that tech.. Does the game check for scientists aging? Or just accidents/health? So say I have 4 scientists, can I give one guy 7 labs, while allocating 1 each to the other 3 guys? That would give them all experience right? Or does number of labs factor into this experience equation?
Gah so many questions.. sorry. Oh and, how do I increase my chances of getting more civilian administrators? Am I right in assuming that the military academy gives me more guys for ground forces/naval commanders right?
Scientists do age, but they have a much reduced chance of death vs the military officers. The number of labs makes no difference with the chance of advancing them which is why 1 lab each works fine. The academy produces all of your leaders, including the admin and scientists.
Brian
Post by: Tnx on February 19, 2010, 06:57:45 PM
1. What types of ships should I be looking to build in the beginning? So far I've got geosurvey ships and gravsurvey ships working.. I should be looking at military and commercial frigates to transport population and mining modules/colony stuff right?
2. I seem to have a huge surplus of wealth in my empire's coffers.. Am I doing something wrong? I tried to put civilian contracts for researching but no takers :\
3. Should I only be colonizing worlds with minerals? What about barren worlds that have no minerals? (I was thinking that maybe added population from the extra colonies would be worth the tax money)
Post by: Tnx on February 19, 2010, 07:06:54 PM
Post by: Steve Walmsley on February 20, 2010, 10:05:58 AM
Quote from: "Tnx"
Oh and another.. I have a geosurvey ship with the first geosurvey sensor (the one that costs 5000 to research), now say I survey a moon and find X and Y... Are there minerals to be found later with better sensors and a more skilled geosurvey team?Once you have a done a geosurvey with a ship, you won't find any more minerals with another ship. You can then use a team until that team reports that no more minerals can be found. After that further teams would not find anything new.
So to summarise, you get one ship survey and one team survey per planet.
Steve
Post by: Hawkeye on February 20, 2010, 11:07:01 AM
Quote from: "Tnx"
Alright here are some more nooby questions...
1. What types of ships should I be looking to build in the beginning? So far I've got geosurvey ships and gravsurvey ships working.. I should be looking at military and commercial frigates to transport population and mining modules/colony stuff right?
You´ll need some frighters/colony ships (commercial). Also, the civillians will only build your actual commercial designs, so if you want them to start shipping stuff, you´d better design some of those.
For military, I usually go pretty light on that, until an indication pops up, that there is something hostile out there (Either a first-contact or at least alien ruins). This, of course, runs the risk of getting discovered by an NPR with basicly nothing to defend earth.
Quote from: "Tnx"
2. I seem to have a huge surplus of wealth in my empire's coffers.. Am I doing something wrong? I tried to put civilian contracts for researching but no takers :\
This is normal for a conventional start. In the years, where you research and build up, you don´t have a lot to spent the money on, later on, money can become more of a bottleneck.
Quote from: "Tnx"
3. Should I only be colonizing worlds with minerals? What about barren worlds that have no minerals? (I was thinking that maybe added population from the extra colonies would be worth the tax money)
Populations on worlds create trade (handled by the civillians), which in turn brings money (taxes on the trades, not taxes on the people). This is not a major concern right now for you, but will be later on and you better start soon, because it take quite a while to build up a decent colony.
Post by: mavikfelna on February 20, 2010, 12:03:05 PM
Quote
Tnx wrote: Alright here are some more nooby questions...
1. What types of ships should I be looking to build in the beginning? So far I've got geosurvey ships and gravsurvey ships working.. I should be looking at military and commercial frigates to transport population and mining modules/colony stuff right?
I like to get all of the "infrastructure" module techs purchased in my setup so I have things like the gate construction module 180, sorium harvester module, terraforming module, etc. And usually advanced cargo handling.
Then I create a ship for each type of module, geo and grav survey ships and 2 or 3 each of freighter and colony ship. If you're not using jump gates you'll also need to create a jump engine and a civilian jump ship large enough to handle your biggest ships.
For the 3 hauler designs, I usually have a minimal design, 1 cargo hold or cryo storage bay, and a couple of engines to give it some speed, a "standard" design, 5 cargo holds or 10 cryo storage bays, and a jump version of the standard design. I also make a small luxury liner.
I may or may not have a troop transport, but its usually a good idea. And it needs to be big enough to carry an engineering battalion. If I don't start with a ruin in my home system (you have to add it manually if you're using Sol) there's not a big push for having the troop transport available immediately.
A missile PDC and a PD escort, either ship or PDC, is also a good idea.
--Mav
Post by: Tnx on February 20, 2010, 12:27:25 PM
On commercial freighters, do you guys build them really big? Should you update them with every new engine or other component when they become available?
Ok so these are the ships I've read about thus far for building up an empire:
Geosurvey/Gravsurvey, Colony Ship, Light/Heavy Freighters, Luxury Liner (These ferry people and give more tax im assuming?)
Missile Base PDC (These give planetary defense for colonies and such right?)
A fuel harvester (Quick question: Is there ever a danger of fuel running out? It's refined from Sorium right? And since a fuel harvester gets it from orbiting a gas giant... doesn't that pretty much mean fuel is infinite?)
I've been seeing alot of options for ships/fleets:
Missile Ships with laser PD that shoot hostile lasers down.. Some people design a dedicated target painting ship, that seems to be an efficient use of ship space. What about carriers/fighters? Are those good too?
EDIT: I forgot to include Colliers that bring extra maintenance/missile reloads.. and fuel tankers to transport more fuel to the fleet.. any other logistical ships I am missing here?
On second thought, maybe there should be a sticky with all the best tips posted on the first post? Or another with basic ship designs for the new people like me coming into this game?
Post by: Tnx on February 20, 2010, 12:37:05 PM
I drew an example to explain, the clumps of systems there are interconnected, but only have say one or two connections to other clumps, I hope my drawing makes sense.
EDIT: I'm sorry for the double post, I didn't think I would be able to edit my previous post because I remember it being hidden and then approved by a moderator, I guess that restriction has been lifted or something.
Post by: Hawkeye on February 20, 2010, 02:05:22 PM
Quote from: "Tnx"
So are the minerals generated WHEN you scan the planet? Like if I scanned it with the better geosurvey scanners I would generate more resources at that point?
On commercial freighters, do you guys build them really big? Should you update them with every new engine or other component when they become available?
Ok so these are the ships I've read about thus far for building up an empire:
Geosurvey/Gravsurvey, Colony Ship, Light/Heavy Freighters, Luxury Liner (These ferry people and give more tax im assuming?)
Missile Base PDC (These give planetary defense for colonies and such right?)
A fuel harvester (Quick question: Is there ever a danger of fuel running out? It's refined from Sorium right? And since a fuel harvester gets it from orbiting a gas giant... doesn't that pretty much mean fuel is infinite?)
I've been seeing alot of options for ships/fleets:
Missile Ships with laser PD that shoot hostile lasers down.. Some people design a dedicated target painting ship, that seems to be an efficient use of ship space. What about carriers/fighters? Are those good too?
EDIT: I forgot to include Colliers that bring extra maintenance/missile reloads.. and fuel tankers to transport more fuel to the fleet.. any other logistical ships I am missing here?
On second thought, maybe there should be a sticky with all the best tips posted on the first post? Or another with basic ship designs for the new people like me coming into this game?
Minerals are created on system creation.
My freighters are in the 35.000 to 39.000t range, allowing for 5 cargo holds and reasonable speed. Build them too big, and the shipping lines will not be able to afford them (without you subsidising them). And no, I do not design ships for civillian use only.
Missile PDCs are indeed for planetary defense. I usually put some meson turrets on them as well, to provide some anti-missile capability on the ground as well
Obviously, you can build dedicated offensive and defensive PDCs (I do this for smaller colonies, that will not have the industrial power to assemble large fortresses)
As for fuel. In the beginning, when your stockpile is rising steadily, it will seem as this is nothing to worry about, but belive me, it will become one. The further you expand, the more fuel you are burning, and there will come the time, when you start burning more fuel than you can produce.
I usually try to combine the Collier/Tanker/Supply ship into one, so I don´t have to retool the shipyard quite as often.
As for your attempt at setting up the galaxy, I can´t help you there, as I play it as it comes (not sure you can even do it)
Post by: Tnx on February 21, 2010, 12:49:32 PM
Post by: Empty on February 22, 2010, 06:32:13 PM
Quote from: "Tnx"
Alright here are some more nooby questions...
1. What types of ships should I be looking to build in the beginning? So far I've got geosurvey ships and gravsurvey ships working.. I should be looking at military and commercial frigates to transport population and mining modules/colony stuff right?
2. I seem to have a huge surplus of wealth in my empire's coffers.. Am I doing something wrong? I tried to put civilian contracts for researching but no takers :\
3. Should I only be colonizing worlds with minerals? What about barren worlds that have no minerals? (I was thinking that maybe added population from the extra colonies would be worth the tax money)
If you have too much wealth subsidize your civilian shipping lines. They'll make more cargo and cryo freighters if you have some designs for them.
Don't spend too much though. It's best to have a nice buffer of wealth.
Also I usually build a few cargo ships and a whole lot of terraforming ships after building a few task groups of jump capable Geo and grav survey ships and jump gate construction ships (what's the in game classification for these ships anyway? Haven't figured that out yet.).
That way I can ship auto mines to potential mining locations and infrastructure to possible colony locations and terraform possible colony locations quickly.
Having more colonies is usually better.
Though I hate those messages about increased unrest due to the lack of living space. Any able planet administrator should be able to impose a childbirth ban or promote contraception just before the maximum living space is reached anyway. They live in a trans newtonian age anyway
Post by: Tnx on February 24, 2010, 04:37:49 AM
Also, I'm on my way towards building up navy military ships, I'm looking at the designs of the game on trans newtonian starts, as well as the designs of other people on the forum but I'm not sure how to go about designing some good ships.. I wanted to make some main missile ships/laser defense/target spotters/etc, can anyone point me in the right direction? Is there a steam group for aurora or some chat channel that everyone hangs out at? (figure I can get some quick help there)
EDIT: After reading Erik Luken's ship creation tutorial, I'm understanding ALOT more... I guess I'll just use these first generation ships for fleet training till I make better.
Post by: Shadow on March 02, 2010, 07:57:53 AM
Quote from: "Tnx"
I tried to put civilian contracts for researching but no takers :\Civilian research contracts? Where? How?
Post by: Steve Walmsley on March 03, 2010, 08:51:33 AM
Quote from: "Shadow"
Wait, what?Quote from: "Tnx"I tried to put civilian contracts for researching but no takers :\Civilian research contracts? Where? How? :)
Steve
Post by: Tnx on March 03, 2010, 12:30:08 PM
Post by: Deutschbag on April 04, 2010, 07:21:49 AM
Post by: UnLimiTeD on April 04, 2010, 08:20:14 AM
They will eventually form; If you want, you can subsidize them to expand those shipping lines.
Then, you go to the civilian/contracts page on a colony, likely your home, and Supply X.
This means whatever you supply, if it's actually available on the planet, is allowed to be taken and transported by civilians.
Afterwards, you go to the target colony, which in a standard start is quite often Mars, but can of course be any colony in any System connected with Jump Gates.
There, you go to the civilian/contracts page, and Demand X.
Now the civilians will start searching for those things, find them where you supplied them, and, if theres path from supply to Demand that doesn't lead through Unsecured Jump Points, they will start shipping that good.
You pay them with 'Wealth', an arbitrary good symbolizing the civilian economy.
You gain wealth by taxes, which can be your populations, Civilian mining operations, and civilian Freighters that freely trade consumer goods from one planet to another.
If you need a boost to your economy, you can research the matching tech (Expand Civilian Economy by 20%), or build financial Centers.
Overall, Civilians reduce micromanagement and produce wealth, but be sure to have your own transporter fleet for when it's really burning.
Post by: Deutschbag on April 04, 2010, 08:38:33 AM
Post by: Chairman on April 07, 2010, 03:04:13 PM
Does anyone use stationary bases in space anymore, like in Star Fire...
And about Star Fire, is there possible to build small strike fighters... Was always nice with those nice fighters that got killed instead of my ships...
All the fighter designes I seen is lika seing a russian heavy transport plane, Antonov An-225 of some 600 tons of lumbering death comming against you....
Post by: Deutschbag on April 07, 2010, 05:45:51 PM
This is all hypothetical on my part, as I've never done that before.
Post by: UnLimiTeD on April 07, 2010, 05:53:18 PM
Missilearmed fighters can be below 150 tons and reach around 200mm/s on high tech levels.
Beam armed is a lot harder, Small Gauss Rifles might be a solution.
You can also place Mines on the spot, which double as disposeable sensors, and if you have that asteroid, a Missile Base might be a solution.
If you have "Buffer Systems" with Pickets, you can also have a Strikegroup of Gunboats ready and only move out when you think your Being attacked.
Or cycle two disposeable Jump Point Guards.
Post by: Chairman on May 27, 2010, 08:10:41 AM
Could anyone give a sample tanker???
I managed to get my cargo fleet stuck (No fuel, in swedish that would bee `soppatorsk`
) in an adjacent starsystem but can get fuel there, my trooptransports were there and moved to my ships but they can´t transfer some fuel so I can go home
Post by: welchbloke on May 27, 2010, 08:32:48 AM
Quote from: "Chairman"
TankersIf you use the F6 Individual Ships Screen and select the Miscellaneous tab you can manually transfer fuel between ships in the same location.
Could anyone give a sample tanker???
I managed to get my cargo fleet stuck (No fuel, in swedish that would bee `soppatorsk`
This is my small tanker design:
Code: [Select]
Cnicht Batch 3 class Tanker 44500 tons 2171 Crew 7716.6 BP TCS 890 TH 5000 EM 0
5617 km/s Armour 1-111 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 1 PPV 0
Maint Capacity 108 MSP Max Repair 125 MSP
Donkey Mk2 SCAM (10) Power 500 Fuel Use 5% Signature 500 Armour 0 Exp 1%
Fuel Capacity 30,850,000 Litres Range 24953.0 billion km (51416 days at full power)
This design is classed as a commercial vessel for maintenance purposesThis is my supertanker design:Code: [Select]
Esgair Ddu Batch 3 class Tanker 106000 tons 5464 Crew 19094.2 BP TCS 2120 TH 9000 EM 0
4245 km/s Armour 1-199 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 1 PPV 0
Maint Capacity 113 MSP Max Repair 125 MSP
Donkey Mk2 SCAM (18) Power 500 Fuel Use 5% Signature 500 Armour 0 Exp 1%
Fuel Capacity 81,400,000 Litres Range 27643.4 billion km (75370 days at full power)
This design is classed as a commercial vessel for maintenance purposes
NB: These designs have very good engine tech compared to most small races at start.
Post by: Peter Rhodan on March 17, 2011, 09:45:05 PM
My magnetic engine tankers (level 4 I think) hold 5,000,000 litres and have a speed of about 2000k
I have found that building troop transports with a sorium unit or 2 on board is really really handy design as they spend a lot of time siting around waiting for the next garrison transfer etc - so mine sit at gas giants and provide fuel for nearby colonies as a bonus.
I refit my freighters every 2 or so engine techs -
I tried mixed colony/cargo but have gone back to dedicated ships of each type - mostly 25,000 cargo as I find single ships more flexible - but I do have a 50,000 ton design I use in small numbers.
Post by: LeonTheNorse on August 19, 2011, 08:57:39 AM
Post by: Erik L on August 19, 2011, 09:00:42 AM
How do i do a geo survey?
Build a ship with geographical scanners, and give it orders to do a geological survey on a planet/moon/asteroid/comet.
Post by: fergeh on October 29, 2011, 05:20:42 PM
Post by: Erik L on October 29, 2011, 05:35:34 PM
Got a fair start in the sol system, but I haven't touched military craft of any sort at all. What exactly does a ship with weapons need? What do I research? What is the easiest form of weapons to start with? I've got some very basic meson tech which I was hoping to put into a PDC but am really not sure how to go about this
Tutorial 4 should cover what you need. Either here or on the wiki.
Post by: fergeh on October 29, 2011, 05:42:22 PM
Post by: Garfunkel on October 30, 2011, 10:40:28 AM
In short, you go with either beam weapons or missiles.
With missiles, you need:
1. Launcher to shoot the missiles
2. Magazine to store more missiles
3. Missile Fire Control to aim the launcher
4. Active Search Sensor to find a target.
5. Missile designs built in ordnance factories
With beam weapons (including rail guns), you need:
1. Beam weapon on board
2. Power generator to feed it energy
3. Beam Fire Control to aim the weapon
4. Active Search Sensor to find a target.
ASS does not need to be on the same ship but M/B FC has to be.
Post by: Sarganto on January 24, 2012, 06:41:05 AM
Why is that? Why would I want to do that instead of making them commercial vessels?
Not having to care about maintenance seems like a big pro for these ships as they tend to fly out there for a loooooooooooong time.
Post by: Charlie Beeler on January 24, 2012, 07:28:42 AM
As I saw in the Tutorial, the geolocial and grav survey ships are designed as military vessels with military engines.
Why is that? Why would I want to do that instead of making them commercial vessels?
Not having to care about maintenance seems like a big pro for these ships as they tend to fly out there for a loooooooooooong time.
The original tutorial predates commercial engines in Aurora. You can build these ships with commercials but grav sensors are military which prohibits those ships from benefiting on the maintenance side of things.
Post by: chrislocke2000 on January 24, 2012, 07:51:33 AM
As I saw in the Tutorial, the geolocial and grav survey ships are designed as military vessels with military engines.
Why is that? Why would I want to do that instead of making them commercial vessels?
Not having to care about maintenance seems like a big pro for these ships as they tend to fly out there for a loooooooooooong time.
Its pretty much just a matter of personal preference. The commercial engines are a lot more cost effective but you need a larger commercial yard to build them in and a larger commercial jump engine to move around. To keep the ship as a commercial design you are also pretty restriced on the sensors you can mount which means it may well stray into hostiles with little or no warning, the increased ship size also means it can be spotted by enemy sensors more easily. However, as you say they can stay out in space for a hell of a lot longer and no need to have them off line for months at a time to re-fit.
Easiest thing to do is try a few games with alternative strategies and just see which one you find preferable.
Post by: Sarganto on January 24, 2012, 08:14:37 AM
Quote
you are also pretty restriced on the sensorsRestricted to?
Quote
The original tutorial predates commercial engines in Aurora. You can build these ships with commercials but grav sensors are military which prohibits those ships from benefiting on the maintenance side of things.But geological survey ships would work, right?
Post by: Hawkeye on January 24, 2012, 09:49:31 AM
Post by: Steve Walmsley on January 27, 2012, 11:34:39 AM
As I saw in the Tutorial, the geolocial and grav survey ships are designed as military vessels with military engines.
Why is that? Why would I want to do that instead of making them commercial vessels?
Not having to care about maintenance seems like a big pro for these ships as they tend to fly out there for a loooooooooooong time.
Gravitional sensors are military systems whereas geological sensors are commercial, so even with commercial engines a gravsurvey ship will be military. Gravsurvey will tend to spend a long time in flight too so faster engines are usually a good idea.
Steve
Post by: Sarganto on February 02, 2012, 05:09:27 PM
Here comes the next one:
How do I build/research box launchers?
What are the prerequisites?
Post by: Hawkeye on February 02, 2012, 10:50:42 PM
Post by: Sarganto on February 03, 2012, 03:56:56 AM
Next question:
Is there a good way to get around the inevitable Corundium-Crunch at the beginning?
In my first game (that I am still playing) I didn't have a lot of Corundium, Neutronium and Sorium left on Earth. While I had all of these available in Sol, they are spread out on different planets/moons and therefore I had to spread out my Automines, which leaves me with unsatisfying mining rates for all of them, although Sorium isn't really a problem at the beginning. Sadly Mars only holds Duranium, Uridium and Gallicite, so I can't really use the cheaper normal Mines.
In an adjacent System, I found a planet with 0.26 Colo-cost which has almost every kind of resource, but all of them with only 0.1 accessibility.
The problem is that I need Corundium to make more Corundium. But as it is now, I can only make around 10 to 15 Automines a year which increases my Corundium production rreeeeaaaally slowly. Corundium is almost bleed dry at Earth and my only other source in Sol has 0,5 accessibility :(
Solutions?
Should I focus all my Automines on mining Corundium while massively building mines?
Post by: TheDeadlyShoe on February 03, 2012, 04:10:47 AM
Focusing research on increasing mining production will help. Do focus on the mineral you are limited by - well, that and Duranium. You can cope with shortages of nearly every mineral except Duranium.
If you are limited almost entirely by Corundium - and not other resources- you can build regular mines and deploy them to quasi-habitable worlds (such as Titan or Mercury) that have corundium. You will need to back them up with massive construction of Infrastructure. In an extreme corundium shortage, you can even staff regular mines at inhospitable worlds using orbital habitats. The wealth and duranium cost of both strategies is high however.
Asteroids and Comets are good places to concentrate mines on, they'll run out relatively quick but you can really use the high accessibility boost in the early game. Note that an Asteroid Mining Module is equivalent to an automated mine, but only costs 60 Corundium. The downside is that they can only be used at asteroids and tooling for mining ships can be expensive.
Don't be fooled by the worlds with huge amounts of low accessibility minerals. You need good accessibility in order to mine economically relevant quantities. Millions of units of corundium doesnt help you any if its 0.1 accessibility. Don't be afraid to exploit mineral sources a few systems away, either - the real problem will be shipping mines there (and possibly defending them). Setting up shipments back is pretty simple, not that much harder than using mass drivers.
Post by: chrislocke2000 on February 03, 2012, 08:07:05 AM
My normal policy is to send a team round the moons of Jupiter then once they have a score of above 150 or so bring them back to the inner planets. That way they have a better chance of finding something useful on the planets that have the easiest logistics for moving mines to.
Was having exactly the same problem as you in my current game up until I found a good source two jumps out from Sol. Just takes a bit of time to get the infrastructure up and running.
Post by: Marthnn on February 03, 2012, 02:25:00 PM
Post by: Thiosk on February 03, 2012, 03:15:23 PM
About colonising non-ideal worlds, I was thrilled when I found out civilian shipping lines can trade with those to bring infrastructures you didn't even build! Now, I always start my colonies at the same time as terraforming. The shipping lines use their free time transporting infrastructure trade goods, which gives them and yourself wealth. In my current game, after Mars and Mercury were done for, I had about 75k infrastructures to move to Titan for a long term colony in non-ideal conditions. I built 1k of those at the start, the rest came from trade goods and didn't cost me a dime.
Im really wondering about the exploityness of this.
Since infrastructure is a trade good we get paid to have, how is it in any way detrimental to have infrastructure based colonies? Just skip terraforming entirely.
I think civ trade needs a colony-cost modifier, with colony-cost zero being a major bonus.
Post by: TheDeadlyShoe on February 03, 2012, 04:52:04 PM
You can massage colony cost to prevent that, but at that point you're really starting asploit.
Additionally, if your civilian fleet is entirely tied up shipping infrastructure to a single colony, you will have an extremely limited capability to establish other infrastructure colonies.
Post by: Sarganto on February 04, 2012, 07:08:54 AM
Also don't forget to get a Geology survey team trained up, there is a reasonable chance that a team can uncover an extra 100,000 tons for you or improve the accessibility of existing deposits substantially.I have a survey team with 150 skill. I send them around to all the potential colonies and mining colonies to search for more stuff.
My normal policy is to send a team round the moons of Jupiter then once they have a score of above 150 or so bring them back to the inner planets. That way they have a better chance of finding something useful on the planets that have the easiest logistics for moving mines to.
Was having exactly the same problem as you in my current game up until I found a good source two jumps out from Sol. Just takes a bit of time to get the infrastructure up and running.
But sending them to every planet? That sounds like an awful lot of micromanagement.
I will probably go the focus road. Focus on Duranium and Corundium mining early on and build mines like crazy.
Oh another small question:
In the task force screen, next to the name of some ships there is an (A)
What does that mean?
Post by: MattyD on February 04, 2012, 08:06:37 AM
Post by: Stromko on March 20, 2012, 12:15:31 AM
Here's the problem. My ships fired once, as soon as they decided they had good enough odds. Even got a few hits, for 1 damage apiece. Unfortunately, now they're continually saying, at every 5 second increment, that they're trying to fire but their weapons have 0 out of 3 (for the 10 cm lasers) and 0 out of 6 (for the 12 cm) charge. I have rank 3 capacitors on their beams, and the 10 cm list an ROF of 5, while the 10 cm's list an ROF of 10. These are full sized Near Ultraviolet lasers without any reduction in Rate of Fire.
Basically, my ships have fired once, and now all their weapons are failing to charge, at all. What's going on here? The enemy has meson beams, so I don't think they're scrambling my systems or anything funky like that. They're simply trying and fire over and over again because their lasers have no charge.
Post by: Panopticon on March 20, 2012, 12:36:41 AM
Post by: Stromko on March 20, 2012, 12:48:06 AM
Post by: xeryon on March 20, 2012, 08:13:41 AM
Post by: RadioGibbon on April 07, 2012, 04:45:18 PM
Is their a way to get them to switch career paths? Do I need a certain base number of colonists before people start working in the installations I've manually placed and if so what is it?
Thanks in advance.
Post by: Erik L on April 07, 2012, 04:58:31 PM
I'm trying to establish an infrastructure colony on mercury to get at the 7,000,000 tons of Duranium that will end all my problems, but no one seems to want to want to work in a mine. I have a dozen mines already set up and about 1. 2 million colonists, but 92% of them are working in Agriculture and Enviromental and the other 8% are in service industries.
Is their a way to get them to switch career paths? Do I need a certain base number of colonists before people start working in the installations I've manually placed and if so what is it?
Thanks in advance.
Personally I'd start off with 100 or so automines and a mass driver.
In the lower right corner of the status screen for Mars, are any of the values 0%?
Post by: Steve Walmsley on April 07, 2012, 05:03:20 PM
I'm trying to establish an infrastructure colony on mercury to get at the 7,000,000 tons of Duranium that will end all my problems, but no one seems to want to want to work in a mine. I have a dozen mines already set up and about 1. 2 million colonists, but 92% of them are working in Agriculture and Enviromental and the other 8% are in service industries.
Is their a way to get them to switch career paths? Do I need a certain base number of colonists before people start working in the installations I've manually placed and if so what is it?
Thanks in advance.
The percentage in agriculture and environmental is based on 5% plus 5% for every point of colony cost. In other words, if the planet is extremely harsh, most of the population is going to be working on keeping everyone alive. To reduce colony cost you could terraform the planet, or you could put the population in orbital habitats so they don't care about conditions on the surface, or you could use automated mines so you don't need population.
Steve
Post by: RadioGibbon on April 07, 2012, 05:28:22 PM
Manufacturing was at 0%, but I assumed that was because no one was working in manufacturing - I was trying to avoid automines because I'm tightfisted and wanted to recycle the mines I already had (I'm trying to make sure I spend my last 12000 Duranium on things I really need!) However as Steve's advice and my bad math indicate I can run about 2 mines per 1740 infrastructre (not counting service industry bods) I could spend all my remaining Duranium on 6000 Infrastructre and end up with about 8 mines working on Mercury.
Automines ahoy!
Thanks again.
Post by: Erik L on April 07, 2012, 06:29:25 PM
Thanks guys,The reasons I suggest automines: you can convert regular mines to them, the free up population for other tasks, they are just as efficient as regular mines, and you can put them on anything except a gas giant :)
Manufacturing was at 0%, but I assumed that was because no one was working in manufacturing - I was trying to avoid automines because I'm tightfisted and wanted to recycle the mines I already had (I'm trying to make sure I spend my last 12000 Duranium on things I really need!) However as Steve's advice and my bad math indicate I can run about 2 mines per 1740 infrastructre (not counting service industry bods) I could spend all my remaining Duranium on 6000 Infrastructre and end up with about 8 mines working on Mercury.
Automines ahoy!
Thanks again.
Post by: CaptnCranky on May 23, 2012, 05:48:27 PM
A question tho:
I built my first Task Force of 4 missile destroyers and 4 anti-miss destroyers. Will the anti-miss destroyers autoprotect my missile destroyers in the same task force or should I put them in some formation and how to do that?
Post by: Erik L on May 23, 2012, 06:29:02 PM
So I started playing today. . . and its awesome!
A question tho:
I built my first Task Force of 4 missile destroyers and 4 anti-miss destroyers. Will the anti-miss destroyers autoprotect my missile destroyers in the same task force or should I put them in some formation and how to do that?
Hit F8. That brings up the combat screen. From there you assign missiles to launchers and launchers to fire controls. You can also setup your point defense.
Post by: Steve Walmsley on May 24, 2012, 01:17:19 PM
So I started playing today. . . and its awesome!
A question tho:
I built my first Task Force of 4 missile destroyers and 4 anti-miss destroyers. Will the anti-miss destroyers autoprotect my missile destroyers in the same task force or should I put them in some formation and how to do that?
Once you set up their point defence, the AMM escorts will engage any hostile missiles in range, regardless of which TG they are in or the TG of the target.
Steve
Post by: MehMuffin on May 28, 2012, 09:41:14 AM
Post by: Erik L on May 28, 2012, 10:44:31 AM
In the new game window, do the starting percentages for wealth and industry affect NPRs? And does the starting population affect them?
I believe starting NPRs are only affected by your starting population.
Post by: MehMuffin on May 28, 2012, 04:31:19 PM
Post by: TheDeadlyShoe on May 28, 2012, 04:52:37 PM
Post by: CaptnCranky on May 28, 2012, 06:02:46 PM
LMNR class Asteroid Miner 60400 tons 1483 Crew 2074. 3 BP TCS 1208 TH 1500 EM 0
1241 km/s Armour 1-137 Shields 0-0 Sensors 32/1/0/0 Damage Control 1 PPV 0
Maintenance Capacity 21 MSP
Cargo 5000 Cargo Handling Multiplier 40
Asteroid Miner: 10 module(s) producing 700 tons per mineral per annum
Solid Core Anti-matter Drive E0. 3com (3) Power 500 Fuel Use 3% Armour 0 Exp 1%
Fuel Capacity 100 000 Litres Range 99. 3 billion km (925 days at full power)
CIWS-1000 (1x16) Range 1000 km TS: 100000 km/s ROF 5 Base 50% To Hit
Thermal Sensor TH1-32 (1) Sensitivity 32 Detect Signature 1000: 32m km
This ship is classed as a commercial vessel for maintenance purposes
Post by: ollobrains on May 28, 2012, 06:16:39 PM
Post by: hikkiko on May 28, 2012, 06:21:15 PM
Post by: CaptnCranky on May 28, 2012, 06:33:19 PM
Post by: blue emu on May 28, 2012, 09:54:39 PM
It would be helpful if there was an order to mine asteroids automatically and then carry minerals back to colony. Usually they have small amounts of minerals and micromanagement of them all might be a bit tedious.
I give each Asteroid Miner a cargo hold to carry a Mass Driver. When arrives at the Asteroid, it unloads the Mass Driver and starts mining. When it's done with the Asteroid, it picks up the Mass Driver and heads off to the next rock.
Post by: TheDeadlyShoe on May 29, 2012, 12:04:14 AM
Practically speaking, it's nearly always better to pick out asteroids for mining yourself and send the miner there. The logistics are too complicated otherwise.
Post by: segundoblz on June 20, 2012, 01:14:24 PM
Quote from: Brian link=topic=2132. msg21733#msg21733 date=1266625791
Scientists do age, but they have a much reduced chance of death vs the military officers. The number of labs makes no difference with the chance of advancing them which is why 1 lab each works fine. The academy produces all of your leaders, including the admin and scientists.
Brian
Does it mean + academy + scientists?
Post by: Zook on August 11, 2012, 10:21:10 PM
Post by: Erik L on August 11, 2012, 10:39:07 PM
Can you rename star systems? Mine are all called Gliese.
Yes. F9, lower left, Rename system
Post by: Steve Walmsley on August 12, 2012, 06:07:28 AM
Can you rename star systems? Mine are all called Gliese.
They are probably Gliese plus a number. This is the name by which the primary star is known to real world astronomers, although there are several different star catalogues so I have tried to use names from different ones to reduce the number of Glieses a little :)
Steve
Post by: Zook on August 12, 2012, 12:41:01 PM
Post by: Steve Walmsley on August 12, 2012, 12:53:35 PM
I sent a bunch of asteroid miners to an asteroid, but they didn't start mining. I waited for a month or so, but they only got to work when I ordered them again to move to the location where they already were.
A ship has to be assigned to a particular population if it needs to function as part of this colony. Normally, this is invisible because when a fleet moves there this is set automatically. However, if you moved them there and then set up the colony afterwards, or SM'ed them into position, that wouldn't happen. You can fix it as you did above by moving them to the location again, or you can set a ship's assigned population at the top right of the Ship Window (F6).
Steve
Post by: Zook on August 12, 2012, 01:44:25 PM
Next question: can I automate transporting maintenance supplies to a colony? I've built a specialized supply ship, but I can only unload supplies manually.
Post by: Steve Walmsley on August 12, 2012, 01:57:23 PM
Ah, thanks. That's one I probably would never have figured out.
Next question: can I automate transporting maintenance supplies to a colony? I've built a specialized supply ship, but I can only unload supplies manually.
You need to flag the supply ship class as a "Supply Ship". There is a checkbox in the top right of the F5 Ship Class Window. A fleet with a supply ship has additional orders it can use, such as unloading supplies.
Steve
Post by: Zook on August 12, 2012, 01:58:07 PM
it takes 12 mouse clicks to send a ship from Sol to 34 OphiuchiA-IV, not including refueling etc. Can't they find their own way, instead of having me tell them explicitly through which gates to jump?
BTW, I'm putting things from this thread in the wiki FAQ.
edit: Aaaargh. I've found it. Could you pleeeeeease rename "Show all Pops" to something more... intuitive?
Post by: Beersatron on August 12, 2012, 03:08:27 PM
And the next one:
it takes 12 mouse clicks to send a ship from Sol to 34 OphiuchiA-IV, not including refueling etc. Can't they find their own way, instead of having me tell them explicitly through which gates to jump?
BTW, I'm putting things from this thread in the wiki FAQ.
edit: Aaaargh. I've found it. Could you pleeeeeease rename "Show all Pops" to something more... intuitive?
NB. That show all pops will only work if the destination is within 4 jumps - that is a hard cap Steve put in on auto-routing.
Post by: telegraph on September 08, 2012, 06:27:50 PM
So here we go:
I find it helpful not to design any colony ships. This way shipping lines are forced to use luxury liners, which takes much less people in a single run, but generate greater profit. It might also be helpful to obsolete freighter design when you feel that you had enough of civilian freighters for now. This will force shipping lines to build more luxury liners.
Why?
Because this way you:
1. get more income.
2. do not need to produce any infrastructure beyond initial ammount, as colonies grow slowly enough to be supported by civilian infrastructure.
3. have plenty of time to plan and deploy necessary defence forces.
Post by: Erik L on September 08, 2012, 07:28:38 PM
I figured out this tip. I am not sure if new players will find it here(I would not), so if you guys agree that it is sane - maybe there is some better place to place it?
So here we go:
I find it helpful not to design any colony ships. This way shipping lines are forced to use luxury liners, which takes much less people in a single run, but generate greater profit. It might also be helpful to obsolete freighter design when you feel that you had enough of civilian freighters for now. This will force shipping lines to build more luxury liners.
Why?
Because this way you:
1. get more income.
2. do not need to produce any infrastructure beyond initial ammount, as colonies grow slowly enough to be supported by civilian infrastructure.
3. have plenty of time to plan and deploy necessary defence forces.
Put an EM scanner larger than size 1 on it. Or Thermal. Then the civ lines won't build it since it is no longer a civilian design.
Post by: sloanjh on September 09, 2012, 12:33:12 PM
2) Forcing your colony ships to be military designs turns on maintenance and breakdown rules for them.
John
Post by: xeryon on September 09, 2012, 08:37:29 PM
Do to a bit of a glitch, you can generate considerably more revenue from civilian shipping lines if you run 1 day increments. For some reason civilians don't recycle their shipping queue until the end or beginning of the next time cycle you select. If you run a 5 day cycle and a ship ends it's route on the third day it won't leave port until the 1st day of your next 5 day time cycle.
Post by: TheDeadlyShoe on September 10, 2012, 05:06:28 PM
Post by: vonduus on October 25, 2012, 03:48:08 AM
I have this system I found, two hops away from my home colony, that will be the perfect hub for a grand mining operation: It has five wormholes connected to some accesible and very mineral-rich systems. But the system itself consists of only two gas giants, and a few moons, none of them habitable. So I thought: this I where the orbital habitat module would come in handy. I want a populated colony, because I want it to be my new sector capital, with a commander that can bring a heavy mining bonus to the operations.
The idea was to set up an orbiting colony on one of the giants/moons, to act as a resource collector/sorium mine and as sector governor headquarters. But then I saw how big the module is: 250. 000 tons!!!!
How do you guys build these monsters? In my game I am some 30 years in, and one of my shipyards has expanded almost continually in all these years, but it has only around 150. 000t capacity by now. I reckon it will take another 10-20 years to grow it into its appropriate size.
How do you guys manage to build orbital habitats? Is there something I have missed? And I am wondering, if I built one, would it fit in the jump gate?
Now, if it is the case that I must wait for my shipyards to grow bigger, are there other ways to establish a sector command center on an uninhabitable world?
And in any case, where do I find the "create new sector" button?
Post by: Icecoon on October 25, 2012, 09:51:12 AM
2. Everything can pass a jump gate, only jump engines have limitations.
Post by: Shooer on October 25, 2012, 09:51:37 AM
There is no new sector button, you make a new sector by building sector command centers in a new system.
Post by: Garfunkel on October 26, 2012, 12:29:40 AM
Orbital Habitats can be built by construction factories as said but you will still need a pretty impressive tug to haul them around. So while it's entirely possible to create a OH the size of several millions of tons, building it will take some time and moving it will be a long-term project as well.
Post by: vonduus on October 26, 2012, 02:17:06 AM
But the information about sector commands may not be so welcome, for this means, if I understand it right, that I will have to build the sector command on a planet, because it is not possible to have orbital factories in space, right? I have seen that almost all other planet-bound activities can be duplicated in some space versions, but not the factories. Sector bonuses are quite good I believe, but having to terraform a crappy planet with no minerals, or haul a lot of infrastructure there, and factories, just to get one, well, he better be a very good governor, then.
Post by: Icecoon on October 26, 2012, 02:38:17 AM
Post by: StarJaunter on December 08, 2012, 10:54:59 PM
Am I skipping a step?
Post by: Erik L on December 08, 2012, 11:27:22 PM
Everyone says to concentrate on missiles first, well I tried creating designs and they are saved as I can bring them up as a starting point for future missile designs. But they are never added to the possible Ordinance I can build under the Industry tab.
Am I skipping a step?
Do you have Ordnance factories?
Do you have the droplist changed from Installations to Missiles?
Post by: davidb86 on December 10, 2012, 06:57:12 AM
Post by: StarJaunter on December 12, 2012, 10:39:27 PM
Thanks
Post by: Erik L on December 12, 2012, 10:42:35 PM
Figured it out. Till now I have been using instant to create tech items. The missile screen lacked its own instant button. When you create a tech item it puts an option to research it in the appropriate category. Seems simple but the tutorials just have you use the instant button built into the tech design screen so I didn't know that was how it worked properly till now.
Thanks
The Instant RST (I think that's what it is called) button on the research tab will give you all designed racial tech.
Post by: Rajhin on May 10, 2014, 05:54:24 PM
Anyone know what can be the problem? I didn't even leave the Sol yet, I don't think it's the NPRs or anything.
Post by: Haji on May 10, 2014, 06:15:49 PM
Aside from NPRs I have no idea what may be causing it. I never had a problem like that when I was starting my games without a starting NPR.
Post by: Rajhin on May 13, 2014, 10:00:32 PM
Can someone tell me what does it mean if I can order a ships to refuel at colony even though the planet I am sending them is empty?
I sent the survey ship there too with passive scanners and nothing was revealed.
Post by: ExChairman on October 23, 2014, 08:14:22 AM
Usually works for me
Post by: Havan_IronOak on February 14, 2016, 01:56:06 AM
Hi all, I'm pretty new to this game, I like to do conventional starts and so far I've found out that you can make Diplomatic teams and they gain skill from practicing with themselves on Earth... This probably isn't a big tip but I overlooked it for awhile, does anyone know any other things to do at the beginning of a game to help yourself out later?
A shameless plug for a section I'm developing on the wiki http://aurorawiki.pentarch.org/index.php?title=One_Newbie%27s_Guide_to_a_Conventional_Start
I'd love for anyone and everyone to read it and add comments and suggestions and additional tips to this thread http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=8283.0
Post by: TCD on June 20, 2016, 12:30:49 PM
Post by: Irishpolak on December 11, 2016, 09:10:22 AM
1) I've created orbital habitats with 100 sorium harvesters each, and moved them in orbit of a super jovian with around 85m units of sorium. Is there any way to see the fuel that they created? And while I'm on this note, do the orbital habitats need fuel storage themselves in order to produce fuel? I've noticed that the amount of sorium decreases, but I can't see the fuel, is it lost to oblivion?
2) Slightly related, but I created a new orbital habitat with actual fuel storage in case that was my issue, but I can't make it unload it's fuel. Currently it's in orbit of Earth, and holding millions of gallons of fuel hostage. How do I make it release it's fuel before tugging it to a sorium source?
3) I've been contemplating making extensive orbital habitats loaded with sensors, plasma carronades, CIWS's, and perhaps some missile launchers, then dropping it off at strategic jump points to catch enemy ships when they enter the system. Is this at all a plausible idea? Or would this just jeopardize what would inevitably be a massive investment of resources?
4) As for terraforming, my current method is several large orbital habitats that get tugged around to the location I want them to terraform. The only problem is, this takes a lot of time to drag the massive habitats into position. Would I be better designing smaller habitats and mass producing them, or perhaps designing some self-propelled terraforming ships to have a more flexible option?
Post by: littleWolf on December 11, 2016, 09:20:36 AM
Post by: TheDeadlyShoe on December 11, 2016, 02:00:41 PM
4.) There isn't really a right answer to this, although if you research enough into low multipliers for engines you can make extremely cheap high fuel efficiency engines that are relatively inexpensive to add to terraforming or fuel harvesting platforms.
Post by: Titanian on December 11, 2016, 03:27:47 PM
2) In the Class Design window, in the top right, check the tanker box to mark the class as tanker, then you can order it to unload fuel at colonies and you can order other taskgroups to refuel at it. Or you unload it via the Individual Units window, misc tab
Post by: 83athom on December 11, 2016, 07:26:40 PM
1) I've created orbital habitats with 100 sorium harvesters each, and moved them in orbit of a super jovian with around 85m units of sorium. Is there any way to see the fuel that they created? And while I'm on this note, do the orbital habitats need fuel storage themselves in order to produce fuel? I've noticed that the amount of sorium decreases, but I can't see the fuel, is it lost to oblivion?Fuel gathered from orbital refineries are placed directly into fuel storage. They do require fuel storage to store the fuel.
2) Slightly related, but I created a new orbital habitat with actual fuel storage in case that was my issue, but I can't make it unload it's fuel. Currently it's in orbit of Earth, and holding millions of gallons of fuel hostage. How do I make it release it's fuel before tugging it to a sorium source?You have to tag the design as a tanker in the ship design window, the top right corcer, for it to get those orders.
3) I've been contemplating making extensive orbital habitats loaded with sensors, plasma carronades, CIWS's, and perhaps some missile launchers, then dropping it off at strategic jump points to catch enemy ships when they enter the system. Is this at all a plausible idea? Or would this just jeopardize what would inevitably be a massive investment of resources?That is currently not plausible, but will be in the next version.
4) As for terraforming, my current method is several large orbital habitats that get tugged around to the location I want them to terraform. The only problem is, this takes a lot of time to drag the massive habitats into position. Would I be better designing smaller habitats and mass producing them, or perhaps designing some self-propelled terraforming ships to have a more flexible option?All depends on preference. Larger single units are most cost effective, but they do take longer o get into position.
Post by: Detros on February 13, 2017, 12:51:10 PM
Beside other more clear stuff you can hide also all those pesky civilians so they don't clutter your System map. Use Contacts tab on the side.
Post by: Chaney on March 10, 2017, 04:17:20 AM
1) Is there an easier way to zoom to planets? For example if I have miners on an asteroid and its been emptied double clicking on the asteroid in the summary tab does not bring me to it, instead I have to go to all bodies and scroll through the whole list of asteroids until I find it, surely there is a better way that I am missing out on? I want to do this to check where the asteroid is and whether its worth it to get freighters to remove the miners.
2) What kind of automation can you get to with mining? If I put a load of miners on a ship and put a conditional order to mine the nearest asteroid will it just automatically go mine everything and put the minerals in storage? In which case I can just add a mass driver later or put a freighter on some form of condition order?
Thanks for the help!
Post by: ORCACommander on March 10, 2017, 10:08:27 AM
i never got into mining ships. the conditional order will have it go to the nearest one with minerals and mine it every time so it may not go after which rock you want. it will transfer to cargo so make sure it has orders to return when full and unload