Author Topic: Help me “get” this game...  (Read 2597 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

BBWags82

  • Guest
Help me “get” this game...
« on: March 23, 2018, 12:02:58 PM »
Ok, so first off, nothing I say here is meant to be inflammatory.   I’m just struggling to “get” this game and I am entirely willing to say that I’m at fault for missing “it”.   So help me see what it is that makes this game Dwarf Fortress in space.

The reason I ask is I do already like the game, I really do.   But I just find myself colonizing worlds and sort of doing busy work shipping things back and forth.   I don’t really get where the depth comes into play.   Obviously designing ships is a huge part of where depth actually is, but I struggle with that because I design (IMO) awesome ships and then I get into combat and the game just comes to a screeching halt of processing a billion 5 second turns while NOTHING HAPPENS as it takes forever for missiles to reach their destination five seconds at a time. . .

So it’d help if combat was faster and maybe you have tips on that.   But aside from the depth of designing ships (which IS cool, I’ll grant you), I’m not seeing much depth to the game.   The mechanics of exploration and colonization seem pretty simple. . .  fun at first but then a bit tedious. . .

But maybe I just don’t see what’s going on behind the scenes.   Maybe there is a ton of depth and I’m ignorantly wading in the kiddie pool. . .  I love the premise of this game and I find the visuals perfect in a similar way that I find DF’s visuals endearing, so that’s not an issue at all.   Help me to see/understand what this game has to offer because so far it is fun at first but then it just kind of turns into mindless busy work for me and I’m not sure what the point of all of it is.   Any help out there?
 

Offline Barkhorn

  • Commodore
  • **********
  • B
  • Posts: 719
  • Thanked: 133 times
Re: Help me “get” this game...
« Reply #1 on: March 23, 2018, 03:32:00 PM »
There's a huge amount of depth I think you're missing in the logistics behind fielding those ships.  How they perform once they're built isn't the only thing you need to consider.  You also need to worry about having slipways big enough for them, and enough of them that you can built as many as you need.  Maybe you need to expand a shipyard?  This can get expensive.  Then you also need to retool the shipyard, which can also be expensive.  And then this ship probably can't work by itself; you need a whole fleet of other ships, all of which must go through a similar process.  And ideally, all these ships will finish at around the same time.

Same thing with building colonies.  Sure, building any particular colony is easy.  Deciding what colonies to build is much trickier.

You're right though that the thousands of 5-second increments during combat are annoying.  This will be partially alleviated by the upcoming version, which is supposed to be thousands of times faster.  You'll still get 5-sec increment spam, but they won't each take 5-seconds to process anymore.

Ultimately though, you need to remember that Steve isn't making this to be a game.  It was originally intended to help people roleplay stories from some old tabletop, pen-and-paper RPG.  We should consider ourselves lucky that there's as much of a game here as there is.
 

Offline TT

  • Warrant Officer, Class 1
  • *****
  • T
  • Posts: 81
  • Thanked: 12 times
Re: Help me “get” this game...
« Reply #2 on: March 23, 2018, 08:21:01 PM »
Depth means different things to different people. I don't know what it means to you but I can tell you what I like about this game.Your empire in Aurora is exactly what you make it.

You set the priorities for your empire.  You can focus on mining resource, research, manufacturing, building ships, colonizing. Really anything.  And those priorities have real consequenses.  I'm sure I'm not the only player that lost a colony because I prioritized manufacturing over defense and then welcomed an invader fleet into my system.

Discovering the right balance to strike in those priorities is the first real challenge a player faces.  Once your discover that, then you set your own goals.  Maybe you want to colonize 100 systems, make your first 100000 ton ship or whatever.  The world is open ended and you can pursue your own goals in your own way.

What's more, most computer games try to simplify the game play.  I get it, the companies that produce the games need to make money so they need their games to appeal to the largest possible audience. I've come to find that what appeals to me in a game isn't what really sells games to the general public.  I don't really like simplicity, I like complexity.  I like games that are hard to figure out and have a learning curve. 

Aurora delivers complexity and freedom.  I'm sure that the game doesn't appeal to everyone.  In fact, I suspect it only is really enjoyed by a relatively few people. But it provides what I'm looking for. So that's my take.
 

Offline tobijon

  • Warrant Officer, Class 1
  • *****
  • t
  • Posts: 91
  • Thanked: 11 times
Re: Help me “get” this game...
« Reply #3 on: March 24, 2018, 04:27:49 AM »
The five second increments are due to AI factions being in combat, combat simulations have to go at low intervals.   Its very frustrating because you dont know how long its going to take.   The main thing about aurora is that you need to make your own objectives since there are no goals.   If you dont have anything to do, go explore some more systems, eventually you will find something interesting. 
 

Offline Andy8583

  • Leading Rate
  • *
  • A
  • Posts: 14
  • Thanked: 4 times
Re: Help me “get” this game...
« Reply #4 on: April 05, 2018, 05:08:19 PM »
Hmm, I've not yet entered combat where I can fight back yet, but can't you just set a minimum iteration for turn repeats at 1, slap on auto-turn and then set an hour to pass, or whatever length of time you'd like,? I don't know if it works yet, but it might.
 

Offline Garfunkel

  • Registered
  • Admiral of the Fleet
  • ***********
  • Posts: 2781
  • Thanked: 1048 times
Re: Help me “get” this game...
« Reply #5 on: April 05, 2018, 07:30:03 PM »
No but you can toggle auto-turn on, click 5 seconds and it let it roll. If it's two NPRs fighting, the game will keep churning out the 5-second turns until a construction phase happens that interrupts auto-turns. You can watch a movie or read a book or play another game while that happens.

Aurora certainly isn't for everyone. If you don't find the combat interesting, then there is little point in forcing yourself to play. I know that I'm always nervous and excited when missiles are in flight, even if I have to wait several minutes for the outcome to become clear.