Author Topic: What's going on in your empire/planet/battlefield?  (Read 263824 times)

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Offline Barkhorn

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Re: What's going on in your empire/planet/battlefield?
« Reply #1785 on: November 23, 2017, 04:44:42 PM »
Are you actually controlling both factions?  Seems like a micromanagement headache of biblical proportions.  I can't imagine managing the fire controls of ~2400 ships.  Can you even see the map through all the sensor contacts?
 

Offline Haji

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Re: What's going on in your empire/planet/battlefield?
« Reply #1786 on: November 24, 2017, 01:02:35 PM »
Yes, I am controlling both factions. Also due to the mechanics of Aurora it is actually the best tactic to keep your forces together, at least in battle, so all the contacts are in three blips (fighters as one bleep and each fleet as the other two) so the map situation isn't so bad. As for the fire control situation it's also not as bad as it may seem - I cheat.

Basically every single missile type I use (except for anti-missiles) have active sensors, which allows me to set up overkills. As such I just set up fire controls on one ship of each type and copy it system wide. Even if overkill occurs, the missiles will just find new targets on their own. It still takes time, as there are numerous classes of ships of course, but not that much time.

There are two things about that however. First, from what I observed if you overkill a target, the game, during the next increment, will just choose a target, hammer it until it is either dead or the missiles run our, then choose another (if there are more shipkillers available) and so on. This means focusing fire on a single target is actually beneficial as it ensures multiple ships are fully destroyed, while trying to be cute and "properly" splitting fire may results in many ships damaged, but few lost. The downside is that this leads to missiles being in point blank ranges for additional increment, so gauss cannons and the likes will fire twice, the first time during the normal missile strike and then during the next increment as overkill missiles are calculated. Needless to say with this many ships this results in hundreds, if not thousands, shipkillers lost needlessly, but it's not really such a big issue.

The greatest problem with fire control set up is Aurora responsiveness. If you happen to have a hundred or so ships of a given class, it can take two minutes after you select the ship for the game to respond. Worse, switching between missiles and energy weapons on the battle screen also takes time.

Even so it's doable, although of course if you try to do it properly and optimally it can take you a whole damn day. Which is why i don't bother.
 

Offline serger

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Re: What's going on in your empire/planet/battlefield?
« Reply #1787 on: November 25, 2017, 04:25:08 AM »
Have my 1st contact with NPR civ at 1000% difficulty modifier after 30yrs of roleplay with home rules. More Blood for the Blood God!
« Last Edit: November 25, 2017, 04:26:55 AM by serger »
 

Offline Michael Sandy

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Re: What's going on in your empire/planet/battlefield?
« Reply #1788 on: November 26, 2017, 03:04:27 AM »
I wonder if there should be a militancy check for ships and fighters to delete (no wrecks) rather than self-destruct in a way that leaves wrecks.  More an RP question than a mechanics question.
 

Offline obsidian_green

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Re: What's going on in your empire/planet/battlefield?
« Reply #1789 on: December 07, 2017, 02:02:23 AM »
In the past week I've finally run into an NPR that looks like it's able and willing to fight. They destroyed the unarmed (offensively at any rate) survey ship Yuri Gagarin (after it detected a population w/ a thermal contact larger than I have back on Earth) with WH 27 anti-ship missiles and they have 7000-plus ton ships moving at better than 15,000 km/s.

I dispatched a carrier battle group to the other side of their JP and dropped a recon craft through ... enemy has assembled quite the fleet on the other side of the JP. I'll be rotating my two modern battle groups in and out of guard duty until I can build and train another two battle groups and their complements, but that'll take at least a couple of years. I will likely build modern fighters for my two older carriers as well because I'm expecting real losses from this battle. (RADM Geraldine Spriggle is planning as I type, but she's getting up in years and might retire before the show; she'll be disappointed, as she pulled off a Minbari at the Battle of the Line-style stomping of the House of Monkey some twenty years earlier.)

...

When it eventually happens, this will be an important battle, since I'll be committing every warship I have---excepting my seven survey cruisers---to the enterprise. Good times!

Well, I'm finally on the eve of that decisive battle after about four game years. The fleet has assembled (not quite every combatant---capable fighters and some nigh-obsolete warships remain uncommitted to this battle) and I just have to make sure I have all my FCs set up correctly before I begin (probably tomorrow). I haven't yet dropped a sacrificial recon craft through the JP, so I have no clue what the Iwakuni have managed to muster in their defense, but they've had three or four years to do it. I have to remember to crank up Holst's Mars!

As I mentioned in a previous post, the wait hasn't been completely uneventful, with some significant action that constitutes its own separate battle ... winter-chicken Geraldine Spriggle, always willing to 'splode things to make the universe pay for her being named Geraldine, wasn't bored to death by blockade duty, hahah!
 

Offline TheBawkHawk

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Re: What's going on in your empire/planet/battlefield?
« Reply #1790 on: December 10, 2017, 01:27:39 AM »
So I've got a bit of a situation. 4 alien warships just appeared in Centaurus, a major fleet base of mine. I'm not sure how to handle it. My fleet has managed to catch up, but will soon be out of range.



RP wise I have no clue what these guys are capable of. Non-RP I have every idea of what these guys are capable of. I've been getting some major increment slowdown for a year or two in game, so I used devmode to check out what the heck is going on with my allies (the guys in the white coloured system in the next picture). Turns out they're getting their rear ends handed to them on a silver platter by another NPR race, way more advanced than either me or my allies. After they entered my system I used devmode to check out just how many sytems of mine they've discovered, because if they're sending warships this close to my colonies then it must mean they know a lot. Turns out, they know a lot.



The systems they're confirmed to have ships in / knowledge of are outlined in white. The path that I believe they took to get to my space is in red.

I'm conflicted on what to do. I feel that RP wise I should tail them and see what they're up to. But I know what they're up to, and it's no good. I've got my fleet close enough to launch a missile strike, but they'll be out of missile range in a few hours. I could detach my laser frigates to tail them, as they have a higher speed. I could also tail them for a bit and launch fighters after them. Or possibly a combination of all 3. One thing is for certain, this is about to get a lot more interesting.

TL;DR: Aliens are sneaking into my systems and puttering about menacingly. Kill, no kill, or kill after a little bit of no kill?
 

Offline joeclark77

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Re: What's going on in your empire/planet/battlefield?
« Reply #1791 on: December 10, 2017, 12:51:40 PM »
Shoot first and make up a roleplaying reason later, is what the experts generally do.  You might go with something like a back-channel request for help from your ally.  Or with some officer deciding that you'd better not wait for the ally to be beaten, because then the alien will be able to concentrate his forces on your.  Combine that with certain elements who see this as an opportunity to expand Earth's power, and there you go.

Be careful with your ammunition, though, don't waste all your missiles on these ships if there might be another fleet ready to counter-attack.
 

Offline TT

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Re: What's going on in your empire/planet/battlefield?
« Reply #1792 on: December 10, 2017, 05:59:06 PM »
Bawk,

I think the prudent thingto do is keep your fleet concentrated. If they out tech you then you are going to want to maintain numbers as much as you can. I'd drop probes on all of your jump points and start systematticly searching your systems. destroy any ships you find and take advantage of the salvage. Good luck
 

Offline TheBawkHawk

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Re: What's going on in your empire/planet/battlefield?
« Reply #1793 on: December 10, 2017, 07:57:02 PM »
I took the advice and blasted the 4 ships out of the sky. I believe that they were actually salvage ships, as they were beelining for a wreck in the outer system, didn't change course as the missiles approached, and only had one layer of armour. I don't know if this is better or worse, as they must be fairly comfortable in this space to be having their salvage ships around here.

After the incident, the 3rd Battlefleet was sent from Sol to blockade the Donwaltz jump point and reinforce Centaurus. At the same time, the DDG Bumble Bee was loaded with sensor buoys and tasked with extending the buoy network to cover the colonies past Proxima Centauri.

Sure enough, just a few days after the initial encounter, the aliens launched a counter-attack through the Donwaltz jump point, confirming that is where they came from. A total of 14 heavy cruisers jumped through in no less than 5 groups, and immediately scattered away from the jump point and the awaiting warships of the 3rd. The alien cruisers sped off at a speed of 11k km/s, faster than any ship I had, and over half as fast as my fighters. The battleships of the 3rd, the Europa and Deimos, took the brunt of the initial salvos. They suffered severe armour damage, with hull breaches in multiple places, yet they suffered no internal damage. As the range opened and the Gauss turrets could open fire on the enemy missiles, the incoming damage was slowed to a trickle. As the enemy cruisers were destroyed, the incoming missiles were increasingly unable to penetrate the shield of defensive fire around the fleet.

After a few minutes of fierce beam and missile combat, the enemy was defeated, and Humanity stood as the victors in the first engagement of the war.



Well that was fun, and oh man I've got to get some minefields set up around here. I nearly lost not only the battleships, but one of my support vessels nearly got destroyed due to a lucky hit to one of her engines. How do you guys usually design your mines? I've had luck in the past with concentric rings of small mines, but I'm not sure if that's the best way to go about it.
 

Offline vorpal+5

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Re: What's going on in your empire/planet/battlefield?
« Reply #1794 on: December 11, 2017, 08:22:56 AM »
Today the Terran Confederacy replied to yet another provocation from the Issor Monarchy. While sitting peacefully on a jump point the Terran Expedition Force was assaulted. What seems to have been an escort destroyer fired its laser against a squadron of Blomm&Voss 'Schwalbe' gauss-fighters. Sadly, one went down. The vicious Issor ship then proceeded to move away, while the Issor still claimed to be 'neutral'. Ah the devious aliens!

Scramble ensued and after some 20 seconds of loitering, the fighter squadron fired their engines and started pursue. Being equipped (probably) with nuclear pulse engine, the Issor destroyed had no chance to escape the nimble Schwalbe, equipped with 2 ions powered thrusters. The enemy ship went down rapidly when the twin gauss cannons barked loud.

And now, some out of character questions...
If the initiative of the squadron commander was lower than the one of the DD, I understand the DD would have moved after the fighters on each impulse. Meaning the fighters would always be outside their gauss range potentially (if the enemy was faster than it was)?

I was surprised to see some of my fighters were nearing 100% to hit chance.I don't get that. I have them equipped with gauss canons that should have a 8% coefficient due to their size (the smallest possible), how can that be? They performed admirably so I'm happy, just surprised.
« Last Edit: December 11, 2017, 08:25:32 AM by vorpal+5 »
 

Offline Detros

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Re: What's going on in your empire/planet/battlefield?
« Reply #1795 on: December 12, 2017, 05:19:27 PM »
I was surprised to see some of my fighters were nearing 100% to hit chance.I don't get that. I have them equipped with gauss canons that should have a 8% coefficient due to their size (the smallest possible), how can that be? They performed admirably so I'm happy, just surprised.
Very experienced crew, probably. Or just tons of luck.
 

Offline Tree

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Re: What's going on in your empire/planet/battlefield?
« Reply #1796 on: December 26, 2017, 08:21:18 AM »
I made a map. Aurora date when I made it was 16/03/2038.
I'm about to send ships to Alpha Centauri, I know there's at least one star swarm queen left there and there was a matriarch in Gliese 563.2, I'm hoping it came with the queens too and that I just didn't see it last time.

 
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Offline GodEmperor

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Re: What's going on in your empire/planet/battlefield?
« Reply #1797 on: December 28, 2017, 10:12:57 AM »
I made a map. Aurora date when I made it was 16/03/2038.
I'm about to send ships to Alpha Centauri, I know there's at least one star swarm queen left there and there was a matriarch in Gliese 563.2, I'm hoping it came with the queens too and that I just didn't see it last time.



Welp, there goes my nofap....
."I am Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt. I am known as a fair man, unless I am pushed.
You have just pushed me."
 

Offline TheBawkHawk

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Re: What's going on in your empire/planet/battlefield?
« Reply #1798 on: January 10, 2018, 10:22:48 PM »
So uhh, the aliens didn't take the loss too well. I'm scared.

The Second Battlefleet remained on station at the jump point to monitor for alien transits, while the First was overhauling at Anchorage, the orbital resupply and maintenance base in the inner system. The Third was en-route to the jump point to relieve the crew of the Second, who were eager to get home to see their loved ones after nearly a year of uneventful deployment guarding the colonies. As the Third was preparing to relieve the Second, the sensor consoles throughout the fleets lit up with new hostile contacts. The crews of the Third Battlefleet immediately sprung into action, prepared and eager to re-enact the crushing victory last time the aliens attempted to force the jump point. The Third was still far out of beam range, but could still offer support in the form of missile volleys. The Second however, was in a panic. The fleet consisted of 2 Luna-class battleships, 2 Emerald-class light carriers, 5 Battle-class heavy cruisers, 2 Stellar-class command cruisers, 4 Centurion-class destroyers, 4 Wolf-class missile destroyers, as well as 24 Broadsword-class fighter-bombers. The enemy contacts surrounding them, were no less than 24 heavy cruisers, 7 battleships, and 2 dreadnoughts.

Keen to take advantage of the jump blindness that must be plaguing the hostiles, the Second immediately began firing every gun and launching every tube they could, prioritizing the larger ships. As soon as the first shots left the barrels, the enemy cruisers began to turn about. Why were they turning about? They didn't do that last time. In a remarkable feat impressing even the Terran High Command when they heard the news, the hostiles had apparently been able to overcome their jump blindness in a record 15 seconds - nearly twice as fast as the fastest recovery by Human crews. The alien intent was soon made clear, as the battleship Ganymede suddenly ceased to exist under the overwhelming torrent of laser fire coming from the cruisers. The alien battleships and dreadnoughts were heading away from the jump point, apparently not wanting to, or feeling they didn't need to engage in the brawl unfolding.

Ten long seconds passed as the return fire from the Second either missed the faster aliens, or did not penetrate their armour. The cruisers Gettysburg and Midway both disappeared from the tac-map, and the Third Battlefleet could do nothing to help as they were forced to watch their friends be crushed under the torrent of fire pouring forth from the alien warships. The Second managed to take out only two enemy cruisers before they were wiped out entirely. The Third was able to take out the hostiles at range as they unleashed volley after volley of missiles towards them, with ammo conservation being the last thing on their minds.

Vowing never to let a tragedy such as this happen again, where an entire battlefleet andthousand Terran crew were lost to the uncaring void, the Fourth Expeditionary Fleet was dispatched to transit the jump point to act as a forward detection to the First and Third waiting a safe distance away from the jump point.

This event would go down in history as the Jump Point Massacre, the greatest disaster and loss of life in the Terran Navy in its entire history, and hopefully it's future.

After the second had been rebuilt, just over a year after the Massacre, it seems that the aliens (now learned to be named the Jiadliaokl Coalition) were not done quite yet. The Fourth EF detected a massive Coalition fleet approaching the Centaurus JP. After numerous re-confirmations and re-calibrations of the sensors, the fleet was confirmed to be just as massive as detected. 36 heavy cruisers, 17 battleships, and 3 dreadnoughts. The Fourth EF is alone on the Donwaltz side, while the Third Battlefleet is alone on the Centaurus side. The First and Second are around Anchorage, with the Second overhauling for the next week. The First is able to move out at a moments notice, but is nearly a week away from the JP. This is quite the issue, as the Coalition fleet is only 17 hours away from the JP.

May God have mercy on my soul.
 

Offline Viridia

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Re: What's going on in your empire/planet/battlefield?
« Reply #1799 on: January 13, 2018, 01:57:32 PM »
Just started my first new game in nearly a year. The shock of jumping into Sirius as my first JP in this save, with its nearly 300billion kilometre area of exploration for all the asteroids and JP's, is undoubtedly mitigated by the discovery on Sirius-A I of 116,617,000 tons of Duranium, 135,424 tons of Neutronium, 33,856 tons of Corbomite, 8,133,904 tons of Tritanium, 45,104,660 tons of Boron, 14,930,500 tons of Mercassium, 28,472,900 tons of Vendarite, 82,955,660 tons of Sorium, 3,732,624 tons of Uridium, 1,218,816 tons of Corundium, and lastly, 17,139,600 tons of Gallicite.

Just a pity that it's all accessibility 0.3 or lower with the exception of the Neutronium, but that's nothing that Commonwealth elbow-grease can't resolve.