The Chantry of Light Month 85

Starbridge Station, Lathandras Orbit, Thedas System

Templar Captain Allistar Ti'Lir found himself staring at the bay holding the Enchanter class heavy battlerider as the ship neared completion.  No longer an exposed structure the ships sleek lines were complete, all work was now on the interior and would be completed by the end of the month.  The two Fearless and single Peacekeeper that would be its squadron were also nearing completion and would be commissioned with the first Enchanter.  The planning was coming together, two further Dawnbringers were under construction -- there would be two more constructed but they would be directly sent to the reserve.  A total of 36 Seekers would have been upgraded by the end of this month, and Survey Flotilla 1 should be now operating at full capacity.  The last four Spectre's were undergoing their space trials and would join the Sustainer mother ship of that Flotilla, even if it would be a few months more before their Seekers were refit.  Once the Pathfinder vessels completed their refits, he would have to decide if he finished off the expansion of the Shield's forces or the alternative of expanding Starbridge's capacity first.  And, of course, there was the ever growing maintenance costs.  Currently they stood at 6325 MCr nearly 48% of the available income.  The Circles research efforts were still ongoing and for the past several months at least half as much as was expended on maintenance was being spent on colonisation and industrial expansion.

He tapped on his pad and his force planning showed up.  The Shield needed 4 Enchanters, 2 active and 2 in reserve.  The first would be operational in 2 months.  Supporting those ships would be the Swiftsures; 6 active and 2 in reserve.  He currently had 4 so another 4 would need construction.  Filling out the squadron of the heavy battleriders would be a pair of Fearless's.  The Shield would need 16 active and 8 in reserve, at the moment including the 2 finishing construction this month there were 10.  For the lightest battleriders the numbers were a total of 16 Peacekeepers and an astonishing 50 Grace Knifes.  Currently the Shield mustered 11 Peacekeepers and 25 Grace Knives.

Force TO&E was stabilizing as well.  For the Heavy Battlerider squadrons they were:  a Dawnbringer with an Enchanter, 2 Fearless and a Peacekeeper or a Swiftsure, 2 Fearless and 2 Grace Knives.   Patrol Squadrons were a Lord of Morning with 2 Peacekeepers and 3 Grace Knives.  He wanted to have a single squadron of 6 Grace Knives carried by a Lord of Morning. 

Currently he had 5 patrol squadrons covering the systems claimed by the Chantry.  The Wardens were busy raising garrisons on the various worlds and he made a note to push for the development of a troop ship to transport them. 

He swiped and the holographich structure vanished, his gaze returning to the busy yards.   

I like the idea of "Colonization Pressure", but I think there is a factor missing.
Aurora does consider the security and environmental effects, but not being able to find a work and
to earn a living has been a major factor for migration around to world.

I would therefore suggest that either:
- a high unemployment rate increases the colonization pressure, or
- the number of unemployed workers could increase the maximum number of colonists

Stating the obvious probably, but often even the obvious escapes me

The cheapest way to extract minerals: manual mines. Then, Orbital Miners, but they are restricted to small bodies (can the body be populated? AM are fine though). And finally, the costliest option, Auto-mines.

I'm asking because I'm just starting with OM and it seems like a good middle ground. Although you need tugs to move them, and they can't be refitted unless you have a shipyard for them, which I don't.

Orbital Miners are the best way to mine.
You get the same productivity as a surface mine for the same cost, but it is 20% the size and does not require population to run.

The overhead cost to put the modules on an armorless space station is minimal.
The cost of a simple 5-module station is 86.7% modules. So the cost of overhead is about 15.3% of the cost of the modules.
The cost of a 50-module station is 88.6% modules. ~12.8% overhead.

The savings is in the cost of transportation.
To move a surface mine, you need 25kt of cargo hold, which runs empty in one direction.
To tug a 5-module orbital mining station, take the cargo hold off of your freighter, and replace the cargo shuttle bay with a tractor beam.
The outbound haul will be at roughly the same speed as before. The return trip will be faster. How much faster depends on the size of your tug relative to the station. Assuming roughly 1:1 size, the return leg is at 2x the speed of the outbound leg.
You now have a smaller and cheaper ship moving 5 times the mining capability in round trips that take ~25% less time, and which do not have to be accompanied by even more ships carrying population and infrastructure.

2.  Is Improved Command and Control, I think in Logistics but it could be construction

I have often wished, especially in light of the advanced government system that Geoffrey has in Antimatter, that Aurora had some sort of government system that you could select. You could choose from the vague standards of authoritarian, democratic/parliamentarian, monarchic/imperial, and oligarchic. Each would have customizable government departments that provide certain bonuses that diminish based on sector distance. The democratic ones would have elections and a bicameral congress (senate from planets, representatives from population). Oligarchic would have a selection process for some sort of triumvirate or whatever.

One of the strengths of Aurora is the ambiguity of it's mechanics, allowing you to imagine a large variety of things and mold it into your mental image. Being more explicit can be detrimental to that, so I'd be careful with such mechanics unless they add a lot to the game. In some sense, the racial values (xenophobia etc.) can model some societal/government outlook already (not that these stats do much). Could adjust them every time there is a change in government.
Roleplaying some restrictions on actions or decision making process can totally be fun though, see the government simulator spreadsheet for instance.

Re: pictures, you're using Discord image links and Firefox tracking protection blocked them for me, since they track usage and whatnot. Discord images also tend to get unavailable after some time, better use a different image host in the future.