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Posted by: boggo2300
« on: January 24, 2019, 06:53:38 PM »

AFAIK, Aurora grew out of Starfire Assistant, which Steve created to help with playing the tabletop game Starfire, which has its own "universe" and is not modelled after Star Trek or Star Wars.

Much of Starfire was originally influenced by on E.E.'Doc' Smith's Lensman series, at least in terms of tech descriptions/names in 1st Ed - Primary beams, Tractors, Tractor shears, Pressor beams, some of the ship classes (Battleships, Dreadnoughts, SuperDreadnoughts, Maulers), although there was little use of missiles in the Lensman universe. Later expansions/editions introduced different stuff (fighters, gunboats etc) but fortunately didn't include the top level Lensman weaponry (Sunbeams, negaspheres, Dirigible free planets, and Nth Space planets)

Still quite ashamed I have every version of Starfire from 1 to 5, and that 2nd edition (the last Steve "Despot" Cole version) is my favourite though I seem to have misplaced my copy of New Empires (the strategic rules for SF2)
Posted by: ZimRathbone
« on: January 23, 2019, 10:52:20 PM »

AFAIK, Aurora grew out of Starfire Assistant, which Steve created to help with playing the tabletop game Starfire, which has its own "universe" and is not modelled after Star Trek or Star Wars.

Much of Starfire was originally influenced by on E.E.'Doc' Smith's Lensman series, at least in terms of tech descriptions/names in 1st Ed - Primary beams, Tractors, Tractor shears, Pressor beams, some of the ship classes (Battleships, Dreadnoughts, SuperDreadnoughts, Maulers), although there was little use of missiles in the Lensman universe. Later expansions/editions introduced different stuff (fighters, gunboats etc) but fortunately didn't include the top level Lensman weaponry (Sunbeams, negaspheres, Dirigible free planets, and Nth Space planets)
Posted by: MarcAFK
« on: December 22, 2018, 09:28:24 AM »

I love the organic nature of Aurora development,sure its quite slow and sometimes systems are a mere placeholder before being gutted and drastically changed a decade later, but the way community discussion of mechanics, gameplay, military theory, physics, other games etc helps steve form ideas which eventually make their way into the game really is refreshing.
I personally have disliked many changes that occurred if only because I thought of alternatives which seemed 'better' to me, but the overall nature of the game seems to flow smoothly toward something increasingly complex but still astoundingly elegant.
Major developers wouldn't make a game this way for many reasons, but Aurora is a tapestry woven very carefully with each thread lovingly applied, or carefully removed and replaced if need be.
I wonder what the overall design philosophy could be identified as, would it be disingenuous to claim that development is a case of throwing stuff at a wall and seeing what sticks?
That flies in the face of the carefully woven tapestry analogy, but it does seem that sometimes this kind of thing has worked favorably for us.
Posted by: Steve Walmsley
« on: December 19, 2018, 05:32:26 PM »

Also, every TN mineral has appeared in at least one episode of Star Trek :)
Posted by: Xkill
« on: December 19, 2018, 05:29:05 PM »

What? No major inspiration from Homeworld!? Shameful display!  :)
Posted by: Steve Walmsley
« on: December 19, 2018, 01:44:16 PM »

I've shamelessly stolen from many universes :)

The very early combat started with Starfire but the missile ranges didn't really make sense. Once I started adjusting, it became based primarily on a mixture of Harpoon (modern naval combat) and the Honor Harrington novels. Many other sources have had influence though. The armour is inspired by a FASA game called Interceptor. Other elements of the game came from Babylon 5, Battlestar Galactica, Starship Troopers and Warhammer 40k. Many small details come from other games - for instance the idea of wrecks came from EVE Online. A lot of the mechanics have evolved from player requests and suggestions.
Posted by: Garfunkel
« on: December 19, 2018, 01:21:08 PM »

AFAIK, Aurora grew out of Starfire Assistant, which Steve created to help with playing the tabletop game Starfire, which has its own "universe" and is not modelled after Star Trek or Star Wars.
Posted by: Rook
« on: December 19, 2018, 12:14:43 PM »

Something I've wondered for a while. . .  What "Universe" (Star Trek, Star Wars, Firefly, etc. ) do you base the design theory on? In other words, when you developed Aurora's ship design/combat system, which Universe were you thinking of the most?

I'm sure this has been asked before, but I just couldn't find the answer.

Cheers,
Rook