Posted by: Arwyn
« on: August 11, 2014, 10:11:26 PM »Part of the issue with Aurora is that there is no "best way" to win. One of the better features actually!
The big thing is the guys with heavy factory/labs probably started with a bigger initial population. Makes a huge difference at start. But, even with that, a lot of it comes down to the luck of the draw when it comes to minerals. You can have big initial pop, lots of factories and labs and wind up choked due to next to no adequate mineral supplies.
I play pretty conservatively at start until I can get a good survey done of the home system, and a solid supply of duranium lined up. The infamous "duranium crash" gets everyone at some point, so working around that is pretty key to keeping your production lines rolling smoothly. No other element bottlenecks you as bad as it, so I usually look for planets/moons/asteroids/comets in that order for duranium sources. Once I line them up, I start dumping mines and automines depending on the colony costs.
Venus is a good example, most of the games I have played, Venus has been loaded with something, in huge quantities, but crappy accessibility, and really crappy colony costs. That makes it a great spot for automines.
I save automines for hellholes, anything worth inhabiting gets regular mines, as they are FAR cheaper in material costs.
That being said, under 6.4, Sorium CAN be a big issue as well, so grab what you can there as well. Tritanium runs a distant third, I have only had issues with it if I am REALLY burning through missile stocks. I try to keep solid stocks of those around.
One handy thing to run is asteroid miners. If you have lots of dinky asteroids that aren't worth shipping automines and mass drivers to, they can be worthwhile with an asteroid miner on automation orders. Just make sure to have a cargo ship with the miner, or cargo holds on it. I like them as an early tech goal, as they can be really useful to mine systems that you cant otherwise get to. IMO they save you a lot in fuel costs in NOT having to ship automines around.
The other big thing post 6.x engine changes is FUEL. Getting some forward bases setup for refueling and resupply helps immensely in getting further afield from Sol or another home star. I run about two jumps out from homeworld before I drop a base somewhere along the warp chain to keep supplies going. If your going to do this with exploration ships to keep them going, crank the crew duration up to a year or more to keep them in the field.
One REALLY handing thing now is civilian shipping. Setting up supply orders on your homeworld, and demand orders elsewhere works pretty well. UNTIL you run into NPR's who want to trade, thats when the civvies will go running off to strange new worlds....
FYI subsidizing civvie shipping lines is great way to get more civ ships out there in the field and working for you.
As far as exploring, there are a couple of schools of though. Go big, with a combined fleet that can probe, survey, and shoot their way through stuff (hopefully). Or, go cheap, and put out a lot of very cheap disposable small ships. You are going to lose them, and losses in Geosurvey will be the majority of them, but they are cheap and easy to replace.
I tend to go the "lots of cheap" early on, as it gets me a head start on finding something decent if I have a poor starting system. As time goes by, I tend to "gun up" the survey ships/fleets as things (NPRs) get bigger and more dangerous. I don't tend to go big at start because its A) Slow as hell, B) Expensive as hell, and C) BORING. Also, I have found that even a decent gunned up survey fleet can get its collective butt handed to it by a dedicated anti-shipping fleet or more annoying Swarm!
Fast exploration can also get you in a lot of hot water fast, so you better have some military ships! IMO that makes the game a bit fun when you get yourself in a tight spot and you have to really work at it. Makes the fights WAY more meaningful when the Battle Fleet is ALL the fleet you have between the Big Bad NPR and your homeworld!
Two other things I usually run for fast as far as techs, Expanding the Civilian Economy, Improving Research, and Construction Efficiency. If your really building like mad, and running the civvie shipping around, you need cash. Expanding the economy research helps a LOT in keeping that rolling.
Anyway, a lot of this is still up to your actual playstyle, but the forum is great place to ping folks for creative things to do to pick up the economy or surprise the NPR's! Good luck!
The big thing is the guys with heavy factory/labs probably started with a bigger initial population. Makes a huge difference at start. But, even with that, a lot of it comes down to the luck of the draw when it comes to minerals. You can have big initial pop, lots of factories and labs and wind up choked due to next to no adequate mineral supplies.
I play pretty conservatively at start until I can get a good survey done of the home system, and a solid supply of duranium lined up. The infamous "duranium crash" gets everyone at some point, so working around that is pretty key to keeping your production lines rolling smoothly. No other element bottlenecks you as bad as it, so I usually look for planets/moons/asteroids/comets in that order for duranium sources. Once I line them up, I start dumping mines and automines depending on the colony costs.
Venus is a good example, most of the games I have played, Venus has been loaded with something, in huge quantities, but crappy accessibility, and really crappy colony costs. That makes it a great spot for automines.
I save automines for hellholes, anything worth inhabiting gets regular mines, as they are FAR cheaper in material costs.
That being said, under 6.4, Sorium CAN be a big issue as well, so grab what you can there as well. Tritanium runs a distant third, I have only had issues with it if I am REALLY burning through missile stocks. I try to keep solid stocks of those around.
One handy thing to run is asteroid miners. If you have lots of dinky asteroids that aren't worth shipping automines and mass drivers to, they can be worthwhile with an asteroid miner on automation orders. Just make sure to have a cargo ship with the miner, or cargo holds on it. I like them as an early tech goal, as they can be really useful to mine systems that you cant otherwise get to. IMO they save you a lot in fuel costs in NOT having to ship automines around.
The other big thing post 6.x engine changes is FUEL. Getting some forward bases setup for refueling and resupply helps immensely in getting further afield from Sol or another home star. I run about two jumps out from homeworld before I drop a base somewhere along the warp chain to keep supplies going. If your going to do this with exploration ships to keep them going, crank the crew duration up to a year or more to keep them in the field.
One REALLY handing thing now is civilian shipping. Setting up supply orders on your homeworld, and demand orders elsewhere works pretty well. UNTIL you run into NPR's who want to trade, thats when the civvies will go running off to strange new worlds....
FYI subsidizing civvie shipping lines is great way to get more civ ships out there in the field and working for you.
As far as exploring, there are a couple of schools of though. Go big, with a combined fleet that can probe, survey, and shoot their way through stuff (hopefully). Or, go cheap, and put out a lot of very cheap disposable small ships. You are going to lose them, and losses in Geosurvey will be the majority of them, but they are cheap and easy to replace.
I tend to go the "lots of cheap" early on, as it gets me a head start on finding something decent if I have a poor starting system. As time goes by, I tend to "gun up" the survey ships/fleets as things (NPRs) get bigger and more dangerous. I don't tend to go big at start because its A) Slow as hell, B) Expensive as hell, and C) BORING. Also, I have found that even a decent gunned up survey fleet can get its collective butt handed to it by a dedicated anti-shipping fleet or more annoying Swarm!
Fast exploration can also get you in a lot of hot water fast, so you better have some military ships! IMO that makes the game a bit fun when you get yourself in a tight spot and you have to really work at it. Makes the fights WAY more meaningful when the Battle Fleet is ALL the fleet you have between the Big Bad NPR and your homeworld!
Two other things I usually run for fast as far as techs, Expanding the Civilian Economy, Improving Research, and Construction Efficiency. If your really building like mad, and running the civvie shipping around, you need cash. Expanding the economy research helps a LOT in keeping that rolling.
Anyway, a lot of this is still up to your actual playstyle, but the forum is great place to ping folks for creative things to do to pick up the economy or surprise the NPR's! Good luck!