Author Topic: Tutorial, Part 4 - Ships, Commanders and Fleets! Oh My!  (Read 15385 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Erik L (OP)

  • Administrator
  • Admiral of the Fleet
  • *****
  • Posts: 5654
  • Thanked: 366 times
  • Forum Admin
  • Discord Username: icehawke
  • 2020 Supporter 2020 Supporter : Donate for 2020
    2022 Supporter 2022 Supporter : Donate for 2022
    Gold Supporter Gold Supporter : Support the forums with a Gold subscription
    2021 Supporter 2021 Supporter : Donate for 2021
Tutorial, Part 4 - Ships, Commanders and Fleets! Oh My!
« on: November 13, 2007, 12:01:09 PM »
Tutorial 4 - Homeworld Setup

In this part, we will concentrate on setting up shipyards, assigning commanders, creating our initial Order of Battle (OOB), and setting up the research queue.

First, let?s set up our shipyards. Click the ?Manage Shipyards? tab. The Confederation has 7 yards. They are summarized below.
1. 2 slipways, 4000 ton capacity
2. 3 slipways, 7000 ton capacity
3. 3 slipways, 7000 ton capacity
4. 2 slipways, 9000 ton capacity
5. 1 slipway, 5000 ton capacity
6. 1 slipway, 4000 ton capacity
7. 2 slipways, 9000 ton capacity

We?ll assign classes as follows. To assign a class, select the yard, then select the Task Type droplist. Select Retool. This will show the ship class drop list and activate the Set Start Class button.
1. Since this yard has 2 slipways, we?ll assign the Lexington to it.
2. We?ll need one of our 7000 ton yards for the survey ships. Since both have 3 slipways, Yard 2 gets it.
3. This yard gets the Spruance.
4. As one of our big capacity yards we?ll need these for the civilian freighters/colonizers and the flag ship cruisers. Yard 4 gets the civilian ships.
5. This yard will get the Coontz scout.
6. Yard 6 we will leave unassigned for the moment.
7. Yard 7 gets the Enterprise flagship.

From this screen you can assign tasks to the shipyard (increasing slipways, increasing capacity, retooling to a new class). You can also assign construction tasks here. These tasks will be displayed on the ?Shipyard Tasks? tab.
For the moment, we decide we want all the shipyards to have 3 slipways. So we assign the ?Add Extra Slipway? task to yards 1, 4, 5, 6, & 7. Yards 2 and 3 are fine for now how they are.
After we?ve done this, we see that the smaller yards, 1 & 6 will finish in 2252, the medium yard 5 in 2253, and the large yards 4 & 7 in 2255.
We don?t add any construction tasks as we will be using the Fast OOB to add our initial ships.

From the main bar, click the SpaceMaster Menu, and select Fast OOB. This small window shows us our Empire, Species, Task Group and Class. We decide we want 10 civilian ships, 5 each Fletcher and Ark to go into the Cargo and Colony groups respectively. So we select the Colony task group from the list, type 5 in the Number box and click Add. The same procedure is used to add our Fletchers and our combat ships as well as the survey ships.
Our Task Groups end up with the following.
Battle Group
2x Enterprise CA
8x Spruance DE
8x Lexington FFG
4x Coontz SF

Cargo Group
5x Fletcher FT

Colony Group
5x Ark CS

Survey Group
5x Stellar SS
5x Geode SS

Shipyard Group
4x North Carolina PDC

Looking at this, we decide to create a Terra Ground Group for the PDCs and create a Geo Survey Group for the Geodes. We do this by hitting F12, which brings up the Task Group window. Here is where we assign orders and control our ships. We start by clicking the New TG button twice. This creates Task Groups #426 & 427. We select 426 and click the Rename TG button, renaming it Geo Survey. 427 becomes the Ground Command.

Now we need to move ships into these groups. We select the Survey Task Group and click the Organization tab. In the far right droplist, we select the new Geo Survey group. We add ships by selecting them (in this case the Geodes) and clicking the right-facing arrow button. The same procedure is used to move the PDCs to the Ground Command.

Next we?ll set up some default orders. Under Conditional A, for all fleets we set the condition to ?Current Speed Not Equal to Max? and the order to ?Change to Maximum Speed?.
The only other fleet we want to set default orders for are the two survey fleets. Select the Geo Group, and set the Primary Default to ?Survey Nearest Planet or Moon?. For the Grav fleet, set the Primary to ?Survey Next Three System Locations?. For both fleets, we will issue orders to Transit Jump Point #1. Select Jump Point #1 (Unexplored) from the locations list. Then double-click the Transit order in the Actions list.

The Battle group we need to have rearm. Click Earth in locations, and double-click Load Ordnance from actions.

If you recall we wanted to move some automated mines to Mercury and Venus. Select the Cargo group. Click Earth in Locations and double-click Load Automated Mine in actions. Now click Mercury in Locations and Unload Automated Mines in Actions. Click Earth again and Load Automated Mines. Now click Venus and unload them. With our cargo ship design and the number in the fleet, they will transfer 5 mines per load/unload. We wanted to move 60 to Mercury and 60 to Venus. So we need to do our order another 11 times to move them all. Under the Plotted move list you should see a ?Repeat? button. In the box next to it, change the number to 11 and click Repeat. For clean up purposes, click Earth and select the Refuel and Freighter Maintenance Check orders. This should keep our Cargo fleet busy for a bit.

Now we want to assign commanders to various posts.  In the upper left corner, in the Empire section, you will see a check box labeled ?Automated Assignments? along with a drop list labeled ?Tour Length?. I suggest checking the box. This will rotate your commanders into new slots (and assign commanders to new construction) automatically every (by default) 24 months. The only slots not rotated this way are governorships and Task Force commands. TF staff commands are rotated.

To do this, hit the F4 button. This brings up our commanders. We have more slots than commanders, but we?ll do the best we can. Click the Admiral rank. Our Admiral is named Sandy Bowsher. Admiral Bowsher is about to be assigned to the Governorship of Earth. Click her and you?ll see a list of potential assignments. Click R6 Governor of Earth. And click the Assign button in the lower right corner. Admiral Bowsher is now the Governor of Earth and her bonuses (listed in the upper right corner) apply to Earth.

You should see a list of ship commands and Task Force command. Let?s get our survey ships commanded. On the right side, you will see the ?Search by Ability or Location?. In Ability A, select Survey Bonus. I got lucky with 10 commanders with this bonus. I?ll select the first, and assign him to Geode 001. I?ll repeat the process with each commander to a new ship.

You can assign your other officers to your ships as you see fit. One word about Task Forces. The officer you place in there sets the maximum rank for his staff officers. If you place a Commodore in the slot, only Captains and Commanders will be eligible. Once you have assigned all the officers you want, close this window. You may find you have more slots than officers to fill them. This happens. Just wait a couple months game time, and you will have more officers.

Now, you will recall we gave our Battle Group an order to reload ordnance. Click the Industrial Production tab. You?ll notice in the upper right corner, our existing planetary stock of missiles. Along that top row, you will also see our Ordnance factories, and the production queue. Add 1000 of each missile type by selecting the missile, changing the amount to 1000, and click ?Add to Stocks?. Now our fleet will have sufficient stocks to draw from.

At the bottom of this screen, you will also see our regular construction queue. One of the first things we will want is a Sector HQ. Scroll through the list for Sector Command. If you cannot find it, you will need to research Improved Command and Control first. This is our case. So we will load up the queue with some infrastructure for when we start off world colonies. We add 10000 infrastructure to the queue.

Click the Research tab. First thing we do is find Improved Command and Control in the General Science category. We select it and click Research. This starts our scientist to work on this project. Now we have some decisions on what to build. We like the idea of a small (2000 ton) parasite survey ship. But to do that we?ll need some new technology. Under Ship Components, we select Small Craft crew quarters and click the Queue button to the middle right. What this does is set the labs to researching this project once they?ve finished their current one without any involvement on our part. We also add in improved capacitor tech and beam fire control.

If you went through Tutorial 1a instead of 1, you may not have Jump Point Theory. Without this, you cannot create jump drives, nor use gravitational survey instruments.

The last thing we want to do is create some ground units to place in our PDCs. Each PDC can garrison 5 battalions. We?ve got 4 PDCs, so we create 4 HQ units, and 16 Garrison units. This is accomplished on the GU Training tab. Normally, (in our case), we could train 7 units at a time. As part of our ?pre-existing? infrastructure, we?ll create the units without training them. Select the unit type, and click the ?Add Units? button. We are asked how many divisions we wish to create. As we selected HQ, we enter 4. We repeat the process with the Garrison type.

Click on the Ground Unit tab. You?ll see the troops we just created. You can assign them to the PDC by selecting the unit, and the location from the droplist at the bottom. We assign our units to all of the PDCs. If you try to exceed the capacity of the PDC, the game will not let you.

At this point, we?ve started a basic queue for production and research. We?ve assigned our commanders. We?ve issued orders to our task groups. All that is left is to start time moving forward. To increment time, there is a number of ways. My preferred setup is having the Economic window and the Event window open. This shows me what is going on, and allows me to issue orders to my planets. Unless something is occurring, I increment in 5 day periods.

This concludes the Tutorial for now.
« Last Edit: March 08, 2012, 03:46:10 PM by Erik Luken »
 
The following users thanked this post: Tor Cha

Offline SteveAlt

  • Global Moderator
  • Rear Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 820
  • Thanked: 8 times
(No subject)
« Reply #1 on: November 17, 2007, 05:58:17 AM »
Many thanks for doing these tutorials! They will be extremely useful for new players.

Steve
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 06:00:00 PM by SteveAlt »
 
The following users thanked this post: Tor Cha

Offline Thtb

  • Able Ordinary Rate
  • T
  • Posts: 4
Re: Tutorial, Part 4 - Ships, Commanders and Fleets! Oh My!
« Reply #2 on: February 22, 2010, 10:16:21 PM »
Ditto to Steve there, very usefull...

One thing I still don't gasp is how to get another place (galaxy?) in the list of places I can go to... and how to make a survey ship survey a planet... does it do it automatically when its there?
 

Offline Steve Walmsley

  • Aurora Designer
  • Star Marshal
  • S
  • Posts: 11649
  • Thanked: 20349 times
Re: Tutorial, Part 4 - Ships, Commanders and Fleets! Oh My!
« Reply #3 on: February 23, 2010, 10:48:51 AM »
Quote from: "Thtb"
Ditto to Steve there, very usefull...

One thing I still don't gasp is how to get another place (galaxy?) in the list of places I can go to... and how to make a survey ship survey a planet... does it do it automatically when its there?
To get a geo survey ship to survey a planet, you give it orders in the F12 window. Click on the planet in the first column then double-click on the geological survey order in the second. That is all you need to do.

Not sure what you mean about getting to another place in the galaxy. If you haven't surveyed any systems yet and therefore haven't found any jump points, there is nowhere else to go yet. As you find jump points, you can send a ship through one (if it has a jump drive) and discover a new system on the far side.

Steve
 
The following users thanked this post: Tor Cha

Offline Chairman

  • Warrant Officer, Class 2
  • ****
  • C
  • Posts: 60
Re: Tutorial, Part 4 - Ships, Commanders and Fleets! Oh My!
« Reply #4 on: July 20, 2010, 04:05:14 PM »
AJ-37 Viggen class Fighter    900 tons     51 Crew     197 BP      TCS 18  TH 60  EM 0
3333 km/s     Armour 1-8     Shields 0-0     Sensors 14/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 9
Annual Failure Rate: 64%    IFR: 0.9%    Maint Capacity 14 MSP    Max Repair 40.5 MSP    Est Time: 0.53 Years
Magazine 60    

FTR Internal Confinement Fusion Drive E500 (1)    Power 60    Fuel Use 5000%    Signature 60    Armour 0    Exp 25%
Fuel Capacity 50,000 Litres    Range 2.0 billion km   (6 days at full power)

Size 30 Box Launcher (2)    Missile Size 30    Hangar Reload 225 minutes    MF Reload 37.5 hours
Missile Fire Control FC36-R155 FTR (1)     Range 36.8m km    Resolution 155

Active Search Sensor MR40-R340 FTR (1)     GPS 3672     Range 40.4m km    Resolution 340
Thermal Sensor TH1-14 (1)     Sensitivity 14     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  14m km

Compact ECCM-1 (1)         ECM 10

This design is classed as a military vessel for maintenance purposes

This is my ship killer, but I can´t build it in Industry/fighters or prebuilt fighters and place them on a carrier.
I Prebuilt them to battle Fleet and there they are...
What am I doing wrong?
 

Offline welchbloke

  • Vice Admiral
  • **********
  • Posts: 1044
  • Thanked: 9 times
Re: Tutorial, Part 4 - Ships, Commanders and Fleets! Oh My!
« Reply #5 on: July 20, 2010, 04:13:05 PM »
Quote from: "Chairman"
AJ-37 Viggen class Fighter    900 tons     51 Crew     197 BP      TCS 18  TH 60  EM 0
3333 km/s     Armour 1-8     Shields 0-0     Sensors 14/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 9
Annual Failure Rate: 64%    IFR: 0.9%    Maint Capacity 14 MSP    Max Repair 40.5 MSP    Est Time: 0.53 Years
Magazine 60    

FTR Internal Confinement Fusion Drive E500 (1)    Power 60    Fuel Use 5000%    Signature 60    Armour 0    Exp 25%
Fuel Capacity 50,000 Litres    Range 2.0 billion km   (6 days at full power)

Size 30 Box Launcher (2)    Missile Size 30    Hangar Reload 225 minutes    MF Reload 37.5 hours
Missile Fire Control FC36-R155 FTR (1)     Range 36.8m km    Resolution 155

Active Search Sensor MR40-R340 FTR (1)     GPS 3672     Range 40.4m km    Resolution 340
Thermal Sensor TH1-14 (1)     Sensitivity 14     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  14m km

Compact ECCM-1 (1)         ECM 10

This design is classed as a military vessel for maintenance purposes

This is my ship killer, but I can´t build it in Industry/fighters or prebuilt fighters and place them on a carrier.
I Prebuilt them to battle Fleet and there they are...
What am I doing wrong?
Anything above 500 tonnes is a ship not a fighter as far as Aurora is concerned.  So even is you call it a fighter you have to build it in a shipyard.  For this class you should use a Fast Attack Craft Engine not a fighter engine.
Welchbloke
 

Offline Erik L (OP)

  • Administrator
  • Admiral of the Fleet
  • *****
  • Posts: 5654
  • Thanked: 366 times
  • Forum Admin
  • Discord Username: icehawke
  • 2020 Supporter 2020 Supporter : Donate for 2020
    2022 Supporter 2022 Supporter : Donate for 2022
    Gold Supporter Gold Supporter : Support the forums with a Gold subscription
    2021 Supporter 2021 Supporter : Donate for 2021
Re: Tutorial, Part 4 - Ships, Commanders and Fleets! Oh My!
« Reply #6 on: July 21, 2010, 12:11:41 AM »
Quote from: "Chairman"
AJ-37 Viggen class Fighter    900 tons     51 Crew     197 BP      TCS 18  TH 60  EM 0
3333 km/s     Armour 1-8     Shields 0-0     Sensors 14/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 9
Annual Failure Rate: 64%    IFR: 0.9%    Maint Capacity 14 MSP    Max Repair 40.5 MSP    Est Time: 0.53 Years
Magazine 60    

FTR Internal Confinement Fusion Drive E500 (1)    Power 60    Fuel Use 5000%    Signature 60    Armour 0    Exp 25%
Fuel Capacity 50,000 Litres    Range 2.0 billion km   (6 days at full power)

Size 30 Box Launcher (2)    Missile Size 30    Hangar Reload 225 minutes    MF Reload 37.5 hours
Missile Fire Control FC36-R155 FTR (1)     Range 36.8m km    Resolution 155

Active Search Sensor MR40-R340 FTR (1)     GPS 3672     Range 40.4m km    Resolution 340
Thermal Sensor TH1-14 (1)     Sensitivity 14     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  14m km

Compact ECCM-1 (1)         ECM 10

This design is classed as a military vessel for maintenance purposes

This is my ship killer, but I can´t build it in Industry/fighters or prebuilt fighters and place them on a carrier.
I Prebuilt them to battle Fleet and there they are...
What am I doing wrong?

Not sure what your missiles look like, but you could probably drop to 1 launcher, or cut the size drastically and still mount 2, and possibly get to 500 tons.

Offline ptb_ptb

  • Leading Rate
  • *
  • p
  • Posts: 11
Re: Tutorial, Part 4 - Ships, Commanders and Fleets! Oh My!
« Reply #7 on: May 20, 2014, 05:33:13 AM »
Quote from: Erik Luken link=topic=878. msg7414#msg7414 date=1194976869
Tutorial 4 - Homeworld Setup

In this part, we will concentrate on setting up shipyards, assigning commanders, creating our initial Order of Battle (OOB), and setting up the research queue. 

First, let?s set up our shipyards.  Click the ?Manage Shipyards? tab.  The Confederation has 7 yards.  They are summarized below. 
[. . . ]
7.  2 slipways, 9000 ton capacity

We?ll assign classes as follows.  To assign a class, select the yard, then select the Task Type droplist.  Select Retool.  This will show the ship class drop list and activate the Set Start Class button

I don't see any Set Start Class button.  I guess this is Set Activity now?

 

Offline ptb_ptb

  • Leading Rate
  • *
  • p
  • Posts: 11
Re: Tutorial, Part 4 - Ships, Commanders and Fleets! Oh My!
« Reply #8 on: May 20, 2014, 06:25:13 AM »
Quote from: Steve Walmsley link=topic=878. msg21935#msg21935 date=1266943731
To get a geo survey ship to survey a planet, you give it orders in the F12 window.  Click on the planet in the first column then double-click on the geological survey order in the second.  That is all you need to do.

Hmm, 'geological survey' isn't listed in the 'Actions available' column.  I guess 'gravitational survey sensor' is not the same as 'geological survey sensor'? Or is it something else I've done wrong?
 

Offline Erik L (OP)

  • Administrator
  • Admiral of the Fleet
  • *****
  • Posts: 5654
  • Thanked: 366 times
  • Forum Admin
  • Discord Username: icehawke
  • 2020 Supporter 2020 Supporter : Donate for 2020
    2022 Supporter 2022 Supporter : Donate for 2022
    Gold Supporter Gold Supporter : Support the forums with a Gold subscription
    2021 Supporter 2021 Supporter : Donate for 2021
Re: Tutorial, Part 4 - Ships, Commanders and Fleets! Oh My!
« Reply #9 on: May 20, 2014, 07:23:21 AM »
Hmm, 'geological survey' isn't listed in the 'Actions available' column.  I guess 'gravitational survey sensor' is not the same as 'geological survey sensor'? Or is it something else I've done wrong?

Grav sensors are for jump point surveys.
Geo sensors are for planetary surveys. They are different systems.