Aurora 4x

VB6 Aurora => VB6 Mechanics => Topic started by: Steve Walmsley on December 30, 2015, 02:22:51 PM

Title: Change for 7.20
Post by: Steve Walmsley on December 30, 2015, 02:22:51 PM
Civilian Shipping Line Changes

In v7.2, civilian shipping lines will attempt to build a more equal distribution of freighters and colony ships.

They will also try to build the largest of the selected type they can afford. This should reduce the overall number of ships produced.

A large liner has been added.

The bug that prevented huge designs from being upgraded has been fixed.
Title: Re: Change for 7.20
Post by: Steve Walmsley on December 30, 2015, 03:32:03 PM
Transfer of Civilian Shipping Lines

There is a new button and dropdown on the Shipping Lines windows that allows the transfer of a shipping line from one race to another.

The existing civilian ships and their classes will move to the new race, as per a normal transfer of ships. All orders will be cleared (in the same way as pressing the Clear Orders button)

Any new ships launched after the transfer will be based on new designs using the technology of the race to which it has been transferred.
Title: Re: Change for 7.20
Post by: Steve Walmsley on December 31, 2015, 08:52:09 AM
Chance of Ruins

I've added the chance of alien ruins to the game and game setup windows, so it can be adjusted.

It is normally 20% for any terrestrial world, terrestrial moon or small terrestrial moon with gravity > 0.4G and temperature between 200K and 360K (about -73C to +87C).
Title: Re: Change for 7.20
Post by: Steve Walmsley on December 31, 2015, 09:47:21 AM
Disabling New Civilian Ships

I've noticed there are players who are not huge fans of civilian shipping :)

Therefore in 7.2 I have included an option in the game window to disable the creation of new ships by shipping lines.
Title: Re: Change for 7.20
Post by: Steve Walmsley on December 31, 2015, 11:45:06 AM
Maintenance Storage Bays

In v7.2 Maintenance Storage Bays are no longer a military system.
Title: Re: Change for 7.20
Post by: Steve Walmsley on December 31, 2015, 12:05:10 PM
Structural Shells

In v7.2 a 'No Armour' check box has been added to the class window. Clicking this removes the normal armour from the class.

Designs with no armour instead have a new type of armour called 'structural shell'. This costs 1 per unit and has a strength of 20, essentially making it 5% of the cost of normal armour in terms of strength.

There are severe limitation on ships with no armour:
1) They cannot have engines
2) They cannot have military systems
3) The structural shell does not prevent damage. In effect, weapon fire passes straight through the 'armour'

This type of ship is ideally suited for orbital habitats or space stations of some type, such as fuel harvesting platforms, mining stations, etc., that require towing to move.
Title: Re: Change for 7.20
Post by: Steve Walmsley on December 31, 2015, 12:23:48 PM
Orbital Habitats

The population capacity of orbital habitat modules has been increased from 50k to 200k. In combination with the new 'No Armour' option this significantly reduces the cost of building orbital habitats. For example, the habitat shown here allows a population of one million for a cost of 1134 BP. To support one million colonists with infrastructure on a colony cost 2.0 world would cost 400 BP, so the colony cost would have to be approaching 6.0 before the OH became cheaper. It could also be used for manned mines on some worlds as an alternative to automated mines, although for larger populations the service sector will become an issue.

Sidon class Orbital Habitat    1,253,000 tons     162 Crew     1134.8 BP      TCS 25060  TH 0  EM 0
1 km/s     No Armour     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
MSP 1    Max Repair 16 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months    Spare Berths 0   
Habitation Capacity 1,000,000   

Abdulah-Mansoor AM-10 Navigation Sensor (1)     GPS 1920     Range 10.5m km    Resolution 120
Title: Re: Change for 7.20
Post by: Steve Walmsley on January 01, 2016, 09:54:20 AM
Changes to Maintenance

At the moment, maintenance for ships is based on minerals. When in orbit of maintenance facilities the maintenance clock doesn't move and the annual cost is is equal to 5% of all mineral used to build the ship. So if ship required 200 Duranium, 100 Neutronium, 100 Uridium and 200 Gallicite to build, the annual maintenance cost is 10 Duranium, 5 Neutronium, 5 Uridium and 10 Gallicite. While a ship is being overhauled, the annual cost is equal 20% of build cost, so in this case 40 Duranium, 20 Neutronium, 20 Uridium and 40 Gallicite.

This can require micromanagement to ensure all the correct minerals are in the same place as the ships. It can also be annoying when maintenance fails due to the lack of a single mineral.

Therefore I am revising maintenance for 7.2. Ships in orbit of maintenance facilities or undergoing overhauls will now consume maintenance supply points from the colony (the same type as used on ships for repairs & fixing breakdowns). As maintenance modules are non-military in v7.2 this allows tankers to deliver both fuel and maintenance supplies.

The number of maintenance supplies required will be equal to 25% of the build cost for ships in orbit and 100% for ships undergoing overhaul. This is not as severe as it sounds because 1 MSP requires 0.25 tons of minerals and costs 0.25 wealth, so the actual costs for maintenance are 6.25% and 25% of ship cost respectively (a slight increase on current). There are no longer any direct wealth costs for maintenance as this is covered by the cost of building the maintenance supply points.

If a colony has maintenance facilities but no maintenance supplies, ships in orbit will draw maintenance supplies from any designated supply ship in the same location. Supply ships can be flagged using the existing 'Supply Ship' flag in the Class window. If no supply ships are available, ships will draw on their own maintenance supplies.

These mechanics not only make maintenance cleaner, it will also make is easier for the next stage, which is implementing deep space maintenance facilities.

To reflect their extended use, I am changing the mineral requirements for building supply points to be more varied, as below:

Maintenance Supply Point
Duranium 0.05
Neutronium 0.025
Tritanium 0.025
Boronide 0.025
Mercassium 0.025
Uridium 0.025
Corundium 0.025
Gallicite 0.05
Total 0.25
Title: Re: Change for 7.20
Post by: Steve Walmsley on January 01, 2016, 07:39:28 PM
Combine Populations

In v7.2 you have the option to combine two populations from the same race and species on the same planet if they both have the same political status.

This can be used in combination with Transfer Population to first transfer a population from one race to another and then combine that population with a population of the destination race. This makes amalgamating empires much easier. Alternatively, you can invade a population on the same planet as one of yours then combine them once they are both imperial populations.

Mechanics are as follows:
1) All installations, fuel, maintenance supplies and minerals are combined.
2) Shipyards are transferred to the receiving population. Any shipyard activity will continue as before.
3) Shipyard tasks are transferred and continue uninterrupted
4) Industrial tasks in the originating population are terminated.
5) Ground units are transferred
6) Teams, officers and POWs are transferred
7) Ships that are assigned to the originating population are reassigned to the receiving population
8) Ship components are transferred
9) Missile stockpiles are transferred
10) Mass driver packets in transit are assigned to the new population
11) Pops sending mass driver packets to the originating population will now send to the receiving population
12) Movement orders that reference the originating population will now reference the receiving one.
13) Missiles in flight targeting the originating population will change targeting to the receiving population.
14) Prefab PDC components will be transferred
15) Originating population production queue will be cleared
16) Research projects will be transferred
17) Originating population research queue will be cleared
Title: Re: Change for 7.20
Post by: Steve Walmsley on January 02, 2016, 10:53:32 AM
Maintenance Supply Points

In addition to being constructed normally by construction factories, maintenance supply points (MSP) can also be produced by system body based maintenance facilities. This production can be turned on and off in the same way as fuel refineries

A new tech line has been added (Maintenance Production Rate) for the rate at which a single maintenance facility can produce MSP. The default is 30 MSP per year, which is three times faster than a construction factory with base technology of 10 BP. Each MSP has the same cost in terms of minerals and wealth regardless whether it is produced by construction factories or maintenance facilities.

The bottom half of the mining / maintenance tab has been replaced as minerals are no longer directly involved in maintenance (they are used to build MSP instead).

(http://www.pentarch.org/steve/Screenshots/MaintFacilitiesV2.PNG)
Title: Re: Change for 7.20
Post by: Steve Walmsley on January 03, 2016, 09:25:37 AM
Commercial Magazines

I've added a non-military magazine to v7.2. There are two versions; one with 100 capacity and one with 500 capacity.

In general terms they are cheaper but less efficient in terms of space then military magazines. Also, they have a 100% explosion chance if hit, so don't apply for a job on a commercial ammunition transport :)

Commercial Magazine - Capacity 100, Size 12, Cost 25, Crew 5, HTK 1, RP 2000
Commercial Magazine - Capacity 500, Size 50, Cost 100, Crew 20, HTK 1, RP 5000

Even if you armour the ship, one of the magazines could still explode due to shock damage. As the magazines are fairly large, if they are hit then the ship is probably gone, so it would be a Bad Idea to take a commercial ammunition transport along with the battle fleet.

With civilian magazines and non-military maintenance modules, you can now produce this type of ship. As shown below it carries 4000 maintenance supply points, five million litres of fuel and has a magazine capacity of 2000. Very expensive if lost however.

Bristol class Replenishment Ship    26,850 tons     142 Crew     1373 BP      TCS 537  TH 1600  EM 0
2979 km/s     Armour 1-79     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/6/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
MSP 4032    Max Repair 100 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months    Spare Berths 0   
Magazine 2000   

Rolls Royce Commercial Magneto-plasma Drive (4)    Power 400    Fuel Use 5.3%    Signature 400    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 5,000,000 Litres    Range 632.3 billion km   (2456 days at full power)

Navigation Sensor (1)     GPS 1920     Range 10.5m km    Resolution 120
EM Detection Sensor (1)     Sensitivity 6     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  6m km

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
Title: Re: Change for 7.20
Post by: Steve Walmsley on January 03, 2016, 01:26:51 PM
Deep Space Maintenance Facilities

In v7.2, ship-based maintenance modules will function in deep space to maintain and overhaul other ships. All maintenance facilities at the same location, even if spread across different ships and different task groups, will all be added together for the purposes of determining how large a ship can be maintained.

If a ship is in the same location as a sufficient quantity of ship-mounted maintenance facilities, it will automatically be maintained. There are no special orders required.

If a task group contains at least one maintenance module, you can set an order to overhaul at that task group. The overhaul still won't take place unless there are sufficient maintenance modules in the location when the ship arrives (just the same as a population).

This, and other recent changes, will allow the creation of deep space outposts capable of maintaining ships. Below is an example of a base to support survey operations. It can maintain and overhaul ships of up to 6000 tons and provides large reserves of fuel and maintenance supplies. As this is a commercial design, you can build it in commercial shipyards. Two of these bases deployed together would be able to support ships of up to 12,000 tons.

Ship-based maintenance facilities cannot build maintenance supply points so these will need to be shipped to the location.

Nikolayev class Survey Support Base    165,250 tons     1520 Crew     8003 BP      TCS 3305  TH 0  EM 0
1 km/s     Armour 1-268     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
MSP 5030    Max Repair 200 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months    Spare Berths 5   
Maintenance Modules: 30 module(s) capable of supporting ships of 6000 tons

Fuel Capacity 10,000,000 Litres    Range N/A

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes

Title: Re: Change for 7.20
Post by: Steve Walmsley on January 30, 2016, 05:00:03 AM
Geological Survey Report Filter

I've added a check box to the Geological Survey Report window that allows you to filter out alien-controlled systems (based on the controlling race you specify on the Galactic Map).
Title: Re: Change for 7.20
Post by: Steve Walmsley on January 30, 2016, 05:51:17 AM
Mining Modules Shown in Population Tree

When using the 'Group by Function' option in the Population window, the section for Automated Mining Colonies will now take into account any asteroid mining modules in orbit.
Title: Re: Change for 7.20
Post by: Steve Walmsley on February 09, 2016, 02:51:46 PM
Commercial Hangars & Commercial Damage Control

Commercial hangars will be available in v7.2.

They are 50% larger than military hangar bays (size 32), have the same cost of 100 BP and the same crew requirement (15).

They are intended for transport of other commercial vessels, temporary transport of military vessels and for repair ships. With this in mind, a military ship still has normal maintenance requirements while in a civilian hangar.

However, as you can maintain ships in deep space in v7.2 it would be possible to build a large ship that could provide both commercial hangar space and maintenance - a FAC tender for example with hangar space and five maintenance modules. A more likely scenario is to deploy deep space maintenance bases and also a repair station. Below is an example of two such stations that may be deployed together. The larger base also uses Commercial Damage Control systems. These are identical to normal damage control in cost and function but twice as large.

**************************************************************************************

Portsmouth class Fleet Base (Repair)    110,000 tons     1000 Crew     7298 BP      TCS 2200  TH 0  EM 0
1 km/s     Armour 1-204     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/11/0/0     Damage Control Rating 31     PPV 0
MSP 24041    Max Repair 36 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months    Flight Crew Berths 5   
Hangar Deck Capacity 60000 tons     

Fuel Capacity 4,000,000 Litres    Range N/A

CIWS-160 (1x6)    Range 1000 km     TS: 16000 km/s     ROF 5       Base 50% To Hit
Ryan Techsystems RTN-25 Navigation Sensor (1)     GPS 2520     Range 25.3m km    Resolution 120
EM-11 Passive Detection Sensor (1)     Sensitivity 11     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  11m km

**************************************************************************************

Weymouth class Fleet Base (Maintenance)    85,000 tons     780 Crew     3963 BP      TCS 1700  TH 0  EM 0
1 km/s     Armour 1-172     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
MSP 6029    Max Repair 200 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months    Spare Berths 0   
Maintenance Modules: 15 module(s) capable of supporting ships of 3000 tons

Fuel Capacity 6,000,000 Litres    Range N/A
CIWS-160 (1x6)    Range 1000 km     TS: 16000 km/s     ROF 5       Base 50% To Hit

**************************************************************************************

Title: Re: Change for 7.20
Post by: Steve Walmsley on February 12, 2016, 09:10:22 AM
No Free Maintenance Points

With the change in 7.2 to maintenance supply points (MSP) being used for maintenance and overhauls, these are now much more valuable than before.

Therefore, ships no longer receive a full stockpile of spares for free. Instead, they are loaded from planetary stockpiles at the point of construction in the same way as fuel. Supply ships will load 10% of maximum in the same way that tankers only load 10% of max fuel.

MSP can also be found in ruins in v7.2,
Title: Re: Change for 7.20
Post by: Steve Walmsley on February 13, 2016, 09:55:58 AM
Titans

A new type of ground unit will be introduced in v7.2 - the Titan. Titans are huge combat walkers from WH40k, BattleTech, etc.,

In Aurora, they serve as powerful ground combat units with a special bombardment ability and defensive advantages. Below is the current state of the rules (which may change after play test):

1) Titans are created in a new type of planetary installation - the Titan Construction Yard. The TCY is 10,000 RP, 2400 BP (240 Duranium, 2160 Corbomite) and produces 200 BP per year. The TCY becomes available once Assault Infantry is researched. They can be recovered in ruins (although rarely). Titans are constructed like other ground combat units using the same tab in the production window. Titan Construction Yards and Ground Force Training Facilities are shown in the same list (like naval and commercial shipyards).

2) Titans are transported in the Titan Bay, a special type of module for ships similar to a troop transport bay. Titans cannot use troop transport bays and normal ground units cannot use Titan Bays. Movement orders for embarking and disembarking Titans work in the same way as orders for embarking and disembarking ground troops. Titans cannot use combat drop modules. The Titan Bay is 5000 RP and can be researched once you have Titan Construction Yards and troop transport bays. Cost: 100 BP (10 Duranium, 90 Corbomite) , Size 100 HS, 25 Crew. Commercial System. Can hold 3 units of Titans.

3) Titans act as normal ground combat units with attack and defence strengths and take part in normal combat resolution.

4) They have Hit Points instead of readiness but these are equivalent in combat. Titans may have more than 100 HPs (ground forces always have 100 readiness)

5) Titans do not recover hit points in the same way that ground units recover readiness. Instead they are automatically repaired in Titan Bays using maintenance supplies at a rate of 1 HP per day (1 HP costs 1 MSP), as long as MSP are available.

6) Titans are unaffected by Morale

7 In normal ground combat, Titans have a lower chance to be damaged. This is similar to HQ units, which have only 50% of the normal chance of damage. The lower chance of damage will vary by Titan.

8) After each round of ground combat, Titans will bombard the enemy (calculated before combat and resolved afterwards). This is effectively a free attack and does not consider attack vs. defence odds. The target is determined randomly but all enemy Titans will be attacked before any normal ground units. The bombardment attack inflicts random readiness damage (or HP damage) between 1 and double the Titans attack strength rating. Bombardment attacks cause collateral damage.

9) The Titan's lower chance of damage modifier does not apply during bombardment attacks. In effect, the bombardment attack represents the Titan's "Big Guns" while its participation in normal combat represents its secondary armament and attempts by enemy ground forces to destroy it.

10) The first Titans in the game are as follows (more will be added at some point, including command Titans to serve as HQs):

Warhound Titan: 10,000 RP, 200 BP, 100 HP, Attack/Defence: 1 * Racial Ground Combat Strength, 0.75 x Chance of Damage, Size 1
Reaver Titan: 20,000 RP, 360 BP, 200 HP, Attack/Defence: 2 * Racial Ground Combat Strength, 0.50 x Chance of Damage, Size 2
Warlord Titan: 50,000 RP, 500 BP, 300 HP, Attack/Defence: 3 * Racial Ground Combat Strength, 0.25 x Chance of Damage, Size 3

Titan production requires 20% Duranium and 80% Corbomite.

The first Titan (Warhound) become available after Assault Infantry
The second Titan (Reaver) requires Heavy Assault and the Warhound as prerequisites.
The third Titan (Warlord) requires the Reaver as a prerequisite.

As with normal ground units, you can name individual Titans and rename the overall classes of Titans.
Title: Re: Change for 7.20
Post by: Steve Walmsley on February 18, 2016, 02:28:25 PM
Particle Lance

The Particle Lance is a large, potentially devastating weapon that is variant of the Particle Beam.

Once Particle Beam Range 200,000 km and Particle Beam Strength 6 have both been researched, the Particle Lance can be researched for 30,000 RP. The Lance is a modification of the normal Particle Beam and is an extra option in the design window.

The Particle Lance modification affects the Particle Beam in the following ways:

2x Damage
2x Size
2x HTK
2x Crew
2.5x Power Requirement
3x Cost
2x Development Cost

As well as the above modifications, which essentially creates a weapon twice as large, that recharges 2.5x more slowly and costs 3x as much, the damage template of the Particle Lance is a single column of armour, rather than the Particle Beam which has a template between that of missiles and lasers. The Particle Lance retains the constant damage of the Particle Beam, creating a weapon that can penetrate enemy armour at significant range.

Here are examples of similar tech level Particle Beam, Particle Lance and Laser.

*************************************************************************

Particle Beam
Beam Strength 6     Rate of Fire: 15 seconds     Maximum Range: 240,000 km
Particle Beam Size: 8 HS    Particle Beam HTK: 4
Power Requirement: 15    Power Recharge per 5 Secs: 5
Cost: 94    Crew: 24
Materials Required: 18.8x Duranium  18.8x Boronide  56.4x Corundium
Development Cost for Project: 2250RP

*************************************************************************

Particle Lance
Beam Strength 12     Rate of Fire: 38 seconds     Maximum Range: 240,000 km
Particle Beam Size: 16 HS    Particle Beam HTK: 8
Power Requirement: 38    Power Recharge per 5 Secs: 5
Cost: 282    Crew: 48
Lance Weapon
Materials Required: 56.4x Duranium  56.4x Boronide  169.2x Corundium
Development Cost for Project: 4500RP

*************************************************************************

25cm Far Ultraviolet Laser
Damage Output 16     Rate of Fire: 20 seconds     Range Modifier: 5
Max Range 800,000 km     Laser Size: 8 HS    Laser HTK: 4
Power Requirement: 16    Power Recharge per 5 Secs: 5
Cost: 100    Crew: 24
Materials Required: 20x Duranium  20x Boronide  60x Corundium
Development Cost for Project: 1000RP
(laser will have 320,000 km range with equivalent tech level fire control)

*************************************************************************

Comparison of Damage Templates at 240,000 km

Particle Beam (6): 2, 3, 1
Particle Lance (12): 12
Laser (3): 3

Two Particle Beams or 25cm Lasers can be installed in the same hull space as the Particle Lance. The Lasers are devastating at close range, the Particle Beams inflict more damage at long range (in terms of DPS), while the Particle Lance penetrates much more armour at long range.

The Particle Lance is intended as a powerful anti-ship weapon that requires a large investment in a particular tech line, lacks the flexibility of lasers or railguns and provides a different armour penetrating option to mesons, although mesons are still superior against shields. Mainly though it is to boost the Particle Beam as a serious weapon choice (and perhaps provide something new in my current campaign).

The Particle Lance is not tested under normal battle conditions yet so I may change it a little after play-testing.
Title: Re: Change for 7.20
Post by: Steve Walmsley on March 05, 2016, 08:43:17 AM
Reduction in Cost for Beam Fire Controls

The cost of beam fire controls has been reduced by a third.