New Peaceful Player. Possible?

[OkieMurse (OP)]

Hey guys, I'm getting into my first playthrough of Aurora and I wanted to ask a quick one.  My tendency in research and development has been strongly biased towards peaceful exploration of the galaxy.  I'm sorta RPing the knowledge of (or lack of) alien species as it is now.  None of my ships have any weaponry whatsoever as I have no reason at this point to think that there's anything in space other than precious rocks. 

Am I going to be screwed in the long run or do you think this is a possible approach? I probably do intend to develop advanced weaponry once I have a reason to, but for now I don't see any reason the Terran Federation would be researching large-bore laser weaponry instead of advanced sensors, jump technology, and terraforming.

[Narmio]

I think you'll most likely be fine unless you have the Extra-Galactic Invaders turned on.  Many alien races are unfriendly, but few of them are actually aggressive enough to seek out and destroy Earth. The Terran Federation might get a nasty surprise in a few decades' time, but I think they'll make it.

[Erik L]

That's how I usually do things. Mostly. I tend to build small ships for home defense in case of "pirates" or the like. The Earth may have a unified government now, but not too long ago we were all at each other's throats.

[OkieMurse (OP)]

Excellent, thanks! I'm glad to know the game isn't a huge arms race right from day 1.  It gives me a little more breathing room to relax and figure out the mechanics. 

[boggo2300]

I think you'll most likely be fine unless you have the Extra-Galactic Invaders turned on.  Many alien races are unfriendly, but few of them are actually aggressive enough to seek out and destroy Earth. The Terran Federation might get a nasty surprise in a few decades' time, but I think they'll make it.

Man are you lucky!  I always seem to find someone one Jump from Earth who backtracks and then sits over earth "Terrorforming"

well ok It's only happened a few times, but it leaves an impression.

Matt

[Stardust]

In my first playthrough I expanded my research, my economy, my territory and then everything else.  I didn't start putting together warships until they were pretty much untouchable, deadly, and primarily benevolent.

This is the way I prefer to play and a big reason why this has become my favorite "game" by far.

[Shipright]

I generally RP in a few civil wars and rebellions to justify weapons research nd the building a a few warships for each tech era.

[telegraph]

I tend to ignore any ships (except an initial freighter to drop some infrastructure on luna) until research costs becomes considerable (10.000 - 15.000 per technology). Then I go on a shipbuilding spree, designing a lot of everything in many variations(depending on the available scientists).

[Alfapiomega]

Excellent, thanks! I'm glad to know the game isn't a huge arms race right from day 1.  It gives me a little more breathing room to relax and figure out the mechanics. 

Not to mention that when you do meet someone, you might use diplomacy to become friends instead of enemies

[Wolfius]

You can research some technologies under the ptetext of civilian applications when RPing a peaceful faction. Sensor probes for missile tech, maybe come basic capacitors and call it better batteries and such, also CIWS-related tech for 'metorite impact defence' - likewise better armour, which also makes your basic hulls lighter which is a non-combat-related boon all on it's own. Really good sensors? Science/exploration and search and rescue as well as traffic monitoring and control. Maybe some small weapons for police and customs ships.

Sometimes I like to give my pre-contact explorers missile tubes and hangars, idea being they have a compliment of shuttles and/or survey parasites as well as some probes(say for long-term monitoring of stuff/jump point traffic and reconing/geosurveying those annoyingly super-distant bodies). Maybe even send them out with some actual missiles as a token defence or handwave them as intended for remote seismic soundings. Then I have some ad hoc battlecarriers once I stick hastily designed/built fighters and missiles on them to serve as a stop-gap until proper warships come online.

[Bremen]

Any colonies you found will eventually start demanding military protection. I usually justify a small navy as appeasing such demands and fulfilling Coast Guard type duties.

I have had games where I stumbled onto hostile aliens who immediately attacked Earth, but it's fairly rare. Usually even hostile aliens are content to stick to their space.

[Conscript Gary]

See now, those orbital platforms aren't anything so crude as a weapons base. Those lasers are purely to safeguard the colony against asteroid impacts, and to keep the orbits clear of debris! 

[MarcAFK]

You could put up large swarms of 500 ton microwave defence satellites, they're up there for communication or power transmission, but in an invasion some bright spark hacks into their guidance computers using aN iphone at the last minute staving off total defeat for humanity.