What's going on in your empire/planet/battlefield?

[TCD]

I am curious as to what you have tried in terms of your Star Trek themed ships.   I can see that a purely laser strategy would have issue but if we interpret "photon torpedoes" as large long range missiles it might be possible to make something battle worthy (i.  e.   not get blown to pieces before firing). 

I thought the theme of the Federation was really powerful sensor technology which would go well with large long range missiles.   This also happens to work well with ships that aren't particularly good at taking damage. 

I think the main challenge with applying designs from science fiction to Aurora is how powerful missiles are in Aurora. 

My problems were twofold.  Even with "photon torpedoes" you run into the problem that they always seem to be secondary to phasers (or at least equal with) so you can't really have a torpedoes only warship.  (They also don't seem to be very long ranged, so perhaps a closer match would be large, very fast, minimal endurance missiles to be used for shock damage during a laser battle?) 

But that pales into insignificance compared with the problem that Star Trek ships are not clearly not dedicated warships, and are stand alone not specialist.  So those big sensors have to be on every ship, (along with "scientific" geological sensors really).  And each ship needs its own jump drive, enough fuel and maintenance supplies for deep space operations etc etc.  It soon ebcomes very expensive and very inefficient.

Totally agree about missiles.  Can anyone think of a missile friendly sci-fi setting? I need something to inspire me to love them.

[Herodotus4]

My problems were twofold.  Even with "photon torpedoes" you run into the problem that they always seem to be secondary to phasers (or at least equal with) so you can't really have a torpedoes only warship.  (They also don't seem to be very long ranged, so perhaps a closer match would be large, very fast, minimal endurance missiles to be used for shock damage during a laser battle?) 

But that pales into insignificance compared with the problem that Star Trek ships are not clearly not dedicated warships, and are stand alone not specialist.  So those big sensors have to be on every ship, (along with "scientific" geological sensors really).  And each ship needs its own jump drive, enough fuel and maintenance supplies for deep space operations etc etc.  It soon ebcomes very expensive and very inefficient.

Totally agree about missiles.  Can anyone think of a missile friendly sci-fi setting? I need something to inspire me to love them.

Honorverse, starfire, the cinnabar series, battlestar galactica (the galactica is a carrier with big missiles, gaus point defense and small lasers for anti fighter)

[Iranon]

You could make a nice StarStrek-esque multirole cruiser, qualities I find typical would be...
- extensive sensor suite
- not dedicated warships
- primary and secondary hull, varying ease of separation
- tractor beams standard

A jump tug with all sensors allowed on commercial designs towing a weapon+military sensor pod seems a reasonable translation, and would be fairly useful for armed exploration.

[AL]

Or with some inspired renaming of components, you could make it fit a lot more. For example you could do something like:
missile launcher -> "Accelerator tube"
missile fire control -> "Railgun turret"
and missiles -> "750mm Railgun shell".

Since Aurora doesn't really have graphics for what your ships or their components look like, you have a lot of freedom to re-imagine everything that you use. Try not to get too limited to what it originally says on the box.

[Erik L]

Or with some inspired renaming of components, you could make it fit a lot more. For example you could do something like:
missile launcher -> "Accelerator tube"
missile fire control -> "Railgun turret"
and missiles -> "750mm Railgun shell".

Since Aurora doesn't really have graphics for what your ships or their components look like, you have a lot of freedom to re-imagine everything that you use. Try not to get too limited to what it originally says on the box.

One thing I've done in the past is use mm instead of cm for measurements, i.e. 200mm laser cannon instead of a 20cm laser. Or convert to imperial measurements, 9.8 inch laser cannon rather than a 25cm laser.

It does make it almost sound like a completely different game.

[illrede]

My attempts at a Star Trek themed gamed are starting to fall apart.  I put in a load of self imposed restrictions to try and match the Trek vibe - all ships have to have warp engines (jump engines), phasers (ie lasers only), shields and science divisions (geological and gravitational sensors).  It seemed like a cool idea, but has just ended up with me having lots of large, expensive survey ships which still aren't any use in a fight against spoilers.

About as good a description of Wolf-359 as there ever was, there.

[GodEmperor]

One thing I've done in the past is use mm instead of cm for measurements, i.e. 200mm laser cannon instead of a 20cm laser. Or convert to imperial measurements, 9.8 inch laser cannon rather than a 25cm laser.

It does make it almost sound like a completely different game.

I even remember someone writing some Aurora fiction ( kill me but i cant find it for the life of me ) where he called missiles "artillery shells" and missile launchers were "artillery guns" or something like that.

if we interpret "photon torpedoes" as large long range missiles

But they are not. Star Trek torpedoes are pathetically short range, probably even shorter than Aurora's CIWS ..
If anything we could pretend that carronades are photons.

Star Trek theme doesn't work very well because that whole verse is written on "hollywood tactics" and its simply not viable in "smart" mil sf like Aurora.

[TCD]

Honorverse, starfire, the cinnabar series, battlestar galactica (the galactica is a carrier with big missiles, gaus point defense and small lasers for anti fighter)

Oh, I'd forgotten about BSG.  Good call.  Not sure ship-to-ship combat is prominent enough in starfire to draw much inspiration.  I'm not familiar with the other two, I'll look them up.  Thanks for the suggestions.

[GodEmperor]

Oh, I'd forgotten about BSG.  Good call.  Not sure ship-to-ship combat is prominent enough in starfire to draw much inspiration.  I'm not familiar with the other two, I'll look them up.  Thanks for the suggestions.

Im sorry ... what ? Are we thinking about the same Starfire ? The one with rampart ship to ship combat in every book ?

[TCD]

Im sorry . . .  what ? Are we thinking about the same Starfire ? The one with rampart ship to ship combat in every book ?

Clearly not.  I think maybe I was thinking of firefly, sorry! Do you know why the author is?

[illrede]

Clearly not.  I think maybe I was thinking of firefly, sorry! Do you know why the author is?

Oh man, Aurora has arrived if there are players that don't know about Starfire.

David Weber and Steve White.

[Erik L]

I even remember someone writing some Aurora fiction ( kill me but i cant find it for the life of me ) where he called missiles "artillery shells" and missile launchers were "artillery guns" or something like that.

That sounds like something I might have done. Or one of Steve's many many stories.

[boggo2300]

Oh man, Aurora has arrived if there are players that don't know about Starfire.

David Weber and Steve White.

or you know the pen and paper game that Aurora grew out of a playing assistant bit of software Steve used to write...

Originally written by Steve V. Cole (god help you if you ever leave out the V while corresponding with him!)
third edition written by aforementioned David Weber,  and used as the basis for Honor Harrington until he decided to go silly with it

[TCD]

or you know the pen and paper game that Aurora grew out of a playing assistant bit of software Steve used to write...

Originally written by Steve V. Cole (god help you if you ever leave out the V while corresponding with him!)
third edition written by aforementioned David Weber,  and used as the basis for Honor Harrington until he decided to go silly with it

Ah, so the novels are based on the game? Presumably that would make them siblings of Aurora? I shall have to check them out.

[Sheb]

They're really neat. They do have a kind of Aurora-ish vibe to them, although they are newtonian, which is very cool.