My Newbie AAR

[Hyfrydle (OP)]

As mentioned in my post viewtopic.php?f=19&t=2440 which has started to get quite long I have decided to start a Newbie AAR which I will use as a learning and hopefully a teaching aid. The idea is to play and document a game from a newbie perspective asking questions and getting feedback as the game progresses.

The AAR will be hosted on a blog page but I intend to use this post to ask questions and discuss the game. So far the introduction is complete and the game has been created the next step is deciding on starting techs and designing some systems and ships so any help in this area would be much appreciated.

The link to the blog is http://auroranewbieaar.blogspot.com/

Please let me have your comments good or bad and if you want to see the game go in a certain direction please let me know.

Well that's all for now thanks for reading.

[Xithias47]

I think this is a great idea! It'll definitely help me learn what kind of things I should be doing, because I find myself skipping a LOT of months.

[randal7]

Good idea. I also will be following to pick up tips.

Question: are you deliberately not spending the starting points to buy techs, or are you unaware of that function?

Comment: excellent planetary governor for Earth. I don't know if I've ever seen a 20% factory bonus; that is very good to have.

Suggestions: build 5 military academies with 15-20% of your industry. They churn out officers, admins, and scientists. By the time all five are done, or soon after, you will likely have scientists with a bonus for every field of research.

Start a survey team now and dump them on some useless rocks to build their skills. When the team gets up to 150+, start surveying planets you will use.

I would recommend continually building factories, mines, and automines with about 10-15% of your industry each. At least as far into the game as I've gotten, you never have enough of these.

Looking forward to the next installment.

[Hyfrydle (OP)]

Thanks for your interest guys I'm hoping to get another installment up tonight.

Question: are you deliberately not spending the starting points to buy techs, or are you unaware of that function?

I have decided to do it this way to explain how research works I may use the starting points later on but I think it's more realistic actually taking the time to do the research.

Comment: excellent planetary governor for Earth. I don't know if I've ever seen a 20% factory bonus; that is very good to have.

Yes out of the choice I had she was the best candidate I presume the 20% factory bonus helps in all installation construction.

Suggestions: build 5 military academies with 15-20% of your industry. They churn out officers, admins, and scientists. By the time all five are done, or soon after, you will likely have scientists with a bonus for every field of research.

Start a survey team now and dump them on some useless rocks to build their skills. When the team gets up to 150+, start surveying planets you will use.

I would recommend continually building factories, mines, and automines with about 10-15% of your industry each. At least as far into the game as I've gotten, you never have enough of these.

I will start building academies as soon as I can thanks for the tip it will be useful to have scientists with bonuses in all fields. Also thanks for the survey team tip I wasn't sure how teams work. Do I need to have a ship to transport them?

I'm trying to base my installation builds on my free population but this is part of the game where I'm still learning so again thanks for the tips.

[AndonSage]

Thanks for your interest guys I'm hoping to get another installment up tonight.

Just saw this, and I'll be following your AAR also

Sorry that your name isn't mentioned in the quotes I'm not sure how to do this

After the quote, put ="name", e.g.

Code: [Select]

[quote="Hyfrydle"]This is Hyfrydle's text[/quote]

[Hyfrydle (OP)]

After the quote, put ="name", e.g.

That's great now I won't seem so rude.

[AndonSage]

I'm following your blog now :lol: I'm hoping it means I'll get an e-mail when you update, in case I miss an entry.

[sloanjh]

Sorry that your name isn't mentioned in the quotes I'm not sure how to do this :-)

John

[StratPlayer]

Great idea!

As another newbie still inching up the learning-cliff, I'm very interested in following this.

As an aside -- So far, to me, it seems clear that a big part of the fun of the game is the role-playing aspect of the game.  The more immersive you make the AAR, the more fun you'll have with it, I think.  

At the tutorial level, I really appreciate the detailed, "go to this screen and click this button to do whatsit and such."  But I also enjoy the deeper POV aspect of fictionalizing the experience, too.  

I also know that it's hard to blend the two, especially as a newbie:

Tutorial Version:

According to the colony summary the governor needs to be level A3 and checking the Leaders screen four civilian administrators are qualified.

Kate Wallace: Shipbuilding 5% Factory Production 20% Mining 5% Population Growth 10% and Logistical 10%

Based on this choice I have decided to go with Kate Wallace this is mainly due to the shipbuilding bonus as I hope to start building ships very soon.

So Kate Wallace becomes the first planetary governor of Earth.

Role-Playing Fictionalized Version:

Earth was in turmoil following the adoption of a new planetary government.  Old rivalries threatened to break the tenuous new union, and the smoke of nationalism continued to flare from the smouldering embers of the old order.  In this time of radical change, it would require a unique and special person to take on the challenge of holding the infant world coalition together. The representatives from the various global regions debated for weeks before finally uniting behind Kate Wallace.  The former CEO of the large multinational Essex corporation, the vibrant Wallace had a hard-earned expertise in production and business that would help bring the diverse population together, give them a common goal, and focus their energies toward building a stronger world.

...or whatever...  

But I'm definitely on-board and look forward to seeing how it goes for you.

[Steve Walmsley]

A very good idea! Looking forward to seeing what happens

Steve

[Hyfrydle (OP)]

At the tutorial level, I really appreciate the detailed, "go to this screen and click this button to do whatsit and such."  But I also enjoy the deeper POV aspect of fictionalizing the experience, too.  

I think at the moment I need to stick with one method to keep any confusion to a minimum. After some time as passed I may try some fiction but it's not my strong point. Thought your fictionalized version was very good maybe you should start a fiction AAR. The more there is to read the better.

[Hyfrydle (OP)]

The next installment is up please let me know what you think and also of any changes that might be useful. Things are moving quite slowly but I'm enjoying the steady pace it gives me time to really see how various things are affected.

Also any tips from the experienced players are much appreciated.

[Maximillian]

The next installment is up please let me know what you think and also of any changes that might be useful. Things are moving quite slowly but I'm enjoying the steady pace it gives me time to really see how various things are affected.

Also any tips from the experienced players are much appreciated.

most players have their geology teams gain a lot of experience before bringing them to earth.  It turns out that using a low skilled team means that there will be fewer minerals available to find!  Note that you can disband teams or load them onto ships if you want to move them around. That would have works with your geo team.

Looks like you are off to a good start.  Thanks for writing the game up.

Max

[AndonSage]

Left a comment on the blog.

Maybe StratPlayer could turn your AAR into fiction. Looks to me like he's good at fiction, just based on the paragraph he wrote

[randal7]

Good find by the geo team on Earth. However, I have had a high skill team find five or six deposits before saying they could find no more. Five high accessibility minerals turns a habitable but otherwise useless rock into a prize, even if it only has 100,000 of each. For most minerals 100k is a couple decade's worth.

When surveying, the game makes rolls against the team's skill level (the exact mechanics are in the wiki somewhere). The first roll determines if a find is made for the given time period. This is why low skill teams can take years to find a deposit, and high skill teams may find one two months in a row. A second roll is made to determine if the team can find any more minerals. If this roll is failed, no survey team can ever again find new deposits on that planet. Low skill teams will almost always take a long time and only find one deposit; that is why it is best to start them on an uninhabitable and otherwise useless rock. When their skill level hits 150+, use them on places you will colonize or will place mines anyway.

Anyway, to summarize, I would counsel against sending your team to Mars or any other potentially habitable planet, or any place that already has useful mineral deposits, until you get their skill built up. Like you, I learned this the hard way.