Beginner questions

[Kirkegaard (OP)]

Hey,

I'm new to this game, and I have a few problems I hope you can help me with.   
I'm playing 5.   6 on a win XP (Virtual)

I have played a few games and I do have a few problems I have not solved yet.   

Question 1)
How can I find resources at other planets (Mars)? I have build 2-3 ships with passive sensors (5 Survey pr.    hour) + Active Search Sensor MR25-R100 range 25m km Resolution 100.    If I send them to do a geosurvey on Mars I don't find any resources, not even if I repeat the geosurvey order many, many times.    I seems I sometimes find something on some planets but it seems rather random.   
Not even when I have a colony up there with >1 mio.    people can I see any resources.   

What am I doing wrong?

Q2)
I have created some different teams, but when I try to move them to a ship, it won't let me.    What kind of ships do they go on? A colony ship or something else?

Q3) It seems that in some of my games under Research I have a button called Instant that instant research a tech.    for the 120.   000 starting RP.    But it is not there always, do you need to do something to get that option unlocked?

Q4) Does the type of hull of a ship matter?

edit: Did I post the correct place?


 

[Person012345]

Hey,

I'm new to this game, and I have a few problems I hope you can help me with.   
I'm playing 5.   6 on a win XP (Virtual)

I have played a few games and I do have a few problems I have not solved yet.   

Question 1)
How can I find resources at other planets (Mars)? I have build 2-3 ships with passive sensors (5 Survey pr.    hour) + Active Search Sensor MR25-R100 range 25m km Resolution 100.    If I send them to do a geosurvey on Mars I don't find any resources, not even if I repeat the geosurvey order many, many times.    I seems I sometimes find something on some planets but it seems rather random.   
Not even when I have a colony up there with >1 mio.    people can I see any resources.   

What am I doing wrong?

You only need to send a geosurvey once. You just need a geosurvey module, tell the ship to go survey and wait for it to report. If you don't find any minerals, well, there are no minerals there.

You can further send a geosurvey team (this can be created on the teams tab and moved by any ship) although it's generally not worth doing bodies where you found no minerals already other than as practice for the team (the higher the skill the less likely they are to irreversibly "miss" minerals). It'll find you maybe one or 200,000 worth of minerals.

Q2)
I have created some different teams, but when I try to move them to a ship, it won't let me.    What kind of ships do they go on? A colony ship or something else?

Any ship. You can issue the ship a move order "pickup team". Choose the team you want and it should then be able to "drop off team".

Q3) It seems that in some of my games under Research I have a button called Instant that instant research a tech.    for the 120.   000 starting RP.    But it is not there always, do you need to do something to get that option unlocked?

I believe that's SM only? The starting RP is there if you do a non-conventional start, and maybe the instant button is too, I'm not entirely sure.

Q4) Does the type of hull of a ship matter?

No. It's just a name and you can make your own ones.

edit: Did I post the correct place?

Would have fitted better in the academy.

[Kirkegaard (OP)]

Thanks a lot.   Now when there is no resources on Mars, do you have any tip on what to do?

It seems the resources on earth are running out fast, so I need to find something fast and the asteroids don't seem to have much if any resources on them. 

edit: The SM thing, is that a kind of cheat option?

Best regards
Kirkegaard

[Theodidactus]

to unlock "instant" options, you need to be in SM mode. It's a form of "cheating", I guess, but don't think of it that way. Aurora is about building a story. If it's in the interest of the story for Terrans to mysteriously discover a piece of advanced technology on earth, by all means, make it happen.


Running out of resources will be a perpetual problem. you need to geological survey and explore other worlds and find new resources. If there are no worlds in the sol system with minerals, survey other star systems...they are out there.

[sloanjh]

edit: The SM thing, is that a kind of cheat option?

SM = "Space Master", analogous to Dungeon Master in a D&D game.

Aurora the program has its roots in Starfire Assistant, which was a bookkeeping program for a turn-based, multiplayer game.  So there were situations where there was a non-player SM who would run the turns etc.  SM mode was to help him manage the game.  That being said, a huge percentage of the time people ran solitaire campaigns, in which case the player had to wear both the "player" and "SM" hats.

Aurora is designed for solitaire play, but SM mode is useful to help you keep track of which hat you're wearing - in particular it keeps you from accidentally making changes to the state of the game that a player shouldn't be able to make.

So yes, you can use SM to cheat, in the same way you can cheat at solitaire if you want to.  Its intent, however, is to allow you (as the human) to take over when you hit a situation for which the game engine is not designed to cope, and/or to introduce "house rules".

John

[xeryon]

To build on what was just posted: it is also nice for building custom scenario starts or for just playing around to find out what the deeper levels of technology and more advanced ship systems are like.  I spent days doing just that so that when I make my decisions on what to research or build next I have a better grasp on which path I am heading down.

[sloanjh]

BTW, I just read the thread more carefully.  The "Instant" button is intended to be used during setup (by the SM) to give an empire its starting technologies.

John

[Person012345]

Thanks a lot.   Now when there is no resources on Mars, do you have any tip on what to do?

Try somewhere else. It's usually a good idea to make a colony and dump some infrastructure on mars anyway as this gives civilian shipping a large boost. Make sure you have a freighter and colony ship that the civvies can afford designed if you do that.

It seems the resources on earth are running out fast, so I need to find something fast and the asteroids don't seem to have much if any resources on them.

 
Most asteroids won't have anything on them, but those that do will have good access. This is useful when your mining operations are small scale.

edit: The SM thing, is that a kind of cheat option?

for single player games, basically yes. It allows you to play god, essentially.

[Kirkegaard (OP)]

Thank you all for your replies! They are so good that I will try to give some more questions

1) If a mine gives 10 ?/year is that then of all resources or in total, ie.  is it better to mine on asteroids that have many resources?

2) Do you always need jump gates to get to other galaxies?

3) Do you need jump gates at both "ends" and if you do, will mass drivers then work sending from on system to another?

4) In my reasoned game I played 15 years before having the Sun system invaded, is that normal?
Are you more prone to invasions if you discover other systems?   

5) In my game I played without SM but with 120000 RP (automatically set) and did not research any military techs at all, is that a mistake or should I start building up my economy first (as I tried)

[metalax]

Thank you all for your replies! They are so good that I will try to give some more questions

1) If a mine gives 10 ?/year is that then of all resources or in total, ie.  is it better to mine on asteroids that have many resources?

The mine rating is how much of each mineral a mine will recover each year. Mining bodies that have multiple minerals will give you more total minerals each year although which bodies will be the best to mine will depend on which minerals you are using the most.

2) Do you always need jump gates to get to other galaxies?

You can use jump drives to transit to other systems as well. Unless designed as a single ship drive, jumpdrive equipped ships will be able to bring along a number of smaller or equal size ships with them when they jump.

3) Do you need jump gates at both "ends" and if you do, will mass drivers then work sending from on system to another?

If you want two way traffic or for civilians to be able to use it then yes, otherwise a single gate will allow you to transit from the gate side to the other system but not back.

Mass drivers can't send mineral packets through a gate, you will have to send the packets to a nearby body and use freighters to transit the point.

4) In my reasoned game I played 15 years before having the Sun system invaded, is that normal?
Are you more prone to invasions if you discover other systems?

It depends on what settings you used for NPR's and spoiler races. The more NPR's the more they can explore and run the chance of finding you. They will also find new npr's that will do their own exploring triggering still more, etc. The more there are running around the larger the chance that one will find you. Similarly, the more you explore the more chance you have of finding something hostile, or if you have invaders enabled, having them show up within your explored territory.

5) In my game I played without SM but with 120000 RP (automatically set) and did not research any military techs at all, is that a mistake or should I start building up my economy first (as I tried)

I would suggest doing both rather than focusing on one side alone. If you focus only on military tech you won't have the economy or resources to support it, and if you focus only on economy you leave yourself open to hostile invaders.

[Person012345]

The mine rating is how much of each mineral a mine will recover each year. Mining bodies that have multiple minerals will give you more total minerals each year although which bodies will be the best to mine will depend on which minerals you are using the most.

This is affected by accessibility. They would mine 10 of an accessibility 1 mineral per year. To find out how many resources it will mine for lower numbers, times the 10 by the accessibility. Although it should say next to each mineral how much will be mined per year.

[Kirkegaard (OP)]

Hey, could an MOD please move this to the academy/questions section?

1) Does the number of geological survey point affect the minerals found or is it only a matter of time it takes to search a object?
1b) You can search planets, moons etc.  but what is a "body"? is that everything?

[Havear]

Survey points required is based on the mass of the object if I remember correctly, and they only decide how long it takes to survey the body. As a side note, more massive bodies have a higher chance for large quantities of minerals, assuming they get any.

A "body" is any natural object orbiting a star that the game represents, and does not include stars.

[Kirkegaard (OP)]

Thank you,

I have problems with some aliens in a nearby system.
I have build 30 of these:

Fire Control S16 128-16000 H50
R32/C2 High Power Microwave

Thermal Sensor TH5-40 (50%)
Active search sensor MR84-R100 (50%)
EM Decection Sensor EM2-16 (70%)

Ceramic Composite Amour
Gamma R300/12 Shield

3 x magneto-plasma Drive E0. 6
+ Engineering spaces, Fuel storage, Crew, Bridge

But they does only get 100% destroyed, I hit once pr ship to 1 dmg and they does not really seem to recharge at any usefull rate.
Any tips or just a link to a war guide?

[Erik L]

Thank you,

I have problems with some aliens in a nearby system.
I have build 30 of these:

Fire Control S16 128-16000 H50
R32/C2 High Power Microwave

Thermal Sensor TH5-40 (50%)
Active search sensor MR84-R100 (50%)
EM Decection Sensor EM2-16 (70%)

Ceramic Composite Amour
Gamma R300/12 Shield

3 x magneto-plasma Drive E0. 6
+ Engineering spaces, Fuel storage, Crew, Bridge

But they does only get 100% destroyed, I hit once pr ship to 1 dmg and they does not really seem to recharge at any usefull rate.
Any tips or just a link to a war guide?

You are getting hit by meson cannons. They bypass armor and shields. I don't believe the microwave will be effective against those particular enemies.