New game. Your input welcome

[plasticpanzers (OP)]

Have started a new game.   2000 starting date.   Now Nov 2007
I have 2 scientists only.  1 bio 1 sensor. hopefully they will not die early.  Sometimes its 20 years to get some branch scientists.
I have reserched using them 240RP/120%mining/Geo sensors/Nasa 125 EP NPE engine
Brooklyn Navy Yards/ 4 slips at 1000 tons each continual build
Isuzu Interstellar Commercial yard 10000 tons for Geo probe building which will start early in 2008
in process converting all old industry to new construction/mines/small fuel plants (i prefer sorium harvesters)/research labs
have 9 research labs (my only cheat at game start from the stock 5 for Republic) will built slowly up to 40 by 2030-35.

[plasticpanzers (OP)]

August 2008 still converting industries
have researched .9 litres fuel and level 1 active sensors
the dynamic duo are now working on beam sensors and magazine ejection (easy stuff to get out of the way).
building 4 Geo probes.  I keep them out a long time and in between they haul surface teams about.

GEO class Cruiser    3,850 tons     45 Crew     256.05 BP      TCS 77  TH 125  EM 0
1623 km/s     Armour 1-21     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/1     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
MSP 42    Max Repair 100 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 48 months    Spare Berths 0   

Nasa  10-125 EP Commercial Nuclear Thermal Engine (1)    Power 125    Fuel Use 8.84%    Signature 125    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 250,000 Litres    Range 132.2 billion km   (942 days at full power)

Geological Survey Sensors (1)   1 Survey Points Per Hour

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes

[plasticpanzers (OP)]

Nice its 3AM here and freezing..

Sept 2009
duo has researched duranium armor and infrared lasers
in summer 2010 will have .8 fuel and lge fuel storage
also will have 3 new research labs and conversion of industry will be done
will start 2nd commerical yard after that and 2 more labs
need to spread them out due to shortage at start of duranium (as always).
hopefully in next 10 years more scientists will show up....but I am an optimist.

wont even start to begin mining and building cargo ships till sufficent survey work is done to get best return
for automines.   Maybe 1 more year.

[MarcAFK]

I see you're using one large efficient engine on that survey ship, which is great, something newer players often get wrong. You might want to put another sensor on board, it will double scan speed with only minor speed loss. Also a small passive sensor could very well save your ship from being destroyed, you see it only has a tiny thermal emission of 125 making your ship quite hard to detect in comparison to any hostiles.

[Sematary]

August 2008 still converting industries
have researched .9 litres fuel and level 1 active sensors
the dynamic duo are now working on beam sensors and magazine ejection (easy stuff to get out of the way).
building 4 Geo probes.  I keep them out a long time and in between they haul surface teams about.

GEO class Cruiser    3,850 tons     45 Crew     256.05 BP      TCS 77  TH 125  EM 0
1623 km/s     Armour 1-21     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/1     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
MSP 42    Max Repair 100 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 48 months    Spare Berths 0   

Nasa  10-125 EP Commercial Nuclear Thermal Engine (1)    Power 125    Fuel Use 8.84%    Signature 125    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 250,000 Litres    Range 132.2 billion km   (942 days at full power)

Geological Survey Sensors (1)   1 Survey Points Per Hour

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes

Here are my thoughts on this ship design.

I agree with MarcAFK on the second sensor idea, that will double your speed at surveying.

Personally I don't put just one engine on my ships because if you get into a fight and the engine is destroyed with 1 engine you lose 100% of your power, with 2 engines you lose 50% and so on, I prefer to have my ships lose less speed per destroyed engine. The drawback with that is my ships are less fuel efficient than others.

Also your range shouldn't have to be more than 40 billion kilometers, and if they are just kept in Sol it doesn't have to be much higher than 20 billion. Instead of using a large fuel storage, a basic, two smalls and a tiny will give you a range of ~40 billion kilometers for 1.5 hull space rather than the 5 you are currently spending. That will lower your ship's size by 175 tons bringing it to 3,700 and will speed your ship up.

[plasticpanzers (OP)]

thanks!  i tried the two but am taking my time while my building and research catch up to the input gained from the
survey.   will take quite a while for even 4 of these GEOs to survey the entire system and i am not worried about them
being seen.  These are for the Sol system only and get scrapped when their job is done.  I heavly reserach reduction
in thermal for engines getting my bigger commercial engines down to 25-35% so they show no larger that these tho
they can be up to 300 or more EP.   Those are what i put in my survey crusiers for range and fuel effiencey.   later on
if i can get that far some cloaking for my survey ships as well to make them even more mouse like and of small notice.
hasn't worked so far but i have hope! lol!

I am sure there is more tinkering i can do (and have done).  sometimes you save a whole 5kps!! lol!  These stay out
for 48 months at a time (sometimes i set them for 72).  Still experimenting but they are expendable early units of no
value execpt what they find and getting my survey folks around.   Used to waste time and building on high speed
shuttle for transport as i had seen on youtube but these buckets do just fine.  Any unused fuel i get back anyhow
when they are scrapped.   sloppy design i know!

[Sematary]

If you keep them in Sol then you can go with less than 50,000 litres of fuel. In fact just a single basic fuel storage will give you more than enough range which will save you 200 tons over what you have now.

[MarcAFK]

Sematery is right, but with their good range and being commercial you can get a damn good life span from those first survey ships. Later when you have faster but shorter ranged surveyors doing primary surveys your old dependables can finish off scanning asteroids, far out planets or long duration comets.

[plasticpanzers (OP)]

June 2012.   Still darned cold!!

have researched armor/laser/construction 12bp/fuel 48000litres with the dynamic duo
new construction scientist here (yey!) he is starting on shipbuilding basics.   all conversions
about done.   Alternating with research, few missile factoires, spaceport, more research labs
and academies to spread the mineral damage around evenly.

As folks can see i am just starting to explore just the Sol system.  Until there is enough info there
is no need to build Cargo ships, mass drivers, or automines for awhile yet.   And i have still to get
the new GM Space Div yard up and running alongsize Isuzu's and both up to size for at least in=system
freighters (about 5 is all i need).   When one is big enough then I start building Sorium harvesters 2 at
a time and link them up on return/empty orders with 2 more new ones til i get at least 15 at a time
going out (but not yet!)

[plasticpanzers (OP)]

game over.   another screwy outcome with vastly overpowered vessels in 2038 (only 38 years into game).   will go
back to earlier version of Aurora where at least my ships could fight.   Right now I might as well abandon ship when
ever I see an NPR ship...

[Sematary]

game over.   another screwy outcome with vastly overpowered vessels in 2038 (only 38 years into game).   will go
back to earlier version of Aurora where at least my ships could fight.   Right now I might as well abandon ship when
ever I see an NPR ship...

What happened? Tell us a bit about it.

[MarcAFK]

BTW, I suggest disabling invaders and star swarm on your next game, you'll find them overpowered untill you've learned more about the game. And even then, they're meant to be overpowered and curbstomp the best of us if we're caught unprepared.

[illrede]

I only do full Spoilers, lately with no SM augments on setup. The secret of my success has always been Railgun spam, Missile spam, deep space tracking installation spam, planetary hanger bays, and a "turtle" in Sol strategy. A railgun/shipkiller missile combatant is never hopelessly obsolete, only insufficiently numerous.

EDIT: For posterity my survey strategy is most popularly a fighter with a high efficiency engine, either a grav or geo sensor, and nothing else.

[plasticpanzers (OP)]

I have run across 'star swarm' i suppose.  those are the 30 or so small ships travelling at insane speeds that rip your ships to
scrap?  Its the NPR regular races that seemed to have changed in post patch 7 to me.   Earlier I ran across friendly and neutral
shipping and spead out to 11 systems but now an getting repeatidly smacked in the 1st system outside Sol by 1 or 2 ships that
are incredibly armed and engined that are 'normal' NPRs.   They sometimes follow me back into Sol and bascially game over.
It something different somehow in prepatch 7 and postpatch 7 games as i used the same designs and techs that now don't seem
to work and the NPRs are universally hositle and incredibly armed even in what I consider 'early' in the game (30-40 years) which
in a 1000 system game to me at least seems very early game.

[MarcAFK]

It's possible those are regular NPRs, maybe when you start pre Newtonian with a pre existing NPR that NPR startle with a standard tier 2 empire, in the 40 years you're in sol they expand and research rapidly.
Honestly Aurora is pretty much designed around playing just after discovering transnewtonian tech, playing conventional disadvantages you unless you disable starting NPR, when you have randomly spawned NPR they should have similar tech and production as you but with some variance. Also pre-transnewtonian NPRs are typically crippled, unable to advance to a normal tech level.
Also regarding spoilers invaders are fairly high tech level so it's possible you've come across them