More questions but it is starting to make sense

[Hyfrydle (OP)]

Played last night and slowly but surely things are making sense. My geo and grav survey ships in Sol ran out of targets in range so I guess that means I need bigger fuel supplies onboard or would hyperdrive tach be useful?

Built a mass driver on Earth but at the moment Mars has no pop is it possible to create a small mining operation on Mars if so can anyone give me some pointers.

I created a design for a jump ship and managed to build one this was then teamed up with a geo and grav survey ship and sent as one fleet to explore the nearest jump point. We jumped and then I had to create three seperate fleets so the geo and grav ships could start surveying. Is it possible to give ships in one fleet individual orders? I saw mention of parent ship not sure if this has something to do with it.

Another quick one how do I use active sensors?

Really enjoying the game the anticipation when a new system is discovered is unlike any other 4X I've played. The scale is also very impressive. Not experienced combat yet so I have lots to look forward too.

[UnLimiTeD]

To shuttle minerals from one site to another, like, from mars to earth, you need a massdriver on both sides, one on mars and one on earth.
As you currently likely have a good amount of pop on earth, I would build manned mines and ship existing Automints to Mars, Mercury, and Venus, whereever you have a good amount of minerals.
Also, start building Infrastructure on Earth and ship it to Mars.
Once you have a sufficient amount to support a million or so, start transferring colonists. (If you can produce and ship Infrastructure the same speed as you can bring colonists, you can start right now, though)

As far as I know, you need a new fleet for every own task, so no, you can'tmake parts of a fleet do different things.

You can activate active sensors either at some targetable place, with an Order, for Example, "Mars, Active Sensors ON", or you can do that in the ship description or maybe combat settings, can't quite remember.

Parent fleets are mainly used for combat as far as I recall.
It's adviseable to build Jumpgates
Also, you can use Jump ships as jump tenders, place one on the point and use 'Standard Transit'.

[randal7]

Played last night and slowly but surely things are making sense. My geo and grav survey ships in Sol ran out of targets in range so I guess that means I need bigger fuel supplies onboard or would hyperdrive tach be useful?

Actually this means your system is surveyed, unless you skipped surveying asteroids, which I usually save for much later. In rare cases there may be a distant companion outside this range. If no LPs for in-system jumps are present, you will need to build hyperdrive-equipped ships to reach these in a reasonable time.

Built a mass driver on Earth but at the moment Mars has no pop is it possible to create a small mining operation on Mars if so can anyone give me some pointers.

Build infrastructure and move it to Mars. Whatever the colonization cost is, that much infrastructure allows 10k pop. Transfer colonists. Try to get pop to 3mil, because at that point civilian shipping will start moving infrastructure and pop for you (slowly at first). Add mines as desired; 50k pop needed to run a mine.

I created a design for a jump ship and managed to build one this was then teamed up with a geo and grav survey ship and sent as one fleet to explore the nearest jump point. We jumped and then I had to create three seperate fleets so the geo and grav ships could start surveying. Is it possible to give ships in one fleet individual orders? I saw mention of parent ship not sure if this has something to do with it.

Fleets have to stay together. You might want to build your survey ships with their own jump drives. I think this will cut down on your micromanaging of their duties quite a lot.

Another quick one how do I use active sensors?

Go to the TF screen (f5), doubleclick the ship to open the ship screen, click the combat settings tab (I think), then click the "on" button for active sensors. These really only have a function if you have encountered aliens. If you do have a first encounter, turn them on immediately, because in my experience missile impacts follow closely after thermal detections.

[Hyfrydle (OP)]

Thanks for all your info guys I really appreciate it. Hope to start towards getting a mining colony on Mars tonight I presume no shipyard is required at Mars?

Managed to explore Ross 154 and Alpha Centauri last night hope to explore some more jump points and hopefully find some good terrestial planets.

Regarding the survey ships I don't think they have surveyed all the planets and moons in the Sol system although I did notice they where surveying asteroids. I presume I can turn this off.

Is there a list of how many pop are required per installation so I can plan my building at the moment things are a bit random as I don't really know what everything does. One example how do I upgrade my military academy and other upgradeable installations?

Sorry for all the questions but I hope to learn and help out other newbies when I can.

Again thanks for all your help I nearly gave up on Aurora this is my fifth attempt at learning the game.

[UnLimiTeD]

To upgrade an installation, just build more of them.
Btw, once you have two sufficiently large colonies(including the home planet), having a commercial spaceport on each is surely helpful.

[sloanjh]

Try to get pop to 3mil, because at that point civilian shipping will start moving infrastructure and pop for you (slowly at first).

Not quite true.  If you have infrastructure or population (and there are civie shipping lines), then the civies will start moving them to the new colony.  3mil is the threshold for a colony to start producing and demanding trade goods, which the civies will carry for you generating tax revenue.

John

[Hawkeye]

Is there a list of how many pop are required per installation so I can plan my building at the moment things are a bit random as I don't really know what everything does. One example how do I upgrade my military academy and other upgradeable installations?
 

Research Labs need 1 million workers
Terraformer need 250.000 workers
Pretty much anything else needs 50.000

Commercial Spaceports, Military Academies, Deep Space Tracking Stations, Automated Mines, Ground Force Training Facilities, Mass Drivers and Sector Command HQs don´t need personnel

Be aware, however, that the worse the living conditions on a planet/moon the more percentage of the population is busy just keeping the infrastructure running, that´ll keep your colonists alife. Also, the larger the population, the larger percentage of people will work in the service industries.
This means, the larger the population and the worse the conditions, the less "free" workers for your mines/factories/shipyards/... will be available (percentage wise, that is)

[Hyfrydle (OP)]

Build infrastructure and move it to Mars. Whatever the colonization cost is, that much infrastructure allows 10k pop. Transfer colonists. Try to get pop to 3mil, because at that point civilian shipping will start moving infrastructure and pop for you (slowly at first). Add mines as desired; 50k pop needed to run a mine.

How do I move infrastructure to Mar I can't see an option?

[UnLimiTeD]

First, you need to build it on Earth.
If you don't have any, it's hard to transport it.
Then, you use freighters.

[Hyfrydle (OP)]

First, you need to build it on Earth.
If you don't have any, it's hard to transport it.
Then, you use freighters.

According to my summary screen I have 291 infrastructure on Earth and I have a freighter so what order do I need to use?

[Bobarossa]

Select the task group your freighters are in.  Then click on Earth in the leftmost column.  Now the middle column should have a list of possible orders.  One of them should be "Load Infrastructure".  Click on "Add Move" and then add another order by clicking on Mars.  One of the orders in the middle column should  be "Unload Infrastructure".  Click "Add Move".  If you want to do this a bunch of times, click the "Repeat button".  Each time you click should double the number of orders.  Don't forget to add a return to Earth at the end (if you want to end up there).  Also, 50,000 cargo will pick up 20 Infrastructure.

[sloanjh]

 If you want to do this a bunch of times, click the "Repeat button".  Each time you click should double the number of orders.  Don't forget to add a return to Earth at the end (if you want to end up there).  

Or give one set of orders (including return & refuel at Earth) and then click the "cycle orders" box.  That will copy an order to the bottom of the list whenever it completes, resulting in the TG running a standard route until you tell it to stop.

Also, 50,000 cargo will pick up 20 Infrastructure.

To put it a different way, a freighter that can carry 1 factory (or mine, or automine, or ....) can carry 10 infrastructure.

John

[Brian Neumann]

 If you want to do this a bunch of times, click the "Repeat button".  Each time you click should double the number of orders.  Don't forget to add a return to Earth at the end (if you want to end up there).  

Or give one set of orders (including return & refuel at Earth) and then click the "cycle orders" box.  That will copy an order to the bottom of the list whenever it completes, resulting in the TG running a standard route until you tell it to stop.

Also, 50,000 cargo will pick up 20 Infrastructure.

To put it a different way, a freighter that can carry 1 factory (or mine, or automine, or ....) can carry 10 infrastructure.

John

There is a problem with using the cycle order button if the total time it will take to go through all of the orders is less than the time incremented.  The easy way to get around this is a combination of both.  Have a set of orders, copy them a couple of times.  Once you have a set that will take more than 30 days to complete then click on the cycle order box.  At this point it usually works fine no matter how long the time increments.

Brian

[Steve Walmsley]

There is a problem with using the cycle order button if the total time it will take to go through all of the orders is less than the time incremented.  The easy way to get around this is a combination of both.  Have a set of orders, copy them a couple of times.  Once you have a set that will take more than 30 days to complete then click on the cycle order box.  At this point it usually works fine no matter how long the time increments.

I thought I had fixed that one. Are you still having problems?

Steve

[Hyfrydle (OP)]

Where do the ships in task group go when I delete a task group they don't seem to show up anywhere in game?