Discussion

[db48x (OP)]

How did you manage to come up with the best steam-punk engine name I've ever seen? "Parsons PN-300 Triple Expansion Ion Drive" is amazing.

For anyone who doesn't know, a triple-expansion steam engine had three (huge) pistons, each of which used the steam from the previous piston. High-pressure steam from the boilers drove the first piston, then the somewhat lower-pressure steam from that drove the second, then the third was driven by steam that was nearly down to atmospheric pressure. Between the three they could extract the majority of the energy from the steam, making these engines quite efficient. The big ones were the size of your house.

[serger]

But... Ion Drive?.. Triple Expansion?
What is it? There is some lack of correspondence, as for me.

P.S.
"Have you heard the auxetophone? It is to be hoped not. All Mr. Parsons' Ion Drives will be wanted to take long-suffering humanity out of earshot of his diabolical invention"

[serger]

[Steve Walmsley]

How did you manage to come up with the best steam-punk engine name I've ever seen? "Parsons PN-300 Triple Expansion Ion Drive" is amazing.

For anyone who doesn't know, a triple-expansion steam engine had three (huge) pistons, each of which used the steam from the previous piston. High-pressure steam from the boilers drove the first piston, then the somewhat lower-pressure steam from that drove the second, then the third was driven by steam that was nearly down to atmospheric pressure. Between the three they could extract the majority of the energy from the steam, making these engines quite efficient. The big ones were the size of your house.

Charles Parsons invented the compound steam turbine and the real life 1890s Royal Sovereign class (and other ships of the same period) used triple expansion steam engines. As I was designing the engine, the name just leapt out at me

BTW, interesting side note. There have been seven Royal Navy ships named Royal Sovereign, of which the above is the sixth. The first served from 1660 until 1697, which included the reign of James II, the last catholic monarch of England, and the period when parliament become dominant over the crown. The third Royal Sovereign was a 100-gun first rate ship of the line which served as the flagship of Admiral Collingwood at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. The seventh, a Revenge class battleship launched in 1915, was transferred to the Soviet Union in 1944 and served as the Arkhangelsk until 1949. Naval history is fascinating

[JustAnotherDude]

This is great! The A.I appears to be functioning more or less as intended, at least tactically. I love the whole late 1800s shtick, too, and am eagerly awaiting some... "Forceful uplifting" of conquered aliens.

[Jovus]

Lovely AAR; I appreciate the theme especially as a huge sea nerd. As I was reading through it, a couple things struck me that I'd like to ask questions about.

First, why is there a Death Star icon in Sol? Is this because Sol is the capital of the empire and you're using the Star Wars theme? I don't think I've noticed capital marking before, if so, though possibly I just missed an option somewhere.

Second, did you tweak the homeworld mineral generation algorithm? Earth looks pretty rich to my eyes. If not, I guess you just got lucky, or my estimate's out of whack.

Third, is system gen more likely to give 2.00 colony cost worlds now? Seems like you have a lot of them, when usually, especially with Real Stars, they're somewhat rare. I know you basically redid how habitability and terraforming work, so maybe a side effect is to make candidates more common?

Finally, a proposal: First Naval Lord I take to be a translation to space of First Sea Lord; I propose instead First Space Lord to keep the sibilance and the syllables.

[Steve Walmsley]

Lovely AAR; I appreciate the theme especially as a huge sea nerd. As I was reading through it, a couple things struck me that I'd like to ask questions about.

First, why is there a Death Star icon in Sol? Is this because Sol is the capital of the empire and you're using the Star Wars theme? I don't think I've noticed capital marking before, if so, though possibly I just missed an option somewhere.

Second, did you tweak the homeworld mineral generation algorithm? Earth looks pretty rich to my eyes. If not, I guess you just got lucky, or my estimate's out of whack.

Third, is system gen more likely to give 2.00 colony cost worlds now? Seems like you have a lot of them, when usually, especially with Real Stars, they're somewhat rare. I know you basically redid how habitability and terraforming work, so maybe a side effect is to make candidates more common?

Finally, a proposal: First Naval Lord I take to be a translation to space of First Sea Lord; I propose instead First Space Lord to keep the sibilance and the syllables.

1) Each race has a 'Station' icon that is used to denote the presence of shipyards

2) Home world is normal random generation. Just lucky on this one.

3) Colony 2.00 is more likely due to tide-locked worlds as their temperature cost and population capacity are both divided by 5.

4) First Naval Lord was the term in use at the time. First Naval Lord was changed to First Sea Lord in 1904.

[Father Tim]

I love the Victorian/Edwardian uplift setting (SPACE:1889, Wooden Ships and Iron Men, Martian Tales of Edgar Rice Burroughs, etc.), and am thrilled to see you doing one again.  I am sad, though, that the Royal Sovereign is primarily armed with torpedo tubes (yes, she had seven) and is completely lacking guns (I was hoping for 2x2 big guns, 10 small ones, and 22 PD/CIWS).

[The Forbidden]

The more compact AAR style is nice. Honestly given how thoroughly routine the early game tends to be it's a major plus. Especially since it must cut down writing time. Then again it might just be an impression. As for the ships, I have to say that I rather expected magnificent ships of the line (or of the wall) with bristling broadside guns and massed PD. After all, shouldn't the royal navy not be afraid to get close and personal ?

[Steve Walmsley]

The more compact AAR style is nice. Honestly given how thoroughly routine the early game tends to be it's a major plus. Especially since it must cut down writing time. Then again it might just be an impression. As for the ships, I have to say that I rather expected magnificent ships of the line (or of the wall) with bristling broadside guns and massed PD. After all, shouldn't the royal navy not be afraid to get close and personal ?

Compact style was intended. As you say, going through every jump point exploration can get tedious after a while. I thought it was better to cover it in summary and concentrate on the action.

I did consider going energy-only, but decided to go with 'torpedo launchers' as the big guns. That might change, depending on how things go.

[Jovus]

4) First Naval Lord was the term in use at the time. First Naval Lord was changed to First Sea Lord in 1904.

I stand corrected. If this AAR lasts long enough, will you switch? 

[serger]

Well, Sea Lord or Naval Lord, but Good Lord, is there any time machine was developed by Admiralty, when they has named those asteroids and comets?!
("New civilian mining colonies were founded on the asteroid 2005 TB190 and the comet Herschel – Rigollet".)

[Steve Walmsley]

Well, Sea Lord or Naval Lord, but Good Lord, is there any time machine was developed by Admiralty, when they has named those asteroids and comets?!
("New civilian mining colonies were founded on the asteroid 2005 TB190 and the comet Herschel – Rigollet".)

I've been renaming stars/systems that had 20th century names but I really couldn't be bothered to go through all the asteroids and comets

[Bremen]

The front being on the far side of two planetless jump points seems like this might be a golden opportunity for the new deep space fleet bases to shine. Once the empire has more time to prepare, at least.

[Jovus]

is there any time machine was developed by Admiralty, when they has named those asteroids and comets?!
("New civilian mining colonies were founded on the asteroid 2005 TB190 and the comet Herschel – Rigollet".)

Simple stupid plausibility skin that breaks down if you look at it too hard but works if you squint and move on: Royal Society astronomers are naming small bodies based on a projective scheme that attempts to classify them based on when they would have been discovered without the TNE revolution.

As for comets named after inappropriate people, that's simple: you just have the referent incorrect. That's not Roger Rigollet from 1939; that's Pierre Friedrich Rigollet, a still-living famous Alsatian astronomer who was never born in our timeline.