CI? Task Forces? Overwhelming!

[Judicator (OP)]

Well I'm now at a huge impasse.

Edit: Cleaning up as I'm learning by randomly clicking and looking. My questions. I have one ship right now. I want to learn all about task forces, task groups, how to make them, how to assign them, how to transfer ships between them, how to even give ships orders, how to dock, etc, etc, etc, etc.

In short, I have NO clue about how ANYthing works and I need a detailed rundown or at LEAST the basics on how it all works.

I'd also like to know what CI is and what I should be doing exactly concerning that. Recommended number of shipyards and slipways and tonnage allowed and so on and so on.

It tells me it surveyed the planets I told it to go to but uh, where d oI go to get a report on said planets/asteroids?

[Father Tim]

Read the Tutorials, read the FAQ, read the wiki pages that apply, and experiment with the various windows & buttons.

[Judicator (OP)]

Read the Tutorials, read the FAQ, read the wiki pages that apply, and experiment with the various windows & buttons.

Like I said before, the things I am looking for are NOT covered in any tutorial or wiki pages or the FAQ even. Right now I'm trying to learn how to even know if my ship surveyed a vessel or not. I'm trying to learn how I can make a ship mine. Trying to learn alot basically but my OP should cover the priority problems.

[Xaoc]

Read the Tutorials, read the FAQ, read the wiki pages that apply, and experiment with the various windows & buttons.

Like I said before, the things I am looking for are NOT covered in any tutorial or wiki pages or the FAQ even. Right now I'm trying to learn how to even know if my ship surveyed a vessel or not. I'm trying to learn how I can make a ship mine. Trying to learn alot basically but my OP should cover the priority problems.

Surveyed a vessel? Ehm, If your ships detect another foreign ship you'll hear about it in the Events Updates window(CRTL+F3 or look under the spacemaster tab in the menu bar). All information about foreign ships will be collected in the tactical intelligence tab in the intelligence and foreign relations window(CTRL + F5 or look under the Empires tab in the manu bar).

Learning how to capture ships? Thats a bit more advanced. You'll need a fast(at least five times faster than the target) ship with a company drop module, if I'm not mistaken. I haven't done it myself so my knowledge is limited.

Most of the Issues in the OP are covered by the wiki and the tutorials. I know that they're a bit 'extensive', but its worth the read, if you want to play Aurora. The Task Groups window is actually not that hard to comprehend even without a guide. Try hovering your over the buttons and fields a second or two to see a quick help message.
You can view detailed information about system bodies in the System Information window(F9 or look under the Empires tab).

[Judicator (OP)]

Read the Tutorials, read the FAQ, read the wiki pages that apply, and experiment with the various windows & buttons.

Like I said before, the things I am looking for are NOT covered in any tutorial or wiki pages or the FAQ even. Right now I'm trying to learn how to even know if my ship surveyed a vessel or not. I'm trying to learn how I can make a ship mine. Trying to learn alot basically but my OP should cover the priority problems.

Surveyed a vessel? Ehm, If your ships detect another foreign ship you'll hear about it in the Events Updates window(CRTL+F3 or look under the spacemaster tab in the menu bar). All information about foreign ships will be collected in the tactical intelligence tab in the intelligence and foreign relations window(CTRL + F5 or look under the Empires tab in the manu bar).

Learning how to capture ships? Thats a bit more advanced. You'll need a fast(at least five times faster than the target) ship with a company drop module, if I'm not mistaken. I haven't done it myself so my knowledge is limited.

Most of the Issues in the OP are covered by the wiki and the tutorials. I know that they're a bit 'extensive', but its worth the read, if you want to play Aurora. The Task Groups window is actually not that hard to comprehend even without a guide. Try hovering your over the buttons and fields a second or two to see a quick help message.
You can view detailed information about system bodies in the System Information window(F9 or look under the Empires tab).

Oops, heh heh. I should have been specific, sorry! I meant, how do I make a ship mine an asteroid! Earlier, apparently, somehow, I got one to mine. I was having a mining vessel sit in extended orbit over an asteroid that tested positive for minerals earlier surveyed by a geo ship. Is this how I mine minerals?

This in turn leads mt to my next question, how do I retrieve minerals mined from asteroids and comets? Do I get a cargo freighter loaded with uh...cargo space to simply go there and 'load all materials'? This leads me to another question, colony setup. How do I setup a colony on another planet/asteroid/comet? I assume I get cryogenic pod things and load them up with people? If that's correct what do I do there?

Again, I am amazed at how far I am learning through sheer luck and willpower though I have alot to learn, heh, and I haven't even run into an NPR yet! But questions about task forces and groups, organization, and efficient and well to do ship designs will really help as well. Thanks for taking the time to help so far guys.

Edit: Sadly, the hovering method does not seem to work with all the buttons.

[AndonSage]

I meant, how do I make a ship mine an asteroid! Earlier, apparently, somehow, I got one to mine. I was having a mining vessel sit in extended orbit over an asteroid that tested positive for minerals earlier surveyed by a geo ship. Is this how I mine minerals?

I haven't used a mining ship, so can't help you here. However, if you were able to get a ship to mine, then I'm assuming you've researched Asteroid Mining Module (Construction/Production category), and placed some on a ship. The minerals remain on the asteroid until you move them.

how do I retrieve minerals mined from asteroids and comets?

You have three options to get the minerals from the asteroid to a world...
1) Have your mining ship include cargo holds, but I think this is the least efficient way, or
2) Have cargo freighters ferry the minerals from the asteroid to where you want them, or
3) (most common) Build a Mass Driver somewhere and transport it to the asteroid (be sure to have a Mass Driver on a world so it can receive the minerals). This requires moving the Mass Driver from the asteroid, once the minerals are exhausted, to a new spot.

This leads me to another question, colony setup. How do I setup a colony on another planet/asteroid/comet?

The easiest way is to bring up the F9 System Generation and Display screen, click on the system body where you want the colony, and click on the Add Colony button at the bottom of the screen. BTW, I highly recommend changing the Option (last tab on the right) for Asteroids to "Show if Minerals." That'll speed up bringing up the F9 screen.

I assume I get cryogenic pod things and load them up with people? If that's correct what do I do there?

Colonies do not require people, and you can't put people on an asteroid anyway.  However, if you want to transport people to a colony (e.g. Mars), then research Cryogenic Transport (Logistics/Ground Combat category) if you do a Conventional start (you get it for free with a TN start), and build a ship with Cryogenic Transport (under Transport & Industry).

But questions about task forces and groups, organization, and efficient and well to do ship designs will really help as well. Thanks for taking the time to help so far guys.

For Task Groups, I recommend the Mechanics sub-forum. For ship designs, all I can say is read the Tutorial sub-forum (which has ship design examples), and other sub-forums like the Bureau of Ship Design, Advanced Tactical Command Academy, and even Aurora fiction. There are so many possible ship designs, for so many different situations.

[AndonSage]

I found the following about Asteroid Mining in my notes. Unfortunately, I don't have the url of the thread it came from. Maybe some of this will help you.

Asteroid Mining:
- Mass Drivers don't go through Jump gates. I would prefer having two mining designs: One with 2-10 Mining Modules, depending on tech, requirements, it really doesn't matter. One with 5 Cargo Holds, and probably far less modules. Then I would send a Swarm of those to an Asteroid, Mine it dry within years, or months if it's small, on continue on to the next, always sending to minerals to the colony or asteroid closest to the jump point for taking. Or simply use a freighter with it.
- You dont need holds, they go onto the planet. You can however, fit holds if you dont want to have to fly freighters over there, but this means a bigger ship, or sacrificing some mining capacity.
- I generally build miners in two styles;
- 1. Local - These carry 5 cargo holds with a mass driver, and several mining modules. They go up to a rock, drop the Mass Driver, and start mining. The mass driver sends the minerals where I want them. These generally operate in populated systems (like Sol).
- 2. Independent - These carry a lot of cargo holds, and less mining modules. I build a few and use them in systems that wont be seeing populations in the near future (or ever). They tend to be even larger, and will mine what they can carry, then head back with the minerals. They occasionally double up as superfreighters on the way back if theres colony enroute.
- Lately though, I've been thinking of a new approach for uninhabited system mining, using the 'Local' miner design. It would involve sending several of these into the system, each on a different rock, with the mass drivers all pointed at one of the rocks which will act as a 'depot' for the minerals. As theres a miner and mass driver there too, it can collect all the minerals. I would then run freighters to and from this one 'depot', making logistics easier. Optimally this rock would be near the Jump Point too - though as I use 'orbiting asteroids' this may not be quite as important.

*EDIT* Did a search on Asteroid Mining and found the URL: Asteroid Miners

[Judicator (OP)]

Thanks for the help and the patience in dealing with the utter noob, heh. Now for some more questions. What do you consider to be a 'fair' startup of pop and tech points? For now I am overpumping my tech, starting labs, and pop points to give myself a clear advantage so I spend less time researching and more time fiddling with what does what. So once I get the hang of it and want to do a fair game I'll know what to set to what although I am not talking about the difficulty level.

And how do I assign tech points manually?

And one more big important thing. I'm almost ready to know how to colonize other planets. So the question is, how exactly would I go about doing so? I know I'll have to terraform and send infrastructure and then an initial payload of colonists but... what's an efficient and quick terraform setup? How much infrastructure? How many colonists?

[The Shadow]

Thanks for the help and the patience in dealing with the utter noob, heh. Now for some more questions. What do you consider to be a 'fair' startup of pop and tech points?

Whatever you get in the beginning, the bad guys will get too.  (Unless you tweak yourself after game-start using Spacemaster functions.)  So, a wide range of settings are potentially 'fair'.

what's an efficient and quick terraform setup? How much infrastructure? How many colonists?

I'm finding it more efficient to build terraformer ships than terraform modules.  (Though you can build the ship terraformer components with industry to speed along construction.)

As for how much infrastructure and colonists, you'll find that infrastructure is usually the bottleneck - you'll be freighting the stuff over there as fast as you can (and hopefully the civilians will be helping out too) to support the next load of colonists.  So I guess the answer is 'Lots'.

[Judicator (OP)]

Alright next question. I have the hang of ship building, mining, etc. What kind of sensors will I need to detect jump points in my system and what is needed to go through these points to go to a new system? And I plan on having this ship be a jump point detector AND a diplomatic ship just in case I happen to run into an unexpected neighbor. I don't see any diplomatic ship designs or sensor ships on the forums so far. Thanks in advance.

[Father Tim]

Thanks for the help and the patience in dealing with the utter noob, heh. Now for some more questions. What do you consider to be a 'fair' startup of pop and tech points?

Whatever you get in the beginning, the bad guys will get too.  (Unless you tweak yourself after game-start using Spacemaster functions.)  So, a wide range of settings are potentially 'fair'.

More accurately, whatever you have at the instant an NPR is created is what the program uses to set the 'level' of the NPR.

I just use the default 500m people and 0/whatever Aurora gives me for a conventional/TN start.

And how do I assign tech points manually?

Assuming you've done a TN start, go to the F2 'Population & Production' screen, 'Research' tab, and hit Ctrl-S to turn on Spacemaster mode.  A small box will appear next to tech cost labelled 'Starting RP'.  Select a tech you want and use the 'Instant' button to add it to your empire's knowledge.  The amount of research points remaining will decrease by the cost of the tech.  Repeat until you are out of 'Starting RP'.

Wwhat's an efficient and quick terraform setup? How much infrastructure? How many colonists?

Terraforming is separate from infrastructure & colonists, and is more efficiently performed by ships with terraforming modules than by Terraforming Installations on a colony.

Infrastructure per colonist of course varies by colony cost, so the only useful answer is 'enough infrastructure to support all your current colonists, plus any more that will arrive soon, plus the amount of natural growth' - which turns out to be a multi-variate exponential equation, which still needs to account for how much infrastructure and population your civilian sector is moving to the colony for you, which means it's almost always not worth doing the math.

In general, throw some infrastructure and then some (about 90% of what your infrastructure can support, as shown on the 'Summary' tab of the F2 'Population and Production' screen for that colony) population down to get things started, then if you get a message saying 'unrest due to overcrowding' ship more infrastructure.  Ninety-nine percent of the time the amounts will be determined by how much of each your Cargo/Colony ships available have room for.

Alright next question. I have the hang of ship building, mining, etc. What kind of sensors will I need to detect jump points in my system

Gravitational Survey Sensors

and what is needed to go through these points to go to a new system?

A Jump Engine, or build a jump gate (which requires a ship with a Jump Gate Construction Module

And I plan on having this ship be a jump point detector AND a diplomatic ship just in case I happen to run into an unexpected neighbor. I don't see any diplomatic ship designs or sensor ships on the forums so far. Thanks in advance.

Nothing, although you won't be able to initiate diplomatic relations with another race unless you identify a ship/PDC/population as belonging to that race, which requires an Active, Thermal, or EM sensor contact (and in the case or Thermal or EM, a fair amount of time to pin down the race ID).

So to BE a diplomatic ship requires no special equipment.  To be a GOOD diplomatic ship you want powerful, long range sensors (which means big ones).

[The Shadow]

My own method is to equip my gravsurvey ships with small, slow missile launchers for survey drones.  The drones have active, thermal, and EM;  I fire them at likely planets from a billion miles away to check for NPR's and make contact at the same time.

[The Shadow]

More accurately, whatever you have at the instant an NPR is created is what the program uses to set the 'level' of the NPR.

On a related note, what are the odds of finding a low-tech or pre-industrial NPR out there?  I've yet to see any, though I'm not sure how you'd detect a pre-industrial one anyway.

[Father Tim]

Zero, since Steve has not yet programmed the AI to handle them.  Every NPR you encounter will be Trans-Newtonian.

[Hyfrydle]

Hi from one newbie to another you might find my blog of my current game useful the link is below:

http://auroranewbieaar.blogspot.com/

Also check out the tutorials and the wiki alot of your questions are answered by them.

Above all keep playing and trying new things this game is very deep but also very rewarding. One last thing don't be afraid to make some mistakes I learnt most of what I now know from things going wrong.