C# Aurora v0.x Questions

[Steve Walmsley]

I have a question about system generation.
I assume C# Aurora will have a real stars/randomly generated option, but have you considered giving us the ability to customize our home system at all? I envision something like being able to select sun type, binary/trinary/etc, number of planets, presence and number of asteroid belts, and so on.

It is very complex with a lot of constraints, so a custom system would require a huge amount of input from the player without the player necessarily understanding the impact of the choices he is making. It would be a lot faster just to generate systems until you find one in which you modify environmental conditions to create one or more habitable worlds. In fact, that is exactly what the code does for generation of starting NPR home systems.

Another option (in VB6 and C#) is that you can choose which 'real stars' system to generate, so if you want a binary, trinary, or specific stellar types, etc, you can keep generating that same system until it creates a layout you prefer.

[Whitecold]

I have a question about system generation.
I assume C# Aurora will have a real stars/randomly generated option, but have you considered giving us the ability to customize our home system at all? I envision something like being able to select sun type, binary/trinary/etc, number of planets, presence and number of asteroid belts, and so on.

It is very complex with a lot of constraints, so a custom system would require a huge amount of input from the player without the player necessarily understanding the impact of the choices he is making. It would be a lot faster just to generate systems until you find one in which you modify environmental conditions to create one or more habitable worlds. In fact, that is exactly what the code does for generation of starting NPR home systems.

Another option (in VB6 and C#) is that you can choose which 'real stars' system to generate, so if you want a binary, trinary, or specific stellar types, etc, you can keep generating that same system until it creates a layout you prefer.

Making a "generate home system" would be useful on its own, letting the algorithm run until it finds a candidate for an NPR home system. You'll still need to click it a few times to get your desired start, but it would be an improvement.

[clement]

Steve,

In the Mesons thread you mentioned that NPRs will not make significant changes to their ship designs as they encounter our ships and strategies which is understandable. Will the NPRs be capable of changes like:
Increasing or scaling up their standard armor thickness upon determining enemy common missile warhead size?
Increasing allocations of ships in the AMM role if they encounter overwhelming missile combat like missile swarm?

Basically changing the ratio of ship roles in a fleet or ratios of things like armor within a ship.

[Steve Walmsley]

Steve,

In the Mesons thread you mentioned that NPRs will not make significant changes to their ship designs as they encounter our ships and strategies which is understandable. Will the NPRs be capable of changes like:
Increasing or scaling up their standard armor thickness upon determining enemy common missile warhead size?
Increasing allocations of ships in the AMM role if they encounter overwhelming missile combat like missile swarm?

Basically changing the ratio of ship roles in a fleet or ratios of things like armor within a ship.

Not with the current code as I haven't done combat AI yet. However, they are capable of monitoring, learning about and analysing alien ships, including their weapons, speed, anti-missile capabilities, passive defences, etc.. In the short-term this is so they can make decisions about whether to engage and how much force is required. Longer-term, I may add some code that allows them to adapt but I don't want to get too creative too soon. I want the basics working well first.

[Steve Walmsley]

Making a "generate home system" would be useful on its own, letting the algorithm run until it finds a candidate for an NPR home system. You'll still need to click it a few times to get your desired start, but it would be an improvement.

Yes, that would be straightforward.

[Rich.h]

Steve,

In the Mesons thread you mentioned that NPRs will not make significant changes to their ship designs as they encounter our ships and strategies which is understandable. Will the NPRs be capable of changes like:
Increasing or scaling up their standard armor thickness upon determining enemy common missile warhead size?
Increasing allocations of ships in the AMM role if they encounter overwhelming missile combat like missile swarm?

Basically changing the ratio of ship roles in a fleet or ratios of things like armor within a ship.

Not with the current code as I haven't done combat AI yet. However, they are capable of monitoring, learning about and analysing alien ships, including their weapons, speed, anti-missile capabilities, passive defences, etc.. In the short-term this is so they can make decisions about whether to engage and how much force is required. Longer-term, I may add some code that allows them to adapt but I don't want to get too creative too soon. I want the basics working well first.

Does this then mean the AI for all NPR and spoiler races will make "intelligent" choices regarding combat? If I happen to have a full fleet or some such in a system will they decide to run away or perhaps just shadow me at a distance instead of closing in to attack even in war times?

[TMaekler]

Does this then mean the AI for all NPR and spoiler races will make "intelligent" choices regarding combat? If I happen to have a full fleet or some such in a system will they decide to run away or perhaps just shadow me at a distance instead of closing in to attack even in war times?

Would be nice if the AI could reach that level of smartness :-)

[Father Tim]

Does this then mean the AI for all NPR and spoiler races will make "intelligent" choices regarding combat? If I happen to have a full fleet or some such in a system will they decide to run away or perhaps just shadow me at a distance instead of closing in to attack even in war times?

That is Steve's stated goal.

[Steve Walmsley]

Does this then mean the AI for all NPR and spoiler races will make "intelligent" choices regarding combat? If I happen to have a full fleet or some such in a system will they decide to run away or perhaps just shadow me at a distance instead of closing in to attack even in war times?

Yes, that is what I hope.

[TMaekler]

Is there an option to define a percentage of how many systems have any bodies at all? Most of the systems Aurora generates are filled with system bodies. For the new possibility of space stations it would be nice to have more system which don't have anything at all in them.

[TMaekler]

In this posting
http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=8495.msg102701#msg102701

we can find the new active sensor model.
When I try to recalculate those values in excel, I get a difference.

For the first entry:
Racial Sensor Strength = 21
Hull Size = 1
Racial EM Sensitivity = 11
Resolution = 200

I get the result of your sheet: 50.146.549,1 km

However for the second entry:
RSS = 42
HS = 2

I get the result of 100.293.098,3 km - which differs from your value of 70.917.930. If I only enter either 42 OR 2 and leave the other at the old values of 21 OR 1, the result fits to yours. Is your sheet wrong or do I misunderstand the formula you have given?

[TMaekler]

Ah, never mind. The "Sensor Strength" in the second tab isn't the "Racial Sensor Strength", but the Racial Sensor Strength multiplied by the HS.

[clement]

When building troop formations, will the required manpower be taken from the local population?

Likewise, if you disband or destroy a troop formation, will any manpower go into the local population?

Also, will some percent of the TN materials used to create the equipment for the troop formation be recovered?

[Steve Walmsley]

When building troop formations, will the required manpower be taken from the local population?

Likewise, if you disband or destroy a troop formation, will any manpower go into the local population?

Also, will some percent of the TN materials used to create the equipment for the troop formation be recovered?

No, the manpower is provided automatically. Unless the population is very small, the size of Aurora formations is not going to make an appreciable difference. Also, I don't want to specify exact vehicle or static weapon crews. At the moment, there is no scrapping but I will include some reclamation when I add it.

[King-Salomon]

Question about spaceports:

If I am not wring, a spaceport is a combination of Cargo Shuttle Station, Ordnance Transfer Station and Refuelling Station - cost 3600 BP (2400 first but 3600 with the Ordnance Transfer chances), need 1mio worker and weights 80 factories...

now my question: if I am correct, building the 3 installations instead of the Spaceport they would cost 3600 BP, need 0 worker and weight 30factories (if the Cargo Shuttle Station is only 10 like the other two)...

are the numbers correct or am I missing something that would count for the higher numbers for the spaceport?