What I have learned in my first game

[Vulture (OP)]

First off, this is an amazing game and utterly absorbing.   I know that I have a huge amount to learn, but so far have learned the following:

- Ships fight much better with their sensors ‘On’ [I wondered why only my CIWS was firing]
- Ships fight much better with a fire control assigned to the weapon mount
- Missile ships fight much better with a target selected
- Missile ships fight much better with missiles assigned to their launchers
- It is a lot more effective to use ‘sync fire’ to launch a big wave of missiles instead of a lot of little ones
- Beam ranges are really, really short compared to missiles
- It’s a good idea to drop off the infrastructure BEFORE the colonists.   And to make sure you do the math correctly…
- Salvaging alien installations is cool.   Uncovering a vault of robot warriors when you haven’t reinforced the construction brigade with some combat troops – not so much.
- Don’t forget to add the engines…
- If you are clever and give the ‘Picket 1 km/s’ order, realize that the ships will NOT revert to maximum speed for your next order.

[sloanjh]

- Beam ranges are really, really short compared to missiles

Interesting (well, I think so anyway ) historical note here:  It didn't used to be that way.  In SF, missile ranges are only a few times beam ranges, and this carried over to the first versions of Aurora.  Then Steve started thinking about consistency in engine power and fuel utilization (before, missile engines were handled using completely different mechanics than ship engines), and lo and behold HUGE missile ranges popped out.  He didn't want to believe it at first, but he kept getting the same numbers.  The interesting part is that this drove Aurora much closer to a Modern Naval Warfare feel (e.g. Harpoon), with ultra-long range missiles and very short range "guns" (beams).  So for those who think Aurora was designed to be Harpoon in Space, it's actually more a case of convergent evolution.

- If you are clever and give the ‘Picket 1 km/s’ order, realize that the ships will NOT revert to maximum speed for your next order.

I believe this has been brought up in the suggestion threads before (i.e. asking for a warning when you give move orders to a speed-1 TG).  Feel free to log another request -the more requests, the more likely it is to get done  (Please make sure to log in the official thread - see "Where Should I Post" FAQ thread for details.)

Have Fun!
John

[ddblackhawk]

I don't want to hijack the thread, but this is kinda related.   What does the picket command actually do?

[Nathan_]

moves to location and sets speed to 1 km/s. it was probably a hold position command earlier, but given the nature of how ships move there are few uses for it.

[Conscript Gary]

I could have sworn the latest version had a notification when you gave a move order to a 1km/s-set task group. Something about the ETA not being calculated for fleets at that speed.

[Nathan_]

it does that if the speed is already set to 1 km/s when you issue the order, but picket sets speed when you arrive at the destination.

[sloanjh]

moves to location and sets speed to 1 km/s. it was probably a hold position command earlier, but given the nature of how ships move there are few uses for it.

No, actually it was a specific enhancement request.  The thermal signature of a speed-1 ship is MUCH smaller than that of a ship as max speed, even if the ship isn't going anywhere.  It got really old telling a TG "move to location X (close to a WP so as to picket it)" then having to go change the speed by hand once the order completed.

John

[DTF]

- It’s a good idea to drop off the infrastructure BEFORE the colonists.    And to make sure you do the math correctly…

From my first game:
- And dont waste 50000 Duranium on martian infrastructure. . .  civilian shipping will provide almost all needed infrastructure for FREE

[Vulture (OP)]

And I have just learned another feature .   Thanks!