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Topic Summary

Posted by: Erik L
« on: July 31, 2011, 09:58:02 PM »

The wiki main page, link section contains the links from this thread, re-worked to this subdomain and software.
Posted by: Garfunkel
« on: July 31, 2011, 07:07:29 PM »

These links do not work and adding 2 after aurora in the address doesn't help either.
Posted by: Steve Walmsley
« on: January 15, 2010, 01:50:48 PM »

In lieu of the next installment, I am going to post a few links to rule postings that should keep you going in the meantime:

Different Leader Types / Research Projects: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1787

Transportation of Ground Forces and Boarding Combat: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1680

Diplomatic Rules: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1613&hilit=diplomacy#p14676

Missile Series: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1733

Real Stars Option: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1654

Civilian Trade System: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1486 (need to read the whole thread)

Civilian Mining Complexes: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1716 (2nd post in thread)

Explanation of why time increments get cut short: viewtopic.php?f=19&t=1839 (read the whole thread)

Steve
Posted by: Steve Walmsley
« on: January 12, 2010, 11:42:39 AM »

Part 11: Summary of Beam Weapons and CIWS

This is a short tutorial section that provides a brief overview of the other beam weapons. Any general comparisons of weapons at a given technology level, such as "railguns out-damage lasers"  may not reflect the exact designs shown below as the comparison will vary with the exact background technologies used. In effect, the balance between different weapons will vary as they all advance. In any event, Aurora is very situational and often you need the right weapon for the situation. There isn't  a 'best' weapon for all circumstances.

Lasers
We covered this weapon in the last tutorial but as a reminder, lasers are a long range beam weapon and their damage drops off with range. As was shown in the tutorial they can be mounted in turrets for point defence use. Here are example of long range and point defence lasers

Code: [Select]
20cm C5 Ultraviolet Laser
Damage Output 10     Rate of Fire: 10 seconds     Range Modifier: 4
Max Range 400,000 km     Laser Size: 6 HS    Laser HTK: 3
Power Requirement: 10    Power Recharge per 5 Secs: 5
Cost: 63    Crew: 60
Materials Required: 12.6x Duranium  12.6x Boronide  37.8x Corundium
Development Cost for Project: 630RP
Code: [Select]
10cm C3 Ultraviolet Laser
Damage Output 3     Rate of Fire: 5 seconds     Range Modifier: 4
Max Range 120,000 km     Laser Size: 3 HS    Laser HTK: 1
Power Requirement: 3    Power Recharge per 5 Secs: 3
Cost: 20    Crew: 30
Materials Required: 4x Duranium  4x Boronide  12x Corundium
Development Cost for Project: 200RP
Railguns
Railguns shoot four projectiles at once and their total damage is approximately one third higher than a laser of similar technology. The damage falls off in the same way as lasers and their range can be extended by researching Railgun Launch Velocity. Because each shot does less damage than the total damage of an equivalent laser, the range is shorter and the damage is spread across the armour rather than penetrating in a single area. The range differential may not be an issue though if you don't have the fire control technology to take advantage of the laser's greater range. Although railguns cannot be mounted in turrets, they are still often used for point defence at lower tech levels because their high rate of fire compensates for their inaccuracy against fast moving targets.

Code: [Select]
20cm Railgun V4/C4
Damage Per Shot (4): 4     Rate of Fire: 15 seconds     Range Modifier: 4
Max Range 160,000 km     Railgun Size: 7 HS    Railgun HTK: 3
Power Requirement: 12    Power Recharge per 5 Secs: 4
Cost: 55    Crew: 70
Materials Required: 11x Duranium  11x Boronide  33x Neutronium
Development Cost for Project: 1175RP
Code: [Select]
10cm Railgun V4/C3
Damage Per Shot (4): 1     Rate of Fire: 5 seconds     Range Modifier: 4
Max Range 40,000 km     Railgun Size: 3 HS    Railgun HTK: 1
Power Requirement: 3    Power Recharge per 5 Secs: 3
Cost: 20    Crew: 30
Materials Required: 4x Duranium  4x Boronide  12x Neutronium
Development Cost for Project: 650RP
Torpedoes
Torpedoes (Particle Torpedo in v4.8) are a fixed damage weapon and therefore cause the same damage across their entire range. The technologies researched for torpedoes are Torpedo Warhead Strength, Maximum Torpedo Range and Capacitor Recharge Rate. This is a fairly long range weapon, although not quite a long-ranged as lasers, and will out-damage lasers at its maximum range. A ship armed with torpedoes should attempt to engage at longer ranges against other beam armed ships to take advantage of its fixed damage, while enemy damage decreases with range. This is a pure anti-ship weapon and would perform badly if used as a point defence weapon. It cannot be mounted in turrets.

Code: [Select]
Particle Torpedo-4
Torpedo Warhead 4     Rate of Fire: 10 seconds     Maximum Range: 200,000 km
Launcher Size: 7 HS    Launcher HTK: 3
Power Requirement: 10    Power Recharge per 5 Secs: 5
Cost: 70    Crew: 70
Materials Required: 14x Duranium  14x Boronide  42x Corundium
Development Cost for Project: 1550RP
Meson Cannon
Meson Cannon inflict only one point of damage over their range, which is approximately half that of an equivalent laser, but that damage ignores shields and armor. Like lasers, the range can be extended, in this case using Meson Focusing Technology. Meson cannon can be mounted in turrets for point defence use and are quite a popular choice, partly because they are ideal against an opponent who uses armoured missiles and partly because they are a very good anti-ship weapon at point blank range.

Code: [Select]
R20/C5 Meson Cannon
Max Range 200,000 km     Rate of Fire: 10 seconds     Focus Modifier: 4
Meson Cannon Size: 6 HS    Meson Cannon HTK: 3
Power Requirement: 10    Power Recharge per 5 Secs: 5
Cost: 20    Crew: 60
Materials Required: 4x Duranium  4x Boronide  12x Corundium
Development Cost for Project: 3100RP
Code: [Select]
R4.5/C3 Meson Cannon
Max Range 45,000 km     Rate of Fire: 5 seconds     Focus Modifier: 3
Meson Cannon Size: 3 HS    Meson Cannon HTK: 1
Power Requirement: 3    Power Recharge per 5 Secs: 3
Cost: 5    Crew: 30
Materials Required: 1x Duranium  1x Boronide  3x Corundium
Development Cost for Project: 900RP
Gauss Cannon
Gauss Cannon are primarily a point defence weapon and in that role their performance is superior to the other weapons under most circumstances. They inflict only one point of damage but fire several shots per volley. They can be mounted in turrets and on a full size ship it is unusual to see a gauss cannon that isn’t turret mounted. Their background technologies are Gauss Cannon Rate of Fire, Gauss Cannon Launch Velocity and Gauss Cannon Size vs Accuracy. Unlike other beam weapons, there is no 'larger' version with a greater focal size. The max gauss cannon size remains 6 HS. However, you can reduce the size of the gauss cannon, while retaining its rate of fire, at the cost of reduced accuracy. This makes it useful as a weapon for very small spacecraft such as fighters. In a fighter vs fighter engagement the low damage output of the gauss cannon is offset by the fragility of the target. Another advantage of the gauss cannon is that it does not require reactor power in order to fire. It will always fire every 5 seconds.

Code: [Select]
Gauss Cannon R3-100
Damage Output 1     Rate of Fire: 3 shots every 5 seconds     Range Modifier: 3
Max Range 30,000 km     Size: 6    HTK: 2
Cost: 36    Crew: 24
Materials Required: 36x Vendarite
Development Cost for Project: 360RP
Plasma Carronade
The Plasma Carronade is a high damage, point blank range weapon. It has only two background technologies, Carronade Calibre and Capacitor Recharge Rate, and there is no way to enhance range beyond increasing the damage output. The calibers available are larger than those other beam weapons at a similar tech level so this is usually the weapon with the highest damage at close range. If you are outclassed technologically then build a ship with a few of these and wait for your opponent beyond a jump point. It cannot be turret mounted and is far from ideal as a point defence weapon.

Code: [Select]
30cm C5 Plasma Carronade
Damage Output 24     Rate of Fire: 25 seconds
Max Range 240,000 km     Carronade Size: 9 HS    Carronade HTK: 4
Power Requirement: 24    Power Recharge per 5 Secs: 5
Cost: 48    Crew: 90
Materials Required: 9.6x Duranium  9.6x Boronide  28.8x Corundium
Development Cost for Project: 2300RP
High Power Microwave (HPM)
In terms of design the HPM is similar to the meson cannon, in that it causes only a single point of damage and uses components such as HPM focal size, HPM focusing and capacitor recharge rate. The range of the HPM will be the same as a meson cannon with the same level of technology. However there are two important differences:

1) The High Power Microwave is not affected by armour but it is affected by shields. However, because of the HPMs effectiveness against shields and electronic systems, the single point of damage from the HPM causes three points of damage to shields.

2) Once the shields are down, the High Power Microwave only damages systems classed as "Electronic". This currently includes sensors, fire control systems, ECM and ECCM. The HPM is designed to blind an enemy rather than destroy him. Each class has a separate "Electronic Only" Damage Allocation Chart (shown below the normal DAC), which is used by the HPM

The HPM can be a powerful weapon. Although it causes no damage to the majority of a ship's systems, it can damage shields and then blind the enemy, either forcing him to retreat or rendering him vulnerable to more destructive weapons. It is also quite expensive, costing twice as much as a similar size Meson Cannon, and difficult to employ effectively because of its relatively short range.

Code: [Select]
R20/C5 High Power Microwave
Max Range 200,000 km     Rate of Fire: 10 seconds     Focus Modifier: 4
HPM Size: 6 HS    HTK: 3
Power Requirement: 10    Power Recharge per 5 Secs: 5
Cost: 126    Crew: 60
Materials Required: 25.2x Duranium  25.2x Boronide  75.6x Corundium
Development Cost for Project: 3100RP
You may find advanced versions of beam weapon technology when you gain technology from ruins. They as similar to the standard technology but with enhanced capability. For example, Advanced Lasers do more damage for the same size and power requirements. This also translates to better range as the base damage is higher. Advanced Torpedoes inflict also do more damage for a given size and power system. Advanced Railguns get one additional shot (5 shots instead of 4) per cycle time and Advanced Mesons have greater range.

Close in Weapons System (CIWS)
Although it is not strictly a beam weapon in the general sense, this is a good place to introduce the CIWS, or Close-in Weapons System. This is the Aurora equivalent of the Phalanx or Goalkeeper systems that protect modern warships. It's a little complicated as it uses several different existing systems to create a single installation. The restrictions on its use are that it can only protect the mounting ship (other point defence weapons can protect other ships within their range) and it can only be used to engage missiles. The components of the CIWS are calculated as follows:

1) The basic system is a dual half size gauss cannon. As the range is limited to 10,000 km, I have reduced the size slightly from 6HS to 5HS. As it is a dual mount, the rate of fire for the system with therefore be double the racial gauss cannon rate of fire
2) The integral fire control system is assumed to be a 4x speed installation. The normal 4HS size is then divided by (maximum racial fire control range / 10,000) as the CIWS requires a max 10,000 km range. Finally the resulting size is halved to account for the fact this system can only defend the mounting ship, which makes things a lot simpler.
3) Turret gears are added using the normal rules for turrets with a tracking speed equal to that of the above fire control
4) The integral active sensor uses the size that would be required for a resolution-zero installation with a range of 30,000 km. This is longer than the max range of the system but it needs a little tracking time. Note that this is not an active sensor that will detect anything else. It is purely a point blank range missile tracker.
5) If ECCM is available, it can be added to the CIWS and will use 0.5HS. As this is a reduced-sized system, it will have half the capability of the regular system
6) As the gauss cannon are half size, the base chance to hit for the CIWS is 50% (modified by missile speed, crew grade and electronic warfare). This is actually slightly higher than it would be for a half-size gauss cannon with a short-range fire control but I am assuming it fires at even shorter range than other anti-missile systems.
7) The cost of the system is based on the cost of all the individual components

You don't need to allocate point defence modes to the CIWS, allocate ECCM or allocate weapons to fire control systems. It is a fully integrated, fully automatic system. If a missile is about to hit the ship, it will open fire. Here is an example CIWS using components up to 8000 research points. I'll work through the steps and then show the completed system

1) Dual half-size gauss cannon with a ROF of 3, which equals 6 shots in total. Size: 5 HS.
2) Fire control system (tech 4000 km/s). This 4HS system has a tracking speed of 16,000 km/s. As the racial fire control range is 32,000 km/s, the fire control size is divided by (32,000 / 10,000), which is 1.25 HS and then halved to 0.625 HS
3) Turret gears (tech 5000 km/s). As per the normal rules, the gear modifier = (FC Tracking Speed /Turret Tracking Speed)/10 = 0.32. Multiplying this by the weapon size of 5HS, gives a turret gear size of 1.6 HS.
4) Active sensor (tech strength 21). A 1 HS active sensor with resolution zero would have a range of 210,000 km/s. Therefore a range of 30,000 km/s requires a sensor size of 0.1429 HS.
5) Below are examples with and without ECCM. For the second example, I will use ECCM-2

Code: [Select]
CIWS-160
Rate of Fire: 6 shots every 5 seconds
Dual GC: 5HS    Turret: 1.6 HS    Fire Control: 0.625 HS    Sensor 0.1429 HS    ECCM: 0
Overall Size: 7.4    HTK: 2
Tracking Speed: 16000 km/s     ECCM Level: 0
Cost: 34    Crew: 8
Materials Required: 8x Duranium  0x Corbomite  15x Vendarite  11x Uridium
Base Chance to Hit: 50%
Development Cost for Project: 340RP
Code: [Select]
CIWS-160E
Rate of Fire: 6 shots every 5 seconds
Dual GC: 5HS    Turret: 1.6 HS    Fire Control: 0.625 HS    Sensor 0.1429 HS    ECCM: 0.5
Overall Size: 7.9    HTK: 2
Tracking Speed: 16000 km/s     ECCM Level: 1
Cost: 39    Crew: 8
Materials Required: 8x Duranium  5x Corbomite  15x Vendarite  11x Uridium
Base Chance to Hit: 50%
Development Cost for Project: 390RP
The size of the CIWS is rounded to the nearest 0.1 HS, rather than a full HS, so the technology of the smaller components can make a difference. The CIWS is intended to be added to non-escort warships as a last-ditch defensive system. It allows the designer to add a self-contained anti-missile system without having to worry about anti-missile-oriented sensors and fire control systems and the player doesn't have to be concerned with allocating weapons or fire control systems. They are of little use for escorts though as they can only protect the ship that mounts them. CIWS are classed as non-military as they have no offensive capability and therefore you can mount them on commercial vessels.

Steve
Posted by: Elmo
« on: January 08, 2010, 04:47:56 AM »

OK thanks for the clarification Hawkeye.
Posted by: Hawkeye
« on: January 08, 2010, 01:20:19 AM »

No, the game mechanics doesn´t account for the relative movement vector, it´s simply a matter of speed. In order to use your guns to full capacity, against a target moving at 5.000 km/s, you need a tracking speed of 5.000 km/s. It doesn´t matter if it is coming right at you or if it is moving at right angel to you.
Posted by: Elmo
« on: January 07, 2010, 07:34:07 PM »

Thanks Steve.  No doubt after reading this a few more times it will sink in.   :wink:

Question:  Would the tracking speed of a target coming right at you be 0 km/sec?  Seems like there would be no need for tracking in that case (assuming you are pointed at the target too) whereas if the target is moving at 90 degrees relative to you then tracking speed would be the full speed of the target.  Does that sound right and does the game account for this when calculating speed or am I not understanding tracking speed at all?
Posted by: Steve Walmsley
« on: January 07, 2010, 12:17:15 PM »

Part 10: Designing a Beam-armed Warship.

Before we begin, make sure you are in SM Mode. This is a long section so prepare yourself :)

Steve
Posted by: IanD
« on: January 07, 2010, 08:29:42 AM »

Quote from: "Steve Walmsley"
if you also need to change the temperature too, either up or down, you can use a greenhouse gas or an anti-greenhouse gas. For Mars, Carbon Dioxide would be ideal
Steve
Sorry to be picky but too much CO2 can be bad for you. A quote from the URL
Quote
CO2 is toxic in higher concentrations: 1% (10,000 ppm) will make some people feel drowsy. Concentrations of 7% to 10% cause dizziness, headache, visual and hearing dysfunction, and unconsciousness within a few minutes to an hour.
.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_dioxide

Thus above 5-7% it should be treated as a toxic gas. I have a suspicion that Aurora doesn’t do this. Can you confirm?

Regards
Posted by: Steve Walmsley
« on: January 06, 2010, 03:27:42 PM »

The tutorial may proceed a little slower over the next few days as I need to do some RL work :) I will post the next section as soon as I can though.

Steve
Posted by: Steve Walmsley
« on: January 05, 2010, 11:45:35 AM »

Part 9: Colony Cost and Terraforming

I recently answered a question on terraforming so I am going to convert that answer into the next section of the tutorial.

Firstly, lets talk atmospheres. Our own atmosphere has a variety of gases but only Nitrogen, Oxygen and Argon are 1% or above. Everything else is in tiny amounts. Aurora only bothers with the major gases in a planetary atmosphere so planets will generally start with no more than three gases in their atmosphere. Open up the Economics window and take a look at the Environment tab for Earth. The list of gases in the Atmospheric Data section shows the following information:

Nitrogen 79% 0.79 atm
Oxygen 20%  0.2 atm
Argon 1% 0.01 atm
Total Atmospheric Pressure: 1

This shows both the percentage of each gas in the atmosphere and the atmospheric pressure (atm) of each gas. As the atm amount is based on Earth's atmospheric pressure of 1, the atm figures match the percentages. Lets create a colony on Mars and compare this to its atmosphere. Open up the F9 System View window, which provides detailed information on every body in a star system (you can open this by pressing the orange sun icon at the middle top of the system map). It is useful to check this view every time you find a new system, just to see what types of planets you have found and their colony cost (more on colony cost later). If there is more than one star in the system, each star and any associated planets will be on a separate tab. If the System View is slow to load, switch to the options tab and select Hide Asteroids then switch back to the Sol-A tab. Select Mars and press the Add Colony button. Open the Economics window, or press Refresh All (middle bottom) if it is already open. You should see a new colony for Mars. Select it and take a look at the Environment tab. The atmospheric data shows:

Nitrogen 70% 0.007 atm
Carbon Dioxide 30%  0.003 atm
Total Atmospheric Pressure: 0.01

The atmospheric pressure on Mars is only about 1% of that on Earth so the atm figures are tiny. In effect, Mars has almost no atmosphere at all. The atmospheric pressure on Venus is about 100x greater than on Earth and 10,000x greater than Mars.

The principle of Terraforming in Aurora is based on changing the atmosphere in order to alter the environment of the planet so it is suitable for your species. Before getting into how that works, we should probably discuss how you know what is suitable for your species. Each species in Aurora has environmental tolerances with their midpoint being their homeworld. The habitability of planets will vary considerably depending on the species tolerances so a world that is ideal for humans may be uninhabitable for some other species and vice versa. Way back in Part 1 of the tutorial, covering game creation, we entered some values in the Species Tolerance section of the New Game window to set these values for human. As a reminder, those were a maximum deviation in oxygen pressure of 50%, a max deviation in gravity of 70%, a max deviation in temperature of 22 and a max atmospheric pressure to 4.

Fortunately you don't have to remember those as you can find them in the top right of the F9 System View Window. Open it up and take a look. The section is called Environmental Tolerances. The first item is a dropdown showing the selected species while the second shows which gas that species can breathe. You can have methane breathers in Aurora in which case every reference to oxygen in this tutorial would read as methane. There are four rows below this showing the min/max for gravity, oxygen and temperature and the max for pressure. If you are playing through this tutorial from the start, those values should show that an ideal habitable world for humans will have a temperature between 0 and 44C, an oxygen pressure between 0.1 and 0.3 atm, a gravity between 0.3G and 1.7G and a maximum atmospheric pressure of 4.0 atm.

In addition to the individual species tolerances, the requirements for an ideal habitable world are no dangerous gases such as Chlorine or Hydrogen Sulphide and a maximum oxygen percentage of 30%. A planet that doesn't meet the gravity criterion is uninhabitable and there is nothing you can do about that. Falling outside one or more of the other criteria means the planet will have a colony cost above zero. The colony cost measures the amount of infrastructure required to support the population. The formula for required infrastructure is Population in millions x Colony Cost x 100. So a population of one million on a planet with a colony cost of 2 would need 200 infrastructure. A population of 15 million on a population with a colony cost of 0.8 would need 15 x 0.8 x 100 = 1200 infrastructure. If there is insufficient infrastructure for the population there will be negative growth, with the percentage based on how bad the shortage is, as well as unrest. You don't need to remember the formula as each population will show the max population for the available infrastructure.

Note that you can put ground bases, troops, sensors etc. on any world except a gas giant, regardless of the habitability. If you want an actual population though, which you will need to run shipyards, factories, etc,, then the planet has to be habitable or at least have enough infrastructure for the inhabitants.

The colony cost is calculated in the following way. The five checks below this paragraph are made. Whichever results in the highest colony cost, that will be the colony cost for the planet. You can see these factors in the Colony Cost Factors section in the lower left of the F9 view for the currently selected planet.

1) If the atmosphere is not breathable, the colony cost is 2.0.

2) If there are toxic gases in the atmosphere then the colony cost will be 2.0 for some gases and 3.0 for others.

3) If the pressure is too high, the colony cost will be equal to the Atmospheric Pressure  divided by the species maximum pressure with a minimum of 2.0

4) If the oxygen percentage is above 30%, the colony cost will be 2.0

5) The colony cost for a temperature outside the range is Temperature Difference / Temperature Deviation. So if the deviation was 22 and the temperature was 48 degrees below the minimum, the colony cost would be 48/22 = 2.18

In the case of Mars, the gravity is OK, the atmosphere is not breathable, there are no toxic gases, the pressure is not too high, there is no oxygen and the temperature is too low. Therefore the colony cost will either be 2.0 for the lack of a breathable atmosphere or the colony cost for the temperature differential, whichever is higher. Assuming the temperature colony cost was 2.18, which would also be the colony cost for Mars, the best way to start terraforming would be to warm up the planet until the temperature colony cost was less than 2.0, at which point the lack of a breathable atmosphere would became the main issue and you could start adding oxygen. Once the atmosphere was breathable, you would go back to worrying about temperature.

Terraformers can add or remove a small amount of a selected gas over time. The amount added is measured in atmospheric pressure (atm). Note that as you add atm for one gas, the percentages of the different gases in the atmosphere will change. A single terraforming module or single terraforming installation with basic tech can add 0.001 atm per year. In other words, it could generate Earth's atmosphere in about 1000 years. That can be improved by researching the racial terraforming rate and by building more terraformers. Mars and Venus are both hard to terraform because their atmospheric pressure is so different to Earth's. Mars essentially has no atmosphere and you have to start almost from scratch. The first thing you need to do to make an atmosphere breathable is to ensure the atm of oxygen in the atmosphere falls within your species' tolerance for Oxygen. Assuming the tutorial values for human tolerances, on Mars you would need to create enough oxygen to get the oxygen atm to 0.1, which for one terraformer at the basic tech level of 0.001 per annum will take 100 years. If you had twenty terraformers though, it would only take five years. Increasing the Terraforming rate to 0.002 would halve the time. As you may have guessed, terraforming requires a considerable investment of time and resources.

So you get the 0.1 atm of oxygen into the Martian atmosphere. Is it breathable? Unfortunately not because pure oxygen atmospheres are a bad idea. Apart from the unfortunate consequences of striking a match, breathing pure oxygen over long periods causes lung damage. So an atmosphere in Aurora is not breathable unless the oxygen content is 30% or less. So if we need at least 0.1 atm of oxygen and that can't be more than 30% of the total atmospheric pressure, what does that total atmospheric pressure need to be? 0.1 * 100/30 = 0.333, so we need a total atm of 0.334 or another 0.234 atm, which will take another 234 years for the lonely terraformer. This can be any non-Toxic gas. Nitrogen is a reasonable choice or if you also need to change the temperature too, either up or down, you can use a greenhouse gas or an anti-greenhouse gas. For Mars, Carbon Dioxide would be ideal, although you could also use the abstract Safe Greenhouse Gas.

As you add or subtract any type of gas to/from the atmosphere, the atmosphere will be updated and that will also affect the temperature. Every system body has a base temperature and a surface temperature. The base temperature is based on the solar infall from the star (or stars in binary systems) while the surface temperature includes adjustments for atmosphere and planetary albedo (which is the reflectivity of the surface). The formulas used are shown on the Environment tab of the Economics window

Surface Temperature in Kelvin = Base Temperature in Kelvin x Greenhouse Factor x Albedo

Greenhouse Factor = 1 + (Atmospheric Pressure /10) + Greenhouse Pressure (Maximum = 3.0)

So every gas adds a little to the greenhouse factor but greenhouse gases add 10x as much. You get other benefits from warming as well. If the hydrosphere for a planet is Ice Sheet rather than Liquid Water (check the F9 view again), then at a certain point the ice will melt and form oceans. This will change the albedo because the ice that was reflecting heat back into space just melted and you will see a jump in temperature. The amount of albedo change is based on the extent of the ice sheet (F9 again) plus a random factor.

As the pressure increases, you will see the percentages of different gases changing. If there is enough oxygen in terms of atm then once the oxygen percentage drops below 30%, the atmosphere will be breathable

Venus is almost impossible to terraform in Aurora. Each species has a maximum atmospheric pressure (Check F9 again to see yours). Before anything else, you would need to reduce Venus below that point. Assuming your species tolerance is about 4 atm then reducing the Venusian atmosphere, which has a pressure for 100, to that level would take our solo terraformer 96,000 years  

You best bet for terraforming is to find a planet where the conditions are much closer to those on Earth. For example, you might find one with the right temperature and sufficient atmospheric pressure but the oxygen atm is 0.08 instead of the required 0.1 (or whatever your min oxygen atm tolerance is). Making this atmosphere breathable would involve adding just 0.02 atm of oxygen, which would take the solo terraformer 20 years, or 1 year for 20 terraformers. Equally, a planet with an already breathable atmosphere that is a little too hot or too cold can be made ideal by adding/subtracting greenhouse gases or adding anti-greenhouse gas.

Another consideration is Dangerous gases. An atmosphere will never be breathable if it contains gases such as Bromine, Chlorine, Sulphur Dioxide, Methane, Ammonia, Flourine, Carbon Monoxide, Nitrogen Oxide, Hydrogen Sulphide, etc. All these will have to be extracted from the atmosphere by your terraformers

Terraformers can even be used as weapons. If you found a planet where you wanted to loot the industry but you didn't want to bombard or invade, you could slowly extract the oxygen from the atmosphere.

The actual mechanics of using terraforming in the game interface are relatively straightforward. If you have any terraforming installations on a planet or any ships with terraforming modules in orbit, go to the Environment tab, select the gas you want and check the Add Gas checkbox if you want to add the gas rather than remove it. Terraforming installations can be built by industrial capacity and transported to a different planet with freighters. A Terraforming Ship is easy to design. Copy your freighter design, remove the cargo holds and cargo handling systems and add a Terraforming Module (or perhaps two). If you don't yet have Terraforming module tech, you can Instant it or research it using the Research tab of the Economics window. It is under Construction / Production

Steve
Posted by: Elmo
« on: January 03, 2010, 06:10:14 PM »

I agree.  Great stuff.  Thank you.
Posted by: Jarhead0331
« on: January 03, 2010, 04:37:54 PM »

These tutorials are superb Steve...keep 'em coming.  I'm glad you're snowed in!
Posted by: Steve Walmsley
« on: January 03, 2010, 03:15:11 PM »

Part 8: Economics Window: Mining and Maintenance Tab

A quick zip through this tab as it is relatively straightforward.

There are two sections on this tab. The Mining Report shows the mineral production for the colony while the second section shows an estimate of the minerals that will be consumed by maintenance facilities, based on ships currently in orbit. The number of mines and the annual production is shown above the grid control. Moving your mouse over this area will show how the production is calculated. The columns on the Mining Report are as follows:

•   Mineral: Name of the mineral
•   Quantity: Amount of raw mineral remaining within the planet’s core
•   Accessibility: The ease of mining for that particular mineral, ranging from 0.1 to 1.0. A mineral with an accessibility of 1.0 will be mined at the same rate as the annual production shown above. Lower accessibility minerals will be mined at a lower production rate based. For example, if a colony has an annual production of 5000 tons, then 5000 tons of each accessibility 1.0 mineral will be produced but only 3500 tons of an accessibility 0.7 mineral and only 500 tons of an accessibility 0.1 mineral. For planets and moons, if a mineral's accessibility is greater than 0.1 it will begin to fall once you have mined out half the mineral. The accessibility will reach 0.1 shortly before the mineral deposit is exhausted
•   Annual Production: The amount in tons of the mineral produced per year, based on the total production of the colony’s mines multiplied by the accessibility of the mineral
•   Years to depletion: How long it will be before this planet runs out of this type of mineral, based on the number of mines for this population only. Note if that if other races also have populations on this planet, the mineral deposit may be exhausted more quickly.
•   Stockpile: The total amount of refined minerals available at this population
•   Recent Stockpile: The change in stockpile since the last 5-day increment. This shows whether the stockpile is rising or falling, based on mining production and the use of minerals by factories, shipyards, etc.
•   Mass Driver: The total amount of minerals delivered or dispatched by mass drivers since the last 5-day increment.
•   Stockpile plus Production: An estimate of the stockpile in one year’s time, based on the current stockpile plus one year’s production
•   Projected Usage. The projected use of this mineral based on the queues for ordnance, fighters, construction, shipyard tasks, etc

The second section on this tab shows a list of all ship classes currently using the population’s maintenance facilities (if any exist) and what minerals will be used over the course of a year in supporting these ships.

Steve
Posted by: Steve Walmsley
« on: January 03, 2010, 12:59:07 PM »

Part 7: Fast OB Creation window and Basic Fleet Orders

The Fast OB Creation window allows you to quickly set up your starting forces without having to build them. Go to the main menu bar and select the Fast OB Creation menu item. This opens the a small window with the title Create Racial Order of Battle. The top left section will show your Empire and Species, a dropdown with available task groups, a dropdown of available classes, a text entry box for Number and a read-only field for Total Cost. Below that is the Remaining Build Points section with a suggested amount of build points with which to create your starting forces. As you add starting forces, the amount of BPs will be deducted from these values. If you have been following the tutorial, these values will be 5000 for ships and 2500 for PDCs. Lets start by creating a couple of geological survey ships. Select the Survey Task Group and the whatever class name you used for the geosurvey ship. If you can't remember which one that is, select each class in turn and look at the right-hand panel, which displays the class summary. Type 2 in the Number field and press the Add button. The Remaining Build Points for ships will be reduced, probably to 4399.

[attachment=2:36rpw37h]untitled.JPG[/attachment:36rpw37h]

Leave that window for now and open up the Task Groups window (F12). In Aurora, most players use the terms 'task group' and 'fleet' interchangeably so this is often called the Fleet window. You will use this window a lot and it contains many different functions. I am only going to cover a few of them right now but we will revisit this window as the tutorial progresses. In the top left is the Empire dropdown with your Empire selected. The second dropdown is a list of task groups. Select the Survey Task Group. You should now see the two survey ships listed in the grid control in the top right of the window. Several useful pieces of information are shown including the fuel and maintenance situation, their ammo and shields (if they had any), how much time they have accumulated on their maintenance clocks since their last overhaul, their thermal signature, their grade bonus and their task force training points. I'll cover the last two columns later in the tutorial

There are three list boxes in the left centre of the window entitled System Locations Available, Actions Available and Plotted Move. System Locations contains a list of the all the places in the system where you can set an order. At the moment there will only be the nine planets listed (Aurora hasn't caught up to dwarf planets yet). There is a section called System Location Display Options above this listbox, which contains a series of twelve checkboxes. These can be toggled on and off to show addition system locations. Try clicking on Moons for example and you will see all the moons in the solar system have been added to the list. Uncheck the Moons checkbox to get rid of them. Now click on Mars in the System Locations list. A list of possible actions for the two survey ships will be shown in the Actions Available list. As an example, select Geological Survey and press Add Move. An order for Geological Survey Mars appears in the Plotted Move list. Now click on Venus. This time, instead of using Add Move, just double-click on Geological Survey. A second order now appear for Geological Survey Venus.

[attachment=1:36rpw37h]TG.JPG[/attachment:36rpw37h]
If we advanced time at this point, the small fleet of two ships would begin following those orders. However, there are a lot easier ways to survey the Sol system then selecting every planet in turn. Press Remove twice to delete the orders. Now change to the Special Orders / Organization tab. Down the left hand side of this tab are several options for setting up automated orders for fleets. The first section, Protect Threat Axis, is used to create formations for battle fleets and we will look at in detail later. Essentially though, it means you can select one fleet as the main body of a larger formation and set other fleets to maintain positions relative to that fleet's course or relative to both the fleet and a hostile contact. It could be as simple as telling an escort to maintain a position 200,000 kilometers from the fleet in the direction of contact xyz, extending the point defence coverage of the fleet in that direction. You might set two escorts at 500,000 kilometers twenty degrees either side of the line of movement, or perhaps two scouts out at 10 million kilometers, forty degrees wither side of the line of movement, to act as sensor pickets, etc.. A supply ship with the battle fleet might be set 2 million kilometers away at a bearing of 180 degrees from a specified threat so it will always remain at the far side of the fleet. As the main body moves, all those fleets with formation orders will change their positions accordingly, although ships without fleet training will be shaky when it comes to holding exact formations. Each escort can be set with a different threat direction so you can create quite complex formations.

The next section, Default Orders, is the first one we are really interested in. If a fleet has no orders, it will attempt to carry out its primary default order. If that isn't possible, it will attempt to carry out its secondary default order. Look down the list of possible primary orders and select Survey Next Five System Bodies. This means that if the fleet has nothing else to do, it will choose five system unsurveyed bodies, starting with the closest to its current position, then whichever is closest to that system body and so on, until it has selected five. Then it will work its way down the list.

While we are in this section, lets set up some conditional orders as well. In the Conditional Order A section, select the Condition "Fuel less than 30%" and the Order "Refuel at Colony within 4 Jumps". Conditional Orders are checked every increment and will override any existing orders. As soon as this ship's fuel is less than 30% it will stop whatever it is doing and head for the nearest source of fuel. Once refuelled, it will have no orders so it will fall back on its default orders again.

Survey ships work best independently so lets split the fleet into two. Select one of the ships in the grid control and press the Detach button (bottom right). This is now a separate fleet. Set up the same default and conditional orders for this fleet too and then reselect the original Survey Task Group. As this is a single ship as well, press Rename TG (bottom left) and give it the same name as the ship so the two geo survey fleets have similar names. Now swap back to the Task Group Orders view. In a text box at the centre right you should see a summary of the default and conditional orders you created.

Moment of truth time. Open up the F3 System Map and press the 5 second button under Increment Time, on the far left of the upper of the two time bars. This will advance time by 5 seconds and give the two survey fleets an opportunity to work out their orders. If you check the order list for each of the two fleets, they should have selected some destinations for geological surveys. Notice that they have picked different destinations. This is because the two fleets are aware of what each other is doing and they will avoid duplication. Even if you had six fleets, they would still all work as a team. Later in the game you may meet alien races and set up geological survey treaties that mean the two Empires will share new geological survey data with each other. If survey fleets from two Empires with such a treaty are in the same system, they will also work as a team as if they were all from the same Empire. Essentially, you have setup all the orders you need for a geosurvey of the Sol system. The two ships will get on with their task, notifying you of any mineral deposits and returning to Earth to refuel as necessary. Eventually, you may receive a message that they cannot find anything else to survey, at which point you will need to decide where to send them next.

Lets now set up their gravitational survey cousins. Go back to the Fast OB Creation window and find the Gravitational Survey Design. Add two of them to the Shipyard TG task group. Now go back to the F12 task group window and open the Shipyard TG Window. Select one of the gravitational survey ships and press Detach. Set up a default order for Survey Nearest Survey Location and select the same conditional orders as the geo survey ship. Go back to Shipyard TG and Detach the second gravitational survey ship. Set up the same default and conditional orders. Advance time 5 seconds and let them pick their first destinations. These two ships will now carry out a gravitational survey of the Sol system, searching for jump points. As with the geo ships they will work as a team. Your system map view should now look something like this:

[attachment=0:36rpw37h]SysMap.GIF[/attachment:36rpw37h]

Once you start advancing time, it is a good idea to have the events window open (Ctrl-F3) so you are kept up to date about events in your Empire.

Steve