Questions

[Maltay (OP)]

I have a number of questions:

1) As I understand things, starship and PDC components can be build ahead of time without actually building a starship or a PDC.  I can see the advantage in doing this for a PDC.  One can use a wealthy body to build the PDC components and later use them at a poor body to quickly stand up a PDC.  However, does the same sort of theory apply for starships given the shorter build times of larger shipyards and their relative distribution across bodies?

2) In one of Steve's campaigns, he references purchasing starships from and selling starships to the commercial sector.  Is this actually possible within the game without resorting to SM mode?

3) Can starships, satellites, and buoys be placed into specific orbits around a body?  If so, how is this done?

4) Can one target specific installations using ground forces?  If so, how is this done?

5) Is there a method in which to stagger missile launches from a single starship so that it fires a larger broadside than would otherwise be possible?  For example, some complicated combination of stages, etc.?  On that note, how does one do this for multiple starships?  Is that simply the synchronous fire option for a given task group?

6) This is a confirmation question.  In one of Steve's campaigns, he references changing the orders of missiles while in flight to a different target, a holding pattern, or even self-destruction.  Reading the forums, I have seen references to this no longer being possible unless the primary target is lost.  That said, could one fire missiles at a waypoint, delete the waypoint, and then re-target the missiles as desired?  Alternatively, could one dumb fire the missiles and then active active sensors or enable a second state that is itself equipped with active sensors?  I am fuzzy on the precedence and possibilities in this regard.  An explanation would be wonderful, including how to actually designate new targets and orders for missiles when possible.

7) In one of Steve's campaigns, he references declaring an exclusion zone around a body and the relative chance that the commercial sector will ignore the exclusion zone.  I assume this is a diplomatic option.  How exactly is this done via diplomacy?

8) In one of Steve's campaigns, he references launching missiles without targets and then later designating targets as the missiles get closer.  For example, dumb fire missiles with a second stage that contains an active sensor or simply activating active sensors after a dumb fire launch.  Keeping my previous confusion in mind, is this similar to the "target a waypoint" strategy for missile targeting that I already outlined?

9) Can one use a starship with active senors to provide targeting data to a second starship without active sensors when the second starship fires missiles?  If so, how is this actually done?

10) What is the logic behind requiring low resolution active sensors alongside low resolution fire control for AMM defenses?  Does the fire control require the active sensor resolution to succeed in targeting?

[The Shadow]

1.  Apparently, yes.  This was discussed recently in the Mechanics board;  came as a surprise to me.

2.  Well, you can subsidize the civilian lines.  I have no idea how you would purchase ships from them, though.

3.  Not sure about buoys, but the rest definitely yes.  Use "Extended Orbit" and specify a height, instead of "Move To".

4-5:  Don't know.

6.  As I understand it, the missiles retarget automatically, and only if they have sensors.

7.  In the system generation screen, there's a "Ban Body" button that will stop your ships from going there by accident.  Civilians will *usually* comply with it, but not always.

8.  This is no longer possible, as I understand it.

9.  Yes.  I imagine they're staying in radio contact - that, or the other ships are using passive sensors to pick up the active signal, or something.

10.  Missiles are small.  A missile control with poor resolution can't reliably get very close to its target point.  That isn't an issue for a large ship, but makes a big difference when trying to hit a small missile.

[UnLimiTeD]

Retargeting Missiles is no longer possible, as much as I would love that as a maneuver limited to a single salvo(would also prevet abuse^^)

You can equip missiles with active or passive sensors and fire them at a waypoint where you suspect the enemies fleet, then delete the waypoint when they are close, and the missiles will automatically acquire a target of their choice and home it.

Active Sensors are only required on one ship in the fleet, at a time.
Though back ups are of course not a bad idea.
You could think of all different kinds of possibilities to coordinate missile launches.
The easiest would for sure be missiles with different speeds, and fire the slowest first, but that requires incredible timing and perfect knowledge of the enemies possibilities.

A more sophisticated option would be to have small missiles and then produce multistage missiles at varying speeds.

Example:

Size 4 Missile, reasonably fast, medium range.
Size 4 Missile, reasonably fast, long range, at the cost of a little warhead.
Size 5  Launchers.
Size 5 carrier missile, medium range, slow.
If you now fire a salvo of carrier missiles, then a second one, and then a S4 ASM salvo, and release the submunitions (missile1) on the carriers once the faster S4 Missiles (Missile 2) catch up, you can effectively stack up to three salvos to reach the enemy roughly simultaneously.
It is, however, really planning intensive and it requires the enemy to be far enough away.

I didn't test this tactic, as I invented it today ^^

[Maltay (OP)]

Active Sensors are only required on one ship in the fleet, at a time.
Though back ups are of course not a bad idea.

Am I correct to assume that active sensors used by your task group must have a resolution capable of discerning whatever you target regardless of the resolution of the fire control?

[Maltay (OP)]

7.  In the system generation screen, there's a "Ban Body" button that will stop your ships from going there by accident.  Civilians will *usually* comply with it, but not always.

I seem to be having trouble finding this option.  Can someone please provide some more detail?

[Father Tim]

First, many of the stories you're referencing are based on earlier versions of the rules, which is why you can't find a way to reproduce the actions - the rules have changed.  Every time Steve makes a major change to Aurora he starts a new campaign - or maybe it's the other way around.

1.  Components pre-built this way are manufactured by Industry.  Thus, the advantage lies in reducing the amount of shipyard time required.

2.  Not currently, but it was before and it will be again.

3.  Not really, though the "Extended Orbit: X km" movement order can help you pretend.

4.  No.

5.  Yes, if you know exactly where your target is going to be at a specific future time (for example, a planet or a ship in orbit of a planet).  It involves doing a lot of math (without the help of Aurora) and carefully planning your fire.  It also requires either a highly (TF) trained fleet or 'Use Inexperienced Fleet Penalties' to be turned off, to get you ships to fire the correct missiles at the correct targets at the correct time.

Yes, coordinating a fleet-wide salvo is the purpose of the synchronous fire option.

6.  Re-target as desired?  No.  Re-target semi-randomly, as chosen by Aurora's target-decision subroutine for 'lost' missiles?  Yes.  Simply put a sensor (active or passive) on your missiles and when the original target is lost, they will look around for a new one - chosen randomly, or by size, or by range, or by strength of signal, or something.  I don't know how Aurora chooses.

7.  I think it's more of a Commercial thing, and done via the Civilian window.  I don't know - look there, and on the Diplomacy screen, and the System Map, and the System Information screen.  

8.  Similar, but more likely the earlier game-breaking exploit of re-targeting massive missile swarms in flight.

9.  Absolutely.  Automatically.

Unless you're confusing active sensors with fire control, in which case no, absolutely not.  It doesn't matter which of your units has the target on active sensors, as long as somebody on your side does.  Every ship needs it's own fire control, however, or it can't fire squat.

10.  Same as 9.  Someone has to see the target in order for anybody to shoot at it.  (And I will point out that Beam Fire Control has no resolution.)  If you're talking about Missile Fire Control, it's a specialized form of Active Sensor, and therefore follows all the same rules.

[Steve Walmsley]

I have a number of questions:

1) As I understand things, starship and PDC components can be build ahead of time without actually building a starship or a PDC.  I can see the advantage in doing this for a PDC.  One can use a wealthy body to build the PDC components and later use them at a poor body to quickly stand up a PDC.  However, does the same sort of theory apply for starships given the shorter build times of larger shipyards and their relative distribution across bodies?

You can build ship components using construction factories. When a new ship is laid down, any components that already available will automatically be used to reduce construction time and cost

2) In one of Steve's campaigns, he references purchasing starships from and selling starships to the commercial sector.  Is this actually possible within the game without resorting to SM mode?

I removed that function a while ago and will probably add an updated version in the future. You can subsidise shipping lines though so they can afford to buy more ships.

3) Can starships, satellites, and buoys be placed into specific orbits around a body?  If so, how is this done?

Any ship can be placed in an extended orbit using the appropriate fleet order. This isn't possible for buoys.

4) Can one target specific installations using ground forces?  If so, how is this done?

You can use ground assaults against specific hostile PDCs by selecting them in the ground units tab of the Economics window.

5) Is there a method in which to stagger missile launches from a single starship so that it fires a larger broadside than would otherwise be possible?  For example, some complicated combination of stages, etc.?  On that note, how does one do this for multiple starships?  Is that simply the synchronous fire option for a given task group?

The easiest way to get large salvos from single ships is to use box launchers. Using normal launchers, you could launch different speed missiles in successive salvos but you would need the target to be a particular range so all the missiles arrived at the same time. That would be possible against a planet for example as you could choose the range. If you order a fleet to open fire then all ships will fire at once. The exception is ships with delays due to inexperienced crews. In this case you can use the Synch fire option so that all ships in the same fleet will wait until all ships are ready before opening fire.

6) This is a confirmation question.  In one of Steve's campaigns, he references changing the orders of missiles while in flight to a different target, a holding pattern, or even self-destruction.  Reading the forums, I have seen references to this no longer being possible unless the primary target is lost.  That said, could one fire missiles at a waypoint, delete the waypoint, and then re-target the missiles as desired?  Alternatively, could one dumb fire the missiles and then active active sensors or enable a second state that is itself equipped with active sensors?  I am fuzzy on the precedence and possibilities in this regard.  An explanation would be wonderful, including how to actually designate new targets and orders for missiles when possible.

Firing at a waypoint is still possible. The rules changes is that you can no longer retarget missiles mid-flight using shipboard control, so firing at a waypoint to assemble missiles into a single wave before retargeting them is no longer possible. Missiles can have onboard sensors so if their initial target is lost or shipboard fire control is lost, they will search for a new target by themselves.

7) In one of Steve's campaigns, he references declaring an exclusion zone around a body and the relative chance that the commercial sector will ignore the exclusion zone.  I assume this is a diplomatic option.  How exactly is this done via diplomacy?

You can set a body as banned on the F9 System View. Commercial shipping will abide by that rule most of the time.

In one of Steve's campaigns, he references launching missiles without targets and then later designating targets as the missiles get closer.  For example, dumb fire missiles with a second stage that contains an active sensor or simply activating active sensors after a dumb fire launch.  Keeping my previous confusion in mind, is this similar to the "target a waypoint" strategy for missile targeting that I already outlined?

Yes. You can no longer manually retarget missiles. It used to be the case that if you changed the current target of a fire control then all missiles in flight would change target as well. Now you can fire different salvos at different targets using the same fire control and any missiles in flight will continue toward their existing targets.

9) Can one use a starship with active senors to provide targeting data to a second starship without active sensors when the second starship fires missiles?  If so, how is this actually done?

All contacts are available to all friendly ships, regardless of which active sensor detected them. The firing ship still requires a fire control even if it did not detect the target with its own active sensor.

10) What is the logic behind requiring low resolution active sensors alongside low resolution fire control for AMM defenses?  Does the fire control require the active sensor resolution to succeed in targeting?

An active sensor is used to search a large area of space to locate the general position of targets. A fire control is a far more focused system that provides precise targeting once the general location of a target is known but it has no search capability of its own. In this case, the low resolution active sensor is needed to detect the incoming missiles and the low resolution fire control is required to guide the missiles to their targets.

Steve

[EarthquakeDamage]

I removed that function a while ago and will probably add an updated version in the future. You can subsidise shipping lines though so they can afford to buy more ships.

How do you encourage shipping lines to buy more frequently?  I try to subsidize them enough that they can always buy a ship, but they'll often go for months or years without doing anything, followed by a burst of activity (like three new ships in a year).

And since I'm here...  RE Extended Orbit:  Does this allow you to get around the "no beams in an atmosphere except meson" restriction?  e.g. Can I put some laser OWPs in orbit so they'll actually be useful?

[Steve Walmsley]

I removed that function a while ago and will probably add an updated version in the future. You can subsidise shipping lines though so they can afford to buy more ships.

How do you encourage shipping lines to buy more frequently?  I try to subsidize them enough that they can always buy a ship, but they'll often go for months or years without doing anything, followed by a burst of activity (like three new ships in a year).

And since I'm here...  RE Extended Orbit:  Does this allow you to get around the "no beams in an atmosphere except meson" restriction?  e.g. Can I put some laser OWPs in orbit so they'll actually be useful?

You can just build laser OWPs and they will already be in orbit - you don't need extended orbit for that. Just don't designate them as PDCs. You can't encourage shipping lines to build more quickly. There is both a money and a build rate restriction, the latter partly to avoid races with vast wealth having instant huge merchant fleets and partly to avoid performace issues. You could however design much larger ships for the civs to use, which will allow them to increase overall capacity more quickly.

Steve