New player saying hi... and help...?

[Ravenplucker (OP)]

I downloaded Aurora a little while ago and am currently attempting to scramble up the learning inverted-cliff.
I've been working through the wikipedia tutorials but am not quite understanding them.
One goal I've set myself is to mine luna.

What exactly do I need to do to do this?

[James Patten]

First you need to do a geological survey of Luna (and all the other bodies in the system).  If you need help getting to that point let us know.  If there is no minerals on Luna, then the next steps don't pertain to the moon itself, although they would to other bodies with minerals.

Then you need automated mines (built through your construction factories), and a freighter with at least 5 cargo holds in order to ship them.

You place the mines on Luna (which creates a colony), they start working right away.

Then build two mass drivers.  Leave one on Earth and ship the other to Luna.  Once it's there, in the mineral tab of the F2 window in the upper right corner is a dropdown which has other mass driver destinations.  Earth should be on that list.  Pick Earth and the minerals will start shooting there as soon as they are mined.

Make sure that you always have a mass driver receiving.  If, for some reason, the mass driver goes away (you accidentally took the last one away, or it got destroyed somehow), the receiving planet starts getting bombarded, resulting in death and destruction.

Also keep in mind that mass drivers can only handle so many minerals at any one time.  If you mines start producing more than the mass drivers can fling, the minerals build up and you must bring in another mass driver.  I've got planets with more than ten mass drivers sending minerals.  However the receiving driver can take as many tons of minerals as are sent its way.

[Ravenplucker (OP)]

Alrighty, I've made progress, but I just have one more question.

I've gotten a (horrible) ship there, how long will it take to survey the moon? I saw references to "survey points" or something but I don't know what that means. 

I <3 conventional start 

[James Patten]

If you started with Conventional Start, it means you have to research all the technologies it will take to get you there.  For a first-timer, you'd be better off restarting with a "normal" start, which starts you with some technology already researched. 

Keep in mind once you have an engine technology (say Ion Engine), you then need to design and research an actual engine: whether its for a military ship or a civilian ship, whether it has thermal shielding or not, whether you want it to be more explosive prone (and have more power) or less so, and so on.

For a geosurvey ship, you need geological survey tech explored (plus all the other things it takes to build a ship: fuel tank, bridge, engines, crew quarters, etc etc etc).  You'll know you have a working survey ship if in the F12 Fleet window you see a number greater than zero in the Geo Survey point field (just under the Race/Fleet/Task Group dropdowns).  After that it takes time.

[Erik L]

You could also post your designs. There is a button on the F5 ship design window, lower right. Allows you to export with either --- to delimit the ships or BBCode. For posting here, I'd suggest BBCode. The output file will be in the install directory.

[Ravenplucker (OP)]

It's not worth posting.   It's the spaceworthy equivalent of a car held together with duct-tape. 

It works, I retried it on Mars and got some mineral readings.   I was just confused because Luna didn't seem to have any minerals. 

And I prefer conventional starts, I like the idea of ruling over my empire as it takes its first steps into space.   

Hypothetically.  .  .   If an alien civilisation takes over a planet in my solar system, will I be able to launch 5000 tonne chunks of minerals at them?

***EDIT***
Sorry about all the questions, but how do I make space stations, and what's their practical use?

[James Patten]

If you look at the System window (F9), and see an "S" by a body, it means the body has been surveyed but has no minerals.  An "M" means it does.

If an alien civilisation takes over a planet in my solar system, will I be able to launch 5000 tonne chunks of minerals at them?

Hypothetically, yes.  It's a good way to start a war.  And then all they have to do is bring in another mass driver and then all you're doing is sending them presents.

[Brian Neumann]

It's not worth posting.   It's the spaceworthy equivalent of a car held together with duct-tape. 
Hypothetically.  .  .   If an alien civilisation takes over a planet in my solar system, will I be able to launch 5000 tonne chunks of minerals at them?

***EDIT***
Sorry about all the questions, but how do I make space stations, and what's their practical use?

Yes if they settle in a system where you have a mass driver and a few mines then you can bombard them.  Just remember that it only takes 1 mass driver to catch whatever you are sending to them.

As for a space station the closest thing you can do is to reasearch the "orbital habitat" which is under logistics.  Build them and they hold population.  On your homeworld they are useless, but if you have a world that you want to use that is a hostile enviroment then they are really handy.  The population on them is considered to have no hostile enviroment modifiers.  You can even use them on a planet where the gravity is outside your limits.

Brian

[Ravenplucker (OP)]

If you look at the System window (F9), and see an "S" by a body, it means the body has been surveyed but has no minerals.   An "M" means it does.

Whenever I press F9 I get an error.  That's a nuisance.

As for a space station the closest thing you can do is to reasearch the "orbital habitat" which is under logistics.   Build them and they hold population.   On your homeworld they are useless, but if you have a world that you want to use that is a hostile enviroment then they are really handy.   The population on them is considered to have no hostile enviroment modifiers.   You can even use them on a planet where the gravity is outside your limits.

Brian

No way to give them missile launchers. . . ? 


Oh well, thanks guys! You've all been an epic help.

[jseah]

You can give them missile launchers.  They become a military ship though and will need maintenance. 
1 maintenance facility will support a 200 ton ship.  A bigger ship needs more facilities. 

Orbital Habitats are 250 000 tons per component.  Good luck.  =P

I wonder what happens if they suffer a maintenance failure... XD

[Brian Neumann]

You can give them missile launchers.  They become a military ship though and will need maintenance. 
1 maintenance facility will support a 200 ton ship.  A bigger ship needs more facilities. 

Orbital Habitats are 250 000 tons per component.  Good luck.  =P

I wonder what happens if they suffer a maintenance failure... XD

As long as they do not have any power plants or engines they are not likely to just explode.  Those are the two biggest culprits of ships dying due to lack of maintenance.  The part that failed will just not work.  If that is an orbital module with 50,000 people in it then they are probably dead/transfered to the planet.  If there is enough infrastructure to support them, my guess would be that they are fine.  Just make sure to have lots of spares so they can fix their maintenance failures as they occur.

Brian