Some questions about Jump Points and combat.

[Rawb (OP)]

Ok so I've never even been to another system yet after nearly a week of casual playing but anyway here goes. 

If I don't build any jump gates, can other races still discover me? I.  E can they build jump gates from their system to mine?

How easy is it to shut down unwanted jump gates in your system?

Is it a good idea to place ships with Plasma Carronade and powerful lasers lurking outside of a jump gate in case of hostile intrusion or would that be better handled by PDCs from a distance away?

And a final question

I'm really unsure what kind of missile is a good missile, do I need to focus on warhead strength or agility or what? What's the advised maximum size for launchers and missiles?

Thank you . 

[Yonder]

Ok so I've never even been to another system yet after nearly a week of casual playing but anyway here goes.

If I don't build any jump gates, can other races still discover me? I. E can they build jump gates from their system to mine?

They can discover you either by building a jump gate on their side of the jump point and entering your system or by sending a jumpship through the jump point, alone or with a group of ships. The latter case is more likely, building a jump gate is reasonably time-intensive task, and more importantly can be used by an enemy to travel back to you, so jump gates usually aren't constructed willy-nilly.

How easy is it to shut down unwanted jump gates in your system?

Impossible, they cannot be destroyed. Think of them as being stabilized wormholes instead of structures, or perhaps as structures that don't exist in our three spatial dimensions, so can't be affected by our weapons.

Is it a good idea to place ships with Plasma Carronade and powerful lasers lurking outside of a jump gate in case of hostile intrusion or would that be better handled by PDCs from a distance away?

Either scenario is a reasonable defense setup, although PDCs will only work if you have turned orbits off on Asteroids, otherwise you won't have any stationary bodies that will keep your PDCs in place.

Because of the sheer number of jump gates you are probably going to come across, and the tedium of either replacing mines or maintaining and resupplying defensive fleets, it may be a better idea to only thoroughly guard jump points when you know that there is danger on the other side. Otherwise you may be better off just putting a bunch of observatories on a body in the system so that you know if any aliens are coming and going, so that you can respond with the fleets based on your colonies.

And a final question

I'm really sure what kind of missile is a good missile, do I need to focus on warhead strength or agility or what? What's the advised maximum size for launchers and missiles?

Thank you .

There are lots and lots of threads on missile design here, as its one of the main gameplay elements. In short I would say that every facet of the missile design is important, so there are no easy answers. However in almost all cases missiles designed to destroy other missiles are designed to be size 1, with a strength 1 warhead. Missiles designed to take out ships almost always have a damage level equal to a square of an integer (4, 9, 16, etc) as that is when the bowling pin-esque missile damage template reaches another level of armor penetration.

I favor anti-ship missiles at around size 3-4, in order to get a rapid launch capability and hopefully overwhelm missile defenses. I believe that most people on the boards favor larger missiles though, around size 6 or 7.

[Rawb (OP)]

Wow, that was great help, thanks very much

[Yonder]

No problem, it's a pretty crazy game, everyone needs help with it from time to time.

[blue emu]

There are lots and lots of threads on missile design here...

... such as this one:

http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php/topic,4215.0.html

[Girlinhat]

Do keep in mind that the enemy won't bother building jump gates to your system.  They'll just build jump drives on their warships and come at you.  Gates allow any ship to pass through, but drives allow any ship with the drive and/or the drive's squadron to pass through.  Wiki "interstellar travel" for more precise info.

[Din182]

Do keep in mind that the enemy won't bother building jump gates to your system.  They'll just build jump drives on their warships and come at you.  Gates allow any ship to pass through, but drives allow any ship with the drive and/or the drive's squadron to pass through.  Wiki "interstellar travel" for more precise info.

I think they do build jump gates. In Steve's latest campaign, one of the races he met was building jump gates all willy-nilly.

[Girlinhat]

They do build gates, but they will also come at you with drives.  Don't think "there's no gate, so I'm safe".

[Charlie Beeler]

A lot depends on what settings you use at game creation.  At least where your home system and initial exploration is concerned.  If you did not enable AI NPR's and/or Invaders you have nothing to worry about before you explore your first jump point, there won't be anyone out there to find your home system.  

Once you start exploring then it becomes conditional on the NPR % you set during game creation.  The higher the percentage the higher the chance of triggering an NPR when you explore each jump point.

[Rawb (OP)]

Ok so basically even though I choose not to explore I can still be found, got it. 

I still don't understand missiles at all even after reading that guide.  It says allocate remaining MSP but I seem to have unlimited points to spend. . .  I don't get what  that's all about.  I don't know what is or isn't good strengths and ranges while still keeping the missiles within the 6-7 size range.

Thanks for all your help Aurora Community  . 

[Girlinhat]

Missiles are like ships, they can be as big or small as you can functionally achieve.  The missile size is directly tied to the launcher size, so if you've got 10 HS allocated for missile tubes, then you can fit a size 10 launcher or two size 5's.  And by extension, these tubes can fire missiles that are size 10 or size 5.  You can easily make a missile bigger than a ship, because (I believe) a missile size is 1/20th a ship's size.  So a 20 MSP missile is 1 HS.  A 200 MSP missile would be larger than the average fighter, but good luck mounting a launcher that can actually fire it.

In practice, your missile size is only determined by your launcher size, and by extension this tends to rely on your armor, engine, and warp tech, as higher warp/engine power allows for bigger ships and bigger launchers.  Most people agree that size 5 is a good starting point for anti-ship missiles and anti-missile missiles should be size 1.

[Yonder]

In practice, your missile size is only determined by your launcher size

And magazine size, you not only need to launch the missile, but have enough reloads ready to continue the combat operation. As far as how many reloads that should be, well it depends on how many salvos it takes to destroy your enemy, and you don't know how much that is .

Generally I think that 5-6 salvos is the absolute minimum, unless you are confident that your speed is high enough that you will be able to safely disengage if that doesn't do the job. (And you should have an Ammo collier in the area, so you don't have to go all the way back to a colony after the first firefight).

For AMMs you're better off with more missile salvos, because it may take multiple AMM salvos to fully take out one enemy missile salvo. Also the stakes are higher, if you run out of Anti-Ship missiles you are in trouble, but you can attempt to flee, or close the distance to try to attack with other missiles, and your AMM defense will probably let you live long enough to do one of those two things as long as you aren't completely outclassed. On the other hand if you run out of AMMs mid-fight you may not live long enough to change the range on your opponent, either to close or flee.

[Girlinhat]

I keep forgetting magazine needs because all of my significant warships are built for campaigns, not battles, so a single ship might carry 50 salvo's worth.  Understandably, jump engines are one of the first things I sink research into, as these big ships are difficult to move

[blue emu]

I still don't understand missiles at all even after reading that guide.  It says allocate remaining MSP but I seem to have unlimited points to spend. . .  I don't get what  that's all about.  I don't know what is or isn't good strengths and ranges while still keeping the missiles within the 6-7 size range.

You seem to have unlimited points to spend, because you can make the missiles any size you like.

With missiles, bigger isn't always better, though... it isn't even usually better. Bigger missiles can pack a bigger explosive punch and carry more fuel... but they are easier to spot on RADAR and are usually slower and less agile, which reduces their chance to penetrate the opponent's Point Defense and actually hit anything. A small missile that evades the enemy defenses and hits the target is obviously more effective than a large missile that gets shot down or misses the target. Larger missile tubes also reload and fire more slowly, and larger missiles take up more room in your ship's magazines, so you can't carry as many of them.

I use size-1 missiles for anti-missile Point Defense, and size-4 or size-6 missiles for ship-killers. Anything larger than size-6 is easier to spot, and cycles too slowly for my tastes.

Post your four current missile stats... these ones, marked in red:



... and I'll show you how to design decent missiles at that tech level. Bear in mind that in the early game, your techs are probably too low to design a really GOOD missile.

[Rawb (OP)]

The stats I have are:

Warhead Strength: 5
Engine Power: 3
Agility: 64
Efficiency: 0.    8


Also is this anywhere near decent for my first ever warship outside of the tutorial one?

Volga - Copy class Cruiser    7,400 tons     568 Crew     1378.   6 BP      TCS 148  TH 112  EM 240
2162 km/s     Armour 8-33     Shields 8-400     Sensors 12/12/0/0     Damage Control Rating 4     PPV 28.   54
Maint Life 3.   08 Years     MSP 466    AFR 109%    IFR 1.   5%    1YR 74    5YR 1104    Max Repair 105 MSP

Magneto-plasma Drive E8 (4)    Power 80    Fuel Use 80%    Signature 28    Armour 0    Exp 5%    Hyper Capable
Fuel Capacity 200,000 Litres    Range 60.   8 billion km   (325 days at full power)
Gamma R400/16 Shields (4)   Total Fuel Cost  64 Litres per day

15cm C6 Ultraviolet Laser (2)    Range 192,000km     TS: 3000 km/s     Power 6-6     RM 4    ROF 5        6 6 6 6 4 4 3 3 2 2
Twin 10cm C6 Ultraviolet Laser Turret (2x2)    Range 120,000km     TS: 15000 km/s     Power 6-12     RM 4    ROF 5        3 3 3 3 2 2 1 1 1 1
Fire Control S04 96-3000 (1)    Max Range: 192,000 km   TS: 3000 km/s     95 90 84 79 74 69 64 58 53 48
Fire Control S04 24-12000  (1)    Max Range: 48,000 km   TS: 12000 km/s     79 58 38 17 0 0 0 0 0 0
Pebble Bed Reactor Technology PB-1 (eight)     Total Power Output 24    Armour 0    Exp 5%

Active Search Sensor MR12-R100 (1)     GPS 2000     Range 12.   0m km    Resolution 100
Active Search Sensor MR0-R1 (1)     GPS 1     Range 50k km    Resolution 1
Thermal Sensor TH2-12 (1)     Sensitivity 12     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  12m km
EM Detection Sensor EM2-12 (1)     Sensitivity 12     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  12m km

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

Again, I really appreciate all of the help you guys give me .