A few noob questions

[athenalras (OP)]

Hey guys! A few noob questions.  Would appreciate if answers are polite.  I did my best to search forums here, bay12, other various websites, blogs, etc.  And the tutorials. . . well, I don't have the patience to listen through for so long.  I figured out most of the mechanics by looking at the buttons and just trying out the game.
But also, if not answer know, please not post.

However, I still ran into a few walls so please bear with me.

Before I begin my list, I'd like to thank Steve for making Aurora public for us to enjoy.  I really love the game!

Now my troubles:
So I've had trouble understanding how civilian shipping lines begin to work.
- Do I have to do the terraforming first before shipping lines will start building ships and complete civilian contracts?
- Do the civilian contracts work under the (f2) tab? If they do, what is the difference between supply and demand? (Its not like I haven't taken economics but I'm a bit confused as to how this works here because in my perspective, if I want a TFbase built at planet x, I *demand* a TFbase.  On the other hand, to me it could also mean I want a contractor to *supply* me with a TFbase)
- IF civilian contracts under (f2) does NOT work, where else can I find civilian contracts?
- Is there any way to automate combat? (I haven't faced NPRs yet but sooner or later I will.  I don't feel like controlling every aspect of combat other than setting up some conditions and formations. )
- Is there any way for ground troops to train or is that limited to the navy?
- Do resources ever replenish themselves? Or is it that once exhausted, I either find a new planet to exhaust or become stagnant?

I might have new questions in the future.  If I do, I will post them here again.

Thanks in advance! I look forward to being put at ease.

[alex_brunius]

So I've had trouble understanding how civilian shipping lines begin to work.
- Do I have to do the terraforming first before shipping lines will start building ships and complete civilian contracts?

You need cargo handling module and nuclear engine researched for them to build a freighter, cryo as well for them to build colony ships.
Once you have two colonies in the same system (or in different systems within 4 jumps connected with jumpgates on both sides of all jumps), the civilians will begin shipping in either infrastructure (with freighter) or colonists (with colony ship) depending on which is needed and start growing the new colony. Once colony grows larger it will start to also produce and demand other goods that civilian will trade between the colonies (with freighter).

- Do the civilian contracts work under the (f2) tab? If they do, what is the difference between supply and demand? (Its not like I haven't taken economics but I'm a bit confused as to how this works here because in my perspective, if I want a TFbase built at planet x, I *demand* a TFbase.  On the other hand, to me it could also mean I want a contractor to *supply* me with a TFbase)
- IF civilian contracts under (f2) does NOT work, where else can I find civilian contracts?

See wiki:
http://aurorawiki.pentarch.org/index.php?title=Civilian_contracts
(I use the civilian contracts in the economy window and works decent as long as you enter equal supply and demand)

- Is there any way to automate combat? (I haven't faced NPRs yet but sooner or later I will.  I don't feel like controlling every aspect of combat other than setting up some conditions and formations. )

There is an order to fire missiles in the task force window, but I haven't tried it other then to fire surveillance buoys on waypoints, So can't answer that good. I prefer controlling targeting and missiles myself.

- Is there any way for ground troops to train or is that limited to the navy?

IIRC Ground troops train automatically depending on their leader and the leader of their corps & HQ.

- Do resources ever replenish themselves? Or is it that once exhausted, I either find a new planet to exhaust or become stagnant?

Nope, you need to go out and find more to bring home (or move your home elsewhere where the resources are abundant). Don't worry though there are sources out there with vastly more resources then on Earth.

[sloanjh]

IIRC Ground troops train automatically depending on their leader and the leader of their corps & HQ.

If they're not inside a PDC.

John

[joeclark77]

Once you have two colonies in the same system (or in different systems within 4 jumps connected with jumpgates on both sides of all jumps), the civilians will begin shipping in either infrastructure (with freighter) or colonists (with colony ship) depending on which is needed and start growing the new colony.

I don't think they will start unless there's already some infrastructure on the colony (or in the rare case it's a 0.0 colony cost world).  Best way to get the ball rolling is to build and ship a few units of infrastructure to Mars or Luna.  Civilians should promptly build a colony ship and haul some settlers there to take advantage of the infrastructure.  Then their freighters will haul more infrastructure, and so on.  If it takes you ten years to start expanding beyond Sol, you'll find that in that brief time they'll have built dozens of civilian ships and have a thriving economy shipping people and goods. You can take advantage of that groundwork to build up your extrasolar colonies.

[Jorgen_CAB]

In response to mining strategies I usually find it less smart to use primarily strip mining rather than planning for the long term and get a steady stream of resources flowing. Although, Earth will be out of resources after a while and should instead become your center of Wealth income and your primary research hub.

This way it is easier to plan for the long term development of the empire. It also make the empire less vulnerable to the loss of a specific colony to an enemy attack.

This tactic might require slightly more resources in the beginning but once you get a steady stream of all resources it is quite easy to plan the development of larger colonies and the spread of your industry.

[alex_brunius]

I don't think they will start unless there's already some infrastructure on the colony (or in the rare case it's a 0.0 colony cost world).  Best way to get the ball rolling is to build and ship a few units of infrastructure to Mars or Luna.

Good additions. Sometimes it's easy to omit stuff that you just "assume" is common sense, like that someone has to be able to live on the colony before civilians start shipping in colonists and get the colony going

[Paul M]

Unless 6.3 fixed this problem by putting infrastructure down on a colony site you will trigger a mass charge by all available transports to that colony.  So this means you should have prepared (and best shipped) to the colony sufficient infrastructure to actually accomodate the first dump.  Else you will have significant colonist casualties. 

[MarcAFK]

Which you can always fix with space master, just replace whatever casualties there were back onto the planet they all came from, I think the next patch might fix this?

[sloanjh]

I don't think they will start unless there's already some infrastructure on the colony (or in the rare case it's a 0.0 colony cost world). 

I'm pretty sure that colony cost of 0.0 is not sufficient - you need to drop either infrastructure or population on the colony to start civie colonization.  The reason for this is to give you a little bit of control along the lines of "But I didn't mean to have people move to THAT planet."  Of course whether that's realistic or not is another question

John

[alex_brunius]

I'm pretty sure that colony cost of 0.0 is not sufficient - you need to drop either infrastructure or population on the colony to start civie colonization.  The reason for this is to give you a little bit of control along the lines of "But I didn't mean to have people move to THAT planet."  Of course whether that's realistic or not is another question

It was last time I flagged an enemy NPR homeworld as a colony before realizing someone already lived there ( I think it was in a patch 6.20 game ), all civial colony ships started their suicidal charge there even if no ship actually managed to arrive before them

[Serpentine]

It was last time I flagged an enemy NPR homeworld as a colony before realizing someone already lived there ( I think it was in a patch 6. 20 game ), all civial colony ships started their suicidal charge there even if no ship actually managed to arrive before them

That.  is.  hilarious.   

Understandable, there seems to be so much to keep track of, little "accidents" like that will always happen. . .  "Onwards! To Colonisation or death!"