What's Going On In Your Empire: C# Edition

[liveware]

By 1997, The Aegis Corporation was slowly expanding it's reach beyond the Sol System, with the foundation of it's first extrasolar mining colonies.

The corporation was originally founded as a gold mining operation in 1853 in order to capitalize on the ever increasing mineral wealth being discovered in the southwestern portion of the young United States of America. However, the Aegis prospectors found far more than gold beneath the desert wasteland. In 1863, a massive subterranean complex was discovered near what would later become the site of the Hoover Dam. Prospectors were amazed to discover what seemed to be functional industrial machinery buried in tunnels deep underground. Under a veil of secrecy, the corporation slowly explored and studied the buried complex over the next several years. Their studies were extremely profitable and resulted in hundreds of new patents for novel new technologies. Among these fantastic technologies was a drug which prolonged human life by decades. The scientists were stunned by this discovery (among many others). The industrial complex itself was a marvel of technological innovation and the fact of it's very existence was bewildering to most people with knowledge of it. It was not well understood who built the complex, or even when, however it was speculated to be thousands of years old using C-14 dating methods.

Eventually, corporate scientists discovered something truly remarkable. Hidden in a particularly deep cavern, which appeared to have been deliberately sealed off in ancient times, an unusual crystal was discovered. By exposing this crystal to a particular wavelength of light, the crystal was found to contain what appeared to be a map. A very unusual map. It appeared to identify the location of mineral deposits on worlds other than the Earth.

It took nearly 100 years for corporate scientists, engineers, laborers, and front men to complete the development of the necessary vehicular technology to explore the mineral deposits identified on the map. But they proved accurate, and when the Aegis Corporation landed it's first survey ship on Alpha Centauri A I, it was not a surprise that valuable minerals were found to be present in abundance in the planet's crust.

But the map found under the desert showed far more distant resource deposits than Alpha Centauri. The Aegis Corporation had only begun to scratch the surface of this most valuable of claims...

[Droll]

This is turning out to be one of the strangest maps I have yet had to experience. With random jump points in Sol, I ended up with three. One was a dead end immediately, and recently it turns out the second was also a dead end, but with a longer chain. It's really a huge shame, because HIP 103096 has a lot of minerals, including a few good geo survey sites and almost habitable moons, so I had planned to make turn it into a nearly self-sufficient system.

I'm really tempted to just add two jump points and resurvey it, since being at the bottom of a dead end system chain makes it worth very little. Groombridge 34 and Luyten 726-B gives me plenty of minerals for the forseeable future... Still debating that with myself. If Barnard's Star at the top turns out to be a candidate for extensive colonization, it might take the place of HIP 103096 in my long term plans.

To me the weirder thing is the overwhelming amount of empty systems

[smoelf]

To me the weirder thing is the overwhelming amount of empty systems

It gets worse. Finally, after cranking the NPR generation chance up to 75%, I have found my first enemy after almost 40 years. Quickly vacating the Van Briesbroeck system, the exploration ship turned on different fields and the central navy began touring towards the oerceived enemy. The 20b km was a bit far for the old navy, but thankfully we had already established a survey support base in Procyon, which served as a refuelling station on the way.

Unfortunately, the navy had not undergone any upgrades since it was first launched, so they were totally crushed. A single salvo for each of the 8 missile cruisers and three escort cruisers. Next time, they encounter an unknown enemy, they will be sure to scout and gather intel before rushing in. The vast space is dangerous. But this time their sacrifice would at least provide sufficient intel to begin rebuilding for the war.

[Borealis4x]

I thought I'd doomed Earth by accidentally shipping off the last Mass Driver to the automines, but luckily that 'features' seems to have been removed. It never did make sense why you needed a Mass Driver to 'catch' packets. I always assumed they'd shoot them into the ocean or something.

In other news, I sank resources into building a pair of frigates that were obsolete and useless as soon as they left the dock and its been 30 years and I haven't even surveyed a grav-point yet.

Thats okay tho, I like to take it sloooooow. I didn't spawn any NPR's at the start cause I know they'd have my way with me if I did. I'll see about adding them once I'm nice and ready thank you very much.

EDIT: I've also just learned that the colony ships I've had in dock for 10 years actually are full of people in stasis. They're going to have a rude awakening...

[Graymane]

I have not figured out how to conquer the race that identifies itself as "research just one more tech before I build something significant".

[liveware]

It never did make sense why you needed a Mass Driver to 'catch' packets. I always assumed they'd shoot them into the ocean or something.

I would imagine that lacking a 'catcher' would create a rather catastrophic tsunami or two? Nothing like a relativistic impact event to create the impetus for a new society I suppose....

[Borealis4x]

It never did make sense why you needed a Mass Driver to 'catch' packets. I always assumed they'd shoot them into the ocean or something.

I would imagine that lacking a 'catcher' would create a rather catastrophic tsunami or two? Nothing like a relativistic impact event to create the impetus for a new society I suppose....

But how does the Mass Driver 'catch' the packet? Is it literally shot into its barrel? Thats a Hell of a target to hit on a rapidly spinning Earth from 100m KM away.

Maybe it somehow slingshots around our orbit and gets caught and then captured somehow.

[liveware]

I'm not sure about the exact MD mechanics. Something something trans-newtonian something something I imagine. Or maybe they function more like warp gates?

[Ulzgoroth]

Throw a bunch of 'slow down' mass at the front of the incoming packet? There are ways to rig that up so that it might avoid generating a packet-shattering kaboom.

[liveware]

Anyway, back on topic:

The Aegis Corporation continues to thrive into the 22nd century. By 2127, the colonies in Alpha Centauri were thriving and Sol was well supplied from the abundant mineral wealth found there. However, new threats had been discovered by Aegis scouts in distant systems.

In 2027, first contact between humanity and an alien race occurred in FL Virginis. The encounter was brief and violent. The scout carrier Columbus IID was ambushed shortly after transiting through to the unexplored system by a fleet of a dozen hostile ships. A missile barrage crippled the ship before it could escape through the jump point, and it was subsequently destroyed at close range by hostile energy weapon fire. A rescue party was launched shortly after the encounter, but no survivors were found despite comms traffic indicating that several life boats were launched. The space around the jump point has since been monitored continuously and several dozen hostile ships of various sizes have been sighted. All appear well armed.

Aegis corporate headquarters immediately shifted the focus of the research and development department to focus on developing new and more capable ships. After several decades of research and testing, Aegis was able to field a small fleet of carriers armed with several varieties of fast attack boats as well as a full compliment of marine boarding detachments. These new ships and theirs crews have yet to see combat, but they will soon be put to that most ultimate of tests in the FL Virginis system...

In addition to the FL Virignis threat, unconfirmed reports have emerged of possible alien contacts in the Barnard's Star system. Despite heavy sensor presence, nothing but an occasional sensor flicker has yet emerged, and fortunately no hostile encounters have yet occurred. Only time will tell if the Aegis corporation will become ensnared in a test of arms with a second alien race.

[SpikeTheHobbitMage]

Almost 30 years in to my current campaign and I finally poked my nose out of Sol's sole jump point.  Eleven planets, eight of which are gas giants, and the third rock is a nice juicy terrestrial world.  Fuel problems solved forever right?  Difficulty:  That third rock is nearly as far out as Pluto and the second gas giant is out past Sedna.  Planet XI?  A quarter light-year.  2397 billion km.  My poor tug would take 446 years to drag a gas mining station all the way out there. 

I'm naming this system Texas.

[the obelisk]

While swarms of short-ranged, tiny missiles repulsed the Royal Navy in the First Battle of Shako, which nevertheless inspired great confidence in the Solar Kingdom's kinetic-based naval doctrine, humanity returned with an expanded, more modern fleet.  Most of the machine's forces word smashed apart in the second battle at the cost of only a few of his majesty's own ships.  The Admiralty's new chief concern is dealing with the system's first planet, hosting a ground force of essentially unknown capabilities and a number of STO systems.

[Spartus001]

I started playing Aurora almost 10 years ago, playing the VB version through numerous updates now in C#.   Its got to the ultimate 'one more turn' game for me.   The hours I have sunk into this game in both of its version, I cannot even dare to guess.   It kept me sane during my years posted up in Northern Saskatchewan, where their is little do other than work and fish (best fishing you can find!).   Thanks Steve, for keeping me occupied!

In VB I think my longest game was almost 80 years, before it slowly ground to an unplayable halt.   Even knowing I could not get a game to last much longer than that, I continuously found myself coming back to Aurora when disappointed by the likes of Civ VI and Gal Civ 3.   Stellaris held my attenion for a couple years, but I still kept checking in to the forums here hoping for a sniff of news on Aurora II and eventually C#.   Between the spoiler races and the occasional well established NPR, I learned a lot of lessons in playing the game, designing ships and components and managing colonies. . . . most of them the hard way before there was a decent wiki.   

The improvements in C# have been really fantastic.   My most recent go with 1. 9. 5 has gone 110 years now and is still quite playable, though it has slowed down to about 20 seconds for a 5 day increment.   In fairness I think the slowdown may be partly due to the 400+ mineral packets that are flying from the mining colony orbiting the tertiary star of Ophiuchi C to my main colony orbiting Ophiuchi A, 655 Billion kms away.   Another lesson learned. . . double check your packet destinations BEFORE you send ten years worth of them on the scenic route!.    But with over 1100 civilian ships in service, a couple hundred of my own creations, 24 colonies in over a dozen systems, and a population of almost 10 billion, its still light years ahead of VB.   This is the farthest I have ever been able to get along in the tech tree, so in that respect its been pretty cool too.   The unit design has given my WH40K themed empire some real flavour, with Imperial Guard, Space Marines and awesome Baneblade style super heavy tanks.   

The only beef I can even mention is that I cant find any bad guys in this go around!  I have all but the Invaders turned on, and NPRs at the default settings, but other than a minor NPR next door to Sol that I squished right off the hop, the universe has been silent.   65 systems fully surveyed, and not a peep.   No wrecks, no ruins, nothing.   Is this normal in C#?  It seems so odd to still be flying the same two survey ships (greatly upgraded over the years) that I laid down almost 90 years ago.   In my previous games I don't think I ever upgraded my survey ships.   I just kept them flying till they ran into something that jumped out and chewed them up when they showed up in a unsuspecting spoiler system.   My battle fleets cruise around eyeing the far flung colonies, and each other, with suspicion, hoping for a chance for some action.   

Even with no baddies around, its still fun exploring, terraforming, building ships and managing my vast empire.   I cant help but hope though, that the next new system my Survey ship jumps into, it gets blasted to bits.   That doesn't make me a bad ruler does it. . . . ?

[Gabethebaldandbold]

I have just committed my first spot of orbital genocide. Semi-large NPR population got set up in a jungle and I decided it wasn't worth the trouble and nuked it.

welcome to the club my friend.

[Hawkeye]

"War of the Worlds" setup.

After some 20 years of holding back the Martians, the United Earth fleet finally pretty much wiped out the Martian fleet using a combination of long-rang missile bases in Earth orbit, a large number of small, fast missile-boats and a fleet of larger DDs and CLs (very costly victory with Earth's fleet reduced to just a handful of ships - the bases are untouched though).
Now rebuilding the fleet while also building up enough ground troops for an invasion - which will doubtlessly go absolutely swimming