Author Topic: Questions related to mechanics  (Read 8324 times)

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Offline Victuz (OP)

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Questions related to mechanics
« on: September 19, 2012, 04:31:44 AM »
Ok so first things first, literally found Aurora a day ago.   Got enthralled as soon as I heard about it and I love the way it works.  
Specifically the fact that you don't meet the aliens outright which always bugged me in 4x games because it completely killed the feeling of being alone in a massive empty vacuum, with the way the game seems to be designed you meet aliens as you establish dominance in your region and that for me is fantastic.  

But onto the actual questions.  
First things first, the coma issue.   I understand the basic issue so I'm just asking for clarification in terms of fixing it.   I'm Polish and I use Polish version of windows XP, do I just have to change the registry parameter for language from polish to english to fix it? Even if so should I reinstall the game afterwards?
EDIT: Oh completely forgot, I'll probably have to install service pack 3 in English for that to work completely right? Otherwise the system will "think" it's in English but it will still be in Polish with the wrong comas and all.

Now to the actual gameplay questions.  
Terraformer ships, how do I use them? should I just send them to a planet I want terraformed (say mars) change the proper attributes through economy->environment/gmc and wait? I thought I'll have to give the terraformer a specific order through the fleet screen.   I figured most of the stuff out using the wiki and through the general magic of "guessing and clicking randomly"

Making ammo/rockets/etc - It seems very convoluted.   At first I thought I have it figured out and than I noticed there is a whole different tab (that I missed) used to create different series of missiles and turrets.   How do I manage that? And do rail guns need their ammo produced (I have not seen an option for that) or do they just magically pop it into existence? I have not even gotten around to laser weaponry but it also seems.  .  .   complex.  

Mass drivers
I've seen the genocide entry in the wiki and I just have to ask, can I weaponize that against someone other than me?


On a side note since I installed the game my scrollbars (like the ones you get when you right click) turned into the classic windows style, despite the fact that I'm using the xp look for everything else.   I did not overwrite any of the win32 files (as far as I know anyway) so I'm not entirely sure what is causing that.  

Hope for a quick answer! I'm really anxious to dig into this game, but since I'm getting the coma problem almost constantly I need to fix it first.  
« Last Edit: September 21, 2012, 09:34:47 PM by Victuz »
 

Offline Theokrat

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Re: Questions related to mechanics and coma issues
« Reply #1 on: September 19, 2012, 05:10:18 AM »
Now to the actual gameplay questions. 
Terraformer ships, how do I use them? should I just send them to a planet I want terraformed (say mars) change the proper attributes through economy->environment/gmc and wait? I thought I'll have to give the terraformer a specific order through the fleet screen.   I figured most of the stuff out using the wiki and through the general magic of "guessing and clicking randomly"
Yes, just park them in orbit. Transforming orders are given through the environment screen as you say.

Quote
Making ammo/rockets/etc - It seems very convoluted.   At first I thought I have it figured out and than I noticed there is a whole different tab (that I missed) used to create different series of missiles and turrets.   How do I manage that? And do rail guns need their ammo produced (I have not seen an option for that) or do they just magically pop it into existence? I have not even gotten around to laser weaponry but it also seems.  .  .   complex.
You first have to research the technologies to out into the missile (R&D screen on population interface), then you have to create a missile "blueprint" i.e. an application of the technology into a workable product (confusingly through the "missile" window that is accessible from the population interface). Then you have to "research" this blueprint (back on the R&D screen). When all that is done you can build missiles through the production tab on the population window.

Any weapon other than missiles does not require ammo, though most require a power plant. I.e. its assumed that the railgun pallets themselves are so small that you can practically store more than you are likely to need anyway.


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Mass drivers
I've seen the genocide entry in the wiki and I just have to ask, can I weaponize that against someone other than me?
AFAIK: No.
 

Offline Victuz (OP)

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Re: Questions related to mechanics and coma issues
« Reply #2 on: September 19, 2012, 05:20:49 AM »
Quote from: Theokrat
Any weapon other than missiles does not require ammo, though most require a power plant.    I.   e.    its assumed that the railgun pallets themselves are so small that you can practically store more than you are likely to need anyway.   

Ah thank you, that's actually what I thought at first but than I noticed that I can design "magazines" that have different reload times and everything and I got very very confused.   

It would be great if the game had some sort of built in encyclopedia (or hell maybe even more expanded glossary of terms as the one in class design) that would explain differences between the parts.    Because without searching online I have no idea what some of that stuff actually does.   

I guess another way of doing things and actually learning more in the process would be starting a game with the "conventional empire" setting so I actually have to learn what things I need and what they do as I research them instead of getting a lot of already done research dumped on my head.   



Actually all that made me thing of another thing that's been bugging me.    How do I use the commanders? I couldn't figure out how to make them take command of ships in any way, at first I thought they need a flag bridge but that didn't change anything.   

EDIT: OK at this point I have to mention that I have in fact changed the registry entry for windows xp so that it's now in English, furthermore I installed English version of the service pack 3 for XP.   I still get error 3075 followed by error 91.  changed keyboard layout to English (US), but still no effect.   Can anyone please help me on that matter? I can't actually play the game this way.
« Last Edit: September 19, 2012, 05:58:49 AM by Victuz »
 

Offline Gyrfalcon

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Re: Questions related to mechanics and coma issues
« Reply #3 on: September 19, 2012, 06:19:21 AM »
With some quick googling since I don't have access to a Windows XP system any longer:

Quote
In Windows XP you go to

Start/Control Panel/Date, Time, Language and Regional Options/Regional and Language Options

There click the CUSTOMIZE tab and select the decimal point as the Decimal Symbol.
 

Offline Victuz (OP)

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Re: Questions related to mechanics and coma issues
« Reply #4 on: September 19, 2012, 06:25:21 AM »
Thank you.  I derped out on this horribly and had no idea I can do it like that >_<.
It works fine now :)
 

Offline Theokrat

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Re: Questions related to mechanics and coma issues
« Reply #5 on: September 19, 2012, 07:11:19 AM »
Ah thank you, that's actually what I thought at first but than I noticed that I can design "magazines" that have different reload times and everything and I got very very confused.
You might be confusing two things here:

There are missile launchers, which are basically tubes out of which missiles are fired. These have a given size (design parameter) (so that a missile of certain size can be launched from these) and a reload mechanism (tech line), which stuffs a new missile into the tube, once the old one has been launched. So these have reload times. Better tech means you can reload a tube faster.

And then there are magazines, which are used to store missiles (ond nothing else) that are not currently in a launcher. These do not have reload times, but there are two tech-lines which determine how efficiently missiles can be stored in these and how likely the magazine is to explode when hit respectively.


It would be great if the game had some sort of built in encyclopedia (or hell maybe even more expanded glossary of terms as the one in class design) that would explain differences between the parts.   Because without searching online I have no idea what some of that stuff actually does. 

I guess another way of doing things and actually learning more in the process would be starting a game with the "conventional empire" setting so I actually have to learn what things I need and what they do as I research them instead of getting a lot of already done research dumped on my head.

While a conventional start is certainly more intriguing in the sense that you get to build things from scratch, it is also more challenging as NPRs would still start with a lot of techs. For a beginner that disadvantage could seriously hamper things…

Don’t worry though; the feeling of being hopelessly overwhelmed by the myriads of different possibilities is one of the most enjoyable aspects of Aurora. Have a ball while it lasts.



Actually all that made me thing of another thing that's been bugging me.   How do I use the commanders? I couldn't figure out how to make them take command of ships in any way, at first I thought they need a flag bridge but that didn't change anything. 

Go to the “leader” page (the Commander Ryker symbol). Click on the lowest rank and then on any officer on the left side (or search one with desirable boni from the menu on the right). Then select a ship in the middle part of the screen, and hit “assign”. You might have to change the minimum rank requirements for some of your ship classes (on one of the tabs of the ship-design screen)

 

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Re: Questions related to mechanics and coma issues
« Reply #6 on: September 19, 2012, 10:06:13 AM »
Actually all that made me thing of another thing that's been bugging me.    How do I use the commanders? I couldn't figure out how to make them take command of ships in any way, at first I thought they need a flag bridge but that didn't change anything.   

Open the Commander page (F4)
Select the rank of commander, you want to assign (upper left)
Select the comander you want to assign (lower left)
Select the ship you want the commander assigned to (center left, bottom half) here you also select the type of job, the commander should get (military ship, commercial ship, staff,...)
Hit the "Assign" button  ---  THIS IS IMPORTANT  ---  your selection will not stick if you do not do this.

You can use the "Search by Ability or Location" drop down on the lower right to sort your commanders to your liking. You can also select the commander you want to assign in the list there (makes getting that 200 Crew Training Rating guy to your flagship a whole lot easier)
Ralph Hoenig, Germany
 

Offline Victuz (OP)

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Re: Questions related to mechanics and coma issues
« Reply #7 on: September 19, 2012, 06:47:10 PM »
Thank you all for the answers, I now understand (mostly) how to do things and actually started playing a game with the conventional empire start, I have to say that it's vastly more enjoyable for me to start from scratch.  I'm actually kind of proud of those conventional engine geo scanners floating around sol that I built myself (prior to that I didn't actually know how to use the shipyard I only popped ships into existance using ).  I do realize that playing like this might mean that when I finally encounter an alien he will probably blast me into oblivion but hey, loosing is fun too.

. . .

Ok one last question (promise), I made two teams of surveyors and simply transported them to the geo scanning ships.  Does that mean they give them the bonus or is there some button that I should have pressed and missed? I'm asking because when I look at the guys in the team through the leaders tab it only says that they are in that team and that they're located on the specific ships.
 

Offline Zook

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Re: Questions related to mechanics and coma issues
« Reply #8 on: September 19, 2012, 07:30:05 PM »
Ok one last question (promise), I made two teams of surveyors and simply transported them to the geo scanning ships.  Does that mean they give them the bonus or is there some button that I should have pressed and missed? I'm asking because when I look at the guys in the team through the leaders tab it only says that they are in that team and that they're located on the specific ships.

No need to stop asking...

Orbital survey and survey teams have nothing to do with each other, except that a team can only get to work after the survey ships have done their work. By the way, it helps if your survey ships have captains with a survey bonus, but it's not required, it only speeds things up. Auto-assignment for officers works well.

To get a survey team to work on a planet, just select the planet in the economy window and then create a team. They will be "teleported" to the planet automatically. You don't have to manually ship them there.
 

Offline Victuz (OP)

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Re: Questions related to mechanics and coma issues
« Reply #9 on: September 19, 2012, 07:50:52 PM »
Quote from: Zook
No need to stop asking.  .  . 

Well than ;)
Does that mean that survey teams work directly on planets? And does it also mean that an orbital survey can actually miss things? In my game Mars doesn't have any minerals on it (quite a bummer.  .  .  ) but if I colonized it anyway the survey team could possibly find something

And while on the matter.   I got better engines and would like my ships to start using them, I made new designs that fit the bigger shipyards and use new engines.   However I'm not sure if I can actually retrofit ships or only build new ones and scrap the old ones. 
 

Offline Zook

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Re: Questions related to mechanics and coma issues
« Reply #10 on: September 19, 2012, 08:01:55 PM »
Does that mean that survey teams work directly on planets?
Yes.

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And does it also mean that an orbital survey can actually miss things? In my game Mars doesn't have any minerals on it (quite a bummer.  .  .  ) but if I colonized it anyway the survey team could possibly find something
Yes. But it's unlikely that they'll find enough to turn the planet into an El Dorado.

Quote
And while on the matter.   I got better engines and would like my ships to start using them, I made new designs that fit the bigger shipyards and use new engines.   However I'm not sure if I can actually retrofit ships or only build new ones and scrap the old ones. 
The shipyard has to be retooled for the new class, then you can refit ships. On the DAC/Rank/Info tab you can see how much a refit from an existing class would cost. The price tag can be higher than for a new ship, so beware.
 

Offline Victuz (OP)

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Re: Questions related to mechanics and coma issues
« Reply #11 on: September 19, 2012, 08:27:34 PM »
Quote from: Zook
Yes.  But it's unlikely that they'll find enough to turn the planet into an El Dorado.   
That's quite the understatement I'm afraid.  Did the survey (didn't find a way to automagically transfer the whole team to the planet so I just moved them via ship) and found 1100 units of uridium with 0. 6 accessibility.  Oh well at least now I know that I can do this.   
Is there any point in colonizing a planet that doesn't have it's own mineral base? Any other than hoping that after terraforming and sending fleets of freighters in their direction they'll turn into productive planets that are just very dependent on constant supply that is.   
When I think about it it seems safer to establish these kinds of outposts in my home system where they'll probably be quite far from the danger of combat in some other sector even if that means they have to still be supplied from asteroids in the system and freighters from a different one.   

But hey Venus has over 30 million units of pretty much everything (with acc 0. 1) so I can always tap that.   
« Last Edit: September 19, 2012, 08:29:16 PM by Victuz »
 

Offline Zook

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Re: Questions related to mechanics and coma issues
« Reply #12 on: September 19, 2012, 08:45:11 PM »
(didn't find a way to automagically transfer the whole team to the planet so I just moved them via ship)
Disband the team and re-create it on the planet where you want them to work.

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Is there any point in colonizing a planet that doesn't have it's own mineral base?
If you can get minerals somewhere else in the system, that's OK in my book. Mass drivers are cheap. But consider that automines cost 50%(?) more than normal mines.

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But hey Venus has over 30 million units of pretty much everything (with acc 0. 1) so I can always tap that.   
If you build ten times as many automines as you would for Acc 1.0, yes. Unfortunately you'd probably run out of corundium long before Venus produces meaningful amounts of anything.
 

Offline HaliRyan

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Re: Questions related to mechanics and coma issues
« Reply #13 on: September 19, 2012, 08:52:28 PM »
Is there any point in colonizing a planet that doesn't have it's own mineral base?   

Yes, for several reasons.

First is that sometimes the colonizable planet may not have minerals itself, but other bodies in the system have a good availability of minerals you want. So you plop a colony down on the planet and use mass drivers to direct the output from all mining operations in the system to that planet for use and/or transport elsewhere in the empire.

Second case is when you want a forward outpost for your military or as a staging point for exploration. Make a colony with some rudimentary defenses, a few maintenance facilities with a population base to run them, and ship in munitions and fuel and minerals and any other goodies you need to keep your local fleet running. Currently you could do this without a population by using ship-based maintenance facilities, but in the upcoming version you'll need a population for morale purposes I think (shore leave).

The last and most important reason though, is that populations give you cash! And who doesn't like money?
 

Offline Victuz (OP)

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Re: Questions related to mechanics and coma issues
« Reply #14 on: September 20, 2012, 12:38:48 AM »
The classic empire start is hard O_o. 

I mean I established some basic tech, working on gravity scanners right now but only now I realise how easy it is to simply hit a wall in terms of resources, I'm running out of Duranium (in fifteen years my homeworld will run out) and the income I get from asteroid miners alone is pathetic. 
I'm wondering if it might be more valid if I stopped expansion for a longer while (a period of few years maybe) changed like 70% of my homeworld mines into automated ones, while i'm doing that building 3-4 freighters with with 5x Cargo Holds (but that would require adding another 10k slipway capacity onto the civilian shipyards) and than transporting all that either to the asteroid near earth or a comet that has more resources but is much further away. 

I'm not entirely sure if that would be valid at all.  maybe I should just construct a load of asteroid miners with 5 asteroid mining components each instead?

Also while I was toying around with construction I noticed that I can create separate parts for ships (engines, survey components etc), does this effect anything else other than the possible speed of construction? It seems pretty obvious that having 30 premade engines to strap onto ships would accelerate the process of construction (not to mention the output of planetary industry seems much bigger than that of a single shipyard) but does it actually affect the cost in any way?

And the last two questions:
1).  Since I moved my first mass driver off world with a freighter I noticed how tedious the process can be, I manually told the freighter to pick up and drop off the mass driver one by one.   Is there any way to just tell the damn thing to move the mass driver as one order so that it will pick it up in parts automatically? I was trying to play around with the cycle moves and repeat (5) options but got nowhere so I just did it all manually. 
2).  If I have 2 mass drivers on one world sending material to another one that only has 1 mass driver on in will that cause a catastrophic event? In other words does the receiver need equal amount of mass drivers to all the senders or does it only need 1(or 2 for safety if I accidentally tell someone to move it off world)?

EDIT: Every time I post the forum adds another space after every dot. . .  It makes things weird.