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Posted by: Starfyre
« on: June 11, 2013, 09:21:42 PM »

Railguns and Lasers also have an advanced version, which increases their abilities (5 shots for railguns, unsure about lasers).

if I remember properly, adv. lasers are one size smaller on the weight list.  so a adv. 12cm laser has the same weight as a standard 10cm, a 15 has the same as a 12, a 20 has the same as a 15, and so forth.  adv. particle beams, which are also a thing, are the same way.
Posted by: JacenHan
« on: June 11, 2013, 09:18:36 PM »

#2 - Depends on how you are roleplaying (or if you are at all).  You can try to make nice with the aliens (although some will attempt to destroy your ships regardless) or completely destroy them.  It's really up to you.

#3 - In my experience, they both have about the same difficulty (although Mars has some pre-existing atmosphere), but Luna is just so much closer!

#4 - Here's a general summary of the energy/kinetic weapons:

Lasers - These are long ranged and high damage weapons, but the damage rapidly falls off according to distance, and the long range means you have to have increased size fire controls.

Mesons - These weapons only do 1 point of damage, but completely ignore armor, shields, and atmosphere.

Carronades - These are high-power, short range weapons with an extremely high damage at close range.  They also only have 1 research avenue (unlike other weapons, which have 2, thus halving the required research on these).

Microwaves - These weapons target only electronic systems (sensors, fire controls, and such), and go through armor, but only do 3 damage vs.  shields.  These are great for disabling a vessel without destroying it.

Particle beams - These have less damage and range than lasers, but have no damage drop off at all.

Railguns - These weapons have much shorter range and damage than lasers, but fire 4 projectiles a shot, which gives them a slightly higher total damage, albeit spread across four projectiles.

Gauss Cannon - Extremely short range, but have an incredible fire rate, which makes them just about perfect for point defense.

Railguns and Lasers also have an advanced version, which increases their abilities (5 shots for railguns, unsure about lasers).
Posted by: SpikeTheHobbitMage
« on: June 11, 2013, 01:29:09 AM »

I believe the default gravity limit changed for 6.x.  In the 5.x series, Luna had insufficient gravity for colonization using the default setup.
Posted by: Black
« on: June 09, 2013, 07:01:15 AM »

Well it seems that gravity does not have any effect if it is inside racial tolerance (0.1-1.9 for Humans). In Sol Mars, Luna, Mercury and Galilean moons can be 0 cost colony. Maybe Venus as well but it would take a long time to remove the atmosphere. Titan on the other hand cannot be 0 cost colony it is too cold.
Posted by: sonofliberty
« on: June 09, 2013, 06:08:53 AM »

Size only counts for gravity. Both Mars & Luna will never be 0.0 cost due to the low gravity. Mars should get closer since its gravity is higher. The wiki is your friend ;) (http://aurorawiki.pentarch.org/index.php?title=Terraforming)

And I wasn't even home all day... lol
I have Mars as a "0" cost colony. I just added SGG until the icecaps melted, then O2 until I reached a cost of 0. The gravity is fine. Look at the body in question in the system view screen. It tells you if the gravity is acceptable or not. It also tells you if water is available, the temperature cost modifier, whether the atmosphere is breathable etc...
Posted by: Hawkeye
« on: June 09, 2013, 02:16:34 AM »

I'm not sure why "move to" doesn't have the same effect. . .   what' does going 1km/s do for me?

The heat, your ship emits is directly proportional to the speed you are going (i.e. how hard your engines are running)

Even if you are _at_ your waypoint, if you don´t tell your ship to cut its engines, they will still run hot as if it would be moving at full speed.

Giving the picket order tells the ships captain to shut down the engines once the ship reaches its destination, thus making it virtually undetectable on passive thermal sensors. If you also don´t have your active sensors or shields activated (would show on passive EM sensors), there is no way your ship can be detected except for an enemy having _his_ actives on, which will in turn announce his presence to half the system.
Posted by: joeclark77
« on: June 09, 2013, 02:05:11 AM »

Quote from: sloanjh link=topic=6197. msg63325#msg63325 date=1370751998
Picket sets TG speed to 1 km/s when the TG arrives, which cuts the thermal signature.   Which is why it's useful for picketing JPs - set a waypoint just off the JP (but close enough for your passives to pick up any ships transiting) and give your picket ship a "picket" command to move to it; if the bad guys don't have actives turned on when they transit then you're just a hole in space.

John
I'm not sure why "move to" doesn't have the same effect. . .   what' does going 1km/s do for me?
Posted by: sloanjh
« on: June 08, 2013, 11:26:38 PM »

Picket tells a ship to stay close and watch something.  Useful for monitoring jump points.

Picket sets TG speed to 1 km/s when the TG arrives, which cuts the thermal signature.  Which is why it's useful for picketing JPs - set a waypoint just off the JP (but close enough for your passives to pick up any ships transiting) and give your picket ship a "picket" command to move to it; if the bad guys don't have actives turned on when they transit then you're just a hole in space.

John
Posted by: Erik L
« on: June 08, 2013, 10:58:24 PM »

By "recipe" I meant which gases do you add, in what proportions, in what order, etc, to get colony cost down fastest.   I'm guessing Luna might be faster to terraform due to being smaller. . .  but does the game count that?  On the other hand Mars has greater pressure to begin with so if the game doesn't count planet size then maybe that's quicker.

Size only counts for gravity. Both Mars & Luna will never be 0.0 cost due to the low gravity. Mars should get closer since its gravity is higher. The wiki is your friend ;) (http://aurorawiki.pentarch.org/index.php?title=Terraforming)

[edit]
And, of course, Erik beat me to the punch.  Dude must be related to Spiderman.

And I wasn't even home all day... lol
Posted by: Brian Neumann
« on: June 08, 2013, 10:05:38 PM »

For terraforming worlds you want to get the base colony cost down to a 2 first.  Then add the oxygen.  If it is fairly close to  a colony cost 2 then add whatever gasses you want "fill" up the atmosphere, then add the oxygen.  The reason for leaving the oxygen till later is that oxygen is a poison in concentrations greater than 30%.

Brian
Posted by: SpikeTheHobbitMage
« on: June 08, 2013, 09:55:35 PM »

Noob to noob, I'll try to help, but take my advice with a grain of salt.

First off, Joe Who?  :P

1.   Some terminology questions: what is a "picket" order?  What does "extended orbit" do?
Picket tells a ship to stay close and watch something.  Useful for monitoring jump points.
Extended orbit say to get close to a body, but don't try to land.  This could be used for blockading or bombardment.

2.   I just spotted an alien in a neighboring system, briefly.    Didn't really get any information about it.    It's still year one.    What should I do about it?  I tried to "initiate communication" with no apparent results and I've designed a little armed frigate (3 lasers, 2 power plants, beam fire control, active sensor, and a little jump drive) to go and try to find it again.    I figure I'll scan down the other jump points in that system and send one of my frigates to each one in hopes that they can detect where the aliens are coming from or going to.    Not sure what to do once I find them!
Be careful.  Some aliens aren't friendly, and will bite.  Initiating communication can take a while, and doesn't seem to work with all races.  IIUC some races start more advanced than you and some less, so you can never be sure.  Depending on your start options, there may even be some who start with super-advanced non-researchable techs.  Think Anterans and the Guardian if you have played MOO2.  My first game ended about year 10 due to some really nasty FAC's attacking my homeworld.  My current game is in year 26 (the longest I've lasted) and I can't even run if I meet them.
In any case, I use a cheap (expendable) frigate with good passive sensors to check out any new system before sending in anything important.  Sensor range isn't too great early game, so it needs to get close to anything that looks interesting to know.  Build several, and expect to lose them every now and then. I would also suggest not building jump gates into any system you haven't completely surveyed, as aliens can use your gates too.
Even if that race cannot be communicated with, leave your diplomatic team assigned to them.  They will still gain XP even after they give up.

3.  Which is easier to terraform, Mars or Luna?  And.  .  .   what's the "recipe"?  Or is it actually easier to do Europa or Titan or something?
I've had good results terraforming Luna with 0.1 atm oxygen and 0.2334 atm safe greenhouse gas.  Admittedly I'm only up to 0.1964 SGG so far, but it is working about as expected.  I could probably finish off with Nitrogen.  Terraforming takes a very long time.
Mars should be very similar, although maybe not quite as much greenhouse gas.  I went with Luna first because it had more minerals.
I think the other two would take longer, because they are colder.  In general, the lower the colony cost, the easier to terraform.
In any case, the key is base temperature in Kelvin, to determine ideal gas mix, then compare against what it already has.  If you are playing as 'human', you need a minimum of 0.1 oxygen and 0.2334 of anything else to be breathable.  The 'anything else' is determined by the base temperature.  Most gasses warm a little, GG warms a lot, and AGG cools.  You can warm a body up to 3x its base temp in Kelvin, regardless of mix.  The formula to calculate it is right there on the Environment screen.

4.  Are lasers a decent weapon system to focus on?  I kind of like the idea of beam weapons (and I have two skilled energy weapon researchers) but I have no idea if there's a difference between lasers, microwaves, particle beams, etc, so I just picked lasers and went with it.   Any advice about how to design and configure the ones I put on my ships?
According to wiki http://aurorawiki.pentarch.org/ Lasers are good all around weapons.  Microwaves are low power, but kill shields, and particle beams are best at longer range.  Meson weapons are short range and low power, but damage systems.  Missiles are good as standoff weapons.  Gauss cannons are used for CIWS anti-missile systems.

[edit]
And, of course, Erik beat me to the punch.  Dude must be related to Spiderman.
Posted by: joeclark77
« on: June 08, 2013, 09:51:28 PM »

Quote from: Erik Luken link=topic=6197. msg63317#msg63317 date=1370743788
For #4, check the wiki.  Yonder just posted a very detailed article on beam weapons.  (aurorawiki. pentarch. org)

For #3, the best ones to colonize are the planets with a colony cost closest to 0. 0.  Mars is usually in the 2-4 range.  Luna is higher most of the time.  As for recipe, 20% oxygen, 79% Nitrogen, 1% other.  And as close to 1 atm as you can.
By "recipe" I meant which gases do you add, in what proportions, in what order, etc, to get colony cost down fastest.   I'm guessing Luna might be faster to terraform due to being smaller. . .  but does the game count that?  On the other hand Mars has greater pressure to begin with so if the game doesn't count planet size then maybe that's quicker.
Posted by: Erik L
« on: June 08, 2013, 09:09:48 PM »

For #4, check the wiki. Yonder just posted a very detailed article on beam weapons. (aurorawiki.pentarch.org)

For #3, the best ones to colonize are the planets with a colony cost closest to 0.0. Mars is usually in the 2-4 range. Luna is higher most of the time. As for recipe, 20% oxygen, 79% Nitrogen, 1% other. And as close to 1 atm as you can.
Posted by: joeclark77
« on: June 08, 2013, 08:58:09 PM »

1.   Some terminology questions: what is a "picket" order?  What does "extended orbit" do?

2.   I just spotted an alien in a neighboring system, briefly.    Didn't really get any information about it.    It's still year one.    What should I do about it?  I tried to "initiate communication" with no apparent results and I've designed a little armed frigate (3 lasers, 2 power plants, beam fire control, active sensor, and a little jump drive) to go and try to find it again.    I figure I'll scan down the other jump points in that system and send one of my frigates to each one in hopes that they can detect where the aliens are coming from or going to.    Not sure what to do once I find them!

3.  Which is easier to terraform, Mars or Luna?  And.  .  .   what's the "recipe"?  Or is it actually easier to do Europa or Titan or something?

[edit: forgot one!]
4.  Are lasers a decent weapon system to focus on?  I kind of like the idea of beam weapons (and I have two skilled energy weapon researchers) but I have no idea if there's a difference between lasers, microwaves, particle beams, etc, so I just picked lasers and went with it.   Any advice about how to design and configure the ones I put on my ships?