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Posted by: WCG
« on: September 08, 2015, 07:14:38 PM »

Thanks, guys. As always, your comments were helpful, though I may have to leave this post open while I play the game.  :)
Posted by: Paul M
« on: September 08, 2015, 03:06:30 AM »

You could have a look at my AAR...there are designs for various survey ships and PDCs (though ignore the laser turrets on some of them as I didn't realize lasers didn't work through atmospheres for some time).  The meson weapons aren't actually that but are "atmosphere peircing lasers" in the in-game technology.

These are ships designed within the limits of early tech.  The pathfinder class scout is still at 3000 tonnes more or less.  The George Vancouvers though are 4500 tonnes since that is about the smallest I could get with sensors and weapons plus the jump drive.  I will specifically build a jump drive for them next jump engine itteration as the survey force needs 4 ships but not the assault range, they much prefer to come in closer to the jump point.  I lost most of the early 3000 tonne science ships to hostile action.  After that BuSurvey demanded something better...and the George Vancouver in the latest modernization was well recieved.  The scout class is intended to do stealthy probes to find out if the bloody system has an infestation or not...and afterwards it works as a geosurvey ship.

Also consider that you can build OWPs (orbital weapon platforms) by making ships that have no engines...these can be used for missile defence of your homeworld.

As well you can find missile design formula's they are optimized to generate the fastest missiles...so are better for CMs as AS missiles often have to be "sub-optimal" to fulfill other mission requirements.
Posted by: linkxsc
« on: September 07, 2015, 02:59:30 PM »

Well on the general note of survey ships. You generally want them quite fast actually, faster than your main warships, and hopefully faster than ships you'll run across. Thats how they stay alive.
Might I point you to these designs that I use, pretty much every game I start, give or take a little bit in the design.

Off-Topic: show
S-GEV-Chitose class Geosurvey Ship    6,000 tons     155 Crew     781.4 BP      TCS 120  TH 600  EM 0
5000 km/s    JR 3-50     Armour 1-29     Shields 0-0     Sensors 15/15/0/1     Damage Control Rating 8     PPV 0
Maint Life 4.53 Years     MSP 651    AFR 36%    IFR 0.5%    1YR 51    5YR 771    Max Repair 300 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 6 months    Spare Berths 1   

Endoso-Matsuzawa J6000(3-50) Military Jump Drive     Max Ship Size 6000 tons    Distance 50k km     Squadron Size 3
Raikatuji Space & Security 600 EP Ion Drive (1)    Power 600    Fuel Use 40%    Signature 600    Exp 10%
Fuel Capacity 1,000,000 Litres    Range 75.0 billion km   (173 days at full power)

Satoya & Asari Thermal Sensor TH2.5-15 (1)     Sensitivity 15     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  15m km
Satoya & Asari EM Detection Sensor EM2.5-15 (1)     Sensitivity 15     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  15m km
Geological Survey Sensors (1)   1 Survey Points Per Hour

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

///////////////////////////////////////////////////

S-GSV-Chiyoda class Gravsurvey Ship    6,000 tons     155 Crew     781.4 BP      TCS 120  TH 600  EM 0
5000 km/s    JR 3-50     Armour 1-29     Shields 0-0     Sensors 15/15/1/0     Damage Control Rating 8     PPV 0
Maint Life 4.53 Years     MSP 651    AFR 36%    IFR 0.5%    1YR 51    5YR 771    Max Repair 300 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 6 months    Spare Berths 1   

Endoso-Matsuzawa J6000(3-50) Military Jump Drive     Max Ship Size 6000 tons    Distance 50k km     Squadron Size 3
Raikatuji Space & Security 600 EP Ion Drive (1)    Power 600    Fuel Use 40%    Signature 600    Exp 10%
Fuel Capacity 1,000,000 Litres    Range 75.0 billion km   (173 days at full power)

Satoya & Asari Thermal Sensor TH2.5-15 (1)     Sensitivity 15     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  15m km
Satoya & Asari EM Detection Sensor EM2.5-15 (1)     Sensitivity 15     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  15m km
Gravitational Survey Sensors (1)   1 Survey Points Per Hour

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

///////////////////////////////////////////////////

S-TH-Akitsushima Mk1 class Scout    6,000 tons     155 Crew     711.4 BP      TCS 120  TH 600  EM 0
5000 km/s    JR 3-50     Armour 1-29     Shields 0-0     Sensors 60/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 8     PPV 0
Maint Life 4.33 Years     MSP 593    AFR 36%    IFR 0.5%    1YR 51    5YR 764    Max Repair 300 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 6 months    Spare Berths 1   

Endoso-Matsuzawa J6000(3-50) Military Jump Drive     Max Ship Size 6000 tons    Distance 50k km     Squadron Size 3
Raikatuji Space & Security 600 EP Ion Drive (1)    Power 600    Fuel Use 40%    Signature 600    Exp 10%
Fuel Capacity 1,000,000 Litres    Range 75.0 billion km   (173 days at full power)

Thermal Sensor TH10-60 (1)     Sensitivity 60     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  60m km

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

///////////////////////////////////////////////////

S-EM-Mizuho Mk1 class Scout    6,000 tons     155 Crew     711.4 BP      TCS 120  TH 600  EM 0
5000 km/s    JR 3-50     Armour 1-29     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/60/0/0     Damage Control Rating 8     PPV 0
Maint Life 4.33 Years     MSP 593    AFR 36%    IFR 0.5%    1YR 51    5YR 764    Max Repair 300 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 6 months    Spare Berths 1   

Endoso-Matsuzawa J6000(3-50) Military Jump Drive     Max Ship Size 6000 tons    Distance 50k km     Squadron Size 3
Raikatuji Space & Security 600 EP Ion Drive (1)    Power 600    Fuel Use 40%    Signature 600    Exp 10%
Fuel Capacity 1,000,000 Litres    Range 75.0 billion km   (173 days at full power)

EM Detection Sensor EM10-60 (1)     Sensitivity 60     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  60m km
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes


I might use other designs when putting about in Sol, with lower tech engines and no jump drives. But I try to make sure I can field something like these before I set foot outside of Sol. (also very regularly, picking a trans newtonian start can field these year 1)
All 4 designs use the same size 50 pwrmod 1 military engine. Which can be scaled to lower techs, the exact same engine combo on nuclear pulse will do 3333km/s i think.
And the jump drive requires jump efficiency 6 (usually TN start gives 5 or 6).

But forget about the technology in them. the single most important thing about these 4 designs.
If a navy yard is geared for producing either the geosurvey or gravsurvey ships, all 4 can be produced from the same yard without ever needing to retool.
Take the same design, scale the engines up a couple tech levels, and replace the sensors with newer more advanced ones, and you'll only need to retool 1 yard every once in a while to crap out all your passive scout ships.

Off-Topic: show
Stripping all the passive sensors, with the same navy yard I can also produce a line of Active sensor support ships, as long as they don't exceed a size 5 active sensor (due to the higher uridium usage in active sensors. Heres 1 geared for spotting FACs.
///////////////////////////////////////////////////
S-AG-Taigei class Scout    6,000 tons     145 Crew     757.8 BP      TCS 120  TH 600  EM 0
5000 km/s    JR 3-50     Armour 2-29     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 8     PPV 0
Maint Life 4.38 Years     MSP 632    AFR 36%    IFR 0.5%    1YR 53    5YR 795    Max Repair 300 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 6 months    Spare Berths 3   

Endoso-Matsuzawa J6000(3-50) Military Jump Drive     Max Ship Size 6000 tons    Distance 50k km     Squadron Size 3
Raikatuji Space & Security 600 EP Ion Drive (1)    Power 600    Fuel Use 40%    Signature 600    Exp 10%
Fuel Capacity 1,000,000 Litres    Range 75.0 billion km   (173 days at full power)

Active Search Sensor MR21-R20 (1)     GPS 1600     Range 21.5m km    Resolution 20

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

///////////////////////////////////////////////////

Or even father in the list of "silly" things to do, is a small carrier for a couple early beam fighters, to frighten off any NPR scout ships
///////////////////////////////////////////////////
CVL-Jun'you class Light Carrier    6,000 tons     140 Crew     685.4 BP      TCS 120  TH 600  EM 0
5000 km/s    JR 3-50     Armour 1-29     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 6     PPV 0
Maint Life 3 Years     MSP 428    AFR 48%    IFR 0.7%    1YR 71    5YR 1071    Max Repair 300 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 6 months    Flight Crew Berths 55   
Hangar Deck Capacity 1000 tons     

Endoso-Matsuzawa J6000(3-50) Military Jump Drive     Max Ship Size 6000 tons    Distance 50k km     Squadron Size 3
Raikatuji Space & Security 600 EP Ion Drive (1)    Power 600    Fuel Use 40%    Signature 600    Exp 10%
Fuel Capacity 500,000 Litres    Range 37.5 billion km   (86 days at full power)

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes


Ofcourse, should you copy these designs. No. Actually they're turning out to be worse than I'd have liked. But the general concept is that in the early game, being able to turn out multiple ships for use in early exploration from the same yard can be an enormous money and time saver. Especially if 1 gets shot down, but you already shifted the yard over to produce something else, now you can't keep scouting till you turn it back and produce another ship. Also even though the 2 sensor ships aren't great (full military spotters would have sensor arrays in the size 50 range) They're cheap, and easily kept around, don't worry too much if 1 is lost because the yard is already geared to turn out another. And they're alright to leave on their own in a system to keep watch on an NPR.

As far as actually scouting.
The EM detector isn't so important of all of them, but you should have at least a couple, because they'll spot planets with colonies on them from significantly farther off than anything else. (for example, a planet with ~100m population will have ~2k for its thermal sig, but over 6k for its EM. The EM spotter will pick up this colony from 4x the range as the GEV and GSV ship's EM sensors. and 3x as far as the thermal will with its sensor) This will keep your scouts safer cause you can now avoid those planets, until you have something armed in system. Also wil help you pick up on what the target may be using for active sensors.

A thermal or 2 is kept around near either friendly survey ships, or known NPR colonies, because they'll pick up ships/thermal contacts from 4x the range as the surveyors. EM isn't so useful for this because not many ships will have shields, and most don't run around with their actives turned on.

Then for the GEV and GSV themselves. I usually like to have a lot of them. I like to pop into systems and have them fully scouted out within a month or so. 8-10 of each, they're cheap anyways.


Onto your other statements. Odds are what you ran across was either some spoilerswhich would be ok. you say that they were going 3x faster than oyur military ships though. see this could also be just whatever given NPR, their FACs that a lot of them like to use for homeworld defense.

As far as setting 0 NPRs at start. Yes this will stop there from being any NPRs ingame until you actually leave sol, and go to a system that can generate them, and cause them to be generated. Good for having some time to get some techs before moving out. However remember, at 100% difficulty mod, newly generated NPRs will have similar tech to you (though probably kinda crap ship designs, they don't generally have very efficient designs)

Dunno about that max number of systems stuff. And building up a bit before branching out initially is generally a good plan.

For your edits.
Perhaps you could send in some dedicated scouts first before scanning a system, but I try and do both at the same time (hence the EM and Therm designs) since ifyou pull out all your scouts and just leave the surveyors in a normal game where there are NPRs starting with you, you can easily find yourself losing a bunch of surveyors while your scouts are off in a different system looking around.

EM sensor tech is used for 3 things: Passive EM sensors
Active Sensors (required for locking onto enemy ships to fire weapons. The EM portion of these however is tuned to work only with the resolution set for the active sensor though, so you can't use it to detect colonies and shielded ships passively like a regular passive EM sensor can)
Last, its a portion of missile fire controls, for the same reasons as it is part of active sensors (and well, they're both designed with the same menu)you need at least 1 of these on any ship thats going to fire a missile.


Edit in other news. I dunno how to use the forums properly


Posted by: GreatTuna
« on: September 07, 2015, 02:07:33 PM »

IIRC the maximal number of systems affects only not-real-stars games.

I should say that I design survey ships similar way. Both grav- and geo-survey ships share the similar layout, 3kton mass, 25HS 0.1x power mod engines, 300 months of deployment time and enough maintenance supplies for 20 years. Of course, the moment any alien spots it you're better off abandoning it to reduce crew losses.

If you're starting with zero NPRs, you're completely safe from all three spoilers until you start exploring further.

Also, @Ostia: EM also spots sensors, and most military ships have sensors.
Posted by: Ostia
« on: September 07, 2015, 01:49:39 PM »

My survey ship was - and is - limited in size to 3,000 tons, since that's the biggest ship that can use the first level jump engine. With a geological survey sensor, there's really nothing much I can add to it. In fact, I wanted to put two sensors on it, but there's simply no room. As far as I can see, there's no room for anything else. I could cut back on fuel a little bit, but what could I add in such a small amount of space that would make any difference?

When you design a Jump Drive you have an option for the size. Build a bigger JD and you can fit more stuff into it. (Design the ship first, and design the JD just to fit the ship design with maybe 500 tons of extra space for the extra crew)

Quote
Note that I make the gravitational survey ships identical, except for the difference in sensor (and that makes the whole thing a military ship, of course). But given the fact that the alien ships were three times as fast as even my much larger (and non-jump capable) military ships, and almost four times as fast as these survey ships with their commercial grade engines, I don't see anything I could have done. Maybe later in the game, but not at the start.

I start the other way around. Grav first, Geo with swapped sensors. Grav survey ships need maintenance, which your civil Geo ship cant provide without altering he entire design.

Quote
Hmm,... well, I suppose I could have used military engines. (I did use a military jump drive, since that was all that would fit.) Indeed, I could fit four military engines into the space of one commercial engine. But that would only increase the ship's speed by 50%, and it would still be less than half as fast as the alien ships. I don't think that would help at all.

See above with my comment on JD size. You seem to have gotten engine size down at least. Rue of thumb: Larger size means better performance.

Quote
Obviously, I'm just a beginner, so if I'm missing something here, please let me know. I appreciate the comments and tips I've received.

Anyway, I started over with a new game. This time, I figure I won't leave Sol System until I've played awhile. I set the "number of computer-controlled Empires at game start" to zero, which should mean - I hope - that I won't have aliens coming here, not until I start exploring the galaxy myself, at least.

To get a truly Alien free universe you also have to disable the Spoilers Precursor, Invader, Star Swarm. or else there will be a chance for those to be spawned in every new system you visit.

Quote
Somewhere, I read that the "maximum number of systems" affects whether alien empires are spread out or more concentrated. That doesn't make sense to me, but I changed that number to 1200 anyway, just in case. To me, it seems like the "non-player race generation chance" would do more to affect that. So I changed that number from 30 to 25 - not huge changes, in either case, but slightly favoring my style of play, hopefully. I am more interested in growing a civilization, rather than just waging war (though the threat of war, at least, is certainly important).

Maximum number of systems influences the JP connection density of the map. More Systems = less back links simply speaking. NPR generation chance is the probability of a new NPR being generated on a suitable world in a newly  discovered system.

Quote
The big problem with my previous game was encountering hostile aliens within a year and a half. I'm past that now, in this one (not too far past). I've got all of Earth's jump points surveyed, and I can't wait to see where they lead. But this time, I'm going to wait until I've got better research, more factories, bigger ship-builders, and a wealthier economy.

The aliens will still kick my butt, no doubt, but maybe I'll have some options then.  :)

Taking it slowly is always an option. Better way of getting used to the game.

Quote
Edit: Hmm,... I just thought of something. Rather than sending my GeoSurvey ships to scout new solar systems, I suppose I could design a dedicated scout, with just passive sensors. If I work to increase the tech level of my passive sensors, I might be able to discover aliens before they discover me. And then just leave.  :)

I'm a little confused, though. The wiki says that EM Sensors are passive sensors, but the game (in the Research window) says that EM Sensors "provide the 'listening' portion of active sensors." So, are they passive or active sensors? Should I just be using Thermal Sensors on a scout?

Thanks!

The EM Sensitivity plays into both the pure EM Sensor which is passive AND the Active Search Sensor. Please not that you don't need an extra EM sensor to use an ASS. And practically speaking: Thermal spots engines, EM spots shields. So Thermal is more practical if you are hunting ships, as most things will have engines.
Posted by: CharonJr
« on: September 07, 2015, 01:39:06 PM »

Since EM is just listening they are passive sensors, but in addition to being a passive sensor when build/researched that way they are a component for an active sensor system as well.
Posted by: WCG
« on: September 07, 2015, 09:59:07 AM »

Just a question, what does your survey ship look like stat wise. Before you start a new game, perhaps we could help optimize and speed that thing up so it dies less often?

My survey ship was - and is - limited in size to 3,000 tons, since that's the biggest ship that can use the first level jump engine. With a geological survey sensor, there's really nothing much I can add to it. In fact, I wanted to put two sensors on it, but there's simply no room. As far as I can see, there's no room for anything else. I could cut back on fuel a little bit, but what could I add in such a small amount of space that would make any difference?

Note that I make the gravitational survey ships identical, except for the difference in sensor (and that makes the whole thing a military ship, of course). But given the fact that the alien ships were three times as fast as even my much larger (and non-jump capable) military ships, and almost four times as fast as these survey ships with their commercial grade engines, I don't see anything I could have done. Maybe later in the game, but not at the start.

Hmm,... well, I suppose I could have used military engines. (I did use a military jump drive, since that was all that would fit.) Indeed, I could fit four military engines into the space of one commercial engine. But that would only increase the ship's speed by 50%, and it would still be less than half as fast as the alien ships. I don't think that would help at all.

Obviously, I'm just a beginner, so if I'm missing something here, please let me know. I appreciate the comments and tips I've received.

Anyway, I started over with a new game. This time, I figure I won't leave Sol System until I've played awhile. I set the "number of computer-controlled Empires at game start" to zero, which should mean - I hope - that I won't have aliens coming here, not until I start exploring the galaxy myself, at least.

Somewhere, I read that the "maximum number of systems" affects whether alien empires are spread out or more concentrated. That doesn't make sense to me, but I changed that number to 1200 anyway, just in case. To me, it seems like the "non-player race generation chance" would do more to affect that. So I changed that number from 30 to 25 - not huge changes, in either case, but slightly favoring my style of play, hopefully. I am more interested in growing a civilization, rather than just waging war (though the threat of war, at least, is certainly important).

The big problem with my previous game was encountering hostile aliens within a year and a half. I'm past that now, in this one (not too far past). I've got all of Earth's jump points surveyed, and I can't wait to see where they lead. But this time, I'm going to wait until I've got better research, more factories, bigger ship-builders, and a wealthier economy.

The aliens will still kick my butt, no doubt, but maybe I'll have some options then.  :)

Edit: Hmm,... I just thought of something. Rather than sending my GeoSurvey ships to scout new solar systems, I suppose I could design a dedicated scout, with just passive sensors. If I work to increase the tech level of my passive sensors, I might be able to discover aliens before they discover me. And then just leave.  :)

I'm a little confused, though. The wiki says that EM Sensors are passive sensors, but the game (in the Research window) says that EM Sensors "provide the 'listening' portion of active sensors." So, are they passive or active sensors? Should I just be using Thermal Sensors on a scout?

Thanks!
Posted by: linkxsc
« on: September 06, 2015, 12:28:14 PM »

Just a question, what does your survey ship look like stat wise. Before you start a new game, perhaps we could help optimize and speed that thing up so it dies less often?
Posted by: AL
« on: September 06, 2015, 07:51:36 AM »

In my previous game I had surveyed over 50 systems without finding any serious NPR's - only a couple scattered spoilers here and there... I think it's fair to say there can be a bit of varience involved.
Posted by: WCG
« on: September 06, 2015, 07:35:44 AM »

Ah, OK. Thanks.

You know, I encountered those hostile aliens again - the same ones - in another solar system we were exploring through a completely different jump point. Again, their ships blew away my unarmed survey ship before we could get away. (Well, the alien ships are more than three times as fast as my ships - nearly four times as fast as my survey ships.)

I'm still less than two years into the game, and I've got hostile aliens on two fronts.  :P

What do you guys do, normally? Do you avoid exploring until your economy can support a strong military? Do you stay in Sol system until you feel prepared for war?

I'm watching a video series on YouTube, and he's nearly twenty years into the game without even surveying the jump points around Sol. Of course, he did a conventional start, which makes a big difference. But if I understand correctly, a conventional start puts you even further behind the aliens, since they start the same way regardless of how the player starts, right? Probably not for a beginner, then. Heh, heh.

I'm thinking of restarting (again) and, this time, staying in Sol system until I feel brave. If I ever do.   :D

PS. I guess I expected aliens to be more widely scattered in the galaxy than they are. I figured I could at least explore the systems right next door without getting into a war. But unless I'm just unlucky, that doesn't seem to be the case.
Posted by: TheDeadlyShoe
« on: September 05, 2015, 04:03:17 PM »

the intel screen is somewhat archaic, it was designed for an earlier ruleset for aurora where having a target in active sensor range would gradually give you information about that ship
Posted by: linkxsc
« on: September 05, 2015, 09:54:15 AM »

Intel screen only gives you "known" info. it can often lack any information about enemy ships at all, even though you as the player might have seen a range of armament. I've even salvaged enemy ships and gotten weapons /sensors off of them that should now be "known" and had intel not update to say that this is what the ship had for an active sensor or such.
Posted by: WCG
« on: September 05, 2015, 08:13:20 AM »

My doomed survey ship encountered two different alien ships next door where I'd sent them to explore, but we only got information from one. That ship had a speed of 5684 km/s (compared to my new missile destroyers, which have a speed of 1800 km/s - my survey ship, even slower, didn't have a chance of escaping).

And it shot anti-missile missiles at my ship, before it got close and switched to an anti-ship missile (12 damage in one hit).

But when I look at the description of that same alien ship in the screen about the species, that gives the armament as "3X Particle Beam," with a damage of 6. What's up with that? We were attacked with missiles, not beam weapons.

Note that, if it matters, I don't have a Diplomacy Team, because I don't have five people with diplomacy skill. Well, I'm only a year and a half into the game. I don't have anything much but the research and the handful of ships (now including two missile destroyers, per TheDeadlyShoe's pattern) I started with.

I followed TheDeadlyShoe's pattern exactly (thanks for that!), though in most cases, I have no idea why I'd pick one number rather than another. But it gave me a start. Now, since I know that the enemy use missiles themselves (indeed, have anti-missile defenses), I might attempt to use that pattern - more or less - but change the design into a laser anti-missile ship which can patrol in the same task group to protect the fleet. Assuming I can get it researched and built in time. (I won't 'instant' this one into existence.)

That pattern gave me a start, as did the other recommendations here. As I say, I'm only a year and a half into the game. I didn't expect to be at war so quickly. But a true heart can overcome any obstacle, right?  :)

Thanks again.
Posted by: MarcAFK
« on: September 04, 2015, 06:56:01 PM »

A good idea is to make a new game you can use for testing, I would copy the whole aurora folder just in case, it also stood your event logs from getting screwed up(I think).
Then when you create a new game on that version, set up everything the same way as you did for your current game, but select the option to automatically assign research points and design ship systems. When you load the class design screen you'll see a bunch of ships already designed. They won't be completely optomal but they're a good benchmark for what's possible for the tech level (though the systems you can create might be different depending on what tech you spent your starting research points on)
Posted by: WCG
« on: September 04, 2015, 06:33:38 PM »

OK, thanks guys. I'll try.

I had just encountered the aliens next door, which is why I decided I needed to ask. When I went back and started my game again, the aliens immediately blew to hell my poor, defenseless little civilian survey ship. So I guess they're hostile.  :)  And right next door.

And me with no military whatsoever.  :P  Ah, well, I'll see what I can do. Thanks again.