Posted by: Rich.h
« on: October 05, 2015, 06:45:20 AM »Sounds like your just beginning to realise how deep this game can be, I had pretty much all of these issues when I first started playing. For me what worked best was to break down the game somewhat so I was only dealing with a small amount of aspects at a time. So for example I plain threw out the notion of NPR's to start with by having zero at the start of the game and then also reducing their generation chance to zero along with turning off all the spolers. This meant I was able to just learn all the rest of the game without the overload of combat designs and the pressures of an encroaching NPR and diplomacy/espionage etc. Once I was happy with all the basic mechanics I started a new game but this time immediately added an NPR to a system next door to me and started to learn how the military side of things worked. Personally Aurora was just too vast a game for me to be able to learn all the parts of it in a full game without frustration due to things not working and such as I hadn't yet understood them.
To answer your question about the research, there are two ways you can do it. In the main game setup screen I believe down at your started RP box there is a check box that allows you to auto assign the points. This should simply have the game give you random techs up to the value you set. The other way is as you say to use the SM mode and instant the techs to the value you want.
With regards to the CIWS they are very useful. I think I am right in saying that they always get a chance to fire no matter how fast the missile travels, yes the 10K range means they only get one shot. But they have the advantage of needing zero power or FC and so not only do you save some space but I find that they will generally out perform any turret at the same tech level on a value for tonnage ratio. You can also put them on commercial designs.
To answer your question about the research, there are two ways you can do it. In the main game setup screen I believe down at your started RP box there is a check box that allows you to auto assign the points. This should simply have the game give you random techs up to the value you set. The other way is as you say to use the SM mode and instant the techs to the value you want.
With regards to the CIWS they are very useful. I think I am right in saying that they always get a chance to fire no matter how fast the missile travels, yes the 10K range means they only get one shot. But they have the advantage of needing zero power or FC and so not only do you save some space but I find that they will generally out perform any turret at the same tech level on a value for tonnage ratio. You can also put them on commercial designs.