Post by: Hawkeye on June 07, 2008, 04:32:15 PM
I learned about Aurora a few weeks ago and have been playing around with it since then.
I found a lot of helpful info on this board, but, as you might guess, there still is a lot of stuff I don?t understand or simply don?t know, so here I am, asking the ones in the know :)
Post by: Kurt on June 07, 2008, 05:14:00 PM
Quote from: "Hawkeye"
First of all, greetings to everyone and a special thanks to Steve for programming Aurora.
I learned about Aurora a few weeks ago and have been playing around with it since then.
I found a lot of helpful info on this board, but, as you might guess, there still is a lot of stuff I don?t understand or simply don?t know, so here I am, asking the ones in the know
1) Targeting
a)I am assuming, enemy missiles and fighters are tageted on a salvo/squadron basis, and not individually. Is this corrct?
b)Do I need multiple targeting systems to target multiple salvos/squadrons simultaneously?
If yes
c) Is there a later tech that allows to target multiple targets with a single system (kind of an AEGIS system)?
d) What does ECM actually target? An enemy weapon system, an enemy ship, an enemy targeting system?
And does it help only the ship carrying it or can I design a dedicated Electronic Warfare ship?
A) Missiles are definitely targeted by the salvo, not individually, and I think fighters are the same.
B) Yes
C) Not yet, but it is an interesting suggestion. Steve?
D) AFAIK, ECM makes it harder for enemies to hit your ship by giving a negative modifier to their hit chance. Currently ECM only helps the mounting ship, but I've discussed the possibility of having area affect ECM with Steve. I can't remember what came of it, though.
Quote from: "Hawkeye"
2) Engines
a) What does a hyperdrive actually do? (Aside from adding a whole lot of mass to my regualar engines, that is)
b) Does armoring engines actually make sense. As far as I can see, level-1 armor adds about 25% mass to the engine and given the amount of space those 6+ engines I have to mount to get any speed at all, it seems hardly worth it.
c) Looking at the designs published on this board, pretty much everyone seems to go for (IMO) really fast ships. So far, I have avoided excessive amounts of engines (around 2.000 km/sec for Nuclear Pulse Engines) and put missile launchers on my warships on the idea that fast beamers will have to close a very long way to get into range while I can pound them to scrap. It simply doesn?t seem efficient to build a 5.000t frigate, that can only be armed by 2 12cm lasers, because 70% of its mass is engines (No, I never bought Jellicoes: "Speed is armor" theory). Am I totally off here?
A) Hyper-drive equipped engines boost your ships speed by 10x beyond a star's hyper-limit. For most purposes hyper-drive equipped drives aren't worth-while, but if you need to get to a distant companion star, they are about the only way to do it in a reasonable amount of time.
B) I don't tend to armor my engines, as I value speed over armor in most cases. On some special ships, like planetary assault ships, I've included engine armor though.
C) You aren't off, but this game can be really scary in some ways, and the whole speed thing can be vicious. Being slower than an enemy isn't a death sentence, necessarily, but it makes things harder, especially if the enemy has longer ranged weapons. Given Aurora's flexible missile design sequence, there is almost no way to guarantee that you have longer ranged missiles, so most people try to boost their speed as much as possible.
Quote from: "Hawkeye"
3) Facilities
There is a great list (actually two lists) around here, describing the various facilities one can build on a colony. What I am missing are numbers for the size of the facilities, so I can calculate how many round trips my freighters have to do to ferry a set amount of them to a new colony.
The lists are also not too easy to handle, if you are looking for something specific.
A table listing cargo sizes would be nice, but IIRC, most installations require 25,000 cargo size points, or the equivalent of 5 cargo holds. The one exception I can think of off of the top of my head is Research Labs, which have to be shipped piecemeal.
Quote from: "Hawkeye"
4) Commanders
As with facilities, there is a list around here, listing the various bonuses and what they are doing. There are, however, a couple of abilities missing. Does anyone know what those do?
Communication
Intelligence
Logistics
Operation
Trade
Hmmm...the first four are bonuses applicable when that officer is assigned to a staff position within a Task Group. I'm not sure about trade.
Quote from: "Hawkeye"
5) Task Force COs
As I understand it, TF COs give their bonuses to the ships assigned to their TF. But what about their staff? So far, I have gone to great length, to put, for example, a R1 with a survey bonus into the survey staff slot. Does this actually help or is it a waste of time?
A survey bonus will add to any survey ship's survey points, if they are assigned to that group and if they are in the same system as the fleet commander (and his staff). If there are no survey ships in the Group then I usually don't assign a survey staff officer.
Kurt
Post by: Erik L on June 07, 2008, 05:48:26 PM
Quote from: "Kurt"
Quote from: "Hawkeye"2) Engines
a) What does a hyperdrive actually do? (Aside from adding a whole lot of mass to my regualar engines, that is)
b) Does armoring engines actually make sense. As far as I can see, level-1 armor adds about 25% mass to the engine and given the amount of space those 6+ engines I have to mount to get any speed at all, it seems hardly worth it.
c) Looking at the designs published on this board, pretty much everyone seems to go for (IMO) really fast ships. So far, I have avoided excessive amounts of engines (around 2.000 km/sec for Nuclear Pulse Engines) and put missile launchers on my warships on the idea that fast beamers will have to close a very long way to get into range while I can pound them to scrap. It simply doesn?t seem efficient to build a 5.000t frigate, that can only be armed by 2 12cm lasers, because 70% of its mass is engines (No, I never bought Jellicoes: "Speed is armor" theory). Am I totally off here?
C) You aren't off, but this game can be really scary in some ways, and the whole speed thing can be vicious. Being slower than an enemy isn't a death sentence, necessarily, but it makes things harder, especially if the enemy has longer ranged weapons. Given Aurora's flexible missile design sequence, there is almost no way to guarantee that you have longer ranged missiles, so most people try to boost their speed as much as possible.
I want to add here that non-turret weapons are limited by the speed of the ship for their tracking speed.
So if your FC can track at 10,000 km, but your ship can only do 2000 km, then your non-turret weapons will have an effective tracking speed of 2000km. Which is a bad thing when trying to hit fighters and missiles.
Post by: Charlie Beeler on June 07, 2008, 09:19:34 PM
Quote from: "Erik Luken"
Quote from: "Kurt"Quote from: "Hawkeye"2) Engines
a) What does a hyperdrive actually do? (Aside from adding a whole lot of mass to my regualar engines, that is)
b) Does armoring engines actually make sense. As far as I can see, level-1 armor adds about 25% mass to the engine and given the amount of space those 6+ engines I have to mount to get any speed at all, it seems hardly worth it.
c) Looking at the designs published on this board, pretty much everyone seems to go for (IMO) really fast ships. So far, I have avoided excessive amounts of engines (around 2.000 km/sec for Nuclear Pulse Engines) and put missile launchers on my warships on the idea that fast beamers will have to close a very long way to get into range while I can pound them to scrap. It simply doesn?t seem efficient to build a 5.000t frigate, that can only be armed by 2 12cm lasers, because 70% of its mass is engines (No, I never bought Jellicoes: "Speed is armor" theory). Am I totally off here?
C) You aren't off, but this game can be really scary in some ways, and the whole speed thing can be vicious. Being slower than an enemy isn't a death sentence, necessarily, but it makes things harder, especially if the enemy has longer ranged weapons. Given Aurora's flexible missile design sequence, there is almost no way to guarantee that you have longer ranged missiles, so most people try to boost their speed as much as possible.
I want to add here that non-turret weapons are limited by the speed of the ship for their tracking speed.
So if your FC can track at 10,000 km, but your ship can only do 2000 km, then your non-turret weapons will have an effective tracking speed of 2000km. Which is a bad thing when trying to hit fighters and missiles.
Also, never assume that enough of your missiles will actually get through to prevent that beam ship from closing to it's strike range. It's a balancing act between your magazine capacity and targeting and your opponents passive and active defenses. Fast firing laser and gauze turrets are capable of tearing up a missile salvo. If you don't have enough tubes to over saturate the defenses you'll need superior speed to maintain an open range as well as lots of missiles in the magazines.
Post by: Erik L on June 07, 2008, 10:15:36 PM
Quote from: "Charlie Beeler"
Quote from: "Erik Luken"
I want to add here that non-turret weapons are limited by the speed of the ship for their tracking speed.
So if your FC can track at 10,000 km, but your ship can only do 2000 km, then your non-turret weapons will have an effective tracking speed of 2000km. Which is a bad thing when trying to hit fighters and missiles.
Also, never assume that enough of your missiles will actually get through to prevent that beam ship from closing to it's strike range. It's a balancing act between your magazine capacity and targeting and your opponents passive and active defenses. Fast firing laser and gauze turrets are capable of tearing up a missile salvo. If you don't have enough tubes to over saturate the defenses you'll need superior speed to maintain an open range as well as lots of missiles in the magazines.
And missiles changed a lot I believe in 3.0. Or maybe the last 2.x version. Magazine capacity has been reduced dramatically, but missiles are also a lot more damaging when they hit.
A good idea is to layer your PD also. A squadron with area PD maybe at a 2x increment of known speed of the enemy missiles, a squadron on 1x range, and a couple on Final fire.
Post by: Hawkeye on June 08, 2008, 02:21:44 AM
Quote from: "Kurt"
Quote from: "Hawkeye"
d) What does ECM actually target? An enemy weapon system, an enemy ship, an enemy targeting system?
And does it help only the ship carrying it or can I design a dedicated Electronic Warfare ship?
D) AFAIK, ECM makes it harder for enemies to hit your ship by giving a negative modifier to their hit chance. Currently ECM only helps the mounting ship, but
I've discussed the possibility of having area affect ECM with Steve. I can't remember what came of it, though.
So, ECM simply gives the enemy a targeting malus to hit the ship carrying the ECM.
Quote from: "Kurt"
Quote from: "Hawkeye"
2) Engines
c) Looking at the designs published on this board, pretty much everyone seems to go for (IMO) really fast ships. So far, I have avoided excessive amounts of engines (around 2.000 km/sec for Nuclear Pulse Engines) and put missile launchers on my warships on the idea that fast beamers will have to close a very long way to get into range while I can pound them to scrap. It simply doesn?t seem efficient to build a 5.000t frigate, that can only be armed by 2 12cm lasers, because 70% of its mass is engines (No, I never bought Jellicoes: "Speed is armor" theory). Am I totally off here?
C) You aren't off, but this game can be really scary in some ways, and the whole speed thing can be vicious. Being slower than an enemy isn't a death sentence, necessarily, but it makes things harder, especially if the enemy has longer ranged weapons. Given Aurora's flexible missile design sequence, there is almost no way to guarantee that you have longer ranged missiles, so most people try to boost their speed as much as possible.
Hm, I might have to look over my designs again.
Quote from: "Kurt"
Quote from: "Hawkeye"
3) Facilities
There is a great list (actually two lists) around here, describing the various facilities one can build on a colony. What I am missing are numbers for the size of the facilities, so I can calculate how many round trips my freighters have to do to ferry a set amount of them to a new colony.
The lists are also not too easy to handle, if you are looking for something specific.
A table listing cargo sizes would be nice, but IIRC, most installations require 25,000 cargo size points, or the equivalent of 5 cargo holds. The one exception I can think of off of the top of my head is Research Labs, which have to be shipped piecemeal.
Yeah, the Research Lab is giving me quite a headache. I have a very hard time to transport those buggers without getting fractional RLs scattered all over the place.
My freighters can carry 60.000 cargo (I do realize, it would probably have been better to stop at 50k) and it appears I can?t order the cargo groups to transport only, say, 0.36 Research Labs.
Yes, this is, of course, all my fault, as I initially ordered my cargo group to transport 5 Research Labs to Mars. I assumed, if those 5 RLs couldn?t be brought there in a single trip, they would go back and forth until the 5 RLs are delivered when it states quite clearly that the amount is only the maximum amount to be carried.
Quote from: "Kurt"
Quote from: "Hawkeye"
5) Task Force COs
As I understand it, TF COs give their bonuses to the ships assigned to their TF. But what about their staff? So far, I have gone to great length, to put, for example, a R1 with a survey bonus into the survey staff slot. Does this actually help or is it a waste of time?
A survey bonus will add to any survey ship's survey points, if they are assigned to that group and if they are in the same system as the fleet commander (and his staff). If there are no survey ships in the Group then I usually don't assign a survey staff officer.
So all the staff officers are adding their bonus in the particular slot to the task force as well?
Then what do the com, intel, log and Ops bonuses actually do?
Quote from: "Erik Luken"
I want to add here that non-turret weapons are limited by the speed of the ship for their tracking speed.
So if your FC can track at 10,000 km, but your ship can only do 2000 km, then your non-turret weapons will have an effective tracking speed of 2000km. Which is a bad thing when trying to hit fighters and missiles.
Argh! There goes my torpedo destroyer design!
Quote from: "Charlie Beeler"
Also, never assume that enough of your missiles will actually get through to prevent that beam ship from closing to it's strike range. It's a balancing act between your magazine capacity and targeting and your opponents passive and active defenses. Fast firing laser and gauze turrets are capable of tearing up a missile salvo. If you don't have enough tubes to over saturate the defenses you'll need superior speed to maintain an open range as well as lots of missiles in the magazines.
Yes, I realized after building my first couple of missile destroyers, that the mag capacity is quite limited. I will probably have to pull out the odd launcher to increase mag capacity, which, of course will weaken my salvos, which will force me to keep firing longer which will force me to increase mag capacity even more, which will....
Damn, this is not going to work!
Post by: Erik L on June 08, 2008, 02:44:49 AM
Post by: Steve Walmsley on June 08, 2008, 08:57:19 AM
Quote from: "Kurt"
That isn't really possible given the way the game works at the moment. However, it might be possible to simulate it by creating a large fire control system that functions as multiple small systems. Essentially, when you add it to the ship, several small systems are actually added instead. That would be a lot easier to implement.Quote from: "Hawkeye"1) TargetingC) Not yet, but it is an interesting suggestion. Steve?
c) Is there a later tech that allows to target multiple targets with a single system (kind of an AEGIS system)?
d) What does ECM actually target? An enemy weapon system, an enemy ship, an enemy targeting system?
And does it help only the ship carrying it or can I design a dedicated Electronic Warfare ship?
Quote
D) AFAIK, ECM makes it harder for enemies to hit your ship by giving a negative modifier to their hit chance. Currently ECM only helps the mounting ship, but I've discussed the possibility of having area affect ECM with Steve. I can't remember what came of it, though.I would like to completely revise electronic warfare at some point. At the moment it is a legacy from Starfire where ECM is a simple fire confusion system giving a penalty to attackers. ECCM reduces the ECM penalty. My preference would be a more real world system where ECM can try and jam specific hostile fire controls (including missile seekers) or, as Kurt suggested, as area jamming system. ECCM would instead become part of the design of sensors and fire control systems, making them more expensive but resistant to ECM. As with the rest of Aurora, so many improvements to make, so little time
Quote
Hmmm...the first four are bonuses applicable when that officer is assigned to a staff position within a Task Group. I'm not sure about trade.Trade increases the production of trade points so your spaceports will produce more trade convoys.
Quote from: "Hawkeye"
5) Task Force COs
As I understand it, TF COs give their bonuses to the ships assigned to their TF. But what about their staff? So far, I have gone to great length, to put, for example, a R1 with a survey bonus into the survey staff slot. Does this actually help or is it a waste of time?
The staff are key. Their bonuses are worth more than the task force commander as he only adds a portion of his own bonuses to each area (25% of the bonus I think). So a staff survey officer with a 30% bonus is worth far more in terms of survey support than a TF commander with a 30% bonus. The TF commander's main role is to train the ships under his command, using his crew training rating, so they can operate as a fleet (using the Task Force Training button on the Task Group window). Otherwise, once there are hostile contacts in the system you will find your ships don't respond immediately to firing and movement commands.
Steve
Post by: Erik L on June 08, 2008, 09:15:21 AM
Quote from: "Steve Walmsley"
Quote from: "Hawkeye"5) Task Force COsThe staff are key. Their bonuses are worth more than the task force commander as he only adds a portion of his own bonuses to each area (25% of the bonus I think). So a staff survey officer with a 30% bonus is worth far more in terms of survey support than a TF commander with a 30% bonus. The TF commander's main role is to train the ships under his command, using his crew training rating, so they can operate as a fleet (using the Task Force Training button on the Task Group window). Otherwise, once there are hostile contacts in the system you will find your ships don't respond immediately to firing and movement commands.
As I understand it, TF COs give their bonuses to the ships assigned to their TF. But what about their staff? So far, I have gone to great length, to put, for example, a R1 with a survey bonus into the survey staff slot. Does this actually help or is it a waste of time?
Steve
Heh no smeg.
I saw that with the Hathari/Darkmoor. Give an order to fire or move out of range (for the Darkmoor) and the ship would be sitting there for upwards of almost a minute in one case. That ship didn't survive.
Post by: Hawkeye on June 23, 2008, 09:53:00 AM
1) I have been reading through some of the stories in the fiction section and in one or two, mothballing ships not needed at the moment is mentioned.
I have been looking all over the place, but can?t figur out how to put a ship into mothball.
2) I have formed a battlesquadron consisting of 5 DDGs, 2 DEs and a FSC. I?d like to have the DDGs in a line abreast with the scout in the center and slightly behind and the DEs between #2-3 and #4-3 DDG and slightly ahead of the DDG line.
Is there a way to set up this formation and kind of "save it" or do I have to give movement orders to every single ship to get them into formation?
3) What is the difference between Non-Player-Races and Player-Races? I am assuming, there is no AI to play NPRs, so the only difference I can see is that one kind of race is played by the SM, while the other kind is played by, well, the players (if there are any)
Thanks for your help!!
PS:
I have now read through most of the stories in the fiction section. Great stuff people!!!
A real shame, most of the stories end, when a new version of aurora came along.
I can understand the reasoning behind this, but it still is a shame! So much potential! I was realy longing for the next chapter of most stories and was mostely going "Arghhh, noooooo, don?t stop now!" when the story ended in the middle of a war.
Post by: Erik L on June 23, 2008, 02:00:47 PM
Quote from: "Hawkeye"
Ok, as I promised, I?m back. :)Quote from: "Hawkeye"Thanks for your help!!
PS:
I have now read through most of the stories in the fiction section. Great stuff people!!!
A real shame, most of the stories end, when a new version of aurora came along.
I can understand the reasoning behind this, but it still is a shame! So much potential! I was realy longing for the next chapter of most stories and was mostely going "Arghhh, noooooo, don?t stop now!" when the story ended in the middle of a war.
A lot of times they end because there is no compatibility with the previous version. It'd be really nice if there was a way to import a game into a new version. Hint hint Steve
Post by: Kurt on June 23, 2008, 04:11:56 PM
Quote from: "Erik Luken"
Quote from: "Hawkeye"Thanks for your help!!
PS:
I have now read through most of the stories in the fiction section. Great stuff people!!!
A real shame, most of the stories end, when a new version of aurora came along.
I can understand the reasoning behind this, but it still is a shame! So much potential! I was realy longing for the next chapter of most stories and was mostely going "Arghhh, noooooo, don?t stop now!" when the story ended in the middle of a war.
A lot of times they end because there is no compatibility with the previous version. It'd be really nice if there was a way to import a game into a new version. Hint hint Steve :) .
Kurt
Post by: Erik L on June 23, 2008, 11:25:52 PM
Quote from: "Kurt"
Based on experience with Starfire Assistant, Steve will not be producing any software to take information from an old version of Aurora and put it into a newer version. This is because he does his work directly on his database, so he has no need of such a program.
At various times other people have developed "upgrade" programs for Starfire Assistant, and I suppose those programs would be possible for Aurora, however, they always caused problems. They weren't perfect, in spite of a lot of effort by the persons who developed them, which meant that repeated upgrades tended to destabilize the database. My Phoenix Campaign was repeatedly upgraded from version 2.5 (IIRC) to version 7.0, and at various times I had to spend quite a bit of time fixing problems in the database, and I had to put up with more than a little disfunction as a result. I just had to have those new features Steve kept putting into the program, though
Kurt
I've thought about writing one myself... but that's a lot of work...
Post by: SteveAlt on June 24, 2008, 01:25:17 PM
Quote from: "Hawkeye"
Ok, as I promised, I?m back.Mothballing is no longer possible in v3.0
1) I have been reading through some of the stories in the fiction section and in one or two, mothballing ships not needed at the moment is mentioned.
I have been looking all over the place, but can?t figur out how to put a ship into mothball.
Quote
2) I have formed a battlesquadron consisting of 5 DDGs, 2 DEs and a FSC. I?d like to have the DDGs in a line abreast with the scout in the center and slightly behind and the DEs between #2-3 and #4-3 DDG and slightly ahead of the DDG line.
Is there a way to set up this formation and kind of "save it" or do I have to give movement orders to every single ship to get them into formation?
You can assign any fleet to protect another fleet, using the Protect Threat Axis section. The Threat can be either the destination of the protected fleet or any selected sensor contact. You can assign different escorts to different threats. As the protected fleet moves relative to the Threat, the escorts will automatically adjust their position. All you need to worry about is moving the protected fleet. The Distance is self-explanatory and the Offset bearing can be used to create a circle of protection. For example you might place two escorts 10 degrees either side of the threat. The escort option can also be used to protect high value units by assigning them as escorts but setting their offset as 180 degrees, so they automatically position themselves on the far side of the main fleet from the threat. You can also assign forward scouts by setting them as escorts with perhaps a 5 million kilometer range.
If you select a ship within a fleet and press the Escort button, that ship is detached as a separate fleet that is already setup as an escort for the existing fleet, with a distance of 60,000 km and a zero offset.
The Save Escorts button will record the parameters set for each escort of the current fleet.
The Recall Escorts button will issue an order to every fleet that is set as an escort for the current fleet, ordering them to join the current fleet.
Deploy Escorts will detach all ships within the current fleet that were saved last time you used the Save Escorts buttons. They will all be set up in their previous fleets and will make their own way to the previously specified escort locations.
Hope that helps! That is a complex area but one that will make a big difference to the ease of controlling large formations. Please ask for further explanations of any of the above if required
Steve
Post by: Hawkeye on August 01, 2008, 01:38:17 AM
Prefabricated PDCs:
There definitely is something wrong with those.
Whenever I load the parts into my frighters, I get some error message about "dataset not found" or something along that line. One message for every type of prefab PDC.
There also seem to be vanishing parts while on the tranports.
I have prefabed quite a bunch of small PDCs and carried them out to the settled colonies, but everytime I unload them, there seem to be some parts missing.
For example, I designed and build a small point defense PDC, that is prefabed in 8 parts. I build those 8 parts, load them, carry them to a colony where they are unloaded, but only 6 parts show up. All frighters are empty (checked on the ship - cargo screen) On my HW, there are now 10 of those parts and 10 parts of a larger, 18 parts requiering offensive PDC and I have never canceled production in mid-building
Also, I am unable to assemble a prefab PDC, if that PDC is marked as obsolete. It makes sense to pull all obsolete stuff out of all the build lists, but I would like to be able to assemble the allready made parts.
This is, of course only a small nitpick, as it is easy to un-obsolete the design, add it to the build list and then obsolete it again (I mostely mention it, because it took me quite a while to figur this out)
Oh, and another small one. After I loaded prefab PDCs for the first time, the "unload PDC parts" shows up everytime, for every frighter in the Task Group orders menue
Fighters:
I started building my first fighters yesterday and got an error message everytime, a fighter was finished. Only later on I realized I had to assign a task group to the newly build fighters in the industrial screen. I was looking for something like that on the fighter squadron screen, thinking this would be the logical place. Perhaps there could be a "crosslink" there?
The fighters build where for a computer generated NPC race, that got fighter engine tech and not much else, so I thought I?d build a kind of AeroSpace fighter (like in BattleTech) and forget about spaceships, because the tech for them sucked big time. Can those fighters operate directely from the planet (No Hangar Deck researched, or I would have designed a planetary fighter base) ?
Sector Command:
How does the range work? I have a Level 3 SC (Radius 2) on my Homeworld and several colonies, 2 jumps away, but the sector gouvernor doesn?t show up there. Or is Radius 1 just the own system, Radius 2 one system out and so on? In that case, rephrasing it to Radius 0, 1, and so on would seem to be more logic.
Also, when the 3rd level finished, I expected the radius to become 3. Is the distance it works the square root of level, so I need a level 4 to reach systems 2 jumps away and level 9 for systems 3 jumps away?
Post by: Hawkeye on August 17, 2008, 01:04:58 PM
For anyone stuck as I was, here it is
Open the Empire --> System --> Sector Tab
There you can add or remove systems to/from a specific sector command
Post by: SteveAlt on August 17, 2008, 01:11:55 PM
Quote from: "Hawkeye"
Ok, I finally figured out how the Sector Command works.
For anyone stuck as I was, here it is
Open the Empire --> System --> Sector Tab
There you can add or remove systems to/from a specific sector command
You can also access this window from the Sectors button at the bottom of the Population and Production window.
Steve
Post by: Steve Walmsley on September 12, 2008, 05:33:57 AM
Quote from: "Hawkeye"
Sector Command:
How does the range work? I have a Level 3 SC (Radius 2) on my Homeworld and several colonies, 2 jumps away, but the sector gouvernor doesn?t show up there. Or is Radius 1 just the own system, Radius 2 one system out and so on? In that case, rephrasing it to Radius 0, 1, and so on would seem to be more logic.
Also, when the 3rd level finished, I expected the radius to become 3. Is the distance it works the square root of level, so I need a level 4 to reach systems 2 jumps away and level 9 for systems 3 jumps away?
Its slightly more complex because I wanted a formula that allowed reasonable sized sectors but not huge ones. Starting with radius 1 for a level 1 sector, you have to double the sector level for an increase of 1 in radius. So the levels you need for various radii are as follows: Level 1 = Radius 1, Level 2 = Radius 2, Level 4 = Radius 3. Level 8 = Radius 4, Level 16 = radius 5, etc.
Steve
Post by: Steve Walmsley on September 12, 2008, 05:38:49 AM
Quote from: "Hawkeye"
Fighters:I think the fighter build error is fixed for the latest version. As far as the destination fleet goes, it need to be on the industrial screen rather than the fighter window because each pop will need a different destination fleet.
I started building my first fighters yesterday and got an error message everytime, a fighter was finished. Only later on I realized I had to assign a task group to the newly build fighters in the industrial screen. I was looking for something like that on the fighter squadron screen, thinking this would be the logical place. Perhaps there could be a "crosslink" there?
Quote
The fighters build where for a computer generated NPC race, that got fighter engine tech and not much else, so I thought I?d build a kind of AeroSpace fighter (like in BattleTech) and forget about spaceships, because the tech for them sucked big time. Can those fighters operate directely from the planet (No Hangar Deck researched, or I would have designed a planetary fighter base) ?
You can operate fighters directly from a planet as long as the planet has maintenance facilities that can rearm them. Just leave them in orbit and they will automatically rearm if the missiles are available on the planet. However it is usually better to build a PDC with hangar decks because the fighters don't cost maintenance while in the hangar and they will get rearmed ten times as fast.
Steve
Post by: Hawkeye on September 14, 2008, 09:20:40 AM
No, serious, I have encountered a NPC race and after they blew up one of my survey vessels, I launched a retaliatory (sp?) strike.
Their fleet is destroyed (except for a couple of geosurvey ships, that are hideing in the asteroid belt), their PDCs are flattened and my fleet is now only 1 million km away from their homeworld but I simply can not target the planet/population with my missiles.
The population shows up in the contact/target list all right, but it flatly refuses to be assigned as a target for my missile launchers/missile controls.
Obviously those aliens have created some kind of clever stealth system, that only affects my missile control systems and makes them fail to lock on, grrr!
Any help would be appreciated.
Post by: Steve Walmsley on September 15, 2008, 08:41:00 AM
Quote from: "Hawkeye"
Ok, I give up!
No, serious, I have encountered a NPC race and after they blew up one of my survey vessels, I launched a retaliatory (sp?) strike.
Their fleet is destroyed (except for a couple of geosurvey ships, that are hideing in the asteroid belt), their PDCs are flattened and my fleet is now only 1 million km away from their homeworld but I simply can not target the planet/population with my missiles.
The population shows up in the contact/target list all right, but it flatly refuses to be assigned as a target for my missile launchers/missile controls.
Obviously those aliens have created some kind of clever stealth system, that only affects my missile control systems and makes them fail to lock on, grrr!
Any help would be appreciated.
Not seen this one before. I assume you had no problems targeting the alien ships or the PDC as it sounds like you destroyed them. Have you previously targeted any populations successfully in the game? Do you get some type of error message when you try to target the pop?
Also, as a test, please could you also try creating a waypoint and try targeting that
Steve
Post by: Hawkeye on September 15, 2008, 09:35:49 AM
Quote from: "Steve Walmsley"
Not seen this one before. I assume you had no problems targeting the alien ships or the PDC as it sounds like you destroyed them. Have you previously targeted any populations successfully in the game? Do you get some type of error message when you try to target the pop?
Also, as a test, please could you also try creating a waypoint and try targeting that
Steve
Except for targeting population before this incident, I have successfully done all of the above, targeting ships, PDCs, waypoints, everything worked like a charm. Only the problem with targeting population.
No error message whatsoever.
I am in the Battle Control Window. I select the ship, then I select the Missile Control, then a list with targets appears. The Missile Control in the Weapons and Fire Control summary reads: "No target assignement, Holding fire"
Then I select the population in the target list and press "Assign", then the summary changes to just "Holding fire"
Hm, can I usually target population, when PDCs are still around?
If no, then this may be the reason I can?t as the aliens are in the process of building a new one (about 30% finished)
Something not directly related. I had my DEs with PD-Missile Launchers set to shoot 2 PD missiles at each enemy missile. After a bunch of enemy salvos is shot down, I still have some 300 missiles in space, floating around, so i target them on wayponints in front of my ships, in case new salvos arrive. And sure enough, those salvos arrive, but those are only tine, 2 missile salvos, spaced some 60 sec, and before I can detect a second one, the first one is blown away.
Now, I can never see more than 2 enemy missiles. I allready have 300 PD missiles in space, and still my DEs insist on launching ever more PD missiles, managing to run out of ammo in no time.
I probably miss something obvious here, but it causes me quite a headache because it forces me to manually assign targets to all my DEs.
Post by: Father Tim on September 15, 2008, 10:23:28 AM
Quote from: "Hawkeye"
I am in the Battle Control Window. I select the ship, then I select the Missile Control, then a list with targets appears. The Missile Control in the Weapons and Fire Control summary reads: "No target assignement, Holding fire"
Then I select the population in the target list and press "Assign", then the summary changes to just "Holding fire"
I had the same problem; my ships just would not hold target on the planet or its PDCs. Every time the targeting assingment would disappear, and the ships would refuse to fire, with the message "No target assignment, Holding fire"
I had a thought, though. I only ever tried shooting at them from orbit - ie 0 km. Maybe the 'minimum distance 10,000 km' factor is causing it? Though I assume that code would only be called for direct-fire weapons.
Post by: Hawkeye on September 15, 2008, 12:09:18 PM
Quote from: "Father Tim"
I had a thought, though. I only ever tried shooting at them from orbit - ie 0 km. Maybe the 'minimum distance 10,000 km' factor is causing it? Though I assume that code would only be called for direct-fire weapons.
Can?t be it in my case. I tried to target the population at 40million, 25 million and now at 1 million km distance.
No joy
Edit:
I just noticed, the database is at a whooping 189 mb. Maybe this has something to do?
I have now deleted all games except the Preservation II, that came with the install, but explorer still tells me 189 mb.
Post by: Steve Walmsley on September 21, 2008, 04:12:26 AM
Has anyone reading this successully bombarded populations using the current version?
With regard to the database, back it up and then use the option to compact it.
Steve
Post by: Kurt on September 21, 2008, 12:10:24 PM
Quote from: "Steve Walmsley"
If for some reason you can't hold a lock, such as the target being out of range, fire controls will automatically deselect their target. In this case however I can't see why the programme might think the target is out of range. In my preservation campaign, the British were bombarding the Mongols with no problem so it must be something specific to your situation, or the data involved, rather than a general bug. Although as Father Tim had a problem too then it can't be a rare problem. The trick is figuring out what is causing it.
Has anyone reading this successully bombarded populations using the current version?
With regard to the database, back it up and then use the option to compact it.
Steve
I am having this same issue. One of my governments in the Six Powers campaign is trying to bombard another government's mining facility on a distant asteroid/comet.
At first they didn't see the colony at all, but I realized that since it was just a bunch of auotmated mines and a mass driver, its thermal sig is very small, just 110. I had my ships creep into detection range, and sure enough the population popped into existence, and I thought I was ready to go. Unfortunately, I wasn't. I cannot target the population, getting the same results the others have mentioned. Nothing I do seems to change that.
I know that in past versions targets detected with thermal-only sensors could not be targeted. Is that still true, and might that be what is going on here? How are populations detected in Aurora?
I notice on the Population and Production screen that populations have a Thermal and an EM signature, while ship designs have a thermal, EM, an cross section signatures. Can populations be detected by active sensors, and if they can't, can they be targeted?
Kurt
Post by: Steve Walmsley on October 19, 2008, 01:35:52 PM
Quote from: "Kurt"
I know that in past versions targets detected with thermal-only sensors could not be targeted. Is that still true, and might that be what is going on here? How are populations detected in Aurora?Populations are detected by thermal and EM sensors. They cannot be detected by active sensors, although in v3.2 ground units can be detected by active sensors. They should show up as targetable based on the thermal/EM signature, unlike ships for which you need an active contact.
I notice on the Population and Production screen that populations have a Thermal and an EM signature, while ship designs have a thermal, EM, an cross section signatures. Can populations be detected by active sensors, and if they can't, can they be targeted?
Steve
Post by: Kurt on October 19, 2008, 01:51:26 PM
Quote from: "Steve Walmsley"
Quote from: "Kurt"I know that in past versions targets detected with thermal-only sensors could not be targeted. Is that still true, and might that be what is going on here? How are populations detected in Aurora?Populations are detected by thermal and EM sensors. They cannot be detected by active sensors, although in v3.2 ground units can be detected by active sensors. They should show up as targetable based on the thermal/EM signature, unlike ships for which you need an active contact.
I notice on the Population and Production screen that populations have a Thermal and an EM signature, while ship designs have a thermal, EM, an cross section signatures. Can populations be detected by active sensors, and if they can't, can they be targeted?
Steve
So far in the Six Powers campaign I have been unable to target populations. When I select a population as a target on the Battle Control Window, either it won't select at all when I hit the select button, or Aurora will automatically change it to a different ship target.
Kurt
Post by: Steve Walmsley on October 19, 2008, 02:01:41 PM
Quote from: "Kurt"
So far in the Six Powers campaign I have been unable to target populations. When I select a population as a target on the Battle Control Window, either it won't select at all when I hit the select button, or Aurora will automatically change it to a different ship target.Other people have reported similar issues so there definitely seems to be some type of bug in population targeting. However, I have successfully targeted and attacked populations in the Preservation II campaign and my current campaign so whatever the problem was it isn't there now, which unfortunately makes it very difficult to figure out exactly what is going on and to suggest a workaround
Steve