Aurora 4x
VB6 Aurora => VB6 Mechanics => Topic started by: Steve Walmsley on September 12, 2008, 11:50:27 AM
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At the moment, if you create 2 or more Empires in the Sol system, only the first Empire has all the correct names for the planets. In v3.2, any Empire created in an existing Sol system will have all the correct names for the planets and moons, which should make life a little easier.
Steve
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At the moment, if you create 2 or more Empires in the Sol system, only the first Empire has all the correct names for the planets. In v3.2, any Empire created in an existing Sol system will have all the correct names for the planets and moons, which should make life a little easier.
Steve
Ah, continuing to play around with the multiple human government theme?
:? .
Ah, well, so it goes.
Kurt
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At the moment, if you create 2 or more Empires in the Sol system, only the first Empire has all the correct names for the planets. In v3.2, any Empire created in an existing Sol system will have all the correct names for the planets and moons, which should make life a little easier.
Steve
Ah, continuing to play around with the multiple human government theme?
:? .
However, if you hadn't played the multiple human race campaign, you wouldn't have inspired me to look at similar scenarios and therefore no improvements for multiple governments. Catch-22
Steve
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I have just started a three power game. One thing I have noticed is that scanning in such an environment is very powerful. it somehow seems wrong to get a tech through repeated scans. Sure it should give you a big leg up, but at some stage you should need some R&D. would a 50-75% limit not be more reasonable?
Kurt in is 6 powers game managed it by introducing a treaty in the preamble but is there not a better way?
Regards
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I have just started a three power game. One thing I have noticed is that scanning in such an environment is very powerful. it somehow seems wrong to get a tech through repeated scans. Sure it should give you a big leg up, but at some stage you should need some R&D. would a 50-75% limit not be more reasonable?
Kurt in is 6 powers game managed it by introducing a treaty in the preamble but is there not a better way?
Regards
I agree - I find it unrealistic that by simply scanning something you gain the ability to design and manufacture a new technology....
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I have just started a three power game. One thing I have noticed is that scanning in such an environment is very powerful. it somehow seems wrong to get a tech through repeated scans. Sure it should give you a big leg up, but at some stage you should need some R&D. would a 50-75% limit not be more reasonable?
Kurt in is 6 powers game managed it by introducing a treaty in the preamble but is there not a better way?
Regards
Well...on the one tentacle there is precedent, in Starfire you could get tech info by close in scans. Also, knowing that something could be done, and actually seeing it done, ought to give a leg up to R&D.
However, on the other tentacle, I agree that this just seems too powerful. I was thinking about suggesting that the scanning might not work if the scanned unit's shields were up?
Kurt
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I have just started a three power game. One thing I have noticed is that scanning in such an environment is very powerful. it somehow seems wrong to get a tech through repeated scans. Sure it should give you a big leg up, but at some stage you should need some R&D. would a 50-75% limit not be more reasonable?
Kurt in is 6 powers game managed it by introducing a treaty in the preamble but is there not a better way?
Regards
Well...on the one tentacle there is precedent, in Starfire you could get tech info by close in scans. Also, knowing that something could be done, and actually seeing it done, ought to give a leg up to R&D.
However, on the other tentacle, I agree that this just seems too powerful. I was thinking about suggesting that the scanning might not work if the scanned unit's shields were up?
Kurt
Just to clarify the first tentacle - in Starfire, even after you have scanned it, you still needed to research it before you can construct it....
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I have just started a three power game. One thing I have noticed is that scanning in such an environment is very powerful. it somehow seems wrong to get a tech through repeated scans. Sure it should give you a big leg up, but at some stage you should need some R&D. would a 50-75% limit not be more reasonable?
Kurt in is 6 powers game managed it by introducing a treaty in the preamble but is there not a better way?
Regards
Well...on the one tentacle there is precedent, in Starfire you could get tech info by close in scans. Also, knowing that something could be done, and actually seeing it done, ought to give a leg up to R&D.
However, on the other tentacle, I agree that this just seems too powerful. I was thinking about suggesting that the scanning might not work if the scanned unit's shields were up?
Kurt
Just to clarify the first tentacle - in Starfire, even after you have scanned it, you still needed to research it before you can construct it....
That's true. Hmmm...maybe instead of giving actual points towards completion of research, or even completing the research completely, maybe scanning should give a bonus to the research RATE. In other words, research at normal rate is 1x, if scanned the rate is 1.25x, and if a close or long-term scan is completed the rate is 1.5x.
I still think having your shields up should block scans.
Kurt
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Well...on the one tentacle there is precedent, in Starfire you could get tech info by close in scans. Also, knowing that something could be done, and actually seeing it done, ought to give a leg up to R&D.
However, on the other tentacle, I agree that this just seems too powerful. I was thinking about suggesting that the scanning might not work if the scanned unit's shields were up?
There are several reasons for this rule, some to do with realism and some to make gameplay more fun.
1) There needs to be some advantage to getting detailed scans of alien ships
2) It gives races that are badly outclassed a chance to catch up over time if you can get the data to a laboratory.
3) It creates a reason for recon missions to learn about the potential enemy (US Subs lurking in the Barents sea, U2 missions over the Soviet Union or Russian Trawlers in the Atlantic)
4) It creates tension between races and a potential reason for conflict, which always makes things more interesting
There are also some reasons why it is perhaps not as unrealistic as you might think. All the major powers on Earth are relatively equal in technology and one of the major reasons for that is they spy on one another, steal technology and closely monitor each other's hardware. In other words, once someone develops something, it doesn't take long for other countries to get it. In Aurora you can get a maximum of 10% from one successful scan (and usually less than that) so it takes time to get enough information to gain a technology. That time can be thought of the time required to assimilate the information.
With regard to shields. At the moment, putting your shields up just makes it easier for the enemy to learn about your shields . However, making it harder to scan a ship with shields up (apart from the shield technology), does make sense. Therefore for the next version at least 1 point of active shields will prevent the following:
General scans of internal systems using active sensors
Scans of engines using thermal sensors
Active shields will not prevent:
Scans of active shields using EM sensors
Scans of active sensors using EM Sensors
Scans of active ECM and ECCM systems
Scans of weapons that are firing
Steve
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Just to clarify the first tentacle - in Starfire, even after you have scanned it, you still needed to research it before you can construct it....
In Aurora, unlike Starfire, you can't just scan it once and learn about it. You are going to need a minimum of ten successfuls scans over a period of time and probably more than twenty. The time required to gain the information would be at least as long as the research time in Starfire
Steve
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With regard to shields. At the moment, putting your shields up just makes it easier for the enemy to learn about your shields :)