Aurora 4x
C# Fiction => Kurt's Fiction => Humanity First => Topic started by: Kurt on June 07, 2024, 04:47:55 PM
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As always, comments, questions, and criticism are welcomed
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As always, [...] criticism are welcomed
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This is an utterly horrifying near future and I look forward to seeing how humanity comes back from it. It is a bit of an old trope as far as settings go, but usually makes for very good stories. ;D
The alien retribution was terrible, and China was destroyed as a nation.
As is tradition. (https://i.imgur.com/DYAEiOu.gif)
It was called many things in different languages, but it meant the same thing in all of them. The Terran Empire was going to the stars, and it would bring war and death to the aliens that had devastated Earth.
Wonderful, we've had entirely too much peace and life around here lately. :P
Terran Empire, 2095
Population: Four Billion
Tech: Just unlocked TN Tech
Industry: 3200 conventional industry, 2500 financial centers, fifteen ground force construction complexes
R&D Establishment:80
Some interesting settings here. In my XCOM AAR campaign I've been finding that starting with 4b pop means you have a large amount of conventional industry, although you've knocked that number down by about half it looks like, the balance converted to other facilities. Having so much means projects get built pretty quickly, which on one hand can lead to an almost overwhelming growth rate but on the other hand in my case is suitable for an XCOM setting. Curious to see how it works out here.
I always play with limited scientist admin so 80 labs tends to be a lot and means you have to do a lot of tertiary projects in the early game until your scientists grow their admin caps. If you have normal admin then it shouldn't have much impact though.
Military:
Two divisions of Imperial Guards.
31,720 Imperial Guardsmen (Light armor, Imp Pers Weapons)
1,340 GEV (light vehicles, light vehicle armor, med autocannon)
800 AT Guardsman (Light armor, Light AT weapon)
800 Hvy Weaps Guardsman (Light armor, Crew Served AP Weapons)
309 HQ and Log
I'm curious how a "division" is organized here. Or are these just monolithic blocks of 100,000+ tons each?
Looking forward to this one. I know you were considering trying to do multiple player races, but the detail of Aurora compared to Starfire put you off - but I'm sure this will turn out to be an interesting story regardless of your approach! ;D
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and China was destroyed as a nation
As the ancients have prophesied.
and China was destroyed as a nation
It is known.
and China was destroyed as a nation
Thus, the traditional legacy was passed from father to son.
Really bleak start and I'm looking forward to more!
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As always, [...] criticism are welcomed
(https://media4.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExOXozbG9pbmNpbnpiYXUzcG5yZzY3YTRxMTY3bnMwMzRsYmxwdWg5MSZlcD12MV9pbnRlcm5hbF9naWZfYnlfaWQmY3Q9Zw/2K3P02wBgpo08/giphy.webp)
This is an utterly horrifying near future and I look forward to seeing how humanity comes back from it. It is a bit of an old trope as far as settings go, but usually makes for very good stories. ;D
The alien retribution was terrible, and China was destroyed as a nation.
As is tradition. (https://i.imgur.com/DYAEiOu.gif)
The Chinese took one for the team. Whether they were heroic or just stubborn and/or ignorant is up to the reader.
It was called many things in different languages, but it meant the same thing in all of them. The Terran Empire was going to the stars, and it would bring war and death to the aliens that had devastated Earth.
Wonderful, we've had entirely too much peace and life around here lately. :P
Terran Empire, 2095
Population: Four Billion
Tech: Just unlocked TN Tech
Industry: 3200 conventional industry, 2500 financial centers, fifteen ground force construction complexes
R&D Establishment:80
Some interesting settings here. In my XCOM AAR campaign I've been finding that starting with 4b pop means you have a large amount of conventional industry, although you've knocked that number down by about half it looks like, the balance converted to other facilities. Having so much means projects get built pretty quickly, which on one hand can lead to an almost overwhelming growth rate but on the other hand in my case is suitable for an XCOM setting. Curious to see how it works out here.
I always play with limited scientist admin so 80 labs tends to be a lot and means you have to do a lot of tertiary projects in the early game until your scientists grow their admin caps. If you have normal admin then it shouldn't have much impact though.
I reduced the conventional industry to reflect the looting and destruction that went on prior to campaign start. I increased the R&D facilities and the ground combat construction capability to reflect humanity's response to the raids. Also, as I was starting at a pre-TN tech level, increased R&D would hopefully mean that humanity could catch up to the other races and the spoilers in a reasonable amount of time.
Military:
Two divisions of Imperial Guards.
31,720 Imperial Guardsmen (Light armor, Imp Pers Weapons)
1,340 GEV (light vehicles, light vehicle armor, med autocannon)
800 AT Guardsman (Light armor, Light AT weapon)
800 Hvy Weaps Guardsman (Light armor, Crew Served AP Weapons)
309 HQ and Log
I'm curious how a "division" is organized here. Or are these just monolithic blocks of 100,000+ tons each?
Looking forward to this one. I know you were considering trying to do multiple player races, but the detail of Aurora compared to Starfire put you off - but I'm sure this will turn out to be an interesting story regardless of your approach! ;D
Currently the Imperial military is based on 10,000 ton battalions, organized into brigades of 50k, divisions of 250k, and corps of 1m. STO units are usually around 5k, and support units like logistics or artillery are usually 1-5k. 10k battalions might be too small a base unit, I guess I'll figure it out as I go.
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As others have said it is good to see the ancient tradition of the destruction of China upheld.
On the new ships the naming theme is a bit grim. The "Abomination" troop transport seems harsh, though I suppose it could look really hideous. However the "Abductor" survey ship does seem a bit insensitive given the backstory of what happened to Earth. I can see some vicious names as part of a cult of revenge (or pre-venge on any aliens they meet), but not something that is going to bring back bad memories of the worst bits of recent history.
Anyway, best of luck to Emperor Charles I and his campaign to give any and all xenos a damn good thrashing.
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On the new ships the naming theme is a bit grim. The "Abomination" troop transport seems harsh, though I suppose it could look really hideous. However the "Abductor" survey ship does seem a bit insensitive given the backstory of what happened to Earth. I can see some vicious names as part of a cult of revenge (or pre-venge on any aliens they meet), but not something that is going to bring back bad memories of the worst bits of recent history.
The naming theme as well as the discussion of Imperial Guards and Marines leads me to suspect this Terran Empire is a reboot of the same entity from Kurt's Starfire and VB6 campaigns.
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High population but low industry means the empire will be comparatively good at building infrastructure and wealth. It will take a LONG time for production to get to the point where it is limited by number of workers, it is much more likely to be limited by minerals.
I have also enjoyed stories where the population was much smaller, and the empire started out pretty close to being production limited by number of workers, which yields a very different colonization strategy. I especially like the ones with the homeworld rendered uninhabitable, so the main focus is finding inhabitable worlds to settle on.
The focus here seems to be how to maximize economic expansion for when they inevitably find aliens to beat.
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As others have said it is good to see the ancient tradition of the destruction of China upheld.
On the new ships the naming theme is a bit grim. The "Abomination" troop transport seems harsh, though I suppose it could look really hideous. However the "Abductor" survey ship does seem a bit insensitive given the backstory of what happened to Earth. I can see some vicious names as part of a cult of revenge (or pre-venge on any aliens they meet), but not something that is going to bring back bad memories of the worst bits of recent history.
Anyway, best of luck to Emperor Charles I and his campaign to give any and all xenos a damn good thrashing.
You're right about the names. I picked the "aggressive names" class name theme because it seemed to fit the background of the campaign, and then didn't pay much attention to it. After a while it started bothering me though, so I started changing names. The "Abhorrent" class freighter seemed just silly. I didn't catch the survey ship name. You are right, I will change that.
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High population but low industry means the empire will be comparatively good at building infrastructure and wealth. It will take a LONG time for production to get to the point where it is limited by number of workers, it is much more likely to be limited by minerals.
I have also enjoyed stories where the population was much smaller, and the empire started out pretty close to being production limited by number of workers, which yields a very different colonization strategy. I especially like the ones with the homeworld rendered uninhabitable, so the main focus is finding inhabitable worlds to settle on.
The focus here seems to be how to maximize economic expansion for when they inevitably find aliens to beat.
That's what I thought too, but as it turns out the focus is on the scarcity of TN resources near Sol. This is my first campaign where there were no real decent mining sites in the solar system. Luck of the draw I guess.
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As others have said it is good to see the ancient tradition of the destruction of China upheld.
On the new ships the naming theme is a bit grim. The "Abomination" troop transport seems harsh, though I suppose it could look really hideous. However the "Abductor" survey ship does seem a bit insensitive given the backstory of what happened to Earth. I can see some vicious names as part of a cult of revenge (or pre-venge on any aliens they meet), but not something that is going to bring back bad memories of the worst bits of recent history.
Anyway, best of luck to Emperor Charles I and his campaign to give any and all xenos a damn good thrashing.
You're right about the names. I picked the "aggressive names" class name theme because it seemed to fit the background of the campaign, and then didn't pay much attention to it. After a while it started bothering me though, so I started changing names. The "Abhorrent" class freighter seemed just silly. I didn't catch the survey ship name. You are right, I will change that.
The other issue with most of the name themes is that they proceed in alphabetical order, which starts to look silly after a dozen or so ship classes are in service. For the most part, the exceptions to the rule are those themes labeled "Class Theme" or "System Theme", there's a few others which are non-alphabetical but they're rare.
I usually use a different naming theme per class or group of similar classes (e.g., freighter + colony ship), this also has the advantage that you are less likely to run out of names after a few generations of tech advances.
March 2106: Corbomite deposits have been mined out on Earth. This is currently a low-usage resource, but is a harbinger of things to come.
Corbomite is a sneaky one... it seems unimportant most of the time, but once you run out it can sometimes be worse than corundium if you lose the ability to build financial centers and cargo handling systems at a critical moment. Oddly, I don't run out that often, but whenever I do it's always in an AAR campaign... :-\
Imperial Ground Forces
Terra
5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th Guard Divisions – 11 Guard Infantry Brigades, 4 Guard Armored Brigades, all equipped with 2nd or 3rd generation armor and weapons
1st, 2nd, and 3rd Territorial Guard Divisions – 10 Guard Infantry Brigades + 1 independent Battalion, all equipped with 1st generation weapons and armor
1st, 2nd, and 3rd Guard Armored Brigades
Love the idea of reflagging older formations as "Territorial", I'll have to remember this one.
Looking forward to seeing how Empire-alien relations work out. I assume hostilities, this is only the first alien race so there is not yet any pressure to form alliances of convenience with less-aggressive aliens against bigger threats, but will the Empire have a sufficient technology and industrial base to fight the inevitable war of conquest?
Also, better crank out those ground units, you'll need a lot more of them if you want to conquer an alien home world...
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Looking forward to seeing how Empire-alien relations work out. I assume hostilities, this is only the first alien race so there is not yet any pressure to form alliances of convenience with less-aggressive aliens against bigger threats, but will the Empire have a sufficient technology and industrial base to fight the inevitable war of conquest?
Also, better crank out those ground units, you'll need a lot more of them if you want to conquer an alien home world...
The Empire is pumping out ground units as fast as it can. The need for STO's dilutes their eagerness to build up ground forces though.
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<snip>
Looking forward to seeing how Empire-alien relations work out. I assume hostilities, this is only the first alien race so there is not yet any pressure to form alliances of convenience with less-aggressive aliens against bigger threats, but will the Empire have a sufficient technology and industrial base to fight the inevitable war of conquest?
Also, better crank out those ground units, you'll need a lot more of them if you want to conquer an alien home world...
The Empire is pumping out ground units as fast as it can. The need for STO's dilutes their eagerness to build up ground forces though.
Excellent. I don't think we've ever had a C# AAR that played out ground combat at the planetary invasion scale so if we get lucky this AAR may break that ground. ;D
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<snip>
Looking forward to seeing how Empire-alien relations work out. I assume hostilities, this is only the first alien race so there is not yet any pressure to form alliances of convenience with less-aggressive aliens against bigger threats, but will the Empire have a sufficient technology and industrial base to fight the inevitable war of conquest?
Also, better crank out those ground units, you'll need a lot more of them if you want to conquer an alien home world...
The Empire is pumping out ground units as fast as it can. The need for STO's dilutes their eagerness to build up ground forces though.
Excellent. I don't think we've ever had a C# AAR that played out ground combat at the planetary invasion scale so if we get lucky this AAR may break that ground. ;D
My last Aurora campaign had multiple attempts to take an enemy held world, all of which failed. I don't think it was a homeworld, though. I had several problems, although I didn't realize it. First, I drastically under-estimated the size of the enemy force. Second, they out-teched me by a fair amount. Finally, I was just learning the rules, so made some critical mistakes, like misallocating my support units, and classifying artillery support units as "avoid combat". If I understand things correctly, that drastically reduced their usefulness.
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Excellent, some more Kurt fiction to enjoy!
An interesting premise and excited to see where it goes. Some revenge is certainly need against those ambulatory mushrooms.
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It's always just a tad silly how quickly after reaching the, ah, threshold the, um, Archers show up. Like clockwork, really. Meanwhile, the plague of 'A' names continues. :P
After a series of hits the alien ship comes to a halt, now a sitting duck for the human ships. Two more salvoes and the alien ship exploded, ending the threat.
"A boarding shuttle! A boarding shuttle! My kingdom for a boarding shuttle!"
The Flight II class interceptor includes a new ion drive that’s been modified to produce thirty percent more power at the cost of significantly increased fuel consumption. In addition, the Flight II includes improved passive sensors.
Something I notice is that your ship designs seem to have rather low engine sizes relative to their total size. I recognize this as being the common design paradigm in the VB6 days, but in C# the AI ship designs are generally improved and use more engines, proportionally, so you may want to consider dedicating a bit more of your own ship tonnage to engines to counteract this. I tend to use engine mass fractions of 32% for missile/carrier doctrines and 40% for beam doctrines, mostly because they make for nice round numbers.
Hopefully the Imperium can adapt to the new threat quickly enough before some alien forces show up in greater force...
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It's always just a tad silly how quickly after reaching the, ah, threshold the, um, Archers show up. Like clockwork, really. Meanwhile, the plague of 'A' names continues. :P
After a series of hits the alien ship comes to a halt, now a sitting duck for the human ships. Two more salvoes and the alien ship exploded, ending the threat.
"A boarding shuttle! A boarding shuttle! My kingdom for a boarding shuttle!"
The Flight II class interceptor includes a new ion drive that’s been modified to produce thirty percent more power at the cost of significantly increased fuel consumption. In addition, the Flight II includes improved passive sensors.
Something I notice is that your ship designs seem to have rather low engine sizes relative to their total size. I recognize this as being the common design paradigm in the VB6 days, but in C# the AI ship designs are generally improved and use more engines, proportionally, so you may want to consider dedicating a bit more of your own ship tonnage to engines to counteract this. I tend to use engine mass fractions of 32% for missile/carrier doctrines and 40% for beam doctrines, mostly because they make for nice round numbers.
Hopefully the Imperium can adapt to the new threat quickly enough before some alien forces show up in greater force...
Interesting. As you will see, my capital ship designs (upcoming) have 30% of their mass devoted to engines.
Basically:
Engines: 30%
Passives: 20%
Weapons/Power/Fire Control: 22%
Fuel/Maintenance: 16%
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Basically:
Engines: 30%
Passives: 20%
Weapons/Power/Fire Control: 22%
Fuel/Maintenance: 16%
The remaining 12% is for Calculators. Or armor.
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Basically:
Engines: 30%
Passives: 20%
Weapons/Power/Fire Control: 22%
Fuel/Maintenance: 16%
The remaining 12% is for Calculators. Or armor.
Most of that has to be for space for bureaucrats, right?
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November, 2110: The Guard position on Io has been reinforced to include a full Territorial Division, twenty-seven surface to orbit laser batteries, eighteen STO plasma batteries, and thirty-five point-defense laser batteries.
That oughta do it.
January, 2112: The Empire’s first orbital missile base has been deployed. The Aggressor class is 9,813 tons, has heavy armor, and mounts fifty box launchers equipped with the newly developed Archer Anti-Ship Missile, and ten anti-missile missile launchers for the Shrike AMM. The Archer ASM has a range of 71 mkm’s and a speed of 17,500 km/s.
Oof. That's pretty slow especially for a MP-tech missile. Is the Empire not big on the engine power modifier tech line?
The two Imperial destroyers closed to point blank range and the second destroyer continued pounding the alien ship with its light lasers. The lead destroyer had finally worked out its problems and launched a devastating broadside at point blank range, gutting the alien ship with its plasma cannons.
I believe the kids these days call that "killstealing". :P
During the next salvo, the human interceptors got another hit, but the alien ship finally penetrated the lead interceptors’ armor, destroying the small ship’s search sensor. The CO of the 1st Interceptor Group, Commander Erin Cauthon, ordered Interceptor 003 to drop out of the pursuit and retreat to avoid suffering further damage.
The Empire may find motivation to invest into shield technology. Against single, lightly-armed enemy ships the ability to have recharging/self-repairing "armor" while closing through low-power railgun fire could be valuable.
Rayford Harjo’s ship was targeted again by the damaged Archer Bravo’s, and suffered a catastrophic explosion, killing most of the crew and Commander Harjo. Harjo’s ship got off one last shot, hitting the Bravo targeting his ship, but the laser didn’t do any apparent damage.
A salute to this brave sailor! o7
It seems like Imperial weapons technology still needs some development, a bit more range on those lasers and the advantage passes solidly to humanity. These Archer aliens are troubling, but ultimately once humanity solidifies its core tech base the aliens will be hardly any threat.
Aberration Flt III class Interceptor
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Maint Life 5.93 Years MSP 214 AFR 20% IFR 0.3% 1YR 10 5YR 156 Max Repair 120 MSP
A small change worth considering would be to cut out a few kiloliters of fuel and adding enough MSP to double the max repair. Battle damage takes twice as much MSP to repair, so this would ensure that the interceptors can repair an engine after a tough fight without relying on tugs for recovery. The loss of range due to a bit less fuel would be trifling.
Looking forward to the next stage of the conflict here, once the Archers are pushed out of Sol then the challenge of securing the rest of space will begin! ;D
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November, 2110: The Guard position on Io has been reinforced to include a full Territorial Division, twenty-seven surface to orbit laser batteries, eighteen STO plasma batteries, and thirty-five point-defense laser batteries.
That oughta do it.
January, 2112: The Empire’s first orbital missile base has been deployed. The Aggressor class is 9,813 tons, has heavy armor, and mounts fifty box launchers equipped with the newly developed Archer Anti-Ship Missile, and ten anti-missile missile launchers for the Shrike AMM. The Archer ASM has a range of 71 mkm’s and a speed of 17,500 km/s.
Oof. That's pretty slow especially for a MP-tech missile. Is the Empire not big on the engine power modifier tech line?
The Empire is new to missiles, and to be honest, so am I with the latest developments in Aurora missile development. This is their first try, and what they really wanted was an extreme-range missile to engage the Archers at a distance, and so traded off speed for range. And they still didn't get the range they wanted.
The two Imperial destroyers closed to point blank range and the second destroyer continued pounding the alien ship with its light lasers. The lead destroyer had finally worked out its problems and launched a devastating broadside at point blank range, gutting the alien ship with its plasma cannons.
I believe the kids these days call that "killstealing". :P
During the next salvo, the human interceptors got another hit, but the alien ship finally penetrated the lead interceptors’ armor, destroying the small ship’s search sensor. The CO of the 1st Interceptor Group, Commander Erin Cauthon, ordered Interceptor 003 to drop out of the pursuit and retreat to avoid suffering further damage.
The Empire may find motivation to invest into shield technology. Against single, lightly-armed enemy ships the ability to have recharging/self-repairing "armor" while closing through low-power railgun fire could be valuable.
Shield tech is under development, and will be deployed on the new battlecruiser classes. It may eventually be deployed down to the destroyers, but it'll be a while before its deployed on the interceptors, which are still viewed as stopgap defensive units.
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The Empire is new to missiles, and to be honest, so am I with the latest developments in Aurora missile development. This is their first try, and what they really wanted was an extreme-range missile to engage the Archers at a distance, and so traded off speed for range. And they still didn't get the range they wanted.
You might actually be using too large of an EP modifier, then. You can often get better speed and range with a lower EP modifier, larger engine, and less fuel.
It's hard to say for sure without knowing what the missile designs are, though, especially since 2.2 with all the extra missile modules we can add.
Incidentally, I also realize that the Archer ASM range is only 28.7 m km, not 71 m km as stated in the text... probably want to make a note.
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The defensive fire destroyed just ten incoming missiles. The remaining missiles stripped the Terra’s shields and damaged her armor. At this point Vice Admiral Shatswell decided that they would not be able to survive the alien missile fire and ordered his ships to retreat. The next two salvoes targeted the other two battlecruisers, stripping their shields as well.
With the tonnage available, I suspect the fleet probably could close into range, but it would cost some ships to do so. Which could be an acceptable loss, given the potential value of alien technology versus the loss of a few ships which would eventually become outdated, but this is far from certain.
Vice Admiral Shatswell ordered the fleet to return to Terra for repairs, and to report this development. The fleet’s inability to defend itself from the alien missile fire was alarming, and would be examined by the fleet’s intelligence units, design teams, and strategic and tactical planners.
It never ceases to amuse me that we, as players, understand the value of point defense against the, um, this particular alien race, yet time and again in AARs our fleets are woefully unprepared for the inevitable. ;D
By this point, Fleet Command has a plan: The Sparrow ASM. This small missile is designed for one purpose, to be launched from outside the Groombridge alien’s range and bombard them until they cannot fire back. With a speed of 30,000 km/s and a range of 2.8 mkm’s, any unit equipped with this missile will be able to engage the aliens with impunity, or so it is hoped.
Such a short-range missile feels very Starfire in concept.
The alien raid roiled politics in the solar system. Coming on the heels of the failed attack into the Groombridge system, the Imperial Navy’s image took significant damage.
And now the Imperial politics start turning the wheels... hoping for more of this material!
Wrong thread? I know nothing about that! ... :P
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The defensive fire destroyed just ten incoming missiles. The remaining missiles stripped the Terra’s shields and damaged her armor. At this point Vice Admiral Shatswell decided that they would not be able to survive the alien missile fire and ordered his ships to retreat. The next two salvoes targeted the other two battlecruisers, stripping their shields as well.
With the tonnage available, I suspect the fleet probably could close into range, but it would cost some ships to do so. Which could be an acceptable loss, given the potential value of alien technology versus the loss of a few ships which would eventually become outdated, but this is far from certain.
With the empire suffering chronic and severe resource shortages as the TN resources run out on Terra, Admiral Shatswell couldn't risk major losses that the empire can't replace any time soon.
Vice Admiral Shatswell ordered the fleet to return to Terra for repairs, and to report this development. The fleet’s inability to defend itself from the alien missile fire was alarming, and would be examined by the fleet’s intelligence units, design teams, and strategic and tactical planners.
It never ceases to amuse me that we, as players, understand the value of point defense against the, um, this particular alien race, yet time and again in AARs our fleets are woefully unprepared for the inevitable. ;D
Gets me every time.
By this point, Fleet Command has a plan: The Sparrow ASM. This small missile is designed for one purpose, to be launched from outside the Groombridge alien’s range and bombard them until they cannot fire back. With a speed of 30,000 km/s and a range of 2.8 mkm’s, any unit equipped with this missile will be able to engage the aliens with impunity, or so it is hoped.
Such a short-range missile feels very Starfire in concept.
The alien raid roiled politics in the solar system. Coming on the heels of the failed attack into the Groombridge system, the Imperial Navy’s image took significant damage.
And now the Imperial politics start turning the wheels... hoping for more of this material!
Wrong thread? I know nothing about that! ... :P
Thanks! I'll keep that in mind
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I may be late to the party here, but I just realized that this and the New Cold War story have in common a Sol system with only one outgoing JP... seems to be your "thing" now, Kurt! :P
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I may be late to the party here, but I just realized that this and the New Cold War story have in common a Sol system with only one outgoing JP... seems to be your "thing" now, Kurt! :P
The humans in this campaign got really screwed. I mean, the campaign backstory is predicated on them being screwed, but the initial exploration results for the solar system were shockingly bad. No substantial resource deposits were found, even on the asteroids. Only one jump point, and its position would make everything to come much more difficult. The jump point is 4.1 billion kilometers away from the sun, just inside of Neptune's orbit.
It took me a while, but I realized that the bulk of the travel time between Terra and her out-system colonies was just getting to the damned jump point in the solar system. For example, the Empire's primary resource system is Lalande, which is five jumps away. The actual distance is 9.5 billion kilometers, meaning that 43% of the trip is spent in the solar system getting to and/or from the jump point. That sucks for the Empire.
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The humans in this campaign got really screwed. I mean, the campaign backstory is predicated on them being screwed, but the initial exploration results for the solar system were shockingly bad. No substantial resource deposits were found, even on the asteroids. Only one jump point, and its position would make everything to come much more difficult. The jump point is 4.1 billion kilometers away from the sun, just inside of Neptune's orbit.
It took me a while, but I realized that the bulk of the travel time between Terra and her out-system colonies was just getting to the damned jump point in the solar system. For example, the Empire's primary resource system is Lalande, which is five jumps away. The actual distance is 9.5 billion kilometers, meaning that 43% of the trip is spent in the solar system getting to and/or from the jump point. That sucks for the Empire.
Don't you usually build Lagrange points around (all, or some of) Terra, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptun?
I find this really helpful for movements in the Solar System.
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The humans in this campaign got really screwed. I mean, the campaign backstory is predicated on them being screwed, but the initial exploration results for the solar system were shockingly bad. No substantial resource deposits were found, even on the asteroids. Only one jump point, and its position would make everything to come much more difficult. The jump point is 4.1 billion kilometers away from the sun, just inside of Neptune's orbit.
It took me a while, but I realized that the bulk of the travel time between Terra and her out-system colonies was just getting to the damned jump point in the solar system. For example, the Empire's primary resource system is Lalande, which is five jumps away. The actual distance is 9.5 billion kilometers, meaning that 43% of the trip is spent in the solar system getting to and/or from the jump point. That sucks for the Empire.
Don't you usually build Lagrange points around (all, or some of) Terra, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptun?
I find this really helpful for movements in the Solar System.
I only just became aware of this possibility recently. Still, for much of the year the planets are positioned wrong for this to cut down travel times much. Still, I'm in the process of remedying this situation as we speak.
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Don't you usually build Lagrange points around (all, or some of) Terra, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptun?
I find this really helpful for movements in the Solar System.
I only just became aware of this possibility recently. Still, for much of the year the planets are positioned wrong for this to cut down travel times much. Still, I'm in the process of remedying this situation as we speak.
This also doesn't work well for long-term shipping, such as colony convoys on cycled orders, because the LP positions are constantly changing and a fleet on cycled orders can't rely on the LPs remaining in a useful position.
I usually only rely on LPs to connect distant binary star systems where each distant component has suitable planets in orbit. Groombridge 34 for example.
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Loving this so far! Very interesting to see such an extensive use of STO and how effective they are. The missile barges are also a brilliant solution to a very prickly problem, I will probably have to steal that for my minelayers.
What made you decide to mix laser and plasma? Are you satisfied with how it performs?
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Loving this so far! Very interesting to see such an extensive use of STO and how effective they are. The missile barges are also a brilliant solution to a very prickly problem, I will probably have to steal that for my minelayers.
What made you decide to mix laser and plasma? Are you satisfied with how it performs?
Thanks!
The terrans are very defensive minded, and so heavy use of STO's made perfect sense for them. I learned the combination of lasers and plasma from my previous campaign, from an NPR that used lasers for medium range combat and plasmas to overwhelm any enemies that got too close.
The STO's are great, however, they do have the problem that they generally let the xenos scum close to their own weapons range before being able to eliminate them. My STO defenses have never seriously been challenged, at least not yet, and the few times the alien raiders got in close they took potshots at large civilian ships that absorbed their railgun fire until the ground batteries eliminated them. However, during the attack on Io, that raider managed to get some hits on an unarmored orbiting habitat, killing hundreds of thousands of civilians. Obviously unacceptable, so ships had to be rushed in to provide the primary defensive force.
Overall I'm happy with the way the campaign is going, and even though the Terrans have had really bad exploration luck so far, that just means they have hardships to overcome.
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Some time later the apparent mass of the Delta class changed from 734 tons to 1468. The Alphas and Bravos continued showing their mass as 733 tons, an apparent affect of their cloaking devices. The battlecruiser’s tactical department had no theories for why the Delta was behaving in such a manner.
This one seems like it might be a bug...
Kurt, I wonder from the player perspective how you are finding the Archers? My observation from other AARs is that they can feel repetitive after a while, especially with poor exploration luck meaning no systems with other spoilers or NPRs. Of course when playing it may not feel so repetitive and they are an excellent foil for making players defend their colonies.
Overall I'm happy with the way the campaign is going, and even though the Terrans have had really bad exploration luck so far, that just means they have hardships to overcome.
I usually set Sol to start with an above-average number of JPs, both to improve early exploration and to get a more interesting galactic map as more branches seems to increase the chance for early loops in the JP network. 4 is my usual setting but I've done a few test runs with 6 JPs in Sol and that can be fun as well.
That being said, it's not really a Kurt AAR if Sol doesn't have only one JP! :P
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I'm kinda bummed that I've spoiled "Archers" for me since I have yet to encounter them in my own games but it's not like I can prevent myself from reading Aurora fiction. Oh well, hopefully some surprises await the Democratic People's Republic of Earth once they venture outside of Sol.
I'm little surprised how often your STO guns miss at medium-long range. Is your BFC range still in the early tech levels?
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I'm kinda bummed that I've spoiled "Archers" for me since I have yet to encounter them in my own games but it's not like I can prevent myself from reading Aurora fiction. Oh well, hopefully some surprises await the Democratic People's Republic of Earth once they venture outside of Sol.
I'm little surprised how often your STO guns miss at medium-long range. Is your BFC range still in the early tech levels?
In all honesty, my experience is that reading about the spoiler races in AARs doesn't prepare one to meet them in a game as much as one would think. Steve is continually tweaking their AI and builds, and there's always a few surprises in store either way. Even encounters with everyone's favorite overly-territorial robots have been fresh for me lately due to the missile warfare and ship design changes.
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Some time later the apparent mass of the Delta class changed from 734 tons to 1468. The Alphas and Bravos continued showing their mass as 733 tons, an apparent affect of their cloaking devices. The battlecruiser’s tactical department had no theories for why the Delta was behaving in such a manner.
This one seems like it might be a bug...
Kurt, I wonder from the player perspective how you are finding the Archers? My observation from other AARs is that they can feel repetitive after a while, especially with poor exploration luck meaning no systems with other spoilers or NPRs. Of course when playing it may not feel so repetitive and they are an excellent foil for making players defend their colonies.
Overall I'm happy with the way the campaign is going, and even though the Terrans have had really bad exploration luck so far, that just means they have hardships to overcome.
I usually set Sol to start with an above-average number of JPs, both to improve early exploration and to get a more interesting galactic map as more branches seems to increase the chance for early loops in the JP network. 4 is my usual setting but I've done a few test runs with 6 JPs in Sol and that can be fun as well.
That being said, it's not really a Kurt AAR if Sol doesn't have only one JP! :P
Hah! In my next campaign I will ensure that Sol has multiple jump points. The player race exploration luck (or lack thereof) has been a significant factor in this campaign.
As for the Archers, they can be a bit repetitive, especially as the campaign goes on, but I find that they provide an excellent incentive to garrison outer bases and colonies. That is what would happen in real life, but in games we tend to want to concentrate our forces, both for strategic advantage and increased ease of play.
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I'm kinda bummed that I've spoiled "Archers" for me since I have yet to encounter them in my own games but it's not like I can prevent myself from reading Aurora fiction. Oh well, hopefully some surprises await the Democratic People's Republic of Earth once they venture outside of Sol.
I'm little surprised how often your STO guns miss at medium-long range. Is your BFC range still in the early tech levels?
Ugh, I apologize for that. I keep meaning to put spoiler tags on my fiction as I don't want to ruin it for people that haven't encountered them. Honestly I kind of figured that it would be obvious at this point ;D
My earlier ground batteries have poor fire controls and no ECCM, so they will miss a fair amount and depend on numbers to be effective. Later generations have better fire controls, but every once in a while I forget to check the "ECCM" button on the unit creation screen. I usually don't notice right away, so when I do notice I figure that's the Imperial bureaucrats trying to cut costs when I'm not looking.
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Ugh, I apologize for that. I keep meaning to put spoiler tags on my fiction as I don't want to ruin it for people that haven't encountered them. Honestly I kind of figured that it would be obvious at this point ;D
I assume that any fiction or AAR is "marked for spoilers" by default. It's really impossible to have a story that doesn't involve the spoilers unless you turn them all off, which would be a boring campaign unless you set it up with a lot of detail and probably multiple player races.
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NIDS! NIDS! NIDS! NIDS! NIDS! NIDS! NIDS! NIDS!
I'm really excited to see if/how imperial fleet doctrine adapts to the swarm.
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NIDS! NIDS! NIDS! NIDS! NIDS! NIDS! NIDS! NIDS!
I'm really excited to see if/how imperial fleet doctrine adapts to the swarm.
Hah! The swarm's speed is terrifying. The current standard fleet speed for Imperial ships is 6,000 km/s, way slower than the swarm, and even with next generation engines there is no way the Imperial's can boost their fleet speed to match the swarm without unsustainable and impractical levels of fuel use. That means specialized ships, which means fighters and 1-2,000 ton interceptors. The trial and error phase is going to be nerve-wracking.
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April 19, 2134:
Even as the battle raged in the Lacaille system, the courier from Shield Base arrived in the solar system with the news that aliens had been detected on the frontier. This news galvanized the Navy and accelerated plans to enlarge Shield Base. Instead of waiting for the civilian population of Shield Base to be large enough to support a ground-based maintenance facility, the Navy rushed an orbital maintenance base into production, along with a rest and recreation facility. Once complete these would be towed to Shield Base so that major fleet units could be staged at the system. In addition, two fleet scouts were dispatched to probe the system where the alien ships had been discovered.
That's got to be a pretty big maintenance base if you can station "major fleet units" in a system with just one base! Though I suppose it does depend on the definition of "major"...
Suddenly, the attack ended when the alien attackers inflicted so much damage on the ship that it exploded, killing the crew and boarders alike.
Lucky! Probably the best outcome, short of cheesing it with the Abandon Ship command. Perhaps even better here, as the exploded wreck is probably less valuable.
In light of the numbers, and the way the animalistic aliens attacked the scout, they immediately became known to the Imperial Navy as The Swarm.
Sticking with the classics I see.
[\code]
FYI, slight typo in the code block for the Planet Flight III class which obscures some narrative text.
The Flight II upgrade for the DDE adds the new IC fusion engines, improved maintenance capability, increased range, improved shielding, sensors, and EW systems.
[...]
the “b” variant removes the shield generators to add troop bays, and slightly increases the ship’s tankage.
I'd be concerned about removing the shields, which I think would be helpful against certain weapons of this new Swarm threat, but the shields on the original Flight II are frankly terrible so it is probably for the best.
Interceptor Flt V class Interceptor
15cmFUV Laser (1) Range 300,000km TS: 10,002 km/s Power 6-6 RM 50,000 km ROF 5
Main Battery Fire Control MK III (1) Max Range: 320,000 km TS: 6,250 km/s ECCM-2 97 94 91 88 84 81 78 75 72 69
Fighter Plasma IC Fusion Reactor (2) Total Power Output 12 Exp 10%
I'm sure I mus be misreading this. A 2,000-ton ship with only one 15cm weapon but 2 reactors that each provide twice as much power as needed? Is there a typo here and the (1) after the laser name should be a (4)? ???
Fleet Command was not happy with the resulting range, but was forced to accept it in exchange for the speed, which was faster than all known Swarm designs.
Code: [Select]
Interceptor Flt Vb class Interceptor 2,065 tons 45 Crew 743.2 BP TCS 41 TH 575 EM 0
13929 km/s Armour 6-14 Shields 0-0 HTK 13 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 1-4 PPV 5
Maint Life 4.90 Years MSP 337 AFR 23% IFR 0.3% 1YR 23 5YR 348 Max Repair 287.5 MSP
Commander Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 1 months Morale Check Required
Hi Performance Inertial Fusion Drive Mk II (1) Power 575.0 Fuel Use 320.91% Signature 575.00 Explosion 23%
Fuel Capacity 500,000 Litres Range 13.6 billion km (11 days at full power)
Fleet command is right to be unhappy here, with a size-10 engine and 10 HS of fuel this class is needlessly fuel-consuming and pricier than necessary to boot. You could get slightly better speed and more range with a size-15 engine at the same old 160% boost factor and 5 HS (250,000 L) of fuel, which is the "optimal" 3:1 engine-to-fuel ratio for Aurora. While usually you want to lean more to engines than this, for such a high-performance design I think the 3:1 ratio works well - but any less engine size in that ratio and it is only wasteful for worse performance. With the exception of carriers of course.
The Aegis class has a similar issue as well, I suspect once the shipbuilding bureau or department works this out they will have a much easier time reaching the high speeds they dream of fleet-wide.
Optional link to the math involved available on request. ;D
The Breaker class is intended to act in the same role as the Forward class, as a fleet-defense unit. Unfortunately, fitting a gauss cannon into the small frame made the design larger than the other proposed designs, meaning fewer could be fit into a carrier.
Angry Railgun Supremacist noises
Looking forward to seeing how this new fleet design holds up against this startling new threat! Hopefully well... but not too well! ;D
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April 19, 2134:
Even as the battle raged in the Lacaille system, the courier from Shield Base arrived in the solar system with the news that aliens had been detected on the frontier. This news galvanized the Navy and accelerated plans to enlarge Shield Base. Instead of waiting for the civilian population of Shield Base to be large enough to support a ground-based maintenance facility, the Navy rushed an orbital maintenance base into production, along with a rest and recreation facility. Once complete these would be towed to Shield Base so that major fleet units could be staged at the system. In addition, two fleet scouts were dispatched to probe the system where the alien ships had been discovered.
That's got to be a pretty big maintenance base if you can station "major fleet units" in a system with just one base! Though I suppose it does depend on the definition of "major"...
It is currently big enough to handle two interceptor squadrons (~24,000t), a DD squadron (20,000t). It will expand over the next several years to support a detachment of missile bases, but it will take some time before it is large enough to handle a major fleet deployment.
Suddenly, the attack ended when the alien attackers inflicted so much damage on the ship that it exploded, killing the crew and boarders alike.
Lucky! Probably the best outcome, short of cheesing it with the Abandon Ship command. Perhaps even better here, as the exploded wreck is probably less valuable.
In light of the numbers, and the way the animalistic aliens attacked the scout, they immediately became known to the Imperial Navy as The Swarm.
Sticking with the classics I see.
[\code]
FYI, slight typo in the code block for the Planet Flight III class which obscures some narrative text.
Ugh, thanks for pointing it out, that one slipped by me. Fixed.
The Flight II upgrade for the DDE adds the new IC fusion engines, improved maintenance capability, increased range, improved shielding, sensors, and EW systems.
[...]
the “b” variant removes the shield generators to add troop bays, and slightly increases the ship’s tankage.
I'd be concerned about removing the shields, which I think would be helpful against certain weapons of this new Swarm threat, but the shields on the original Flight II are frankly terrible so it is probably for the best.
That was my feeling as well. Eventually the fleet will probably decide to remove a weapon or two, and reduce the armor a bit, to make room for shields on all ships, but hasn't got there yet.
Interceptor Flt V class Interceptor
15cmFUV Laser (1) Range 300,000km TS: 10,002 km/s Power 6-6 RM 50,000 km ROF 5
Main Battery Fire Control MK III (1) Max Range: 320,000 km TS: 6,250 km/s ECCM-2 97 94 91 88 84 81 78 75 72 69
Fighter Plasma IC Fusion Reactor (2) Total Power Output 12 Exp 10%
I'm sure I mus be misreading this. A 2,000-ton ship with only one 15cm weapon but 2 reactors that each provide twice as much power as needed? Is there a typo here and the (1) after the laser name should be a (4)? ???
I'm not sure why I did that. Probably upgraded from an earlier design that required two reactors without paying attention to the total power required. For story purposes I would call that redundancy.
I typically take a hard look at my designs and intentions every couple of refits to make sure they still make sense, or if they can be optimized or re-tasked. I probably should do that with the interceptors. They were an emergency design early on, just to get an armed ship into space, and have been upgraded since then, but not really examined at a basic level. In most of my other games, ships filling the interceptor role were usually 1,000 tons, but I couldn't really fit in what I wanted into a 1,000 ton hull this time around, so this is the result. A 1,000 ton interceptor with a 10cm laser would probably be a better bet, or maybe a small plasma cannon. I'll look at it next round of refits.
Fleet Command was not happy with the resulting range, but was forced to accept it in exchange for the speed, which was faster than all known Swarm designs.
Code: [Select]
Interceptor Flt Vb class Interceptor 2,065 tons 45 Crew 743.2 BP TCS 41 TH 575 EM 0
13929 km/s Armour 6-14 Shields 0-0 HTK 13 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 1-4 PPV 5
Maint Life 4.90 Years MSP 337 AFR 23% IFR 0.3% 1YR 23 5YR 348 Max Repair 287.5 MSP
Commander Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 1 months Morale Check Required
Hi Performance Inertial Fusion Drive Mk II (1) Power 575.0 Fuel Use 320.91% Signature 575.00 Explosion 23%
Fuel Capacity 500,000 Litres Range 13.6 billion km (11 days at full power)
Fleet command is right to be unhappy here, with a size-10 engine and 10 HS of fuel this class is needlessly fuel-consuming and pricier than necessary to boot. You could get slightly better speed and more range with a size-15 engine at the same old 160% boost factor and 5 HS (250,000 L) of fuel, which is the "optimal" 3:1 engine-to-fuel ratio for Aurora. While usually you want to lean more to engines than this, for such a high-performance design I think the 3:1 ratio works well - but any less engine size in that ratio and it is only wasteful for worse performance. With the exception of carriers of course.
The Aegis class has a similar issue as well, I suspect once the shipbuilding bureau or department works this out they will have a much easier time reaching the high speeds they dream of fleet-wide.
Optional link to the math involved available on request. ;D
The Breaker class is intended to act in the same role as the Forward class, as a fleet-defense unit. Unfortunately, fitting a gauss cannon into the small frame made the design larger than the other proposed designs, meaning fewer could be fit into a carrier.
Angry Railgun Supremacist noises
Looking forward to seeing how this new fleet design holds up against this startling new threat! Hopefully well... but not too well! ;D
I am feeling my way through introducing carrier stuff into the campaign, and the missile rules are completely new to me. Currently the Terrans are using really basic missile designs, without decoys or embellishments. That will change in the coming years, of course, as the dreaded Xenos teach them new lessons.
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Great battle!
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Great battle!
Thanks! That battle was interesting for me. I realized I had become very risk-adverse when the long-range missiles first started arriving and I immediately ordered the fleet to turn back. The first time I did that a couple of game years ago it made sense. The empire was in the midst of a critical resource shortage and likely wouldn't have been able to replace any major losses any time soon. And the Empire had little experience with missile defense.
Now, though, its different. The resource shortage was mostly alleviated although always a concern, and the Imperial's have way more experience with missile defense. I still screwed up. One of the reasons for building and deploying the Forward class attack fighters was to boost fleet point defense capability, and I forgot to deploy them with the fleet because I decided to hold the carriers back from the battle.
It worked though, once I found my courage and ordered the advance!
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Easy victory on the ground, though naturally the casualties asking the oldest formations were pretty heavy.
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Easy victory on the ground, though naturally the casualties asking the oldest formations were pretty heavy.
Yeah, it went better than I expected. It was also the first time I felt even a little like I knew what I was doing in a ground assault. It helps that it wasn't a home world attack, I guess, and also that 70 Ophiuchi II has no remarkable ground terrain.
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Finally caught up on your wonderful story, loved most of it but did find myself confused at times trying to remember who you were fighting with the repetitive naming alien ships with the NATO phonetic alphabet. While a logical and practical manner, did have me confused at times. So I compiled a collection of other phonetic spelling alphabets, both alternate English and several other languages. You could use these to keep the same pattern but better differentiate between various alien races.
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Finally caught up on your wonderful story, loved most of it but did find myself confused at times trying to remember who you were fighting with the repetitive naming alien ships with the NATO phonetic alphabet. While a logical and practical manner, did have me confused at times. So I compiled a collection of other phonetic spelling alphabets, both alternate English and several other languages. You could use these to keep the same pattern but better differentiate between various alien races.
Thank you, but I was getting confused myself, and realized it didn't make too much sense to be naming the ship classes of different alien races the same names, so I've changed moving forward. The Empire has a pretty good grasp on the class capabilities of the Archer ship, so will be redesignating their ships as Light Raiders, Raiders, Salvage class, and so on. The Swarm will remain NATO standard, and the NPR aliens will have their own theme.
Sorry about it getting confusing, and I'll take a look at your list.
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What an exciting battle! Tough going for the strike fighters but the Swarm is probably the worst opponent for beam fighters.
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What an exciting battle! Tough going for the strike fighters but the Swarm is probably the worst opponent for beam fighters.
As I discovered. The beam fighters seem to do well against their larger ships, which is probably because of their fire controls. The missile fighters are doing very well, but as I noted, their weakness is needing to reload. The Empire is rapidly building ordnance factories, but it seems like there is never enough.
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Looks like the Raiders are now more of a logistical challenge rather than an existential threat.
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Looks like the Raiders are now more of a logistical challenge rather than an existential threat.
But logistics is life. Therefore...
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Looks like the Raiders are now more of a logistical challenge rather than an existential threat.
But logistics is life. Therefore...
Yes, the empire now out-techs them, and their military ships can outrun all of the raiders, so they aren't a major threat any more. However, they are damned annoying. And I must admit, when I realized they were raiding in uninhabited and unexploited systems it caused more than a little unease, as they were completely undefended. Fortunately, there was only one such system that was a critical problem, however, there are several others that could be a lessor problem in the future, particularly if expansion continues.
With High Guard station established in the solar system, close to the jump point, there are now naval forces stationed there that can rapidly respond to most of the nearby systems in a reasonable amount of time without having to climb out of the inner system.
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Just re-joined after a long sabbatical of sorts. Enjoying the read, thanks for sharing!
8) 8) 8)
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Would you be able to share your initial tug, fuel harvester, etc designs? you know the behind the scenes work horses of any empire ... thanks!
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Would you be able to share your initial tug, fuel harvester, etc designs? you know the behind the scenes work horses of any empire ... thanks!
As requested:
1st Gen freighter. The current 5th gen freighter has the same capacity, but has gradually grown by 4,000 tons and has a top speed of 2311 km/s.
Freighter class Cargo Ship 39,719 tons 121 Crew 447.7 BP TCS 794 TH 720 EM 0
906 km/s Armour 1-103 Shields 0-0 HTK 45 Sensors 6/6/0/0 DCR 1-0 PPV 0
MSP 7 Max Repair 50 MSP
Cargo 25,000 Cargo Shuttle Multiplier 9
Lieutenant Commander Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 36 months
Commercial NGC Engine (4) Power 720 Fuel Use 1.41% Signature 180 Explosion 3%
Fuel Capacity 100,000 Litres Range 32.2 billion km (410 days at full power)
Basic Thermal Sensor Mk II (1) Sensitivity 6 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 19.4m km
Basic EM Sensor Mk II (1) Sensitivity 6 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 19.4m km
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Freighter for auto-assignment purposes
1st Gen colonist transport. As with the freighter, the transport grew by about 4,500 tons by the 5th gen model, and the 5th gen model has a top speed of 2301 km/s.
Colonial Transport class Colonist Transport 39,906 tons 176 Crew 1,235 BP TCS 798 TH 720 EM 0
902 km/s Armour 1-104 Shields 0-0 HTK 50 Sensors 6/6/0/0 DCR 1-0 PPV 0
MSP 19 Max Repair 400 MSP
Cryogenic Berths 100,000 Cargo Shuttle Multiplier 9
Lieutenant Commander Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 36 months
Commercial NGC Engine (4) Power 720 Fuel Use 1.41% Signature 180 Explosion 3%
Fuel Capacity 100,000 Litres Range 32 billion km (410 days at full power)
Basic Thermal Sensor Mk II (1) Sensitivity 6 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 19.4m km
Basic EM Sensor Mk II (1) Sensitivity 6 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 19.4m km
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Colony Ship for auto-assignment purposes
1st gen harvester. The 4th gen (current) design is about 1,000 tons larger and has a top speed of 1471 km/s.
Harvester class Fuel Harvester 40,279 tons 168 Crew 693.9 BP TCS 806 TH 675 EM 0
837 km/s Armour 1-104 Shields 0-0 HTK 87 Sensors 11/11/0/0 DCR 1-0 PPV 0
MSP 10 Max Repair 33.8 MSP
Lieutenant Commander Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 36 months
Fuel Harvester: 10 modules producing 1,000,000 litres per annum
Commercial Ion Drive (3) Power 675 Fuel Use 1.21% Signature 225 Explosion 3%
Fuel Capacity 5,000,000 Litres Range 1,848.5 billion km (25560 days at full power)
Basic EM Sensor Mk IV (1) Sensitivity 11 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 26.2m km
Basic Thermal Sensor Mk IV (1) Sensitivity 11 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 26.2m km
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Fuel Harvester for auto-assignment purposes
1st gen salvager. The current 4th gen is 4,000 tons larger and has a top speed of 1922 km/s.
Salvage class Salvager 48,609 tons 171 Crew 673.6 BP TCS 972 TH 900 EM 0
925 km/s Armour 1-118 Shields 0-0 HTK 50 Sensors 11/11/0/0 DCR 1-0 PPV 0
MSP 8 Max Repair 200 MSP
Cargo 25,000
Lieutenant Commander Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 36 months
Salvager: 1 module(s) capable of salvaging 500 tons per day
Commercial Ion Drive (4) Power 900 Fuel Use 1.21% Signature 225 Explosion 3%
Fuel Capacity 250,000 Litres Range 76.6 billion km (958 days at full power)
Basic EM Sensor Mk IV (1) Sensitivity 11 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 26.2m km
Basic Thermal Sensor Mk IV (1) Sensitivity 11 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 26.2m km
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Salvager for auto-assignment purposes
1st gen stabilization ship. The current 6th gen stabilization ship is a whopping 22,000 tons larger and has a top speed of 1770 km/s.
Jump Gate class Stabilisation Ship 58,109 tons 150 Crew 1,408.1 BP TCS 1,162 TH 450 EM 0
387 km/s Armour 1-133 Shields 0-0 HTK 39 Sensors 8/11/0/0 DCR 1-0 PPV 0
MSP 15 Max Repair 1,000 MSP
Lieutenant Commander Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 120 months
Jump Point Stabilisation: 180 days
Commercial Ion Drive (2) Power 450 Fuel Use 1.21% Signature 225 Explosion 3%
Fuel Capacity 500,000 Litres Range 128.2 billion km (3834 days at full power)
Basic EM Sensor Mk IV (1) Sensitivity 11 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 26.2m km
Thermal Sensor Mk III (1) Sensitivity 8 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 22.4m km
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Stabilisation Ship for auto-assignment purposes
1st gen tanker. The current 4th gen model is about 800 tons larger and has a top speed of 2821 km/s.
Accelerator class Support Vessel 20,378 tons 89 Crew 342.7 BP TCS 408 TH 675 EM 0
1656 km/s Armour 1-66 Shields 0-0 HTK 33 Sensors 11/11/0/0 DCR 1-0 PPV 0
MSP 510 Max Repair 33.8 MSP
Lieutenant Commander Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 36 months
Commercial Ion Drive (3) Power 675 Fuel Use 1.21% Signature 225 Explosion 3%
Fuel Capacity 10,000,000 Litres Range 7,314.4 billion km (51121 days at full power)
Refuelling Capability: 50,000 litres per hour Complete Refuel 200 hours
Basic EM Sensor Mk IV (1) Sensitivity 11 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 26.2m km
Basic Thermal Sensor Mk IV (1) Sensitivity 11 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 26.2m km
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a None for auto-assignment purposes
1st gen terraformer. The current 4th gen version is 7,000 tons larger and has a top speed of 907 km/s.
Terra class Terraformer 82,701 tons 350 Crew 1,892.6 BP TCS 1,654 TH 450 EM 0
272 km/s Armour 1-169 Shields 0-0 HTK 61 Sensors 8/11/0/0 DCR 1-0 PPV 0
MSP 14 Max Repair 500 MSP
Lieutenant Commander Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months
Terraformer: 3 modules producing 0.0023 atm per annum
Commercial Ion Drive (2) Power 450 Fuel Use 1.21% Signature 225 Explosion 3%
Fuel Capacity 150,000 Litres Range 27 billion km (1150 days at full power)
Basic EM Sensor Mk IV (1) Sensitivity 11 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 26.2m km
Thermal Sensor Mk III (1) Sensitivity 8 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 22.4m km
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Terraformer for auto-assignment purposes
1st gen tug. The current 4th gen tug is over 2,000 tons larger and has a top speed of 5869 km/s.
Tug class Tug 32,227 tons 204 Crew 725.7 BP TCS 645 TH 2,250 EM 0
3490 km/s Armour 1-90 Shields 0-0 HTK 96 Sensors 11/11/0/0 DCR 1-0 PPV 0
MSP 14 Max Repair 100 MSP
Tractor Beam
Lieutenant Commander Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 36 months
Commercial Ion Drive (10) Power 2250 Fuel Use 1.21% Signature 225 Explosion 3%
Fuel Capacity 400,000 Litres Range 185 billion km (613 days at full power)
Basic EM Sensor Mk IV (1) Sensitivity 11 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 26.2m km
Basic Thermal Sensor Mk IV (1) Sensitivity 11 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 26.2m km
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Tug for auto-assignment purposes
While the above tug is fine for towing disabled ships and smaller maintenance and recreation bases, they proved to be too small to tow the larger orbital habitats, so this tug was deployed:
Large Tug class Tug 84,571 tons 424 Crew 1,890.2 BP TCS 1,691 TH 10,156 EM 0
6004 km/s Armour 1-171 Shields 0-0 HTK 239 Sensors 14/14/0/0 DCR 1-0 PPV 0
MSP 13 Max Repair 100 MSP
Tractor Beam
Lieutenant Commander Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 36 months
Commercial Inertial Fusion Drive (25) Power 10156.2 Fuel Use 0.49% Signature 406.25 Explosion 2%
Fuel Capacity 500,000 Litres Range 217 billion km (418 days at full power)
Basic EM Sensor Mk V (1) Sensitivity 14 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 29.6m km
Basic Thermal Sensor Mk V (1) Sensitivity 14 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 29.6m km
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Tug for auto-assignment purposes
As you can see by the designs above, all of my support ships were designed to be rather small, cheap, and slow at the start of the game. This fit the economy of my race at the time, as it was limited to one planet in one system. As the game has gone on and the empire grew, though, the designs became larger, usually to accommodate larger engines so that their top speed could be increased. This was desirable as the frontiers keep being pushed back, and higher speed were necessary to move things along at a reasonable pace. Certain designs, like the harvesters and the terraformers, were kept to relatively low speeds as they were intended to be stationary for long periods of time.
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That was a nailbiter of a battle! Good job preserving most of the fleet.
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That was a nailbiter of a battle! Good job preserving most of the fleet.
Yes it was! It was probably the closest I've come to actually losing my primary fleet in all of my campaigns. That would probably have been survivable, since the Swarm doesn't seem to rapidly follow up, but it took a long time to build the fleet and I was really sweating it for a while. When I realized I had made a major mistake by not engaging them on the LaGrange point, I also realized that the LaGrange point was my only hope.
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What an elusive enemy, leaving bread crumbs here and there.
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What an elusive enemy, leaving bread crumbs here and there.
The swarms are proving to be very frustrating to deal with. They aren't tied to planets or populations, which gives them the ability to set up shop in any system. In addition, they don't seem to concentrate all of their forces in one place, which makes eliminating them difficult. A challenge!
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That's a huge battle, well done. Wonder why they didn't group up their ships properly.
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That's a huge battle, well done. Wonder why they didn't group up their ships properly.
I wondered that as well. I would have beat them no matter what, I think, but if they had unified their groups it would have been harder, especially since some of the ships were anti-missile escorts.
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There we go, a huge new threat and a looming battle!
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There we go, a huge new threat and a looming battle!
!!!! I know, right! I was beginning to wonder if anything was ever going to come out of that damned thing.
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It's like the nervous little action before the grand battle.
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It's like the nervous little action before the grand battle.
The Terran Fleet is nearing the end stages of its refit to solid core anti-matter engines, and the support fleet is not far behind. That means the main fleet will be 128% faster than it was, which is good, obviously. But it will still be slower than the observed speed of both the friendly Bob's, which ranges from 5,500 to 17,000 km/s, and the hostile Octs, who have ships that range from 14,000 to 22,000 km/s.
I've boosted my fleet speed as much as I can, without seriously compromising either endurance or payload, or both. The distance to the Oct and Bob home worlds is currently almost fifty billion kilometers, and even with a forward base boosting the fleet's speed would increase their fuel consumption too much for my comfort.