Post by: Sirus on May 25, 2010, 01:54:12 PM
I just installed Aurora yesterday, after reading through the forums to pick up some tips and to learn how to install correctly. I followed the tutorials while playing along, which has helped my experience greatly. However, there are a few things that confuse me, somethings that I haven't found in the wiki, tutorials, or even searching the forums. Here goes:
1) How exactly do you colonize? I have a colony ship designed, and a commercial shipyard on Earth is busy assembling a few, but I'm not sure what to do once the ships are completed.
2) I've got a bunch of resource-rich asteroids in Sol, as well as large deposits on Mercury and Venus. Of course, these don't exactly make nice places for colonists to move to, so I want to set up some automated mining facilities and mass drivers. How do I get these tasks done? I assume I need some freighters...
I think that's it for now, except to say thanks for the awesome game!
Post by: welchbloke on May 25, 2010, 04:39:23 PM
Quote from: "Sirus"
New player, reporting for duty!You need a good colonisation site. the colonisation factor is shown on the F9 screen, the lower the number better. Firstly, you need to create a colony on the site by either, on the System Map (F3) right clicking on the location and selecting create colony or using System Summary (F9) screen left click on the appropriate system body and then pressing the create colony button at the bottom of the screen. All this does is create a location that your fleets can interact with to drop off colonists, minerals etc. Once you have a colony using the Task Group (F12) screen you can give orders to your colony ships to collect colonists from your home world and disembark them on the new site. NB anything other than Colony Cost 0.0 sites will need you to put some infrastructure down to allow them to survive. Otherwise they will start to die off. Infrastructure is built using the INdustry Tab of the Population and Production (F2) screen.
I just installed Aurora yesterday, after reading through the forums to pick up some tips and to learn how to install correctly. I followed the tutorials while playing along, which has helped my experience greatly. However, there are a few things that confuse me, somethings that I haven't found in the wiki, tutorials, or even searching the forums. Here goes:
1) How exactly do you colonize? I have a colony ship designed, and a commercial shipyard on Earth is busy assembling a few, but I'm not sure what to do once the ships are completed.
Quote from: "Sirus"
2) I've got a bunch of resource-rich asteroids in Sol, as well as large deposits on Mercury and Venus. Of course, these don't exactly make nice places for colonists to move to, so I want to set up some automated mining facilities and mass drivers. How do I get these tasks done? I assume I need some freighters...
Same as above there needs to be a colony on at the required location (you don't need colonists, just the colony location), then you select the freighter Task Group and instruct them to load automated mines and then unload at the location of your choice. Different installations (mines, research facilities etc) require different numbers of cargo holds for carraige; these are listed on the Wiki site. NB that loading and unloading take time and, unless you want to operate at glacial speed, it is advisable to design your ships with cargo handling facilities.
Post by: Beersatron on May 25, 2010, 05:11:51 PM
But, to test and get used to the process you could build a Freighter with 25000 Cargo, then have Earth build a pile of Infrastructure. Give the Freighter repeating orders to move infrastructure to Mars. Once it has done a few runs you then have the Colony ship do some Colonist runs. Just make sure not to place more colonists than the infrastructure can handle. You can also try to terraform Mars, but at early stage that will take a long-long time.
In time a Civilian Shipping Line will form and should build its own Freighters and Colony ships, in effect they take over the colonization - up to a point.
Of course, you should have an economically viable reason for starting a colony, such as a way station along a long warp chain, or good mineral deposits or as a fleet base. That means that over time you need a plan to move facilities there, which either means your own expanded Freighter fleet, or setting up civilian contracts to move your facilities for you.
As for the mineral deposits you have atm, make sure you have a surplus of Mass Drivers on the Earth at all times, then move ONE to an asteroid along with a repeat order of automated mines, move about 50 to start and see what kind of mineral flow you are getting from it. t is crucial you leave some Mass Drivers on Earth, Aurora will NOT tell you if you move the last one. If there are no Mass Drivers on Earth to catch the mineral packet then you will end up ruining the planet
You can set the Mass Driver destination on the minerals screen of the Economy window (F2?)
Post by: welchbloke on May 25, 2010, 05:44:18 PM
Quote from: "Beersatron"
As for the mineral deposits you have atm, make sure you have a surplus of Mass Drivers on the Earth at all times, then move ONE to an asteroid along with a repeat order of automated mines, move about 50 to start and see what kind of mineral flow you are getting from it. t is crucial you leave some Mass Drivers on Earth, Aurora will NOT tell you if you move the last one. If there are no Mass Drivers on Earth to catch the mineral packet then you will end up ruining the planet :twisted:
Post by: Hyfrydle on May 26, 2010, 02:18:21 AM
Hope you don't mind me using your thread to ask this question also check out my newbie AAR for more help.
http://auroranewbieaar.blogspot.com/201 ... -post.html (http://auroranewbieaar.blogspot.com/2010/04/test-post.html)
Post by: Charlie Beeler on May 26, 2010, 07:23:59 AM
Post by: Hyfrydle on May 26, 2010, 07:39:57 AM
Quote from: "Charlie Beeler"
That is relative to your needs. Each mass driver can handle 5000 tons of ore per year. You need to evaluate how much is being mined per year and adjust MD quantity as needed. It's one of those attention to detail things that some of us really like and others loath. Your mileage may vary :)
Post by: Sirus on May 26, 2010, 10:09:40 AM
Ran into some new problems though. I created a "jump scout", which would jump through a warp point with a geosurvey ship and a gravsurvey ship in tow. Before I could get much done though, I was attacked! In Alpha Centauri! Just one system away! My geosurvey ship was blown out of the sky (all hands lost), and after trying and failing to communicate, I sent my two surviving ships back home.
So now I have a couple of new questions:
1) How much infrastructure do I need before my Martians start building their own stuff, like mines and shipyards? I don't really want to tow everything there by hand :twisted:
Post by: Kurt on May 26, 2010, 05:22:15 PM
Quote from: "Sirus"
Many thanks for the helpful responses! :shock:
Ran into some new problems though. I created a "jump scout", which would jump through a warp point with a geosurvey ship and a gravsurvey ship in tow. Before I could get much done though, I was attacked! In Alpha Centauri! Just one system away! My geosurvey ship was blown out of the sky (all hands lost), and after trying and failing to communicate, I sent my two surviving ships back home.
So now I have a couple of new questions:
1) How much infrastructure do I need before my Martians start building their own stuff, like mines and shipyards? I don't really want to tow everything there by hand :twisted:
1. Infrastructure only allows your population to survive on a planet with a colony cost greater than 0.0, to actually produce things you have to ship in some construction factories. To build stuff with the construction factories your colony will also need the requisite resources, either from their own mines or shipped in from your home planet. It is quite hard to set up a fully functioning, independent colony.
2. Bombardment is easy. By far the best and easiest way is to use standard ship-killing missiles. They work against PDC's, population, and ground units, although if you don't want to kill off the population and just want to eliminate the defenders then missiles cause too much collateral damage. If you want to cause a lot of radiation to kill the population but leave most of the facilities intact, you can research enhanced radiation warhead technology, and then design and build missiles with that tech (think neutron bombs). If you want to eliminate defending PDC's but not cause radation damage, then meson weapons are good as they will strike through the PDC's armor and not cause too much in the way of collateral damage. They also work through atmosphere just like missiles, whereas most beam weapons will not penetrate an earth-standard pressure atmosphere.
Kurt
Post by: welchbloke on May 27, 2010, 03:57:36 AM
Quote from: "Sirus"
+SNIP+Did you detect a large thermal signature associated with a population? Any idea how many ships attacked you? Don't forget, you will need to fight through the ships to get to the planet.
Ran into some new problems though. I created a "jump scout", which would jump through a warp point with a geosurvey ship and a gravsurvey ship in tow. Before I could get much done though, I was attacked! In Alpha Centauri! Just one system away! My geosurvey ship was blown out of the sky (all hands lost), and after trying and failing to communicate, I sent my two surviving ships back home.
+SNIP+
2) What kinds of tech do I need to bombard a planet?
Post by: Sirus on May 27, 2010, 09:56:36 AM
Quote from: "welchbloke"
Did you detect a large thermal signature associated with a population? Any idea how many ships attacked you? Don't forget, you will need to fight through the ships to get to the planet.
I've detected a thermal signature coming from at least one planet, as well as ground forces on the same planet, which fired 4 missiles at me. My new frigates were able to gun down the missiles without difficulty.
I've made some horribly newbish mistakes though. Not only did I not install some fire control on my orbital bombardment ships (I designed some radiation bombs to drop), but I forgot to load the frakking MISSILES!
Now they're detecting some thermal signatures, but I can't see where they are because my Alpha Centauri map is screwed up. I just get overflow errors whenever I try to do anything. Is there a way to reset the map? I'm flying blind here.
Post by: sloanjh on May 28, 2010, 01:48:39 AM
Quote from: "Sirus"
because my Alpha Centauri map is screwed up. I just get overflow errors whenever I try to do anything. Is there a way to reset the map? I'm flying blind here.
There's a good chance you're zoomed too far in - try clicking the zoom-out button a few times....
John
Post by: Sirus on June 01, 2010, 09:22:07 PM
Quote from: "sloanjh"
Actually the opposite problem; zoomed out too far. Clicking the zoom in button just spams overflow errors at me with no noticible improvements.Quote from: "Sirus"because my Alpha Centauri map is screwed up. I just get overflow errors whenever I try to do anything. Is there a way to reset the map? I'm flying blind here.
There's a good chance you're zoomed too far in - try clicking the zoom-out button a few times....
John
Doesn't matter now, since I started a new game. Have gotten lucky, and have explored two extra-solar systems and placed colonies on some mostly-habitible worlds. No other life yet, but fingers crossed!
EDIT: Forgot a question. I seem to have used up my pre-set class names by clicking the Auto-Rename button until "No New Name Found" pops up. Can I "restart" the list so I can take advantage of all the names I skipped?
Post by: MattyD on June 06, 2010, 03:17:25 PM
Rather than start a thread to ask some basic questions, I thought I might jump in here on use this one. So without further ado, some questions...
1.
Geology Teams. I just can't get them to work - unless they discover no new minerals on earth - grr.
5.14 - I do a geological survey of an asteroid early on with a ship, and then I create the team upon that asteroid. 4 years later nothing has happened. I know the wiki says that smaller bodies take longer to survey but I feel that something should have happened. I've tried dropping the team on asteroids that have some minerals resources on them and those that have none, without success.
2.
Is there a way to transfer military officers to civilian authority leaders? Plonking automatic mines and mass drivers on a number of bodies in the solar system burns the list up quickly. I know that I can build more Military Academies to increase recruitment but there are times when you need a quicker solution.
3.
Too big a subject for the forums, but combat/military ship design - while there are elements that look familiar from GDW's Star Cruiser it comes across like a foreign language - I'll hold off asking specific questions until I've played a lot more - never fired a shot in anger so far, but I have had a ship destroyed by ramming.
.....
I'm going to write another NewbieARR, similar to the one already linked on these forums at http://auroranewbieaar.blogspot.com/2010/04/test-post.html. Like that author I'll create a post here to hash out my problems.
Thanks,
Matt
Post by: welchbloke on June 07, 2010, 06:34:07 AM
Quote from: "Matty_D"
Right,
Rather than start a thread to ask some basic questions, I thought I might jump in here on use this one. So without further ado, some questions...
1.
Geology Teams. I just can't get them to work - unless they discover no new minerals on earth - grr.
5.14 - I do a geological survey of an asteroid early on with a ship, and then I create the team upon that asteroid. 4 years later nothing has happened. I know the wiki says that smaller bodies take longer to survey but I feel that something should have happened. I've tried dropping the team on asteroids that have some minerals resources on them and those that have none, without success.
have a look at the colony summary page. Does it say yes or no for the Geo survey? If yes you have been unlucky, if no then they are still hard at work. Also what is the skill level of the team?
Quote from: "Matty_D"
2.At present no, it was muted a while back that that military officers could be retired to become civilian administrators but this has not been implemented (yet).
Is there a way to transfer military officers to civilian authority leaders? Plonking automatic mines and mass drivers on a number of bodies in the solar system burns the list up quickly. I know that I can build more Military Academies to increase recruitment but there are times when you need a quicker solution.
Quote from: "Matty_D"
3.The Wiki and FAQ have some useful pointers.
Too big a subject for the forums, but combat/military ship design - while there are elements that look familiar from GDW's Star Cruiser it comes across like a foreign language - I'll hold off asking specific questions until I've played a lot more - never fired a shot in anger so far, but I have had a ship destroyed by ramming.
Post by: Hyfrydle on June 07, 2010, 07:51:05 AM
Post by: MattyD on June 07, 2010, 10:41:07 AM
welchbloke stated:
have a look at the colony summary page. Does it say yes or no for the Geo survey? If yes you have been unlucky, if no then they are still hard at work. Also what is the skill level of the team?
..
The summary page says 'no'. The teams skill is only 85 which I know is low, but I want to train them up before I let them loose on important planets. With the passage of time I just thought that they had fallen through a hole in the system with the four year time span.
Mind you I was reading a post in the ship design section and there was a guy there who had played a hundred years without building much in the way of warships - 4 years in this game is not a significant period of time, me thinks.
Post by: MattyD on June 15, 2010, 06:45:17 PM
My setup was low in materials, and I have colonised Mars to around 20m population, using supply and demand to get civilian lines moving.
Now, given the fact I am running out of materials very early on, I have yet to see an advantage from any colonisation. I have to build facilities there that take up vital minerals, I have to build a military presence there which ties up resources. I don't see the return.
Are two colonies in a single system an advantage or a drain?
Post by: welchbloke on June 16, 2010, 05:58:57 AM
Quote from: "Matty_D"
Re the geo survey teamsSounds like they are working away but have not found anything yet. As you have identified, development does not happen quickly in Aurora. As a rule of thumb, I tend not to create teams unless they will at least be team skill 100.
welchbloke stated:
have a look at the colony summary page. Does it say yes or no for the Geo survey? If yes you have been unlucky, if no then they are still hard at work. Also what is the skill level of the team?
..
The summary page says 'no'. The teams skill is only 85 which I know is low, but I want to train them up before I let them loose on important planets. With the passage of time I just thought that they had fallen through a hole in the system with the four year time span.
Mind you I was reading a post in the ship design section and there was a guy there who had played a hundred years without building much in the way of warships - 4 years in this game is not a significant period of time, me thinks.
Post by: Zed 6 on June 16, 2010, 07:47:14 AM
Very new player here. I have one Xeno team which has worked fine so far on 3 planets. Not too long and not too short. But the geology teams seem to be hit or miss. I have no proof but I think there is something seriously wrong with them. If a team member leaves ( Dies of natural causes, killed in an accident, retires etc.), this is not necessarily stated on the Events page that it was a member of a team, so unless you constantly check the Leaders page, you can be short a Team member. Once a Team member has been replaced ( either on the homeworld and sent back to the original body or at the body being surveyed) there seems to be a high probaility that you'll never hear from that team again. (10 years +) and still waiting ( 150-170 ratings) while other lower rated teams (90-110) find minerals very quickly at times. ( 5-30 days with original members). I'm going to reset the teams by bringing them home, disband and make new ones and try to keep an accurate log of dates, times, deaths and replacements.
Post by: schroeam on June 16, 2010, 11:18:40 AM
Quote from: "Matty_D"
RIght, before I get my AAR up and running - well I'm still yet to move the time along but the initial post is done - I am running a trial game to see what happens long term. I've got Geology teams sorted, so that's no longer a problem.Matty_D,
My setup was low in materials, and I have colonised Mars to around 20m population, using supply and demand to get civilian lines moving.
Now, given the fact I am running out of materials very early on, I have yet to see an advantage from any colonisation. I have to build facilities there that take up vital minerals, I have to build a military presence there which ties up resources. I don't see the return.
Are two colonies in a single system an advantage or a drain?
Another thing you need to keep in mind is the treasury. The treasury, for the most part, is funded by the taxation of your citizens. Small colonies will reproduce at a higher rate than large, developed colonies. You may be set up in a system that is resource rich, but without spreading your population out the size of your fleet will quickly out pace your ability to pay for them.
Adam.
Post by: Shade on June 16, 2010, 11:30:49 PM
Post by: sloanjh on June 17, 2010, 01:41:29 AM
Quote from: "Shade"
How can I assign Task Groups to a different Task Force? There is the drop-down menu in Task Groups that lists the different Forces, and the help popup seems to state that this is the method by which you change it, but it doesn't anything. There's no 'Set' button or similar, just the drop-down that doesn't work.
Use the 4th tab (Fleet organization) to create the TG - then it will be in the correct TF. The pulldown broke when the 4th tab was introduced.l
John
Post by: Shade on June 17, 2010, 03:56:20 AM
Post by: sloanjh on June 17, 2010, 02:34:59 PM
Quote from: "Shade"
I have used 'Add TG' to add the Group to a branch of the new Force, but it is still listed as Fleet Headquarters. Given that Naval Organisation is blank despite the existence of default TG's in the default TF, I get the feeling that it is somewhat divorced from reality.
You need to select the branch on the org tab, then click on the button that makes a new TG (I think it's called "Branch+Subs" or something like that). This will form a brand new TG that belongs to the TF the branch is in. The thing to understand is that the Naval Org tab doesn't have anything to do with existing TG - it is used to create a new TG (removing the ships from whichever existing TG that they're currently in).
You might also try to read Steve's post from when he introduced the Naval Org tab - it's probably in Mechanics about 6 months ago.
John
Post by: MattyD on June 17, 2010, 04:36:15 PM
Code: [Select]
SE5a class Fighter 850 tons 89 Crew 177.8 BP TCS 17 TH 60 EM 0
3529 km/s Armour 1-7 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 1 PPV 2
Annual Failure Rate: 5% IFR: 0.1% Maint Capacity 131 MSP Max Repair 42 MSP Est Time: 9.9 Years
Magazine 18
Ion Engine E8 (1) Power 60 Fuel Use 80% Signature 60 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 20,000 Litres Range 52.9 billion km (173 days at full power)
Size 2 Missile Launcher (1) Missile Size 2 Rate of Fire 30
Missile Fire Control FC7-R20 (1) Range 7.6m km Resolution 20
Active Search Sensor MR7-R30 (1) GPS 1260 Range 7.6m km Resolution 30
Active Search Sensor MR63-R500 (1) GPS 10500 Range 63.0m km Resolution 500
This design is classed as a military vessel for maintenance purposesI've made these missiles to be fired from the SE5a.
The Pinprick ASM-2
Code: [Select]
Missile Size: 2 MSP (0.1 HS) Warhead: 4 Armour: 0 Manoeuvre Rating: 10
Speed: 21000 km/s Endurance: 27 minutes Range: 33.7m km
Cost Per Missile: 1.7
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 210% 3k km/s 70% 5k km/s 42% 10k km/s 21%
Materials Required: 1x Tritanium 0.45x Gallicite Fuel x750
Development Cost for Project: 170RPNow before I get told off for sensor ranges and the like, I can't seem to get any of the missiles - I can see them in my stockpile - on board the fighters. The ammo status reads 0% even after a 'load ordinance at colony' order. I figure that the reason they won't load the missiles is a mistake on my part - some problem with the design.
Any thoughts, or have I just missed something on the interface.
btw,
My attempt at an AAR is here, some gameplay, some things I've learned set out to help those who come after, some ramblings.
http://aurora-4x-aar.livejournal.com/
Post by: Hawkeye on June 17, 2010, 11:40:39 PM
Quote from: "Matty_D"
I'm trying to make my first combat craft. I've scoured the forums and come up with this...Code: [Select]SE5a class Fighter 850 tons 89 Crew 177.8 BP TCS 17 TH 60 EM 0
3529 km/s Armour 1-7 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 1 PPV 2
Annual Failure Rate: 5% IFR: 0.1% Maint Capacity 131 MSP Max Repair 42 MSP Est Time: 9.9 Years
Magazine 18
Ion Engine E8 (1) Power 60 Fuel Use 80% Signature 60 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 20,000 Litres Range 52.9 billion km (173 days at full power)
Size 2 Missile Launcher (1) Missile Size 2 Rate of Fire 30
Missile Fire Control FC7-R20 (1) Range 7.6m km Resolution 20
Active Search Sensor MR7-R30 (1) GPS 1260 Range 7.6m km Resolution 30
Active Search Sensor MR63-R500 (1) GPS 10500 Range 63.0m km Resolution 500
This design is classed as a military vessel for maintenance purposes
I've made these missiles to be fired from the SE5a.
The Pinprick ASM-2Code: [Select]Missile Size: 2 MSP (0.1 HS) Warhead: 4 Armour: 0 Manoeuvre Rating: 10
Speed: 21000 km/s Endurance: 27 minutes Range: 33.7m km
Cost Per Missile: 1.7
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 210% 3k km/s 70% 5k km/s 42% 10k km/s 21%
Materials Required: 1x Tritanium 0.45x Gallicite Fuel x750
Development Cost for Project: 170RP
Now before I get told off for sensor ranges and the like, I can't seem to get any of the missiles - I can see them in my stockpile - on board the fighters. The ammo status reads 0% even after a 'load ordinance at colony' order. I figure that the reason they won't load the missiles is a mistake on my part - some problem with the design.
Any thoughts, or have I just missed something on the interface.
btw,
My attempt at an AAR is here, some gameplay, some things I've learned set out to help those who come after, some ramblings.
http://aurora-4x-aar.livejournal.com/
Little nitpick: This isn´t a fighter, but a FAC
Fighters are up to 500t, FACs 501 to 1000tYou are using a regulare engine, which is perfectly ok, if you want the endurance, but there are other types of engines, you might want to use (there is a post in the FAQ forum)
I highly suggest developing smaller missile launchers as a single missile will be swatted away by even the most rudimentary point defense your enemy has.
Edit: By this I mean the "Reduced Launcher Size" tech, not developing size-1 launchers.
Just to make sure, you did remove the bridge from this design, as ships up to 1000t don´t need one?
As for your ship not loading missiles: You have to set the default loadout. Open the ship desing window (F5), go to the ordnance/fighter tab. There you can tell Aurora the amount and type of missiles, this ship-class is supposed to load.
Hm, your missiles have a lot more range than your missile-firecontrol. Personally, I have it the other way around. Might want to look into that (either remove some fuel form the missile and up the speed/warhead/manouverability, or put a longer ranged FC on your ship)
Also, small ships are a prime candidate for specialisation. My FAC-squadrons usually consist of 5 combat FACs without any sensors (or only very, VERY rudimentary ones) and a single scout FAC, providing sensors for the squadron. But even those are rarely used, as my FACs normally operate within the active sensors of some real warships or a sensor-PDC.
Post by: sloanjh on June 18, 2010, 12:51:19 AM
Quote from: "Hawkeye"
As for your ship not loading missiles: You have to set the default loadout. Open the ship desing window (F5), go to the ordnance/fighter tab. There you can tell Aurora the amount and type of missiles, this ship-class is supposed to load.The other way is that there's a tab on the Units (F6) screen that allows you to exchange missiles with a population. This is useful if you don't want to use the default loadout.
John
Post by: Shade on June 18, 2010, 05:14:47 AM
Quote from: "sloanjh"
You need to select the branch on the org tab, then click on the button that makes a new TG (I think it's called "Branch+Subs" or something like that). This will form a brand new TG that belongs to the TF the branch is in. The thing to understand is that the Naval Org tab doesn't have anything to do with existing TG - it is used to create a new TG (removing the ships from whichever existing TG that they're currently in).
You might also try to read Steve's post from when he introduced the Naval Org tab - it's probably in Mechanics about 6 months ago.
John
Well, I did originally read the post, but all I learned was that I could't understand it. Your instructions have worked perfectly, though.
Post by: Hyfrydle on June 18, 2010, 04:26:56 PM
Post by: MattyD on June 20, 2010, 04:21:34 AM
Currently, I've hit the wall in terms of minerals, I've had to cancel 50% of production on earth and I expect at least 10 years to get my economy back on track.
In another game I encountered a violent race that cut through my fleets in a single turn, so I understand where you are coming from in terms of long term preparation, but my research in this game is lagging far behind the level of technology I had in that one, combined with my mineral problem.... My plan is not to get noticed. Luckily, my powerful alien friends (1650 DR and rising) have the [spoiler:2jdq90f7]stable wormhole[/spoiler:2jdq90f7] in their system, and they are a lot tougher than me. Not so lucky was my bridging of our two homeworlds with jumpgates. If it goes wrong, then at least it will be quick.
..........
Before I make a suggestion in the grown-ups part of the forums, I thought I might set it out here.
On the system map, when you right click it brings up 4 tabs: fleets, ships, contacts, populations. Would it be possible to add a further one, JP's, which would list the jump points in the system, and selecting one would change the current viewed system if explored.
Probably been suggested before, as it seems like an obvious interface improvement.