Aurora 4x

VB6 Aurora => VB6 Mechanics => Topic started by: sonofliberty on March 19, 2012, 03:40:38 PM

Title: A Couple of Dumb Questions
Post by: sonofliberty on March 19, 2012, 03:40:38 PM
Hello.  I have to say that I find your game fascinating.  However, being a complete noob here, there are a couple things I am having trouble figuring out. 
First, I am trying to load some automated mines onto a freighter, but I cannot figure out how. 
Second, I got my naval and land officers assigned ok, but I cannot seem to assign a governor to earth neither can I assign a sector admin.  I have 1 A6 and 3 A5 admins.   
Third, I cannot seem to give orders to my freighter at all.  I cannot even seem to figure out how to assign it to a task force. 

Thanks in advance for helping the total noob.
Title: Re: A Couple of Dumb Questions
Post by: Erik L on March 19, 2012, 03:50:59 PM
1. Highlight the task force with the freighter in it and issue an order to pickup automated mines. Some orders only appear with specific ship types. Load/Unload colonists won't appear without a ship capable of storing said colonists.

2. In the center section of the officer screen is a drop list. Check the various entries in there. One of them should bring up the governor slots.

3. From the F12 screen, go to the rightmost tab. You need to create a task force here. The game should start with 4 preset task forces (Combat, Cargo, Survey and Shipyard). You can transfer between those by using the tools on the third tab.
Title: Re: A Couple of Dumb Questions
Post by: sonofliberty on March 19, 2012, 04:07:50 PM
The governor slots come up, but when I choose an admin he does not take office even after 5 days.   The naval officers did take command of their ships, that is why I am confused.   

(http://hxxp: s4. noelshack. com/uploads/images/19846487542761_admin1. jpg)

When I hit "Assign" he remains unassigned
Title: Re: A Couple of Dumb Questions
Post by: Erik L on March 19, 2012, 04:11:53 PM
Did you click Assign in the lower right corner?
Title: Re: A Couple of Dumb Questions
Post by: sonofliberty on March 19, 2012, 04:17:16 PM
Yes, I was going to put in a screen shot, but it didn't work.  

(http://s4.noelshack.com/uploads/images/19846487542761_admin1.jpg)

Ok, next dumb question.  How does you post screen shots here?
Title: Re: A Couple of Dumb Questions
Post by: Erik L on March 19, 2012, 04:26:55 PM

Ok, next dumb question.  How does you post screen shots here?
'

Have more than 10 posts ;) I fixed the link for you too. So don't edit that post. :)
Title: Re: A Couple of Dumb Questions
Post by: Erik L on March 19, 2012, 04:27:46 PM
Yes, I was going to put in a screen shot, but it didn't work.  

(http://s4.noelshack.com/uploads/images/19846487542761_admin1.jpg)

Ok, next dumb question.  How does you post screen shots here?

You did click the governorship slot before clicking assign?
Title: Re: A Couple of Dumb Questions
Post by: sonofliberty on March 19, 2012, 04:42:14 PM
You mean where it currently says "unassigned" in the center? Or was there something else to click on that I missed?
Title: Re: A Couple of Dumb Questions
Post by: metalax on March 19, 2012, 06:57:50 PM
Yes the order you click is important, you need to first select the administrator you want, then select the colony for him to administer then hit assign. If you click on another administrator after selecting a colony, it will move back to unassigned in the center.
Title: Re: A Couple of Dumb Questions
Post by: sonofliberty on March 19, 2012, 07:48:20 PM
Ok, thanks.  I will try to be more careful about the order.  Hopefully that will do it.
Title: Re: A Couple of Dumb Questions
Post by: sonofliberty on March 20, 2012, 03:44:41 PM
If you guys don't mind, I have another question.  Once you get a geology team onsite, how do you order them to do their survey? Also, is it common to transit a jump point and find nothing but comets? No planets, asteroids, or moons at all? I got 2 out of 6 sites from SOL with that. 
Title: Re: A Couple of Dumb Questions
Post by: Marthnn on March 20, 2012, 03:51:29 PM
If you guys don't mind, I have another question.  Once you get a geology team onsite, how do you order them to do their survey? Also, is it common to transit a jump point and find nothing but comets? No planets, asteroids, or moons at all? I got 2 out of 6 sites from SOL with that. 
Geology teams try to survey the body they're on by themselves. Just make sure the team has 5 members. If the body has already been completely surveyed, there should be a message in the event screen about it.

As for empty systems, or systems with comets only, from my experience it's pretty random. Even with a minimum comet number set, it's possible to have comets only, and it's possible to get entirely empty systems.
Title: Re: A Couple of Dumb Questions
Post by: Erik L on March 20, 2012, 03:51:46 PM
If you guys don't mind, I have another question.  Once you get a geology team onsite, how do you order them to do their survey? Also, is it common to transit a jump point and find nothing but comets? No planets, asteroids, or moons at all? I got 2 out of 6 sites from SOL with that. 

Geo teams work automatically. Just drop them onto a colony and let them play in the dirt.

The RNG work in mysterious ways :) What you find on the other side of a JP is totally random and will never look the same twice.
Title: Re: A Couple of Dumb Questions
Post by: sonofliberty on March 20, 2012, 03:56:08 PM
Thanks a lot Erik.  I can see that I will be wasting a bunch of time on this game. 
Title: Re: A Couple of Dumb Questions
Post by: sonofliberty on March 21, 2012, 02:26:33 PM
Ok, I have 2 terraformer ships parked in orbit around Mars.  How do I get them to start terraforming?
Title: Re: A Couple of Dumb Questions
Post by: metalax on March 21, 2012, 02:40:57 PM
Don't have aurora in front of me so the labels of buttons may be a little off.

Open up the colony managment screen and make sure Mars is selected, one of the tabs is for terraforming. Select the gas you want to add/remove from the list, then enter the target ammount of that gas in atmosperes. Make sure the check box is ticked correctly for if you want to add or remove gass then hit ok/save.

As you are dealing with Mars the first thing you want to do is to heat it up so either CO2 or 'safe' greenhouse gas is what you will want to add. Off the top of my head I think you want to add around 0.2-0.3 atmospheres. Once colony cost has dropped to 2.0, you will want to stopp adding CO2 and start adding O2 in order to form a breathable atmosphere, as conlony cost will remain at 2.0 while it is unbreathable. 0.1 atmospheres of O2 is the minimum with default race settings. After that finishes you will want to add enough other gasses to reduce the percentage of oxygen in the total atmosphere to 30% or less, probably using more greenhouse gass to continue warming the planet up to the desired temp in the process. If you have reached the desired temp then switch to adding N2 to make up the rest of the atmosphere.

Bare in mind that with only 2 terraformers it will tanke a very long time to finish terraforming, even with 30-40 of them it will still take decades.
Title: Re: A Couple of Dumb Questions
Post by: sonofliberty on March 21, 2012, 03:18:27 PM
Found it, thanks.
Title: Re: A Couple of Dumb Questions
Post by: xeryon on March 21, 2012, 03:45:39 PM
In the Population and Production windows (or Economics [or F2]) go to the Environment tab, select where it says Terraforming Inactive and pick what gas you want to manipulate.  Default is to remove what you select, if you want to add gas select the radio button for adding gas, then set a target quantity.
Title: Re: A Couple of Dumb Questions
Post by: sonofliberty on March 21, 2012, 07:34:16 PM
Man I feel like an idiot.  How do I engage my tractor on a wreck to tow it home? Or do I have to build a salvage ship instead?
Title: Re: A Couple of Dumb Questions
Post by: metalax on March 21, 2012, 08:03:47 PM
Wrecks you need to use a salvage ship on. Make sure you have some freighters in the taskgroup so there is somewhere for the salvage to be stored.

Tractor links can be created through orders targeting a taskgroup or from one of the tabs on the individual ship details page lets you establish a tractor link with another ship at the same location.
Title: Re: A Couple of Dumb Questions
Post by: sonofliberty on March 22, 2012, 05:52:26 AM
Ok, I thought I could tow it back home and dismantle it there. Oh well.
Title: Re: A Couple of Dumb Questions
Post by: Panopticon on March 22, 2012, 11:02:06 AM
That actually isn't a terrible idea though.
Title: Re: A Couple of Dumb Questions
Post by: sonofliberty on March 23, 2012, 06:08:05 AM
Yeah, it made sense to me that one of my inactive shipyards should be able to disassemble it when my tug dropped it off. Is there some reason it isn't set up with that as a possibility?
Title: Re: A Couple of Dumb Questions
Post by: xeryon on March 23, 2012, 06:47:36 AM
My thoughts: Physics.  Pressurized craft getting hit with nuclear explosions in a vacuum = miles long debris field with few parts large enough to identify.  I would imagine the conceptual idea was that there wouldn't be enough remaining intact to be able to tow.
Title: Re: A Couple of Dumb Questions
Post by: sonofliberty on March 23, 2012, 07:18:21 AM
That makes sense. I was thinking of a "torpedoed wreck" not nuked wreckage.
Title: Re: A Couple of Dumb Questions
Post by: sonofliberty on March 23, 2012, 08:14:38 AM
So, after farting around with the interface for a few days, I feel "ready" to start a game. One more question though, how do I add alien ruins to earth?
Title: Re: A Couple of Dumb Questions
Post by: xeryon on March 23, 2012, 10:06:42 AM
If you turn on SM mode and open the System Properties window, F9 I think, there is a Random Ruins button in the bottom right corner.  Never pressed that button before.  I would assume it is pretty obvious what it does do but I don't know what else it might do: like removing the existing populations, or adding precursors or what...
Title: Re: A Couple of Dumb Questions
Post by: Garfunkel on April 03, 2012, 07:14:33 PM
No, it does only what the button says: adds an existing random ruin. Could be a tiny outpost, could be a bunch of huge cities. But nothing else.