Aurora 4x
New Players => The Academy => Topic started by: Gump on January 08, 2014, 01:56:53 PM
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I have a few questions I hope you shall be able to help me with;
I understand an active sensor can never spot beyond its maximum stated range, regardless of the size of the object to be spotted. Does that hold true for passive sensors? If an EM sensor can spot a 1000 strength emission at xkm, could it see a larger emission from beyond xkm?
How do I repair the armour of a PDC?
If I make a PDC with hanger space, should I include fuel and MSP supplies?
I occasionally find a system with multuple stars, where one star is a long long way away. So far away I can't send a geosurvey ship there without tanker support. I've noticed I can add geosensors to a missile design. Can I use a design with a 'Geo Sensor Strength' of less than 1.0? Will I need an active sensor and fire control that can see billions of km to target the distant planets?
Can someone tell me how to design a functioning mine (the explosive in wait, not the hole in the ground)?
What does the recreational module do for a ship?
What do the 'expand civilian economy' techs do exactly?
Is the cost of installation construction based on the total number of construction factories or the total BP generate from those factories? Am I driving myself into the poor house researching the BP tech line too soon?
Is there a cost of maintaining a fleet beyond the minerals they consume through maintenance facilities?
If I have multiple ships carrying maintenance modules, is the maximum ship size supported the sum of all maintenance ships? Or equal the maximum size supported by one maintenance ship?
If I use a scouting vessel to probe ahead of a battlefleet with either a thermal sensor or an EM sensor which would be wiser to use?
I often see people appraising others ship designs and saying things like 'too slow for a plasma generation ship'. Is there some rule of thumb for a speed to aim for, or its it purely a personal opinion?
How do you judge how large an invasion/defence army to use?
How/Where do I assign a task force commander & his subordinates?
Thank you.
EDIT: When a geosurvey team has left a planetoid I Abandon it. Is there anywhere I can find where I have searched with a survey team previously?
Thanks again.
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Can someone tell me how to design a functioning mine (the explosive in wait, not the hole in the ground)?
Design a compact missile with an active sensor. This sensor's range and resolution determines what you can hit, so the missile's fuel reserves only need to allow it to travel that far.
Now, design a mine. This is a missile with no engine, no warhead, and no fuel, but the exact same active sensor as the missile you just built. Then add, as a "second stage", the missile you previously built. Add 3 or 4 of them, if you want.
The mine's sensor will trigger the smaller missiles to fire, so you obviously don't want a different sensor, or the mine might trigger on something the smaller missiles can't detect, or vice versa.
Now build a missile launcher big enough for the mine. I usually minimize it to the smallest size that's not a box launcher, and use minimum reload tech to make it cheap. It may take 2 hours to reload, but you're not going to be rapid-firing these mines.
You also need a missile fire control, again, use the worst technology you have, smallest size. It doesn't actually have to target anything.
Build a ship, set up the mine launcher to the fire control, and now in the task group window you can give orders: "go to JP#1", "launch missiles at JP#1", and so on.
Pro tip: Do not use thermal or EM sensors for your mine in hopes of making it harder to detect. I did this once and my thermal mines ended up firing on a friendly contact, starting a war!
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What do the 'expand civilian economy' techs do exactly?
I often see people appraising others ship designs and saying things like 'too slow for a plasma generation ship'. Is there some rule of thumb for a speed to aim for, or its it purely a personal opinion?
1. It increases the wealth production of the economy.
2. It's mostly personal opinion. :) But it is also based on experience of how fast a ship of X tonnage with Y tonnage of engines of Z tech can go.
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I have a few questions I hope you shall be able to help me with;
Happy to help! Though I'm afraid I don't know the full answer to some of these.
I understand an active sensor can never spot beyond its maximum stated range, regardless of the size of the object to be spotted. Does that hold true for passive sensors? If an EM sensor can spot a 1000 strength emission at xkm, could it see a larger emission from beyond xkm?
Passive sensors don't have a maximum range, no. This is particularly obvious for highly populated planets, which can have EM and thermal signatures in the low millions; at that point even the most primitive sensors can see them from extremely far away.
How do I repair the armour of a PDC?
As far as I'm aware you can't. You can't upgrade them either.
If I make a PDC with hanger space, should I include fuel and MSP supplies?
Fuel isn't necessary unless you want to roleplay it; you could just launch and have the parasites refuel from the planet. And in fact at one point having PDCs with fuel tanks was a good way to get spammed with out of fuel messages, but this may have been fixed. MSP could be useful for performing repairs on docked craft, but wouldn't be strictly necessary either.
I occasionally find a system with multuple stars, where one star is a long long way away. So far away I can't send a geosurvey ship there without tanker support. I've noticed I can add geosensors to a missile design. Can I use a design with a 'Geo Sensor Strength' of less than 1.0? Will I need an active sensor and fire control that can see billions of km to target the distant planets?
I believe you can launch missiles at a waypoint in orbit of a planet without needing a sensor or fire control for it, but I've never tried it so I can't give specifics. I usually ignore long distance binary stars.
Can someone tell me how to design a functioning mine (the explosive in wait, not the hole in the ground)?
Again, I have no personal experience, but I think if you design a missile with a sensor but no engine and include standard missiles as a second stage, it will launch those missiles when it detects a hostile vessel within the distance it's set to detach a second stage.
What does the recreational module do for a ship?
A recreation module provides a location for shore leave (but only when in orbit of a planet, I think).
What do the 'expand civilian economy' techs do exactly?
They increase your wealth generation. I think they directly increase taxes and also increase the supply and demand of trade goods that your civilian lines ship around to generate money.
Is the cost of installation construction based on the total number of construction factories or the total BP generate from those factories? Am I driving myself into the poor house researching the BP tech line too soon?
The wealth cost is based on the number of BP/CP/RP produced, not the number of factories. So techs that increase the production of factories/shipyards/research facilities also increase the wealth cost of operating them at full capacity. Note that you'll never lose out by increasing the tech, though, since producing the same amount of things will cost the same amount, it will just get done quicker.
Is there a cost of maintaining a fleet beyond the minerals they consume through maintenance facilities?
There's a wealth cost too, I think. I would assume it's 1 wealth per unit of minerals consumed in maintenance, since that would sync with the rest of the game's mechanics.
If I have multiple ships carrying maintenance modules, is the maximum ship size supported the sum of all maintenance ships? Or equal the maximum size supported by one maintenance ship?
It's the total. You can use multiple maintenance ships together to service larger ships.
If I use a scouting vessel to probe ahead of a battlefleet with either a thermal sensor or an EM sensor which would be wiser to use?
I'd normally use thermal, since it's harder to hide from; thermal emissions come from a ship's engines, whereas EM comes from active sensors and shields, both of which are much easier to turn off. On the other hand, an EM sensor not only tells you where the enemy is, but if the enemy is looking for or targeting you. The best solution, if you can manage it, is to use both.
I often see people appraising others ship designs and saying things like 'too slow for a plasma generation ship'. Is there some rule of thumb for a speed to aim for, or its it purely a personal opinion?
It's to some degree a personal opinion. I usually aim for a quarter to a third of a hull to be engines, for instance, but there's not really a right or wrong answer. However a lot of it is experience with what's most effective.
How/Where do I assign a task force commander & his subordinates?
I usually use the f4 personnel menu, and select the "Staff officers" assignment type filter. Knowing Aurora there's probably multiple ways to do it, though.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
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I believe you can launch missiles at a waypoint in orbit of a planet without needing a sensor or fire control for it, but I've never tried it so I can't give specifics. I usually ignore long distance binary stars.
I routinely fire missiles equipped with just active sensors at interesting objects, including habitable planets, as part of my first-in missions, so I'm an old hat at this kind of thing. In principle you could do the same with missile-mounted geosurvey sensors.
To put a waypoint on a planet, first click on the planet (or moon or whatever) in the System Map (F3) window. Then, in the same window, in the Waypoints tab on the left hand side, click the Last button. Now the waypoint will follow the planet even as it moves in its orbit. Then just target that waypoint with your geosurvey missile.
If you try this I'd be interested in hearing how it goes. I tried including ancillary geosurvey sensors on my active sensor probes, but they never accumulated enough survey points to be worthwhile, so I dismisses the idea. It may work with a dedicated geosurvey probe though.
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I did the whole geosurvey missile gimmick in a game once. For the new guy, you don't need active sensors to target a waypoint and the fire control doesn't have to have enough range to reach the waypoint, but you do need a fire control. What I did was just design the smallest, most anemic fire control I could for my missile-surveyors/minelayers.
As for how useful it was, eh. It's rather micromanagement-intensive even if you only use them to survey the major bodies. It's slow as sin, but you don't have to keep a ship moving about in-system for that time. Keep a clutch of them on your jump scouts maybe and have them run while it does the grav survey.
And yeah, a rule of thumb for ship speed is a third to a fourth of a military ship's tonnage dedicated to engines at the normal power modifier.
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Hangar PDCs can't carry MSPs and I think there is a bug with them trying to repair damaged ships that land in them so repair elsewhere before using them.
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A recreation module provides a location for shore leave (but only when in orbit of a planet, I think).
Can someone confirm or deny the bit in parenthesis, please? I am really interested in the answer for role play reasons.
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Can someone confirm or deny the bit in parenthesis, please? I am really interested in the answer for role play reasons.
It is correct, the body has to have colony on it as well.
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You can pop your colony onto a moon, asteroid or comet if you wish, also I believe that maintenance modules cumulate with planetary maintenance facilities, if that's helpful.
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Design a compact missile with an active sensor. This sensor's range and resolution determines what you can hit, so the missile's fuel reserves only need to allow it to travel that far.
Now, design a mine. This is a missile with no engine, no warhead, and no fuel, but the exact same active sensor as the missile you just built. Then add, as a "second stage", the missile you previously built. Add 3 or 4 of them, if you want.
The mine's sensor will trigger the smaller missiles to fire, so you obviously don't want a different sensor, or the mine might trigger on something the smaller missiles can't detect, or vice versa.
How does this look?
The ASM;
Missile Size: 6 MSP (0.3 HS) Warhead: 9 Armour: 0 Manoeuvre Rating: 18
Speed: 30400 km/s Engine Endurance: 1 minutes Range: 1.4m km
Active Sensor Strength: 1.4 Sensitivity Modifier: 110%
Resolution: 100 Maximum Range vs 5000 ton object (or larger): 1,540,000 km
Cost Per Missile: 7.6916
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 547.2% 3k km/s 180% 5k km/s 109.4% 10k km/s 54.7%
Materials Required: 2.25x Tritanium 0.84x Boronide 1.4x Uridium 3.2016x Gallicite Fuel x50
Development Cost for Project: 769RP
And the Mine;
Missile Size: 19.56 MSP (0.978 HS) Warhead: 0 Armour: 0 Manoeuvre Rating: 10
Speed: 0 km/s Engine Endurance: 0 minutes Range: 0.0m km
Active Sensor Strength: 1.4 Sensitivity Modifier: 110%
Resolution: 100 Maximum Range vs 5000 ton object (or larger): 1,540,000 km
Cost Per Missile: 25.3148
Second Stage: Size 6 Anti-ship Missile x3
Second Stage Separation Range: 1,500,000 km
Overall Endurance: 1 minutes Overall Range: 1.4m km
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 0% 3k km/s 0% 5k km/s 0% 10k km/s 0%
Materials Required: 6.75x Tritanium 3.36x Boronide 5.6x Uridium 9.6048x Gallicite Fuel x150
Development Cost for Project: 2531RP
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It looks good, which is to say absolutely terrifying.
You've built an anti-capital ship mine here though. Which is just fine but it's something to be aware of: the relatively high resolution on your scanner means that it won't "see" small ships at 1.7 million K, but some much smaller distance.
But yes you have created something that will shred ships warping through a jump point
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Size 20 mine is good. Once you have better warhead tech, you can replace 3x size 6 ASMs with 6x size 3 ASMs and still use the same minelayer to launch them.
There was a post a while back on one of these forums about a guy who added even one more level of awesomesauce: he created a drone (missile with engine but no warhead) with a very fuel efficient engine and vast range so that he could deploy one of these mines anywhere in Sol from the comfort of his PDC on Earth. That'd be like a size 25-30 missile with the "second stage" being the two-stage mine and the third stage being the ASMs. You'd fire it at a waypoint, it'd travel there and plant the mine.
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I know I've mentioned this before...
One caveat with mines is if you drop 100 mines on a JP, and all 100 detect a ship... All 100 fire. So you will get a smegton of overkill. Once.
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It's a feature, not a bug. I consider it part of their charm.
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It's a feature, not a bug. I consider it part of their charm.
Oh I know... Just a warning for those not expecting their entire minefield to obliterate one lone single poor pathetic little solitary ship.
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I know I've mentioned this before...
One caveat with mines is if you drop 100 mines on a JP, and all 100 detect a ship... All 100 fire. So you will get a smegton of overkill. Once.
If a fleet of ships encounter the Mine would all the submunitions target the same ship in the fleet? Or would each target a random ship?
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I've always wondered, if you put an EM detecting mine on a warp point would it only activate when a vessel recovered from jump prep and turned on its active sensors?
I haven't tested it but that always struck me as a particularly diabolical jump point defense strategy. Have a few ships there to deal with scouts and small raiders, but if a major force jumps in the defenders can take their free shots, then if the enemy survives long enough to recover BOOM.
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If a fleet of ships encounter the Mine would all the submunitions target the same ship in the fleet? Or would each target a random ship?
Not sure on their target order, but if you put sensors on them, they will retarget. Hopefully. If they didn't die in the first orgiastic mass of blow up.
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That's why you would stagger the minefield somewhat, if placed 150k apart and equipped with 30k speed missiles each salvo should be be an increment apart and able to retarget once primary target is destroyed.
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That's why you would stagger the minefield somewhat, if placed 150k apart and equipped with 30k speed missiles each salvo should be be an increment apart and able to retarget once primary target is destroyed.
this is sorta what I do. It will get aliens.
Human players would probably be more cautious.
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Can thermal or em mines sensors be used on mines? I just ran a test and it seemed that the thermal and EM payloads jumped out of the mines by themself, possibly triggered by the thermal emissions of the other mines and the EM of the active mines also being tested in the same area. However neither of the payloads actually hit anything, despite the mine droppers only travelling at 7,000 km/s while the payloads had a speed of 29,000 km/s.
The active mines however performed admirably, Each of 2 size 20 mines dropping 3 size 6 missiles at the 4000 ton target ship from 200,000km range, 4 payloads connecting successfully and doing significant damage with it's 10 strength warhead.
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Can thermal or em mines sensors be used on mines? I just ran a test and it seemed that the thermal and EM payloads jumped out of the mines by themself, possibly triggered by the thermal emissions of the other mines and the EM of the active mines also being tested in the same area. However neither of the payloads actually hit anything, despite the mine droppers only travelling at 7,000 km/s while the payloads had a speed of 29,000 km/s.
The active mines however performed admirably, Each of 2 size 20 mines dropping 3 size 6 missiles at the 4000 ton target ship from 200,000km range, 4 payloads connecting successfully and doing significant damage with it's 10 strength warhead.
I had thermal mines once and they triggered on a friendly ship, starting a war. That's why I don't advise them. I've also tried to use thermal sensor bouys (with no payload) to monitor jump points, and often they would detect a transit or a signature without telling me who or what it was. So I think it's best to stick with actives.