I was waiting (patiently, don't worry) for the old Aurora VB tools that allow NPR manipulations (giving them stuff at least)

Hi guys

Where can i find the "language" file for the game? I mean the name of the things like Resources, ships, commanders etc.

Ship and commander names come from naming themes stored in the database.  It is easy to add your own themes.  All you need is an appropriately formatted text file and there are buttons under the Miscellaneous tab on the Tactical Map.

A strategy game with significant communications and signal delay mechanics needs to have a lot of attention given to those, and to enabling units to function acceptably when they're not under 'real-time' player control.

I'm interested in a game that does that, but I don't think Aurora wants to be that game.

Ultimately it is up to RNG when you get civ lines.

This is true, but six months to a year after you get your first colony is typical.  In VB I would be eyeing the subsidize button before 18 months was up.  @roug has the starting civilian line done something stupid like pay out all of their seed capital as dividends?

I would not be a fan of such a mechanic, and so I would play with it off. I do not think it would be a good idea as it would be a very large change of paradigm. But that's just my personal opinion on the concept, of course.

That said, I honestly don't see how it could work. So the player is notified of new contacts with a delay... Unless the delay is very very small (and then I don't see why you'd add it), this basically means that a lot of engagement will be over without the player being able to do anything about it.

Imagine fighters/missiles  detected in course to intercept your fleet in 5 minutes. But you have a delay of 10 minutes. You will know of the engagements after your fleet has been destroyed. I don't see how that works. No matter what the player may or may not "know", surely the fleet would defend itself!

And even if the delay is smaller, surely the fleet can react immediately. Even if it's just reversing course to make the distance from the incoming hostiles as large as possible, surely the fleet does not need some officer back on earth to tell them to do that. And also, would you then enforce that for any new command, or just the first time? By logic, any new command should be delayed by 10 minutes or so in the above case.

You have mentioned "conditional defense orders", but I don't see how it could work because you cannot decide in advance how a fleet should react. It depends on too many factors. What are the hostile forces? What are the relative speeds? What is the range of the fleet, the fuel level, its distance from home, its defences? How is the system where the fight has to take place? Shoud the fleet even fight or just flee, depending on the opposing forces? How could you possibly choose what "conditional defense orders" to give without knowing all of that? Every engagement is different.

Sorry, I just don't see how this could possibly work out in a way that makes any rational sense. Because while information back earth should certainly be delayed in such a scenario, a fleet should be able to immediately fight at full capacity anyway. I just don't see how you can automatically resolve this conundrum in game terms in a way that makes sense for the player.