What the heck?

[MagusXIX]

plastic, in a "regular" game of aurora, played as it was designed to be played (you can leave all of the options to their defaults on the game creation screen) you will start out as a trans-newtonian empire with some points in the bank to spend on both research AND creation of some starting ships (you will still have to design the ships before you spent your points on them.)  To spend your starting points, you need to turn SM Mode on.

In the research screen you will see how many points you have left to spend displayed towards the middle-right of the window (you will need to have SM Mode turned on before you will see the display.)  You can spend them by selecting a tech and using the "instant" button.  You will also need to design your gear just like normal and it will cost you points to research your designs, so don't spend all your points on techs without remembering to design some equipment.

To create your starting fleet, use the Fast OB Creation option located under "Spacemaster" (same dropdown menu that you use to turn SM Mode on.)  You'll see that you have two separate pools of points to spend.  One pool is for starting ships, and the other is for starting PDCs.  Once you've designed your ships, you can create them using this menu.  The bigger and more complex your ships/PDCs, the more points they will cost you. It's also important to remember your limitations regarding maintenance and shipyard sizes when creating your initial designs.  Technically nothing is stopping you from creating a behemoth of a ship, but if you don't start out with enough maint. facilities or a large enough shipyard, you might run into some issues fairly quickly.

Again, this is with all of the options left at their defaults.  The game was designed with this in mind.  It's the default way to play.

[MagusXIX]

You can think of your initial points as a way to decide what sort of civilization you would like to play as.  You can spend them on literally anything you like.  This means that the game can start off on a different foot every time you play.  I think you'll also find that, at the default settings, you actually don't get a whole lot of tech or ships.  Enough for some nuclear pulse engines and maybe a few other things, and a cargo/colony ship or two plus a surveyor.  Give or take.  It's really not much.

Granted, you *can* decide to just give yourself ALL of the techs, because there's nothing stopping you from spending more points than you have ... but if you want to play the way the game was intended to be played, you'll stick to using only your starting points and no more.

[plasticpanzers (OP)]

thank you.  I have done that.  i did not enjoy it as much as playing cold start.   going back to a cold start and trying
to get to the level you can be at with the SM start is a totally different game.   I like to start prejump and early space
exploration.  my enjoyment in my first game playing going into my first unexplored system was wonderful.  It simply
is alot more fun to be 'stone age' going to 'star age' rather than starting on the run.

its one of the long term issues i had with Paradox's Heart of Iron series.   The game designers there were happy to have
Tiger I tanks available in 1939 to overrun Poland ('It could happen!' was one of the arguments they used).  I prefer to
start a game like that at the beginning and make my own way.   thats just my choice and i know there are others.

When i say 'cheat' there are connotations.  One is the computer program set up to 'cheat' mathmatically to overcome
program limitations against a human opponent.   One is game setup where you can (in SM) set up to any level of toys in
the box to use.  The last is to go back (as has been mentioned) and correct your errors (such as forgetting to put missiles
on some ships) buy using SM to correct that.  The last is the cheat that covers up for mistakes and is like using the save
on some games over and over to get the outcome you want.   Generally if i screw up its my fault and i try to fix it down
the road in the game (adapt) of if its too serious just start over.

regular and SM are simply choices.  i choose regular because to me that is the challenge to overcome.  thats just my choice
to enjoy the game that way.  neither of them is right or wrong.   the issues i am having are changes pre and post 7 patch
that appears to effect missile combat with NPRs.   I have had about 2 dozen pre and post 7 games to see this issue and its
not just a one-off viewpoint.   I will either discover what i am doing wrong or what has changed to make what i did that was
right now wrong.

[Sematary]

I have a long post typed out but keep getting 403 and I need to be off for work. I will try to figure it out in the morning.

[Ostia]

Uhh, plasticpanzers could you clarify whether you are asking for help or just need a place to rant?

People offered you a hand, but you ignore them and just keep rambling.

[Steve Walmsley]

Plastic,

There have been no changes to missile detection and no significant changes to the NPR design code (except carriers) between v6.43 and v7.10. If there was a problem with missiles not being detected I would be getting a LOT of bug reports to that effect. I haven't seen any. NPRs and even spoilers can be very different from game to game, especially if you meet them deep into the game, so you may be seeing aliens at the upper end of the random range.

A lot of people are trying to help and you seem to resent that help on the basis that we must think you are not very smart if you need help. That simply isn't the case. This is a hard game to learn and play and everyone needs help. This is probably the most polite and helpful forum on the internet so please don't take offers of help or advice as an attack.

As many people have stated, post your ship designs. You may find that your issues are due to some easily-overlooked problem that experienced players will spot immediately.

SM is short for Spacemaster, which is similar to a dungeon master in a role-playing game. As Aurora is primarily a solo game you will need to be the Spacemaster to setup the game and become the player to play it. The game is intended to played with a Trans-Newtonian start, with some basic tech and a few starting ships. You have a set number of points for tech and a set number of points for starting ships, depending on your population, You will need to use SM mode to spend them before the game begins. All the NPRs are setup on this basis.

A conventional start is effectively 'Advanced Mode' for Aurora as you are giving yourself a significant disadvantage vs. the NPRs. If you run into an alien race after 38 years (which is a long time into the game), there is a good chance it will be a fairly advanced race.

NPRs use the same rules for ship design and combat as you do. The only exceptions is that NPRs do not need fuel or maintenance, although their ships are designed as if they do. They have the same limitations on missile capacity (and have to reload) and the same armour as you do. Something else to consider is which options you are using. If you have Invaders on, they will have very advanced ships from game start. Also, most players (myself included) simply stay out of the way of advanced aliens until we have sufficient technology or numbers to overcome them. Sometimes, the bad guys are just too powerful and you have to retreat.

[Steve Walmsley]

I have a long post typed out but keep getting 403 and I need to be off for work. I will try to figure it out in the morning.

I had a similar problem. It was the word 'then' that was causing the 403. Once I removed it, I could post.

[Vandermeer]

[...]The major plus about smaller ships is the cost and time to build is much lower, also the ships have smaller cross sections and are generally harder to find than large ships.

Now there is also a faction on the forum that goes the other way, sometimes all the way up to 100,000+ tons, so be aware that such a philosophy does exist here but most of the people who will talk to you on these things are part of the smaller size faction. (Also side note, faction may be the wrong word because that suggests a more split and dogmatic stance than you will actually find, but it is a differing of opinion)

You hear that Athom and AL? We have become 3, so we are officially a faction now!

One correction though, because it is such a hard standing prejudice: Large ships are not slower to produce, but against intuition even faster. It has something to do with the "largest component cost" vs. "total ship cost" ratio, which tends to go down as size increases, because component size is capped, and ship size is not.
Of course, getting the shipyard up to size for some monstrosity is its own time investment, but once it is done, you actually end up producing and refitting navy faster than anyone with smaller doctrine.

If the AI knew how to efficiently counter large ships, they would be obsolete in a second (thanks to shock damage), but since they don't, it is a nice alternative tactic for those who want to play a relaxed and fluent game here and there. Also it is pretty much obligatory once you try to emulate any sci-fi franchise, because basically every one sports stupendously large ships, even relatively realistic Star Trek.

[plasticpanzers (OP)]

Ostia, I needed to rant, thank you for being the rantee....

Exactly how clinical to you post by the way?   Your response was quite helpful (cough)

There appeared to be a small bug in the system for patch 7 that I am posting here rather than the bug forum that appeared to amplify
an error i made.

When i designed a new system (like R1 sensors or anything for that matter) it did not always show up on the design screen later.  When
i hit the own tech x button, then hit it again, all the rest of the new techs showed up.  Sometimes in later games when i got onto the design
screen no engines showed at all until i did the click on the own tech button and again.

In pre patch 7 games when i designed a system they showed up and i installed them.  That happened for my first 25 test games (i don't play
right away i test new games heavily).   In them I had R1 sensors and the missiles worked fine.  In post patch 7 I missed it in the early test
game and kept repeating the error of not installing them which led to the missile problem.   My fault for not noticeing but there was a bug
I stumbled over and kept repeating the error myself.   Should be fixed now as i see the problem and will keep updating the design page to
make sure all systems are current on it.

Thanks to those whose comments are helpful.   For the others, may the bugs eat your fleets (lol!)

[AL]

Ok, I think I know what's up with the missing components. So as you know, after designing new components you need to spend some research on them to actually be able to use them. However, if your ship design screen is still open when the research finishes, your new system wont show up because the ship design window doesn't automatically get refreshed. Whenever you use some of the functions in the ship design window such as obsolete component, your tech listing will be refreshed (as you discovered).
TLDR; either close and re-open the ship design window or click the "Refresh Tech" button and you should be able to see your shiny new tech.

@Vandermeer: in honour of this occasion, I think I might go design a special celebratory mega-ship which can launch "cakes" (missiles) across solar systems and packs plenty of "confetti" (gauss/CIWS) to help all my friendly NPR's enjoy the festivities 

[plasticpanzers (OP)]

Even stuff that I had researched in the past (inc all engines) did not show up.   When I finally noticed and started "clicking" buttons
and there everything was that was not before.   I now refresh the page always before designing.   thanks!

[MarcAFK]

I've had something like that with my components, I couldn't track down a specific cause so I forgot to post it.