What's Going On In Your Empire: C# Edition

[Kurt]

I've just finished designing a ship for my new Babylon 5 campaign, inspired by the Explorer class. It is intended as a very long duration survey vessel that can operate far from home. It can harvest its own fuel and support a strikegroup of up to 40,000 tons, including 32,000 military tons. As well as six 4000-ton jump-capable survey ships, it carriers an 8000-ton light troop transport, a 1000-ton AEW craft to overcome the limitations of commercial sensors, twenty energy-armed fighters, two recon shuttles that can launch drones, 60+ drones and buoys in storage and 30,000 tons of various ground force formations. I did consider adding a stabilisation module but decided that was a step too far.

I'm not sure how efficient it will be, but it was fun to design

Magellan class Explorer      500,000 tons       3,739 Crew       14,022.4 BP       TCS 10,000    TH 16,000    EM 0
1600 km/s    JR 3-50(C)      Armour 1-561       Shields 0-0       HTK 866      Sensors 8/8/0/0      DCR 1-0      PPV 0
MSP 25,017    Max Repair 1,250 MSP
Hangar Deck Capacity 40,000 tons     Troop Capacity 30,000 tons     Magazine 400 / 0    Tractor Beam     
Captain    Control Rating 2   BRG   AUX   
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months    Flight Crew Berths 800   
Fuel Harvester: 25 modules producing 1,000,000 litres per annum
Maintenance Modules: 20 module(s) capable of supporting ships of 32,000 tons

Orpheus-5000C Jump Drive     Max Ship Size 500000 tons    Distance 50k km     Squadron Size 3

Beigie-Bryant-400C Particle Thrust Engine  (40)    Power 16000    Fuel Use 2.24%    Signature 400    Explosion 4%
Fuel Capacity 8,179,000 Litres    Range 131.4 billion km (950 days at full power)
Refuelling Capability: 50,000 litres per hour     Complete Refuel 163 hours

Theia Sensor Buoy (46)    Speed: 0 km/s    End: 0m     Range: 0m km    WH: 0    Size: 6    TH: 0 / 0 / 0
Argus Sensor Drone (20)    Speed: 4,000 km/s    End: 6.3d     Range: 2,173.5m km    WH: 0    Size: 6    TH: 400 / 800 / 1,600

Oracle-30N Active Sensor (1)     GPS 1920     Range 31.5m km    Resolution 120
EM-8 Passive Sensor (1)     Sensitivity 8     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  22.4m km
TH-8 Passive Sensor (1)     Sensitivity 8     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  22.4m km

Strike Group / Ground Forces
2x Kestrel Shuttle   Speed: 3200 km/s    Size: 10
20x SF-1A Starfury Fighter   Speed: 10001 km/s    Size: 6
1x Charon Light Troop Transport   Speed: 1000 km/s    Size: 160
6x Icarus Survey Ship   Speed: 1750 km/s    Size: 80
1x Delphi Early Warning Craft   Speed: 4000 km/s    Size: 20
1x Engineer Battalion
2x Geosurvey Detachment
1x Marine Battalion
2x Xenoarchaeology Detachment

Icarus class Survey Ship      4,000 tons       109 Crew       870.2 BP       TCS 80    TH 140    EM 0
1750 km/s    JR 3-50      Armour 1-22       Shields 0-0       HTK 28      Sensors 8/8/3/3      DCR 2-5      PPV 0
Maint Life 3.43 Years     MSP 271    AFR 64%    IFR 0.9%    1YR 35    5YR 526    Max Repair 100 MSP
Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 24 months    Morale Check Required   

Orpheus-40M Jump Drive     Max Ship Size 4000 tons    Distance 50k km     Squadron Size 3

Beigie-Bryant-140E Particle Thrust Engine (1)    Power 140    Fuel Use 20.29%    Signature 140    Explosion 7%
Fuel Capacity 419,000 Litres    Range 92.9 billion km (614 days at full power)

Oracle-30N Active Sensor (1)     GPS 1920     Range 31.5m km    Resolution 120
EM-8 Passive Sensor (1)     Sensitivity 8     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  22.4m km
TH-8 Passive Sensor (1)     Sensitivity 8     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  22.4m km
Gravitational Survey Sensors (3)   3 Survey Points Per Hour
Geological Survey Sensors (3)   3 Survey Points Per Hour

IIRC, one of the primary missions of the B5 Explorer ships was to build jump gates in remote areas.  Perhaps a gate stabilization module?

[Steve Walmsley]

IIRC, one of the primary missions of the B5 Explorer ships was to build jump gates in remote areas.  Perhaps a gate stabilization module?

In the post above, I mentioned I considered it. Even added one to the design a couple of times and then removed it.

BTW, once I started playing for a while, I decided it was too much effort messing around with the Explorers   I went back to my post-setup DB backup, used Regen JP and Regen Minerals and then replaced the explorers with a dozen 12,500-ton survey cruisers and four maintenance bases. Now I'm playing the restarted campaign.

[db48x]

I decided it was too much effort messing around with the Explorers

What was causing the extra effort, specifically? Is there no way to improve the UI to reduce the amount of effort? They were a really cool idea, though I doubt you would ever have a second shipyard that big.

[Bezz]

Three years in and I find a system 2 jumps from Sol. In the system are two NPRs on the same planet. Each population seems to be huge and each race has around 100 ships each in the system, thats 200 plus ships in system. Quite a few of those ships have been observed travelling at more than 10,000km/s. They appear to be peacefully cohabiting the same system and planet and no sign of any aggression towards me either. Anyone else come across what appears to be two alien home worlds on the same planet or is this unusual? Hoping they remain peaceful as it will be interesting to see how it develops.

[Ragnarsson]

Three years in and I find a system 2 jumps from Sol. In the system are two NPRs on the same planet. Each population seems to be huge and each race has around 100 ships each in the system, thats 200 plus ships in system. Quite a few of those ships have been observed travelling at more than 10,000km/s. They appear to be peacefully cohabiting the same system and planet and no sign of any aggression towards me either. Anyone else come across what appears to be two alien home worlds on the same planet or is this unusual? Hoping they remain peaceful as it will be interesting to see how it develops.

I've had that happen in my games several times, though it's not terribly common. Those two races may be peacefully co-existing for the moment, but I would expect some rather violent fireworks between them fairly quickly. NPR's don't take a heavy military presence in what they consider to be "their" system kindly - and they'll both consider it to be theirs.

[Bezz]

Interesting, thanks Ragnarsson, so not unusual to share a planet, slightly surprising though.
As it happens, 1 race established communications - and told me to get out. As I saw  they now had over 400 ships I did or rather tried. The other race, also with in excess of 300 ships opened fire. They have speed 65,000 missiles and lots of rail guns. They took out my grav and geo survey ships and my sensor mine on the jump point but not (yet) the sensors on the lagrange point and the unexplored jump point which are near the home world. A system to watch from a safe distance I think.

[Garfunkel]

It is unusual but not possible. I have never encountered a shared planet in my games, for example, but several people have posted about such a thing over the years. In any case, you are correct that it is best to watch from a safe distance.

[GrandNord]

I just discovered a 6th star swarm 60 years into my current game ...
Three of them are between 3 and 5 systems from sol. I've had to beat quite a few FAC fleets already, though right now they're more or less staying put.

I've been able to defend against their fighters for some time but I still haven't managed to kill a single broodmother (I did manage to hurt a 130 000t one pretty good though). Recently destroyed two cruisers from one of them also, so this is nice at least.

I'm rolling out my next generation of carriers though so hopefully things should change, but I've been pretty limited in my expansion. I've been able to get only 4 systems away from Sol in one direction out of four. I shouldn't run out of minerals for 100-200 years at least so there is that.

[Steve Walmsley]

I've just started a WH40K test campaign for v2.6. This is the setup:

•   Starting population is two billion with standard installations for that population size, except for 800 Maintenance Facilities instead of 600.
•   Research Points are double normal to allow for the variety of starting weapons.
•   Starting Build Points are double normal, on the assumption the Imperium has been building up the largest army and fleet it can support before venturing into the galaxy.
•   Ruin chance is increased from 20% to 25%.
•   Enhanced Invaders, Enhanced Precursors, Enhanced Swarm and Raiders are active
•   System Count is 30 for Raiders, 60 for Swarm and 100 for Invaders.
•   NPRs can activate Precursors and Raiders
•   Ten multi-system NPRs using 2 + 4 empire radius. 60-120 LY
•   NPRs generate other NPRs with a 10% chance.
•   NPRs generate Precursors and Raiders
•   Minor Races set to 100%
•   Limited Research Admin
•   Research speed 50% after game start
•   Hostility Modifier +20
•   Survey Speed 25%

So this will be a challenging campaign. However, I think this is the best start to a campaign ever! Firstly, I found a Deserted Intact Colony on Mars, then four jump points, at 0.5b, 1.5b, 2b and 2.5b. One led to Alpha Centauri.

On Alpha Centauri IV, which only needs 0.09 atm of oxygen to be an ideal habitable world, there is a Ruined City and a dormant construct.

On Alpha Centauri V, which has a thin nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere of 0.18 atm and temp of -43C, I found Deserted Intact Cities!!

I only have 2 XEN and 2 CON formation, so constructing ground forces is going to be a major priority. The only downside is that one of the four jump points led to a system 70 LY from Earth, which I suspect is within the empire of a multi-system NPR. So I need to exploit my ruin riches before a much more powerful NPR finds Sol. Fun times ahead!

[Kaiser]

I've just started a WH40K test campaign for v2.6. This is the setup:

•   Starting population is two billion with standard installations for that population size, except for 800 Maintenance Facilities instead of 600.
•   Research Points are double normal to allow for the variety of starting weapons.
•   Starting Build Points are double normal, on the assumption the Imperium has been building up the largest army and fleet it can support before venturing into the galaxy.
•   Ruin chance is increased from 20% to 25%.
•   Enhanced Invaders, Enhanced Precursors, Enhanced Swarm and Raiders are active
•   System Count is 30 for Raiders, 60 for Swarm and 100 for Invaders.
•   NPRs can activate Precursors and Raiders
•   Ten multi-system NPRs using 2 + 4 empire radius. 60-120 LY
•   NPRs generate other NPRs with a 10% chance.
•   NPRs generate Precursors and Raiders
•   Minor Races set to 100%
•   Limited Research Admin
•   Research speed 50% after game start
•   Hostility Modifier +20
•   Survey Speed 25%

So this will be a challenging campaign. However, I think this is the best start to a campaign ever! Firstly, I found a Deserted Intact Colony on Mars, then four jump points, at 0.5b, 1.5b, 2b and 2.5b. One led to Alpha Centauri.

On Alpha Centauri IV, which only needs 0.09 atm of oxygen to be an ideal habitable world, there is a Ruined City and a dormant construct.

On Alpha Centauri V, which has a thin nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere of 0.18 atm and temp of -43C, I found Deserted Intact Cities!!

I only have 2 XEN and 2 CON formation, so constructing ground forces is going to be a major priority. The only downside is that one of the four jump points led to a system 70 LY from Earth, which I suspect is within the empire of a multi-system NPR. So I need to exploit my ruin riches before a much more powerful NPR finds Sol. Fun times ahead!

Can't wait to read your AAR, also I hope this test will be the last one and everything will be well so you can release the 2.6 

[Froggiest1982]

I've just started a WH40K test campaign for v2.6. This is the setup:

•   Starting population is two billion with standard installations for that population size, except for 800 Maintenance Facilities instead of 600.
•   Research Points are double normal to allow for the variety of starting weapons.
•   Starting Build Points are double normal, on the assumption the Imperium has been building up the largest army and fleet it can support before venturing into the galaxy.
•   Ruin chance is increased from 20% to 25%.
•   Enhanced Invaders, Enhanced Precursors, Enhanced Swarm and Raiders are active
•   System Count is 30 for Raiders, 60 for Swarm and 100 for Invaders.
•   NPRs can activate Precursors and Raiders
•   Ten multi-system NPRs using 2 + 4 empire radius. 60-120 LY
•   NPRs generate other NPRs with a 10% chance.
•   NPRs generate Precursors and Raiders
•   Minor Races set to 100%
•   Limited Research Admin
•   Research speed 50% after game start
•   Hostility Modifier +20
•   Survey Speed 25%

So this will be a challenging campaign. However, I think this is the best start to a campaign ever! Firstly, I found a Deserted Intact Colony on Mars, then four jump points, at 0.5b, 1.5b, 2b and 2.5b. One led to Alpha Centauri.

On Alpha Centauri IV, which only needs 0.09 atm of oxygen to be an ideal habitable world, there is a Ruined City and a dormant construct.

On Alpha Centauri V, which has a thin nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere of 0.18 atm and temp of -43C, I found Deserted Intact Cities!!

I only have 2 XEN and 2 CON formation, so constructing ground forces is going to be a major priority. The only downside is that one of the four jump points led to a system 70 LY from Earth, which I suspect is within the empire of a multi-system NPR. So I need to exploit my ruin riches before a much more powerful NPR finds Sol. Fun times ahead!

Hi Steve, silly question really, but since the limited research was introduced as everybody was changing the research speed along with special rules for lab assignments, wouldn't be possible to have a limited survey flag as well?

This could reduce survey without necessarily touching the settings, or, in my case, give a bit more options as I (and I believe many) am already at 5% by default.

[nuclearslurpee]

Hi Steve, silly question really, but since the limited research was introduced as everybody was changing the research speed along with special rules for lab assignments, wouldn't be possible to have a limited survey flag as well?

This could reduce survey without necessarily touching the settings, or, in my case, give a bit more options as I (and I believe many) am already at 5% by default.

How would this be different than the survey speed setting we already have?

Limited Research Admin works by limiting how many labs a scientist can control (though it's not a hard cap), and many players will use both the checkbox option and the research speed setting in tandem. For survey, there is no parallel to Research Admin - the closest I can think of would be limiting how many survey sensors you put on a survey ship or limiting how many survey ships you build, and neither of those options requires a setting to control as the player can easily abide by such limits (whereas for Limited Research Admin, it automates what was previously a tedious house rule to implement manually).

By the way, the reason for Limited Research Admin was not to slow down research, per se, but rather to limit tech rushing and promote a larger roster of scientists, which is why it works well in tandem with the research speed setting as those control two different aspects of research. Again, I can't think of a parallel for surveying.

[Froggiest1982]

Hi Steve, silly question really, but since the limited research was introduced as everybody was changing the research speed along with special rules for lab assignments, wouldn't be possible to have a limited survey flag as well?

This could reduce survey without necessarily touching the settings, or, in my case, give a bit more options as I (and I believe many) am already at 5% by default.

How would this be different than the survey speed setting we already have?

Limited Research Admin works by limiting how many labs a scientist can control (though it's not a hard cap), and many players will use both the checkbox option and the research speed setting in tandem. For survey, there is no parallel to Research Admin - the closest I can think of would be limiting how many survey sensors you put on a survey ship or limiting how many survey ships you build, and neither of those options requires a setting to control as the player can easily abide by such limits (whereas for Limited Research Admin, it automates what was previously a tedious house rule to implement manually).

By the way, the reason for Limited Research Admin was not to slow down research, per se, but rather to limit tech rushing and promote a larger roster of scientists, which is why it works well in tandem with the research speed setting as those control two different aspects of research. Again, I can't think of a parallel for surveying.

I know and agree, that's why was a silly question. The answer to you is that once you hit 5% the only way to have a more granular approach once I hit the treshold. Since I am seeing Steve as well keep reducing more znd more survey rate, I was wondering if a time for a refresh was finally coming. No sweat though.

[Kashada]

I'm very early into a game where I get to be the raiders, with a little bit of database magic and a lot of SM I have a system disconnected from the rest while knowing where the home system of an NPR is. I'm still mostly playtesting this gameplay style and might have gone way overboard on tech, I gave myself every tech below 50k while not expecting the NPR to be so low tech.

It's a little balanced by the fact that I only have 1 ship currently and they have hundreds, limited myself to around 40k of each mineral and anything else I use has to be looted. My first raid went really well, attacked 2 unarmed scouts. The first surrendered but was quickly destroyed by the enemy while I hid in the dark waiting to see what their response would be. I was unable to sneak back in later to salvage it.

The 2nd is where I ran into an interesting problem, it surrendered and I managed to tow it back to my portal (DSP then SM move fleet) only to realize I couldn't do anything with it because my shipyard is way too small. I'm rocking 6k ton stealth corvettes while their "scout" was around 33k ton ended up abandoning it so I could salvage the wreck. Everything I have seen so far makes me thing this is going to be an ongoing issue for a while as all their ships seem massive.

Once my 3 new corvettes come off the line I think I will attempt to find an asteroid mining outpost to raid. Although I'm already regretting building them as the enemy seems to be going missiles while I went Particle Lance and no point defense on this current design.

Considering writing a proper AAR once I have tuned the start a bit more

[GodEmperor]

Three years in and I find a system 2 jumps from Sol. In the system are two NPRs on the same planet. Each population seems to be huge and each race has around 100 ships each in the system, thats 200 plus ships in system. Quite a few of those ships have been observed travelling at more than 10,000km/s. They appear to be peacefully cohabiting the same system and planet and no sign of any aggression towards me either. Anyone else come across what appears to be two alien home worlds on the same planet or is this unusual? Hoping they remain peaceful as it will be interesting to see how it develops.

Happened to me once in vb6 - three races on the same planet. Stuff got weird because only one of them were hostile...