Gothic Campaign Comments Thread

[vorpal+5]

I don't want to be a buzzkill  but I would have preferred a multi-human campaigns, in part to see how Aurora C# handles the load. But oh well, this Gothic Campaign is not something I'll ignore, thanks Steve!

[Polestar]

I don't want to be a buzzkill  but I would have preferred a multi-human campaigns, in part to see how Aurora C# handles the load. But oh well, this Gothic Campaign is not something I'll ignore, thanks Steve!

May I recommend Stormtrooper's massive "History of Mankind after COVID19 pandemic" AAR? Over about two centuries, he built up a human empire, initially 0.5 billion, to a total population of more than 35 billion including conquered aliens. His Aurora C# 1.12 savefile is in the POST SCRIPTUM thread.

Load it up, and you will get a very definite idea of what REAL late-game slow-down, both on the gameplay side and the interface side, feels like!

The short answer to your query, based on this - rather definitive - evidence and my own multi-faction AARs, to the question:
"How [does] Aurora C# handles the load" is:
"Temper expectations and limit scenario size, even on the fastest [2021] CPUs. There's a good reason not to allow more than a few spacefaring factions to exist in any game, regardless of the detection and civilian options you choose, and that reason is ever-increasing and - as Stormtrooper experienced - eventually game-killing lag. His savefile should be an object lesson for us all."

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

I don't want to be a buzzkill  but I would have preferred a multi-human campaigns, in part to see how Aurora C# handles the load. But oh well, this Gothic Campaign is not something I'll ignore, thanks Steve!

I've found with C# that I spend a lot of time on game setup because of the increased detail. Therefore, multi-human campaigns are a lot of work. The AI is improved too (although I still need to add  carriers, more variety, etc.) so the games vs AI are more interesting. I will get around to another human vs human at some point.

BTW, the new raiders definitely change the way you think about protecting your Empire. I'm actually sending escorts with colony fleets

[Demonius]

That is both great and horrifying, especially with the huge amount of civilian shipping that can quickly spawn.

[Black]

BTW, the new raiders definitely change the way you think about protecting your Empire. I'm actually sending escorts with colony fleets

I was thinking about it quite a bit and it brough back memories of WITPAE. Setting convoy escorts, search patterns to detect submarines and raiders in time to intercept them and there were never enough escort ships to protect everything adequately.

Our terraformers and fuel harvesters were always safe, now they are extremely vulnerable targets that require protection. Dedicated escort designs with enough endurance to accompany long range convoys will be necessary or chain of refuel bases, that will also need protection. This actually adds completely new layer that we didn't really have to think about.

[nuclearslurpee]

Our terraformers and fuel harvesters were always safe, now they are extremely vulnerable targets that require protection. Dedicated escort designs with enough endurance to accompany long range convoys will be necessary or chain of refuel bases, that will also need protection. This actually adds completely new layer that we didn't really have to think about.

It also gives new life to planetary terraformers and fuel refineries which have been pretty badly outclassed by their orbital versions for some time now, since it is probably easier to plant those on a far-out colony with a 20,000-ton garrison brigade than it is to maintain permanent escorts. Of course the hard part is getting enough workers to run the things which could have its own challenges...

[Drakale]

I do worry a bit that it will add a lot of tediousness due to having to cycle a lot of small fleets in patrol tours all over the place. I guess tending stations and orbital habitat will become a lot more essential now.

[Droll]

I do worry a bit that it will add a lot of tediousness due to having to cycle a lot of small fleets in patrol tours all over the place. I guess tending stations and orbital habitat will become a lot more essential now.

Well you just need to be aware of shipping routes and send stuff along that way. Protecting JPs isn't necessary because thats not how the pirates get around from what I understand.
As for lone colonies a ground garrison and some STOs will probably be sufficient. The latter is what would be most micro intensive, since you'd have to get transports to drop troops at every mining colony, archeological dig and CMC (assuming their garrisons are insufficient). I also fear the problem where since ground construction isn't aggregate like normal construction, STOs will take years to build, making it hard to protect those small colonies.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

I do worry a bit that it will add a lot of tediousness due to having to cycle a lot of small fleets in patrol tours all over the place. I guess tending stations and orbital habitat will become a lot more essential now.

Raiders are optional, so if you don't want to worry about patrols, etc. you can just turn them off.

[Droll]

I do worry a bit that it will add a lot of tediousness due to having to cycle a lot of small fleets in patrol tours all over the place. I guess tending stations and orbital habitat will become a lot more essential now.

Raiders are optional, so if you don't want to worry about patrols, etc. you can just turn them off.

I don't think they were complaining about the fact that needing to set up patrols was somehow bad. The point was that it could be super micro intensive to do so, which you may or may not agree with.

[Drakale]

Oh yeah not really complaining, more stuff is always good and it is optional as mentioned, just thinking out loud what I expect will happen in my first playthrough. I do think it will favor making less colonies overall with the raiders enabled just to ease on the micromanagement side.

[nuclearslurpee]

Oh yeah not really complaining, more stuff is always good and it is optional as mentioned, just thinking out loud what I expect will happen in my first playthrough. I do think it will favor making less colonies overall with the raiders enabled just to ease on the micromanagement side.

Alternatively there will be some measure of risk+reward, in that if you have a mining system with a hub colony and several outlying asteroid mining sites, it may not be practical to stick defenses on every asteroid you're mining but the gains from building those colonies hopefully outweigh the risk of losing installations or stations to the raiders before your defense fleet can respond. Basically, settle ten colonies and if the raiders take one you still have nine left, which is a net positive.

[nuclearslurpee]

It seems that I double-post in AAR comment threads with frightening regularity...

Anyways:

Proxima could be a strong automining site especially if better deposits don't turn up in the next few rings of surveys, particularly if going heavy into ground forces the Vendarite could be useful as well. Still with so many jump points in the second ring I'd guess that it's unlikely nothing better turns up.

As is tradition in WH40K AARs the fighting starts early against a Necron fleet. I am curious though if some tweaks have been made to the NPR ship and missile designs? They seem just a bit different from what I remember.

Victory on the ground as well, but with much heavier losses than in space. One wonders what sort of advances in ground forces technology and doctrine might be made based on lessons learned in this battle. With two Dormant Constructs already discovered there is a possibility that any Aether Rifts might be closed up before the Imperium gets the chance to discover them!

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

I am curious though if some tweaks have been made to the NPR ship and missile designs? They seem just a bit different from what I remember.

I do tweak the designs as I spot issues. For example, the AI ship designs in v1.14 are better at matching speed to beam fire control design, rather than the generic 4x Range, 1x Speed. I've also added small, secondary anti-missile sensors to AI designs with railguns as the main armament.

[idefelipe]

Hey Steve!

I have been offline for a while and when I came back I see this campaign and I'm eager to find out more about the Empire and its heroes. As someone said I also think that scorting ships and harvests stations will give much more deep and RP, and also reminds me to War in the Pacific: Admiral's Edition (WITPAE) when you have to scort ships to avoid enemy SS.

Eager to play with the new 1.14!