Calm down Þórgrímr, I still want to play the game... 
But, leaving the comic (Or not) comment above, I like the complex games - If the game isn't complex you run out of things to do; if its too simple you will master the game way too quickly making it boring. Aurora is a "Way too much" game - I actually stopped playing it for awile because I was afraid that I was going to abandon a Campaign because of the complexity. 
So bottom line: No game is the "Middle Term" (At least not the ones that I know of) the perfect game is the one that you have fun playing for a long time.
But now to the questions: (They would come sooner or later) 
1: How does the "Space Age" is played properly? (Is there any kind of Ship Design, Space Battles, Pirates, etc...)
2: Do we all get dropped in a single planet and battle our way out? (Like some sort of World Domination eventually reaching the Space Age)
3: Oh, The Research! How does it function? (You know, Tech Trees, Espionage, maybe research facilities like in Aurora)
4: About the Sheet Stuff... I'm not sure of the huge amount of Sheets that people talked about... (I completely SUCK at Math so my own calculations will suck too. Well, maybe... And yes I know about the Calculator but not even it can calculate more complex calculations)
5th and possibly last one: The Cold War! *cue dramatic music* (Or Hot one in this case) How does actual Planetary Combat Works? (Does it work like a RTS: Sheer Amount over Strategy; like a Grand Strategy: HOI3 Has Come! Beware its Divisions! or maybe a TBS: It's your turn pal...)
I'm a joker ain't I?
Anyways, Thank you for aswering my questions and forgiving the terrible English of mine...
Not mad, just setting a definiton is all.
1. I will give an example of a 'Dawn of the Space Age': It is the dawn of the American space exploration effort. The US has decided that to explore the final frontier and they will need a secure base in orbit to support efforts further out in the solar system.
They have a (star)port located in the Southeast region and will be using rockets to lift the IUUs and pop into orbit and in expectation of that have built quite a few of their Titan 2 lifting bodies. They pay the 100 WUs and lift the 500 pop and 10 IUUs into orbit. At the end of the fifth turn Skywatch One becomes operational with one Bastion.
Now let's continue with the example, BTW, these examples are right out of the design docs: The American space exploration effort has yielded spectacular success and Congress has decided it is time to move manufacturing into orbit to ease the cost of producing space based items. Therefore the US has decided that to expand Skywatch One into a proper space station.
They have a (star)port located in the Southeast region and will be using rockets to lift the IUUs into orbit and in expectation of that have built quite a few Saturn 5 Heavy Lifting Bodies. They pay the 200 WUs and lift the 2.5K pop and 20 IUUs into orbit. At the end of the turn Skywatch One transforms into Earth Two and becomes operational in 6 turns with a pop cap of 10K and with one Bastion. On the seventh turn the US designates the next infrastructure point to be built will be an sHI (Space Heavy Industry) and pays the 100 WUs then lifts the pop needed to run the infra and the 10 IUUs into orbit. 6 turns later Earth Two has been upgraded to a level two space station with 3K pop and one space-based heavy industry capacity available.
And yes, there are ship desgins, space battles, and you betcha, pirates!
2. In the next playtest all of the testers will be a nation on earth in 1969, just after Apollo 11 has landed. The main thrust of this playtest is to make sure the new Research and Development rules work as designed.
3. I will give an example research project and explain it's parts.
[] Rocketry: Manned Orbital Capsule Name of ProjectTech Level Requirement Engineering, Physics/Mathematics 6.9
Technology Levels required to open up the projectR&D Requirement Manned Capsule, 10 Rocket Manufactory Production Slots
Technology required to research. Number of Manufacturing Slots needed Beneficial Disciplines: Rocketry, Astronautics, Ballistics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Spacecraft Propulsion, Spacecraft Design
The teams and scientists assigned to the project will have disciplines they excel at, these are the beneficial onesSuccesses Required 2
Each Project has three stages, Theory, Develpoment, and Practical Application. These are the number of successes needed to progress.Chemical cryogenic rockets use fuels that demand active storage measures in almost all star systems if used inside the 'snow line.' By far the most common such system is the liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen rocket, which uses plain water as fuel, split into its component elements. Such rockets typically have a impulse rating of 400 to 500 seconds, a thrust to weight ratio of less than 100 to 1 and a total delta-v of no more than 6.2 m/sec.
Project DescriptionCompleting the Rocketry: Manned Orbital Capsule project allows the Power to build a larger manned orbital space vehicle squadron. This carries more crew and equipment than the primitive Manned Capsule. It is capable of moving out of LEO into higher orbits, and leads the way to manned Space Platforms, Space Stations, and eventually the Moon.
Benefits of the Project.4. The player has two sheets. A System Sheet and an Empire sheet. The player does no math beyond basic planning. All of the math is done for him. All you do is enter the data and the math is calced by the sheet. Everything else is optional or a helper.
5. The player gives the orders for his military, and the GM processes them and returns the results. So like all Imperious rulers, you have to rely on your military to carry out your orders.
Needless to say, this is one reason the GM program is being made. Combat has a LOT of modifiers. The base unit is the Bn, and you build your own order of battle. AKA, make you own military as you see fit.
I like jokers.
And I also like to answer questions, the more the merrier since it shows an interest.
Cheers, Thor
