Suggestions for 5.7 and beyond

[Rabid_Cog]

I've been thinking about missiles and the 'optimal warhead size' and 'offensive AMM' problems. A simple solution that would be easy to implement (maybe less simple to balance, but whatever) would be to make all armour somewhat like missile armour, eg. have a chance to be destroyed when hit. To compensate armour would have to be made bigger, of course.
To clarify, armour would still have boxes as they do now, but each box is no longer outright destroyed by 1 damage. Instead, every point of damage, when it is assigned to a box of armour, results in a check to determine whether the armour is destroyed or not. The probability of destruction would depend on how much damage still needs to be assigned.

For example, size 4 warhead missile hits a ship. First point of damage is assigned, armor has 1/(4+1) chance of surviving (thats 20%). Armor pops. The next point of damage is assigned on the next box which prompts another check. Armor has a 1/(3+1) chance to survive (25%). Armor gets lucky and survives. The third point of damage is assigned to that same box of armour and it checks again: chance of survival = 1/(2+1) = 33%. Continue this way until all damage has been assigned.

Now AMM's have only a 50% chance (that number can be changed by messing with that +1) to do any damage and there is no 'optimal' missile size to assure punching through two layers of armour. The same would hold for beam weapons, but most would be unaffected. Change of constant would be enough to fix the others.

Basically: Each point of damage has a 1/(#pts still to be assigned + constant) chance of not destroying a box of armour.

[GeaXle]

More realistic terraforming

I have been thinking about this when reading wikipedia about terraforming I think it would be more realistic that planet should only be fully colonizable (cost 0) if they have a working magnetic field (which generally imply tectonic).

Recently started a game where I created my own race of methane breather on a moon orbiting a gas giant. But when exploring I found dozen of cold moon, very low gravity, no magnetic field, no tectonic, low atmosphere that were quite easy to colonize. Normally giant gases planet emits a lot of radiation so colonizing all those moons so easily suddenly took all the fun out of the game.

I don't like the idea of adding gases from nowhere. Matters in a general way just don’t appear like that. Current real life ideas propose bombarding the planet with asteroid as most of them have HUGHE amount of water and oxygen (or other gases). When enough of them are on the planet, terraforming installation could change materials into the different gases needed. We could also take the gases into liquid form from other planet and mass-drive it to the desired destination. Or get them from other atmosphere like for fuel.

Removing gases is not a problem in my mind as we can consider that the ship blows it away in space like the solar wind does at a smaller rate.

Anti greenhouse gases seems weird to me also. We could instead have the option to install solar shade at the Lagrange point. Thickness or size of the shade could alter different amount of luminosity received and so the albedo. In the same way it could be a solar mirror to increase albedo for heating the planet.

It would also make it a strategic installation to defend against enemy and terraforming would be a solar-system-wide project. Currently I don't even bother with infrastructure anymore. I just build a few massive terraforming ships and terraform everything interesting I find. Mars can be done in a few years, even at low tech and there are many planets like mars. Otherwise I send automated mines and mass driver.

[GeaXle]

Fixe position of star system

This is planned in Newtonian Aurora, but I would love it also in standard aurora! What I don't like with the current jump point system is that there is no “front line”. It all comes to battling on a straight line on one single choke point (a jump point). And jump points are just too easy to defend. You just need a Jump Defense Base with a few plasma carronade and big maintenance spares to crush anything that comes through for a lonnng time...

My idea is that it could work in the current mechanic system (Trans-Newtonian mechanic). The ships would need to get out of the gravity well and aim toward the targeted solar system, then activate its jump drive and instantly appear in the new system as it would with a normal jump point.

To avoid going too easily to far away solar system, many nice idea have been propose in the Newtonian Aurora thread but here are the ones I like. The jump distance could simply be limited by a tech line of the jump drive. Otherwise it could be that the longer the jump, the more dangerous it is to "miss" the system or appear in the next one in line with the deviation vector. Or the longer the jump, the more the ship is blinded when reappearing. Or a combination of all that.

When jump ships would aim at the star (the bigger the star the easier) so from far away wherever you jump from the gravity well, you would appear in the approximately same zone. So it would still be easy to deduce where to defend a system based on nearby unsecure solar system, but not as easy as a simple plasma carronade station on one single point.

This would also make nearby system strategically important to defend and the knowledge of where may the enemy come from as much important. With listening outpost spy ships and all.

It would be necessary to analyze the gravitational field of a star to aim it correctly or gain bonus to accuracy when jumping to it. So gravitational survey vessel would still be around. And it would still be possible to build jump gate between systems to avoid the need of jump drive. There could actually still be jump point connecting nearby system as it is currently the case and jump gate could be built on them in order to set a network for our empire. The advantage of jump gate is that they would be safe, no side effect, no maximum tonnage and they would be in the inner system (as it currently is).

And all this in a 2D Galaxy would be perfectly fine (no need for 3D). To avoid showing off to much system from start we could go with a maximum distant view of a few parsec, thus necessitating to explore quite far away to "see" more system. This could be represent the fact that the farthest a system is the harder it is to see it and so on the edge we would only see the brighter/massive star fading with distance.

If all this is too complicated, would it at least be possible to have a fix star position galaxy, where we see all star and we have to find jump point normally? I like loop in jump point so there is multiple path possible to almost all system.

[GeaXle]

Better Fire Control Management

The idea is to program more precisely attack and defense setting through parameters of the FC.

Attack
For example, give the order for the missiles to go at only a certain slow speed and full speed for the final part of the distance, as to avoid detection and make it more surprising. The parameter for the salvo could be “60% at launch, 100% speed at 5million km from the target”. Like this it would also be possible to arrange salvo so they would all arrive at the same time at a given distance making it more difficult for the defenses to shoot them. Also I would love to give the order for my FC to change between missiles automatically. Like “first shoot 3 normal salvo, then one EM salvo, then one armor salvo and do this in a cycle”. Like for ship orders maybe.

Defense
Give the possibility to tell a fire control how many time it should shoot on a salvo or which kind of salvo to prioritize (if you have identify decoy or else). Basically I often have several layers of defense in my task group. AMM, Meson turrets, Gauss canon turrets, CIWS. The point of my AMM is not to shoot down ALL missiles of a salvo, but to clear it a little bit to make it easier for the next layer of defense and so on. But I would like my AMM to concentrate on the next salvo instead of wasting ammunition on missiles that are going to be shot down by my final defensive fire anyway. Also imagine your surprise once you discover that one of the salvos is armored and the single shot you asked your AMM for this salvo is not going to be enough in the end... Giving the need to rearrange quickly your defense program.

[GeaXle]

Beam weapon pierce side to side

Above the fact that I would find it more realistic, this would also avoid the "too easy to defend a jump point" problem mentioned in the previous post.

And jump points are just too easy to defend. You just need a Jump Defense Base with a few plasma carronade and big maintenance spares to crush anything that comes through for a lonnng time...

If I understand well once a beam pierce through armor, all remaining damage are applied to internal system. Thus with a few plasma carronade nothing can survive. That would not be the case if the beam went from one side to another.

Missile warheads

It always bugs me that nuclear explosion do such small damage to a ship hull. Instead of nuclear warhead, it could be named “conventional explosives” and it would have exactly the same effect as currently.

In the other hand, nuclear warhead would be heavier or more expansive (or whatever) but at least have huge blast like described in the Newtonian aurora system.

For this, we could make CIWS much more precise and the ability to decide at which distance from the ships the missile should detonate. This would also give a second life to laser warheads, especially if they behave like lasers (piercing through ships).

Component knowledge

Once we have knowledge of a tech, it would be nice to recognize it on an unknown contact. Like if we have ion engine, I guess it would be quite easy to recognize a nuclear pulse engine on any alien ship. There isn't much way of making a nuclear pulse engine. Like this there could be hints on tech aliens are using. The same could go for tech we don't know yet but we have recovered the components on a wreck.

[crys]

about thouse nuclear explosions,
i dont think an explosion of an icbm of today is ment there, more like a tactical nuke,
an icbm from today would translate into a size 10-20 missile - and dealing just one dmg with thouse, will be quite difficult.
(size 20 missile = 50t, size 1 = 2.5t)
in addition, explosions are much less effective in space then on earth.

you propably heared about the idear to deflect/destroy larger meteors with icbms - which seems to be an impossible solution today - i would argue here now, that the ship armor is much stronger, then the random materials of a meteor.

maybe this wouldnt reduce the dmg of nuclear weapons enough, but if the dmg of thouse weapons is not somehow reduced, you could destroy any size ship, with a single nuclear missile.

[davidr]

Would it be possible to have a check box in Task Group Orders which could toggle off planets in the "System Location Available" menu which are being used solely by Civilian Mining Complexes ( CMC ).

If I am routing say a Cargo vessel to load minerals from my own mining / colony planets , the Planets with CMC's on them are also listed in the menu which can cause confusion. If these CMC planets could be hidden as a location it would assist with routing orders.

Or does anyone know how to hide CMC planets as a location destination ?

DavidR
 
PS.  Reason the CMC planet is shown as a location for travel could be that the AI ( when auto assigning officers ) allocates a  Planetary Governor and Planetary Garrison to the CMC planet and the planet then shows as Human for location purposes. How then to stop planet being an available destination ?  

[Erik L]

Would it be possible to have a check box in Task Group Orders which could toggle off planets in the "System Location Available" menu which are being used solely by Civilian Mining Complexes ( CMC ).

If I am routing say a Cargo vessel to load minerals from my own mining / colony planets , the Planets with CMC's on them are also listed in the menu which can cause confusion. If these CMC planets could be hidden as a location it would assist with routing orders.

Or does anyone know how to hide CMC planets as a location destination ?

DavidR
 
PS.  Reason the CMC planet is shown as a location for travel could be that the AI ( when auto assigning officers ) allocates a  Planetary Governor and Planetary Garrison to the CMC planet and the planet then shows as Human for location purposes. How then to stop planet being an available destination ?  

As far as I know, the only officer that could be assigned to a CMC is a ground officer for the garrison. The auto-assign should not assign governors ever. The only thing I can offer to discern the CMC from a normal pop is they will always be population 0. You might also try renaming the colony to something like "Mercury - CMC". Then you'll know in the task screen for certain.

[crys]

when you rename things - you should consinder putting the name tag in front
like "CMC mercury" this way they dont get mixed into the list, but put all together in one spot/block of the list.
same can be very helpfull with all kinds of shiptyps, and different kind of colonies

[davidr]

Erik ( and crys ) ,

Thanks - will look into renaming the CMC planets to identify them. Erik - both the player mining colonies in the same system as CMC planets all show up in the "system locations available " box as " planet name ( Pop 0.0m )-Human " so there is no quick method of identifying player mining colonies from CMC mining colonies    - other than at present renaming planets for identification purposes.

DavidR

[flyingpants]

Ok here's my idea, you could split minerals into "surface resources", which are easily picked up by sensors.
Making asteroids all surface resources and so you don't need geological teams to scan asteroids.
And for larger planets moons/worlds there would be deeper resources which require teams to discover.
All resources should be set ahead of time so the teams are not randomly generating them, but merely discovering stuff that already exists.  This would remove that silly thing about only wanting to use 140+ teams.
Perhaps orbital surveys should be able to give some indication of what exists underground after longer/more powerful surveys sensors, so you aren't just searching randomly.

Another idea would be a third layer of resources, core minerals, which would be the largest in quantities and require higher techs to access.

Currently asteroids are worthless, with quick surveying and being able to automate mining ships to mine them, they should be the next step after earth minerals runs out.

Next idea i have, mining should produce ore at various grades, which has to be smelted and refined at populated worlds with a new building perhaps.  This would add bulk to mining, meaning more freighter space to move it, and be a little more realistic.

[Person012345]

Currently asteroids are worthless

lolwut

The surveying mechanics are already getting an overhaul for 5.7 anyway IIRC.

[chrislocke2000]

Having hostile construction yards churning out new ships whilst you have your own fleet in orbit can be a real pain.

It would be great if combat ships in orbit could be set to blockade a planet and hence prevent materials being sent to the construction yards. This could require ongoing fuel usage to represent the need for your ships to move about to actually intercept the commercial ships.

[Theodidactus]

two basic contributions, not really suggestions, to guide game design. I'm an amateur game designer myself, and I believe Aurora is, without question, the best free game I've ever seen. I'm going to post my two largest beefs below, but please understand that these are probably the only two things I don't like about the game.



#1) Civilian shipping is, by far, the most annoying thing in Aurora. I frequently want to launch guided missile attacks on my civilian shipping....that's how much it annoys me. Trade and commerce is usually my favorite part of strategy games (I'm a peace freak) but in Aurora, it ads very little and takes a whole heck of a lot: every system is crowded with blue dots I have absolutely no control over, and they don't seem to contribute very much. Honestly, if they all exploded, would it hurt my empire at all?  Civilian shipping needs to be more fun: perhaps slightly more interactive or at least cooler to study.

#2) This is probably a pipe dream, but is there any way to make long campaigns more feasible? Aurora does not effectively simulate space operas, because you can't play a semi-large campaign that's longer than a few decades (or at least, I've had no luck). My favorite thing about playing Galciv were the games I created that lasted for a LONG time, I could piece together sweeping star epics in my head.

I realize that this is always going to be a problem with aurora, given that it is free and designed by a single human. However, I think there should be some emphasis on features which make the game faster, not just cooler. Almost all the suggestions I see seem to involve more complexity (which, lets be honest, is the reason why we play) but there are very few suggestions which involve making the game less laggy...is that doable? Here are some possibilities (sorry if they're dumb/have been planned for a future update/are already in the game and I can't find them)

-a toggle-able option that disables sensor checks, or makes them less frequent, so that players can speed things along when they're not involved in combat. This would make the game more...I guess "granular" is the term, but that's better than making it completely unplayable.
- an option to create minimal NPRs that don't go past their home system, so we can have many races in a galaxy, but things don't get too crowded and break down?
- civilian shipping by convoy, not individual ship, such that the sky isn't full of thousands of outdated models jamming things up?

[Person012345]

#1) Civilian shipping is, by far, the most annoying thing in Aurora. I frequently want to launch guided missile attacks on my civilian shipping....that's how much it annoys me. Trade and commerce is usually my favorite part of strategy games (I'm a peace freak) but in Aurora, it ads very little and takes a whole heck of a lot: every system is crowded with blue dots I have absolutely no control over, and they don't seem to contribute very much. Honestly, if they all exploded, would it hurt my empire at all?  Civilian shipping needs to be more fun: perhaps slightly more interactive or at least cooler to study.

Don't you use civilian contracts? Those are extremely useful in most of my games.