More Aurora exposure

[Panopticon]

SA is a good place for exposure, I am going to have to look your LP up.

[Garfunkel]

I'm running a communal Let's Play (basically an AAR) on SomethingAwful, and I know at least five people who had never heard of the game started playing it because of that.  I think it's a great way to draw people in, because you can display the depth of the game while also explaining the mechanics, allowing people to tackle the steep learning curve with something of a helping hand.

I did the same thing over at RPGCodex with similar results. Now running a truly communal 11-player multi-Earth conventional start game. So if anyone hangs around some other forums, putting up an LP/AAR or even just a mini-review, would surely helpl.

[Nathan_]

I'm running a communal Let's Play (basically an AAR) on SomethingAwful, and I know at least five people who had never heard of the game started playing it because of that.  I think it's a great way to draw people in, because you can display the depth of the game while also explaining the mechanics, allowing people to tackle the steep learning curve with something of a helping hand.

I've been following that and have some questions about it.
1)Recovered components. These don't seem covered by the mars treaty, is that a gimme to the goons, or an oversight? if they can still get compressed fuel tanks from ruins it could turn out extremely well for them.
2)Nearly all the easily habitable realestate in sol is likewise in their hands, again is that a gimme, or do you think you can cover for the wealth penalty that will be headed your way in a few decades(with extra solar colonies and what have you)?

[Panopticon]

Dude, your LP is amazingly detailed, we should just copy all your informational posts and make a walkthrough out of em.

[Bgreman]

I've been following that and have some questions about it.
1)Recovered components. These don't seem covered by the mars treaty, is that a gimme to the goons, or an oversight? if they can still get compressed fuel tanks from ruins it could turn out extremely well for them.
2)Nearly all the easily habitable realestate in sol is likewise in their hands, again is that a gimme, or do you think you can cover for the wealth penalty that will be headed your way in a few decades(with extra solar colonies and what have you)?

To be honest I forgot you can recover advanced ship components.  If it comes up, I'll probably treat it as technology, but some sly goons are sure to point out the loophole.  As for habitability, Mars is still in no-one's hands, the UN presence on Luna is not defended and more strongly than Earth, and Titan is colonizable, if not easily.  With the changes I made to humans, most of the Galilean moons are colonizeable, and the UN does now own that.  In any case the UN's income margin is shrinking at a much quicker rate than the Federation.

Dude, your LP is amazingly detailed, we should just copy all your informational posts and make a walkthrough out of em.

I plan to eventually copy everything into the Aurora Wiki.  I just don't have time to live, work, run the LP, and document it somewhere else.  Anyone else is free to lift the material and put it on the Wiki themselves if they choose.

[Person012345]

I honestly don't see Steve going open source on this at all.

In my opinion, more players equals more tutorials and more wiki entries (that aren't spam). And everything gets better from a knowledge standpoint.

Heh. I intend to start that tutorial I was planning myself when 5.7 comes out, since the changes in that might seem to change gameplay quite a bit and there's not much point in doing one that I won't even have finished by the time it becomes obsolete. 

[Person012345]

i dont think the aurora wiki links to aurora on wikipedia, its more of a seperate thing u can do.  Of course u could create a wikipedia entry for aurora ( the space 4x) game i would guess but maybe steve would have to do that or some such thing and then allow edits not sure how that aspect of wiki pedia works

I'm pretty sure it wouldn't meet the notability guidelines yet.

[dgibso29]

Bgreman, that LP is great. I've spent the last 3 hours reading it, and I am only to page 20. It's a great read, and I know that when I get home in a few hours, I am going to start my first Conventional start game...And proceed to get absolutely no sleep.

Although I wish I could have all the new 5.7 mechanics! I've been holding off on starting a new campaign pending its release.

[Bgreman]

Yeah, Steve started posting about 5.7 stuff about 5 days after I started the LP, and I was pretty mad that I won't be able to use that new stuff in the LP, unless I undertake a massive conversion effort.

[Nathan_]

Wow, the game is really starting to heat up. FEAN has the intel edge over the UN doesn't it. They definitely need some "fishing trawlers" going around.

Lets say the UN built an ICBM launch complex at Jupiter, launched drones carrying thermal and EM sensors into Saturn's eventual orbit, and the drones were ordered to self destruct if they detected an EM sensor headed their way, would FEAN be able to spot this barring a chance interception of the drone? Hypothetically of course, if you've got assets monitoring Jupiter that would clearly be a spoiler.

[Theodidactus]

I gave a presentation on Aurora in one of my classes a few days ago, it was about looking at video games as works of art, rather than just educational tools. Aurora is a good example of a game that is both.

[Bgreman]

Wow, the game is really starting to heat up. FEAN has the intel edge over the UN doesn't it. They definitely need some "fishing trawlers" going around.

Lets say the UN built an ICBM launch complex at Jupiter, launched drones carrying thermal and EM sensors into Saturn's eventual orbit, and the drones were ordered to self destruct if they detected an EM sensor headed their way, would FEAN be able to spot this barring a chance interception of the drone? Hypothetically of course, if you've got assets monitoring Jupiter that would clearly be a spoiler.

I don't want to give any spoilers here in case any goons read this board, but something along those lines would be possible.  Drones can carry sensors, and its drive would be detectable by thermal sensors, or EM sensors if the drone has an active sensor on board.  However, it would not be able to detect enemy passive sensors in order to trip a kill switch.

I'm not sure what you mean by "intel edge," but FEAN is behind in some ways and ahead in others.  That said, I am quite surprised sometimes by how thread participants are often able to accurately guess at what the Fed is doing, or its ship capabilities.

[Nathan_]

I don't want to give any spoilers here in case any goons read this board, but something along those lines would be possible.  Drones can carry sensors, and its drive would be detectable by thermal sensors, or EM sensors if the drone has an active sensor on board.  However, it would not be able to detect enemy passive sensors in order to trip a kill switch.

Err, dropping 2 sensor buoys(via drone delivery) into the eventual orbital path of Saturn, that way it would have to be found by an active scanner.