Questions related to mechanics

[Bgreman]

Hold shift and left-drag on the system map to get a range and bearing line.  If you let go of shift before letting go of the left mouse button, the line will stay on the screen.

[Victuz (OP)]

Yeah they ended up blowing the ship up. It was 31k tonnes and there was also an exploratory geoscanner that was bout 3 tonnes there. They blew them both up, jumped to sol, blew the only civ I had so far (NUUU!), looked at the 20 missile PDC's orbiting earth and left.

That was interesting. I guess I'm not going to go to that system and hopefully they'll stop hating me.

EDIT: Oh nevermind! They came back with a bigger force. Blew my PDC's up before I even noticed them and than beat the snot out of earth. Hey mars is still populated! It has 0,02m population! I have the technology! Can rebuild the civilization!

No I don't now that I have the basic idea of what I'm doing I'm going to play a neo-newtonian start .

[o_O]

Hold shift and left-drag on the system map to get a range and bearing line.  If you let go of shift before letting go of the left mouse button, the line will stay on the screen.

Wow I never knew that.  Quite handy. 

[Victuz (OP)]

I have a small issue. I made a few actual combat ships (I'm sure I messed the targeting systems up completely but bah), I wanted to get them to jump to another system to check it out but for some reason all the fleet can only move at the speed of 1. I don't understand it, at first it seemed to be due to the fact that the two new ships had 0% fuel but I equalized it all and there is still a problem.
Previously it was just these two ships:

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Tiamat MK. I (GFRIG) class Frigate    4 000 tons     288 Crew     418 BP      TCS 80  TH 160  EM 0
2000 km/s     Armour 3-22     Shields 0-0     Sensors 10/10/0/0     Damage Control Rating 3     PPV 15
Maint Life 7.01 Years     MSP 196    AFR 42%    IFR 0.6%    1YR 7    5YR 105    Max Repair 40 MSP

Military NP-Tech (4)    Power 40    Fuel Use 100%    Signature 40    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 150 000 Litres    Range 67.5 billion km   (390 days at full power)

FastF Gaus Cannon (5x2)    Range 20 000km     TS: 2000 km/s     Accuracy Modifier 50%     RM 2    ROF 5        1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Miss. PD (base) (1x4)    Range 1000 km     TS: 5000 km/s     ROF 5       Base 50% To Hit
Gunnery Stations (MK. I) (1)    Max Range: 40 000 km   TS: 1875 km/s     75 50 25 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Small PBR Plant (1)     Total Power Output 1.5    Armour 0    Exp 5%

Missile Detection Array (1)     GPS 20     Range 1 000k km    Resolution 1
Military Sensor Array (1)     GPS 2400     Range 15.5m km    Resolution 60
Standardised TS (1)     Sensitivity 10     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  10m km
Standardised EM Detection (1)     Sensitivity 10     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  10m km

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes


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Victory MK. I (MFRIG) class Missile Frigate    4 000 tons     318 Crew     434.2 BP      TCS 80  TH 160  EM 0
2000 km/s     Armour 3-22     Shields 0-0     Sensors 10/10/0/0     Damage Control Rating 2     PPV 10
Maint Life 4.44 Years     MSP 136    AFR 64%    IFR 0.9%    1YR 11    5YR 167    Max Repair 40 MSP
Magazine 110   

Military NP-Tech (4)    Power 40    Fuel Use 100%    Signature 40    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 150 000 Litres    Range 67.5 billion km   (390 days at full power)

Miss. PD (base) (1x4)    Range 1000 km     TS: 5000 km/s     ROF 5       Base 50% To Hit
The Fish MK. I (2)    Missile Size 5    Rate of Fire 150
Missile Control (20HS)1 (1)     Range 6.7m km    Resolution 20
The Redeemer (22)  Speed: 10 000 km/s   End: 30m    Range: 18m km   WH: 3    Size: 5    TH: 40 / 24 / 12

Missile Detection Array (1)     GPS 20     Range 1 000k km    Resolution 1
Military Sensor Array (1)     GPS 2400     Range 15.5m km    Resolution 60
Standardised TS (1)     Sensitivity 10     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  10m km
Standardised EM Detection (1)     Sensitivity 10     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  10m km

Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

They both worked perfectly fine than I added one of these:

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The Hump MK. I class Collier    3 950 tons     233 Crew     444.4 BP      TCS 79  TH 160  EM 0
2025 km/s     Armour 3-22     Shields 0-0     Sensors 10/10/0/0     Damage Control Rating 2     PPV 0
Maint Life 17.22 Years     MSP 2141    AFR 62%    IFR 0.9%    1YR 14    5YR 205    Max Repair 50 MSP
Magazine 200   

Military NP-Tech (4)    Power 40    Fuel Use 100%    Signature 40    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 150 000 Litres    Range 68.3 billion km   (390 days at full power)

The Redeemer (50)  Speed: 10 000 km/s   End: 30m    Range: 18m km   WH: 3    Size: 5    TH: 40 / 24 / 12

Missile Detection Array (1)     GPS 20     Range 1 000k km    Resolution 1
Standardised Sensor Array (1)     GPS 1200     Range 5.5m km    Resolution 120
Hiper Sensor Array (150 rez)S5 (1)     GPS 7500     Range 30.6m km    Resolution 150
Standardised TS (1)     Sensitivity 10     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  10m km
Standardised EM Detection (1)     Sensitivity 10     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  10m km

Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

And two of these.

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The Fleet Commander class Command Ship    5 000 tons     409 Crew     650 BP      TCS 100  TH 200  EM 0
2000 km/s    JR 4-50     Armour 4-26     Shields 0-0     Sensors 10/10/0/0     Damage Control Rating 4     PPV 0
Maint Life 3.48 Years     MSP 325    AFR 50%    IFR 0.7%    1YR 41    5YR 616    Max Repair 196 MSP

Military JD.     Max Ship Size 5000 tons    Distance 50k km     Squadron Size 4
Military NP-Tech (5)    Power 40    Fuel Use 100%    Signature 40    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 150 000 Litres    Range 54.0 billion km   (312 days at full power)

Standardised Sensor Array (1)     GPS 1200     Range 5.5m km    Resolution 120
Missile Detection Array (1)     GPS 20     Range 1 000k km    Resolution 1
Military Sensor Array (1)     GPS 2400     Range 15.5m km    Resolution 60
Hiper Sensor Array (150 rez)S5 (1)     GPS 7500     Range 30.6m km    Resolution 150
Standardised TS (1)     Sensitivity 10     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  10m km
Standardised EM Detection (1)     Sensitivity 10     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  10m km

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes


[Erik L]

On the Task Force screen (F12), near the top left you should see Speed. Click the button that says "Max Speed". That will put the ships at their max fleet speed. If that doesn't work, check the ships for damaged engines.

[Victuz (OP)]

On the Task Force screen (F12), near the top left you should see Speed. Click the button that says "Max Speed". That will put the ships at their max fleet speed.

Already did that. They're still only at speed 1. Fleet Support Ships seem to be slowing everything down to speed 1 for no good reason.

Edit:
I found out what's wrong. At some point I was making a ship with a similar name, than I got distracted closed the page and walked away from the computer. After that I couldn't find the ship on the list again so I just made a new one that for some reason wouldn't show up on the retooling page for the shipyard. What I actually built was that

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Fleet Support class Cruiser    250 tons     23 Crew     48.5 BP      TCS 5  TH 0  EM 0
1 km/s     Armour 1-3     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
MSP 121    Max Repair 5 MSP

Fuel Capacity 50 000 Litres    Range N/A

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes

/facepalm

Edit2: While we're on the subject. Can I get some constructive criticism of my ship designs? I already know I messed up the missile command (the missiles have the range of 18m but the missile command serves for only 4,5m) and quite possibly the missiles themselves.
But what do you think about the ships in general? they are my first ever ACTUAL military vessels.

[Hawkeye]

Tiamat:
Maint Life is _very_ long. Reduce it by 2/3.
Gauss cannons as main weapons seem to be a strange choice. Their very, and I mean _very_, short range will probably bite you in the behind, but if you insist on using them, I´d put them in turrets with x4 tracking firecons, so they are good for PD as their main mission and for offensive use as a secondary mission.
Gauss cannons don´t need no power plant, so you can scrap that.
I see you have a CIWS. The thing to know about them is, that they only protect the ship they are mounted on. Personally, I prefere another turret mounted gauss, that will protect the entire task group, but to each his own.


Victory:
Half the maint life.
A salvo of two slow missiles will get you nowhere. Even the most basic PD setup will be able to deal with that.
You´d want your sensors to see further than the range of your missiles, preferably a _lot_ further. If you use a dedicated sensor ship or put those actives on each combatant is up to you.
If you do the former, I´d suggest keeping the ones you have as a backup, in case the sensor boat buys it.
With no PD weapons (except for the CIWS, which has its own sensors), you don´t need the res-1 active.
Your missiles seem very weak for a size 5. I´d suggest investing heavily in missile tech and designing a new one.
As it is, they have a rather short range, their warhead is pretty weak and the chance to hit a moving target is abysimal (yes, they realy are not good   )

Edit: Ok forget what I said about a sensor ship, as I just saw that your Hump fills that role.

Hump:
You can loose the res-120 active, as it can´t see anything, your res-150 can´t. You might use the saved mass to up the res-1 active a bit. Yes, it has a 1 million km range and you only have gauss cannons to shoot at enemy missiles, but that range is against a 50 ton target (i.e. size-20 missile). Against size 6 or smaller missiles, that range is a lot less.

Fleet Commander:
Personally, I only put basic actives on my jumpships. They will stay at the jump point while the fleet goes in-system to look for trouble and I do _not_ want to draw attention to my ride home by activating a huge homing beacon.
Large passives are the way to go in my book.
Aside from that, more armor is always good on your only means of getting home again.

[Victuz (OP)]

Thank you I used the Gauss Cannons as main because the ships were supposed to serve as sort of a short range brawlers. If the bad guys got too close to the missile boats they would hop on to get a piece of the action.

As for the missiles yes they are abysmal mostly because I created them as I started playing xD. they are pretty damn bad, I'm only year 2,5 into the game so I mainly focused on getting construction and research up more so than weapon technology.

Maintenance life... I'm kind of crazy about that. I see something have a life span of 2 years or a yearly failure chance higher than zero and my brain goes "Oh god that's too low!/too high!" and than I kind of go insane with engineering bays :p.

On another note I completely forgot that turrets can even be designed O_o...

Anyway I'm going to take all that into account later in the game, when I get some more tech I'm going to probably post what designs I have for the newer ships.

[Victuz (OP)]

Sorry for double post but last one was made yesterday and bumping like that should not be this terrible (if I'm wrong please tell me).

In my new game Mercury has literally everything. And tonnes of it, all of it above 0,7 . I sent some automatic mines there but it's not enough, I want to create an outpost there that will create more automatic mines on the spot (duranium and corundium are the most common things there) so I can get the 11 million duranium. After a while I decided getting so much infrastructure there is pointless in the long run and I'll just try to terraform it since I have 10 terraforming installations waiting on earth.
Now thing is, Mercury doesn't have any atmospheric pressure and I don't know if I can increase that. I thought that simply spouting out some gas (probably nitrogen or water) into the atmosphere will increase the atmospheric pressure but again I'm not sure if it will.
Can I have a confirmation on this?

Just to clarify I'm not trying to turn Mercury into a paradise because that will take forever, I'm just trying to make it slightly less expensive to colonize.

[Theokrat]

Sorry for double post but last one was made yesterday and bumping like that should not be this terrible (if I'm wrong please tell me).

In my new game Mercury has literally everything. And tonnes of it, all of it above 0,7 . I sent some automatic mines there but it's not enough, I want to create an outpost there that will create more automatic mines on the spot (duranium and corundium are the most common things there) so I can get the 11 million duranium. After a while I decided getting so much infrastructure there is pointless in the long run and I'll just try to terraform it since I have 10 terraforming installations waiting on earth.
Now thing is, Mercury doesn't have any atmospheric pressure and I don't know if I can increase that. I thought that simply spouting out some gas (probably nitrogen or water) into the atmosphere will increase the atmospheric pressure but again I'm not sure if it will.
Can I have a confirmation on this?

Just to clarify I'm not trying to turn Mercury into a paradise because that will take forever, I'm just trying to make it slightly less expensive to colonize.

Yes, its perfectly possible to terraform Mercury. Its not even too difficult. Your main problem is the heat, so I suggest starting with anti-greenhouse gas. You will need around 0.68 atm anti-greenhouse gas and 0.1 atm oxygen to make it a perfect world for a normal-parameter human start. Aint htat much.

[Victuz (OP)]

Yes, its perfectly possible to terraform Mercury. Its not even too difficult. Your main problem is the heat, so I suggest starting with anti-greenhouse gas. You will need around 0.68 atm anti-greenhouse gas and 0.1 atm oxygen to make it a perfect world for a normal-parameter human start. Aint htat much.

Thank you. By the way what's the use of filling an atmosphere with water? Just adding a neutral gas or something more specific?

[Zook]

If it says "Unsuitable" instead of giving a colony cost in the first tab, you can forget about it. At least until you get Orbital habitat tech. But IMO it's not worth it. You have to consider the huge cost and time for building factories, too.

About maintenance life: you can live with the occasional failure, as long as you have maintenance supplies ready. I use to build jump tenders with some extra fuel and 1,000 extra MSP. The thing to watch out for is that a ship's MSP storage should be higher than Max. Repair, or a failure will result in a damaged component that cannot be repaired.

And here's a PD ship I'm very satisfied with:

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Genua class Corvette    3,000 tons     242 Crew     658.8 BP      TCS 60  TH 207  EM 0
4600 km/s     Armour 2-18     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 16.56
Maint Life 1.62 Years     MSP 137    AFR 72%    IFR 1%    1YR 61    5YR 918    Max Repair 144 MSP

Magneto-plasma Drive 92 kW Cooled (3)    Power 92    Fuel Use 91%    Signature 69    Armour 0    Exp 12%
Fuel Capacity 100,000 Litres    Range 65.9 billion km   (165 days at full power)

Twin Gauss Cannon R2-100 Turret (1x6)    Range 20,000km     TS: 20000 km/s     Power 0-0     RM 2    ROF 5        1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Fire Control S06 48-20000 (1)    Max Range: 96,000 km   TS: 20000 km/s     90 79 69 58 48 38 27 17 6 0

Active Search Sensor MR11-R1 (1)     GPS 144     Range 11.5m km    Resolution 1

ECM 10

Hmmm. Please ignore that it violates the rule about MSP being higher than max. repair, I never noticed that myself.

[Victuz (OP)]

Yeah I know about the unsuitable thing. It can be caused by lackluster (or too strong) gravitation and such. But Mercury is 17x so I decided "ah hell why not!".

I was actually surprised to find out that the orbital habitats can only be built on ships. That creates a potential for some cool migration fleets kind of thing.

[Victuz (OP)]

Hello again. I've been exploring around my little piece of space, actually established some proper mining colonies, terraformed mercury with 40 orbital terraformers (all equipped with 2 terraforming units) and in general established myself in that little corner I call home.
Now I have some questions relating to warfare since while the slug people are nice and friendly I don't trust these slimy bastards!

So:
1. Missile Launchers. Can a launcher only shoot one missile at a time? I know that a launcher of size 5 can shoot missiles <=5 (so it can shoot a size 1,3,0.5 and so on), but if I have a size 5 launcher can it shoot 2 size 2,5 missiles at the same time? or do I need separate 2,5 missile launchers for that?
Also box launchers. I get the general idea, they are preloaded and can't be reloaded mid flight, commonly used on fighters because they're small and can provide massive firepower in a very tiny package. That's fighters, what if I use them on a bigger ship, say 5k tonnes? Will it still have to dock on an even bigger ship to reload or will it be able to do it itself just 15x times slower than it usually would?
If I have to dock than do you think there is a point in using them on a big ship? maybe just stick to regular launchers and go for extended fights or hope for the best and fire a salvo of 20 missiles per ship and than basically stand there twiddling my thumbs if they shoot them down.

2. Sensor buoys. Will aliens mind if I casually plop a sensor buoy (probably passive and not active one so it won't be as detectable) somewhere in their home system so I have some more info about their movements?

3. Cloaking. Does it just reduce EM emissions like the thermal reduction for engines or is it something else entirely?

4. Thermal Emissions. Does moving at a slower speed reduce TE? It seems like it should since my engines wouldn't be producing as much heat (a fleet sneaking by at 500km/s should be less noticeable than one zooming past at 3200km/s) but I'd like a confirmation on that.

5. Fleet size and order of battle. In general, would it be better for a small civ like mine (colonies only in 3 sectors including sol and the systems right next to it) to have one super massive fleet hovering around a choke system (in my case such system exists 3 jumps away from sol where it seems to has only one jump point to it unless there is a dormant jump point somewhere around) or multiple smaller task forces in each system?

I know a tactics and strategy can be heavily related to personal preference, but I'm on the fence in terms of both options (maybe there is a third?)

6. Terraforming. I got the basics, greenhouse and anti-greenhouse to regulate temperature, make sure atmosphere stays in acceptable level, add oxygen, voila. Your very own eden right there on the surface of an alien world.
What I'm not entirely sure about are some of the things you can add to the atmosphere, I know some of them (carbon monoxide, amonia) are poison there to ether kill a population of the planet if you want it to be so, or to be pumped out.
What I don't entirely get are things like water. Is it just supposed as a neutral "filler" gas to get to 1 atmosphere? Or does pumping it in actually create a hydrosphere on a planet that might have not had it prior to that? What about other "non poisonous" gasses?

[Theokrat]

Hello again. I've been exploring around my little piece of space, actually established some proper mining colonies, terraformed mercury with 40 orbital terraformers (all equipped with 2 terraforming units) and in general established myself in that little corner I call home.
Now I have some questions relating to warfare since while the slug people are nice and friendly I don't trust these slimy bastards!

Nice to hear you are doing well.

1. Missile Launchers. Can a launcher only shoot one missile at a time? I know that a launcher of size 5 can shoot missiles <=5 (so it can shoot a size 1,3,0.5 and so on), but if I have a size 5 launcher can it shoot 2 size 2,5 missiles at the same time? or do I need separate 2,5 missile launchers for that?

One launcher can launch one missile at a time. Generally if you stuffed two missiles in the same tube their exhaust plumes would likely destroy both missiles. So you would need two size-3 missile launchers (only integer numbers!)

You could design a “multi-stage missile” that contains a number of submunitions though. If the first stage was essentially nothing, and the “missile” released the submunition directly upon launch, then you would essentially achieve what you ask for – a size 5 launcher could launch two size 2.5 missiles. Not any missile though, just those that are “buddled” together in this role from factory on.

There is no good reason to do that though. A size 2 launcher is exactly half as large as a size 4 launcher, and launches twice as frequently. So normally you would strive for smaller launchers, rather than larger ones. You only use large launchers because the missiles dictate it. If the missile you wish to launch is small, use a small launcher.

Also box launchers. I get the general idea, they are preloaded and can't be reloaded mid flight, commonly used on fighters because they're small and can provide massive firepower in a very tiny package. That's fighters, what if I use them on a bigger ship, say 5k tonnes? Will it still have to dock on an even bigger ship to reload or will it be able to do it itself just 15x times slower than it usually would?

A 5k ship could only be reloaded in either a bigger hangar-ship, or through maintenance facilities at a colony. The later, although much slower is the preferred way of doing this for large ships due to obvious reasons relating to the costs of fielding a large carrier.

2. Sensor buoys. Will aliens mind if I casually plop a sensor buoy (probably passive and not active one so it won't be as detectable) somewhere in their home system so I have some more info about their movements?

AFAIK Aliens mind any active sensor contact they see. So if they see your boy they will probably mind, but not by much given its so small. Roleplaying wise they should care a lot though.

3. Cloaking. Does it just reduce EM emissions like the thermal reduction for engines or is it something else entirely?

They reduce the “radar profile”, i.e. your susceptibility to active sensors of the other guy. So a large ship would have the same characteristics of a small ship when it comes to being detected by enemy active sensors.

What cloaking does not do is reducing your active emissions when you turn your sensors on. It only counters enemy active sensors, not passive EM sensors.

4. Thermal Emissions. Does moving at a slower speed reduce TE? It seems like it should since my engines wouldn't be producing as much heat (a fleet sneaking by at 500km/s should be less noticeable than one zooming past at 3200km/s) but I'd like a confirmation on that.

Yes. EDIT: Also you, can see the thermal emissions of your ships in the task-group window.

5. Fleet size and order of battle. In general, would it be better for a small civ like mine (colonies only in 3 sectors including sol and the systems right next to it) to have one super massive fleet hovering around a choke system (in my case such system exists 3 jumps away from sol where it seems to has only one jump point to it unless there is a dormant jump point somewhere around) or multiple smaller task forces in each system?

Lanchester Laws -> keep them concentrated as much as possible (actually, Lancaster laws only indicate a square-dependency of battle winning ability versus unit number, while in Aurora you can also shoot down incoming missiles indicating a much larger exponential factor, i.e. more of an argument for concentration) . Your people will demand a bit of military presence in their home system though, and its prudent to build someone to watch jumpgates though, just in case they sneak past you.

6. Terraforming. I got the basics, greenhouse and anti-greenhouse to regulate temperature, make sure atmosphere stays in acceptable level, add oxygen, voila. Your very own eden right there on the surface of an alien world.
What I'm not entirely sure about are some of the things you can add to the atmosphere, I know some of them (carbon monoxide, amonia) are poison there to ether kill a population of the planet if you want it to be so, or to be pumped out.
What I don't entirely get are things like water. Is it just supposed as a neutral "filler" gas to get to 1 atmosphere? Or does pumping it in actually create a hydrosphere on a planet that might have not had it prior to that? What about other "non poisonous" gasses?

AFAIK those are just neutral gases that don’t do anything except increasing the atmospheric pressure and adding a little greenhouse effect through that. Used for roleplaying, but not anything else.