The Northern Coalition (AAR)

[Paul M (OP)]

Ok looking at things the Hawk IIB has been born.  You get honorable mention in the AAR.

Do you know the formula that converts agility into manoeuver rating?  I'd like to write the design formula in an analytic form and then do a minimization since I suspect it is tractable that way.  Saves me writing a EXCEL spreadsheet for the mess.

The Javelin IIIA2 would use 5 engines for a speed of 12K km/s and has a higher to-hit via a higher manoeuver rating.  The missiles are wolver specific though, the NCN knows how fast they move and they consider 12K km/s sufficient to the task.  Also range is not critical since the ECM of the Wolvers reduces the engagement range to around 10m km.  Once I see what the formula says I'll look at the engines again but the A2 improves on the A since it has 0.5 msp more agility, and I think is more likely to hit than what you are proposing as it has around 20% against 10k km/s targets.

I really think Steve should revist missile fuel.  I don't know for certain but I would assume most modern missiles are largely fuel.  Aurora missiles are usually less than 5% fuel, even for relatively absurd ranges.  The missile hit/miss should be a curve around the target speed (too slow its hard to hit and too fast its hard to hit) rather than a straight ratio basically something like: 1-((Target speed-missiles speed)/target speed).  So the larger the difference from the target speed you have the lower your chance to hit it is....or it should be one sided...not sure which is more realistic in the end.   By one sided I mean once your missile is as fast as the target your chance to hit doesn't improve.  I'm not sure I see a point to this adjustment for missile speed anyway since all you have to do is get close and blow up.  You are making a stand off attack.  Probably too much thought on the matter.  But missiles really need to have their fuel use bumped up by a factor of 10 or so.

[Charlie Beeler]

1 agility point per msp of missile nets an addition of 1 maneuver point to the base 10. 

Because of the way rounding functions the actual msp required is counter intuitive at first.  I detailed a lot of this in a post last fall about the new engine rules for v6. http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php/topic,5444.msg56064.html#msg56064  I'm sure that there are better formula's to achieve the same results, but the meat of what you're looking for is there.

[Paul M (OP)]

Thank you Charlie and Gary...both of you have been helpful.  I looked at the engine spread sheet and yes the size 10 engines and size 20's for the civillian market will be good.

On missiles, not accounting for Charlies rounding effect I have taken the hit formula as given in the game and subjected it to some calculus-algebra and spread sheeting.  The result is that the optimal number of engines to maximize your hit chance is given by:

Num_eng = (10*Missile_size + Rem_space*Agility_factor)/(2*Eng_size*Agility_factor)

Num_eng:==number of engines
Missile_size:==size of missile in question
Rem_space:==space available for engines and agility (can be rather approximate)
Eng_size:==size of engines (0.1 msp for examples)
Agility_factor:==how much agility you get per msp

I have confirmed that the formula gives approximate to hit values that agree with what the game report (difference I attribute to Charlie's rounding errors) and that the deriviative found the maximum.  What is interesting is the single strongest effect is the Agility_factor.  Low agility missiles must be fast but with a higher agility factor you can afford to drop the number of engines assuming the same Rem_space.  Having better resolution in engine sizes yields an improvement as well but probably needs to examimed in terms of fuel use and impact on range.

Thanks to you both for helping me put the math into my design process.

[Charlie Beeler]

Excellent.  Having a sound set of formulas really helps setup intelligent design protocols for missiles. 

[Paul M (OP)]

[ooc]ok it was to put it mildly quiet though a number of events of interest happened nothing Earth shaking was seen to occur.[/ooc]

AD 2280 (June to December)  Taking a Breather

A great deal of logistics was occuring even though no monumentous activities were engaged in.  BIC's freighters are dispached to their locations, tankers move back and forth acquiring fuel either from colonies, harvesters or civillian harvesters to keep task groups in Triebstoff and minerals are cóllected and brought back to Earth.  Two actions which will will have far reaching consiquences occured in this time span, both in the area of scientific research.  The first was a report published in the Naval R&D division by a young engineer C. Beeler which analysed the combat results of the Hawk Series of counter missiles and came up with a radical departure for how the missile should be designed.  The Navy was initially rather dubious about this "fine sounding theory" but agreed to simulations and trials.  The result was a 10% improvement in the chance a three counter missile launch would intercept a Wolver missile.  This was considered a valuable improvement and the Hawk IIB was developed and put into production in record time.  Naval logistics were surprised to find that over 1200 Hawk II's were in service so the initial order of the Hawk IIB was for 600.

The 1st Geosurvey team continues its survey of bodies of the inner system confirming that the asteroid Minerva has no additional sources of mineral wealth and that the initial surveys of Phobos and Demios were accurate.  The Upholder has moved them to Juno to survey that body.  As well a thin CO₂ atmosphere has been established on Io and the terraforming engines have started releasing N₂ gas to further build its atmosphere.



Industrial Efforts Earth, Sol
Primary Industrial Tasks
AD 2280 (November 5) Construction of a new Research Lab complex, it is turned over to Dr. Rowley to assist her in improving refinery efficiency
AD 2280 (November 30) Construction of two new Construction factories ends
AD 2280 (December 30) Construction of a pair of maintenance facilities is done (ships up to 6400 tonnes can be maintanined) and construction of a new Terraforming Installation for Mars begins
 
Secondary Industrial Tasks
AD 2280 (August 10) Construction of Infrastructure for BIC's outsystem colonies is complete
AD 2280 (December 10) Conversion of a mine to teleoperated is completed and construction of more Infrastructure for BIC begins

Missiles and Fighters
AD 2280 (August 6) 600 Hawk IIB counter missiles are ordered for the Navy
AD 2280 (August 10) Fairmile B2(EW) 015 is built
AD 2280 (December 30) Fairmile B2(EW) 016 is completed


Civillian Operations Sol
AD 2280 (August 25) The civilian mining colony on Wolf-Harrington has been expanded to 11 civilian mining complexes
AD 2280 (October 15) The civilian mining colony on Reinmuth has been expanded to 9 civilian mining complexes
AD 2280 (November 20) The civilian mining colony on Wolf-Harrington has been expanded to 12 civilian mining complexes

Research Activities
AD 2280 (August 5) Dr. Tristan Brashear's team finishes the design for the new Hawk IIB Counter Missile and returns the lab space to Dr. Rees
AD 2280 (September 30) Dr. Leopold Herz joines the NCC scientific establishment, his research specilization is: Sensors and Fire Control.  To say their is great rejoicing through the Navy and NCC is an understatement of epic porportions.  Dr. Herz will get the next scheduled lab complex constructed for general use and will begin the piled up research with a study designed to improve tracking speed.  NCC estimates the lab will be ready in 9-12 months.


Civillian Yard:  Litton-Ingals Shipbuilding Corp., Sol
AD 2280 (August 25) Retooling for Kingston class completed but no ships are started as BIC sees no immediate need for these ships.

Civillian Yard:  Robert Napier and Son's Ltd., Sol
AD 2280 (August 25) Spritz (Petrol (HP) class) is built and dispached to Jupiter to join FHG VI
AD 2280 (November 15) Benzyna (Petrol (HP) class) finishes construction and starts on the way to Jupiter.  Its arrival on December 5th will complete the group.
AD 2280 (November 27) FH Loch arrives at Earth and while its crew is released for R&R the ship is towed into the construction ship to be refit to the Loch HP class.

Naval Yard: Victorias-Esquimalt Graving Yard, Sol
AD 2280 (July 10) Voyageur (Scout class) and Path Finder (Scout class) finish construction.  The ships complete IS I and IS II.
AD 2280 (September 10) Wild Rose (Flower class) is built and the second Flower class jump tender starts.
AD 2280 (October 20) Wounded Knee (Wounded Knee class) and Normandy (Wounded Knee class) finish construction and two new Wounded Knee class heavy frigates start.
AD 2280 (October 25) Gargoyle (Gargoyle class) exits the slip and a second of the same class starts construction.


BIC Operation in Alpha Centauri

The factories on Faewald are turning out materials to upgrade the colonies lifesupport and settlement areas at high rate making enough for 40,000 more people [ooc]infrastructure x12[/ooc].  Unfortunately the population growth is higher than this and for the first time overcrowding strikes the colony.  Even the construction materials delievered from Earth by ICG IV (arrives: Aug 2, departs: Aug 25) and ICG II (arrives: Nov 2, departs: Nov 25) doesn't allievate the situation.  ICG III enroute still is fully loaded with construction material sufficient for 80,000 people and there is hope it will enable the colony to get out of this minor crisis.  The two fuel harvester groups move back and forth between the gas giant and Faewald ensuring the colonies farm has sufficient fuel to refuel the departing ICG.  As this is accomplished for each group this will produce a noticable reduction in the amount of fuel needed on arrival at Earth.  Clearly though more factories need to be transported to Faewald as well as more mines to feed them.  At the end of the year Faewald's farm is at 190K l.

BIC Operations in AD Leonis

The main desire of the last 6 months has been to keep the Navy and Survey ships in fuel.  For that purpose the two FHG's have been doing a ballet to move either harvest fuel or else to deposit fuel into Forge's Farm.  FHG IV joins FHG III and FHG V on the 2nd of October.  The three harvester groups are successful in keeping the Navy ships fueled.  The fact they have a place to relax and get off the ships that isn't 2 months journey away improves all ships morale.  At the end of the year Forge's farm is at 78K l of fuel.


Navy and Survey Operations in Gliese 408/AD Leonis

3rd Squadron relieves 1st Squadron in Wolf 358 and then while the 1st squadron refuels for the return to Sol proceeds to Gliese 408 where it will take up station at the jump point to AD Leonis on the 2nd of August.  Interstellar Survey III has stolen a march on them and entered Gliese 408 on the 17th of July where the Scout was detached to make a probe of the system.  The two survey ships then proceed to geological surveys of the 305 asteroids in the system.  BuSurvey is confident that they will find minerals to support the future colony on Gliese 408 II.  As it turns out they are wrong.  When the survey operations end on the 12th of December only Asteroid #300 was found to have minerals (Corbomite 60(1)) and a pathetic amount at that.  To say that the crews of the Thor Heyerdahl and the Scout are dissapointed is an understatement.  Commander Max Parker (CO Thor Hyerdahl) discusses the situation with 3rd Squandron SO Cpt. Ewan Ahmed and they decide to resume the halted survey of Gliese 382 as it is a good candiate for colonization.  The ships refuel from Forge and head towards the jump point to LHS 292.  The faster naval ships lead the way this time.  The decision to survey Gliese 382 is part of a message dump on Forge.  Cpt. Ahmed is earning his pay with this decision as politically this would be a nightmare if he looses ships when his orders were to just survey Gliese 408 but Cmdr. Parker pointed out that they had 6 months of time and that they should use it profitably.  He wanted to probe LHS 292's remaining unexplored jump point but Cpt. Ahmed squashed that idea as Gliese 382 was a stretch of his orders but new exploration was in violation of them.  

[Paul M (OP)]

[ooc]Pretty much another dull 6 months as things proceed.[/ooc]

AD 2281  (January to May) Getting the System Running Smoothly

The last six months were dull unless you were in a logistics position then they were periodically chaotic.  BIC, BuSurvey and the NC Navy were all working on one issue.  How to support extra-solar activities?  With two fuel harvesting groups in Alpha Centauri and four in AD Leonis refueling was now possible, but scheduling and the details of ensuring farms had fuel to feed thirsty ships still was something that needed practical experience to wear down the rough edges.

The survey mission of the 1st Geosurvey team continues with Juno not having any additional reserves of TN minearals.  The team moves to the asteroid Hestia arriving on April 13.

BIC also faces a serious issue on where to put their next colony.  Gliese 408 was the planned location but the system lacks duranium, a fact that is vastly frustrating given how easily terraformable the world will be.  It is also becoming apparent that before starting on the next target in Alpha Centauri Faewald must be made self sufficient in infrastructure, or at the very least it has to be able to make it faster than the population grows.

Industrial Efforts Earth, Sol
Primary Industrial Tasks
2281 (February 25) A new Terraforming Installation for mars finishes construction
2281 (March 25) A further two Maintenance Facilities are built
2281 (May 20) Two Deep Space Tracking Stations are launched into Orbit.
2281 (June 50) The final Maintenance Facility of this run enters operation (ships of 7000 tons can be maintained) and the refit of PDC Fort Goose Green starts

Secondary Industrial Tasks
2281 (January 20) Construction of Infrastructure for BIC is done
2281 (April 25) A new Fuel Refinery is completed
2281 (June 5) More Infrastructure for BIC is finished and conversion of an older Mine to teleoperated/robotic control begins

Missiles and Fighters
2281 (January 15) Construction of 600 Hawk IIB Counter Missiles completed
2281 (February 20) Construction of 46 Javelin IIIA Anti-ship Missiles completed and work on a further 600 Hawk IIB Counter Missiles begins
2281 (May 20) Fairmile B2(EW) 017 is completed


Civillian Operations Sol
2281 (May 30) The civilian mining colony on Van Biesbroeck has been expanded to 5 civilian mining complexes

Civillian Yard:  Robert Napier and Son's Ltd., Sol
2281 (January 15) Loch (Loch (HP) class) finishes refit and as its crew has completed R&R sets off for Alpha Centauri to rejoin the other two ships of FHG I.

Naval Yard: Deschimag A.G. Weser
2281 (April 20) A second slipway is added to the yard, the third and final one starts being constructed and the Tribal class destroyer Comanche is laid down.

Naval Yard: Victorias-Esquimalt Graving Yard, Sol
2281 (May 15) Purple Violet (Flower class) and Lake Superiour (Lake class) finish construction

Northern Coalition Army
2281 (January 9) The Martian Peacekeeper Detachment completes training and embarks on the TT Ceylon for Mars arriving on the 20th.  The Venusian peacekeeper recruits start their training immediately after the Martian Peacekeepers have cleared the base.

BIC Operations in Alpha Centauri

Faewald's factories continue to churn out construction materials to expand the colony but continually lag behind the demand.  Still they deliever on a two weekly basis and over the first 6 months of the year produce enough materials for slightly over 30,000 people [ooc]Infrastructure x10[/ooc].   ICG III, which was fully loaded with materials for colony expansion arrives on February 11 and then departs with its holds loaded with minerals and its fuel tanks topped up on the 5th of March.  At the start of June the farm contains 167K fuel but as ICG I is still 93 days away from Faewald there is time yet to harvest more fuel.

BIC Operations in AD Leonis

Forge continues to service the 4 fuel harvesting groups present in the system.  However, since all the FHG's arrive from Sol requiring shore leave and most often with almost empty tanks the overall situation is chaotic as fuel is transfered to the farm to meet the navy's immediate needs as necessary.  The good news is that it is clear the system is working it is now a case of working the bugs out and getting the various FHGs into a regular delivery scheduel.  The farm currently holds 565K fuel but 3rd Squadron will likely use a good part of that refueling for the journey to Earth.

Survey Operations in Gliese 382

The Navy's 3rd Squadron arrives in system on the 16th of January and IS III joins them on the 26th of that month.  Scout is dispached to do a swing by probe of all worlds and Thor Hyerdahl waits for the inital results before proceeding to do surveys of the nearby dwarf planet (planet VII) and two of the gravitational survey locations before proceeding to start the survey of the gas giant planet VI and its 20 moons.  Scout will once it has confirmed the lack of alien presence start the survey at planet II and then move outward.  Planet I is a terrestrial world whose 1.92 G gravitational field has trapped a nearly pure CO₂ atmosphere of 135 atmospheres.  Planet II is the terrestrial near earth:  gravity 0.8G, a nearly breathable atmosphere 0.19 Atm (N₂ 81%, O₂ 19%), surface temperature: -30°C, and with the presence of extensive water ice sheets.  The planet it tidelocked to the red dwarf star with an extreme axial tilt of 75°.  Planets 3 and 4 are dwarf planets while planet V is a gas giant with 23 moons.  There are also 94 asteroids in a pair of belts.  The first belt lies between planet I and II and the second between planet II and III.

The 2nd Squadron arrives in system on the 29th of May and relieves the 3rd squadron who will start back towards Earth on the 5th of June.  When it arrives it will dispatch IS IV to relieve IS III plus the two grav survey missions who can complete the survey of Gliese 382 for further jump points.

2281 (March 26) Minerals Discovered on Gliese 382-A II: Duranium 25,862,430 (0.2)  Corbomite 33,246,760 (0.1)  Vendarite 6,461,764 (0.1) Corundium 9,998,244 (0.1)  
2281 (April 12) Minerals Discovered on Gliese 382-A I: Duran 11,101,470 (0.3)  Corb 467,856 (0.1)  Merc 3,055,504 (0.5)  Vend 7,075,600 (0.1)  Sorium 47,831,060 (0.1)  Urid 283,024 (0.1)  Corun 31,629,380 (0.5)  Gall 29,116,820 (0.1)  
2281 (April 19) Minerals Discovered on Gliese 382-A VI - Moon 6: Tritanium 207 (1)  Sorium 992 (1)  
2281 (April 26) Minerals Discovered on Gliese 382-A VI - Moon 15: Tritanium 3,387 (1)  Boronide 324 (1)  
2281 (May 2) Minerals Discovered on Gliese 382-A VI - Moon 19: Mercassium 3,504,384 (0.1)  Gallicite 6,360,484 (0.1)  
2281 (May 3) Minerals Discovered on Gliese 382-A V: Sorium 68,000 (1)  
2281 (May 7) Minerals Discovered on Gliese 382-A V - Moon 2: Duranium 1,451,808 (0.8 )  Corundium 5,184 (0.7)  
2281 (May 8 ) Minerals Discovered on Gliese 382-A V - Moon 5: Corbomite 272 (1)  
2281 (May 13) Minerals Discovered on Gliese 382-A V - Moon 18: Neutronium 864 (1)  
2281 (May 15) Minerals Discovered on Gliese 382-A V - Moon 19: Vendarite 2,427,364 (0.5)  
2281 (May  15) Minerals Discovered on Gliese 382-A V - Moon 20: Corbomite 784 (1)  Uridium 615 (1)  
2281 (May 29) Minerals Discovered on Gliese 382-A Asteroid #75: Neut 1,362 (1)  Corb 5,446 (1)  Trit 2,107 (1)  Boron 3,528 (1)  Vend 729 (1)  Sorium 6,561 (1)  Urid 3,318 (1)  

[Garfunkel]

Ah, finally caught up with this. Good going Paul. Somehow you manage to make even the dull logistics come across as (somewhat) interesting. I quite like the format, makes for a nice change from the usual chronological style.

[Paul M (OP)]

Thank you for taking the time to say so.  The next update will have story to it (covers the elections) but is again mostly logistics at least as far as I know at the moment.

[ollobrains]

any new updates

[Paul M (OP)]

Sorry...I have a year of updates, but, well murphy desended on me full time and my life went hectic for the last three-four weeks.  I am slowly getting back in my routine and am more or less recovered from jetlag.  I am hoping to get an update out this weekend or maybe earlier depending on how things go of course next week is also a possibility, but it will be "soon-ish."  I have to do the election which is "out of game" and requires I build a system but I'm pretty much settled on how to do it.
 

[Rastaman]

Grrrreat!! 

[Paul M (OP)]

[ooc]well...Murphy has as the Irish would say left me Gob Smacked.  I am afraid that any updating will be a week or so delayed as I must again get on the silver bird heading into the past.  The last week was filled with our twice yearly full group meeting I had totally forgotten about and this next week or week and half I will be well separated from the computer with any sort of data on it.  Trust me on this one small detail, I would rather be doing updates then doing what I suspect I will be doing.[/ooc]

[Brainsucker]

This story is really-really inspire me to play Aurora game.  I hope it won't be over, or if over Paul will make another great AAR for me to follow

[joeclark77]

As well a thin CO₂ atmosphere has been established on Io and the terraforming engines have started releasing N₂ gas to further build its atmosphere.

I'm still figuring out terraforming myself but here's the way I'd do it: release 0.1 atm of Oxygen (the minimum required for humans) and then switch to "safe greenhouse gas" until you're done.  Once you get to 0.33atm of greenhouse gas the air will be breathable (Oxygen must be <30%) and then you just keep pumping greenhouse gas until the temperature is acceptable.

Edit: Scratch that last figure.  The total needs to be 0.33, so you only need to add 0.23 of greenhouse gas to make the air breathable.

For warmer planets like Mercury you'd use "anti-greenhouse gas" for phase 2, but that should still be the fastest way to do it.

Also I would say concentrate all your terraformers on one world, whichever one can be terraformed fastest.  In the Solar system that'd be Luna or Mars.  Somebody on the forums concluded that Mercury would actually terraform faster than the moons of Jupiter but I dunno.

I just wanted to comment and say that this has been a fun AAR to follow.  I also like conventional starts but am not so masochistic as to start with such a devastated population and industry base!  I've gotten some good ideas from you.  In particular the discussion of fuel efficiency and fuel management strategies has helped me in my current game.  My civilian ships are using bigger, more efficient engines and achieving phenomenal range with small fuel tanks now.  I also really like the idea of a "pinnace" or ship's boat, and I think I may start installing them on my ships as well.  Could be very useful in scouting potentially hostile systems.  I'm also going to try out multi-stage sensor drones, and you might want to do the same.  The idea being that only the second stage has active sensors, so you can launch one at the enemy to probe him without revealing where it's launched from.

[Paul M (OP)]

[ooc]Hello everyone...the universe has been giving my family a good solid kicking in the soft and tender bits of late BUT I'm hoping that 3 times is the charm and that it is over with.  I've done the results of the election which was holding up a few things and so I am committed to re-starting AAR updates this weekend.  2013 will go down in the family annals as a horrid horrid year.[/ooc]

On terraforming...I don't use the "safe green house gas" or "anti-green house gas"...uhm well just no.  There is no "safe green house gas" and frankly a significant number of the gases in the list should be GHGs (water for example).  Just my physics background making things twitchy for me.  But that is why they are not in use in the AAR.  So it means that my gas mixes are sub-optimal if what you want is a cost 0 colony.  I suspect I will get very few of those...but even costs of 1-2 are fairly viable.

The terraformers are largely concentrated on Mars at the moment...politically it is impossible to send a second one to Io as Ganymede can't currently run a second one due to insufficient people.  Though it would probably be worth running 2 at 90% anyway.

I'm glad that you can get some hints Joeclark77 (Joe Who?) on various things.  I have to admit the whole fuel efficiency and so on changes in the v6.1+ of the game really caught up to me.  The military almost inevitably analyses combat missions in terms of "Bang per Liter of Fuel Used."  Ship losses are bad but what is also viewed is "How much fuel was lost with that ship?" though this doesn't get a lot of press.

I'd love to get 2 stage sensors and mines running...but I'm a bit lost on how you use them and avoid all the problems people have with them seperating too early and so on.   But mining Jump Points the NCN would die for the ability to do so...