C# Aurora Changes List v1.00

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Meson Update

Mesons have the following changes for C# Aurora:

1) Their cost is based on the same principles as a laser, so mesons will cost the same as an equivalent laser of the same tech level.
2) Mesons penetrate shields as before but their ability to penetrate armour is now limited.
3) A new tech line exists, Meson Armour Retardation, which is the chance for each layer of armour to stop the meson. This starts at 50%, then 40%, 32%, etc. finishing at 7% for TL 12
4) If armour does stop the meson, it scores 1 point of damage on the armour.
5) If the meson hits a damaged armour location, it only has to penetrate the remaining armour in that location.
6) Mesons will destroy missiles without penalty, as missiles are no longer armoured in C# Aurora.

As with everything else, these changes are subject to play test.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Shock Damage Update

The recent debate on mesons highlighted some issues with Shock damage at higher levels. Therefore Shock Damage in C# Aurora will operate as follows:

1) The chance of shock damage is equal to: Damage Caused to armour / Size of Ship in HS. For example a 9 point warhead vs a 6000 ton ship has a 7.5% chance of shock damage. A 16 point energy impact vs 10,000 ton ship has an 8% chance of shock damage.
2) Any damage with less than a 5% chance is ignored as too small  (i.e. any damage where the strength is less than 5% of the ship HS)
3) If shock damage occurs, the shock damage is rolled randomly up to 20% of armour damage

Where the armour damage is easily divisible by 5, for example a 15 point warhead, there is a random roll from 1 to max shock damage (1-3 in this case). Where the armour damage is not divisible by 5, the max shock damage is the amount divisible by 5 (rounded) down plus a percentage chance of an extra 1 max shock damage equal to the percentage of 5 remaining. For example, a 12 point warhead would be assigned 2 max shock damage approximately 60% of the time and 3 max shock damage 40% of the time.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Boarding Combat

Boarding combat in C# Aurora is similar in principle to VB6 Aurora with some adjustments for the new ground combat mechanics. The boarding attempt process is as follows:

• Only a ship with a boarding-equipped troop transport bay can be ordered to make a boarding attempt
• Only formations that consist entirely of infantry can take part in a boarding attempt
• Boarding attempts cannot be made against ships that are faster than the ship making the boarding attempt
• A fleet given the 'Attempt Boarding Action' (for a specified formation) or 'Attempt Boarding Action All Formations' will attempt to end its movement in the same location as the target ship. If that happens, a boarding attempt will be made.
• The percentage chance of each individual unit (soldier) conducting a successful boarding attempt is equal to 10% x (Boarding Ship Speed / Target Ship Speed). So if the boarding ship is 10x faster than the target ship, success is automatic.
• Any unit with a 'Boarding Combat' capability has double the normal chance of success. In this case, if the boarding ship is 5x faster than the target ship, success is automatic.
• Any units that do not make the successful attempt are killed. If an HQ unit is lost, there is a chance the formation commander is killed based on (1/Number of HQ units), which is an automatic kill result if only one HQ exists

Once on the target ships, the surviving attackers will move inside if there is a hole in the armour. If there is no hole, the boarders will use a breaching charge to destroy one armour at the weakest point every thirty seconds until they gain access.

Once inside the target ship, a boarding combat round is conducted every sixty seconds. This is very similar in principle to ground combat, albeit without support artillery, aircraft, etc. and with no concept of front-live vs rear. There is no 'fortification' in the ground combat sense, but the defenders are given a fortification level of 2 to simulate the advantages of defence within the ship. Also, because this is a confined space and there are likely to be fragments of formations, each individual unit on each side randomly selects a target formation element on the opposing side, using a weighted random selection based on size, and conducts an attack using the normal ground combat procedure:

The commanders of each formation provide a bonus to hit with their Ground Combat Offence bonus and provide a bonus to fortification (base fortification is 1 on attack and 2 on defence) with their Ground Combat Defence bonus. Any units on either side with 'Boarding Combat' capability have double the normal chance to hit.

For the purposes of boarding combat, the crew is a temporary formation with a single element composed of 'crew' ground units and a morale equal to the current crew morale. A crew member is equipped with light personal weapons and has 'armour' equal to half the lowest racial armour for infantry. Casualties in this temporary formation translate into crew losses and morale losses translate into the same impact on crew morale. Given that the crew is not well equipped for a fight of this type, it would advisable for ships to carry a small marine detachment if there is a chance they may face boarding attacks. If the target ship is a carrier, formations based on parasite ships will fight to protect the mothership.

If all the defending units are killed, the ship is transferred to the new owners (I may also add some surrender rules so you don't need to kill all the crew). To simulate the difficulties in making use of a captured ship, especially as the defenders have no doubt locked out the controls and sabotaged whatever they can, the captured ship is treated as if it just abandoned an overhaul and is given an overhaul factor of 0.01:  http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=8495.msg111157#msg111157

If a ship is captured, the associated Alien Class is updated with complete information.

Collateral damage can occur during boarding combat using the same rules as for ground-based collateral damage. All the damage is applied to the ship as a single internal hit. Because of the relatively small-scale of shipboard combat, any fractional points of collateral damage have a percentage chance of becoming full points equal to (fractional damage / 1). Damage to transport bays due to collateral damage will not kill defending troops (as they are fighting on the ship and not located in the bay).

If a ship is struck by external damage during boarding combat and one or more components are destroyed, there may be casualties among the boarding combatants on both sides. The damage to each engaged element is equal to:
(destroyed component size / ship size) * (0.25 + (Random(10) * 0.05))

The random roll is made for each element separately.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Maximum Engine Power Modifier

The research costs for the Maximum Engine Power Modifier line of technology have all been halved. The Minimum Power Modifier line of technology remains at the VB6 research costs.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Ruins in Sol

There is a very small chance that one of the larger bodies in Sol may have alien ruins. This can happen on Mars, Mercury, the Galilean Moons, Titan, Triton, Pluto or Eris. This is only about 5% for Mars, 3% for Mercury, 1% for Titan or Ganymede and fractions of a percent for the others.

I wasn't going to mention it but I just found ruins on Mercury in the 3rd test game

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Genetically Enhanced Soldiers

Infantry units can be given capabilities, known as Genetic Enhancement, which increase their hit points and make them more resistant to damage. So far there are three options:

Basic Genetic Enhancement: RP 5,000, HP x 1.25,  Cost x 1.5
Improved Genetic Enhancement: RP 10,000, HP x 1.6,  Cost x 2.0
Advanced Genetic Enhancement: RP 20,000, HP x 2,  Cost x 2.5

Once researched, the new capabilities can by chosen from the available capabilities list during ground combat design. These are all Biology/Genetics techs and the first in the sequence can be researched following Genome Sequence Research

The above may change as a result of testing and I may add other enhancement options

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Shipyard Worker Requirements

Shipyards in VB6 require one million workers as a base, plus 100 workers for each ton of capacity in naval shipyards and 10 workers for each ton of capacity in commercial shipyards.

For C#, the base requirement is removed. Instead, naval shipyards will require 250 workers for each ton of capacity and commercial shipyards will require 25 workers for each ton of capacity. This is intended to bring shipyards in line with other major industry sectors such as construction factories, mines and research facilities

As an example, here are the shipyards from my current test campaign with the old and new requirements:

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Wealth Generation

In VB6 wealth generation is based on total population. Therefore some real-world nations with large populations (which I use in multi-race starts), generate a lot of excess wealth, even though in reality their wealth output is more in line with their industrial output. India is a good example of this situation. VB6 tries to solve this by having an option to set lower starting wealth per capita for a nation. However, that penalises the race throughout the whole game. In addition, conventional starts generate huge wealth excess as the population is initially producing wealth with minimal industry to consume it.

For C# Aurora, wealth is produced only by workers in TN installations, simulating that wealth is more closely tied to industrial potential than total population. Each 1 million workers produces a baseline 100 wealth per annum, although this can be improved by a new Wealth Generation tech line that replaces the VB6 Civilian Economy tech. This wealth is generated regardless of whether the installation to which the workers are assigned is currently building or producing anything. Wealth Generation tech starts with 120 wealth per million workers for 3000 RP, then 140 for 5000 RP, etc.. Workers in Conventional Factories and Forced Labour Camps do not produce wealth.

Financial Centres generate additional wealth equal to the tax from 250,000 workers (I may adjust this based on play test). Financial Centres can be transported to other colonies (unlike VB6). In addition to their other output, Conventional Factories function as 1/10th of a Financial Centre. Conventional Factories can be converted to Financial Centres at a cost of 20 BP, using 10 Corbomite and 10 Uridium. It is also worth noting here that tax generation from shipping lines has been doubled for C# Aurora.

The C# method has a few advantages over the VB6 method:

1) High population, low industry nations are now easy to handle as most of the population does not generate wealth (it is assumed that the wealth from agriculture and service is used to cover welfare, health, education, etc. with a net wealth of zero).
2) Conventional starts do not generate huge excess wealth
3) As a nation industrialises, its wealth generation capability grows naturally, which reflects historical trends.
4) The planned wealth reserve cap can be removed.
5) Financial centres grow in importance and have more of a wealth impact (in relative terms) compared to VB6.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Fuel Storage Costs

I've realised that fuel storage is very expensive in Aurora compared to other 'storage' modules. In terms of cost per HS they are more expensive than hangars or magazines, three times as expensive as cryo, seven times as expensive as troop transport bays and sixty times more expensive than cargo bays. They are also about six times more expensive than most productive modules (Terraform, Salvage, Harvester, Jump Point Stabilisation, etc.). BTW I realised this by wondering why a tanker was taking so long to build. The reason was that because build time is based on cost but modified by size, high 'cost density' ships take a long time and that was greatly exacerbated by the fuel storage.

On that basis, I am reducing the cost of fuel storage considerably for C# Aurora, although it is staggered so the cost benefit of larger modules is improved.

Fuel Storage - Tiny: 5,000 litres, 0.5 BP
Fuel Storage - Small: 10,000 litres, 0.8 BP
Fuel Storage - Standard: 50,000 litres, 2 BP
Fuel Storage - Large: 250,000 litres, 5 BP
Fuel Storage - Very Large: 1,000,000 litres, 10 BP
Fuel Storage - Ultra Large: 5,000,000 litres, 25 BP

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Starting Financial Centres

New Trans-Newtonian Races will start with a number of financial centres equal to one quarter of the number of construction factories.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Manufacturing Sector

The maximum service sector size has been reduced from 75% to 70%. The effect of this is an increase in the manufacturing population by 5% of total population. For a population on a colony cost zero world with max service sector (a home world for example), the manufacturing sector will be 25% of population, rather than 20%.

This change is because of the increased worker requirements for shipyards, plus the increased need for financial centres and maintenance facilities. I considered lowering the starting numbers of factories, but decided to maintain the existing balance and free up more population instead. Otherwise, the standard start will generally have a manufacturing efficiency problem.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Ship Commander Rank

The required rank of a ship commander is set automatically by Aurora and will be the lowest race rank, unless one of the following component rules is activated. Component rules are not cumulative so only the highest requirement applies.

If a ship is greater than 1000 tons and has any of the following component, the required rank is lowest rank + 1: Weapons, survey sensors, a jump drive, a hangar deck.
If a ship has any of the following component, the required rank is lowest rank + 1: Auxiliary Control, Science Department, Primary Flight Control.
If a ship has any of the following component, the required rank is lowest rank + 2: Main Engineering, CIC, Flag Bridge.

The Class Window has a checkbox entitled Senior C.O. If this is checked, the class will have a required rank one higher than the above rules require (to allow the player to designate certain classes as worthy of a more senior officer than normal).

The rule is an enhancement to the command and control rules: http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=8495.msg101818#msg101818

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Ship Thermal Signature

In VB6 Aurora, a ship always has its maximum thermal signature even when not moving. The fleet can be set to a lower speed if desired, which reduces the signature, but that isn't directly related to movement. As it doesn't seem realistic that a stationary ship and one moving at full speed should have the same thermal signature, C# Aurora will handle thermal signatures in the following way:

If a fleet has movement orders, each ship in that fleet has a thermal signature equal to: (current speed / max speed) * max thermal signature (the same as VB6).  This applies regardless of whether the order involves a change in position, so a freighter in transit and one loading cargo are both 'moving'. 

A ship in a fleet without orders has a baseline thermal output equal to 5% of its size in hull spaces (or 0.1% of its size in tons). For example, a 10,000 ton ship without orders would have a thermal signature of 10 (200 HS x 5%). There is no distinction for commercial shipping on the basis that some commercial functions (mining, terraforming, harvesters) would generate heat and even freighters would have less thermal shielding than similar size warships. The minimum thermal signature for a ship with movement orders is also the base thermal output.

This has significant implications for scouting, as passive sensors will now only detect large stationary alien warships from a relatively short range.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Jump Point Transit Shock

When a ship transits a jump point, it will suffer jump shock. This temporarily disables active sensors, fire control systems and jump drives.

A ship making a standard transit will suffer a delay equal to: (120 seconds + Random 1 to 60 seconds) * Ship Bonus.
A ship making a squadron transit will suffer a delay equal to: (20 seconds + Random 1 to 10 seconds) * Ship Bonus.

The ship bonus is equal to: 2 - ((1 + Crew Grade) * Morale * Overhaul Factor).

For example, if a ship has 100% morale, an overhaul factor of 1 (which is normal) and crew grade of 10%, the ship bonus would be (2 - (1.1 * 1 * 1) = 0.9. So any delay would be multipled by 90%.

The length of jump shock for NPRs is halved. This is to compensate for the fact that humans can make much better decisions in this situation, in particular with regard to ensuring the right mix of jump ships and warships is available in the right place at the right time to take advantage of squadron transits. If I get around to coding more detailed strategic decision-making in this situation for NPRs (not a priority for V1), I'll make them the same as player races.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Fleet Order Templates

When a fleet is given a set of orders on the Naval Organization window, those orders can be saved as an 'Order Template'. This is as simple as clicking the Save Template button and typing a name into a popup box.

When the Order Templates option is chosen in the top left of the Movement Orders tab, all Order templates that start in the same system as the currently selected fleet are displayed (see first screenshot). To use a template, select it from the list and click Add Move. All the orders are created accordingly (see second screenshot). This is similar to the same functionality in VB6 but the UI allows a lot more templates to be easily accessible.

Templates can be deleted with the Delete Template button.