Questions Not Worth Their Own Thread: C# Edition

[ChubbyPitbull]

Sorry to spam the thread but it's been very helpful!

So I'm working to open diplomatic relations for basically the first time in Aurora and it seems to be working, but had a question. I found an NPR in their home system, and was able to establish communications and have my scout ship leave before they fired at it (once comms were established they quickly demanded I leave or be fired upon).

In the next system over from them, I have a few size 1 Security Buoys with Active Sensors on each known jump point, and I saw the NPR jumped a few ships of their own into the system and left them sitting on the jump point. I've sent a 7,000 ton civilian Diplomatic Ship (with DIP module and size 1 passive thermal/em sensors) over to that system to also sit on the jump point, and diplomatic contact was established with an Ambassador of one of the ships on the jump point, with slow DR gains each day.

However, each day I gain DR, I do also get a message from the NPR requesting that my ships leave the system as the NPR has claimed it. Are they asking for my diplomatic ship to leave, or are they complaining about the Security Buoys? As far as I can tell the NPR hasn't gone farther towards me than the system they are asking me to leave, and I'm not sure if a way was added in C# Aurora to destroy missile salvos if that's their complaint. I'd prefer to keep building DR with them but also don't want them to eventually get fed up and turn on me for not sending the diplomatic ship away.

EDIT: Additional question, I've found a new NPR that's in two different systems where communication efforts are stalled because the NPR "refused to communicate." I thought this may just mean precursors, but thus far while they flew some ships over to my survey ship they haven't yet opened fire. Do some NPRs just not want to talk?

[Migi]

Based off this post http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=12035.msg144587#msg144587

Motherships will automatically resupply ships in hangars, in the same way as automated refueling.

Hangers aren't mentioned in the refuelling post (http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=8495.msg97525#msg97525) but AFIK they refuel any docked ship, and it happens in military and commercial hangers.
How fast does refuelling in hangers happen and does it improve with tech?

[Voltbot]

Another (probably dumb) question:

There are some techs, that you can only get from ancient ruins.
My question is: How you get the tech?
Is it retrived like installations?
Or I will get components, that I have to disassemble?

[nuclearslurpee]

Sorry to spam the thread but it's been very helpful!

Much better to spam this thread, as that is what it is for, than to start a dozen separate threads cluttering up the board elsewhere! 

So I'm working to open diplomatic relations for basically the first time in Aurora and it seems to be working, but had a question. I found an NPR in their home system, and was able to establish communications and have my scout ship leave before they fired at it (once comms were established they quickly demanded I leave or be fired upon).

In the next system over from them, I have a few size 1 Security Buoys with Active Sensors on each known jump point, and I saw the NPR jumped a few ships of their own into the system and left them sitting on the jump point. I've sent a 7,000 ton civilian Diplomatic Ship (with DIP module and size 1 passive thermal/em sensors) over to that system to also sit on the jump point, and diplomatic contact was established with an Ambassador of one of the ships on the jump point, with slow DR gains each day.

However, each day I gain DR, I do also get a message from the NPR requesting that my ships leave the system as the NPR has claimed it. Are they asking for my diplomatic ship to leave, or are they complaining about the Security Buoys? As far as I can tell the NPR hasn't gone farther towards me than the system they are asking me to leave, and I'm not sure if a way was added in C# Aurora to destroy missile salvos if that's their complaint. I'd prefer to keep building DR with them but also don't want them to eventually get fed up and turn on me for not sending the diplomatic ship away.

I think this is a bug which has been corrected in the unreleased v2.0:

Fixed bug that caused NPRs to issue warnings when the threat level was zero. For example, a small diplomatic ship currently generates zero threat but results in a warning.

You should be okay as long as you haven't got any other ships in the system that would generate a of threat rating. However, if the system isn't terribly important to you it is probably worth giving it up if you want to foster continued good relations with the aliens as NPRs like a buffer around their home systems for obvious reasons.

EDIT: Additional question, I've found a new NPR that's in two different systems where communication efforts are stalled because the NPR "refused to communicate." I thought this may just mean precursors, but thus far while they flew some ships over to my survey ship they haven't yet opened fire. Do some NPRs just not want to talk?

Let's just say that some NPRs don't want to talk, and if the situation develops in an interesting way you can come back and let us know how it has gone. 

How fast does refuelling in hangers happen and does it improve with tech?

I believe hangars automatically work as a refueling module of your current tech level. Steve decided not to force players to manually redesign/upgrade their hangars every time fuel, ordnance, MSP, etc. handling techs are incremented as this would be a rather superfluous kind of micromanagement.

Another (probably dumb) question:

There are some techs, that you can only get from ancient ruins.
My question is: How you get the tech?
Is it retrived like installations?
Or I will get components, that I have to disassemble?

Officially they are not implemented into the game at all, as they did not make the leap from VB6 (simply put with a couple of exceptions the spoiler NPRs do not use special technology, they just use a normal tech level which is intended to be elevated compared to the player's starting tech level). Unofficially it is possible to enable them with some DB tweaking and some players have done this - Droll I know for sure does this in their games, so they can comment with step-by-step instructions if they would like to.

Component disassembly is still valuable as you can gain significant progress in the normal tech tree from doing so.

[Garfunkel]

Note that when doing component disassembly, you're improving your own tech level and not skip-jumping to the enemy tech level. So, for example, your enemy has EM sensitivity 16 while you have 12 - when you disassemble enough components, you'll go from 12 to 14 and need then to loot a lot more components to go from 14 to 16. This is why in some cases it is better to design a special ship solely to use high-tech components that you only have one piece of, as you're unlikely to gain any significant tech boost but a scout ship that extends your sensor range or a brawler ship that has lot more advanced beam weapons can be quite useful.

[Kiero]

...This is why in some cases it is better to design a special ship solely to use high-tech components that you only have one piece of, as you're unlikely to gain any significant tech boost but a scout ship that extends your sensor range or a brawler ship that has lot more advanced beam weapons can be quite useful.

How to do it exactly?

[ChubbyPitbull]

I think this is a bug which has been corrected in the unreleased v2.0:

Fixed bug that caused NPRs to issue warnings when the threat level was zero. For example, a small diplomatic ship currently generates zero threat but results in a warning.

You should be okay as long as you haven't got any other ships in the system that would generate a of threat rating. However, if the system isn't terribly important to you it is probably worth giving it up if you want to foster continued good relations with the aliens as NPRs like a buffer around their home systems for obvious reasons.

Well, until I saw your reply I had left the Diplo Ship there as event reports showed my DR climbing to over 180. I sat down this morning, read your reply, advanced time and in the very next time increment the NPR began launching missiles at my Diplo Ship. Ske-daddling to the next system over!

EDIT: I had two races I was establishing diplomatic contact with with diplomatic ships; I decided to open up the DB to see what they thought of me. The one I had DR 180 with and opened fire on me was indeed at -101, and the one I had built up to have DR 402 with (the longest-contacted race) only is DR 28 with me. Is there another way to build DR without triggering the request leave warning hits?

[nuclearslurpee]

Well, until I saw your reply I had left the Diplo Ship there as event reports showed my DR climbing to over 180. I sat down this morning, read your reply, advanced time and in the very next time increment the NPR began launching missiles at my Diplo Ship. Ske-daddling to the next system over!

In this case it is probably the buoy which was annoying them, if you leave them alone for a while they may decide to be neutral again.

EDIT: I had two races I was establishing diplomatic contact with with diplomatic ships; I decided to open up the DB to see what they thought of me. The one I had DR 180 with and opened fire on me was indeed at -101, and the one I had built up to have DR 402 with (the longest-contacted race) only is DR 28 with me. Is there another way to build DR without triggering the request leave warning hits?

The best approach is going to be to contact them in a fairly neutral system which they do not claim but maintain a presence in. The AI is usually pretty good about maintaining a diplo ship presence in such a system if they do want to maintain relations with you.

[Garfunkel]

...This is why in some cases it is better to design a special ship solely to use high-tech components that you only have one piece of, as you're unlikely to gain any significant tech boost but a scout ship that extends your sensor range or a brawler ship that has lot more advanced beam weapons can be quite useful.

How to do it exactly?

Once you've started designing your ship, you can tick that box:


and finish designing it.

[ChubbyPitbull]

Is the only way to get units to fortify above their SF value is by having construction vehicles either in the formation itself, or somewhere above the unit in the hierarchy? I thought I had read that units could leverage construction factories, or other construction ground units on the planet to fortify, even if not within the hierarchy.

I have a garrison on a ruins planet with a top-level Division HQ formation, with some support artillery attached to the DHQ directly, and 3 Brigades (one Garrison w/ Static units, one Assault w/ Vehicle and Inf units, one Construction/Xeno/GeoSurvey) under the DHQ, each with 4 battalions. The Con/Xeno/Geo brigade battalions AND the brigade HQ formations all fortified to the max Fortification value of 6, but neither the Garrison or Assault brigades ever went above their SF value. As a test I moved all the construction battalions on the planet (5 total) to be attached directly to the DHQ formation; now the Assault Brigade fortification values are going above the SF value, but the Garrison brigade units remain locked at their SF max.

[nuclearslurpee]

Is the only way to get units to fortify above their SF value is by having construction vehicles either in the formation itself, or somewhere above the unit in the hierarchy? I thought I had read that units could leverage construction factories, or other construction ground units on the planet to fortify, even if not within the hierarchy.

Per the wiki:

Construction elements will work on any element in their own formation or that formation's subordinate hierarchy that has already reached its max self-fortification level. If the construction element's formation has no subordinate, the Construction elements will work on any element in their own formation's parent formation or in that parent formation's subordinate hierarchy that has already reached its max self-fortification level.

Construction factories do not contribute to fortification, only CON-capability ground units.

I have a garrison on a ruins planet with a top-level Division HQ formation, with some support artillery attached to the DHQ directly, and 3 Brigades (one Garrison w/ Static units, one Assault w/ Vehicle and Inf units, one Construction/Xeno/GeoSurvey) under the DHQ, each with 4 battalions. The Con/Xeno/Geo brigade battalions AND the brigade HQ formations all fortified to the max Fortification value of 6, but neither the Garrison or Assault brigades ever went above their SF value. As a test I moved all the construction battalions on the planet (5 total) to be attached directly to the DHQ formation; now the Assault Brigade fortification values are going above the SF value, but the Garrison brigade units remain locked at their SF max.

Attaching the CON units to the top-level HQ should work. Note that the process takes time, so you should wait and after some time you will see the Garrison brigade units also fortifying. CON fortification works on a per-element basis, not on all elements at a population simultaneously.

[ChubbyPitbull]

Thanks for continuing to be such a help! Really appreciate it, felt like I knew a lot about Aurora but constantly finding new things or items I never even tried out in VB6.

Along those lines, is there any additional diplomatic levels above once an NPR shares research with you? Is there ever a point at which they would share colony locations, class designs, or even shared vision?

[nuclearslurpee]

Thanks for continuing to be such a help! Really appreciate it, felt like I knew a lot about Aurora but constantly finding new things or items I never even tried out in VB6.

Along those lines, is there any additional diplomatic levels above once an NPR shares research with you? Is there ever a point at which they would share colony locations, class designs, or even shared vision?

Not to my knowledge, no. The diplomacy system while expanded from VB6 is still quite bare-bones, basically there is nothing beyond what is documented in-game or in Steve's dev posts in terms of mechanics. Many of us are hoping that a proper peace negotiation system is added at some point so that wars need not be existential, for example.

[ChubbyPitbull]

Thanks again!

How does trade with NPRs work? I've allowed trade with an NPR who I am Allied status with and who's homeworld is ~4 jumps from mine, and they've also allowed trade with me. However, as best as I can tell, no civilian trade is occurring between our planets. My civilian freighters, who have no contracts from me to transport installations, are sitting idle on my capital, and I haven't seen any freighters of the NPR visit my homeworld.

Is there a way for me to build my own freighter and set up standing or cycling orders to exchange trade goods?

Also referencing standing orders, is there a way to make exploration ships auto-jump through unexplored jump points?

[nuclearslurpee]

Thanks again!

How does trade with NPRs work? I've allowed trade with an NPR who I am Allied status with and who's homeworld is ~4 jumps from mine, and they've also allowed trade with me. However, as best as I can tell, no civilian trade is occurring between our planets. My civilian freighters, who have no contracts from me to transport installations, are sitting idle on my capital, and I haven't seen any freighters of the NPR visit my homeworld.

If nothing else, make sure you have a complete stabilized JP network all the way to the NPR home world. Civilian ships cannot use JPs unless they have been stabilized.

Also referencing standing orders, is there a way to make exploration ships auto-jump through unexplored jump points?

None to my knowledge. I usually have a separate class of exploration ships for jumping into new systems, which also have the job of scouting out near-habitable bodies to check for aliens and dropping comm buoys at jump points to detect any uninvited guests facilitate the interstellar Internet.