Aurora Question

[Kurt (OP)]

Now that my Starfire campaign is wrapping up, I'm re-familiarizing myself with Aurora.  I've got the latest version installed, and after some trial and error I've managed to get a simple race up and running, starting from a conventional start.  The learning curve was a bit steep in the beginning, as a lot has changed since I last played Aurora, but I've mostly been able to figure things out, even if I'm not taking advantage of all of the bells and whistles yet.  I've built a couple of geo-survey ships and freighters, surveyed the inner solar system, and set up a couple of automated mining outposts.  Also, built simple garrison infantry battalions and then organized them into an infantry brigade with an HQ.  I know I made some mistakes there, but I'm learning, and the ground combat stuff is one of the biggest changes, I think, so I'm happy to have gotten that far. 

Having said that, I'm confused by some notations that have popped up that don't have any obvious explanation. 

The first is on the Naval Organization screen, Fleet selected, Movement orders tab.  I'm trying to give my survey ship orders to refuel, but its stuck.  I managed to run my survey ships out of fuel, something I used to do a lot in the old days until I learned to watch closer and set reasonable contingency orders.  So I figured out how to turn on SM mode and then manually relocated them to Earth.  One of them is overhauling, but the other one just sits there.  When I add an order to either refuel or overhaul, it shows up in the movement orders section, but with the following notation: Terra: Refuel from Colony (OV).  I suspect that the (OV) is trying to tell me there is a problem, and what it is, but I can't figure it out.

The second one is curiosity more than anything.  On the System Generation and Display window, the first column is the name of the system body, and the second is the type of system body.   In between is a column that shows the survey status.  I understand U, for un-surveyed, and M, for minerals present, but sometimes there is a number.  What is that number?  Sometimes it's just a number, and sometimes it's an M with a number, as in M3. 

I'm sure I'll have more questions in a bit.  Thanks in advance to anyone who can help!

[Black]

OV means most likely that the fleet is overhauling. So it is waiting for overhaul to finish, before it can complete the task to refuel. Also, do you have Refuelling Capability on Earth? I don't play conventional start, but it is possible that there is no Spaceport or Refuelling Station present.

Number in System Generation and Display window shows if there is possibility for ground geological survey to discover new deposits. Higher number means higher chance. In main window, on the left side there is Survey Sites tab that show all these discovered sites.

[Kurt (OP)]

OV means most likely that the fleet is overhauling. So it is waiting for overhaul to finish, before it can complete the task to refuel. Also, do you have Refuelling Capability on Earth? I don't play conventional start, but it is possible that there is no Spaceport or Refuelling Station present.

Number in System Generation and Display window shows if there is possibility for ground geological survey to discover new deposits. Higher number means higher chance. In main window, on the left side there is Survey Sites tab that show all these discovered sites.

Thanks - I figured out the OV thing after my ship finished overhauling and then completed the orders.  Ugh - patience, not my strong suit. 

Thanks also for explaining the number.  I suspected it was something like that, but having it confirmed helped. 

[nuclearslurpee]

Black has them both right. I do want to highlight that with the ground forces, it will take some getting used to the formation sizes that work well. "Battalions" from the VB6 days can be a bit misleading as this tends to imply formations in the range of 2,500 tons to 5,000 tons, while in practice I think you need ground units in the range of 10,000 to 20,000 tons, with some flex room based on roleplay and game situation.

There are a couple of reasons for this. One is micromanagement, homeworld invasions will require multiple million tons of ground units, which means potentially hundreds to thousands of formations, so using fewer, larger formations eases this burden. The other is commanders, if you use too small a formation size and thus have too many formations you will not have enough commanders to lead them all. This is not crippling, but it makes sense to bump up your formation sizes and get full benefit from your leaders.