Are NPRs Just Like Us?

[JimBadger (OP)]

I can't play Aurora at the moment, so I want to think and ask questions about it instead.    .    .   

Are the AI players in Aurora limited in exactly the same ways that the human player is? Does the AI "cheat", basically?

Many, many games get around the difficulty of providing a challenging AI by giving it production bonuses (not always just at higher difficulty levels), or by letting the AI automatically know where hidden resources are, or by not having the AI ever run out of money, and so on and so forth.   

For example, there was a version of Civilization where the AI knew exactly where all the as-of-yet undiscovered strategic resources were, so their settlers would make a beeline for them.   

I have very limited exposure to NPRs yet, in my single game of Aurora (I'm only four years in!), but I hope they have to do all the things we do, like mine, tax, build, survey, research, etc.   

I don't mind if there are more advanced civilizations (and I know there are, like the Wossnames, and the Thingies).     The system next door to mine met my lone, unarmed scout with thirty-eight 600-ton ships that were sitting right next to the jump point I used.     I suppose it's possible that I too could have built such an armada of small ships in such a short space of time, if that was pretty much all I'd done.    .    .    Maybe I've run into the advanced Wossnames and Thingies already, or maybe I've run into a hidden-bonues-fed "cheating" AI?

Or, do some normal NPRs already exist at a certain tech level, which may be ahead of or behind your own when the game begins? (or when you generate a new system.    .    .    ?)

Is the AI a competent "player", with or without any bonuses it may or may not have?

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Unrelated question: How does one start a new game in a random, non-Sol system? Without having to construct the system themself? I want to start somewhere new and unfamiliar, but I don't want to have to use SM mode and probably gain loads of knowledge about the universe and NPRs along the way.    .    .   

[Din182]

NPR's don't cheat except for maintenance and fuel, because they don't understand it, but they more than make up for it with general stupidity. And the 38 600 ton ships are probably the Star Swarm.

I don't think normal NPRs exist "before" you start. Even if they do, it makes sense that your not the oldest empire and it is pretty easy to out-tech them.

[JimBadger (OP)]

I think I've already accidentally read enough about what I think you've covered up, there, to guess what it is that you've written.  Yeah, I think I've run into them, too. . . There goes the neighbourhood.

And, yeah, being a young space-faring civilisation amongst older races, not just long-believed-dead ancients, makes perfect sense and is something I'd welcome.  

Tough poop if you run into the Klingons before the Vulcans! Better luck next time.  

Cool though, NPRs having economy-reliance like I do is a plus, for me.   Nevermind fuel and maintenance - as you say, no doubt they deserve an edge against human cunning.  

[JimBadger (OP)]

Oooh, another question: Is it possible to start a new game in an existing universe?

Say I played my game for 300 game years, and all the NPRs were growing, and expanding, and doing their thing. . . and then I got wiped out, or retired. . . Is there a way to use that game as the basis for a new one? Voila: elder races!

Edit: You'd then of course see the ruins of your previous race's empire. Bit like the way the Dwarf Fortress "universe" works...

[HaliRyan]

Well, you could just continue the same game and create a new user-controlled race set to starting tech levels in a new system. That'd give you what you're looking for, although there would probably be an abundance of nuclear craters and a lack of ruins on your old civilization's planets.

[JimBadger (OP)]

That'd do me nicely, thanks.

As soon as my not-nice neighbours pop over and cream me, I'll have a look at this Space Master thing.

(Brings me back to the last question in my first post, above: Can you just start in a completely randomised non-Sol system? Or does it have to be built somehow in SM Mode?)

[Erik L]

That'd do me nicely, thanks.

As soon as my not-nice neighbours pop over and cream me, I'll have a look at this Space Master thing.

(Brings me back to the last question in my first post, above: Can you just start in a completely randomised non-Sol system? Or does it have to be built somehow in SM Mode?)

You need to use the SM Race as your "race" and generate systems until you find one you like. Then create empire on the planet. Then just change your default race to your new one.

[Charlie Beeler]

<snip>(Brings me back to the last question in my first post, above: Can you just start in a completely randomised non-Sol system? Or does it have to be built somehow in SM Mode?)

Yes, unclick the Real Stars option on the game startup screen.  

[Girlinhat]

Unclicking the "real stars" still puts you in conventional Sol though, unless you get into SM mode and create your own system.  But as Erik said you should be able to tell the game "make a random system" and if you don't like it, you can trash it, or play it where it lays.

[JimBadger (OP)]

Fab, that's just the sort of thing I want.

[ollobrains]

yeah always pray youre ahead of the nprs