My real questions are, I guess, how to design missiles,
Click the button at the top of the tactical map with the missile on it. After that, experiment.
get a ship to shoot missiles,
The ship needs a missile launcher and a Missile Fire Control system. If you want to fire that missile at anything other than a waypoint or a planet,
somebody (it can be anybody) in your empire needs to see the target on their active sensors.
fire PDCs,
PDCs don't exist anymore. Ground based STO (surface-to-orbit) waeponry fires on the ground forces tab.
release lasers,
On many windows, the option to fire your lasers isn't shown unless there is a hostile contact on sensors somewhere in the star system.
read sensors,
On the Tactical map. You can display sensor ranges as rings, see contacts, and click on them for more information.
trick enemy sensors,
At the moment, you can't. The best you can do is (permanently) appear smaller / quieter / colder / harder to hit.
and generally killing the enemy.
Shoot first, shoot often? Out-build them? Exploit known quirks in the software to easily win any battle with any opponent? Cheat? SM yourself nigh-infinite fleets?
What makes a good missile?
Whatever your fiction decides. In my case, it's size 14, a massive warhead, and speed no greater than twice that of my fastest ships. . . because my missiles are Fouteen Inch Torpedoes.
What is the difference between a BC Battlecruiser and a BB Battleship?
Literally the name you call them (selected form the dropdown).
How do you design a cylon basestar
You choose your reference materials, translate the specs into Aurora terms, and design it on the ship design window.
For example, if your Cylon Raiders are going to be 500 tons, and your ref says Basestars ahd two hundred of them, you're going to need 100,000 tons of hangar space. . . plus some more for transports and cargo shuttles and so on. If your specs say basestars carried ground troops, add some troop transport capacity. Give them a huge jump engine because they are FTL capable. Give them however many of whatever type of guns the specs call for -- maybe that's a huge spinal laser for anti-shipping, and massed gauss cannons for fighter defense. Maybe they carried 400 nuclear missiles in fifty laucnh tubes.
or the Rocinante?
Point defense gauss cannons, a big rail gun, small troop bay, a powerful military engine, one missile tube and a small magazine, and a crew of legendary officers.
FYI have yet to get passed nuclear pulse engines so that is where my knowledge level is at. I have been avoiding looking at old VB stuff as I am unsure how much of it is still relevant. So if there is a good guild out there for VB that still applies to C# please point me to it.
Experiment. Push buttons and design stuff and seek out new civilizations and attempt to destroy them. Watch your ships and even worlds die, and then do it all over again.
Aurora is not a game you can win. You can only have fun playing. Play it, and learn which part you enjoy.
Don't go look up some gallery of 'perfect' ships designs and build them, because then you'll play Aurora for a few hours, get bored, and quit.
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Remember, Space Master is there to help you fix your mistakes. How much and how often you use it is entirely up to you. If horrible aliens are about to wipe out your entire civilization and you don't want to spend five hours building a new playthrough with all the same medals and ground forces and ships designs and what not, go ahead and SM yourself a brand new fleet (or ten) to stop them. Only you are judging you.
