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Posted by: Roger Hanna
« on: March 16, 2020, 07:10:23 AM »

Thanks for the replies.  I've been reviewing it and indeed it seems very SF-like (though instead of SF-lite it seems like SF-UltraPlus).  The learning curve isn't as steep as I expected but isn't like picking up MOO either.  Which is good. 

I'm looking for a structure to underlay a book I have dreams of writing (literally). . .  I'm assuming from these comments there is no impediment to using it that way and publishing (with all due credit)? I had been playing with Squadron Strike, which has its strengths, but it lacks a campaign system that is in any way workable. 

Did any of the ideas that made it into the UTM make it into Aurora? I was really pretty happy with what we had there at the end. 

Good seeing as much of the old crew here as I do.  Feels like a decade or so has dropped away.  :)

Posted by: Steve Walmsley
« on: March 14, 2020, 08:31:38 AM »

Yes, I would generally agree with Father Tim's assessment. Aurora is designed to facilitate role-playing in campaign play, which means design decisions are made on that basis. I'm not considering the impact of those decisions on single battle human vs human play, which can cause complaints on the Discord. It is reminiscent of the role-players vs competitive gamers situation following the release of Galactic Starfire, although without the same animosity.

For example, I often design ships for a particular theme (recently WH40k) which results in very bad designs from a min-max perspective but those designs will improve over time as that race (rather than me) gains combat experience. The non-role-players, mainly on the Discord, can have a hard time understanding why anyone would deliberately create bad designs rather than using their own knowledge of the mechanics to create more effective designs.
Posted by: Father Tim
« on: March 14, 2020, 06:53:51 AM »

I will say there are different design/play philosophies between the forum community and the discord community. This is not to say one is better than the other.

What would you say are the differences?


I've never been on the Discord, but based on second-hand impressions I'd say there's a strong contingent there who wish to play Aurora as a human-vs-human wargame or ship-design tournament.  They want to design, say, the best possible fleet for 200,000 research points & 1,000,000 tons of minerals to fight other peoples' "best possible fleet."  As a result, they are strongly interested in the 'fairness' of various weapon types, the 'effectiveness per ton' of different-sized systems and the 'effectiveness per research point' of others.

They also care deeply about 'quirks in the code' and other ways Aurora can be exploited.

As an example, one of the founding principles of Aurora is that you shouldn't be able to nuke a planet dry on Monday (to kill its original population) and land your own people on Wednesday.  There isn't supposed to be a neat, clean, simple way to kill all the aliens and keep their stuff.  But parking a Terraformer in orbit and pumping out some toxic gas will do so quite effecively, and with minimal clean-up time (to remove said gas) that can be rendered irrelevant if you bring along enough Infrastructure with your own people -- easily done since you're starting from zero people.  In human-vs-software Aurora this is not a problem, because the software won't do this and you can choose not to.   But in Human-vs-Human Aurora you either have to agree not to do this, or defend against it.

Likewise, Plasma Carronades are a terrrible weapon per Research Point -- they stink at point defense and they stink at long-range beam combat.  Basically, if you want to use them you need a second beam weapon as well to cover their shortcomings. . . in which case you are almost certainly better off ignoring plasma carronades completely and focusing entirely on the other beam weapon.

This isn't a problem if you're role-playing an empire, because then you're using plasma carronades because you like plasma carronades.  If you're building a tournament ship or fleet every tech point counts and choosing any plasma carronade tech is simply giving yourself a handicap.


= = = = =


To summarize, this board is mainly player-vs-software, and roleplay what seems fun, ignore what seems unfun.  The discord is largely player-vs-player, strive for ultimate efficiency, expoit any quirks in the software and/or advocate for 'fixing' said quirks.
Posted by: Tree
« on: March 14, 2020, 03:40:16 AM »

I will say there are different design/play philosophies between the forum community and the discord community. This is not to say one is better than the other.

What would you say are the differences?
Posted by: Steve Walmsley
« on: March 13, 2020, 01:53:43 PM »

Its been a while since I played Starfire and the other day I was moving my games into a new room and sat down with Imperial Starfire. . .  and lost 4 hours.  Next thing I knew I was reading Stars at Wars and wondering where my copy of Steve's diary had gone.  That lead me here and now I got the itch again. 

So. . .  is anyone playing the 3R/UTM with or without SFA any more? IS there a game I can get into?

And. . .  Aurora? How is it awesome? How is it lame? Is it Starfire like or Starfire light or just different? Easy to install and/or play (from Wiki looks like a steep learning curve. . . )?

I've been mucking around with Squadron Strike as a basis for a universe for a book but this looks like fun.  I will dive in as I can. 

OH: Hi Steve! Long time, no chat. . .  and to the rest of the group from 3rdR I recognize from the fiction authors, Hello! I haven't looked at those yet. . .  trying to find my old 3rdR fiction lines first.  Question. . .  Anyone EVER hear from Mik again?

See you around. . .  I hope :)

Roger

Hi Roger - long time no see :)

Aurora is very similar 3rd edition Starfire in terms of genre. The mechanics are different because it is not restricted by pen and paper and it has advanced a lot since 2004, but the core intention of the game is the same. You survey systems, discover jump points, develop colonies, design ships and fight NPRs.  The difference is the level of detail. For example, for a gravitational survey there are thirty locations in the each system that have to be visited and surveyed. Ship design is a lot more involved, terraforming tracks individual atmospheric gases, you track fuel, maintenance supplies and individual missiles, etc. I suggest reading some AARs to see how the game develops.

This is a C# campaign, which should give you a good flavour of the new version.
http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?board=266.0
Posted by: Kurt
« on: March 13, 2020, 10:01:10 AM »

Its been a while since I played Starfire and the other day I was moving my games into a new room and sat down with Imperial Starfire. . .  and lost 4 hours.  Next thing I knew I was reading Stars at Wars and wondering where my copy of Steve's diary had gone.  That lead me here and now I got the itch again. 

So. . .  is anyone playing the 3R/UTM with or without SFA any more? IS there a game I can get into?

And. . .  Aurora? How is it awesome? How is it lame? Is it Starfire like or Starfire light or just different? Easy to install and/or play (from Wiki looks like a steep learning curve. . . )?

I've been mucking around with Squadron Strike as a basis for a universe for a book but this looks like fun.  I will dive in as I can. 

OH: Hi Steve! Long time, no chat. . .  and to the rest of the group from 3rdR I recognize from the fiction authors, Hello! I haven't looked at those yet. . .  trying to find my old 3rdR fiction lines first.  Question. . .  Anyone EVER hear from Mik again?

See you around. . .  I hope :)

Roger

I'm fiddling around with a 3rdR/SA campaign for a bit now.  If it continues I'll probably do some write-ups. 

Not that I don't believe Steve when he talks about C#'s availability, but I figure before I start a full on campaign I'll let him work on it a bit more. 

Kurt
Posted by: Erik L
« on: March 12, 2020, 11:15:44 PM »

A good place to ask specific questions and get advice is the discord, if you're at all interested! https://discord.gg/VjNxJ9

I will say there are different design/play philosophies between the forum community and the discord community. This is not to say one is better than the other.
Posted by: JustAnotherDude
« on: March 12, 2020, 03:59:47 PM »

A good place to ask specific questions and get advice is the discord, if you're at all interested! https://discord.gg/VjNxJ9
Posted by: Erik L
« on: March 12, 2020, 03:57:25 PM »

Aurora is very Starfire like. But more complex. But then a lot of that complexity is consumed by the computer. Very easy to install. If you've played Starfire and/or Star Fleet Battles, the Aurora curve is not as great as others.

Posted by: Roger Hanna
« on: March 11, 2020, 07:54:30 PM »

Its been a while since I played Starfire and the other day I was moving my games into a new room and sat down with Imperial Starfire. . .  and lost 4 hours.  Next thing I knew I was reading Stars at Wars and wondering where my copy of Steve's diary had gone.  That lead me here and now I got the itch again. 

So. . .  is anyone playing the 3R/UTM with or without SFA any more? IS there a game I can get into?

And. . .  Aurora? How is it awesome? How is it lame? Is it Starfire like or Starfire light or just different? Easy to install and/or play (from Wiki looks like a steep learning curve. . . )?

I've been mucking around with Squadron Strike as a basis for a universe for a book but this looks like fun.  I will dive in as I can. 

OH: Hi Steve! Long time, no chat. . .  and to the rest of the group from 3rdR I recognize from the fiction authors, Hello! I haven't looked at those yet. . .  trying to find my old 3rdR fiction lines first.  Question. . .  Anyone EVER hear from Mik again?

See you around. . .  I hope :)

Roger