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Posted by: nuclearslurpee
« on: October 03, 2022, 07:41:59 AM »

Hot damn dude, half of the thread length is this naval conference! That's amazing 🤩

Anyway, sorry for not commenting earlier, always something came in the way of reading this thread. But you've really spun a lovely story here so congratulations and I'm eagerly looking forward for.the next installment.

If you have not already noticed, the next installment is a new AAR currently ongoing though off to a slow start...notably the update which should have been this weekend will be regrettably delayed, not due to lack of effort mind you.

I do still have a minor pipe dream to finish the naval conference, and possibly even "finish" this AAR in the very distant future as it now has a semi-definite end date in the chronology. However I would not bet money on this actually happening.  ;)
Posted by: Garfunkel
« on: October 03, 2022, 07:06:39 AM »

Hot damn dude, half of the thread length is this naval conference! That's amazing 🤩

Anyway, sorry for not commenting earlier, always something came in the way of reading this thread. But you've really spun a lovely story here so congratulations and I'm eagerly looking forward for.the next installment.
Posted by: Warer
« on: September 10, 2022, 10:31:55 AM »

Thanks for the response. Sadly Something Awful has cut off access to anons so I can no longer read all the LPs on there, oh well. Good luck!

I've noticed they seem to do that around this time of year for no good reason. Usually comes back in a couple of months.
...Well thats rather bizzare. My guess is trying to encourage people to buy a membership and or chase off people who aren't going to get one? But thats besides the point, thanks for the info.

Good luck with Duranium Legion 2 Uridium Boggloo
Posted by: nuclearslurpee
« on: September 10, 2022, 09:58:15 AM »

Thanks for the response. Sadly Something Awful has cut off access to anons so I can no longer read all the LPs on there, oh well. Good luck!

I've noticed they seem to do that around this time of year for no good reason. Usually comes back in a couple of months.
Posted by: Warer
« on: September 10, 2022, 05:27:43 AM »

Lack of threadmarks is indeed saddening, although a table of contents can help alleviate the need in theory and I will be trying this out for the next work.

The Paradox AAR forums host a great deal of high-quality work. The culture tends to vary by subforum, I mostly hang out in the HoI3 section which has a very dedicated, active, and close-knit community for such an old title. In the newer game sections it usually pays to follow authors rather than an entire section as the quality of work varies more wildly for the more popular titles. In a different section of the forums you can find Blue Emu's Aurora LPs as well which tend to have a rather laid-back style.

The Something Awful forums also host a number of Let's Plays for Aurora written over the years, and I suppose other games as well. There they have sometimes the opposite problem, the reader response may be so great that there are several pages between updates, which often devolve into a mix of questionable spam and even more questionable fanfiction efforts. Still, the audience engagement at SA has allowed authors to do some very cool concepts beyond even what the community games on this forum or Discord usually can pull off.

Thanks for the response. Sadly Something Awful has cut off access to anons so I can no longer read all the LPs on there, oh well. Good luck!
Posted by: nuclearslurpee
« on: September 09, 2022, 07:09:52 PM »

I will also say that I can't really follow along with many stories at once, and with how long AARs tend to be (and my current backlog), I only lightly follow along with the ones I see posted regularly. This might also contribute to the lack of reader response, if I had to guess.

I've actually been quite pleasantly surprised by the reader response to this work, I think it is only behind Steve and Kurt among modern authors in terms of reader commentary. There is at least one full page (15 posts) of comments with no update, I'm rather proud of this.  ;D

That said, it did take nearly a full page of updates to start really generating comments, so there is a definite lag time and update frequency definitely affects reader involvement.


I personally prefer the comments and story seperate. It's not too much of an issue though.

I think this will be the model for the new work, at least I think we will try it and see.


If I'm honest, I prefer a combined thread as it preserves context better than separate threads. The main AAR posts tend to stand out enough to catch my eye. I just want to add that I am sad to see this story coming to an end, I understand why, but I am still sad. More than any other I have seen, this AAR really made me believe it if that makes sense. Full of action and intrigue and dramatis personae. I loved every post.

I thank you profusely for your high praise, and I do think you will be particularly happy with the new work.  :)


Either or I guess. Sadly this site lacks thread marks ala space battles and sufficient velocity so you can't have both but oh well.

Sad to hear this coming to a close but it happens. Hope you have fun with your new project, looking foreward to it!

Also if I could ask what other sites are host AAR content like this?

Lack of threadmarks is indeed saddening, although a table of contents can help alleviate the need in theory and I will be trying this out for the next work.

The Paradox AAR forums host a great deal of high-quality work. The culture tends to vary by subforum, I mostly hang out in the HoI3 section which has a very dedicated, active, and close-knit community for such an old title. In the newer game sections it usually pays to follow authors rather than an entire section as the quality of work varies more wildly for the more popular titles. In a different section of the forums you can find Blue Emu's Aurora LPs as well which tend to have a rather laid-back style.

The Something Awful forums also host a number of Let's Plays for Aurora written over the years, and I suppose other games as well. There they have sometimes the opposite problem, the reader response may be so great that there are several pages between updates, which often devolve into a mix of questionable spam and even more questionable fanfiction efforts. Still, the audience engagement at SA has allowed authors to do some very cool concepts beyond even what the community games on this forum or Discord usually can pull off.

----

Planning to put out the pre-update material this weekend, and then possibly the first update depending on how much playtime I get this weekend and what kind of action evolves. Thanks all for the comments above to clarify the format of the next work!
Posted by: Warer
« on: September 06, 2022, 06:57:03 PM »

Either or I guess. Sadly this site lacks thread marks ala space battles and sufficient velocity so you can't have both but oh well.

Sad to hear this coming to a close but it happens. Hope you have fun with your new project, looking foreward to it!

Also if I could ask what other sites are host AAR content like this?
Posted by: Foxxonius Augustus
« on: September 04, 2022, 12:24:56 PM »

If I'm honest, I prefer a combined thread as it preserves context better than separate threads. The main AAR posts tend to stand out enough to catch my eye. I just want to add that I am sad to see this story coming to an end, I understand why, but I am still sad. More than any other I have seen, this AAR really made me believe it if that makes sense. Full of action and intrigue and dramatis personae. I loved every post.
Posted by: StarshipCactus
« on: September 04, 2022, 02:45:18 AM »

I personally prefer the comments and story seperate. It's not too much of an issue though.
Posted by: lumporr
« on: September 04, 2022, 01:34:32 AM »

ANNOUNCEMENT:

As one might guess from the conspicuous relocation of this thread to this new subforum, I am intending to move on to another project. This one may or may not have run its course, notably the Naval Conference I would still like to complete someday if only for posterity, but to be frank 2.0 2.1 is out and I want to publish something about it.

I would like to pose one question to the readers, regarding future thread formats: Personally, I always liked the all-in-one-thread format as it preserves the comments alongside the updates and in theory promotes a robust discussion. However, with the Aurora forums being a bit quieter than other AAR forums I frequent, maybe this is not the best approach? What do the readers think? Is this format good, do people prefer to separate each update into its own thread with comments, or to have parallel update and comment threads as Steve and Kurt do? All opinions are welcome and in fact are actively solicited as it will be a little while until I have anything publishable on the new work.

Only since you are actively soliciting...

As a reader primarily of Steve's fiction and Kurt's long-running Starfire campaign, I prefer to have the comments separated so I can just scroll and follow along like a book. Then again, I also nearly never feel the need to comment, and only occasionally look at the companion threads.

I will also say that I can't really follow along with many stories at once, and with how long AARs tend to be (and my current backlog), I only lightly follow along with the ones I see posted regularly. This might also contribute to the lack of reader response, if I had to guess.
Posted by: nuclearslurpee
« on: September 03, 2022, 06:57:11 PM »

ANNOUNCEMENT:

As one might guess from the conspicuous relocation of this thread to this new subforum, I am intending to move on to another project. This one may or may not have run its course, notably the Naval Conference I would still like to complete someday if only for posterity, but to be frank 2.0 2.1 is out and I want to publish something about it.

I would like to pose one question to the readers, regarding future thread formats: Personally, I always liked the all-in-one-thread format as it preserves the comments alongside the updates and in theory promotes a robust discussion. However, with the Aurora forums being a bit quieter than other AAR forums I frequent, maybe this is not the best approach? What do the readers think? Is this format good, do people prefer to separate each update into its own thread with comments, or to have parallel update and comment threads as Steve and Kurt do? All opinions are welcome and in fact are actively solicited as it will be a little while until I have anything publishable on the new work.
Posted by: nuclearslurpee
« on: July 07, 2022, 10:46:36 AM »

What we really need is the menu for the refreshments , lunches and other meals of the conference, possibly with recipes. This is after all the real purpose of a conference good free meals at public expense

If this AAR turns into a sci-fi recipe blog, will something have gone very wrong, or very right?

Probably the latter, if it is done in the style of Danger 5.
Posted by: Andrew
« on: July 07, 2022, 09:56:59 AM »

What we really need is the menu for the refreshments , lunches and other meals of the conference, possibly with recipes. This is after all the real purpose of a conference good free meals at public expense
Posted by: nuclearslurpee
« on: July 07, 2022, 08:33:26 AM »

Did he even want career advancement is the question? What better way to avoid unwanted promotion into the political shark pit than this?

On the other hand, one can always promote into the political shark pit and then sit quietly at the edge of the pit, letting everything be someone else's problem. Or dive directly into the fracas, doing the same.

Quote
I admire the shear gumption in calling the commerce raiding role critical and not even admitting the possiblity that such an outrageous suggestion needs anything as boring or prosaic as evidence.

We did in fairness have a previous half-chapter of evidence given, already well beyond the standards of Legion Naval debate as it was. Of course, it is understandable if the readership does not recall such things offhand, certainly one wonders if any of the Lords Admiral bother to recall such things in which case we do indeed return to the mystifying lack of evidence presented.

Quote
It does indeed resemble an experimental carrier being too small, with far too few aircraft, a lack of proper facilities and so on. He should have stuck it all on a destroyer sized hull, which would also be too small but would at least address the worst of the criticisms and concerns.

One suspects that some amongst the readership would prefer to solve all of our problems by sticking them onto destroyer-sized hulls. Command cruisers? Too big and expensive! Make it a command destroyer, the enemy will never see it coming!

Quote
As you noted this is probably the best outcome that was possible given the calibre of the assembled leadership, which is admittedly a fairly low bar to clear. Are the Standard and Raider variants inter-buildable? Look like they might be close, its a BFC, guns and one sensor swap so maybe? A small detail I suppose. Interesting the preference is for upgrades and not new builds, there were other options there (new build Standard IIs for the fleet and refit the older Is into Raider variants for instance) not pursued. The conference is thinking upgrade to their existing fleet and not expansion of the number of available squadrons.

It's been a while since I checked all the variants in-game but I believe most of them were interbuildable from the existing frigate yard (currently tooled for Mk I Bellerophon+Excelsior classes).

As far as upgrades versus new builds, the idea is to ensure that existing (a word loosely defined) capabilities are preserved before branching out, and the Standard variant Mk IIs are the ones which preserve the large anti-missile arrays. Once the refits + replacements are taken care of, the more experimental Raider variants can be built for trial purposes, frigates are soon to be optional attachments after all so it should in theory be trivial to just send these to an appropriate theater, place them nominally under the command of some Captain, and wish them good hunting. Of course, those of us not in leadership positions know that battlefield theory rarely ever meets battlefield practice.
Posted by: El Pip
« on: July 07, 2022, 03:12:29 AM »

N.B. Comment replies on the bottom of the preceding page, for all two of you who care.[/i]  ;)
As one of that select and venerated elite, I can assure it was appreciated.

some members of the Legion Navy had been sounding the alarm for a good deal longer than others (most curiously, the earliest proponents of such a rework had originated from the Mining Department of all places).
The traditional home of all excellent engineers who's fate is to be overlooked by political types. Though given the terrible consequences of being the subject of political attention being overlooked is often the best option, as the Legion Design Office will doubtless agree.

shipyard spaces were freed on the commissioning of Bad Intentions and Blatant Insult.
Legion ship naming policy remains on-point and culturally appropriate.

At this point, the reader could be forgiven for attributing this as a heinous blunder on the part of the ship design staff. Indeed, failing to inform the chosen candidates about each other’s involvement was an oversight with no rational nor strategic basis, and the head of the ship design offices could not expect much in the way of future career advancement.
Did he even want career advancement is the question? What better way to avoid unwanted promotion into the political shark pit than this?

neither Lord Grand Admiral Argyron nor Lord High Admiral Macaria were willing to back down and admit error, thus both continued to express their support for the class, however reluctantly and however secretly glowering over having been forced to agree with one another by unforeseen circumstances.
Legion Doctrine is clear here - one must continue to blindly and violently support one's original plan, even once it has become apparent it is a bad idea.

This is not to say, of course, that alternatives were not explored by the Conference nevertheless. Perhaps the most compelling revision was presented by Lord Admiral Gaia Pandia, who advocated for a Bellerophon variant which was better-suited for the critical commerce raiding role:
I admire the shear gumption in calling the commerce raiding role critical and not even admitting the possiblity that such an outrageous suggestion needs anything as boring or prosaic as evidence.

Lord High Admiral Makedon - with the assistance of his subordinate, Lord Admiral Pothos Aleus - had devised the first primary-carrier-role ship class in Legion Naval history. Perhaps acutely aware of his precarious standing in doing this, Lord High Admiral Makedon was quick to emphasize that this proposal was not necessarily meant to replace the Bellerophons as a mainline fleet scout frigate, but could perhaps be considered as an experimental proposal meriting a squadron’s worth of ships to be constructed as a proof of concept.
It does indeed resemble an experimental carrier being too small, with far too few aircraft, a lack of proper facilities and so on. He should have stuck it all on a destroyer sized hull, which would also be too small but would at least address the worst of the criticisms and concerns.

This observation was followed by a period of uncomfortable silence, which was only resolved by Lord Admiral Criasus, who noted that while his colleague’s question held substantive merit for discussion, it would have properly been raised in that morning’s session, and thus the session would regrettably be forced to move on towards more relevant topics. Thus, the Lords Admiralty were once again saved from the introspective horror of feeling a bit silly about themselves by the minutiae of procedure.
If the Legion ever find a way to weaponise bureaucracy and use it against their external enemies (instead of their internal rivals) they will conqueror the galaxy in a couple of weeks.

At any rate, with only three sessions left plus the closing remarks, there is perhaps some light now at the end of the tunnel? We shall see.
Traditionally the light at the end of the tunnel is the oncoming train. But in deference to our setting, perhaps the light is an opening Aether Rift?


As you noted this is probably the best outcome that was possible given the calibre of the assembled leadership, which is admittedly a fairly low bar to clear. Are the Standard and Raider variants inter-buildable? Look like they might be close, its a BFC, guns and one sensor swap so maybe? A small detail I suppose. Interesting the preference is for upgrades and not new builds, there were other options there (new build Standard IIs for the fleet and refit the older Is into Raider variants for instance) not pursued. The conference is thinking upgrade to their existing fleet and not expansion of the number of available squadrons.