What's Going On In Your Empire: C# Edition

[Velociranga]

I am currently playing around with ChatGPT and the government simulator Froggiest created. My current plan is to do a multi player race conventional start in Sol. With chat gpt running a couple of the races and then porting it over too the new update is released. I figure a conventional start will keep me in Sol until then. Still trying to work out how the government simulator is going to work with Chatgpt

[sneer]

I think this question is actually valid
1.With universe this big I have not seen any serious Invaders threat in my controlled space ( and I have few rifts and dense observation network - they seem to go after space beyond my reach )
2.Without Swarms it doesn't make sense to me as I am experienced ( from old VB6 times ) player and any setup without them is pointless as it is too easy
3.With limited NPR generation there will be vast empty parts of space -which will lead to pointless expansion later
 
so how to solve perfect setup to achieve longer game more centered around player space and less outside ?
I have played few multi nations at SOL ( in old VB6 times when I had master password ) new C+ version seems more difficult here to operate this way
Most games I played ended from technical reasons around 100-150 known systems 50-80 years from start when my empire has 4-8 colonies in 3-4 jump range from Sol
tbh it is a early game from strategic game point of view, everything really heroic starts here

 

[nuclearslurpee]

1.With universe this big I have not seen any serious Invaders threat in my controlled space ( and I have few rifts and dense observation network - they seem to go after space beyond my reach )
2.Without Swarms it doesn't make sense to me as I am experienced ( from old VB6 times ) player and any setup without them is pointless as it is too easy
3.With limited NPR generation there will be vast empty parts of space -which will lead to pointless expansion later

• Invaders are quite random, so you've gotten unlucky as much as anything.
• You can leave some Swarms active... just delete the ones far from your systems to help the lag.
• Unfortunately this is true as there is no way to stop NPRs from exploring.

so how to solve perfect setup to achieve longer game more centered around player space and less outside ?

There is no perfect setup... at some point, even the improved C# Aurora has technical limitations and we have to work around them or just accept them and click "Next Turn".

Workaround ideas you can try, some may be repeated from before:

• Disable all game settings which allow NPRs to spawn spoilers, this will keep spoilers close to your own territory, and thus limit Swarm/Invaders from exploring aggressively and spawning a lot of new races you won't get to interact with anyways. These are unchecked by default.
• Turn off "NPR Generation Chance (by NPR)" (set it to zero) and increase the generation chance by players to compensate. Hopefully this way even if there are empty spaces where NPRs used to explore, you will find other spaces which are far from empty.
• Try pruning the player race civilian shipping lines...with so many NPRs and spoilers I don't know if it will help much, but for most players it is effective.
• Change detection to "Automatic without player presence". This will eliminate many of the sensor checks in the game and speed things up somewhat.
• If you are exploring an empty region of space (formerly explored by NPRs), you can always create new NPR races on suitable planets (maybe based on a dice roll) instead of relying on the game to do it. No surprise element in that case but it works. If you want a surprise element, you can swap to that NPR once you're sure they're defeated and create new NPRs in some of the systems they discovered.

[Kiero]

...

• Unfortunately this is true as there is no way to stop NPRs from exploring.

...

What about changing the race "Expansion" parameter to 0?

[nuclearslurpee]

What about changing the race "Expansion" parameter to 0?

Doesn't do anything as far as I know. NPRs build/have a number of survey ships set by their ship design theme (I think this is the same for all of them, actually) and the survey ships operate basically autonomously.

[boolybooly]

My current game is 200 known stars with no civilian harvesters or freighters and no NPR spawn but 5 existing NPRs which can spawn spoilers, except for rakhas and invaders ... until now. As I have just ticked the boxes for invaders and aether rift and NPR trigger so am preparing for trouble to threaten my lightly defended empire.

I have explored 108 stars now and only encountered two other NPRs and have tried to be friendly and non threatening as my empire is the hippy empire of previous posts, NOVGLOV (new order of the velvet glove) and for roleplaying purposes they proceed with a peaceful "do no evil" policy. One interesting tale which arose in this universe is the tragedy of 88 Eridani.

In the 'south west' of known space the NPRs known as the beetles and spiders appear to be at war with each other, especially in relation to the mysterious and beautiful planet 88 Eridani II which was originally a verdant Eden (habitable with zero colony cost) but which the ravages of war despoiled and made less habitable. It is surrounded by a halo of wreckage, judging from which the battles appear to involve both NPRs and a third party, spoiler raider forces.



The planet's allure was evident from early reconnaisance, over two thirds ocean it seemed like another Earth, a blue pearl in the darkness offering refuge from the solar heating disaster in Sol. But this fabulous prize carried a curse more like the fabled Borgia Pearl, destroying the lives of all who drew near, its beauty attracting contestants, bound for mutual annihilation.

It was a moment of political crisis for NOVGLOV in banning any colonisation attempt on the planet, human actors driven by rapacious greed opposed the ban but were defeated because of the ominous warnings issuing from the spiders who claim the system. Their clicks and screeches, played across terrestrial media, convinced the population of Earth. So humanity continues to search for new homes elswhere.

A single diplomatic station is tolerated and monitors the comings and goings of the spider fleet at the JP where the system joins their empire. Consequently NOVGLOV are aware the spiders have some surprisingly fast ships and have engineered recon fighters and "Georgia Rain" class particle beam fast attack destroyers with missile defence turrets and railguns, to outperform them, just in case.

A network of sensor buoys monitor proceedings across most known jump points. Wrecks crop up from time to time in other systems along with escape pods, some of which were recovered to a neutral planetoid known simply as "Asteroid #72" in the Alpha Fornacis system, the only body where populations of both known alien races (Spiders and Beetles) were detected and where a human diplomatic mission is supported and this is where survivors are repatriated. Occasionally some do not survive and their corpses are of great interest to Earth scientists.

Another matter of import for NOVGLOV was a spoiler incursion at the other end of the empire of swarm FACs which influenced the exploration effort. A Cosmic River class exploration vessel was lost with all hands in a distant system beyond the Epsilon Eridani outpost colony. Its final transmissions were harrowing even for hardened veterans of the earlier raider wars in Sol. They warned of entities which analysts predicted could threaten the existence of the human race. While much of the history of this remains classified top secret, what can be said is that a desperate battle was fought and the final analysis was a victory for humanity. The threat posed by the enemy was existential and incorrigible and thus could not be tolerated, so the surviving enemy were hunted down and extinguished as a top military priority by  wings of highly specialised recon and missile fighters.

This lead to a policy of comprehensive sensor deployment and this in turn lead to detections which spurred long chases through many new systems which were subsequently explored. This revealed new potential colonies and gave the destroyer fleet a raison d'etre in making these systems safe by removing automated precursor defences, which required much reconnaisance and planning.

A gigantic heavily armoured and CIWS defended commercial mothership "Ocean Blue" was commissioned to support the destroyer fleet. This is assisted by a civilian hangar module in bringing short range missile platforms to bear on defensive stations.

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AT-01 Ocean Blue  (Ocean Blue class Assault Transport)      142,040 tons       1,271 Crew       12,319.5 BP       TCS 2,841    TH 10,080    EM 0
7096 km/s      Armour 15-242       Shields 0-0       HTK 273      Sensors 14/14/0/0      DCR 1      PPV 0
MSP 4,054    Max Repair 486 MSP
Troop Capacity 3,000 tons     Boarding Capable    Cargo Shuttle Multiplier 6    Tractor Beam     
Teacher    Control Rating 3   BRG   AUX   ENG   
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months   

Beautiful Elephant II (14)    Power 20160    Fuel Use 1.36%    Signature 720.0    Explosion 4%
Fuel Capacity 3,225,000 Litres    Range 300.8 billion km (490 days at full power)
Refuelling Capability: 60,000 litres per hour     Complete Refuel 53 hours

Mithril (16x10)    Range 1000 km     TS: 32,000 km/s     ROF 5       
Observer (1)     GPS 28     Range 11.2m km    MCR 1m km    Resolution 1
Deepest Heat (1)     Sensitivity 14     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  29.6m km
Yin (1)     Sensitivity 14     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  29.6m km

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Troop Transport for auto-assignment purposes

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Georgia Rain II class Fast Attack Craft      6,000 tons       145 Crew       1,828 BP       TCS 120    TH 513    EM 0
8551 km/s      Armour 8-29       Shields 0-0       HTK 33      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 1      PPV 30.32
Maint Life 2.19 Years     MSP 1,455    AFR 192%    IFR 2.7%    1YR 406    5YR 6,092    Max Repair 365.5125 MSP
Adept    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 24 months    Morale Check Required   

Nova MCF4 k 1350 P513 T 0.214 (2)    Power 1026    Fuel Use 21.41%    Signature 256.5    Explosion 9%
Fuel Capacity 102,000 Litres    Range 14.3 billion km (19 days at full power)

Heavier Particles II (1)    Range 320,000km     TS: 8,551 km/s     Power 15-5    ROF 15       
Just Precaution Empowered 1.5.7 (2x4)    Range 70,000km     TS: 8,551 km/s     Power 3-3     RM 70,000 km    ROF 5       
Peace Protest II (1x10)    Range 50,000km     TS: 32000 km/s     Power 0-0     RM 50,000 km    ROF 5       
Mahamudra II (1)     Max Range: 120,000 km   TS: 32,000 km/s     92 83 75 67 58 50 42 33 25 17
Divine Light IV (1)     Max Range: 480,000 km   TS: 8,000 km/s     98 96 94 92 90 88 85 83 81 79
Epiphany II (2)     Max Range: 210,000 km   TS: 8,000 km/s     95 90 86 81 76 71 67 62 57 52
Starbright (1)     Total Power Output 6.1    Exp 7%
Ring (1)     Total Power Output 5.1    Exp 5%

Crystal (1)     GPS 9     Range 6.1m km    MCR 550.6k km    Resolution 1

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Warship for auto-assignment purposes

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Crystal Blossom class Orbital Defence Platform      1,000 tons       1 Crew       97.1 BP       TCS 20    TH 0    EM 0
1 km/s      Armour 2-8       Shields 0-0       HTK 0      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 0      PPV 18.2
Maint Life 12.68 Years     MSP 71    AFR 80%    IFR 1.1%    1YR 1    5YR 12    Max Repair 2.8 MSP
Magazine 119   
Seeker    Control Rating 1   
Intended Deployment Time: 64 months    Morale Check Required   


Hard Point (70)     Missile Size: 1.7    Hangar Reload 65 minutes    MF Reload 10 hours
Honeyguide (2)     Range 5.4m km    Resolution 1
Sentinels Release (70)    Speed: 72,000 km/s    End: 0.7m     Range: 3.1m km    WH: 6    Size: 1.7    TH: 264/158/79

Karna (1)     GPS 3     Range 3.5m km    MCR 317.9k km    Resolution 1

Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a FAC for auto-assignment purposes

[Steve Walmsley]

I'm playing a conventional test campaign that started in 2100, playing as a Starfire-style Terran Federation.



I overbuilt construction factories at the start, with 1800 from my initial 3200 conventional industry and only about 600 mines. Unfortunately, I hadn't allowed for my relatively small starting deposit of Corundium and therefore maxed out at 1100 mines. By 2115, I was desperately searching for a Corundium deposit. I found quite a few on LG worlds, but I had no Automated mines. Finally, I found Orphicon II.

Orphicon II Survey Report
Duranium:   88,258,898   0.60
Corbomite:   20,484,676   0.10
Tritanium:   51,179,716   0.10
Boronide:   9,853,321   0.10
Mercassium:   21,316   0.40
Vendarite:   19,184,400   0.10
Sorium:   32,421,636   0.10
Corundium:   14,969,161   0.90
Gallicite:   30,780,304   0.10

Orphicon II was colony cost 2.00 and already had water, a nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere of 1.48 atm, including 0.04 atm of oxygen and a stable orbit. An ideal solution to my economic issues.

Unfortunately, my 1000-ton survey vessel was destroyed shortly thereafter by Precursors based on Orphicon III. They comprised five ships, which a probe confirmed as a 24,000-ton Asmodeus, a 24,000-tons Hecate, a 24,000 ton Tiamat and two Myrkuls of unknown size, but probably small FACs as the probe was destroyed a million km from the planet. The three large vessels had strength-476 shields.

Double unfortunately, as this was a Terran Federation run I hadn't built any warships, although I had developed most of the tech for a gas core level beam-armed ship and I also had developed hangar bays. After some assistance from industry in building components, I launched a carrier and a couple of 18,000-ton cruisers a year later.

In the meantime, I managed to get a freighter into the inner system to place a deep space tracking station on Orphicon II to monitor the Precursors. The second planet orbits between 86m and 92m and Orphicon III orbits between 156m and 159m. I ran the freighter in while the planets were at opposite sides of the Sun. As that succeeded, I also moved in a couple of STO batteries. About the same time, a new alien race (which I named the Khanate of Orion) appeared in Orphicon and lost a couple of 9000-ton ships to the Precursors. I detected the first ship only by the appearance of wreckage, while the second was detected by the newly placed tracking station before it too was destroyed. Both were lost in orbit of Orphicon III.

With another alien race in the scene and Orphicon II vital to my economy, I decided to try emplacing a colony on the planet, both as a base to attack to Precursors and to claim the system. The Precursor ships had still not left Orphicon III so I assumed they were all bases. I sent in a large freighter and colony ship convoy with support from three of my beam cruisers and my carrier with forty 275-ton railgun fighters. This proceeded without incident and a colony was setup. Finally, I brought in a couple of terraforming stations. By November 2117, the planet had a pop of 800k and infrastructure for 1.4m

Just as I thought everything was running smoothly, the planets reached almost the closest point in their orbits, about 70m km apart, and the Precursors launched a missile attack. A single wave of 45 size-11 missiles, moving at 30,000 km and equipped with multiple ECM-2 decoys. I had three Nelson class light cruisers, with a total of 12x 20cm lasers, 24x 15cm lasers, 24x 10cm railguns, plus forty F-1A Falcon fighters, each with 2-shot railguns, eight Skyhawk attack fighters with 15cm plasma carronades and a further 24 20cm lasers on the planet.

Nelson class Light Cruiser      18,000 tons       579 Crew       2,595.2 BP       TCS 360    TH 1,440    EM 2,760
4000 km/s      Armour 5-61       Shields 92-460       HTK 114      Sensors 8/8/0/0      DCR 12-6      PPV 88
Maint Life 2.12 Years     MSP 1,081    AFR 216%    IFR 3.0%    1YR 323    5YR 4,847    Max Repair 360 MSP
Commander    Control Rating 2   BRG   AUX   
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months    Morale Check Required   

Rolls-Royce RR-720-B Gas-Core Drive  (2)    Power 1440    Fuel Use 51.52%    Signature 720    Explosion 12%
Fuel Capacity 947,000 Litres    Range 18.4 billion km (53 days at full power)
Garvis-Vetere GV-46 Shield Generator (2)     Recharge Time 460 seconds (0.2 per second)

Lawrence-Vaughan LV-20A Ultraviolet Laser (4)    Range 256,000km     TS: 4,000 km/s     Power 10-2.5     RM 40,000 km    ROF 20       
Lawrence-Vaughan LV-15A Ultraviolet Laser (8)    Range 240,000km     TS: 4,000 km/s     Power 6-3     RM 40,000 km    ROF 10       
Weston-Davis 10cm PD Railgun (8x4)    Range 20,000km     TS: 4,000 km/s     Power 3-3     RM 20,000 km    ROF 5       
FN/SPG-10B Laser Fire Control (2)     Max Range: 256,000 km   TS: 4,000 km/s    ECCM-2     96 92 88 84 80 77 73 69 65 61
FN/SPG-11B Point Defence Fire Control (2)     Max Range: 64,000 km   TS: 4,000 km/s    ECCM-2     84 69 53 38 22 6 0 0 0 0
R-20 Gaseous Fission Reactor (3)     Total Power Output 60.8    Exp 5%

FN/SPS-14D Large Active Search Sensor (1)     GPS 11520     Range 77.1m km    Resolution 120
FN/SPD-15D Missile Detection Sensor (1)     GPS 16     Range 6.4m km    MCR 574.5k km    Resolution 1
FN/SQR-5C Thermal Sensor (1)     Sensitivity 8     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  22.4m km
FN/SER-4C EM Sensor (1)     Sensitivity 8     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  22.4m km

Electronic Warfare Jammers:   Sensor 1    Fire Control 1    Missile 2   

I hit 28 decoys, but only 10 missiles. The rest blew a 130,000 ton terraforming station to pieces. I will need to pull back my ships for now and return with a larger force, although that will take a while due to mining issues. I suspect the second terraforming station is also toast as I won't get a tug there in time. I will continue to try to sneak in colony ships and additional ground forces when the planets are further apart (orbital period of Orphicon II is six months). It will also be interesting to see if there are any more visits from the Khanate.

[Steve Walmsley]

Thirty minutes after the above attack, a new wave of missiles took out the second terraformer. A third wave of missiles wiped out the colony, killing everyone, destroying the tracking stations, all the infrastructure and half the STO weapons.

Vengeance will be mine! (Eventually)

[AlStar]

Thirty minutes after the above attack, a new wave of missiles took out the second terraformer. A third wave of missiles wiped out the colony, killing everyone, destroying the tracking stations, all the infrastructure and half the STO weapons.

Vengeance will be mine! (Eventually)

Just curious - do you know what tipped off the Precursors? Could stealth terraforming ships be the answer to 'peaceful' cohabitation of the system, or did the colony itself get too large, so that they were able to fire on it?

[Steve Walmsley]

Thirty minutes after the above attack, a new wave of missiles took out the second terraformer. A third wave of missiles wiped out the colony, killing everyone, destroying the tracking stations, all the infrastructure and half the STO weapons.

Vengeance will be mine! (Eventually)

Just curious - do you know what tipped off the Precursors? Could stealth terraforming ships be the answer to 'peaceful' cohabitation of the system, or did the colony itself get too large, so that they were able to fire on it?

My guess is that the Precursor AI decided the warships could potentially run and get outside the missiles' maximum range, but the terraformers couldn't, and even that was only true when the planets were at their closest point. I created a deep space population about 100m outside the orbit of Orphicon III and set up a maintenance base there, so I could keep the warships in the system. I also managed to sneak in another DSTS and some 10cm railgun STOs to the planet.

[Nori]

Oh man that is rough.  I'm assuming the planet is irradiated now and it'll be harder to recolonize.

[Froggiest1982]

Oh man that is rough.  I'm assuming the planet is irradiated now and it'll be harder to recolonize.

Maybe not, thanks to these 2 new additions:

https://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=13090.msg162180#msg162180

https://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=13090.msg162140#msg162140

Hopefully we can get them soon^tm 

[Nori]

Oh man that is rough.  I'm assuming the planet is irradiated now and it'll be harder to recolonize.

Maybe not, thanks to these 2 new additions:

https://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=13090.msg162180#msg162180

https://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=13090.msg162140#msg162140

Hopefully we can get them soon^tm 

Ah yeah I forgot about those. Since ya know, I read them, darn it's been a year now crazy. Super excited to get to try all the new stuff out.
In any case, even with that I'm guessing he'll have a few years of clean up...

[smoelf]

This is why you should always put sensors on all ships:



For some reason my initial surveys (including geo survey) had not detected any hostile forces, but when I dropped off a geo surveying unit, there was a little nasty surprise waiting.

[Ulzgoroth]

Huh, enemies using microwave beams? Interesting.

I wonder if this is actually a mobile enemy instead of STO weapons, since I can't think why STO would have spared the survey but mobile units might have been somewhere else.

Could it be raiders?