Gothic III Screenshots

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

This is a placeholder thread for screenshots from my current campaign. I haven't been documenting it, but as it becoming quite large I though I would post a few snippets as I go.

I am currently facing five Hive Fleets (five different Swarm races). Hive Fleet Kraken has inertial confinement fusion and Hive Fleet Jormungandr, which I have only just met, is faster so I assume that has anti-matter engines.

There are three Aether Rifts, one of which is three jumps from Sol, and I have met three NPRs, two of which are at war with the third. I have somewhat fractious relations due my attempts to salvage wrecks in their territory but no open war yet. At least one is also at inertial confinement fusion. There is a very large Necron (precursor) presence in Hagia, but I can't get past the jump point due to a large picket force.

The campaign is seventeen years in and I started with gas core engines and limited research admin. Due to a strategy of disabling and capturing Tyranid ships, then using carriers to move the ships back to Terra for repair and scrapping, plus a 70% propulsion construct in Alpha Centauri, I have just managed to get my own race to inertial confinement fusion technology, although it will take a long time for upgrades. I've also explored 210 systems so far.

You will need to scroll the post to the right to see the whole map.

[Kaiser]

Impressive!!! Steve, when you have a minute, could you please give your advice as well here? http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=13147.msg163132#new

Thank you!

[vorpal+5]

Oh the insanity! The sheer scale of your campaign Steve is mind-boggling, at least for me 

[Xkill]

That is one impressive starmap! Love the scale! Bet it's hard to keep track of everything.
I'm sure some more info over those NPR-on-NPR conflicts would be interesting... 
Have they met these Tyranid forces aswell?

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Now almost 19 years into the game and I have explored 237 systems. I think I have wiped out the weakest of the five Hive fleets, although there a few stragglers I haven't tracked down and I have taken a couple more Necron systems, although still not the major Necron system of Hagia. Despite three Aether Rifts, there is no sign of any Chaos ships so far.

I am also holding ground against the fast attack craft of the other hives using the Faustus class interceptor. The latest in the series is shown below. They operate in groups of three (six for older models) from Hydra class bases located within a few million kilometres of the contact jump points.

Faustus V class Interceptor      2,000 tons       22 Crew       886.6 BP       TCS 40    TH 806    EM 0
20164 km/s      Armour 1-14       Shields 0-0       HTK 14      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 0-0      PPV 12
Maint Life 1.15 Years     MSP 1,150    AFR 400%    IFR 5.6%    1YR 878    5YR 13,169    Max Repair 403.125 MSP
Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 1.5 days    Morale Check Required   

Ravenor AC-800-DB Attack Craft Drive (1)    Power 806.2    Fuel Use 166.02%    Signature 806.25    Explosion 21%
Fuel Capacity 198,000 Litres    Range 10.7 billion km (6 days at full power)

Valentinian-Ventris V12-240 Heavy Lance Battery (1)    Range 240,000km     TS: 20,164 km/s     Power 37-5    ROF 40       
MK III Faustus Fire Control (1)     Max Range: 320,000 km   TS: 15,000 km/s     97 94 91 88 84 81 78 75 72 69
R-5B Inertial Confinement Fusion Reactor (1)     Total Power Output 5.1    Exp 20%
MK III Fury Augur Array (1)     GPS 3     Range 3.5m km    MCR 317.9k km    Resolution 1

Hydra class Interceptor Base      9,750 tons       162 Crew       1,266.9 BP       TCS 195    TH 0    EM 0
1 km/s      Armour 1-40       Shields 0-0       HTK 74      Sensors 0/33/0/0      DCR 12-12      PPV 0
Maint Life 11.89 Years     MSP 3,474    AFR 63%    IFR 0.9%    1YR 45    5YR 680    Max Repair 105 MSP
Hangar Deck Capacity 6,000 tons     
Captain    Control Rating 2   BRG   AUX   
Intended Deployment Time: 120 months    Flight Crew Berths 120    Morale Check Required   

Fuel Capacity 451,000 Litres    Range N/A

MK II Light Cruiser Active Augur Array (1)     GPS 12600     Range 94.6m km    Resolution 120
MK II Cloak Detection Array (1)     GPS 315     Range 21.1m km    Resolution 15
MK II Very Large Electromagnetic Augur Array (1)     Sensitivity 33     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  45.4m km
 
There are still no Inertial Fusion ships in service larger than the Faustus, except for a couple of freighters, although I should have the first before 4020. The Tyranid Hive and its escort ships were taken out by a pair of Emperor II class battleships (Indominus Rex and Thunder of Heaven), with similar tech cruisers and light cruisers in support.

Emperor II class Battleship      78,125 tons       2,533 Crew       19,353.1 BP       TCS 1,562    TH 12,500    EM 25,500
8000 km/s      Armour 10-162       Shields 850-510       HTK 492      Sensors 33/33/0/0      DCR 60-7      PPV 408
Maint Life 1.61 Years     MSP 9,299    AFR 814%    IFR 11.3%    1YR 4,188    5YR 62,820    Max Repair 1250 MSP
Captain    Control Rating 2   BRG   AUX   
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months    Morale Check Required   

Ravenor RDS-2500-B Magnetic Fusion Drive (5)    Power 12500    Fuel Use 22.10%    Signature 2500    Explosion 12%
Fuel Capacity 2,349,000 Litres    Range 24.5 billion km (35 days at full power)
Valentinian-Stern VS-85 Void Shield (10)     Recharge Time 510 seconds (1.7 per second)

Valentinian-Ventris V12-240 Heavy Lance Battery (12)    Range 240,000km     TS: 8,000 km/s     Power 37-5    ROF 40       
Astaroth Kinetics AK-25 Weapons Battery (24x4)    Range 250,000km     TS: 8,000 km/s     Power 15-5     RM 50,000 km    ROF 15       
AK-10 Defence Battery (24x4)    Range 50,000km     TS: 8,000 km/s     Power 3-3     RM 50,000 km    ROF 5       
MK IV Energy Weapon Fire Control (6)     Max Range: 320,000 km   TS: 8,000 km/s     97 94 91 88 84 81 78 75 72 69
R-25 Tokamak Fusion Reactor (10)     Total Power Output 254    Exp 5%

MK II Cloak Detection Array (1)     GPS 315     Range 21.1m km    Resolution 15
MK II Battleship Active Augur Array (1)     GPS 30240     Range 146.5m km    Resolution 120
MK II Torpedo Detection Array (1)     GPS 21     Range 8.6m km    MCR 771.7k km    Resolution 1
MK II Very Large Electromagnetic Augur Array (1)     Sensitivity 33     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  45.4m km
MK III Very Large Thermal Augur Array (1)     Sensitivity 33     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  45.4m km

ECCM-1 (1)         ECM 20

Strike Group
1x Thunderhawk Assault Transport   Speed: 9504 km/s    Size: 19.99

[Blacklight]

Just wondering, do you have the starting settings you used for this campaign? just interested in what kinda tech etc you started at to have 200+ systems explored under 20 years in.  i usually only do 1 billion pop starts so wondering how big this was.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Starting setup is below - I recorded this but stopped writing anything down after a few years.

I am now on 303 systems after 21 years. Only minutes ago, I destroyed a 110,000 ton hive ship, but there are still six cruisers and many smaller ships I need to track down. I am facing six different Tyranid hive fleets now, but one is mostly destroyed and I am working on a second. There are three Aether Rifts but no Chaos (Invaders) yet. There are several active Necron (precursor) systems. I am in contact with three NPRs, two of which are fighting the third and in one system fighting each other and a powerful Necron force. The Raiders have attacked me and the NPRs but haven't been a major problem.

Setup
This campaign will use the WH40k Imperial Navy and Imperial Guard as a theme, with minor elements of the Space Marines. Ship classes will mirror the general capabilities of classes of the Imperial Navy, based on the type and number of weapons specified for the ship classes in the Battlefleet Gothic board game. For example, the Dauntless class light cruiser has three lance batteries, eight weapon batteries and one defence turret in Battlefleet Gothic, so it has the same in Aurora. The Lunar class cruiser has four lance batteries, twelve weapon batteries, six torpedo launchers and two defence turrets, which is also replicated in Aurora.

I have to make exceptions for jump-capable and survey ships, as they don’t exist in BFG, so I chose a design and reduced weapons to allow room for the drive and/or sensors. I also designed the carrier-hybrids, such as the Defiant and Dictator, as full carriers, because ‘fighters’ are relatively larger in Aurora vs WH40k and its is the ‘carrier’ aspect that distinguishes those ships. Finally, there is a much wider variety of non-warships in Aurora compared to BFG so I created most of those from scratch using names appropriate to the theme.

For the Battlefleet Gothic ship lists, I am primarily using the Expanded Revised edition, plus I may use the Additional Ships Compendium for roles not covered by the standard ship lists. Ground forces will be based on the equipment of Imperial Guard, Space Marines and other Imperial forces from the WH40k 8th edition codices. In order to utilise the nomenclature of the Imperial Navy, railguns of 12cm or more will be named weapon batteries, gauss turrets will become defence turrets, CIWS are commercial defence turrets, 10cm railguns on small craft will be lascannon, particle beams will be lance batteries, lasers will be bombardment cannon and missiles will become torpedoes. There are various attack craft in WH40k which are harder to replicate exactly, but I will stay true to their intended roles.

To reflect the theme and to allow me to include all the listed weapons, I have ‘gone large’ with the ship design, with light cruisers at 18,750 tons and cruisers at 37,500 tons. This fleet doctrine and weapon mix will not produce ‘efficient’ ships, but good design is not the intention. This is a role-play campaign based on a WH40k Imperial Navy theme.

With all the above in mind, I made the following changes to the starting setup:
•   Starting population is two billion with standard installations for that population size, except for 800 Maintenance Facilities instead of 600.
•   Starting Research Points are double normal to allow for the variety of starting weapons.
•   Starting Build Points are double normal, on the assumption the Imperium has been building up the largest army and fleet it can support before venturing into the galaxy.
•   Shipyards are customised for the ship classes. This results a large number of shipyards, although the vast majority have only a single slipway. Also, the Imperium doesn’t have the resources to use them all.
•   Ruin chance is increased from 20% to 25%.
•   All spoilers active. NPRs can activate Precursors and Raiders
•   5 NPRs. 50-100 LY
•   NPRs can generate other NPRs with a 10% chance.
•   Limited Research Admin (my new favourite option)
•   Hostility Modifier +20

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Spoke too soon - first Invader ship just transited.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

I thought it would interesting to share the screenshot of this Lunar class cruiser - Imperial Wrath. 20 ships destroyed, comprising 296,000 tons, plus 3000 missiles shot down. Travelled 450 billion km.

The game is now up to 382 systems, or almost double the size of the earlier screenshot.

[nuclearslurpee]

Are you finding that with the change to officer generation for naval and ground commanders, you have a good surplus of commanders to actually fill all of those AUX/ENG/TAC/etc. modules? I remember in <2.0 games the command modules sometimes felt a bit useless because I couldn't find enough (qualified) commanders for any of them except AUX.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Are you finding that with the change to officer generation for naval and ground commanders, you have a good surplus of commanders to actually fill all of those AUX/ENG/TAC/etc. modules? I remember in <2.0 games the command modules sometimes felt a bit useless because I couldn't find enough (qualified) commanders for any of them except AUX.

I just skimmed through my BB and CA and they seem to have full complements.

[Kiero]

I thought it would interesting to share the screenshot of this Lunar class cruiser - Imperial Wrath. 20 ships destroyed, comprising 296,000 tons, plus 3000 missiles shot down. Travelled 450 billion km.

The game is now up to 382 systems, or almost double the size of the earlier.

How do you manage exploration on such a huge distances?

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

I thought it would interesting to share the screenshot of this Lunar class cruiser - Imperial Wrath. 20 ships destroyed, comprising 296,000 tons, plus 3000 missiles shot down. Travelled 450 billion km.

The game is now up to 382 systems, or almost double the size of the earlier.

How do you manage exploration on such a huge distances?

I have usually 10-12 (depending on casualties) survey ships of about 9000 tons, each with 3 geo and 3 grav survey sensors, plus maybe 15-16 1000-ton survey ship with a single sensor, either grav or geo. I establish logistics bases as I explore for resupply and overhaul. I am 26 years into the game so far. I tend to be very aggressive with exploration.

I've now met seven Hive Fleets, at least a dozen Necron systems and five NPRs, three of which are in conflict with each other. Two invader ships so far.

[Vandermeer]

If the Necrons are remnants, then what would the invaders be? Are they Chaos due to coming from rifts? Or perhaps aggressive AI from the dark ages, but I guess that would also fit remnants better.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

If the Necrons are remnants, then what would the invaders be? Are they Chaos due to coming from rifts? Or perhaps aggressive AI from the dark ages, but I guess that would also fit remnants better.

Yes, Invaders are Chaos.