Questions Not Worth Their Own Thread: C# Edition

[Andrew]

You do need the individual squads and it will help your sanity to create a squad with a Higher level commander and group them into a larger unit as that makes loading them on ships much easier. If only they automatically grouped under the HQ when built
I normally have 250 ton squads organised with a 250 ton HQ Squad with an infantry commander with 5000 ton command who leads all the marines in the fleet

[maeby]

If only they automatically grouped under the HQ when built

Thanks, that is what I feared.  The thing is, while it reduces the amount of clicking by more than half it is still a very large amount of clicking.  I have a couple of those carriers and doing it for each of them would be hundreds of clicks.  Btw, do you know of a way to make command formation appear at the bottom of the list? It doesn't appear to alphabetical and the clicking part would be much easier if the command unit would be at the bottom of the list.  Everytime I get a few squads deep, I can't add anymore because I can't scroll up while dragging and the window is too small to display the command unit.

[Garfunkel]

Press Shift when clicking Ground Unit window button and it'll open a new instance - you can drag them between the two.

I wouldn't use 100-ton marine squads at all - go with 500-tons per assault shuttle, for example. That also reduces the amount of micro needed and will ensure victory when boarding.

[Jorgen_CAB]

I usually have a three tier Marine hierarchy which goes from Fleet, task-force and ship HQ.

The Fleet HQ is often stationed on a planet unless the whole Marine Division are doing a joint operation. Task-force command is often on an Assault carrier and part of the actual task-force. Each ship have their own HQ based on the number of Marines on them, that can be anything from 100ton security forces to 500t assault elements or 2500t company element for ground operations.

It might be a bit heavy on the clicking at times, but that is just the way Aurora is, it is not a game for the faint of heart...

The only thing I don't do anymore are ground fighters, I think that mechanic just don't work well and is not worth the time invested into managing it. I think Steve need to replace this with some other mechanic.

[maeby]

Press Shift when clicking Ground Unit window button and it'll open a new instance - you can drag them between the two.

I wouldn't use 100-ton marine squads at all - go with 500-tons per assault shuttle, for example.  That also reduces the amount of micro needed and will ensure victory when boarding.

Holy smeg thank you for that tip with opening an extra window!
I am always went with 250 ton marine squads for boarding as that is what comfortably fits on a fighter.  Max armor and CAP shred everything, I never had them lose except being shot down beforehand.  The biggest ship I boarded was around 60k tons, so for bigger ships I might need 2 Shuttles.  I really prefer the ease of being able to produce the shuttles with fighter factories instead of doing them in shipyards.  That way I can just order a few hundred more.

[maeby]

I usually have a three tier Marine hierarchy which goes from Fleet, task-force and ship HQ.

The Fleet HQ is often stationed on a planet unless the whole Marine Division are doing a joint operation.  Task-force command is often on an Assault carrier and part of the actual task-force.  Each ship have their own HQ based on the number of Marines on them, that can be anything from 100ton security forces to 500t assault elements or 2500t company element for ground operations.

For clarification, I only use marines for boarding and have a dedicated invasion fleet for ground assaults.

I was hesitant to use an HQ with my marines because a) 95% of them will die anyways, b) I read somewhere that HQ officer bonuses do not properly apply to very small squads (that might have been an old thread though, and I can't seem to find it anymore) and even if c) they take up precious space in my carrier, that would ideally be stuffed with more marines ready for boarding.  Do you think it is still worth it? I feel like I am kind of sleeping on officer bonuses and managment in general. 

[nuclearslurpee]

I was hesitant to use an HQ with my marines because a) 95% of them will die anyways, b) I read somewhere that HQ officer bonuses do not properly apply to very small squads (that might have been an old thread though, and I can't seem to find it anymore) and even if c) they take up precious space in my carrier, that would ideally be stuffed with more marines ready for boarding.  Do you think it is still worth it? I feel like I am kind of sleeping on officer bonuses and managment in general.

I consider boarding party HQs to be largely a roleplay consideration with minimal tactical benefits. If you use a lot of small boarding squads you simply will not have the officers to command most of them especially since you really want your officers commanding 20,000-ton planetary invasion brigades and not 250-ton boarding parties. An officer in command of a boarding party is also very likely to get killed as those tend to suffer a lot of casualties unless you bring overwhelming force to every boarding attempt (500 or even 1,000 tons).

If you want "officers" for roleplay it is probably better to fill that last 10 tons with a pair of INF+PW called "commanders" to represent a platoon commander and XO so you at least get some combat benefits instead of a usually-empty HQ.

[Jorgen_CAB]

The smallest unit that I put an HQ element in is my 2500t Marine Companies. Really no point in adding HQ or commanders to smaller units, I just assume they have a junior officer there and that is it.

[Zook]

An officer in command of a boarding party is also very likely to get killed as those tend to suffer a lot of casualties

I've had several HQs die in boarding actions, but I always had to retire the commanders manually. They didn't seem to die on their own.

[CaiusIuliusCaesar]

I've got orbital habitats around Earth to boost maximum workers. One question though: I see two pop growth values (surface and habitats). Which one is applied? Are the two populations (ground and orbit) growing independent of one another? How can I tell how many people live on the habitats? Many thanks!

[CaiusIuliusCaesar]

And another one:
Is there any way to load ground troops faster? I tried to select multiple units with shift and hit "add move", but it only added the very first one selected... the enter-key does not work either...

[ArcWolf]

And another one:
Is there any way to load ground troops faster? I tried to select multiple units with shift and hit "add move", but it only added the very first one selected... the enter-key does not work either...

create a "dummy command" have all units that you want to load under said command, and when you go lot load the units, make sure you select "load-subunits" (or something to that effect). As long as the transport is big enough to hold all the units, they will all be loaded.

[Sebmono]

create a "dummy command" have all units that you want to load under said command

How does one do this without designing, researching, and building a tual HQ units? Is there a way to create free commands like this to fold units under for organizational and transports purposes?

[Migi]

I've got orbital habitats around Earth to boost maximum workers. One question though: I see two pop growth values (surface and habitats). Which one is applied? Are the two populations (ground and orbit) growing independent of one another? How can I tell how many people live on the habitats? Many thanks!

Orbital habitats are not needed at habitable worlds (colony cost 0). (The possible edge cases are you reach the planet population capacity or unless you have to deal with dust in the atmosphere or you have one of the starting disasters)
I don't think the game shows two distinct populations, t should have 1 population number with "Population supported by Infrastructure" and "Orbital Population Capacity" further down.

I don't know if the interaction between the two population growths is known, the wiki entry talks about the component in VB but nothing about growth, the C# changes post for orbital habitats doesn't mention growth, and the C# changes post for population capacity doesn't mention growth either.

And another one:
Is there any way to load ground troops faster? I tried to select multiple units with shift and hit "add move", but it only added the very first one selected... the enter-key does not work either...

If you group the units into a hierarchy in the Ground Forces window, you can load all the units using a single order.
Note that the unit at the top of the hierarchy needs to have an HQ with a higher rating than the units below it.
In the Naval window look for the checkbox "Load All Sub-units" near the "Repeat Orders" button.

[ArcWolf]

create a "dummy command" have all units that you want to load under said command

How does one do this without designing, researching, and building a tual HQ units? Is there a way to create free commands like this to fold units under for organizational and transports purposes?

well, you can create a HQ unit big enough and use space master mode to crate it for free. OR, you can take an HQ you already have, even if it is too small, create a new template with just the HQ in it, and place the units under it. The purpose of the 'dummy" command is just to help organize, not to actually give combat bonus.