Questions Not Worth Their Own Thread: C# Edition

[Andrew]

Really Dumb question time.
Where do I set an NPR to hostile, I have run into a spoiler it has blown up 4 of my survey ships , I am sure that I can set the race as hostile on the Alien Intelligence and Foreign relations tab, but I see no way to do that on the tab. I suspect I am looking in the wrong place. So where do I set aliens as hostile, probably a good idea to do that before Class I arrives and tries to engage them as it won't shoot if they are not hostile

[Black]

It is in Intelligence and Foreign Relations Window:



There was bug reported, where it was not possible to set NPR as hostile so maybe check this as well:

http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=13066.0

[Andrew]

Thanks, it was the bug .

[Ultimoos]

What determines how much MSP is consumed for maintenance in population? My testing shown a more reliable ship would still consume the same amount of MSP as a ship that would break often.

[Froggiest1982]

What determines how much MSP is consumed for maintenance in population? My testing shown a more reliable ship would still consume the same amount of MSP as a ship that would break often.

There are different conditions to consider. However, for a ship
just anchored at population and not active (never moved after out of overhaul) the MSP cost is 25% or 1/4 of the ship BP. The reliability does not play any part in this case.

You can find a detailed answer here: http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=11055.0

[Kamilo]

Is there a way to find the homeworld/home system of a spoiler race? They suddenly appear in the middle one of some of my systems and I cannot trace them back.

[nuclearslurpee]

Is there a way to find the homeworld/home system of a spoiler race? They suddenly appear in the middle one of some of my systems and I cannot trace them back.

Not really.

You can try to board their ships and get lucky if they transit back before boarding combat finishes, and then you will have a crippled ship in the enemy system. However, there is no way to get ships here aside from SM mode, and you can't eliminate this race from the game even if you did somehow manage to blow up whatever they had in that system. Basically, if you are tired of fighting them, roleplay that you beat them badly enough to make them run away forever and then turn them off in the game settings.

[bankshot]

I had a survey ship destroyed by a precursor patrol ship in the Camlann system and so I flagged the system as alien owned in the galactic map and restricted the jump point to the system in system generation/display.  Later on I sent my battle fleet in and was able to destroy their high speed patrols so I un-restricted the jump point but banned the moon where their fleet was based.  I was able to do a grav survey of the system while my fleet was present, but I wasn't able to engage their main strength so I un-restricted the jump point and stabilized it but left the system flagged as alien controlled.  A few years later I came back and eliminated the alien fleet. 

I've removed the alien control flag but noticed that auto-route still won't let me pick the system as a target.  I have to route to the prior system and then jump to Camlann.  The jump point still shows as purple-ish (military restricted) in Galactic map instead of the gold of a standard stabilized link.

Do I need to so something else to re-enable full routing to this system?

[nuclearslurpee]

Do I need to so something else to re-enable full routing to this system?

Uncheck "Check Danger Rating" when giving movement orders - it's on the right-hand side. Since you had combat in this system fairly recently, it still looks "dangerous" to functions like auto-route by default.

Would be nice to have a button to reset the danger rating once we have control of the system, but that would go in the suggestions thread.

[bankshot]

That did it.  I turned on Security Status on the galactic map and it showed a danger rating of 475/3.0 (my survey ships a missile launcher for survey buoys). Thanks!

[Kurt]

Okay, my efforts to re-learn Aurora continue.  I am mostly focusing on ground combat at this point, as that is the area most unfamiliar to me.  I recently had my race design and built ground attack fighters, and then deployed them to attack a known ground force that has consistently survived all of my efforts to dislodge it.  It didn't go well, and I'm not sure why. 

This is the design:

Code: [Select]

Aparri class Ground Support Fighter      132 tons       2 Crew       49.9 BP       TCS 3    TH 40    EM 0
15206 km/s      Armour 1-2       Shields 0-0       HTK 1      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 0      PPV 1
Maint Life 20.06 Years     MSP 23    AFR 1%    IFR 0.0%    1YR 0    5YR 2    Max Repair 20 MSP
Magazine 20   
Lieutenant Commander    Control Rating 1   
Intended Deployment Time: 1 months    Morale Check Required   

Huxman-Sontag Fighter Magnetic Fusion Drive  (1)    Power 40    Fuel Use 894.43%    Signature 40    Explosion 20%
Fuel Capacity 1,000 Litres    Range 0.15 billion km (2 hours at full power)

Size 20 Fighter Pod Bay (1)     Pod Size: 20    Hangar Reload 223 minutes    MF Reload 37 hours
Ballard E-Systems Fighter MFC Mk II (1)     Range 24m km    Resolution 20
Swaard Fighter Autocannon Pod (1)    Armour Penetration: 38     Damage: 24     Shots: 3

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 Fighter for production, combat and planetary interaction
This design is classed as a Ground Support Fighter for auto-assignment purposes

This is the result when I assigned a group of these to first "Flak Suppression", and then "Planetary Search and Destroy"



The log isn't very informative as to what is happening, except that my fighters are getting shot down without doing much of anything.  They don't seem to be engaging the enemy, which is probably because I've missed something.  Any help would be appreciated. 

[nuclearslurpee]

I recently had my race design and built ground attack fighters, and then deployed them to attack a known ground force that has consistently survived all of my efforts to dislodge it.  It didn't go well, and I'm not sure why.

I have a couple of questions because it is weird that your fighters are not firing at all:

• Do you have active sensor contact with the enemy ground forces? It looks like it from the log, but just to be sure.
• Are your fighters loaded with one of the fighter pod types? These work like ordnance except they are not expended, but you still need to build and load them.
• Is the enemy race hostile?
• If nothing else works, you might try using normal beam fighters instead of ones equipped with fighter pods. The mechanics on the wiki aren't clear, so these may be able to carry out those missions instead of fighter pod-armed fighters. This seems unlikely but it's worth checking.

Looking at the events list, I am actually curious if it is one of these issues, as the ability to do reconnaissance on a SAD/SEAD mission might be worth the cost of losing some fighters. Maybe not against NPRs/spoilers which have very predictable compositions but against other player races it could be useful, which would be a historic first for GSFs.

Otherwise, ground fighters are currently just... awful. They are expensive for what is really a minimal effect and die far too easily to AA fire (the AA mechanics also have a weirdness which means that at low enough tech levels, some of the AA components actually have no effect - but this isn't the issue here). Plus, the amount of micromanagement required to get a useful (i.e., numerous) force to be effective is tiresome to say the least. About the only role they have is forcing other player races (in a multiple player race game) to build AA units.

[Kurt]

I recently had my race design and built ground attack fighters, and then deployed them to attack a known ground force that has consistently survived all of my efforts to dislodge it.  It didn't go well, and I'm not sure why.

I have a couple of questions because it is weird that your fighters are not firing at all:

• Do you have active sensor contact with the enemy ground forces? It looks like it from the log, but just to be sure.
• Are your fighters loaded with one of the fighter pod types? These work like ordnance except they are not expended, but you still need to build and load them.
• Is the enemy race hostile?
• If nothing else works, you might try using normal beam fighters instead of ones equipped with fighter pods. The mechanics on the wiki aren't clear, so these may be able to carry out those missions instead of fighter pod-armed fighters. This seems unlikely but it's worth checking.

Looking at the events list, I am actually curious if it is one of these issues, as the ability to do reconnaissance on a SAD/SEAD mission might be worth the cost of losing some fighters. Maybe not against NPRs/spoilers which have very predictable compositions but against other player races it could be useful, which would be a historic first for GSFs.

Otherwise, ground fighters are currently just... awful. They are expensive for what is really a minimal effect and die far too easily to AA fire (the AA mechanics also have a weirdness which means that at low enough tech levels, some of the AA components actually have no effect - but this isn't the issue here). Plus, the amount of micromanagement required to get a useful (i.e., numerous) force to be effective is tiresome to say the least. About the only role they have is forcing other player races (in a multiple player race game) to build AA units.

1. Yes - Although the fighters don't have sensors, the orbiting mothership has active sensors, and they are activated, and did acquire the enemy ground force prior to the launch of the fighters. 
2. Yes - the fighters are equipped with a 20 space pod bay, and have loaded a 20 space autocannon. 
3. Yes - The enemy race was designated as hostile long ago, and I have engaged in combat with them in the past, always disastrously for me, although I have managed to clear out their STO's, at some considerable loss. 
4.  I have tried to attack the ground forces with my other fighters, both beam and missile armed, using the Flak Suppression command and the search and destroy command, but nothing happened.  I think. 

[nuclearslurpee]

1. Yes - Although the fighters don't have sensors, the orbiting mothership has active sensors, and they are activated, and did acquire the enemy ground force prior to the launch of the fighters. 
2. Yes - the fighters are equipped with a 20 space pod bay, and have loaded a 20 space autocannon. 
3. Yes - The enemy race was designated as hostile long ago, and I have engaged in combat with them in the past, always disastrously for me, although I have managed to clear out their STO's, at some considerable loss. 
4.  I have tried to attack the ground forces with my other fighters, both beam and missile armed, using the Flak Suppression command and the search and destroy command, but nothing happened.  I think.

In that case I wonder if those missions are broken. I remember that there used to be some issues but I thought they were fixed at some point.

[Kurt]

1. Yes - Although the fighters don't have sensors, the orbiting mothership has active sensors, and they are activated, and did acquire the enemy ground force prior to the launch of the fighters. 
2. Yes - the fighters are equipped with a 20 space pod bay, and have loaded a 20 space autocannon. 
3. Yes - The enemy race was designated as hostile long ago, and I have engaged in combat with them in the past, always disastrously for me, although I have managed to clear out their STO's, at some considerable loss. 
4.  I have tried to attack the ground forces with my other fighters, both beam and missile armed, using the Flak Suppression command and the search and destroy command, but nothing happened.  I think.

In that case I wonder if those missions are broken. I remember that there used to be some issues but I thought they were fixed at some point.

This remains a mystery to me.  I've spent some time fiddling with the design and double checking all of the settings, but nothing seems to make a difference.  I went back and re-read the material Steve posted here:

http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=8495.105

It's possible its bugged.  It's also possible I've missed something fairly simple, it wouldn't be the first time.  In the meantime, I've withdrawn the fighters for now.  I was trying to soften up the enemy's ground forces before the ground assault.  Instead, I'm going to commit them to support the invasion once the time comes, and I'll see if I've figured out ground support and orbital bombardment support.