Aurora 4x
C# Fiction => Steve's Fiction => Empire of the Stars => Topic started by: Steve Walmsley on June 25, 2024, 06:25:35 AM
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Please add any comments in this thread
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Thank you Steve, your fictions are always a formidable source of inspiration for ships design + We probably do not know everything about Aurora as you do of course, for example laser warhead, I never tried them and I do not know how they do work.
I read the battle of Kochi in one breath, being honest I though you would not manage to succede to that terrible missile wawes.
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Thank you Steve, your fictions are always a formidable source of inspiration for ships design + We probably do not know everything about Aurora as you do of course, for example laser warhead, I never tried them and I do not know how they do work.
I read the battle of Kochi in one breath, being honest I though you would not manage to succede to that terrible missile wawes.
I was pretty concerned myself at the time :)
There is a bug with laser torpedoes in v2.5.1, which means they don't always detonate at the correct range. That is fixed for v2.6.
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Thank you Steve, your fictions are always a formidable source of inspiration for ships design + We probably do not know everything about Aurora as you do of course, for example laser warhead, I never tried them and I do not know how they do work.
I read the battle of Kochi in one breath, being honest I though you would not manage to succede to that terrible missile wawes.
I was pretty concerned myself at the time :)
There is a bug with laser torpedoes in v2.5.1, which means they don't always detonate at the correct range. That is fixed for v2.6.
Was the CIWS not working bug fixed on 2.5.1? I don't see it on the 2.6 change list but do remember it being an issue on a recent version.
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Well, now we know what Steve has been up to lately... eight posts in one go, wow!
A couple comments on the game start: the choice to have NPRs start 50+ light years away seems like it will make it hard to encounter all of them. I remember this was an issue with the Star Trek campaign so I would worry a bit, though with so much material already I don't think I need to worry much. I'm also sad not to see the ground force structures in more detail, I suppose you didn't want to spend the time typing that all up but I always love to see how people set up their roleplay ground formations. ;D
I also hope the IJN develops a missile warfare doctrine over time. I don't think we have seen a missile-centric Steve AAR since 2.2 released and I'd love to see your take on the changes. It sounds like the Akagi is intended to evolve in this direction.
21st March 1960
Murakumo enters the third of the four known jump points. So far, all the jump points have connected to stars within a few light years of Sol. This time, she arrives a little over four hundred million kilometres from a K2-V orange star more than seventy light years from Sol.
Wow... I didn't know this was possible. It must be improbable at least!
It's strange that an NPR managed to beat Japan into a system right next to Sol and deploy multiple ships already. Almost like a player race though I doubt they will prove nearly so tactically competent.
12th September 1960
Kitakami arrives at the new jump point in Tsushima. She launches her Aichi E1A, which immediately transits. On arrival the scout detects a huge fleet of Scimitar ships waiting on the jump point. Within seconds, a 33,777-ton ship designated as Raptor class destroys the scout in a hail of railgun fire.
Oh good there will be fighting. ;D
23rd October 1963
Known space has grown to thirty-three systems, eighteen of which lack any planets and two are occupied by hostile aliens. The lack of habitable worlds is disappointing, although the conquest of Osaka III has offset that considerably. The most recently discovered system is a black hole, three transits from Earth via Barnard’s Star and Nagasaki, with a mass eighty times that of Sol.
map
It occurs to me that it might make sense to have black holes display a bit differently on the galactic map, perhaps in a different color from green such as purple?
22nd September 1965
dramatic battle noises
I'll echo the thread in being amazed that Japan managed to win this one. I thought for sure that the particle lance batteries (an excellent new addition!) would spell doom for the Kido Butai, but the reckless charge worked and there were just too few guns, with too long a recharge time, to carry the day. Still a harsh, even Pyrrhic victory for Japan, and the closest we've come to seeing Steve get beat by aliens since the pre-release Crusade campaign, I think. ;D
3rd December 1965
Approximately twenty million Rasheed have been conscripted to form one hundred and eighty-six forced labour mining camps and fifteen forced labour construction camps.
This is, um, lore-accurate, I'll give you that. Sucks to be an alien in the Empire of Japan I guess.
7th March 1967
The fuel situation is also critical, with just two million litres on Earth.
Also lore-accurate, though without pesky American submarines sinking all their commercial shipping the IJN should eventually be able to deploy enough fuel harvesters to resolve this issue.
13th March 1968
The 1st Hiko Sentai (air group), comprised of twenty-four Mitsubishi G1M 'Donryu' (Storm Dragon) Long Range Strike craft becomes operational on Earth. This is the first Imperial Navy unit armed with missiles. Each G1M carries a pair of Rakurai (Lighting Strike) anti-ship missiles with strength-12 warheads and is designed for long-range attacks from planetary bases. In addition to its warhead, the Rakurai has ECCM, active terminal guidance and five decoys.
Hooray, missiles! Now once all those pesky railgun fighters get blown up we can have some real fun. ;D
14th March 1969
Even so, thirty-five make it through the defensive missile screen. Fourteen strength-1 energy impacts are registered as the Rakurai reach point-blank range. Thirty detonate their strength-12 warheads, seventeen of which destroy the Zuijin’s own decoys. Thirteen strike the Devastator and one penetrates the armour.
Interesting. I had forgotten that decoy missiles could be so effective against box launcher salvos. May be time for the IJN to add ECCM to their missiles?
4th June 1969
Full communication is established with the Minato aliens, [...] Their heads are long and similar to that of a shark, while their bodies are bearlike and covered with long spines. That apparent strength will be useful once the necessary labour camps are established.
It is important to have priorities in order.
To do that, the Imperial Japanese Navy must expand significantly. Unfortunately the Empire is simultaneously facing a wealth crisis, a manpower crisis and the exhaustion of the mineral resources on Earth. Existing resource stockpiles will last for a while, but unless New Osaka and the recently established Takamatsu colony can replace the supply of those resources, shipbuilding may soon be severely constrained.
This sounds like an exciting strategic challenge and I look forward to seeing how you solve it!
3rd August 1970
The presence of the Zuijin explains the Xiamen wrecks in Kwajalein, but also means that both outward jump points discovered in Makin so far lead to Zuijin-held system.
It does begin to seem rather as if that 25% ruins chance is an underestimate... :P
12th August 1970
The Empire of Japan has now encountered six alien races – possibly seven if the wreck in Kapteyn’s Star did not belong to one of the known races.
It does begin to seem rather as if that 50-100 LY NPR starting distance is an overestimate... :P
Jokes aside, I really am surprised at how many NPRs you've met with fewer than 100 systems surveyed and the NPR start positions supposedly so far away. At least 3 of those 6 NPRs, as far as I can tell, are starting NPRs or were discovered early on by a starting NPR, yet they are operating in the vicinity of Sol. Very unexpected.
28th September 1970
Therefore, Daigensui-Kaigun-Taishō Takagi declares that the Empire of Japan must find a way to establish a population at one of the five small comets in Hadano. There is insufficient space on the surface of the comets, so the Empire will prioritise the development of orbital habitats.
A bold plan. But why not just set up a DSP at a more convenient location? Comet orbits are extremely elliptical so they don't reliably hold a specific area of space, IMO.
11th November 1970
The survey cruiser Oboro is in Sigma Draconis, working its way around the system’s asteroid belt, when it detects thermal emissions from an alien ship of a new race. [...] This is the seventh alien race to be encountered in less than eleven years.
Now this is just getting ridiculous...
17th December 1970
The Aichi E1A scout from the Kido Butai arrives at the asteroid where the aliens were encountered several weeks earlier, finding the Orca and a single Barracuda still in orbit. As the scout moves closer to the aliens, the Barracuda opens fire with some form of laser weapon and destroys it.
Isn't it nice when the diplomacy is simple? Hostile, sure, but simple. No waiting around trying to guess when the evil aliens will finally go off their rockers.
Moments later, the battlecruisers fire their 25cm lasers and the Barracuda disappears without leaving a wreck.
Uh-oh...
31st December 1970
It is extremely disconcerting how easily the Mizuchi avoid Imperial Navy sensors. The same eight ships that destroyed the previous scout now claim another victim.
Is this by any chance an allusion to some under-the-hood upgrades for the, ahem, Mizuchi AI? :o
15th April 1971
If the fighter attack is not successful, the Mako could theoretically destroy the entire Kido Butai by holding the range open and firing from beyond Japanese weapon range.
excited missile warfare lobby noises
7th May 1971
The main problem is the carriers, which are not designed for that type of close combat, so they are detached and ordered back to Sigma Draconis V. They are still in significant danger if the battle does not go well.
Steve, you promise so much, and yet... :P
Once again the Imperial Japanese Navy has been victorious, but once again the cost was very high. Two Kongo class battlecruisers have been destroyed, with the loss of fifteen hundred officers and crew, including Kaigun-Taisa Nakamura. Eight hundred survivors are rescued from life pods. Four of the original six Kongos have now been lost and the Imperial Navy is reduced to two battlecruisers. For now, the carriers and their fighters will have to be the shield of the Empire.
It's hard to say if this was worth it. The tonnage works out slightly in the Japanese favor, particularly given the tech disparity, but Japan can hardly afford to lose her capital ships given the variety of threats on many axes she must face. Another potentially Pyrrhic victory?
8th May 1971
That plan is barely underway, when the guard force detects sensor emissions eighty million kilometres further out-system from a pair of Stingrays. It appears the much larger force of forty-seven Mizuchi attack craft is making an appearance at a most inconvenient time.
It is convenient for the readership! ;D
This is a long comment, but in my defense it was a long series of updates. Things are really starting to get tense though, at any moment the Kido Butai could come under attack by a new Mizuchi force they are not equipped to stand against. I will also say that the AI in general seems to be a lot smarter based on these reports, at least in terms of executing maneuvers.
Looks like a really fun campaign with a lot of variety and I am excited for more! ;D
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Whoa, what an impressive campaign so far!
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Steve could you please add more details about your ground forces? What's the regiment composition? Do you have sub units as battalions?
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Another thrilling battle!
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What was supposed to be a simple operation with overwhelming force is turning into a debacle.
Excellent. ;D
Looks like the, um, Zuijin are becoming a proper threat to the player once again with all the missile warfare changes and following AI upgrades. This is great to see, what was once an annoyance for most players should now become a real challenge especially since the weapons loadout will change from game to game. Great stuff Steve!
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What a busy stellar neighborhood! Truly a target rich environment. Wonder how the Empire would prioritize mineral spending if resource shortages would worsen.
Was wondering, what does it mean that aliens "accept claim" for a system?
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What was supposed to be a simple operation with overwhelming force is turning into a debacle.
Excellent. ;D
Looks like the, um, Zuijin are becoming a proper threat to the player once again with all the missile warfare changes and following AI upgrades. This is great to see, what was once an annoyance for most players should now become a real challenge especially since the weapons loadout will change from game to game. Great stuff Steve!
I haven't changed anything regarding potential Zuijin beam weapons, although I did make some changes in terms of missile options. Also I fixed a laser torpedo bug for v2.6, which makes them more effective now. Precursors can theoretically get particle lances in a v2.5.1 game (and I was genuinely surprised when I found out they had them). I have modified a couple of AI elements.
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What a busy stellar neighborhood! Truly a target rich environment. Wonder how the Empire would prioritize mineral spending if resource shortages would worsen.
Was wondering, what does it mean that aliens "accept claim" for a system?
Here is the rules post about claiming systems from NPR.
http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=8495.msg118362#msg118362
There are 8 rules posts for Diplomacy in total:
- Diplomacy Part 1: Basic Framework (http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=8495.msg118258#msg118258)
- Diplomacy Part 2: Intrusion into NPR Territory (http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=8495.msg118318#msg118318)
- Diplomacy Part 3: Claiming Systems from NPRs (http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=8495.msg118362#msg118362)
- Diplomacy Part 4: NPR vs NPR Claims (http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=8495.msg118398#msg118398)
- Diplomacy Part 5: Restrictions on NPR Claims (http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=8495.msg118404#msg118404)
- Diplomacy Part 6: Independence (http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=8495.msg118467#msg118467)
- Diplomacy Part 7: Banned Bodies (http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=8495.msg119432#msg119432)
- Diplomacy Part 8: Diplomatic Ships (http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=8495.msg120024#msg120024)
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21st March 1960
Murakumo enters the third of the four known jump points. So far, all the jump points have connected to stars within a few light years of Sol. This time, she arrives a little over four hundred million kilometres from a K2-V orange star more than seventy light years from Sol.
Wow... I didn't know this was possible. It must be improbable at least!
It's strange that an NPR managed to beat Japan into a system right next to Sol and deploy multiple ships already. Almost like a player race though I doubt they will prove nearly so tactically competent.
There is a bug in v2.5.1 that can result in longer connections than intended. It was still in place for this situation, but fixed soon afterwards.
It occurs to me that it might make sense to have black holes display a bit differently on the galactic map, perhaps in a different color from green such as purple?
Yes, that is a good idea. I've added that for v2.6.
22nd September 1965
dramatic battle noises
I'll echo the thread in being amazed that Japan managed to win this one. I thought for sure that the particle lance batteries (an excellent new addition!) would spell doom for the Kido Butai, but the reckless charge worked and there were just too few guns, with too long a recharge time, to carry the day. Still a harsh, even Pyrrhic victory for Japan, and the closest we've come to seeing Steve get beat by aliens since the pre-release Crusade campaign, I think. ;D
Particle lances (I think) are already possible in v2.5.1 - just unlikely. This was random in my game, rather than by design, and I was taken completely by surprise. At that point, I decided to embrace the RP element and go for a banzai charge, which turned out to be the right tactic.
3rd December 1965
Approximately twenty million Rasheed have been conscripted to form one hundred and eighty-six forced labour mining camps and fifteen forced labour construction camps.
This is, um, lore-accurate, I'll give you that. Sucks to be an alien in the Empire of Japan I guess.
Yes, again going with what I thought the Empire of Japan would do in that scenario, although I am assuming some moderation of the pre-WW2 culture over time
14th March 1969
Even so, thirty-five make it through the defensive missile screen. Fourteen strength-1 energy impacts are registered as the Rakurai reach point-blank range. Thirty detonate their strength-12 warheads, seventeen of which destroy the Zuijin’s own decoys. Thirteen strike the Devastator and one penetrates the armour.
Interesting. I had forgotten that decoy missiles could be so effective against box launcher salvos. May be time for the IJN to add ECCM to their missiles?
They have ECCM, but even with that its quite common to lose half a salvo to decoys.
12th August 1970
The Empire of Japan has now encountered six alien races – possibly seven if the wreck in Kapteyn’s Star did not belong to one of the known races.
It does begin to seem rather as if that 50-100 LY NPR starting distance is an overestimate... :P
Jokes aside, I really am surprised at how many NPRs you've met with fewer than 100 systems surveyed and the NPR start positions supposedly so far away. At least 3 of those 6 NPRs, as far as I can tell, are starting NPRs or were discovered early on by a starting NPR, yet they are operating in the vicinity of Sol. Very unexpected.
Yes, I am certainly not short on potential (and real) threats, which combined with the various shortages is making this a very fun campaign.
28th September 1970
Therefore, Daigensui-Kaigun-Taishō Takagi declares that the Empire of Japan must find a way to establish a population at one of the five small comets in Hadano. There is insufficient space on the surface of the comets, so the Empire will prioritise the development of orbital habitats.
A bold plan. But why not just set up a DSP at a more convenient location? Comet orbits are extremely elliptical so they don't reliably hold a specific area of space, IMO.
One of the comets has a orbit close to the two inward jump points, plus I can add installations on the surface to boost the EM signature.
31st December 1970
It is extremely disconcerting how easily the Mizuchi avoid Imperial Navy sensors. The same eight ships that destroyed the previous scout now claim another victim.
Is this by any chance an allusion to some under-the-hood upgrades for the, ahem, Mizuchi AI? :o
I have been tweaking the AI for a while, so I don't think this was specific to the Mizuchi. I need to add some code to help the AI deal better with converging threats though.
Once again the Imperial Japanese Navy has been victorious, but once again the cost was very high. Two Kongo class battlecruisers have been destroyed, with the loss of fifteen hundred officers and crew, including Kaigun-Taisa Nakamura. Eight hundred survivors are rescued from life pods. Four of the original six Kongos have now been lost and the Imperial Navy is reduced to two battlecruisers. For now, the carriers and their fighters will have to be the shield of the Empire.
It's hard to say if this was worth it. The tonnage works out slightly in the Japanese favor, particularly given the tech disparity, but Japan can hardly afford to lose her capital ships given the variety of threats on many axes she must face. Another potentially Pyrrhic victory?
Yes, I was having a Beatty moment when it came to the Kongos: "There seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today!"
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This is one hell of an action packed campaign. I love it.
A few questions:
- How are the salvage efforts going? Did you salvage any of those particle lances? Sounds like that might be worth putting into a ship, or breaking down for research.
- Given the learnings from the various big fights, what has the Empire learned? Is it going to adjust or create new designs based on those learnings?
For example, it seems prudent to design better countermeasures to these laser armed missiles, as they are a massive threat at the moment.
Similarly, finding those organic ships was pretty tough, and when you do find them they move too fast compared to the Imperial fleet. Looks like more or better sensors, and more or better engines should be a priority here ..
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Wow, amazing new playthrough! Was hoping to see some more of the classic Steve missile battlegroup, but I'm being pleasantly surprised by this massive beam-fighter usage.
What a busy stellar neighbourhood! I never manage to get something like this in my games! What is it by now? 8 NPRs plus at least 10 spoiler-held systems? Must say, I am jealous! ;D
The beam fighters are making a serious killing, taking down enemies many times their tonnage, including ground forces. It seems the AI has difficulty dealing with them. I guess there are too few fire controls to fight with? Targetting efficiently so that damage is spread out seems to be very hard. I've come to see fighters as "reusable missiles". Individually weak, dependent on a mothership and group up in "salvos" just like ordnance. But the game's targetting mechanics treat them as proper ships and so anyone that is not specifically equiped to fight them, suffers. If the Zuijin used the AMMs against the fighters they could put a serious dent in their number too, but they did get a capital regardless, so not bad.
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I praise your dedication to research the Imperial Japan's naming convention for military hardware and technologies.
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The beam fighters are making a serious killing, taking down enemies many times their tonnage, including ground forces. It seems the AI has difficulty dealing with them. I guess there are too few fire controls to fight with? Targetting efficiently so that damage is spread out seems to be very hard. I've come to see fighters as "reusable missiles". Individually weak, dependent on a mothership and group up in "salvos" just like ordnance. But the game's targetting mechanics treat them as proper ships and so anyone that is not specifically equiped to fight them, suffers. If the Zuijin used the AMMs against the fighters they could put a serious dent in their number too, but they did get a capital regardless, so not bad.
It seems like the best countermeasures against beam fighter swarms are AMMs, massed single-weapon turrets, and having your own beam fighters. Kind of reminds me of how premodern armies deployed foot archers, fortifications, and their own horse archers to deal with the threat of enemy horse archers re-enacting the Battle of Carrhae (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Carrhae).
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It seems like the best countermeasures against beam fighter swarms are AMMs, massed single-weapon turrets, and having your own beam fighters. Kind of reminds me of how premodern armies deployed foot archers, fortifications, and their own horse archers to deal with the threat of enemy horse archers re-enacting the Battle of Carrhae (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Carrhae).
Yes, massed firepower is key. You need lots of missile and beam firecontrols spread across as many targets as possible, all firing very quickly. The use of particle lances against the fighters was a bad idea from the Zuijin. Too much overkill and fires too slowly.
I pray every day for the Gods to persuade Steve to implement NPR fighters and carriers. ;D
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It seems like the best countermeasures against beam fighter swarms are AMMs, massed single-weapon turrets, and having your own beam fighters. Kind of reminds me of how premodern armies deployed foot archers, fortifications, and their own horse archers to deal with the threat of enemy horse archers re-enacting the Battle of Carrhae (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Carrhae).
Yes, massed firepower is key. You need lots of missile and beam firecontrols spread across as many targets as possible, all firing very quickly. The use of particle lances against the fighters was a bad idea from the Zuijin. Too much overkill and fires too slowly.
I pray every day for the Gods to persuade Steve to implement NPR fighters and carriers. ;D
or AT LEAST a toggle to allow NPR fighters and Carriers.
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I have encountered similar raider as the Incheon in my current game, only the ship was equipped with a gas-core engine and railgun and could travel at 7000km/s, something I could not replicate due to my technology, It tooks me years before I could defend myself from them, then I came up with the idea of a 8000km/s fast and small assalut ship to capture them instead of directly fighing them. Love how this game helps to think "out of the box".
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Absolutely epic!
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I was biting my nails worrying whether you'd run out of MSP for fighters or battleships first before they ran out of missiles! Perhaps the Imperial Naval Design Board will hold a conference to debate the merits of deeper maintenance bays.
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I was biting my nails worrying whether you'd run out of MSP for fighters or battleships first before they ran out of missiles! Perhaps the Imperial Naval Design Board will hold a conference to debate the merits of deeper maintenance bays.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but the absolute clearest mark of a high-quality AAR is the number and length of Naval Conferences depicted therein. ;D
Also, Steve, your pace of updates is frankly frightening... perhaps you should check that your wife is not feeling too left out these days? :P
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I was biting my nails worrying whether you'd run out of MSP for fighters or battleships first before they ran out of missiles! Perhaps the Imperial Naval Design Board will hold a conference to debate the merits of deeper maintenance bays.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but the absolute clearest mark of a high-quality AAR is the number and length of Naval Conferences depicted therein. ;D
Also, Steve, your pace of updates is frankly frightening... perhaps you should check that your wife is not feeling too left out these days? :P
I've mainly been catching up. I already had over 70 pages in Word before I started posting anything. I decided that rather than start posting immediately and then abandon the campaign after a few updates, I would make sure I had plenty of material before I started posting :) I am more or less caught up now.
We are still travelling in our motorhome - over 16 weeks now - and next week we are meeting up with a friend on the Norfolk coast (East Anglia, not Virginia) for a few days so, due to probable excess alcohol consumption, I think updates will pause for a few days then :)
BTW, we have already moved our ferry home from September to December, so we will probably be in the motorhome for the rest of the year. I have started doing some consulting work for a couple of days a week (from the motorhome), which is taking care of our expenses.
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Superb AAR, exicited to read about the invasion of the Shimitarian home world, I have two questions:
- Are you playing without the civilian sector?
- When you play your campaign, do you play with the last stable version shared with us or do you play with the upcoming patch so in this case the 2.6.0 to test the new functionality?
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Superb AAR, exicited to read about the invasion of the Shimitarian home world, I have two questions:
- Are you playing without the civilian sector?
- When you play your campaign, do you play with the last stable version shared with us or do you play with the upcoming patch so in this case the 2.6.0 to test the new functionality?
I am playing with the latest version of the code, which changes over time as I update it. The campaign is a way to playtest the updates.
The civilian sector has been updated, per the v2.6 change list, and is currently a LOT smaller, so I may have overcorrected. After thirteen years, the starting shipping line has seven ships, while two more have five and four ships respectively. Part of the reason is that very short trips used to be the best option to boost shipping lines and now they are the worst, because its based on distance, which doesn't include loading and unloading time. I may tweak the payment per billion kilometers upwards a little.
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Awesome AAR. I really am fascinated by the efficacy of EW. In my games I usually don't touch decoys and such much, but reading you AAR really gave me a lot to think in that term.
Also: The MSP and missile logistics are really fun and much better than before the changes. The Scimitar must have shot a few years of ammunition worth in that engagement. I at least always struggle to keep up with missile consumption.
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Excellent AAR, BANZAI! ;D ;D
Part of the reason is that very short trips used to be the best option to boost shipping lines and now they are the worst, because its based on distance, which doesn't include loading and unloading time. I may tweak the payment per billion kilometers upwards a little.
If you want a more accurate payment using time (including loading unloading) rather than distance as basis for payment might be better, if performance allows for it.
What you lose with that approach is that payment for faster trips would be less instead of more, so another option is a flat payment + distance.
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Time as a basis would reward them for having slow ships.
Distance x cargo value, perhaps. And perhaps a flat loading fee per ton if you want to balance the long vs short trips thing.
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The Empire is a ruthless conqueror. Is there nothing to stop it? All Empires fall, eventually. :P
a mining colony on the eighteen moon of Scimitar III
Was that interspecies CMC vs CMC garrisons combat? Private Military Company warfare on the frontier gold rush.
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a mining colony on the eighteen moon of Scimitar III
Was that interspecies CMC vs CMC garrisons combat? Private Military Company warfare on the frontier gold rush.
Yes, I think so :)
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Seeing the troop transports mentioned leads me to think - Steve, is there a "---- Maru" theme you're using, is it in the game or will be in 2.6? I'd love to have it instead of having to go look up Japanese transport names myself.
The Main Force closes to within 85,000 km before coming under fire. Three different battleships are struck by a total of fifty-nine strength-1 energy impacts. All eight ships return fire and within a couple of minutes, all the surface-based railguns are eliminated,
Given the low tech level and use of railguns, it looks like these bases could also have been attacked by armored drop transports pretty effectively. Certainly more effectively than a moon defended by higher-tech/longer-range weapons that can penetrate armor more easily, I've had mixed experience with drop transport invasions and it depends a lot on what kind (and quantity) of STOs there are.
If the Empire of Japan had waited before attacking the Scimitar system, the result may have been quite different.
Is losing maybe 2-3 ships really that different though? I'm confident that the Empire would have won the day regardless. :)
Interesting to see the NPRs adapt their tactics to those of the human player. A shame they ran out of the ordnance needed to get some results out of it, but it is an encouraging sign nevertheless, more challenging NPRs can only be good for the game. ;D
That home world has suffered considerably as a result of the recent bombardment. The thermal signature of the population has fallen by forty percent and the EM signature has dropped by twenty percent, indicating significant damage and loss of life.
After such an intense bombardment, it is good to see that a significant majority remains intact to be captures, although it remains to be seen how much collateral damage might result from the ground combat part of the show. The 80% reduction in collateral damage seems to have been a very good change!
14th June 1975
All remaining Scimitaran forces have been eliminated and the population has surrendered to the victorious Japanese forces. Despite sixty percent casualties among all the combat divisions of the Imperial Army, this glorious victory is the most significant in the history of the Empire of Japan.
Finally in my lifetime Steve has done a NPR homeworld invasion in C#! ;D ;D ;D
Now the question is what have we learned from this and how will we apply these lessons in the future? I speak both of the IJA and of the game developer. ;)
Those 802 captured mines will probably be best converted to automines given the Empire's manpower crisis, hopefully this will help to address the mineral problems elsewhere.
Scimitar I - Moon 4 Survey Report
I'm genuinely shocked that the stockpiles remain so high, since this NPR has been around for a long time you would think they've mined out the homeworld by now... ???
Infrastructure to support the necessary population will be moved from the Scimitaran home world, where it was built to counteract the freezing temperatures caused by dust from the recent bombardments. This may result in some Scimitaran deaths at the aphelion of their parent superjovian’s orbit, but there are well over a billion Scimitarans and the most extreme situation is only a colony cost of 0.27, so the relative loss will be minor. Over time, as the dust settles, the effect will decrease.
The Empire continues to maintain its unique branding in the face of an ever-changing galaxy.
The demise of Forster Ores is darkly amusing, truly one of those look-before-you-leap life lessons we can be sure the other capitalists will refuse to learn from. ;D
Glad this one is still going with many twists and turns, seems like there is still a lot more interesting stuff to come before this one gets played out. It's great to have a real long-form C# campaign, hopefully this will come to rival some of the longer VB6 ones!
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Seeing the troop transports mentioned leads me to think - Steve, is there a "---- Maru" theme you're using, is it in the game or will be in 2.6? I'd love to have it instead of having to go look up Japanese transport names myself.
No, I am using this website, which has a recognition manual for all WW2 Japanese merchant ships. I'm also trying to use some themes in the naming, even though it isn't obvious. Troop transports or replenishment ships tend to have historical troop transport and oiler names. The colony ship naming is based on a passenger liner. For the tugs, the first two were historical tugs and after that I used names that have the same last character in Japanese, which is common in Japanese destroyer classes. So some naming was research based and some from the merchant ship database.
https://maritime.org/doc/id/oni208j-japan-merchant-ships/
Interesting to see the NPRs adapt their tactics to those of the human player. A shame they ran out of the ordnance needed to get some results out of it, but it is an encouraging sign nevertheless, more challenging NPRs can only be good for the game. ;D
I have been tweaking the NPR AI code as I play, trying to adapt to my own tactics :)
That home world has suffered considerably as a result of the recent bombardment. The thermal signature of the population has fallen by forty percent and the EM signature has dropped by twenty percent, indicating significant damage and loss of life.
After such an intense bombardment, it is good to see that a significant majority remains intact to be captures, although it remains to be seen how much collateral damage might result from the ground combat part of the show. The 80% reduction in collateral damage seems to have been a very good change!
Yes, agree.
14th June 1975
All remaining Scimitaran forces have been eliminated and the population has surrendered to the victorious Japanese forces. Despite sixty percent casualties among all the combat divisions of the Imperial Army, this glorious victory is the most significant in the history of the Empire of Japan.
Finally in my lifetime Steve has done a NPR homeworld invasion in C#! ;D ;D ;D
Now the question is what have we learned from this and how will we apply these lessons in the future? I speak both of the IJA and of the game developer. ;)
Yes, I was fortunate I had a tech edge. I need to have a much larger force next time, which means some serious building up of the IJA. I think from a game perspective it was about the right difficulty. I used every combat unit I could scrape together, but I could have built more - I was building engineers for a while instead to help build labour camps on New Osaka :) plus I have a large number of shore batteries distributing among various colonies. Also, I could have built more ground force construction complexes, but I was low on Duranium.
Scimitar I - Moon 4 Survey Report
I'm genuinely shocked that the stockpiles remain so high, since this NPR has been around for a long time you would think they've mined out the homeworld by now... ???
The game has only been running for 15 years, so it isn't that long.
Infrastructure to support the necessary population will be moved from the Scimitaran home world, where it was built to counteract the freezing temperatures caused by dust from the recent bombardments. This may result in some Scimitaran deaths at the aphelion of their parent superjovian’s orbit, but there are well over a billion Scimitarans and the most extreme situation is only a colony cost of 0.27, so the relative loss will be minor. Over time, as the dust settles, the effect will decrease.
The Empire continues to maintain its unique branding in the face of an ever-changing galaxy.
The demise of Forster Ores is darkly amusing, truly one of those look-before-you-leap life lessons we can be sure the other capitalists will refuse to learn from. ;D
Glad this one is still going with many twists and turns, seems like there is still a lot more interesting stuff to come before this one gets played out. It's great to have a real long-form C# campaign, hopefully this will come to rival some of the longer VB6 ones!
Yes, this is a fun campaign with plenty to do yet, I'm trying to maintain a WW2 Japan approach, without making it too dark :)
The CMC incident was one of those weird situations that will probably only happen once (I had to conquer the system and have 10m pop but never actually do a geosurvey or check the planets and have a suitable CMC site chosen by both me and the conquered race), but fun nonetheless.
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The CMC incident was one of those weird situations that will probably only happen once (I had to conquer the system and have 10m pop but never actually do a geosurvey or check the planets and have a suitable CMC site chosen by both me and the conquered race), but fun nonetheless.
It's a bit odd/immersion breaking that capturing the main colony and interrogating prisoners from the entire Navy did not reveal the existence of all colonies even in the same system IMHO.
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There we are guys, the jump capable Yamato, amazing!
I have a question, the Type 32 Go-31E Turret Fire Control (3) Max Range: 80,000 km TS: 20,000 km/s ECCM-2 is paired with the Twin Kentaro-Sakura KS-12B Laser Turret (12x2) Range 200,000km TS: 20000 km/s Power 8-8 ROF 5 for PD purposes yes? Why you did you not use an extended range FC intead of 80000 Km only?
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There we are guys, the jump capable Yamato, amazing!
I have a question, the Type 32 Go-31E Turret Fire Control (3) Max Range: 80,000 km TS: 20,000 km/s ECCM-2 is paired with the Twin Kentaro-Sakura KS-12B Laser Turret (12x2) Range 200,000km TS: 20000 km/s Power 8-8 ROF 5 for PD purposes yes? Why you did you not use an extended range FC intead of 80000 Km only?
The turrets are linked to the fast tracking fire controls for point defence and the long-ranged fire controls for attacking ships. However, I am thinking of creating a single, expensive, fast-tracking, long-range fire control for defence against laser torpedoes.
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There we are guys, the jump capable Yamato, amazing!
I have a question, the Type 32 Go-31E Turret Fire Control (3) Max Range: 80,000 km TS: 20,000 km/s ECCM-2 is paired with the Twin Kentaro-Sakura KS-12B Laser Turret (12x2) Range 200,000km TS: 20000 km/s Power 8-8 ROF 5 for PD purposes yes? Why you did you not use an extended range FC intead of 80000 Km only?
The turrets are linked to the fast tracking fire controls for point defence and the long-ranged fire controls for attacking ships. However, I am thinking of creating a single, expensive, fast-tracking, long-range fire control for defence against laser torpedoes.
Yeah I mean, having an FC of 120.000 Km for example, instead of 80.000 Km, does not increase the hit chance beside the tracking speed?
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There we are guys, the jump capable Yamato, amazing!
I have a question, the Type 32 Go-31E Turret Fire Control (3) Max Range: 80,000 km TS: 20,000 km/s ECCM-2 is paired with the Twin Kentaro-Sakura KS-12B Laser Turret (12x2) Range 200,000km TS: 20000 km/s Power 8-8 ROF 5 for PD purposes yes? Why you did you not use an extended range FC intead of 80000 Km only?
The turrets are linked to the fast tracking fire controls for point defence and the long-ranged fire controls for attacking ships. However, I am thinking of creating a single, expensive, fast-tracking, long-range fire control for defence against laser torpedoes.
Yeah I mean, having an FC of 120.000 Km for example, instead of 80.000 Km, does not increase the hit chance beside the tracking speed?
A little. 80,000 km engaging point blank (10,000) suffers a 12% drop in accuracy, while 120,000 km only suffers an 8% drop. Also bear in mind its only 4% of the chance, not 4% absolute. So a 25% chance to hit a missile becomes 26% for example. The question is whether the difference is worth the extra cost and mass that you could use for something else. It's the opportunity cost, rather than the direct cost.
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Now that I think about it, it is kind of weird that the Zuijin (cough cough) conduct fuel harvesting operations, since they have virtually no need for a large fuel stockpile. Though I suppose it does give the player some incentive to attack their systems sooner if they want to get any use from the gas giant reserves.
13th October 1977
The size of the Zuijin armada continues to grow, with the discovery of a massive fleet in the Takeda system, seven transits from Sol at the end of the Aomori Chain. There are ten orbital bases and fifteen Obliterator class heavy cruisers of 28,923 tons, supported by twenty-six other warships and twenty Ghost fast attack craft. The total tonnage is over nine hundred thousand tons, more than double that of any other Zuijin fleet. Whatever this immense force is guarding, it must be extremely important to the Zuijin.
I hope the assuredly massive ruins they are guarding do not turn out to be TL1, that would be rather a disappointment after all the work needed to secure the system. :P
13th March 1978
In the past, the Kido Butai (mobile force) has been a fleet formed for each individual operation and then disbanded afterwards. With the availability of new ships, built with the resources gained from the Scimitaran Conquest, the Kido Butai will now become a permanent formation, assigned the task of attacking and destroying those Zuijin fleets and ground forces to which the Empire of Japan has direct access. To enable more sustained operations, the Kido Butai is organised into four different formations, each with its own commander, while the overall fleet is commanded by Kaigun-Shōshō Kurosawa Rai from the flag bridge of the Yamato.
At this point, I'd like to note that once the four forces of the Kido Butai are separated, only the Main Force would benefit from the flag bridge of Kaigun-Shosho Kurosawa, meanwhile the force commander will never be of any benefit unless Yamato is blown apart. I suppose it works fine for pure roleplay but I wish the chain of command had a bit more weight and impact at the forces-and-fleets level, mechanically.
The second and third wave of laser torpedoes achieve similar results. A fourth wave of sixty torpedoes, arriving less than a minute after the third and almost certainly launched by a group of twenty Ghost fast attack craft, detonates at sixty thousand kilometres, bypassing the fighter screen, and scores sixteen hits on Hyūga. The fifth wave, once again a hundred and fifty-eight laser torpedoes, unexpectedly closes to 82,500 km before detonating. Fortunately, that is still within range of the fighters’ cannon but their accuracy is reduced. Fifty-eight torpedoes strike Nagato and Hyūga and their damage is increased to strength-4 due to the reduced range. Nagato’s shields are down to almost half strength. If the attack had been focused on one of the heavy cruisers, the damage would have been considerable. Somehow, the Zuijin have modified their torpedoes to detonate at varying ranges. Kaigun-Shōshō Kurosawa orders the fighters to drop to 90,000 km ahead of the Main Force.
I assume this is the bug that got fixed?
And the updates end on a sad note as fleet operations will as usual be curtailed by resource availability. Somehow, we always know these things will happen, yet we are never able to build enough fuel harvesters to address the problem when it arrives. Strange, isn't it? ;)
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The second and third wave of laser torpedoes achieve similar results. A fourth wave of sixty torpedoes, arriving less than a minute after the third and almost certainly launched by a group of twenty Ghost fast attack craft, detonates at sixty thousand kilometres, bypassing the fighter screen, and scores sixteen hits on Hyūga. The fifth wave, once again a hundred and fifty-eight laser torpedoes, unexpectedly closes to 82,500 km before detonating. Fortunately, that is still within range of the fighters’ cannon but their accuracy is reduced. Fifty-eight torpedoes strike Nagato and Hyūga and their damage is increased to strength-4 due to the reduced range. Nagato’s shields are down to almost half strength. If the attack had been focused on one of the heavy cruisers, the damage would have been considerable. Somehow, the Zuijin have modified their torpedoes to detonate at varying ranges. Kaigun-Shōshō Kurosawa orders the fighters to drop to 90,000 km ahead of the Main Force.
I assume this is the bug that got fixed?
No, the bug was fixed very early on. This is a new option for laser torpedoes to prevent me negating their effectiveness by stationing fighters at the detonation point.
http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=13463.msg170737#msg170737
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Another stellar update. Damn, the empire of Japan has a lot of factions to contend with. Multiple instances of the swarm, even. Didn't know that was possible.
Seems like there will be alliances at some point whether the empire wants them or not, simply because there are so many hostile races and targets of opportunity to contend with that you don't have time to antagonize everyone;)
How is Japan dealing with pirate incursions at the moment? Any thoughts on how to keep established systems safe?
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Another stellar update. Damn, the empire of Japan has a lot of factions to contend with. Multiple instances of the swarm, even. Didn't know that was possible.
Seems like there will be alliances at some point whether the empire wants them or not, simply because there are so many hostile races and targets of opportunity to contend with that you don't have time to antagonize everyone;)
How is Japan dealing with pirate incursions at the moment? Any thoughts on how to keep established systems safe?
I had one campaign (without an AAR) where I was faced with seven different swarm races :)
Pirates are not too bad. Only two engagements so far because they can attack NPRs too. However, I maintain one or two light cruisers at every significant colony, plus STO batteries plus some fighters for the larger colonies.
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Easy victory and a cliffhanger ending!
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Very exciting update indeed.
I would love to see what those rifts end up doing.
A question. I saw you were doing archeology on one of the planets that has an Ancient construct on it. Can those things be destroyed or.damaged in any way?
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Re WW2 Japanese merchant and transport names ...
I used to play a lot of _War in the Pacific, Admirals Edition_ which seems to have a comprehensive and well-researched database (especially some of the player-created mods) of ships on both sides. I'll ask about mining the game files for names in their forum.
Anyone who likes this game will probably also like WITP-AE. :)
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Steve, please, can you share the design of the Gekkō recon drone? as I can't find it in the scenario thread.
Thanks!!
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Steve, please, can you share the design of the Gekkō recon drone? as I can't find it in the scenario thread.
Thanks!!
(http://www.pentarch.org/steve/Screenshots/Gekko.png)
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Thank you, Steve!
I see an active sensor.
Instead, I thought you installed only passive ones, for a more sthealthy approach.
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Thanks for this excellent work! It convinced me to try the game, which I haven't been able to put down.
I was wondering, how did you manage to get the Fighter's crew down to 1? Crew is the main problem I have with small craft. Were there some other changes to crew besides fuel tanks not adding more crew?
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Thanks for this excellent work! It convinced me to try the game, which I haven't been able to put down.
I was wondering, how did you manage to get the Fighter's crew down to 1? Crew is the main problem I have with small craft. Were there some other changes to crew besides fuel tanks not adding more crew?
Just very short deployment time, such as 0.007 for the Hayabusa for example.
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Absolutely crazy updates. Damn.
Especially the Mauritius situation.
You want to conquer a planet that has an almost hostile empire that's technologically more advanced sitting right in your logistics chain.
That's beyond ballsy - it's incredibly risky, especially with the other threats out there.
But damn, if you manage to pull it off..
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This is fast becoming a truly epic campaign!
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Steve, I apologize if you've already explained this, but I'm curious about something. I've seen in a couple of your update posts that you've deployed sensor drone/buoys at jump points throughout your territory.
While an interesting and useful strategy, I've been thinking about the underlying assumptions. Are you assuming FTL comms between systems, allowing the buoys to communicate detection alerts immediately to capital or fleet locations? Or are they only able to communicate within their own system, which would limit their usefulness and perhaps necessitate regular patrols to download their logs?
Thanks
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Steve, I apologize if you've already explained this, but I'm curious about something. I've seen in a couple of your update posts that you've deployed sensor drone/buoys at jump points throughout your territory.
While an interesting and useful strategy, I've been thinking about the underlying assumptions. Are you assuming FTL comms between systems, allowing the buoys to communicate detection alerts immediately to capital or fleet locations? Or are they only able to communicate within their own system, which would limit their usefulness and perhaps necessitate regular patrols to download their logs?
Thanks
For this campaign, I am assuming instant FTL comms everywhere. Normally I role-play that only stable jump points can allow messages to pass and only act on information that my race would have, given that constraint. With a large game and so many different races, I thought deploying buoys everywhere and monitoring what was happening would be more interesting.
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What an epic update!
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What an epic update!
Agreed!
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Not just that, but with a cliffhanger too!
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Steve, I apologize if you've already explained this, but I'm curious about something. I've seen in a couple of your update posts that you've deployed sensor drone/buoys at jump points throughout your territory.
While an interesting and useful strategy, I've been thinking about the underlying assumptions. Are you assuming FTL comms between systems, allowing the buoys to communicate detection alerts immediately to capital or fleet locations? Or are they only able to communicate within their own system, which would limit their usefulness and perhaps necessitate regular patrols to download their logs?
Thanks
For this campaign, I am assuming instant FTL comms everywhere. Normally I role-play that only stable jump points can allow messages to pass and only act on information that my race would have, given that constraint. With a large game and so many different races, I thought deploying buoys everywhere and monitoring what was happening would be more interesting.
I usually roleplay with buoys that they are comms buoys (which happen to have sensors of course) and the only way to communicate across jump points. Makes for an interesting situation when a hostile NPR cuts your communications network in half that you don't quite get with jump gates (or at least it is hazier).
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Steve, I apologize if you've already explained this, but I'm curious about something. I've seen in a couple of your update posts that you've deployed sensor drone/buoys at jump points throughout your territory.
While an interesting and useful strategy, I've been thinking about the underlying assumptions. Are you assuming FTL comms between systems, allowing the buoys to communicate detection alerts immediately to capital or fleet locations? Or are they only able to communicate within their own system, which would limit their usefulness and perhaps necessitate regular patrols to download their logs?
Thanks
For this campaign, I am assuming instant FTL comms everywhere. Normally I role-play that only stable jump points can allow messages to pass and only act on information that my race would have, given that constraint. With a large game and so many different races, I thought deploying buoys everywhere and monitoring what was happening would be more interesting.
I usually roleplay with buoys that they are comms buoys (which happen to have sensors of course) and the only way to communicate across jump points. Makes for an interesting situation when a hostile NPR cuts your communications network in half that you don't quite get with jump gates (or at least it is hazier).
I have considered adding an optional 'communications layer', with pop installations, ship components, comm buoys, etc. and a way of highlighting which ships or populations are on the 'comm net'. This could just be for role-playing, or there is some actual penalty for orders, etc. An extreme version of that is having your own ships and populations unavailable to view if they are 'off the net' with them operating using AI only. If you get back in contact, you will see their ship history, any new systems they discovered, etc. If they are destroyed while out of contact, you might only find their wreck, or maybe some form of black box. A lot of complexity involved, but maybe one day :)
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That would be really cool as an optional system, like maintenance.
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Hey Steve,
How does this campaign compare to your previous ones in terms of scale?
Amount of NPR's, amount of colonies, fleets, etc.
It seems to me that it's starting to get rather big. ;D
Is the performance still fine after the civilian line updates?
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Hey Steve,
How does this campaign compare to your previous ones in terms of scale?
Amount of NPR's, amount of colonies, fleets, etc.
It seems to me that it's starting to get rather big. ;D
Is the performance still fine after the civilian line updates?
This is the largest one I have documented for C#, although I had a larger one for which I didn't post an AAR (500+ known systems, 7 swarm races, etc.).1
Performance is fine - at least I haven't noticed anything except that saves are taking longer.
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Great read as always, I love the short, direct to the point format of Steves AAR:s.
23rd October 1983
After an NPR clears the orbital defenders, maybe they should consider the loot on the ground theirs and take offense if you move in with ground forces and snipe it for yourself? On the other hand if you add in every special case like this you will soon have a very complex AI especially considering different goals will sometimes conflict.
30th December 1983
Mechs.. should have seen it coming in a japanese campaign but it just hadn't crossed my mind, brilliant ;D
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Just finished wading through your massive set of updates. Great writeups! The massive scale of your campaign continues to impress.
The communications issue continues to intrigue me. Your assumption of instantaneous comms across the length and breadth of your empire simplifies matters greatly, not only allowing the coordination of forces across multiple systems, but allowing you, the gamer, to not have to deal with light speed delays, or comms that depend on courier traffic. It makes it easier for you to control your empire and perceive the big picture, and also gives your campaign a more "modern-day" feel, as you have nearly instantaneous comms between ships and worlds. Whereas in my campaign, with no FTL comms, communication is limited to light speed within a system and to courier or other ship speeds between systems.
My campaign is much smaller than yours at this point, but communication takes much longer, obviously. The times (by courier) are as follows:
Terra to Victory Base in Groombridge (14.6 billion kilometers): 17 days
Terra to Shield Base in Monoceri (9.32 billion): 10.9 days
Terra to Bastion Base in Chi Draconis, beyond the frontier(12.1 billion kilometers): 14.1 days
Terra to Omega Ceti system, new swarm location (22.6 billion kilometers): 26 days
Compared to your campaign, my campaign has a more World War I or even 19th century feel to it, as comms are limited and frontline commanders have great latitude and independence to do what they see fit without referring to higher command.
To be honest, I'm not sure I could manage this setup in a campaign the size of yours. The complexity of tracking who knows what and when they knew it would likely become unmanageable in short order.
I noticed that in your first post from yesterday, one of your carriers launched an attack using its missile equipped fighters. I was particularly interested in this as this is a major issue I'm dealing with in my campaign. The Imperial Terran Fleet's initial design concept was large beam-armed combatants, supported by smaller specialized escorts and patrol craft. The demands of engaging the swarm have forced me into deploying carriers with small fast fighters equipped with missiles. I have struggled to design carriers that carry sufficient fighters and large enough magazines to rearm to the fighters for additional attacks. Currently my carriers have magazines large enough to rearm their fighters twice, giving them a capacity for three strikes before needing to reload at a colony or munitions ship. I keep thinking I'm doing something wrong and that I should be able to have larger magazines, but after reading about your carrier strike I realized that I'm probably just channeling a previous version of Aurora in thinking I could cram more magazines into the design.
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Just finished wading through your massive set of updates. Great writeups! The massive scale of your campaign continues to impress.
The communications issue continues to intrigue me. Your assumption of instantaneous comms across the length and breadth of your empire simplifies matters greatly, not only allowing the coordination of forces across multiple systems, but allowing you, the gamer, to not have to deal with light speed delays, or comms that depend on courier traffic. It makes it easier for you to control your empire and perceive the big picture, and also gives your campaign a more "modern-day" feel, as you have nearly instantaneous comms between ships and worlds. Whereas in my campaign, with no FTL comms, communication is limited to light speed within a system and to courier or other ship speeds between systems.
My campaign is much smaller than yours at this point, but communication takes much longer, obviously. The times (by courier) are as follows:
Terra to Victory Base in Groombridge (14.6 billion kilometers): 17 days
Terra to Shield Base in Monoceri (9.32 billion): 10.9 days
Terra to Bastion Base in Chi Draconis, beyond the frontier(12.1 billion kilometers): 14.1 days
Terra to Omega Ceti system, new swarm location (22.6 billion kilometers): 26 days
Compared to your campaign, my campaign has a more World War I or even 19th century feel to it, as comms are limited and frontline commanders have great latitude and independence to do what they see fit without referring to higher command.
To be honest, I'm not sure I could manage this setup in a campaign the size of yours. The complexity of tracking who knows what and when they knew it would likely become unmanageable in short order.
I noticed that in your first post from yesterday, one of your carriers launched an attack using its missile equipped fighters. I was particularly interested in this as this is a major issue I'm dealing with in my campaign. The Imperial Terran Fleet's initial design concept was large beam-armed combatants, supported by smaller specialized escorts and patrol craft. The demands of engaging the swarm have forced me into deploying carriers with small fast fighters equipped with missiles. I have struggled to design carriers that carry sufficient fighters and large enough magazines to rearm to the fighters for additional attacks. Currently my carriers have magazines large enough to rearm their fighters twice, giving them a capacity for three strikes before needing to reload at a colony or munitions ship. I keep thinking I'm doing something wrong and that I should be able to have larger magazines, but after reading about your carrier strike I realized that I'm probably just channeling a previous version of Aurora in thinking I could cram more magazines into the design.
It's the first time I have done comms this way. Usually I assume I can transit using the stable jump network, but not outside it. This approach does make life easier for large campaigns.
I used to build carriers with two reloads too, but I realised the battle was often won or loss bt the time I needed the second reload, so I decided for this campaign to go with a single reload, and use colliers if necessary.
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<snip>
It's the first time I have done comms this way. Usually I assume I can transit using the stable jump network, but not outside it. This approach does make life easier for large campaigns.
I used to build carriers with two reloads too, but I realised the battle was often won or loss bt the time I needed the second reload, so I decided for this campaign to go with a single reload, and use colliers if necessary.
This does raise an interesting facet of campaign play style. The NPR's and Spoilers are assumed to have instant FTL like you are using now, I assume. A player race could use one of several methods to communicate between systems. No inter-system comms at all, like my current campaign. Light speed comms between system, like Starfire, with buoys at the jump points assumed to be using small jump-capable torpedoes. And instant comms, like you are using. In a multi-player race, with different player races using different comms methods, it might introduce interesting situations, although the instant FTL comms using race would have a significant strategic advantage.
For the carriers, I find two reloads to be useful in engaging the swarm, as they tend to use large numbers of small ships and this gives my carriers the ability to deal with them effectively with multiple strikes. The recent engagements have strongly motivated me to up my support ship game. My flagship, the Andromeda, an 80,000 ton dreadnought, survived a close encounter with the swarm, but was almost gutted by acid damage after the battle. The ship's crew managed to repair a lot of systems, but ran out of maintenance supplies. And my carriers ran out of missiles before they ran out of targets. I failed to effectively coordinate my attack with the support units, and my UNREP ships were slow and ungainly, meaning it took time to catch up with the fleet and were hideously vulnerable to attack by the enemy.
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<snip>
It's the first time I have done comms this way. Usually I assume I can transit using the stable jump network, but not outside it. This approach does make life easier for large campaigns.
I used to build carriers with two reloads too, but I realised the battle was often won or loss bt the time I needed the second reload, so I decided for this campaign to go with a single reload, and use colliers if necessary.
This does raise an interesting facet of campaign play style. The NPR's and Spoilers are assumed to have instant FTL like you are using now, I assume. A player race could use one of several methods to communicate between systems. No inter-system comms at all, like my current campaign. Light speed comms between system, like Starfire, with buoys at the jump points assumed to be using small jump-capable torpedoes. And instant comms, like you are using. In a multi-player race, with different player races using different comms methods, it might introduce interesting situations, although the instant FTL comms using race would have a significant strategic advantage.
For the carriers, I find two reloads to be useful in engaging the swarm, as they tend to use large numbers of small ships and this gives my carriers the ability to deal with them effectively with multiple strikes. The recent engagements have strongly motivated me to up my support ship game. My flagship, the Andromeda, an 80,000 ton dreadnought, survived a close encounter with the swarm, but was almost gutted by acid damage after the battle. The ship's crew managed to repair a lot of systems, but ran out of maintenance supplies. And my carriers ran out of missiles before they ran out of targets. I failed to effectively coordinate my attack with the support units, and my UNREP ships were slow and ungainly, meaning it took time to catch up with the fleet and were hideously vulnerable to attack by the enemy.
I really need to catch up with your campaign and others. I've been too busy playing and developing :)
I'm currently working on adding the ability to drop a large, very high tech and fully developed NPR with many systems into the middle of an existing campaign, without any immediate connection between the NPR systems and the existing systems.
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That sounds amazing!
And also, what an epic string of updates!
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Empire of the Stars has been informative and a joy to read. I never thought I'd be so invested in characters like Kurosawa Rai and Suzuki Saya.
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Finally caught up on this proper epic. Very cool to see the amount of ground invasions of alien homeworlds, I'll admit I expected the required tonnages to be in the several millions but it seems that Steve has gone all-in on heavy armor and genetically-enhanced super-soldiers to minimize the transport capacity required - so it's cool to see that approach work very well!
I do note that it seems like logistics continue to be the biggest challenge in mounting a war against a peer polity, and the AI still doesn't seem to present a great tactical or operational challenge, although I may be drawing too many conclusions from the most recent conquest of the Zharovians who were quite dispersed and worn-down from their other war. The Scimitar, I suspect, would have been a stiff out if they even had technological parity with the Empire, after all, but that was earlier on. I guess perhaps the next AI challenge for Steve will be how to get the AI to control their forces without dispersing so much, so that even in the midst of one war they remain a difficult target for the opportunistic human players!
On communications, I use light-speed in systems and instant comms across jump points, usually with a rule that a jump point must have ships or comms buoys on one or each side to facilitate those communications. This latter rule makes it possible for the aliens to cut off communications in times of war, or for a survey ship to go mysteriously missing in a system if comms have not yet been established. The one exception is my Duranium Legion setting where I allow stabilized jump points to function this way instead, for historical reasons. To me, it doesn't make a huge difference in gameplay (unless comms are cut off), since the light-speed delay is usually much, much less than how long it will take any ships to get there in response, but it does make a difference in roleplay opportunities.
@Kurt: your idea of courier-based communications is very interesting. What is the "physics" justification for this over light-speed comms? I think it could be managed in a campaign of this size if you use real ships for the job, combined with the "Send Message" order. It would add some micro but probably not too much if your roleplay goal is to prioritize independent action by commanders.
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I do note that it seems like logistics continue to be the biggest challenge in mounting a war against a peer polity, and the AI still doesn't seem to present a great tactical or operational challenge, although I may be drawing too many conclusions from the most recent conquest of the Zharovians who were quite dispersed and worn-down from their other war.
The problem for the Zharovians was they had the worst possible design combination against my designs. They were entirely energy-based and had slower ships and shorter-ranged weapons. My main problem was running out of MSP. The Bloodclaw were more dangerous and if they had been at full strength, instead of worn down by two separate wars, they could have been formidable. Based on what I found when I salvaged their home world bases, I suspect the Yamatos would have been quickly destroyed if they had attacked them at full strength.
I now have two alien home worlds occupied and it is a matter of time before the third one. The Capellans have a large fleet and could be a problem, but I just launched my first 120,000 ton Dreadnought, which is much more powerful than the Yamatos. Once I assimilate the Zharovians and eventually the Bloodclaw, the Empire will be hard to stop without a significant new challenge.
Because of the need for that challenge I started working on the generation of large, pre-generated NPR Empires with tens or even hundreds of systems, complete with established colonies and distributed forces. They will be assigned a 'number of transits' distance for exploration from their home world, then generate all those systems and distribute a preset total of terraforming, installations, etc to the potential colony sites in that area, with more assets to the best sites, but generally smaller colonies further out. When generating systems, they will not connect to any systems that existed before the race was created, but they can connect to their own systems.
Initially my plan was to add a new, very large alien Empire to my existing game, but I will more likely create a new game with pre-generated NPR empires.
I'm also looking at expanding the spoiler races to create larger threats. So far its only ideas, but I am considering having a minority of Aether Rifts start much larger (instant 'Eye of Terror'), multiple swarms appearing in known space simultaneously or within a short period (Tyranid Invasion) and some form of Tomb Worlds (Necrons) where aliens emerge from large underground facilities and begin expanding as they activate more forces. This would either be a variation of precursors, or a new threat entirely, probably with some key installation on each tomb world that can be destroyed to prevent further activation. I know these are all 40K-themed, but so were the original spoilers in many cases.
Once all that is done, I'll probably start a new campaign.
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Because of the need for that challenge I started working on the generation of large, pre-generated NPR Empires with tens or even hundreds of systems, complete with established colonies and distributed forces. They will be assigned a 'number of transits' distance for exploration from their home world, then generate all those systems and distribute a preset total of terraforming, installations, etc to the potential colony sites in that area, with more assets to the best sites, but generally smaller colonies further out. When generating systems, they will not connect to any systems that existed before the race was created, but they can connect to their own systems.
I am EXTREMELY interested in the update to allow the addition of muti-system/planet NPCs! I've always wished we would encounter NPCs that had already substantially colonized (or conquered) multiple major planets, and that it would offer more variety and challenge particularly as the player is usually in that state. Will you be implementing that separately from the current system of scaling newly discovered NPCs based on your own size adjusted by difficulty and a random factor? The way you described it, with NPC extent being entirely in undiscovered systems (which makes sense), makes it sound like that's your intent. Would you consider making it part of the base NPC discovery mechanism? In theory in your current game, once you incorporate the two homeworlds you've captured, the next NPC you find will be massive but entirely contained (initially) to a single colony, which seems weird. Having a super "tall" NPC will also result in them very rapidly depleting their minerals on the homeworld, unless that is also scaled with starting NPC size?
I just launched my first 120,000 ton Dreadnought, which is much more powerful than the Yamatos.
Can't wait to see the specs in your next (final?) writeup. This has been a campaign for the ages. A very interesting and well researched theme, many NPCs, an overextended player empire engaging in multi-front wars, very large combat ships, and not just one but multiple homeworld ground invasions!
Once all that is done, I'll probably start a new campaign.
At the risk of venturing into "when will the next update be out" territory... Do you intend to release 2.6 before the start of your next campaign, or continue updating it through that campaign?
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@Kurt: your idea of courier-based communications is very interesting. What is the "physics" justification for this over light-speed comms? I think it could be managed in a campaign of this size if you use real ships for the job, combined with the "Send Message" order. It would add some micro but probably not too much if your roleplay goal is to prioritize independent action by commanders.
Couriers are for inter-system message transport, in-system comms are handled by the usual light speed transmission, either radio or laser based. In my campaign I have built small cheap couriers with commercial engines and stationed several in each inhabited/exploited system. To reduce player overhead, I don't actually move the couriers between systems to carry the messages, instead I plot the course to the destination and note the time involved without actually sending the couriers, as I would then have to send them back to their origin.
As I noted elsewhere, my campaign is smaller than Steve's, at least currently, and even at its current size it is something of a pain to keep track of who knows what and when.
Having given the situation some thought, I am probably going to establish a courier network, with jump-capable couriers stationed on each side of jump points, strung out in between systems. This will effectively allow for near light-speed communications in between systems. The couriers are small enough and cheap enough that it should be doable, and as commercial ships don't require maintenance checks.
Kurt
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I started working on the generation of large, pre-generated NPR Empires with tens or even hundreds of systems, complete with established colonies and distributed forces. They will be assigned a 'number of transits' distance for exploration from their home world, then generate all those systems and distribute a preset total of terraforming, installations, etc to the potential colony sites in that area, with more assets to the best sites, but generally smaller colonies further out. When generating systems, they will not connect to any systems that existed before the race was created, but they can connect to their own systems.
Initially my plan was to add a new, very large alien Empire to my existing game, but I will more likely create a new game with pre-generated NPR empires.
Please, please, please make it so that NPRs generated in-game can be like this.
I would much rather encounter a new NPR around the time that our exploration frontiers begin to overlap, rather than exactly when my exploration frontier reaches their home system.
Currently, Aurora only generates new systems as they are entered for the first time, which is why non-game-start NPRs are always discovered in their home system.
What if Aurora instead created systems ahead of the explored frontier by a number of hops (possibly a game configuration parameter)?
Those systems would exist unknown to the player (or any NPR) until discovered.
If a new NPR is generated in such a system, Aurora can follow the process you describe above to expand the NPR outside their home system, backfilling some or all of the systems between their home system and the currently explored frontier (and also expanding in the other direction from their home system, away from the explored frontier).
Most of these "exploration buffer" systems won't contain new NPRs, of course.
To avoid unnecessarily increasing calculations during turn processing, Aurora can leave uninhabited, undiscovered systems in stasis--no need to calculate orbital motion (or anything else) on a system that nobody yet knows about.
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I started working on the generation of large, pre-generated NPR Empires with tens or even hundreds of systems, complete with established colonies and distributed forces. They will be assigned a 'number of transits' distance for exploration from their home world, then generate all those systems and distribute a preset total of terraforming, installations, etc to the potential colony sites in that area, with more assets to the best sites, but generally smaller colonies further out. When generating systems, they will not connect to any systems that existed before the race was created, but they can connect to their own systems.
Initially my plan was to add a new, very large alien Empire to my existing game, but I will more likely create a new game with pre-generated NPR empires.
Please, please, please make it so that NPRs generated in-game can be like this.
I have always thought it's a bit weird to meet "coincidentally" NPRs just when they are beginning to play their own "TN Start". Even if the new NPR generation during a game was changed to cause some number of systems to generate in a chain before generating the NPR home system, that would be much more immersive to me.
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Started following this and it helped me with some shipbuilding stuff since I havent played since VB6 :) Thanks as always Steve
Your story telling is wonderful, I love the pacing
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Please, please, please make it so that NPRs generated in-game can be like this.
I would much rather encounter a new NPR around the time that our exploration frontiers begin to overlap, rather than exactly when my exploration frontier reaches their home system.
Currently, Aurora only generates new systems as they are entered for the first time, which is why non-game-start NPRs are always discovered in their home system.
What if Aurora instead created systems ahead of the explored frontier by a number of hops (possibly a game configuration parameter)?
Those systems would exist unknown to the player (or any NPR) until discovered.
If a new NPR is generated in such a system, Aurora can follow the process you describe above to expand the NPR outside their home system, backfilling some or all of the systems between their home system and the currently explored frontier (and also expanding in the other direction from their home system, away from the explored frontier).
Most of these "exploration buffer" systems won't contain new NPRs, of course.
To avoid unnecessarily increasing calculations during turn processing, Aurora can leave uninhabited, undiscovered systems in stasis--no need to calculate orbital motion (or anything else) on a system that nobody yet knows about.
I think something along those lines could be great. If an empire is generated a number of jumps away but you never get around to explore further in that direction it could also mean it could find you first. Maybe a limit on larger unencountered empires would be needed so things doesn't spiral out of control.
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I think something along those lines could be great. If an empire is generated a number of jumps away but you never get around to explore further in that direction it could also mean it could find you first. Maybe a limit on larger unencountered empires would be needed so things doesn't spiral out of control.
I have good news. (https://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=13463.msg172084#msg172084)