Aurora 4x

VB6 Aurora => Aurora Chat => Topic started by: Erik L on May 30, 2012, 02:12:01 PM

Title: More Aurora exposure
Post by: Erik L on May 30, 2012, 02:12:01 PM
I was just thinking (I know, dangerous) to increase exposure to Aurora a facebook fanpage or the like. Any thoughts on that?
Title: Re: More Aurora exposure
Post by: Panopticon on May 30, 2012, 02:36:46 PM
I like the idea of more people playing and would follow the page myself, but more exposure does mean more risk of stupid people showing up on the forums, which means more work for you and likely more demands for stuff Steve might have no interest in doing.
Title: Re: More Aurora exposure
Post by: Erik L on May 30, 2012, 02:39:43 PM
Spammers get one shot at being stupid before they get banned ;)

Normal stupid we deal with :D

The only other drawback I can see would be a division of the community. People go there or come here. And as you say, more people trying to get Steve to put in things he doesn't want. Though he is pretty stubborn ;)
Title: Re: More Aurora exposure
Post by: ollobrains on May 30, 2012, 03:52:19 PM
more fans will be more active forums, which will mean more demand for updates to the program.  Given steve does this on a ad hoc part time basis with spurts if u were to get a massive uplift in the amount of peeps playing- taking an interest in aurora might mean more programmers, more development time and progress and or also limited or full open sourcing, maybe its not worth the effort unless the fb page is for existing fans in that case it could be ok and might get a small scale following
Title: Re: More Aurora exposure
Post by: Erik L on May 30, 2012, 04:00:00 PM
I honestly don't see Steve going open source on this at all.

In my opinion, more players equals more tutorials and more wiki entries (that aren't spam). And everything gets better from a knowledge standpoint.
Title: Re: More Aurora exposure
Post by: Panopticon on May 30, 2012, 04:03:25 PM
Steve seems to have been pretty clear that open source is not going to happen no matter how much people badger him, which is fine with me.

I'm all for more exposure for the game, if nothing else it tends to generate some interesting fiction for me to kill time reading.
Title: Re: More Aurora exposure
Post by: Zed 6 on May 30, 2012, 06:27:47 PM
I would follow the game here as I have no interest in Facebook, Twitter etc. If it brings in more players, then great.
Title: Re: More Aurora exposure
Post by: Erik L on May 30, 2012, 06:55:32 PM
I would follow the game here as I have no interest in Facebook, Twitter etc. If it brings in more players, then great.

I'd say if done, it acts as a portal to here, rather than any large community there.
Title: Re: More Aurora exposure
Post by: ollobrains on May 30, 2012, 07:26:40 PM
I'd say if done, it acts as a portal to here, rather than any large community there.

i agree on the portal, more wikis would be good , as new material is put into game wikis can be better constructed.  Fb might be a way of bringing in more interest which is good to.  A lot to gain , and as long as theres some active development i can see the player base expanding quite a bit
Title: Re: More Aurora exposure
Post by: Erik L on May 30, 2012, 07:55:04 PM
i agree on the portal, more wikis would be good , as new material is put into game wikis can be better constructed.  Fb might be a way of bringing in more interest which is good to.  A lot to gain , and as long as theres some active development i can see the player base expanding quite a bit

Anyone can add to the wiki :) Just need to create a login there.
Title: Re: More Aurora exposure
Post by: Moonshadow101 on May 30, 2012, 10:04:19 PM
I tend to be of the opinion that if something doesn't have its own Wikipedia page, it doesn't really exist. Pretty sure Aurora doesn't have one. (Almost hard to tell, since the word "Aurora" has like 40 disambiguation entries.)

On a similar note, searchability is an issue. Getting to this page from google requires some pretty seriously specific terms. If you don't include "4x," or something, it can get iffy. The DF forum thread pointing to this page is actually the easiest thing to find! Not that this is really fixable, without changing the name of the game to something less common.
Title: Re: More Aurora exposure
Post by: Erik L on May 30, 2012, 10:27:06 PM
I tend to be of the opinion that if something doesn't have its own Wikipedia page, it doesn't really exist. Pretty sure Aurora doesn't have one. (Almost hard to tell, since the word "Aurora" has like 40 disambiguation entries.)

On a similar note, searchability is an issue. Getting to this page from google requires some pretty seriously specific terms. If you don't include "4x," or something, it can get iffy. The DF forum thread pointing to this page is actually the easiest thing to find! Not that this is really fixable, without changing the name of the game to something less common.

Aurora has it's own wiki... does that count?
Title: Re: More Aurora exposure
Post by: ollobrains on May 31, 2012, 12:10:01 AM
i dont think the aurora wiki links to aurora on wikipedia, its more of a seperate thing u can do.  Of course u could create a wikipedia entry for aurora ( the space 4x) game i would guess but maybe steve would have to do that or some such thing and then allow edits not sure how that aspect of wiki pedia works
Title: Re: More Aurora exposure
Post by: MehMuffin on May 31, 2012, 09:42:14 AM
Also, I bet that a lot of AARs of Aurora on other forums (Like blue emu's on Paradox forums) would bring in more players.
Title: Re: More Aurora exposure
Post by: Bgreman on May 31, 2012, 10:22:29 AM
I'm running a communal Let's Play (basically an AAR) on SomethingAwful, and I know at least five people who had never heard of the game started playing it because of that.  I think it's a great way to draw people in, because you can display the depth of the game while also explaining the mechanics, allowing people to tackle the steep learning curve with something of a helping hand.
Title: Re: More Aurora exposure
Post by: Panopticon on May 31, 2012, 10:28:35 AM
SA is a good place for exposure, I am going to have to look your LP up.
Title: Re: More Aurora exposure
Post by: Garfunkel on June 01, 2012, 05:04:56 PM
I'm running a communal Let's Play (basically an AAR) on SomethingAwful, and I know at least five people who had never heard of the game started playing it because of that.  I think it's a great way to draw people in, because you can display the depth of the game while also explaining the mechanics, allowing people to tackle the steep learning curve with something of a helping hand.

I did the same thing over at RPGCodex with similar results. Now running a truly communal 11-player multi-Earth conventional start game. So if anyone hangs around some other forums, putting up an LP/AAR or even just a mini-review, would surely helpl.
Title: Re: More Aurora exposure
Post by: Nathan_ on June 01, 2012, 05:19:00 PM
I'm running a communal Let's Play (basically an AAR) on SomethingAwful, and I know at least five people who had never heard of the game started playing it because of that.  I think it's a great way to draw people in, because you can display the depth of the game while also explaining the mechanics, allowing people to tackle the steep learning curve with something of a helping hand.

I've been following that and have some questions about it.
1)Recovered components. These don't seem covered by the mars treaty, is that a gimme to the goons, or an oversight? if they can still get compressed fuel tanks from ruins it could turn out extremely well for them.
2)Nearly all the easily habitable realestate in sol is likewise in their hands, again is that a gimme, or do you think you can cover for the wealth penalty that will be headed your way in a few decades(with extra solar colonies and what have you)?
Title: Re: More Aurora exposure
Post by: Panopticon on June 01, 2012, 09:27:17 PM
Dude, your LP is amazingly detailed, we should just copy all your informational posts and make a walkthrough out of em.
Title: Re: More Aurora exposure
Post by: Bgreman on June 01, 2012, 10:28:26 PM
I've been following that and have some questions about it.
1)Recovered components. These don't seem covered by the mars treaty, is that a gimme to the goons, or an oversight? if they can still get compressed fuel tanks from ruins it could turn out extremely well for them.
2)Nearly all the easily habitable realestate in sol is likewise in their hands, again is that a gimme, or do you think you can cover for the wealth penalty that will be headed your way in a few decades(with extra solar colonies and what have you)?

To be honest I forgot you can recover advanced ship components.  If it comes up, I'll probably treat it as technology, but some sly goons are sure to point out the loophole.  As for habitability, Mars is still in no-one's hands, the UN presence on Luna is not defended and more strongly than Earth, and Titan is colonizable, if not easily.  With the changes I made to humans, most of the Galilean moons are colonizeable, and the UN does now own that.  In any case the UN's income margin is shrinking at a much quicker rate than the Federation.

Dude, your LP is amazingly detailed, we should just copy all your informational posts and make a walkthrough out of em.

I plan to eventually copy everything into the Aurora Wiki.  I just don't have time to live, work, run the LP, and document it somewhere else.  Anyone else is free to lift the material and put it on the Wiki themselves if they choose.
Title: Re: More Aurora exposure
Post by: Person012345 on June 02, 2012, 03:14:12 PM
I honestly don't see Steve going open source on this at all.

In my opinion, more players equals more tutorials and more wiki entries (that aren't spam). And everything gets better from a knowledge standpoint.
Heh. I intend to start that tutorial I was planning myself when 5.7 comes out, since the changes in that might seem to change gameplay quite a bit and there's not much point in doing one that I won't even have finished by the time it becomes obsolete.  ;D
Title: Re: More Aurora exposure
Post by: Person012345 on June 02, 2012, 03:15:40 PM
i dont think the aurora wiki links to aurora on wikipedia, its more of a seperate thing u can do.  Of course u could create a wikipedia entry for aurora ( the space 4x) game i would guess but maybe steve would have to do that or some such thing and then allow edits not sure how that aspect of wiki pedia works
I'm pretty sure it wouldn't meet the notability guidelines yet.
Title: Re: More Aurora exposure
Post by: dgibso29 on June 05, 2012, 08:25:22 PM
Bgreman, that LP is great. I've spent the last 3 hours reading it, and I am only to page 20. It's a great read, and I know that when I get home in a few hours, I am going to start my first Conventional start game...And proceed to get absolutely no sleep.

Although I wish I could have all the new 5.7 mechanics! I've been holding off on starting a new campaign pending its release.
Title: Re: More Aurora exposure
Post by: Bgreman on June 06, 2012, 11:49:44 AM
Yeah, Steve started posting about 5.7 stuff about 5 days after I started the LP, and I was pretty mad that I won't be able to use that new stuff in the LP, unless I undertake a massive conversion effort.
Title: Re: More Aurora exposure
Post by: Nathan_ on July 20, 2012, 12:18:20 PM
Wow, the game is really starting to heat up. FEAN has the intel edge over the UN doesn't it. They definitely need some "fishing trawlers" going around.

Lets say the UN built an ICBM launch complex at Jupiter, launched drones carrying thermal and EM sensors into Saturn's eventual orbit, and the drones were ordered to self destruct if they detected an EM sensor headed their way, would FEAN be able to spot this barring a chance interception of the drone? Hypothetically of course, if you've got assets monitoring Jupiter that would clearly be a spoiler.
Title: Re: More Aurora exposure
Post by: Theodidactus on July 20, 2012, 01:33:46 PM
I gave a presentation on Aurora in one of my classes a few days ago, it was about looking at video games as works of art, rather than just educational tools. Aurora is a good example of a game that is both.
Title: Re: More Aurora exposure
Post by: Bgreman on July 20, 2012, 03:07:53 PM
Wow, the game is really starting to heat up. FEAN has the intel edge over the UN doesn't it. They definitely need some "fishing trawlers" going around.

Lets say the UN built an ICBM launch complex at Jupiter, launched drones carrying thermal and EM sensors into Saturn's eventual orbit, and the drones were ordered to self destruct if they detected an EM sensor headed their way, would FEAN be able to spot this barring a chance interception of the drone? Hypothetically of course, if you've got assets monitoring Jupiter that would clearly be a spoiler.

I don't want to give any spoilers here in case any goons read this board, but something along those lines would be possible.  Drones can carry sensors, and its drive would be detectable by thermal sensors, or EM sensors if the drone has an active sensor on board.  However, it would not be able to detect enemy passive sensors in order to trip a kill switch.

I'm not sure what you mean by "intel edge," but FEAN is behind in some ways and ahead in others.  That said, I am quite surprised sometimes by how thread participants are often able to accurately guess at what the Fed is doing, or its ship capabilities.
Title: Re: More Aurora exposure
Post by: Nathan_ on July 20, 2012, 04:14:58 PM
I don't want to give any spoilers here in case any goons read this board, but something along those lines would be possible.  Drones can carry sensors, and its drive would be detectable by thermal sensors, or EM sensors if the drone has an active sensor on board.  However, it would not be able to detect enemy passive sensors in order to trip a kill switch.

Err, dropping 2 sensor buoys(via drone delivery) into the eventual orbital path of Saturn, that way it would have to be found by an active scanner.