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[Flying Dice]

Can someone give me an overview of how NPR generation and behavior works?  The wiki is pretty vague.  Some specific things I'm wondering about:
- Do any NPRs exist at the beginning of the game? Or are they only generated when I explore a jump point?
- If NPRs exist before I discover them, where do they live? Is their system pregenerated? Are their ships out exploring and generating systems?
-  When an new NPR is generated, what level of population/industry/military are they given?

The starting NPR value is the number of NPRs that are created at game start (kind of part of it's name and description in game).
Yes they start in a pre-genned system and are given the same values that are on the bottom left when you gen a game (Sol start industry values).  They will travel around exploring and activating systems, and newly active systems can spawn a new NPR or a Spoiler.
Kind of random, it's usually around what ever the planet would support (if you gened a empire there) or your starting values at game creation.

This is false. NPRs are generated based upon the difficulty modifier. At 1000% difficulty the ones I start with tend to have ~16 billion population on their homeworld, homeworld mineral reserves in the tens of millions, and an OOB of 1000+ ships. By comparison, 100% difficulty gives them the same population (500m), resources (very limited) and OOB (15-30 ships) as a default Sol start would give to you.

Re: post-start NPR generation: The 'gen chance' variable in the game setup dictates the chance of an NPR being generated on each habitable world. Systems other than your starting one and the home system(s) of the starting NPR(s) are randomly generated when you first jump into them. So if you have changed the value to '50%', and you jump into a new system with a single 0.00 cost world, there's a 50% chance of an NPR being generated on it.

[Zeebie]

and you jump into a new system with a single 0.00 cost world, there's a 50% chance of an NPR being generated on it.

Wait - colony cost 0.00? I've never seen anything less than 2.  Do you mean something like "0.00 for another species"? If so, what kind of planets count for that?

[Karlito]

They'll be fairly earth-like, though the temperature and oxygen pressure might be slightly outside default human tolerances.

[Flying Dice]

and you jump into a new system with a single 0.00 cost world, there's a 50% chance of an NPR being generated on it.

Wait - colony cost 0.00? I've never seen anything less than 2.  Do you mean something like "0.00 for another species"? If so, what kind of planets count for that?

They exist, but are a bit more rare than 2.00 cost worlds. I'd make a rough estimate of one 0.00 (or <1.00) cost world for every twenty or thirty systems explored. If you haven't played much or don't spread out very far, you probably won't find any.

[revo]

Do yall think i will have enough understanding to actually play the game after I finish the forum tutorials? or is their more info i need because I'm on building my first warship right now and I've only advanced 10 seconds in time lol and I still feel like i don't know much

[Flying Dice]

I'll offer a breakdown of my own learning process: ~15% from the (horribly outdated and incomplete) tutorials. ~60% from playing and experimentation. ~25% from asking questions here.

In other words, you'll never understand the entirety of gameplay from tutorials. Jump in and start messing with things to see what they do. When you've got a question, pose it here. 

[Metalax]

Just be prepared to experiment and realize that you will probably write off your first several games as learning experiences.

[revo]

What I'm thinking is going to happen is several dozen ships/weapons/sensors that are either ludricously all purpose and not good at any specific thing, are outdated while im making them, or hilariously unsuited for the job i want them to do.

[Metalax]

Some suggestions for early active sensors.

In order to pick up missiles, resolution 1 with a minimum range to detect missile size 6 (shown in the text details while designing) of at least 2 million kms. You may well need to make these fairly large to reach that range if you are at low tech levels.

In order to pick up fighters, a resolution 10 with at least 30 million km range, preferably more.

In order to pick up FAC's, a resolution 20 with at least 50 million km range. Resolution 16 is also popular for this role as that matches a certain kind of ship that you may encounter.

In order to pick up ships a resolution 100 with at least 100 million km range.

Fortunately as long as one ship in your empire has detected something, every ship can see it, so you can make dedicated sensor ships.

Missile firecontrols are always have three times the range of the same size/resolution active sensor, so to create firecontrols to match the range of your sensors make tham 1/3 the size.

If you have any questions on the game, ask. There are usually several people who can help fairly quickly.

[revo]

I just finished the tutorials and SO MUCH is left unexplained! so I have quite a few questions.

1. ok should I use my instant research points until i run out? and when i run out how do i research something is it just hit create and wait a specified period of time?

2. ok I have 3 cruisers with lasers and have survey ships going about. what now? I guess i look for jump points (what are those? and how do i use them? i guess i have to research jump technology or something) and look for more planets to colonize. right?

3. what about my economy should i make a mining ship and send it to mine the moon or whatever?

4. are ships the same as research and i just queue some and wait time because i shouldn't us fast OB?


many many more to come!

[Hanzoku]

One thing I do to simulate an actual research and design process, is run a separate game where I run a species in SM-mode and throw together designs, instant-research the engine/sensor designs and not spend in-game years researching a series of sensors that are the wrong size/resolution/distance for what I want to do.

[Metalax]

I just finished the tutorials and SO MUCH is left unexplained! so I have quite a few questions.

1. ok should I use my instant research points until i run out? and when i run out how do i research something is it just hit create and wait a specified period of time?

The initial research points are simply the games way of telling you how much research you are assumed to have done prior to the game start. You are not actually stopped from instanting research or components once you use them up, you are just giving yourself an advantage over the "fair" start. Although there is nothing wrong with doing this while you are trying things out and experimenting.

If you want to stop using the instant option for designing components, then after hitting create you need to go to the research tab of the colony screen and find the component under the research topics. Components will be placed into their matching catagories, engines in power and propulsion, lasers in energy weapons and so on. Select a researcher, preferably one with a matching bonus, select the component, specify how many labs to use and click create.

It will show in the upper section how long it will take for the component to be researched. Researching new technology is done in the same fashion.

2. ok I have 3 cruisers with lasers and have survey ships going about. what now? I guess i look for jump points (what are those? and how do i use them? i guess i have to research jump technology or something) and look for more planets to colonize. right?

In order to find jump points, you first need to build gravsurvey ships. In order to be able to build those you need to first research jump point theory and then gravitational sensors. Build a grav survey ship by copying your geosurvey design and replacing the sensor. Once the ship is built, use the survey next grav point default order for the ship.

Before you can build a jump engine you need to research the first level of each of the three missing techs that you will see if you look at the jump engine component in the component design screen.

To use a jump engine you need to place it on a ship and the jump drive has to have a rating big enough for the ship and the actual size of the ship mounting it must be at least the same size as any ship you want to bring along.

3. what about my economy should i make a mining ship and send it to mine the moon or whatever?

Asteroid miners will only work on asteroids, comets and moons that have the body type "chunk" on the system generation screen(sun icon). If you decide to use them remember to create a colony on the asteroid/comet/chunk for the minerals mined to be placed on.

For other bodies, and indeed frequently for asteroids as well you will want to build a freighter and use it to transfer automines to a colony on the body.

Building mass drivers and using a freighter to move one to your mining colony will allow you to automatically send the minerals back to a recieving mass driver on Earth. Just don't remove the last mass driver on Earth while mineral packets are one their way, people object to being pelted with several thousand tons of minerals on their head.

4. are ships the same as research and i just queue some and wait time because i shouldn't us fast OB?
many many more to come!

Fairly similar yes. The points listed in Fast OOB are what the game considers you to have already built before the game starts, so use them to set up your initial group of ships and PDC's.

I'm assuming you are running 5.6 if you have been following the tutorial, which is ok as it simplifies certain things such as engine design, but it will get you into habits that you will have to break when moving to the new version 6.0.

One thing I do to simulate an actual research and design process, is run a separate game where I run a species in SM-mode and throw together designs, instant-research the engine/sensor designs and not spend in-game years researching a series of sensors that are the wrong size/resolution/distance for what I want to do.

Indeed you can do this with your current empire by making a copy of the database(Stevefire.mdb in the aurora directory) while the game is closed, experiment with designing various components, take note of those which you want to use and then copy the file back, restoring your game. It is a good idea to make periodic backups of the database anyway as occasionally something can happen to corrupt it, and it is useful to be able to restore from a backup.

[Flying Dice]

Personally, I've always just instant-researched my ship components. It's too much micromanagement to do otherwise, both because I typically run through several dozen useless ones while optimizing even smaller ships, and because queuing all those tiny little <1mo projects is a pain.

[revo]

umm is all you need for missile launchers to work is a magazine, missle launcher, missile control, an active sensor and ICBMS? or do i somehow make different missiles because i haven't been able to find it.

oh and this is the current "big" ship i've desinged that im just going to fast OB in:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Excalibur class Destroyer    9,500 tons     815 Crew     920.5 BP      TCS 190  TH 300  EM 0
1578 km/s     Armour 6-39     Shields 0-0     Sensors 10/10/0/0     Damage Control Rating 8     PPV 37.7
Maint Life 6.75 Years     MSP 484    AFR 90%    IFR 1.3%    1YR 18    5YR 277    Max Repair 50 MSP
Magazine 36   

Nuclear Thermal Engine E10 (12)    Power 25    Fuel Use 100%    Signature 25    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 100,000 Litres    Range 18.9 billion km   (138 days at full power)

Twin 10cm PD N.U.V. Turret (2x2)    Range 48,000km     TS: 15000 km/s     Power 6-6     RM 3    ROF 5        3 3 3 2 0 0 0 0 0 0
15cm C3 Near Ultraviolet Laser (1)    Range 48,000km     TS: 3000 km/s     Power 6-3     RM 3    ROF 10        6 6 6 4 0 0 0 0 0 0
15cm Railgun V2/C3 (2x4)    Range 48,000km     TS: 3000 km/s     Power 9-3     RM 2    ROF 15        3 3 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
Fire Control: anti-missle point defense v1 (1)    Max Range: 48,000 km   TS: 12000 km/s     79 58 38 17 0 0 0 0 0 0
Pebble Bed Reactor Technology PB-1 (7)     Total Power Output 21    Armour 0    Exp 5%

Size 4 Missile Launcher (1)    Missile Size 4    Rate of Fire 60
ICBM Launch Control (1)     Range 50k km    Resolution 50

Active Search Sensor MR0-R1 (1)     GPS 10     Range 500k km    Resolution 1
Active Search Sensor MR10-R100 (1)     GPS 2000     Range 10.0m km    Resolution 100
Thermal Sensor TH2-10 (1)     Sensitivity 10     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  10m km
EM Detection Sensor EM2-10 (1)     Sensitivity 10     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  10m km

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

any suggestions?

[Flying Dice]

You don't want to use ICBMs for anything. There's a missile design window you can open from a button on the bottom of the main economic window.

I'll try to limit myself solely to things that are problems (rather than preferences in design theory):

1. Replace the shitty ICBM launch control with a real FC designed to match whatever missiles you design.
2. You only have a single FC for three different sets of E/KW
3. The ship has an absurdly short range by pre-6.00 standards.
4. There's almost no magazine space; if you went with size 4 missiles to match the launchers, the ship could only carry 10 and fire only one at a time. For a ship that small, pick a role rather than wasting tonnage trying to make it do multiple different things.
5. The main AS is far too short-ranged.


Frankly, you're at low enough tech that I'd recommend not bothering with building military ships at all. Wait at least until TL3 (Ion drives and the equivalent in other fields); anything before that won't be useful for anything but target practice.