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[MarcAFK]

I like the way things are for the most part, but I lament the inability to hack the database for ' personal house rules'. Different scenarios I run would benefit from ways of altering the mechanics or just certain parts.

[Sheb]

Well, it's not so much space, as the fact that your crew feel bad for no seeing his family or any face outside the few hundreds people of the ship's complement. I'd like to have an option to rotate personnel to/from a ship though, it'd make fortress easier.

Also, maybe some rule change so that ships with no engines got a cap on their IFR?

[Flying Dice]

Actually, theoretical logistics techs aside, there'd be a fairly elegant way to handle things: treat it as a sort of economy of scale, such that the larger a ship is, the longer it can be deployed without suffering from low morale or crippling maintenance problems. Past a certain tonnage threshold, end those problems entirely (or make them functionally trivial)--once you've got something with a crew numbering in the thousands and supply stores that occupy more volume than entire other ships, yanno?

I do agree that dinky little survey ships, FACs, &c. need limits on deployment time, but it's sort of absurd to apply the same issues on the same scale to ships and stations ten or a hundred times their size.

And yeah, crew can get lonely after years away from their families or lovers, but  it's not like it's a zero-contact environment, nor is it likely that every single individual a) has meaningful relationships like that and b) has them with people planetside rather than among the crew. Do Aurora empires not have space-Skype? They've got to have FTL communication of some sort that doesn't rely on ships physically moving from place to place.

[Sheb]

Well, you can already have crew deployment time in the years easily, and you've got those entertainment module things. Even so, for space fortress, it makes more sense to me to have a way to cycle crew (Plus, passenger modules would finally have a use :p). Think of the way overseas US bases operate. It would cause interesting issues with the crew training rating though.

The real issue is maintenance. The maintenance clock is going to tick up to unsustainable levels. I think a maintenance clock cap for space stations is probably the easiest way, and maybe a tech line increasing engineering space efficiency for ships.

[Bremen]

The two suggestions I like for allowing battlestations with infinite deployment were:

Maintenance: When a ship repairs a part from maintenance supplies, its maintenance clock should go down proportional to how many MSP were used. This would allow a ship to remain indefinitely deployed with only occasional deliveries of MSP.

Morale: I'd favor a component, call it "Shore Leave Shuttle" or something. Make it 500 tons or so. When equipped on a craft or station, if there's a location for shore leave in the system the craft always acts as if it's in orbit of that location for the purposes of morale.

[Sheb]

Having real ships deploying crew members would allow for replenishing crew out-system, and also for fun moments when a enemy nuke 10000 sailors out of the sky.

[Zangi]

There is a recreation module isn't there?  But... reckon it is prohibitively large...
Also, nothing but size restrictions is stopping you from designating 1000 years deployment time.  You could probably set-up a tugboat and attach a recreation PDC or engine-less ship or something... and just have it go the rounds in a system, forever.  (Not sure if you could put in a wait time at this moment.)


Space-skype, in the frontier of other systems?  Probably not. 
Space-skype in the Sol system?  Possible?  But, we probably ain't running wires from Earth to Titan or Earth to ship at who knows where.  I'm not sure how we are communicating with the mars rover now, satellite relay of some sort I reckon.  That is probably pretty limited?  Delayed?

I may have found a bug...  SM in 100/400/+600 Division/Brigade/Other Ground Units...  try assigning a few into brigades and some sort of overflow error pops up.   I should post that on the aurora forum.  Probably not intended to have that many ground units on a single planet either... in normal play.  (Kinda stupid and really slow to do that in the first place...  I won't even use a quarter of those troops.)

[EuchreJack]

There is a recreation module isn't there?  But... reckon it is prohibitively large...
Also, nothing but size restrictions is stopping you from designating 1000 years deployment time.  You could probably set-up a tugboat and attach a recreation PDC or engine-less ship or something... and just have it go the rounds in a system, forever.  (Not sure if you could put in a wait time at this moment.)

Exactly what I was going to bring up.  Nothing is stopping a player from dumping a Recreation ship next to the Starbase.  Actually, I think the recreation module on a ship eliminates its morale penalties, but if not, then just pair them together.  Alternatively, it really doesn't take much of a colony to provide shore leave: My last experiments showed a colony of 10,000 was capable of performing that function.  Basically, if you can tell there are colonists, they count.

There is also the Maintenance module.  I'm not clear exactly what it does, but it could be used to provide the longevity.  Starbases would then only need refit/replacement due to time in service, which seems realistic.

I also think describing the spaceships in Aurora as being like WWII submarines is fair and realistic: In most starts, the population doesn't have spacecraft until the player creates them, so they really are new.  But I get that our civilizations are so long lasting that it only makes sense that our designs should get better.  Better engineering only makes sense in that context.  We already have Damage Control, it would only make sense that it would eventually evolve into Modular Refit: A system that restores the ship to Day One quality one subsystem at a time.

[Zangi]

Maintenance Models from my previous experimentation doesn't maintain the ship that holds it.  It pretty much works the same as planetary maintenance factories.

For example: Earth has 10x Maintenance Factories, a total of 10k rating. Ships size 10k and under will be maintained.
You have 10 ships with 1 maintenance model each, a total of 10k rating. Out in space, ships size 10k and under that is withing the fleet will be maintained.  If an individual maintenance ship is size 9k or under, it will also be maintained.

If the 10 ships are also orbiting earth, you will have a total of 20k rating.  Ships size 20k and under will be maintained.  If an individual maintenance ship is size 19k or under, it will also be maintained.

Also, I think you need resources/maintenance packets on hand too.  It is part of the greater logistical nightmare.


(I'm pulling numbers out of my arse, don't have the game at hand.)

[forsaken1111]

Yeah, you can include a 'fleet tender' stuffed full of maintenance modules and minerals to keep your ships fixed rather than rely on refits every x months. My mean deployment time for my designs is 12 months minimum personally but that is a doctrinal decision. I'm still early on and haven't built many staging posts. I usually set up small staging areas in remote systems to base fleets out of. I send in shipments of minerals and build maintenance facilities on an asteroid filled with underground infrastructure, then tow a shipyard there for field refits.

[EuchreJack]

Sounds like a good doctrine, especially with the new fuel mechanics.  Probably need a Gas Station in every system, lol.

[Alastar]

It's possible to avoid most of the logistic issues: shove anything breakable into hangar pods, use tugboats to move those.
"We don't need a navy, Amazon can deliver our ordnance with less fuss".

Aurora offers many interesting challenges, but one may need to hold back to enjoy them.

The hangars still need maintenance, though.

And actually, that's similar to the tactic I'm planning on using for my new game; my plan is long range carriers using short range parasite craft (not necessarily fighters or even FACs, potentially 10,000 tons or more). That way I can have long deployment times without having to compromise on performance.

Hangars, magazines and maintenance storage bays may class a design as military, but they can't break themselves. So we can get fully functional unbreakable carriers if the engines are in a commercial section with a tractor beam.
Engineless weapon pods (especially those with box launchers) can easily have maintenance life and deployment time in the decades; just scrap them if you're still playing then. Cheaper than periodic maintenance.
Commercial tugs with low-powered engines can keep running for decades too, so you're set.
You don't even need fancy stuff like maintenance/entertainment modules, let alone the more awesomely overengineered solutions.

[forsaken1111]

I kind of love the idea of seeding thousands of cheap missile pods behind me, but I don't think there is an automated control system so they'd need crew yes?

[Alastar]

Fire control, bridge, engineering spaces, storage bays need crew. Box launchers don't.
Because there's a lower size limit for commerical tugs and there's some overhead (e.g. the tractor beam, at least 1 fire control per pod), you probably don't want your towable pods to be all that small.

[Metalax]

Fire control, bridge, engineering spaces, storage bays need crew. Box launchers don't.
Because there's a lower size limit for commerical tugs and there's some overhead (e.g. the tractor beam, at least 1 fire control per pod), you probably don't want your towable pods to be all that small.

Alternatively if you are going to use small pods, deploy them from a carrier rather than a tug. As an example I use these to set up a quick jump point defence.

Spoiler: Nelson class Orbital Weapon Platform (click to show/hide)

Nelson class Orbital Weapon Platform    500 tons     9 Crew     90.6 BP      TCS 10  TH 0  EM 0
1 km/s     Armour 1-5     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 5.4
Maint Life 32.7 Years     MSP 113    AFR 2%    IFR 0%    1YR 0    5YR 3    Max Repair 42 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 228 months    Spare Berths 0   
Magazine 36   

S-6 Box Launcher (6)    Missile Size 6    Hangar Reload 45 minutes    MF Reload 7.5 hours
MFC S-02 R-20 MR-78 (1)     Range 78.9m km    Resolution 20
Arrow S-06 ASM (6)  Speed: 52,800 km/s   End: 24.2m    Range: 76.8m km   WH: 16    Size: 6    TH: 211/126/63

Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s

This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and maintenance purposes

This obviously gets paired with a sensor platform, but can cheaply be churned out by Fighter factories. They last decades without any further attention needed, and a single resupply of maintenance supplies can keep them operational to 50 years. Morale penalties only really become significant when you are multiples of the deployment time overdue for r&r.

If you equip your combat ships with a tractor module, as I frequently do on anything heavier than a light destroyer of 10,000 tons, you can also give them one of these to tow for a minimal speed penalty, to give a boosted alpha strike, that can then be dropped to return your ships to full speed.

As for the issue of them being manned, I tend to envisage small personnel shuttles existing for regular transfers of equivalent ranked crew around the system without it being necessary to specifically build them. It's only shuttles carrying teams around that are more likely to encounter other empires that I feel need specific representation.