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[Silverthrone]

I'll have a go at the questions, I think I can answer somewhat.

1: The current version of Aurora runs on a really old and archaic Windows thing, which slows it down more than necessary and is beginning to be a bit too much of a faff to work with. I think it's mainly an efficency thing, and because it'll be easier to work on new features and games if there's a better groundwork to built them on. That is what I think, at least.

2: I think it's under the Prefab-PDC section. Then, you haul the bits over to where you need it, and build it with the local pop or a construction brigade.

3: In the same window where you order your fleets around, in the lower right corner of the screen (-ish), when you've got a cargo fleet selected.

4: Yes, local population will work ordinary mines, but its efficiency depends on how much of the population is free to work in them.

5: In the same window where you view a world's minerals and mineral production. Towards the top right, there is a little Mass Driver drop-down menu where you can select a destination. The Auto-mine/Driver combo is pretty useful; stick 'em on and forget.

All of these are draped with a big, fat "I THINK", of course. It's off memory, and I'm rather the novice myself.

[Rince Wind]

Also, one automine won't do much good. Bring another 99. Or more.

[Metalax]

The quill18 Lets Play does a conventional start. He says it helps you learn the game.

That is very much debatable. Most usually consider it more complex to deal with the extra things you have to deal with to transition from a conventional start to normal trans-newtonian play.

1. Why is steve rewriting the game in C#? I read his posts of changes, but he doesnt say why he is completely rewriting it. He also isnt clear on how clean se he is s to a release. Sounds like he is a long way off and we shouldnt expect this until next year atleast. It looks like he has started some orher games he never finished too.

Steve almost never gives estimates on when he will make a release, unless he is very close to actually releasing. Aurora is very much something he does in his spare time and on a number of occasions there have been long, long gaps between releases.

As for 'why the rewrite?', it is in large part because the current version is written in VB6, a very old system that has issues in modern OS's, which due to how the game data is stored and accessed causes pretty much inevitable slowdown over time until the game grinds to a halt. Rewriting allows using not only a more modern language that hopefully will result in less problems but also allows better handling of the game data such that slowdown should be greatly reduced.

2. When you build a PDC kit with industry, how do you design it so that it builds as a kit and needs to be assembled?

You don't design it as a kit, you only design the full PDC. Once designed you use the 'Prefab PDC' option from the dropdown box under 'Construction Options' on the Industry tab of the colony view.

Once the parts have been fabricated(the PDC design page will tell you how many parts are required per PDC) you use Freighters to ship the parts to another location.

Once there you will need either a Construction Factory and sufficient population to operate it or a Construction Brigade(older guides may say Engineering Brigade) present on the colony where you wish the PDC to be assembled. You then from the colony view of the colony on which the PDC is to be assembled select 'Assemble PDC' from the dropdown list in the Industry page.

One thing to note if you are using older guides, since version 6.5 you no longer need to ship a certain quantity of minerals to the location that the PDC is to be assembled.

3. I made some automated mines and a couple of mass drivers. I put 1 mine and one mass driver on a comet. I hVe a ship with a conventionsl hull. How do you tell much space something takes in a hull? I only loaded 1 automated mine. Is thst due to space in the storage? I know infrastructure you can put 10 on a normal storage unit.

On the Ships screen select the 'Parasites/Cargo/GU' tab and it lists the cargo capacity and any carried cargo on the right.

Different facilities take different amounts of cargo space to transfer. If an item is too large to be transferred in a freighter, the freighter will instead load a part of the facility, which will require you to make multiple trips to fully transfer it. Facilities do not function if they are only partially present, and care should be taken to make sure you make the correct number of trips to fully transfer the facility.

4. To use regular mines do I just need population? Then send a mine?

You need not just population but available workers, as depending on the size of your colony and the colony cost a certain proportion of your population will be unavailable for work. As long as you have some available workers the mine will operate but at a reduced capacity if you don't have sufficient numbers to fully staff it.

As with most industrial facilities, a single mine won't be particularly effective, generally you will want to move several hundred for any serious mining.

5. Are mass drivers the best way to send minerals? How do you tell the mass drivers where to send the minerals? I know I need one on earth to catch the minerals.

Mass Drivers are generally the best way to send Minerals around within a system, as the have no ongoing cost to operate. However, do note that to transfer Minerals between systems requires the use of freighters, as Mass drivers are limited to colonies within the same system.

To select a destination for a Mass Driver, on the Mining/Maintainance tab of the colony view of the sending colony, a drop down box on the top right allows you to select any other colony in the system that has a Mass Driver. Select one and Minerals will automatically be sent in packets as you advance time.

As you know you need a Mass Driver present to receive incoming Mineral packets, and a single Mass Driver can handle any number of incoming packets. Removing your last Mass Driver while packets are en-route is not healthy for the target colony.

[coleslaw35]

As far as the release of Aurora C#, Steve said on the Aurora forums that he'd be happy if he could get it out by the end of the year, but don't get your hopes up.

[LoSboccacc]

Also, one automine won't do much good. Bring another 99. Or more.

beware the curundium or what's its name crunch tho!

[RedKing]

Also, one automine won't do much good. Bring another 99. Or more.

beware the curundium or what's its name crunch tho!

Usually it's Mercassium that bottlenecks me. Or Sorium (but that's rare, since it's easily fixed with a gas giant or two).

[Silverthrone]

I will space master myself out of unfortunate mineral crunches if I have to. Mars and Venus has failed me too many times.

Keep an eye on the mineral's availability, though. A tiny deposit at 0.1 is not usually worth the investment. Learnt that the hard way.

[guessingo]

Also, one automine won't do much good. Bring another 99. Or more.

Is there a way to tell a ship how many mines, infrastructure to load or will it just take everything it can carry?

Why would i use automated mines? Isnt it easier to put aome infrastructure on comets and the civilian fleet send population then use regular mines? What determines how many people are free to mine?

[guessingo]

Can someone recommend a lets play that starts with trans mewtonian. I am watching quill18 that has a conventional start.  I am watching the paladin tutorials. I prefer another lets player. He mumbles alot and its kind of nasty hearing swallow water all the time.

[Silverthrone]

I'm not so sure about the first question, so can't really advise.

You can see a breakdown of your planetary populations and what they're doing in the Summary tab in the Population and Production window.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Some colonies are harsher than others, and might require so many people to work in the Agriculture & Environmental section that there are too few left to work in the mines. It's less of a problem with larger populations, but it depends on the world.

Sometimes, establishing staffed mining colonies might turn into crossing the stream for water, as the cost to set up the colony and keeping the civvies alive and happy outweighs the net gain from a comet. Plus, the civilian fleet won't stop bringing them. You can only set a colony as "Stable" (and no longer recieving migrants) after the pop passes 25 million people. Far as I know, at least.

Comets in particular has another nasty side to them; a lot of them speed right out to the edges of the system, which makes the constant infrastructure haul trips a lot longer. It's better to stick on auto-mines and a mass drive while they're in the neighbourhood and forget, before they zoom back out again.

[guessingo]

Oh so if i set up a colony the commwrcial fleet will jeep furrying people to it and its a waste of population. I get it. So comets are good for automated mines.

Is it cost effective to pay the civilian fleets to distribute automated mines to colonies? I dont have large storage so my few ships can only take 1 mine at a time. I setup a colony on luna even though no resources since they did that in one of the videos(it had resources in the video.). I was just following along to learn the mechanics.

1. Is there any benefit to a colony on a moon/planet that has nothing to mine? It sounds like a waste of pop.

2. Does population grow faster as I spread out to other planets? It doesnt look like it. Looks like earth with a staff administrator wirh high pop growth is a good way to expand my population.

3. I have a couple of geological survey ships in my home solar sustem. I am researching jump point tech now.

4. Should I exploit my home system and mine it out first or is there an advantage to colonizing other systems quickly? I am sure there are varying opinions on this.

5. Eventually this game runs slows down to the point where you cant play anymore. How far into the game does this happen? Has steve talked about using threading in C# aurora? I know that is a tall order for a  1 man project.

6. Any mods for aurora? I know the fan base is smaller than dwarf fortress.


Mars has alot of duranium so I am going to send 100 infrastructure over and let the civilian fleet expand it.

[Flying Dice]

1. Taxes and another population that can be grown and used for further colonization. Also, if it's at the end of a long chain and no other good sites exist, you can brute-force a resupply base by shipping fuel, MSP, &c. out there. You don't even need to do much, just drop off a few million and wait half a century.

2. I've got the impression that it does, but I'm not sure if that's just some sort of perception bias or if there really is a hidden bit of maths going on behind the scenes.

4. If you mine out your home system entirely, you run the risk of accidentally using up the minerals you need to expand. Also you'll almost certainly have some low-accessibility high-volume stuff that'll take centuries to mine out. That, and expanding means that you'll find better sources for a lot of stuff.

5. Depends on your settings. The more shit the game has to track, the more it slows down.

6. No.

Basically you're better off expanding as soon as you can, because it's far easier to drop a couple million people and wait a few decades than it is to transport a few hundred million people. By the time your industry needs a multi-system supply chain, you can already have one in place, rather than needing to build that up first.

[LoSboccacc]

1 well less logistic especially if you need to move hundreds, also I think you don't use up sorium

2 not at the beginning and unless you find a 2.0 colony; unrest from overpopulation slows growth so having destination to ship excess population gives some benefit on its own

3 ok

4 I like to dump coloinst on mars even without infrastructure, that boosts the civilian sector early on and you get free infrastructure from commerce

5 if you don't start with another npr around, you can manage for a while, but there's always the risk of a npr cascade

6 no idea

[Rince Wind]

Also, one automine won't do much good. Bring another 99. Or more.

Is there a way to tell a ship how many mines, infrastructure to load or will it just take everything it can carry?

Why would i use automated mines? Isnt it easier to put aome infrastructure on comets and the civilian fleet send population then use regular mines? What determines how many people are free to mine?

When telling it to load something you can specify a number in the field under the orders window, if applicable. Only works if you could carry more than than you want to haul.
In your case you probably want repeating orders. If your freighter can carry a single mine, you'd make something that looks like this:
load automine earth
unload automine comet
refuel earth

then hit either repeat (the ship will carry out the order until there are no more automines, or fuel),  which is a small checkbox, or you want to tell it repeat the order 99 times (for a total of 100 mines ferried). Not sure about the exact name of the option, but it should be next to the list of given orders.

On a comet, you usually can't use normal infrastructure, you need underground ones. Those are more expensive, I think more bulky, and you need to tech for it. Also the civilian sector won't churn out these on their own once you bring some basic stuff to the new colony. Automines are also fairly easy to send to a new place later, with repeating orders. Because you want to suck that comet dry, and then go on to the next one.

Another option is there if the civilians have already built some freighters. You can then select earth and in one of the tabs specify any amount of automines (or other stuff) to be available for pick up, and at the comet that this stuff is needed. But it is usually a slow process, and comets are mostly far away and the civvies might think it is a better deal to just bring another 10 infrastructure to Mars.

[Carefulrogue]

Also, one automine won't do much good. Bring another 99. Or more.

Is there a way to tell a ship how many mines, infrastructure to load or will it just take everything it can carry?

Why would i use automated mines? Isnt it easier to put aome infrastructure on comets and the civilian fleet send population then use regular mines? What determines how many people are free to mine?

A)  Has been answered.

B)  Automated mines are the sane option to use in for most mining operations.  Establishing a manned colony is a lot of work.  You need infrastructure, the mines themselves, and depending on if the colony is in the same system or not, protection.  A machine isn't gonna complain if you don't have a 30,000 ton rust-bucket in orbit.  Also, to put a manned colony on comets are a huge waste of resources.  Besides the mentioned problems of supplying them with more and more infrastructure, there isn't really enough minerals to mandate such a huge drain of resources.  Also, since you can't make it permanently habitable, you can't terraform the atmosphere to give you a reduced colony cost. 

Is it cost effective to pay the civilian fleets to distribute automated mines to colonies? I dont have large storage so my few ships can only take 1 mine at a time. I setup a colony on luna even though no resources since they did that in one of the videos(it had resources in the video.). I was just following along to learn the mechanics.

1. Is there any benefit to a colony on a moon/planet that has nothing to mine? It sounds like a waste of pop.

2. Does population grow faster as I spread out to other planets? It doesn't look like it. Looks like earth with a staff administrator with high pop growth is a good way to expand my population.

3. I have a couple of geological survey ships in my home solar system. I am researching jump point tech now.

4. Should I exploit my home system and mine it out first or is there an advantage to colonizing other systems quickly? I am sure there are varying opinions on this.

5. Eventually this game runs slows down to the point where you cant play anymore. How far into the game does this happen? Has steve talked about using threading in C# aurora? I know that is a tall order for a  1 man project.

6. Any mods for aurora? I know the fan base is smaller than dwarf fortress.


Mars has alot of duranium so I am going to send 100 infrastructure over and let the civilian fleet expand it.

A)  It's what I use all of the time.  Unless you're having a capital shortage, I don't see a reason to not use the civilian trade fleets.  It's only a problem when the AI/civilians refuse to build freighters.

1.  Depends.  I set up several out of system colonies that have no minerals or have yet to be surveyed.  They will in the future serve as forward bases for military and freighter ships that I need at a particular front line.

2.  Populations convey taxes and trade supply/demand.  Having a population growth person seems to serve little purpose to me atm.  Earth will suffer no penalties for a huge population that I've seen (crested 4 billion not too long ago.) Smaller colonized worlds grow more quickly, I believe.  Don't quote me on this though. 

3.  Finish Sol, and then I recommend making a Mk2 survey vessel, with whatever upgrades you have available then. 

4.  Other systems become important if you start running into mineral shortages.  To move large quantities of minerals are a small (read "massive") pain to move to Sol and Earth though.  Mass drivers don't help directly.

5.  How long are you willing to wait?

6.  No.

B)  A 100 infrastructure is nothing.  5,000 to 10,000 easy without any colony cost reduction levels.  And then you need to get terraformers onsite to begin reducing the colony cost modifier.