Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Tarran]

But that's for Aurora 2, which is quite a ways away from being released.

He posted it in the change log for 5.40. I assume he means to add it to the next patch. Would also explain the complaint of time spent changing the windows code in VB6

Err... Indeed. Hurr durr I should have paid more attention when reading it Hurr Durr *Headdesk*

[Lord Shonus]

Oh good. That was keeping me from being able to play it very well.

[AlStar]

Ok, curse you guys for bringing this topic back from the depths. I'd somehow managed to miss it before, but now that I've seen it... Over the past couple of weeks I've read ~200 pages of this topic and I've got my own game started in v5.30. It took a little while to get used to the controls (although, judging from some of the comments in the start of the thread, it sounds like I missed some real headaches by starting at 5.3).

The Terran Federation, as of August 14th, 2053 now contains 6 colonies over 4 star systems. Mars and Mercury have been fully terraformed by my 38-ship strong terraforming fleet (2 terraforming modules per ship + commander bonuses = equivalent of 87.4 ground-based factories). I feel like I'm doing pretty well - with one exception: Precursor fleets are kicking my ass. My initial "battles" with them normally involved my scout seeing a ship, then exploding ~15 seconds later. However, over the last couple of years, I've put together several fleets to try and combat the growing Precursor threat (and I do mean growing - 3 systems that didn't start with Precursors now have significant fleets, and one of them is only one jump away from Sol itself!)



The problem - my fleets, built with the latest technology that the Federation can offer, have been exterminated to a man. We're completely outclassed. My last “good” battle saw our 7-strong fleet close with the Precursors. As it happened, one of their classes is much faster then the rest (16k/sec over the 10k/sec of the rest) so it was my entire fleet against just their single ship.  Unloading with our size 16 torpedoes and a stream of missiles, we inflicted multiple hits, sometimes even 4 or 5 x 14 damage in a single 5 second pulse. Yeah, didn’t even scratch the paint.

Meanwhile, the single Precursor ship fired back with its size 16 torpedoes. Our CIWS managed to knock down some, but many got through. Soon it was 6 on 1, then 5, 4… Just before my last ships were destroyed by their one ship, the rest of the fleet – half a dozen strong or so – came into range. Hundreds of missiles blew the remainder of my fleet to ash in seconds.

 
Now, my question: How should I be dealing with my Precursor problem? Do I need larger fleets? Bigger ships? Better tech? All of the above? Or should I just leave the systems alone?

Here’s the fleet that fought at the battle of Alderamin (the battle I described above):
2x

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Code: [Select]

Broadsword class Battlecruiser    9,950 tons     780 Crew     1572.6 BP      TCS 199  TH 420  EM 0
2110 km/s     Armour 8-41     Shields 0-0     Sensors 12/48/0/0     Damage Control Rating 13     PPV 72
Annual Failure Rate: 60%    IFR: 0.8%    Maint Capacity 1284 MSP    Max Repair 80 MSP    Est Time: 6.76 Years

Ion Engine E8 (7)    Power 60    Fuel Use 80%    Signature 60    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 200,000 Litres    Range 45.2 billion km   (248 days at full power)

CIWS-320 (2x10)    Range 1000 km     TS: 32000 km/s     ROF 5       Base 50% To Hit
Size 16 Plasma Torpedo (3)     Warhead 16     Speed 80,000 km/s     Max Range 11.2m km     Rate of Fire 100 seconds
Size 8 Plasma Torpedo (2)     Warhead 8     Speed 80,000 km/s     Max Range 5.6m km     Rate of Fire 50 seconds
Size 4 Plasma Torpedo (2)     Warhead 4     Speed 80,000 km/s     Max Range 2.8m km     Rate of Fire 25 seconds
AM Torp Fire Control (3)     Range 34.6m km    Resolution 1

Active Search Sensor MR11-R16 (Swarm) (1)     GPS 768     Range 11.5m km    Resolution 16
Active Search Sensor MR9-R100 (1)     GPS 1600     Range 9.6m km    Resolution 100
Active Search Sensor MR1-R1 (1)     GPS 32     Range 1.9m km    Resolution 1
Thermal Sensor TH2-12 (1)     Sensitivity 12     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  12m km
EM Detection Sensor EM2-48 (1)     Sensitivity 48     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  48m km

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

3x

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Code: [Select]

Revenge (II) class Cruiser    8,000 tons     675 Crew     1248.6 BP      TCS 160  TH 360  EM 0
2250 km/s     Armour 7-35     Shields 0-0     Sensors 12/48/0/0     Damage Control Rating 20     PPV 48
Annual Failure Rate: 25%    IFR: 0.4%    Maint Capacity 1951 MSP    Max Repair 80 MSP    Est Time: 13.3 Years

Ion Engine E8 (6)    Power 60    Fuel Use 80%    Signature 60    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 150,000 Litres    Range 42.2 billion km   (217 days at full power)

CIWS-320 (2x10)    Range 1000 km     TS: 32000 km/s     ROF 5       Base 50% To Hit
Size 8 Plasma Torpedo (2)     Warhead 8     Speed 80,000 km/s     Max Range 5.6m km     Rate of Fire 50 seconds
Size 16 Plasma Torpedo (2)     Warhead 16     Speed 80,000 km/s     Max Range 11.2m km     Rate of Fire 100 seconds
AM Torp Fire Control (1)     Range 34.6m km    Resolution 1

Active Search Sensor MR1-R1 (1)     GPS 32     Range 1.9m km    Resolution 1
Active Search Sensor MR9-R100 (1)     GPS 1600     Range 9.6m km    Resolution 100
Thermal Sensor TH2-12 (1)     Sensitivity 12     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  12m km
EM Detection Sensor EM2-48 (1)     Sensitivity 48     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  48m km

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

2x

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Code: [Select]

Javelin (II) class Missile Cruiser    7,950 tons     660 Crew     1192.6 BP      TCS 159  TH 360  EM 0
2264 km/s     Armour 5-35     Shields 0-0     Sensors 12/48/0/0     Damage Control Rating 13     PPV 42
Annual Failure Rate: 38%    IFR: 0.5%    Maint Capacity 1219 MSP    Max Repair 80 MSP    Est Time: 8.35 Years
Magazine 330   

Ion Engine E8 (6)    Power 60    Fuel Use 80%    Signature 60    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 150,000 Litres    Range 42.5 billion km   (217 days at full power)

CIWS-320 (2x10)    Range 1000 km     TS: 32000 km/s     ROF 5       Base 50% To Hit
Size 5 Missile Launcher (2)    Missile Size 5    Rate of Fire 75
Size 16 Plasma Torpedo (2)     Warhead 16     Speed 80,000 km/s     Max Range 11.2m km     Rate of Fire 100 seconds
Missile Fire Control FC20-R50 (1)     Range 20.3m km    Resolution 50
AM Torp Fire Control (1)     Range 34.6m km    Resolution 1

Active Search Sensor MR9-R100 (1)     GPS 1600     Range 9.6m km    Resolution 100
Active Search Sensor MR1-R1 (1)     GPS 32     Range 1.9m km    Resolution 1
Thermal Sensor TH2-12 (1)     Sensitivity 12     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  12m km
EM Detection Sensor EM2-48 (1)     Sensitivity 48     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  48m km

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

So, any tips?

[Areyar]

Spreading ships sound more like Hivers -eg space bugs, rather than Precursors.
IIRC the bugs use shortranged beamweapons preferably, a good load of fast longrange missiles should be most effective against those. Also find and kill the Queen, a shipyard sized critter spewing out new bugs somewhere insystem. 
Precursors always kicked my ass too. I think overwhemlming force is the only method.

[Rift]

yea, what he said.
focus on improving your long range combat if you want to be extremely effective.
i suppose you could try and make your ships more tank-like instead.. but it wont help near as much.
So greatly focus on increasing your missile range [which also requires WAYYY better active sensors at the least]

[Areyar]

I effectively used one-shot missile boats against an early swarm once.

[AlStar]

Spreading ships sound more like Hivers -eg space bugs, rather than Precursors.
IIRC the bugs use shortranged beamweapons preferably, a good load of fast longrange missiles should be most effective against those. Also find and kill the Queen, a shipyard sized critter spewing out new bugs somewhere insystem. 
Precursors always kicked my ass too. I think overwhemlming force is the only method.

Almost certain that it isn't the Swarm - I faced off against them in the same system earlier - tons of 800 ton ships with mesons, yes? I know them as the "Alderamin Aliens" and I've seen them only in Alderamin. 


Ships - Graf Spree, 800 tons, 1x meson Cannon, Speed 10k.

The ships I ended up fighting were the "Epsilon Eridani Aliens", who have the known systems of Epsilon Eridani, Aleramin and Hex.

Ships – (just some – they’ve got 8 ships that I’ve seen)

Ryaugh, 11,000 tons, Speed 16k. 330 shield strength (no weapon listed, but I saw it using size 16 torpedoes)
Pug, 25,600 tons, Speed 10k, 750 shield strength (uses missiles of some sort)
Kulgan, 64,000 tons, Speed 10k, 1,500 shield strength

My diplomatic teams have been entirely unsuccessful, so I don’t think it’s just a random NPR.

But, better range, eh? Ok, I'll start my researchers working in that diretion.

[Another]

Those are much heavier than typical precursor light craft and just as fast.

If none of those use mesons I can suggest deploying extra-heavy armored tanks (I am talking about thickness of 30; by the time you start taking internal damage about half of your armor will be gone - you can estimate how many size 16 torpedo hits it will take) with any weapons of maximum size category you can invent (more damage in a single hit is good to penetrate armor and precursors have medium armor). That would be most likely one time use vessels but armor is relatively cheap both to research and to build. This strategy works especially good against missiles since there is only a limited amount of them.  If the enemy closes into your weapon range by himself and is beyond your capabilities to keep him at your preferred range - you may want to sacrifice some engines for more armor.

Better range is excellent if you can dictate it but without speed advantage it can only matter if you massively outgun the enemy and in that case almost all strategies work.

[lastverb]

They are not Precursors. They are not NPRs neither. In one of the latest patches Steve coded new threat - they are the best game has to offer and u can know thats them because its the only enemy that can use torpedo missile weapons (its not a same as players torpedo which are basically guns). Didnt play on the last patch, but earlier the best way to deal with them was a swarm of fighters with missiles, the other was larger ships loaded with tons of box missiles but needed more tech to survive. Be carefull they can spawn around unstable wormholes (only reason for them ingame now). Alpha strike is cheapest low end way to deal with those enormous shields. Later on you can try to put your dirty hands on barely touched ship to get that torpedos and shield gens.

[ductape]

Steve added reduced resolution of 1280 x 800
Hopefully will help a few try the game again.

(http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php/topic,3214.0.html)

Reduced Height Windows

A couple of people have mentioned over the past year or two that they wouldn't mind being able to play Aurora in a lower resolution. ETC...

HA! 

[C4lv1n]

Steve added reduced resolution of 1280 x 800
Hopefully will help a few try the game again.

(http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php/topic,3214.0.html)

Reduced Height Windows

Fucking everyone has mentioned over the past year or two that they wouldn't mind being able to play Aurora in a lower resolution. ETC...

HA! 

Fixed

I have a monitor that I normally run at 1440x900, but I have to change it for Aurora, I don't mind, but it get's a little annoying.

[Untelligent]

Aaaannnd my laptop has a maximum vert resolution of 768.

SO CLOSE

[Akigagak]

When does the new version come out, or is it a "done when it's done" deal?

[Tarran]

When does the new version come out, or is it a "done when it's done" deal?

Pretty sure it's a done when it's done deal.

[Flare]

Now, my question: How should I be dealing with my Precursor problem? Do I need larger fleets? Bigger ships? Better tech? All of the above? Or should I just leave the systems alone?

Mining the jump points with one shot disposable ships maybe?