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[Neonivek]

Honestly, I never saw much point to it. Most useful worlds can be terraformed to 0.00, and the others can be stripmined even if you can't colonize them.

My guess is that it was done for completely different reasons then usefulness. For example Alien Species.

In otherwords a tool to manipulate variables that a later feature will take advantage of.

[Girlinhat]

I'm doing it mainly for the RP.  My future game (this one had enormous errors so I'm performing a wipe and reinstall) will have a primarily civilian population, except for an amount of "warrior castes" that are used to man ships and wage wars.  I imagine Earth having a lottery, and whoever "wins" it is taken to the gene center and turned into a thrall for the warships.

It's a shame you can't convert population back into their original, and you can't change a derived species.  In particular, I'd love to condition colonists for high temperature worlds, terraform it, and then re-condition them back to normal.  But *shrug* I'll be trying to abuse my thrall caste by SM'ing in some basic gene tech and a small worker's colony nearby.

[Flying Dice]

Honestly, I never saw much point to it. Most useful worlds can be terraformed to 0.00, and the others can be stripmined even if you can't colonize them.

My guess is that it was done for completely different reasons then usefulness. For example Alien Species.

In otherwords a tool to manipulate variables that a later feature will take advantage of.

That's pretty much all I can figure. That, and for fluff when you're doing a LP.

Honestly, I never saw much point to it. Most useful worlds can be terraformed to 0.00, and the others can be stripmined even if you can't colonize them.

We here at dwarf fortress do things BECAUSE theres no point in it. 

Building a fifty z-level magma corridor, with the thousands of pumps needed to continually fill it: Pointless and fun. (Also, from experience, carpral tunnel enducing...)

Feature of a game that has no potential humor or impressiveness in it and is not particularly useful for anything: Pointless.

 

[CT]

Is Aurora still being actively developed?

[Tarran]

Partially. Steve is now concentrating on Newtonian Aurora and Aurora 2, I believe. There was an update a mere 11 days ago, though, so Aurora obviously isn't abandoned yet.

[Raddish]

I am eagerly awating the Newtonian one, it's going to have space travel without so much handwaving in the speeds, accelerate to speed and decelerate to stop and stuff.  I think it's gonna be pretty awesome once he has the first version done.

[Girlinhat]

I make new species primarily for things that can't be terraformed, namely gravity and extreme temperatures.  Sometimes a planet is just the wrong size for humans, or simply TOO cold/hot to ever terraform.  So, a new species of cold supergravity inhabitants is needed to settle there.

[Neonivek]

Partially. Steve is now concentrating on Newtonian Aurora and Aurora 2, I believe. There was an update a mere 11 days ago, though, so Aurora obviously isn't abandoned yet.

... the next version of Aurora? why exactly? Why Aurora 2?

Though to admit I can think of a thousand improvements for Aurora in just basic UI, unified shipbuilding, and Social conventions... but I always thought Aurora was going to be the final blip.

[Girlinhat]

Aurora 2 is Aurora with conventional physics, Newtonian physics like acceleration and stuff.  Current TN Aurora allows instant acceleration, no real mass limits, and a general "soft sci-fi" feeling.  Aurora 2 is an overhaul that does away with jump points and replaces them with interstellar drives and deep space.  Check the forums for a good description, but basically it's a more "hard sci-fi" version that's different enough to constitute a new game.  The choice of title between "Newtonian Aurora" or "Aurora 2" is purely cosmetic.  2 usually implies improved, but in this case implies a difference of style.

[Neonivek]

That is it?... hmmmm... somehow uninspiring but that is comming from me. Someone who isn't the main demographic of Aurora.

[Girlinhat]

Really, it's a huge difference to how things are done.  Simply adding acceleration and deceleration changes the game tremendously.  Removing warp points and forcing ships to cross the expanse?  Shit, now you're talking a whole new genre of game!  This means you won't have little ships with warp drives, you probably won't have big ships with warp drives.  You'll have massive supercarriers with warp drives that take on a dozen passenger craft and transport them to a new star.  Local gravity wells are going to become much more important, leaving to defend another system will be a significant move, and attacking will be much harder, as you're 100% cut off from rearming and repairs.

Pretty much everything you think you know about space changes with those two things: momentum and wormholes.

[Neonivek]

So will travel times.

a long time ago there was a space colony game where you could only move at sublight speeds. I assume it will be closer to that.

It won't change much for me. I could never enter warp points.

attacking will be much harder, as you're 100% cut off from rearming and repairs

Supreme commander / Total Annihilation does suggest an alternative... Though...

[Repulsion]

It would make expansion very hard, especially for just getting out of Sol.

You'd have to work with your most probably limited tech to design a warp-ship that could transport all the other necessary geosurvey and colony ships, with a possibility of there being an enemy where you are going. It would force people to design things to be very self-dependent. It would also make engine and reactor tech extremely important.

Also, I would think that utilizing gravitational anomalies to travel between systems is more 'Newtonian' and less 'Trans-Newtonian' than just flying the expanse.

[Neonivek]

Actually it wouldn't be hard... just expencive and time wasting.

It would take years and years (probably like 100+ assuming sublight speeds) just to make it to another star and you would be uttarly incapable of communicating with it in a meaningful way as any message you sent to it would be too old.

The Ship would either be a Stasis ship (where the crew is kept in stasis) or a Colony ship (where the crew is expected to live out their lives)

For some reason that kind of setting is rather sad. By the time you colonise other star systems the home planet is likely so barren as to be dead.

[Mini]

Because obviously Steve wouldn't want to make a fun game, and therefore wouldn't include a way to move between stars reasonably quickly.