Man, I always forget how fast a B12 topic can move.
First just sniping a couple of questions:
On the bridge topic from last page, I can confirm that a hit on the bridge will kill your commander. I had a rising star of a captain who had the misfortune of a meson exploding right in his face (in the only damaging hit of that particular excursion, too - damn the Star Swarm).
What does a commercial spaceport do? Also, how can I get my civilian company building ships? I've subsidized it a whole lot, but no luck.
Though this has been answered, I was curious exactly how it worked and so tested/looked it up; It seems it divides the loading time of cargo holds by Spaceport Level +1 (so 1st level is /2, 2nd level is /3, etc.) I was curious if this applied to troop transports or not, and it turns out it doesn't (regardless of whether they're civilian or military).
The shipping line stuff seems to be handled.
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As regards the tutorial business from yesterday, after having slept on it I think my opinion is basically that it certainly can't hurt, and I've got both the itch to do it (I occasionally enjoy writing treatises on how to play games, as evidenced by the post I linked last time
) and an abundance of free time. I do believe that Aurora lends itself to a certain 'try and try again' self-sufficient mindset, but between the obtuse interface and potentially paralytic freedom it gives the player, a gentle shove in the right direction would probably help quite a few folks.
I'll start plucking away at it and when I've got the basics of it down (in a few days, likely) I'll post it on the Aurora forums for review and feedback.