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[Drago55577]

Before I play (still reading) is it fun to flood a planet with poison?


And can I have a species that breathes noble gasses?

[Metalax]

In the DF sense of 'fun' then yes.  You can even do it to your enemies planets, though you will need to protect your terraformer from their ships while it is working.

Currently the only gasses that can be used as breathable at species generation are oxygen and methane. Steve has deliberately kept most things somewhat realistic and as such noble gasses are unlikely to ever be implemented as a breathable gas as they are so unreactive and can't reasonably form part of a cycle.

[RedKing]

Are short range, high yield missile worth it? You need some way to get within knife range might be the biggest problem.

Best bet might be to use the short-range missiles as the second stage of a larger missile in a MIRV configuration. Or mount them on box launchers and attach them to fighters (I use missiles on fighters all the time). The fighers can close to within a couple million kilometers, loose their missiles as a single volley, then fly back to their carrier to reload.

As regards the government type, it really depends on your play style and what you're looking to do in a given game.
If you want a game with lots of CMCs and multi-empire alliances, then a Meritocracy, Pax Utopia or Corporate Government is ideal.
If you want to conquer ALL THE THINGS, then Hive Mind, Military Theocracy or Belligerent Theocracy are the way to go (high Militancy, Determination, Xenophobia and Expansionism).
For a balanced game, it's Player Race, Imperial Council, Feudal States, Rigid Democracy, Enlightened Despotism, Confederation or -- if you want a challenge -- Clan/Family Council and Peaceful Theocracy.
If you're just looking for a handicap, try Pax Utopia, Peaceful Anarchy, Contemplative, Plutocracy or Ordered Socialism.

[Toady One]

(removed a developing derail)

[Areyar]

(removed a developing derail)

Really? Sorry at any rate. I felt like editing the post, but replies were so fast..
The fan fiction is still relevant though. (although also still pretty dated)

[Flying Dice]

Regarding short range, fat warhead missiles: This is what you're going to be using on fighters and FACs. Stuff with warheads that can get pen on thick armor belts and need to be launched from ~20-4mkm, because the high speed of your fighters/FACs will let them strike, return, rearm, attack again, etc. If you've got a good model of light carrier that can outrun most enemy ships, you can keep this up forever, by kiting them with the carrier at their own maximum velociy until you run out of missiles and have to leg it. Hell, if you time it right, you could probably pop a collier fleet through a point, refill your carrier's magazines as it passes, and pop them back out to safety.


But yeah, the whole point of heavy fighter missiles is that they're going to be in box launchers anyway, and already have a high-speed delivery system, so why not?

[BishopX]

At what ranges do light (250 ton) fighters typically get noticed?

[Bremen]

In Aurora, missiles outrange beams by such an overwhelming extent that the only advantage of longer range missiles is to outrange other missiles (and possibly torpedoes if facing invaders). With even a tiny fraction of a point devoted to fuel missiles are going to far outrange any equivalent tech beam weapon to such an extent that they can empty their magazines before the enemy can close the range. So basically the decision comes down to less effective missiles that hit before an enemy's missiles do, or more effective missiles but you have to let the enemy fire all their missiles at you first. For enemies without missiles, like star swarm, short range missiles are the way to go.

Generally, if I have a mostly missile armed fleet with minimal armor and point defense, I'll go for the longest range missiles I can. With a glass cannon you definitely want the first shot. Conversely, if I have a full fleet with lots of PD and beam weapons, but fewer launchers for the tonnage, I'd go for short range missiles; the fleet should be able to absorb long range missile sniping and with fewer launchers, you want more bang. In actual practice, I generally have a mix; it doesn't cost much to develop two different designs, and the added flexibility is nice. Plus you can use the shorter range bigger warhead version for bombing planets.

[Metalax]

At what ranges do light (250 ton) fighters typically get noticed?

This very much depends on the sensor tech of the opponent and what size/resolution sensors they are using. At low tech levels it can be well under a million kms with large sensors or high tech it can be into the hundreds of millions or even billion+ ranges.

[Repulsion]

I really don't understand resolution, yet.

So is it higher resolution, higher range, and lower resolution, lower range?

So while a resolution 1 sensor could detect anything, it's pretty damn short-ranged? Or does it make it more expensive/bigger as well?

[Bremen]

I really don't understand resolution, yet.

So is it higher resolution, higher range, and lower resolution, lower range?

So while a resolution 1 sensor could detect anything, it's pretty damn short-ranged? Or does it make it more expensive/bigger as well?

A sensor's range is multiplied by its resolution to detect things of that resolution or higher. However, its range is divided by the square of the difference in sizes to detect things smaller than that resolution.

So, say a Resolution 1 sensor has a range of 10 mkm. A resolution 10 version would detect a resolution 10 ship at 100 mkm, but would only detect a 1 resolution ship at a range of 1 mkm (100 / (10*10))

There's no difference in cost, but the longest range you can detect a target at has a resolution equal to the targets size. Generally, I give my ships a resolution 1 sensor for PD/fighter detection and a resolution 120 sensor (6000 tons) for ship detection. A dedicated anti-fighter sensor would probably be resolution 4 and detect them at four times the range of a PD sensor, but would detect missiles at 1/16th the range.

[Flying Dice]

I always give make my main AS have a resolution of 800t, for reasons that should be obvious to anyone that plays with all enemies on. 

[NewsMuffin]

So, I'm installing Aurora again.
I know I should know to the answer to this, and I know it comes up for everyone.
However, the wording of the prompt has me confused.
When installing Aurora, the prompt asking if you want to replace the system32 files, do I click yes or no?

Spoiler: The Prompt (click to show/hide)

I don't know if it's just me, but my mind is confused by the wording here.

[Sirus]

Pretty sure you say Yes. It's asking if you want to keep your old files, and you do.

[NewsMuffin]

Yeah, that's what I thought as well, but I didn't know if 'this file' meant the new one or the old one.