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[Sirus]

Started a new game with the latest version (5.60, I believe). Conventional start, one billion pop on Earth with all aliens turned on.
The game's given me three LG scientists, not including the one I started with which is better than all of them, but not a single PP scientist. Because of that, I'm 13 years in and have just started developing nuclear thermal drives. It also seems like I'm losing at least one officer every other month.

[darkrider2]

Yeah in the SM start tutorial it specifically says that pretty much anything about a planet can be changed except for A) its gravity, and B) its position.

When I'm starting I have pretty strict limitations beyond the gravity I want, I usually demand that it NOT be tidal locked, have a magnetic field, and has a hydrosphere. Cause I just can't imagine life without those things.

[RedKing]

I'm only that strict if I'm using humans.
Being alien means never having to say you're sorry. Or needing a magnetosphere. 

[FritzPL]

What does a magnetic field do anyway? I'm not keen on those astronomical terms, sorry.

[Graknorke]

It makes a magnetic field.
Which stops us all being irradiated to deathby the nearest star.
They're pretty useful.

[Flying Dice]

If I recall my Freshman geoscience lecture properly, it is what shields the Earth (and other planets) from the vast majority of solar radiation; without it, life would be incredibly difficult. Essentially, convection and currents within the core of the planet generate a magnetic field near the edge of our atmosphere which diverts solar radiation around the Earth and into the "holes" at the poles. It's shaped something like an elongated torus with the Earth stuck in the middle of the hole.

Incidentally, I seem to recall that when the magnetic poles flip (which we're past due for), the magnetic field weakens considerably--we're supposed to be losing enough of it during the next pole flip in the coming 1-2 centuries that there will be (heh) auroras pretty much all over the place, rather than just the poles.

[Sirus]

When I started this game, I checked the option for generating jump gates on all JPs. But now I finally found my first jump point and attempted to send a ship through...and I'm being told I need a jump drive. How do I fix this? I still don't have a PP scientist, so I really don't want to wait another five-six years to develop a simple jump drive when I'm not supposed to need them.

[Flying Dice]

As I recall, that option won't add JGs to points within Sol. However, you can open the System Information window while in SM mode, go to Sol, select the Jump Points tab and add JGs to the points manually.

[Sirus]

Ah. Well, thanks for the workaround. I usually play in SM mode anyway, in case something bugs out.

[darkrider2]

Yeah from what I remember in my high school astronomy class, the magnetic field does a great job of keeping the rampant protons flying all over the galaxy from irradiating all of us.

While I'm waiting for 5.7 I reinstalled galciv 2 on my computer and started playing only to remember all the reasons that I loved aurora more.

[Felius]

Trying a game with a FAC focus. So far only have encountered precursors, only designed a single combat ship: A jump capable FAC, weighting 1000 tons, with 46 size 1 box launchers, max speed of 12500. Works pretty well, give me a good flexibility on how many missiles to fire at each target as well keeping the distance from the enemy. Due to the size most precursor ships doesn't seem capable of targeting it until it gets very close, closer than I need to be to target them.

Opinions on this approach for when I start facing more diverse enemies? I know that I'm going to have to specialize my ships a little more by them, but what else?

[Sirus]

Okay, the system of Yaga Minor is pretty damn crazy. It's a trinary system, each star with planets, non easily colonizable. That's not the crazy part.

You have Yaga Minor A in the center, surrounded by survey points. Aways from there, you have Yaga Minor C (yes, C), with it's planets. A little further out, Yaga Minor B with it's collection.

Over double the distance away? Yaga Minor A's planets. Yes. Two entire "star systems" are closer to the primary than the primary's own planets. Crazy.

[Flying Dice]

EW FACs that can hit >10,000km/s are excellent for dealing with Swarm if you can gather the critical mass needed to out-DPS Queen shields; they'll be fairly rubbish against Invaders without a large tech advantage, and they'll probably do decently well against NPRs with poor sensor/FC tech. You'll want to invest RP in compact ECM, though. And I can't see low-med tech S1 missles being particularly strong, so I'm guessing that you're sandpapering the Precursors. Note that that only works because you're able to engage without taking fire and because Precursors have no shields and shitty armor.

[Felius]

EW FACs that can hit >10,000km/s are excellent for dealing with Swarm if you can gather the critical mass needed to out-DPS Queen shields; they'll be fairly rubbish against Invaders without a large tech advantage, and they'll probably do decently well against NPRs with poor sensor/FC tech. You'll want to invest RP in compact ECM, though. And I can't see low-med tech S1 missles being particularly strong, so I'm guessing that you're sandpapering the Precursors. Note that that only works because you're able to engage without taking fire and because Precursors have no shields and shitty armor.

I generally take the precursors out with a single salvo, but that's mostly because a salvo is a ridiculous amount of missiles. If I have a fleet of 12 FACs, and have them fire about 8 to 12 missiles each in a salvo (generally enough to destroy the enemy ships), it means I'm hitting them with about 96 to 144 damage 4 missiles. If I fire the whole arsenal, each FAC is firing 46 missiles, for a total of 552 damage 4 missiles for a twelve ship fleet.

EW FACs as in microwave armed ships, right?

[Flying Dice]

EW FACs that can hit >10,000km/s are excellent for dealing with Swarm if you can gather the critical mass needed to out-DPS Queen shields; they'll be fairly rubbish against Invaders without a large tech advantage, and they'll probably do decently well against NPRs with poor sensor/FC tech. You'll want to invest RP in compact ECM, though. And I can't see low-med tech S1 missles being particularly strong, so I'm guessing that you're sandpapering the Precursors. Note that that only works because you're able to engage without taking fire and because Precursors have no shields and shitty armor.

I generally take the precursors out with a single salvo, but that's mostly because a salvo is a ridiculous amount of missiles. If I have a fleet of 12 FACs, and have them fire about 8 to 12 missiles each in a salvo (generally enough to destroy the enemy ships), it means I'm hitting them with about 96 to 144 damage 4 missiles. If I fire the whole arsenal, each FAC is firing 46 missiles, for a total of 552 damage 4 missiles for a twelve ship fleet.

EW FACs as in microwave armed ships, right?

Nonono. EW = Energy Weapons. Microwaves do nothing but fry electronics and burn shields, and are support weapons at best. The ideal would probably be a 10cm laser per FAC or a reduced size 20cm (or thereabouts); you basically just want to be able to beat the 10,000km/s that the Soldiers can pull while also having enough DPS to burn through the Queen's fast-regen shields.


Anyhow, been burning through my research while turtling for 35 years in my current game, and I had 1000% difficulty mod NPRs as well as all 3 special enemies on the entire time. I finally decide to break my self-imposed isolation. The very first jump out of Sol?



Heheheheh. Fun times ahead.

My current OOB isn't too poor.

1st Frigate Squadron: 4x Siren class missile frigates
2nd Frigate Squadron: 4x Firebrand class frigates
1st Cruiser Detachment: 2x Oregon class light cruisers
1st FAC Squadron: 8x Starling class FACs
1st Recon: 1x Prince of Wales recon frigate
PDC Defense: Earth: 2x Aegis class MDBs, 4x Suna class MBs

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Siren class Missile Frigate    7,300 tons     580 Crew     2336.4 BP      TCS 146  TH 523.25  EM 0
10239 km/s     Armour 3-33     Shields 0-0     Sensors 90/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 3     PPV 9.6
Maint Life 2.64 Years     MSP 600    AFR 142%    IFR 2%    1YR 122    5YR 1827    Max Repair 288 MSP
Magazine 432   

Internal Confinement Fusion Drive E5.2 (13)    Power 115    Fuel Use 52%    Signature 40.25    Armour 0    Exp 12%
Fuel Capacity 445,000 Litres    Range 211.0 billion km   (238 days at full power)

X/O Rail S4 (6)    Missile Size 4    Hangar Reload 30 minutes    MF Reload 5 hours
Size 4 Missile Launcher (25% Reduction) (6)    Missile Size 4    Rate of Fire 2400
Missile Fire Control FC260-R20 (1)     Range 260.8m km    Resolution 20
Longbow-4 I (108)  Speed: 28,700 km/s   End: 116.3m    Range: 200.2m km   WH: 4    Size: 4    TH: 210 / 126 / 63

Active Search Sensor MR231-R20 (1)     GPS 5760     Range 231.8m km    Resolution 20
Thermal Sensor TH5-90 (1)     Sensitivity 90     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  90m km

ECCM-2 (1)         ECM 20

Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes


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Firebrand class Frigate    5,750 tons     457 Crew     1893 BP      TCS 115  TH 402.5  EM 600
10000 km/s     Armour 5-28     Shields 20-300     Sensors 54/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 2     PPV 16
Maint Life 2.65 Years     MSP 412    AFR 132%    IFR 1.8%    1YR 83    5YR 1251    Max Repair 180 MSP

Internal Confinement Fusion Drive E5.2 (10)    Power 115    Fuel Use 52%    Signature 40.25    Armour 0    Exp 12%
Fuel Capacity 320,000 Litres    Range 192.6 billion km   (222 days at full power)
Delta R300/10 Shields (8)   Total Fuel Cost  80 Litres per day

10cm C0.25 Soft X-ray Laser (8)    Range 180,000km     TS: 10000 km/s     Power 3-0.25     RM 6    ROF 60        3 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 1
Fire Control S04 96-12500 (1)    Max Range: 192,000 km   TS: 12500 km/s     95 90 84 79 74 69 64 58 53 48
Magnetic Confinement Fusion Reactor Technology PB-1 (3)     Total Power Output 3    Armour 0    Exp 5%

Active Search Sensor MR6-R1 (1)     GPS 36     Range 6.5m km    Resolution 1
Thermal Sensor TH3-54 (1)     Sensitivity 54     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  54m km

ECCM-2 (1)         ECM 20

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes


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Oregon class Light Cruiser    13,750 tons     1432 Crew     3986 BP      TCS 275  TH 2760  EM 750
10036 km/s     Armour 4-51     Shields 25-300     Sensors 90/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 25     PPV 49.28
Maint Life 2.14 Years     MSP 906    AFR 302%    IFR 4.2%    1YR 265    5YR 3969    Max Repair 360 MSP

Internal Confinement Fusion Drive E5.2 (24)    Power 115    Fuel Use 52%    Signature 115    Armour 0    Exp 12%
Fuel Capacity 810,000 Litres    Range 203.9 billion km   (235 days at full power)
Delta R300/10 Shields (10)   Total Fuel Cost  100 Litres per day

Twin 10cm C3 Soft X-ray Laser Turret (4x2)    Range 180,000km     TS: 20000 km/s     Power 6-6     RM 6    ROF 5        3 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 1
30cm C5 Soft X-ray Laser (2)    Range 384,000km     TS: 10036 km/s     Power 24-5     RM 6    ROF 25        24 24 24 24 24 24 20 18 16 14
Fire Control S08 96-25000 (1)    Max Range: 192,000 km   TS: 25000 km/s     95 90 84 79 74 69 64 58 53 48
Fire Control S08 192-12500 (1)    Max Range: 384,000 km   TS: 12500 km/s     97 95 92 90 87 84 82 79 77 74
Magnetic Confinement Fusion Reactor Technology PB-1 (4)     Total Power Output 40    Armour 0    Exp 5%

Active Search Sensor MR64-R1 (1)     GPS 360     Range 64.8m km    Resolution 1
Thermal Sensor TH5-90 (1)     Sensitivity 90     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  90m km

ECCM-2 (2)         ECM 20

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes


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Starling class Fast Attack Craft    1,000 tons     120 Crew     404 BP      TCS 20  TH 230  EM 0
11500 km/s     Armour 1-8     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 3
Maint Life 5.54 Years     MSP 126    AFR 16%    IFR 0.2%    1YR 7    5YR 104    Max Repair 180 MSP

GB Internal Confinement Fusion Drive E52 (1)    Power 230    Fuel Use 520%    Signature 230    Armour 0    Exp 36%
Fuel Capacity 135,000 Litres    Range 46.7 billion km   (47 days at full power)

10cm C3 Soft X-ray Laser (1)    Range 180,000km     TS: 11500 km/s     Power 3-3     RM 6    ROF 5        3 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 1
Fire Control S04 96-12500 (1)    Max Range: 192,000 km   TS: 12500 km/s     95 90 84 79 74 69 64 58 53 48
Magnetic Confinement Fusion Reactor Technology PB-1 (3)     Total Power Output 3    Armour 0    Exp 5%

Active Search Sensor MR6-R1 (1)     GPS 36     Range 6.5m km    Resolution 1

Compact ECCM-1 (1)         ECM 10

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes


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Prince of Wales class Recon Frigate    7,800 tons     766 Crew     3083 BP      TCS 156  TH 1725  EM 0
11057 km/s     Armour 1-35     Shields 0-0     Sensors 180/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 4     PPV 0
Maint Life 1.15 Years     MSP 988    AFR 121%    IFR 1.7%    1YR 755    5YR 11323    Max Repair 1800 MSP

Internal Confinement Fusion Drive E5.2 (15)    Power 115    Fuel Use 52%    Signature 115    Armour 0    Exp 12%
Fuel Capacity 425,000 Litres    Range 188.6 billion km   (197 days at full power)

PDC/AS System Scanner MR1296-R16 (1)     GPS 28800     Range 1,296.0m km    Resolution 16
Thermal Sensor TH10-180 (1)     Sensitivity 180     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  180m km

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes


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Aegis class Missile Defence Base    23,750 tons     520 Crew     3477.4 BP      TCS 475  TH 0  EM 0
Armour 16-73     Sensors 1/1800     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 24
Troop Capacity: 5 Battalions    Magazine 624   

CIWS-250 (2x8)    Range 1000 km     TS: 25000 km/s     ROF 5       Base 50% To Hit
Size 4 Missile Launcher (50% Reduction) (12)    Missile Size 4    Rate of Fire 120
Missile Fire Control FC260-R20 (1)     Range 260.8m km    Resolution 20
Longbow-4 I (156)  Speed: 28,700 km/s   End: 116.3m    Range: 200.2m km   WH: 4    Size: 4    TH: 210 / 126 / 63

PDC/AS System Scanner MR1296-R16 (1)     GPS 28800     Range 1,296.0m km    Resolution 16

ECCM-2 (1)         Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s


This design is classed as a Planetary Defence Centre and can be pre-fabricated in 10 sections


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Suna class Missile Base    2,600 tons     133 Crew     713.3 BP      TCS 52  TH 0  EM 0
Armour 10-16     Sensors 1/288     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 6
Magazine 216   

CIWS-250 (1x8)    Range 1000 km     TS: 25000 km/s     ROF 5       Base 50% To Hit
Size 4 Missile Launcher (25% Reduction) (6)    Missile Size 4    Rate of Fire 2400
Missile Fire Control FC260-R20 (1)     Range 260.8m km    Resolution 20
Longbow-4 I (54)  Speed: 28,700 km/s   End: 116.3m    Range: 200.2m km   WH: 4    Size: 4    TH: 210 / 126 / 63

Active Search Sensor MR231-R20 (1)     GPS 5760     Range 231.8m km    Resolution 20

ECCM-2 (1)         Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s


This design is classed as a Planetary Defence Centre and can be pre-fabricated in 2 sections


I'm planning on moving the Sunas to an asteroid to interdict pushes from the JP, which rather unfortunately has an ancient JG on it. I've also got a heavy cruiser design drawn up, but none of my yards can handle it yet.