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[Lightningfalcon]

THat's the main thing that kills my games.  rage quitting over errors, and errors causing me to have to use autoturn in order to progress more then an hour a click.  Which in turn leads to someting very, very bad happening while I'm helpless to stop. 

[Flying Dice]

What does he develop, however? Is he taking toady's approach to UI? If so,  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umDr0mPuyQc.

To be honest, the UI feels more like a spreadsheet application. With a quick google image search, you'll see what I mean.

To be fair, Aurora originally was a spreadsheet program intended to keep track of games of Starfire, which Steve eventually developed into the current game.

[Azated]

I really wish the civilian shipping companies were more reliable. I've been in this one game for almost 50 years, dumped 20k into them, designed tiny ships specifically for their stingy purchases, designated half a dozen supply and demand jobs, and I've still only got one company with no ships.

[The Scout]

I really wish the civilian shipping companies were more reliable. I've been in this one game for almost 50 years, dumped 20k into them, designed tiny ships specifically for their stingy purchases, designated half a dozen supply and demand jobs, and I've still only got one company with no ships.

They make their own ships.

[Azated]

Well, they just made a lair out of me. As soon as I finished construction of my first colony ship, they started spamming their own. I'm not sure if the two are linked, but that's all I can think of that might have triggered them.

[gimlet]

Was it right after you dropped off some population on the colony?  I remember hearing that might be the trigger, colonies with 0 pop don't trigger any civilian economy demand...

[Azated]

Was it right after you dropped off some population on the colony?  I remember hearing that might be the trigger, colonies with 0 pop don't trigger any civilian economy demand...

I think it was. I wish I knew that earlier; would have saved me so much time and resources building freighters.

[Flying Dice]

It's a good thing that zero pop colonies don't trigger civilians, too, or every dinky little automining colony would be flooded with infrastructure and dying colonists.

[Graknorke]

It's a good thing that zero pop colonies don't trigger civilians, too, or every dinky little automining colony would be flooded with infrastructure and dying colonists.

You mean your normal colonies aren't like that?
I might need some more improvement of my strategy.

[Flying Dice]

Little correction: Either population or infrastructure will trigger civilian colonization. Hence my normal start to colonize is to drop off 1k or so infrastructure.

That aside, my terraforming usually outpaces my colonization, so most worlds are 0.00 by the time I drop the first colonists.

[toomanysecrets]

I've started a couple new games today, and I set "NPR generation chance" to zero, hoping I could explore the systems within 1 jump of Sol without any combat.  In both games I discovered NPRs immediately.  What gives?

[Flying Dice]

I've started a couple new games today, and I set "NPR generation chance" to zero, hoping I could explore the systems within 1 jump of Sol without any combat.  In both games I discovered NPRs immediately.  What gives?

Those aren't NPRs.

[toomanysecrets]

Ah, I shoulda knew.   

[j.h]

I hate this game so much.
I hate it because every game inevitably leads to never-ending stream of errors or interrupts too short to do anything.
I hate it because you can lose whole fleet by choosing one 5 minute increment instead of ten 30 second ones, because the increment system is so inconsistent.
I hate it because lots of features are so poorly thought-out. Like the micromanagement with inter-system mineral transport or fuel delivery, missile combat taking ages, civilians producing hundreds of ships in long games or setting off for a hundred years long journey to an alien planet because you established colony for espionage there. And it's no getting better - instead of features like "if I check this check this check-box any arriving ship will be refueled, resupplied and will have their magazines refilled automatically", we got crew morale. I think every game developer should ask "will this make this game more fun?" before adding anything. Did you have any fun (or Fun) moments because of the crew morale? I did not, and I mostly end up turning off the maintenance, because I enjoy playing much more when I don't have to constantly overhaul my ships.
And I hate this game because, as a programmer, I know for sure it would run at least 20 to 100 times faster if it did not use a database and an ancient programming language from hell.

I know this post is probably more bitter than it should be, but Aurora is the game I always wanted to play, just did not know it. No other space game has so much freedom, customization and replayability and when I stumbled upon it on this forum, I may have been more excited than after discovering DF. But when I play it, it frustrates me and I leave it for several months. And that's why I hate it so much. 

[Flying Dice]

I hate this game so much.
I hate it because every game inevitably leads to never-ending stream of errors or interrupts too short to do anything.

You shouldn't be getting never-ending streams of errors if you installed properly. The only error I can think of that doesn't stem from that, and that come up without fail when it does occur, is a /0 error or an overflow error, which tends to be very simple to troubleshoot and fix. The only way to get permanent, campaign-killing interrupts is to play with Invaders on (due to the way they interact with other special enemies). I've never had a non-Invader series of interrupts that couldn't be taken care of by autoturning for a few months. That aside, unless you're starting with a dozen NPRs, you shouldn't be seeing massive amounts of interrupts for a long while. I've had campaigns run for 120+ years and still be perfectly playable when I got bored and gave them up.

I hate it because you can lose whole fleet by choosing one 5 minute increment instead of ten 30 second ones, because the increment system is so inconsistent.

I'm not sure what you mean by "inconsistent". As for the first part: I hate to be rude, but... duh? Of course you can lose a fleet if you aren't careful. If I'm playing EUIII and I lose a stack because I was running time at the maximum setting and didn't order a retreat in time, I don't say, "Oh, this fucking variable time system is so shitty, look what it made me do!".

I hate it because lots of features are so poorly thought-out. Like the micromanagement with inter-system mineral transport or fuel delivery, missile combat taking ages, civilians producing hundreds of ships in long games or setting off for a hundred years long journey to an alien planet because you established colony for espionage there.

I enjoy the logistics management. I enjoy the feel of combat, where it's composed of long minutes of waiting before a few seconds of violence. I think a lot of other people do as well. If you're playing on the most recent version, civilians shouldn't have "hundreds" of ships unless you've been playing for centuries and have dozens of populated colonies. They also shouldn't be going to espionage colonies unless you put infrastructure or colonists on them yourself. Civilian ships do, you might want to note, trade with non-hostile NPRs.

And it's no getting better - instead of features like "if I check this check this check-box any arriving ship will be refueled, resupplied and will have their magazines refilled automatically", we got crew morale.

I completely agree that that would be convenient. It doesn't, however, mean that there aren't refuel, resupply, and rearm orders. If I'm bringing a fleet back home after a battle, it takes about two seconds to tack those into the order sequence. I don't see what crew morale has to do with that, unless you're just complaining about the fact that you can't just ignore logistics and constantly blow things up. (Which, to be fair, you can. It's not terribly difficult to set up battle scenarios in SM mode.)

I think every game developer should ask "will this make this game more fun?" before adding anything. Did you have any fun (or Fun) moments because of the crew morale? I did not, and I mostly end up turning off the maintenance, because I enjoy playing much more when I don't have to constantly overhaul my ships.

I did. Also, insert standard disclaimer about Steve making Aurora for his own entertainment and just happening to share it with people who are interested. It's not a published game, it doesn't cost anything, and it's a personal project. It may just be me, but with that in mind I'm a little less inclined to bitch about things I don't like, especially considering that Aurora is already head-and-shoulders above every other 4X out there.

And I hate this game because, as a programmer, I know for sure it would run at least 20 to 100 times faster if it did not use a database and an ancient programming language from hell.

Aurora II.

I know this post is probably more bitter than it should be, but Aurora is the game I always wanted to play, just did not know it. No other space game has so much freedom, customization and replayability and when I stumbled upon it on this forum, I may have been more excited than after discovering DF. But when I play it, it frustrates me and I leave it for several months. And that's why I hate it so much. 

Eh, I can understand, even if I don't agree. It's something of a glass half empty deal, though I'm rather surprised to consistently find myself on the optimistic side of things in this specific context.