Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[coleslaw35]

I'm getting an error while trying to load my construction brigade into my troop transports. Any ideas why? They have 4 large bays each, and there are 3 of them.

I think you're unable to split up ground units into different ships.

If I'm correct, Construction Brigades are size 25 and a troop transport bay is size 5. So, Construction Brigades take up 5 troop transport bays on a ship. Simply add the extra troop transport bay and it should work.

[Shooer]

Yeah, need one more bay per ship to load a construction brigade, or a low tech brigade.

[coleslaw35]

Yeah, need one more bay per ship to load a construction brigade, or a low tech brigade.

Low tech brigades are pretty garbage though, so if you're looking to do ground combat, try researching the fancy trans-newtonian ground units and using the low tech brigades as cadres.

[Flying Dice]

Not quite. The laser warheads are essentially bomb-pumped lasers strapped to missile drives (which is why they use X-Ray laser tech)

This is one of those things that's always really annoyed me about Aurora's tech tree (the other big one being that a box launcher (logically the simplest possible weapon) is at the end of a long miniaturization chain) - Laser Warheads shouldn't requite X-Ray laser tech because generating a bomb-pumped laser is fundamentally different from making a stable, repeatable weapon that can be fired over and over again. The former is within range of our science (there used to be reports of successful underground test firings floating around, but they've all mysteriously vanished) while the latter is a pipe dream. It's understandable for balance reasons, but is somewhat irritating.

I suspect it's an artifact from when Aurora was more closely associated with Starfire. The Terran Federation and Khanate of Orion had given up on using X-Ray lasers on their own ships (but had the tech and used them in single-shot bomb-pumped satellite mines for defending JPs) -- at least up until they ran into the Thebans, who were crazy enough to use bomb-pumped X-Ray lasers aboard their own ships (I don't remember the exact "how" of it) and risk a breach in containment -> unintentioned self-destruction every time they fired.

I'd say that the unspoken assumption is that all X-Ray lasers, even shipboard ones, are bomb-pumped, and Aurora just doesn't model the chance of accidentally blowing up your own vessels if you use them. As for why they're up there after UV lasers in the tech tree, I'd assume it's because all the laser weapons are "we can make this efficient and powerful enough to be a a viable military weapon" rather than "we can make this".

-snip-

Crazy stuff!
Also, reading this, I'm wondering, I've heard that beam weapons going through atmosphere get their damage severely reduced. But apparently, CIWS still works, according to this. Would final fire on other beam weapons, like gauss turrets or railguns work?
What about firing on enemies from on the planet, out to outside of the planet? Or landed ships? I should probably test these.

First, ships and stations "at" a planet are effectively in orbit, same as shipyards, hence why flying to a planet doesn't protect from enemy beam fire. Only PDCs are on the ground. If a missile is fired from the ground to a ship, final defense PD should work as it normally does. PDC-based final defense PD should as well, but I'm not sure if it will actually fire in defense of planetary populations or military ground forces. PDC on PDC violence only works for mesons and missiles.

[coleslaw35]

Let's say aliens launch a ground attack on two of my colonies. One has 4 garrison battalions, one has 4 mobile infantry battalions (Same defence, but the mobile infantry battalion has about 5 attack with none of that stronger ground unit tech). Obviously, since they're getting attacked they'll be on the defensive but is there, like, a counter-attack phase or something that I would need troops with attack value for?

[Rince Wind]

You could probably initiate an attack against the invading forces.

[jocan2003]

But if you initiate an attack, the attack value will be used and not the defensive value.

[Man of Paper]

So uh before I do this LP I have an idea for backstory that'd also give roleplaying reason for researching military technologies. In order to make the backstory more interesting (essentially a bunch of people controlling the world behind the scene get found out and dick off into space with the technologies they have that weren't made public) I was wondering what the extent of my ability to create and spawn a custom race in would be. Do I get to decide on their technologies? How much would I be able to alter?

If I can't do much with that I'll just tie them into some wreckage.

[iceball3]

-snippity snoop-

Ahh, thank you for the answers, I just have one more question: What of PDCs using beam weaponry to fire on targets that aren't other PDCs or populations? Basically any vessel, which can't use the atmosphere as a shield. Would the PDC being in an atmosphere impede that?

[Insanegame27]

What would you refer to be the best weapon type to use for the death star with an advanced spinal mount? I have a 40cm base focal size (before spinal mount) in lasers, but are lasers the best weapon for it? I am aiming not to use many missiles (Mainly only missile-fighters).


I am aiming for the Death Star to be gargantuan in every type of the word, is there a limit to the size a ship can be? Larger than the earth? I plan to have hundreds of CIWS on it and have the 'order of battle' to be something like this:


--> Death Star sends out its fighter meatshields hordes
--> DS fires primary weapon at biggest threat, oneshotting it
--> Secondary ships engage enemy
--> Keep EVERYTHING between DS and enemy, all fighters and secondary ships.
--> Win

[QuakeIV]

Side note, order of battle tends to refer to the ship makeup of a given fleet or faction or whatever.

[Insanegame27]

I mean that would be how I intend battles to go.

[Rince Wind]

When you use missile fighters your DS won't have much to do. It'll also take years to get anywhere. And eat up MSP at an alarming rate. But, that aside, you can oneshot ships with a 60cm laser (what the advanced spinal mount will give you for 40cm). Depending on your wavelength tech you might have to get quite close though. Enemy missile will probably never be in range of even the extreme range of you beam fire control.

But hell, my current 30kt ships are really big for me, usually I stay under 20kt unless it is carriers.

[Insanegame27]

When you use missile fighters your DS won't have much to do. It'll also take years to get anywhere. And eat up MSP at an alarming rate. But, that aside, you can oneshot ships with a 60cm laser (what the advanced spinal mount will give you for 40cm). Depending on your wavelength tech you might have to get quite close though. Enemy missile will probably never be in range of even the extreme range of you beam fire control.

But hell, my current 30kt ships are really big for me, usually I stay under 20kt unless it is carriers.

I do plan on giving it many engines.

[Metalax]

before I spend to much time and resorces pretty much designing/making a stealth swarm boarding fleet, does it sound viable overall and how hard would it be to out swarm a Star Swarm?

It has been several versions since Steve made Swarm ships completely unboardable. They were never really intended to be boarded in the first place, being intended to bee seen as ship scale creatures.

Also, reading this, I'm wondering, I've heard that beam weapons going through atmosphere get their damage severely reduced. But apparently, CIWS still works, according to this. Would final fire on other beam weapons, like gauss turrets or railguns work?
What about firing on enemies from on the planet, out to outside of the planet? Or landed ships? I should probably test these.

Atmosphere causes all beam weapons, excluding mesons, to suffer a linear degradation in their damage output until at one atmosphere or higher they are completely blocked. Damage is rounded down so for example gauss are entirely blocked by the smallest quantity of atmosphere, while a laser that would cause 5 points of damage firing through an atmosphere of 0.6 pressure would be reduced to 2 damage. This functions both for weapons firing down into an atmosphere and for those on PDC's firing up out of it. CIWS is a special case as a self contained system that is modelled on firing at a much closer range than the normal 10,000 km of final defensive fire, so Steve decided to allow it to function.

Note that the only things that are actually considered to be inside of the atmosphere of a planet are colonies themselves, with their population and facilities, PDC's and ground forces that are not housed within a PDC. Ships, launched fighters and shipyards are always considered to be outside of the atmosphere.

So uh before I do this LP I have an idea for backstory that'd also give roleplaying reason for researching military technologies. In order to make the backstory more interesting (essentially a bunch of people controlling the world behind the scene get found out and dick off into space with the technologies they have that weren't made public) I was wondering what the extent of my ability to create and spawn a custom race in would be. Do I get to decide on their technologies? How much would I be able to alter?

If I can't do much with that I'll just tie them into some wreckage.

It depends on if you are going to run them as a NPR or a player controlled race. If set to run as a computer controlled NPR you cannot specify overly much about the created empire, it will be determined by the generation system. If run as a player controlled race, such as how many run multi-nation games, you can specify just as much as for your normal player race.

What would you refer to be the best weapon type to use for the death star with an advanced spinal mount? I have a 40cm base focal size (before spinal mount) in lasers, but are lasers the best weapon for it? I am aiming not to use many missiles (Mainly only missile-fighters).

I am aiming for the Death Star to be gargantuan in every type of the word, is there a limit to the size a ship can be? Larger than the earth? I plan to have hundreds of CIWS on it and have the 'order of battle' to be something like this:

As of the current version, lasers are the only weapon that can be given a spinal mount. Steve has said that this may later be extended to other weapon types.

Yes, there is a size limit. This is because it is relatively easy to reach the limits of the variables that certain pieces of information are stored in. The one that causes the size limit is the number of boxes of armour present on the design, which further means the more layers of armour on a class, the smaller it's maximum size. Specific details on this and other limits can be found in the "end of everything" thread over on the aurora forums.