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[Paul]

Empire Name: Roman Empire.

Roman Republic is probably more fitting. Roman Empire sounds more like an autocracy. I went ahead and generated a game, but haven't started playing it yet so changes can still be made if I missed something.

Spoiler: Game Details (click to show/hide)

I didn't think to snap a shot of the actual creation window, but grabbed that one after the fact.

Spoiler: Race Details Screen (click to show/hide)

Theres a pretty good spread of researchers. We have scientists for Power and Propulsion (30 labs), Construction/Production (25 labs), Logistics/Ground Combat (20 labs), Sensors and Fire Control (15 labs), and Defensive Systems (10 labs). They all have 10% bonus. So we're only really lacking in missiles, which I guess is kind of fitting if the plan was to focus on beam ships.

We also have an excellent civilian administrator. Most of them suck, but one stands out as excellent - 15% factory production, 15% wealth creation, 20% mining, 20% pop growth, 5% ground unit construction, and 10% logistics. Since he's clearly better than anyone else, I've assigned him to Earth.

On the Naval officers side, we have two ranked high enough to be the fleet commander. One has absolutely no crew training capabilities, while the other has 200 but no other skills. Crew training is probably the most important there, so I've renamed that one to Sheb and assigned him as the fleet commander - then assigned the best officers to the other positions.

Spoiler: Task Force Command (click to show/hide)

We also have one size 1000 shipyard, 5 research labs, 5 maintenance facilities, and 1000 conventional industry. We have 0 fuel and 2000 maintenance supplies.

Mineral resources on Earth:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Duranium 50,000  Acc: 1
Neutronium 56,300  Acc: 0.3
Corbomite 17,600  Acc: 0.2
Tritanium 37,650  Acc: 0.9
Boronide 17,750  Acc: 0.2
Mercassium 46,500  Acc: 0.8
Vendarite 21,050  Acc: 0.2
Sorium 32,400  Acc: 0.7
Uridium 19,100  Acc: 0.2
Corundium 10,000  Acc: 0.2
Gallicite 94,850  Acc: 0.2

Pretty crummy accessibility on most of them. The rest of the system will have to be surveyed.

Our first research project, Trans-Newtonian Technology, will be done on September 18th. Until then, the only installations our industry can build is: financial centres, infrastructure, maintenance facilities, or military academies.

[LostCosmonaut]

In the time before we get TN, I recommend building some maintenance facilities so we don't run through our supplies once we get a few military ships built. After that, add some more research facilities while also converting industry to TN. I would also like to propose that we focus our initial research efforts on propulsion technology.

[Zebulon]

First up, I'd like to call being the Defensive Systems guy.

We should definitely focus on propulsion early on. It looks like we've got a solid construction/production guy, too, which is always useful, and a sensors guy for the geo survey ship.

We already have five maintenance facilities, which just matches our shipyard. Maybe we should split initial construction between more (in preparation for the inevitable expansion) and a military academy or two? Could always use new recruits.

[Akigagak]

Well, at least Duranium is easy to get at.

First priority research-wise should be to go for all the jazz we need for doing a complete survey of the major bodies in the inner system. Other than that, I dunno.

Rename the asteroid field EMPORER'S Wall, maybe? 

[Paul]

Well, I'm playing with overhauls off (my first game to try it). Do you still need maintenance facilities with that? You still need them to reload box launchers outside of a hangar, but I don't think you need them for ship maintenance.

Unless you guys want me to turn overhauls back on

The shipyard is military btw, so it can make grav survey ships. We'll probably want a commercial one to produce geo survey ships.

[Zebulon]

Well, I thought about that, but the main reason maintenance is off is to stop the micromanagement headache, right? We're still designing ships as though they needed to worry about maintenance, so house-ruling that we 'need' maintenance facilities to support ships seems like a decent 'house rule' in a similar spirit.

If we'd rather not gimp ourselves that way, full speed ahead on the military academies I say. I don't think we'll make enough financial centers to make a difference in the ~nine months it takes to get TN tech, and colonization is quite a ways in the future so infrastructure can wait. EDIT: Technically I doubt we'll build an entire military academy in that time either, but I think it's still the best investment of the four types if we're not using maintenance.

We do need to make a second shipyard - either type - so we can get both survey vessels started. I usually make my geo survey vessels military anyway (because I'm lazy and using the exact same design, only with different sensors, for each type is easier  ).

Actually, maybe we should make military Geo survey vessels, then freighters so we can ship automated mines/mass drivers around, and while they're doing their thing we'll work on shipyards for the naval designs.

Or we just get the geo survey started and see what the minerals are like in Sol and see if we should just break straight for interstellar colonization and fun.

[LostCosmonaut]

Personally, I prefer to have both my geological and gravitational sensors in the same vessel. That would save us a shipyard, also, if we see an interesting plant, we can immediately check for minerals while we do the gravitational survey of the system.

[Zebulon]

That's a possibility I hadn't considered. I think we should hit the ground running with a pure geo-survey vessel first, though, and then add grav sensors after we research them (it's a fairly hefty investment early on, isn't it? Especially with five labs.) The second generation of survey ships can be dual survey vessels if we're still hurting for shipyards. But this is probably getting a bit ahead of ourselves. (I'll admit to not having done a conventional start before, heh.)

What about names? I did a quick search for Greek/Roman astronomers, and I was thinking we could call the class the Ptolemy. He apparently contributed to geography as well as astronomy, which is sort of what a geo survey vessel does.

[Paul]

Well, I thought about that, but the main reason maintenance is off is to stop the micromanagement headache, right? We're still designing ships as though they needed to worry about maintenance, so house-ruling that we 'need' maintenance facilities to support ships seems like a decent 'house rule' in a similar spirit.

If we'd rather not gimp ourselves that way, full speed ahead on the military academies I say. I don't think we'll make enough financial centers to make a difference in the ~nine months it takes to get TN tech, and colonization is quite a ways in the future so infrastructure can wait. EDIT: Technically I doubt we'll build an entire military academy in that time either, but I think it's still the best investment of the four types if we're not using maintenance.

We do need to make a second shipyard - either type - so we can get both survey vessels started. I usually make my geo survey vessels military anyway (because I'm lazy and using the exact same design, only with different sensors, for each type is easier  ).

Actually, maybe we should make military Geo survey vessels, then freighters so we can ship automated mines/mass drivers around, and while they're doing their thing we'll work on shipyards for the naval designs.

Or we just get the geo survey started and see what the minerals are like in Sol and see if we should just break straight for interstellar colonization and fun.

Thats a good idea, and I guess makes sense since I'm designing the ships as if it was on. It would be February 2102 before a military academy is completed anyway, whereas we could probably have 3 or 4 maintenance facilities done by September. It would be using up all the Neutronium as it's mined though, which would slow the construction of another shipyard. Building a maintenance facility or a shipyard with current construction rates would use neutronium at a rate of 500 per year, while we only mine it at a rate of 360 a year. Expanding the shipyards will hit the same issue. Will have to research a better mining rate, or convert some industry to mines.

Personally, I prefer to have both my geological and gravitational sensors in the same vessel. That would save us a shipyard, also, if we see an interesting plant, we can immediately check for minerals while we do the gravitational survey of the system.

Combining them is going to make the ship bigger and slower (those sensors are 250 tons), which also means a bigger jump drive (unless we separate the jump drive out of the ship, but that's another shipyard) and a bigger shipyard to build them. Plus having them separate lets you do both at once, which can speed things up a lot when you have a large system. The extra shipyard isn't that high of a cost, since the ships would be smaller and cheaper.

Our first geo survey ship will probably look a lot like this:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Ptolemy class Cruiser    750 tons     68 Crew     154.5 BP      TCS 15  TH 25  EM 0
1666 km/s     Armour 1-7     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/1     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
Maint Life 11.05 Years     MSP 129    AFR 4%    IFR 0.1%    1YR 2    5YR 29    Max Repair 100 MSP

Nuclear Thermal Engine E10 (1)    Power 25    Fuel Use 100%    Signature 25    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 50,000 Litres    Range 120.0 billion km   (833 days at full power)

Geological Survey Sensors (1)   1 Survey Points Per Hour

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

Which is basically an engine with a sensor strapped on.

As far as the first research after TN tech, it's probably best to get the first tech speed boost first. That's a 20% increase in research for only 5000 rps.

[Pwnzerfaust]

This may be a little premature, but I recommend that when we start designing commercial ships, we standardize them to a certain hullsize, basically making them identical, save for swapping out cargo bays for cryo storage or troop transport or a terraforming module. I usually make all my basic commercial vessels 30,000 tons. What's especially nice about that is that the freighter, usually the cheapest commercial ship, can be built even at yards tooled for, say, a colonizer or a terraformer.

[Paul]

Yea, I always do that with cargo/colony ships.

Sadly it isn't possible for grav/geo survey ships. Logically it should be, since all you're swapping is the sensor - but the sensors are so expensive the refit cost between the two ships is almost as much as the build cost.

IMO that's one of the things that should be changed. If two ships are identical except for one part, it seems like a shipyard should be able to build either type - even if the part is expensive. Especially since I usually build the sensors using construction factories, and all the shipyard has to do is install it in the ship during construction.

[Vactor]

With the roman theme, I think it would be fitting to have each task group able to ride in an armored carrier until within range, ala the roman turtle formation.  It would be especially cool to have these armored carriers all fit into an even larger mother ship that is able to house entire fleets.

On a slight tangent, I always wondered about building a mothership large enough to carry the entire human race, and all of its fleets and facilites.  It would ever so slowly creep from system to system, terraforming and colonizing planets just long enough for the system to be sucked dry and loaded up before moving on.

[Pwnzerfaust]

It'd have to be pretty damn huge to carry enough facilities to be able to quickly set up an industrial base.

[NRDL]

Posting to watch, I've heard Aurora is scary complicated, not even DF players are that eager to learn how to use it.  I was kinda hoping for a bit of a newb friendly guide, but anyway, this looks cool. 

[Paul]

I went ahead and played the first 6 years. This will be the first actual LP post in the thread

__________________________________________________________

Backstory
The flu of 2020 was devastating. Airborne and with a death rate of 95%, it ravaged the entire human population. Within weeks civilization as we knew it fell apart, and millions more died in the violent times that followed. Feudalism resurfaced, and slavery became rampant.

In 2034 a group in Europe, led by a Roman historian and philosopher by the name of Marcus Aurelius Arius, came together with the intent of rebuilding government. Wary of putting too much power into one man's hands, they created a republic styled after the ancient Roman Republic with two consuls elected by the people and advised by a senate comprised of the most knowledgeable citizens. They quickly seized military assets, toppled local dictatorships, and rebuilt the crumbling infrastructure.

Millions flocked to the new government, and within 50 years 99% of the human population was under the rule of the new Roman Republic. The next 15 years proved to be a renaissance of technological development, and in 2099, as part of an experiment, a whole new series of elements were discovered deep in the Earth's crust. These minerals possessed amazing trans-newtonian properties and the potential for great things.

It is now the year 2100. The Roman Republic is flourishing with a population of approximately 500 million, and development of trans-newtonian technology has just begun.

Administrator Lucius Amatius Proculus' Personal Log, 1st January, 2100

Exciting times! I was just appointed by the Consuls to oversee our new trans-newtonian development.

As my first act, I've approved Aulus Nepius Pantera's research project into this new technology. He should be done in September. Until then, as part of the planned space program, I've ordered the construction of three new maintenance facilities – which will increase our ship maintenance capacity to 1600 tons.

Administrator Lucius Amatius Proculus' Personal Log, 21st September, 2100

Aulus Nepius Pantera has completed his research, and the results are astounding. These new minerals will allow us to construct far more effective industry, and as we expected they have the potential to give us ships that can travel the stars. He has also proposed a project to develop new computer systems using these minerals, which should boost our research capabilities by 20%. I've approved it and given him the funding, although it won't be done until April 2104.

In addition, I have ordered 100 of our industry converted into the new construction factories.

Administrator Lucius Amatius Proculus' Personal Log, 1st November, 2101

Conversion of our industry has gone well, and we have completed 85 construction factories – but we've hit a bit of a snag. We're about to run out of the mineral Vendarite, and we just aren't mining enough to keep up with production. I've ordered the production shifted to 50% conversion to construction factories and 50% conversion to mines in order to boost our mineral production.

Administrator Lucius Amatius Proculus' Personal Log, 26th April, 2102

Good news! Scientist MonkeyHead has just informed me he's been studying the new propulsion potential of these minerals in his own time, and he has increased his understanding of the field (+20%). He has a proposal for a new reactor technology as soon as our current research is complete.

Administrator Lucius Amatius Proculus' Personal Log, 21st July, 2102

Scientist Zebulon has studied and improved his administration skills. I hear he's eager to begin research on a new armor technology using this new Duranium mineral.

Administrator Lucius Amatius Proculus' Personal Log, 11th August, 2102

Rumor has it Primus Sheb, our fleet commander, has developed a medical problem that will affect his long term health. I hope it isn't serious.

Administrator Lucius Amatius Proculus' Personal Log, 16th March, 2103

Industry conversion is going well, but we've hit another resource shortage. We have 164 construction factories and 83 mines so far, but our stock of Corundium has run out - and we aren't mining it nearly fast enough to keep up mine production at 50%. I've decided to divert half the production devoted to mine conversion to the production of a new research facility. It uses duranium and mercassium, two minerals which we have in abundance. At this rate it will take until September 2106 to construct it, but I can divert further construction toward it once more industry is converted.

This TN technology is incredible. We've already increased our mining by 58%, and by focusing on construction we've upped our construction capabilities by 139%.

Administrator Lucius Amatius Proculus' Personal Log, 16th August, 2103

Primus Sheb was promoted to Tribune today. I attended the gathering at fleet headquarters to congratulate him.

Administrator Lucius Amatius Proculus' Personal Log, 16th April, 2104

Aulus Nepius Pantera has completed his research in computing, and the research benefits are just what he said - a 20% boost in efficiency. I've approved MonkeyHead's research in the new reactor systems with three labs, as well as Zebulon's duranium armor research with one lab. I assigned the remaining lab to a researcher by the name of Flavius Flavius Pinarius, who tells me he can develop a geological sensor that can scan entire planets for these trans-newtonian minerals from orbit.

I've decided to make surveying the system a priority, since our supplies of these minerals is already beginning to run short. I'm told we've already used up 13% of the planet's entire supply of Corundium. Our scientists speculate these minerals will likely be present inside most system bodies.

Administrator Lucius Amatius Proculus' Personal Log, 3rd March, 2105

We had to shift another 9% of our production (3% from mines, 6% from construction factories) toward research labs due to our construction capacity increasing faster than our mining. Due to this shift and the increasing construction capacity, our new research lab should be done in August.

Administrator Lucius Amatius Proculus' Personal Log, 13th June, 2105

Scientist MonkeyHead has completed his research into pressurized water reactors. He has begun an associated project in nuclear thermal engine technology. I'm told he has also further improved his understanding of propulsion (25% bonus). The new project should be ready in March 2107 at current funding, although I plan to assign him additional labs when they become available.

Administrator Lucius Amatius Proculus' Personal Log, 13th August, 2105

A new scientist, Numerius Falerius Arruntius, has joined our scientific establishment. His specialization is sensors and fire control. He has assured me that he can complete the geological sensor project by January 2107, while Flavius Flavius Pinarius still claims to need until April 2107. I've assigned Numerius to the project. Flavius is angry, but Numerius is just better at the job (15% bonus).

Our first research lab has also just finished construction. I've assigned it to MonkeyHead's nuclear thermal engine project, which brings the expected completion date to October 2106.

Administrator Lucius Amatius Proculus' Personal Log, 13th October, 2105

Zebulon has completed research into Duranium armor. It will allow our early ships to have much lighter outer hulls while still being spaceworthy. He has proposed a high density variant, but I've postponed the research of it for the time being in favor of developing our geological sensors. Numerius Falerius Arruntius assures me he can have the sensors done in June 2106 with the extra lab.

Administrator Lucius Amatius Proculus' Personal Log, 4th June, 2106

As he said, Numerius Falerius Arruntius has completed the geological sensor project. He's proposing active sensors next, but getting an engine to build our first survey vessel is the priority. I've assigned the two labs to MonkeyHead's engine research. The technology should be done in September, then he can begin research into the actual engine design.

I'm told Numerius has improved his understanding of sensor technology as well (20% bonus).

I've decided to construct one of these geological sensor packages, in preparation for the construction of our first geo survey vessel once the engines are ready.

Administrator Lucius Amatius Proculus' Personal Log, 9th September, 2106

MonkeyHead has finished research on the engine technology, and has begun research on a new military nuclear thermal engine. It should be completed before the end of the month.

Spoiler: Nuclear Thermal Engine (click to show/hide)

Nuclear Thermal Engine E10
Power Output: 25     Explosion Chance: 5     Efficiency: 1    Thermal Signature: 25
Engine Size: 5 HS    Engine HTK: 2
Cost: 12    Crew: 25
Materials Required: 3x Duranium  0x Neutronium  9x Gallicite

Development Cost for Project: 120RP

Administrator Lucius Amatius Proculus' Personal Log, 24th September, 2106

With the engine design complete, our first interplanetary ship has been designed. Zebulon, the scientist who designed the armor, came up with the name of Ptolemy for it - named after Claudius Ptolemy, an ancient Roman mathematician, astronomer, geographer, and astrologer.

Introducing the Ptolemy Geosurvey Ship:

Spoiler: Ptolemy class Geosurvey Ship (click to show/hide)

Ptolemy class Geosurvey Ship    750 tons     68 Crew     154.5 BP      TCS 15  TH 25  EM 0
1666 km/s     Armour 1-7     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/1     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
Maint Life 11.05 Years     MSP 129    AFR 4%    IFR 0.1%    1YR 2    5YR 29    Max Repair 100 MSP

Nuclear Thermal Engine E10 (1)    Power 25    Fuel Use 100%    Signature 25    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 50,000 Litres    Range 120.0 billion km   (833 days at full power)

Geological Survey Sensors (1)   1 Survey Points Per Hour

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

In the interest of speeding up construction of our first ship, I've had our construction factories build the engine - and the sensors have already been constructed last month. Due to this, our first geological survey vessel should be ready for launch in December.

MonkeyHead will continue developing improved reactor and engine technology with four of our labs, while I've assigned the remaining two to Titus Blandius Nepos - a logistics researcher. He will be researching a cargo handling system for proposed cargo ships - which will be needed to haul mines out to and minerals in from other planets, assuming the geological survey finds minerals.

Administrator Lucius Amatius Proculus' Personal Log, 14th December, 2106

The Ptolemy 1 has just launched from the shipyard. A promising new survey officer, Akigagak, has been assigned to the vessel. I've also assembled a skilled geological survey team (155 bonus) led by our fleet survey officer Primus Vibius Macrinus Capiton. They will accompany the Ptolemy while it surveys the inner solar system, and can disembark to take a closer look at either Mars or Venus depending on what the geological survey sensors detect.

First stop for the Ptolemy 1 is Mars, which with our current orbit is 120m km away. With these trans-newtonian engines, the Ptolemy will cover the distance in just over 20 hours.

Our second science lab was also just completed, and I've begun construction of our first commercial shipyard in order to build cargo vessels. It should be completed in about a year. The extra lab was assigned to the cargo handling system project, and it should be completed some time in October 2107.

Administrator Lucius Amatius Proculus' Personal Log, 28th December, 2106

Akigagak and the Ptolemy 1 have fully surveyed Mars, and found absolutely nothing. Disappointing. Their next goal is Venus, 134m km away from Mars with the current orbits. They'll be there in 22 hours 20 minutes.

Administrator Lucius Amatius Proculus' Personal Log, 1st January, 2107

The Ptolemy 1 is in the process of surveying Venus now. It will be a bit before we get results.

Construction-wise we are far beyond what we started with six years ago. We've converted 561 industry into construction factories and 281 into mines, with 158 conventional industry remaining. Current construction orders will make that 600 construction factories and 300 mines by April, although I've yet to decide on what to do with the remaining 100 conventional industry.

We have seven research labs, 8 maintenance facilities, and a new shipyard due to be finished by the end of the year. Our fuel stocks have grown to 5,402,580, although no fuel refineries have yet been built and it is being produced solely by the conventional industry. Our current shipyard is tooled for the Ptolemy class, although it has been sitting idle for the last few weeks.

The cargo handling system research (3 labs) should be done by October of this year. Pebble bed reactor technology (4 labs) should be done by April of next year.

The latest census shows global population at 611.59 million, a growth of 111.59 million in the last seven years. We have 63.82 million available workers.

Remaining minerals on Earth:

Spoiler: Remaining (click to show/hide)

Earth
Duranium 35,880  Acc: 1
Neutronium 52,064  Acc: 0.3
Corbomite 14,776  Acc: 0.2
Tritanium 24,942  Acc: 0.9
Boronide 14,926  Acc: 0.2
Mercassium 35,204  Acc: 0.8
Vendarite 18,226  Acc: 0.2
Sorium 22,516  Acc: 0.7
Uridium 16,276  Acc: 0.2
Corundium 7,176  Acc: 0.2
Gallicite 92,026  Acc: 0.2

Stockpile of minerals on Earth:

Spoiler: Stockpile (click to show/hide)

Duranium 2,919
Neutronium 3,920
Corbomite 2,824
Tritanium 9,902
Boronide 2,824
Mercassium 8,886
Vendarite 18
Sorium 7,157
Uridium 2,749
Corundium 14
Gallicite 2,815

__________________________________________________________

It will still be a while before we get military ships and the ability to leave the system, but things are coming along well. Since you guys said to focus on engine tech I decided to work on the 2nd level of engines before trying to get jump capability. We have the first research boost, and the next one costs 10k rps to go from 240 to 280 per lab. The various construction techs are tempting, only 3k rps for a 20% boost in productivity.

Think we should build more Ptolemy ships, or wait until we have better engines? Might be handy to have more, but we'd probably want to produce the sensor with construction factories to make the construction of it faster. The sensor alone makes up 64.7% of their cost.

I'm divided on what to do about our first cargo ships as well - rush it with the first engine tech, or push on and pick up nuclear pulse engines first so they're a bit faster? We still need automated mines to actually mine the other worlds anyway, which will take a bit of time since you can't convert straight from conventional industry to them. We could either build them for 240 or convert mines (which cost 120 on their own) for 150. Since 50% of their cost is in Corundium our low production of it will slow down construction of them.

I was surprised when I went to pick out a survey team. Apparently a bunch of 30 skill guys joined over the years, and the fleet survey officer had gained 5 skill in the post - so I was able to recruit a really badass team. If I had realized that I could have had them begin surveying Earth early. Should I drop them off on Venus for practice, or just let them survey Earth now?

-edit- lol I just realized I had the Ptolemy ship set to carry conventional ICBMs (even though it had no capacity for them). I had copied the missile base and forgot to delete that.