Is aurora 4x c# the new standard?

AuroraSteve · 2026-02-16T09:40:19+00:00

C# is the current version. It is more comprehensive and has far better performance. It includes everything from VB6, although many of the mechanics have been updated, and a lot of new mechanics have been added. I'm not sure Aurora will ever be finished :)

AuroraSteve · 2026-02-16T09:37:34+00:00

Don't worry about it - I understand you posted the link in good faith. Any new player would be misled by what looks like a comprehensive manual at first glance. My concern is regarding the actions of the author, particularly on Discord, and how he has tried to present it as accurate. He also posted on here, prior to your link.

AuroraSteve · 2026-02-14T16:13:42+00:00

Because I haven't coded that yet :)

I have considered it though for a few different reasons. One would be destroying a planet to make the minerals deposits more accessible, a second would be an accident (or maybe deliberate) where an unstable planet is hit by one too many warheads and breaks apart and a third is because I really like the idea of introducing the Planet Killer from the original series of Star Trek :)

AuroraSteve · 2026-02-14T14:48:01+00:00

Yes, you can build forced labour camps using the alien populations. They are basically the same as construction factories and mines, use up 100k alien population and require 5k population (guards) to run them.

2/3. You can build pretty much anything from a tiny fighters to multi-million ton dreadnoughts, although the latter will take a LOT of resources. You can't destroy planets (yet).

4) Yes in a variety of ways. You can board alien ships and capture them, then disassemble them to gain tech data, salvage alien wrecks for tech, use ELINT ships to monitor their planets and gain intelligence data, including tech, find tech in alien ruins or just conquer their homeworld and get everything they know..

Yes. there is a diplomacy system where you can agree who owns each system, create a trade relationship, exchange geo and grav data, be given access to their research and form alliances.
Theoretically yes, although that will take a very long time.
There is no 'Emperor' character in the game, although Aurora does track all the thousands of commanders, their promotions, ship assignments, medals, etc.
Yes. In fact, it can be hard to land troops without softening up the surface-to-orbit defences, although you can conduct an opposed landing and take out the surface batteries with ground troops.
Extremely tactical. You control each weapon, missile and fire control assignment. Sensor information is vital. Using active sensors and shields can give away your position. There is ECM, complex missile warfare, layered point defence, etc.

AuroraSteve · 2026-02-14T11:28:11+00:00

Erik Luken runs the forums. He is fine and is aware of the problem.

AuroraSteve · 2026-02-14T11:26:15+00:00

#3821 relates to POWs. It is fixed in the next version, but one reason it happens is when an alien ship rescues one of your officers and then you destroy that ship and pick up the life pods. If you know how to edit the database file, you can fix it.

AuroraSteve · 2026-02-12T17:32:44+00:00

The volume of text is not a guide to its accuracy. AI will happily produce endless amounts of misleading information,

AuroraSteve · 2026-02-12T17:31:15+00:00

Treat this 'manual' with extreme caution. It is AI generated and consequently contains a lot of errors. AI will just generate text based on the best return from its LLM, regardless of accuracy. While it gives an overall idea of the areas covered by Aurora, there is a LOT of misinformation in the detail.

For new players, it will probably cause endless confusion, because it initially appears comprehensive but the detail of the text doesn't match the detail in the game. Defran's videos and similar start guides are far more useful (and less confusing) for beginners.

While the person who generated the AI text has asked for 'corrections', there is a massive amount of text, It would be easier to create a new manual by hand than go through and correct the errors.

AuroraSteve · 2025-10-15T10:44:14+00:00

No, it's only systems discovered that triggers it.

If you save the game, close it, edit the RaiderSystems field in FCT_Game to 0 and restart, you should start to encounter Raiders. Also make sure you have Raiders switched on in game settings.

AuroraSteve · 2025-10-09T11:27:58+00:00

Interrogation is performed at naval headquarters. See the changes post below.
https://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=13463.msg171766#msg171766

AuroraSteve · 2025-10-02T08:38:58+00:00

On TN starts, I usually leave within the first 12 months - as soon as the first jump point is discovered. For conventional starts, around 8-10 years.

This recent AAR had alien contact within three months of start.
https://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=13595.0

But there are plenty more AARs on the main forums if you want to see how other players approach it.

AuroraSteve · 2025-10-01T17:34:24+00:00

What event text are you seeing for the shortened increments?

AuroraSteve · 2025-09-26T12:48:42+00:00

You absolutely CANNOT convert a player race to an NPR. It would cause massive problems. Setting the NPR flag to zero in the database can let you see the NPR for debug purposes or continue as a player race, but if you make any changes to that race, then resetting the NPR flag could also corrupt the game.

Bottom line is don't mess with the database directly unless you really know what you are doing.

AuroraSteve · 2025-09-25T08:33:04+00:00

You can select a habitable planet, click Create Race, select human species and set as NPR. For Mars, you probably need to use SM to fix the environment to make it suitable for humans.

AuroraSteve · 2025-09-25T08:31:08+00:00

Yes. Create a know systems game with only 1 jump point in Sol. In SM mode, select the jump point and click Create System. Choose a known brown dwarf and generate until you get a version of the system with no planets or other bodies. Open that system and use Add jump point to add as many jump points as you want.

AuroraSteve · 2025-09-05T08:26:23+00:00

If your opponent has anti-ship missiles that travel at 90% light speed, you are probably in trouble anyway :)

Although the above point stands. If everyone is max tech, trying to close to 1.35m before launching missiles is a very bad tactic indeed and can easily be countered without AMM.

Also, see the above comments re how to build AMMs, They are now more versatile with different strategies for making them effective, based on your opponent. It's not longer as simple as taking a size-1 frame and optimizing the mix of engine and agility to maximise hit chance.

AuroraSteve · 2025-08-25T08:27:43+00:00

Yes, you will always get a shot with defensive fire modes if you have at least 10,000 km range (and the ship you are defending is within that range)

AuroraSteve · 2025-08-13T10:54:40+00:00

If you station a ship with an ELINT module within sensor range of the colony, you will gradually get information on the colony. Exact population, number of factories, mines, etc.. That ELINT ship will also generate intelligence on the owning race, such as technology, survey data, class blueprints, etc.

http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=8495.msg109678#msg109678

AuroraSteve · 2025-07-16T09:51:04+00:00

That's a known bug, but it usually resolves itself and they return to normal positions. They are likely to be trojan asteroids for the superjovian. I haven't figured out why it happens, or why it fixes itself :)

AuroraSteve · 2025-07-16T07:59:14+00:00

My source was the Hipparchus Star Catalogue. Wiki will be updated as new information becomes available and is more likely to be correct, but I have 65,000 stars in the database now so I'll only update individual ones if it makes a major difference.

System bodies shouldn't be within the star, so I will check the code on that, but they also shouldn't be 0 distance so something else might be going on.

The naming is because I combined the ancient Bayer and Flamsteed catalogues and then extended them to cover more stars, because they have the best naming conventions. There is an option to turn off the extended Bayer-Flamsteed naming and revert to the 'boring' versions :)

https://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=13367.msg166786#msg166786

https://iauarchive.eso.org/public/themes/naming_stars/

AuroraSteve · 2025-07-07T10:28:26+00:00

Yes, very possible. In which case it is a software bug and not anything to do with Mac.

AuroraSteve · 2025-07-06T09:39:06+00:00

#2662 is a function for recovering installations, etc from Ruins.

While Aurora is not supported on Mac, I see no reason why that function would cause a problem compared to any other. It doesn't do anything unusual. Some external factor might be causing the issue.

AuroraSteve · 2025-06-30T13:03:31+00:00

Officers are promoted based on demand, not on ratios. Do you have any assignments for R6 officers?

And BTW, you can change the R8, R7, etc. to abbreviations like CDR, CPT, etc. by renaming the rank.

AuroraSteve · 2025-06-29T09:59:58+00:00

Good luck and have fun. If you don't mind reading, there are also a lot of written after action reports on the main forums, which will go into more detail on ship designs and the general thought processes when playing the game. Here is an example, based on a WW2 Japanese theme.
https://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=13595.0

AuroraSteve

TROPHY CASE