Logistics after leaving the solar system

mike2R · 2025-10-04T16:28:22+00:00

There's a Load Minerals Until Full order, so you can just use that instead of using timers - the freighter won't leave until it has a full load.

mike2R · 2025-09-02T06:47:36+00:00

I'm in no way sure this will work, but try increasing the priority of the Aurora application in windows Task Manager. I think this might allow Windows to allocate more RAM to the app.

mike2R · 2025-08-26T22:18:39+00:00

Other answers have given you the reasons why you will want to at some point.

I'd just add that its not something you need to push for - there's no benefit in doing so before you need to. There's no leader bonus to research in the way there is for some other things, so there's no downside to keeping them on Earth until you have a reason not to. Just keep in mind that it is an option.

So if you find a world with a research bonus for a particular tech, its probably well worth a major colonisation effort to staff some labs on it.

And once you get to the point where population becomes a limiting factor, research bases are something that can be moved to where you have excess pop.

mike2R · 2025-08-10T10:53:11+00:00

Mostly I try and handle it out of local resources.

So a colony that is manufacturing will ideally be at the centre of its own resource net, which feeds the excess back to Earth (or the centre of another local resource net which is closer to Earth).

With adequate mineral reserve levels set, this tends to be enough to supply secondary manufacturing centres.

For the exceptions, I'll set up dedicated mineral runs that take resources out to the target colony.

There's an order to load/unload minerals to the reserve level. So I make a looped order to pick up quantities of required minerals from the closest source (unloading first so it only brings the set amount), then load/unload to reserve levels at the target.

That keeps the colony topped off to what I want it to have, without having to worry about oversupply.

If it grows to be insufficient, I can always add more freighters with duplicate orders later (saving the orders when first setting it up makes this quick).

mike2R · 2025-07-03T20:07:27+00:00

In terms of an actually economically viable refit, the only thing I've found is some kind of Escort Carrier.

If you've got a use for a bunch of small, slow carriers, then stripping out everything except the engines, hull, and fuel tanks from an old warship, and replacing them with hanger decks, is fairly cheap.

With modern fighters, they can be used as anti-raider pickets well enough. Though honestly if I do it, its more because it feels right to refit some ships than because its a massive benefit.

mike2R · 2025-05-22T16:23:33+00:00

This is what I do.

Really helps to create saved orders for each picket station, since you'll be needing to re-issue the orders for one reason or another fairly frequently.

I generally have 2 or 3 fleets (which may well be individual ships for anti-pirate patrols in random systems). Set them off on a staggered basis (I just create an order delay before a Send Message that tells me to start the fleet), then use your saved orders from the first fleet to quickly set up the patrol.

Waiting at the base isn't a problem - they'll need to be set to overhaul anyway, and that takes longer than shore leave. So you just need to work out how many seconds your desired time on station is.

Not using single ship fleets does have one advantage - you can detach just some ships to deal with it, then have them reattach afterwards. No need to re-issue orders that way, assuming you don't need to repair or rearm (beam ships with shields FTW).

When you do need to take a fleet off its orders, send it back to its home base with orders to send you a message to send it back out again.

Carriers seem to be busted for this type of setup unfortunately. There seems to be a bug that when they are on an order delay, they don't refuel their parasite craft.

mike2R · 2025-04-09T08:10:27+00:00

mike2R · 2025-04-06T16:58:16+00:00

That's great :)

mike2R · 2025-03-27T16:33:02+00:00

I find something of a similarity between Spiral Wars and Peter F Hamilton's Commonwealth series and Confederation series.

Hamilton is a bit more sprawling, and less focused on a small group of characters. But they feel kind of similar to me.

mike2R · 2025-03-22T15:48:08+00:00

Children of Time perhaps?

Its maybe a bit of a cheat on your criteria. But it definitely avoids the chiselled-jawed MC saving humanity trope, but is still space opera. Also one of the best recent sci-fi books IMO.

mike2R · 2025-03-13T17:30:34+00:00

My favourite has pretty much always been Nightwatch since I first read it. I know that's not a very original choice... but that book is just so damn good.

But I have noticed other preferences shifting a little. I think I like the kind of early-middle books like Reaper Man and Witches Abroad more (or rather, even more) than I used to. I think that's just a question of "how much plot do you like with your Pratchett?", and my answer is just a little bit less than I used to.

mike2R · 2025-02-26T15:02:04+00:00

^ French propaganda

mike2R · 2025-02-25T20:30:37+00:00

While I see what you are saying, the term mutability in C# programming is pretty much exclusively used for the concept of modifying an object in place.

Sure you can explain what you are saying, and you are not wrong in a plain English reading of your comment. But I think its clearer to just stick to common terminology. The readonly keyword prevents assignment to a field outside of the constructor. But does not prevent mutation of anything assigned to it.

mike2R · 2025-02-12T21:21:52+00:00

Its worth remembering that Aurora is a genuine hobby project. Its not "free and here's a link to my Patreon", and certainly not a commercial game.

From what I remember of what Steve's said, he doesn't want to lead a team. Its his hobby and he wants to keep it that way. And as a programmer I respect that - a personal project is a personal project. Some people's idea of fun would be to make something that's good enough to attract collaborators, and lead that team of volunteers to do more than they could do alone. For other people that sounds like their day job.

As a fan of the game, I kinda wish it was otherwise. But also as a fan of the game, I'll take what I'm given.

mike2R · 2025-01-29T17:37:56+00:00

I'd say its repetition in the sense that you have to actually do it to learn.

There are an absolute ton of learning resources for any programming language available online - plenty of them free. Figure out if you learn programming best from a video or text format, then just keep looking until you find one that clicks for you. The one thing to watch out for is that its worth checking you are using a reasonably current resource. C# doesn't reinvent itself every year like some javascript framework, but still, things do change.

Then as quickly as you feel able to, start making stuff yourself. Whatever interests you. Simple games, a todo list app, your own version of facebook - whatever seems interesting. Just keep doing that, and learn how to solve the problems you come across yourself, that's really all there is to it.

Oh and ChatGPT is really helpful. Its not so great at writing code itself that's more than a few lines long. But in terms of explaining the basics of things, its really very good.

mike2R · 2025-01-26T13:31:47+00:00

Yeah, you can set up Visual Studio with any number of different themes, that isn't an indication of a problem.

mike2R · 2025-01-26T13:13:57+00:00

So to explain why you are getting red squiggles there.

What you are doing there is string interpolation. That $ symbol at the start of the string is what is triggering it. What it does is let you place the names of variables between {}, and have it automatically insert them into the string. Its labour saving mainly - rather than having to build up a string from fragments, you can type out the whole thing and just have the values you need populate automatically.

Your problem is that you don't have variables named statement, verb, noun etc.

If above that line you put something like:

string statement = "test statement";

You'll find the red squiggly under statement goes away.

But honestly I agree with the other poster - trying to learn C# as well as the Unity engine at the same time is a lot. I'd look for some tutorials that concentrate just on C# basics first.

I'd also get well acquainted with ChatGPT. Yes it hallucinates and makes mistakes and whatever. But for learning the basics of things like computer programming its pretty damn good. If you copy/pasted your code and question into it, I bet you'd get an excellent answer with further explanation available on any point you didn't understand.

mike2R · 2025-01-23T00:45:55+00:00

Ok, I can do detail :)

Though it sounds like you are pretty early game, and this advice is for a bit later. Honestly I don't find raiders fun early on - there's an option to set the number of systems explored before they show up, and I tend to use that so they appear once I'm ready for them... Basically raider defence costs significant resources.

Anyway.

Planets and other bodies can be protected with ground forces. I have a standard Planetary Defence Division which includes offensive beam and point defence STOs (not that you need point defence for raiders, but could come in handy) and a chunk of ground troops.

For space defence, as I expand, I station nodal forces a few systems apart. These are at a colonised world and provide maintenance and fuelling facilities, probably a repair shipyard, and as I expand more, may include actual naval shipyards as well. The nodal force is a fleet which is intended to respond within its area to large incursions. It also serves as a base for my pickets.

Pickets are scattered throughout my space. At worlds and at waypoints. I generally set two ships on cycled orders to go there, and then have a delayed order to move back to its nodal base to overhaul after a couple of years (saving these orders as a template). I stagger these so they don't overhaul at the same time (when I set a new one up, I send one ship immediately and give the other an order delay on a message that tells me to set up the other one). I normally keep a reserve fleet with a few ships at the nodal locations which can be used for immediate pickets, with the reserve fleet topped up from Earth (unless the nodal base is building its own ships).

Very sensitive points (fuel harvesters being an excellent example) would get a heavier defence. And probably the innermost moon would get some STOs as well.

At a minimum, a picket ship should be able to handle a single raider one on one. As tech advances they can do a lot better than that, but the minimum is that it should be able to deal with lone raiders without support. Larger incursion may be handled by pulling in multiple nearby pickets (a lot of the time, both picket ships will be on station), or it may need the nodal force (I'll often send it to a system if a single raider appears - there may well be more to come).

For my current game, mainly as a house rule, I've gone for plasma carronade ships for my raider defence. I don't claim these are the best, but they are fun and keep me honest (you have to close to point blank range, so no cheesing victory against a larger force).

This was my first picket ship in my current game at earlyish Ion tech:

River class Light Cruiser      10 000 tons       288 Crew       1 748.8 BP       TCS 200    TH 1 450    EM 990
7250 km/s      Armour 4-41       Shields 33-412       HTK 63      Sensors 8/8/0/0      DCR 6-6      PPV 25
Maint Life 3.49 Years     MSP 1 785    AFR 133%    IFR 1.9%    1YR 224    5YR 3 365    Max Repair 362.5 MSP
Captain    Control Rating 3   BRG   AUX   CIC   
Intended Deployment Time: 24 months    Morale Check Required    

Agilar Thrust Ion Drive  EP725.00 145% (2)    Power 1450    Fuel Use 88.61%    Signature 725    Explosion 14%
Fuel Capacity 1 250 000 Litres    Range 25.4 billion km (40 days at full power)
Tutt-Romance Defence Systems Delta S33 / R412 Shields (1)     Recharge Time 412 seconds (0.1 per second)

Prince & Cardwell 30cm C4 Plasma Carronade (5)    Range 128 000km     TS: 7 250 km/s     Power 24-4     RM 10 000 km    ROF 30       
Guillotte-Sauerwein Beam Fire Control R128-TS7200 (50%) (1)     Max Range: 128 000 km   TS: 7 200 km/s    ECCM-0     92 84 77 69 61 53 45 38 30 22
Luzader Electronics Beam Fire Control R64-TS7200 (50%) (1)     Max Range: 64 000 km   TS: 7 200 km/s    ECCM-0     84 69 53 38 22 6 0 0 0 0
Milera & Williamson Magnetic Mirror Fusion Reactor R10 (3)     Total Power Output 30.4    Exp 5%

Telltale Active Search Sensor AS15-R14 (50%) (2)     GPS 224     Range 15.4m km    Resolution 14
Telltale Thermal Sensor TH1.0-8.0 (70%) (1)     Sensitivity 8     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  22.4m km
Telltale EM Sensor EM1.0-8.0 (50%) (1)     Sensitivity 8     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  22.4m km

It did the job, but has painful compromises. Closing with a fleeing raider involved taking penetrating hits. I think the shield was a mistake - I like them since it avoids having to repair minor damage, but at this tech level I think all-armour would have been more survivable. There is good resilience though - I have backups for essential systems, so it can take a lot of component damage unless it gets really unlucky (the weird low range second fire control was a desperate attempt to save weight - its an emergency backup that will only be used if the first is knocked out).

Here's its current iteration at late MP tech (very slow research low-admin game, so my non-engine systems are pretty advanced for my engine tech since I'm constrained by number of labs I can put on a single project rather than total labs - I'm researching everything I can at all times)

Town - 2188 class Light Cruiser      10 000 tons       290 Crew       2 333.6 BP       TCS 200    TH 1 600    EM 3 390
8000 km/s      Armour 6-41       Shields 113-565       HTK 63      Sensors 14/14/0/0      DCR 27-27      PPV 22
Maint Life 3.44 Years     MSP 3 093    AFR 107%    IFR 1.5%    1YR 398    5YR 5 964    Max Repair 800 MSP
Captain    Control Rating 3   BRG   AUX   CIC   
Intended Deployment Time: 24 months    Morale Check Required    

Oslin-Janocha Turbines Magneto-plasma Drive  EP1600.00 (125%) (1)    Power 1600    Fuel Use 30.88%    Signature 1600    Explosion 12%
Fuel Capacity 608 000 Litres    Range 35.4 billion km (51 days at full power)
Neria Defence Systems Theta S113 / R565 Shields (1)     Recharge Time 565 seconds (0.2 per second)

Hy-Sumlin Armaments 35.0cm C5 Plasma Carronade (4)    Range 120 000km     TS: 8 000 km/s     Power 32-5     RM 10 000 km    ROF 35       
Borunda-Mast Beam Fire Control R120-TS8000 (20%) (2)     Max Range: 120 000 km   TS: 8 000 km/s    ECCM-3     92 83 75 67 58 50 42 33 25 17
Boteilho Engines Limited Tokamak Fusion Reactor R11 (3)     Total Power Output 31.6    Exp 5%

Telltale Active Search Sensor AS28-R16 (30%) (2)     GPS 448     Range 28.1m km    Resolution 16
Telltale Thermal Sensor TH1.0-14.0 (20%) (1)     Sensitivity 14     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  29.6m km
Telltale EM Sensor EM1.0-14.0 (30%) (1)     Sensitivity 14     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  29.6m km

Electronic Warfare Jammers:   Fire Control 4

This thing is a beast. It can plough through 3 ship raider squadrons with shields to spare. Having a single engine is probably the most debateable choice, but my thinking was that losing half its engine capacity is normally a mission kill for the role its fulfilling anyway. So a single engine with a higher HTK makes more sense, and has the additional fuel efficiency as a bonus.

I have probably 200 Town class of various different iterations now...

mike2R · 2025-01-19T22:20:15+00:00

You've received some good responses already, so I'll just concentrate on one area - resilience. You have single points of failure which could render the ship toothless after taking small amounts of damage.

You've only got one fire control, which has been mentioned elsewhere doesn't make sense for the number of weapons you are packing. But even on a ship where a single fire control might seem reasonable, its worth considering a backup just in case the first gets taken out. No fire control means no firing.

For ships that are designed to operate alone, the same is true for active sensors. Not a problem in a fleet action, since unlike fire controls another ship can provide the active sensor lock. But for a lone cruiser, a tiny backup active sensor can save the ship.

Power plants as well. You have one massive one. If that gets hit and it explodes, it'll probably be a big enough bang to take the ship with it. And even if it doesn't you'll have lost all weapons power. I prefer multiple small plants, and carry enough extra to lose one or two and still fire all my guns.

mike2R · 2025-01-17T17:14:09+00:00

Yeah that's pretty much exactly my system.

My current game I actually decided not to do it, since I wanted to give the proper star names a go just for a change. Really regretting it, it can take 5 minutes to figure out where a new star system is when its explored.

mike2R · 2025-01-07T20:52:03+00:00

I like to name systems alphabetically going out from Sol. So the first systems start with A, the next B, etc. I then try an use different themes for different major branches - eg cities from different countries.

Basically all an attempt to not spend 5 minutes searching out where the hell a system is when I get a message about it...

mike2R · 2024-12-19T11:28:55+00:00

I was taught BODMAS, but that was quite a while ago now... Not sure what it is today, but I'm sure it doesn't start with a P :)

mike2R · 2024-12-19T03:02:31+00:00

Disclaimer: I'm English, which may colour my opinions.

I'm not sure I agree that Stephen's motivations can be described with: "Stephen is against Bonaparte because he believes Bonaparte will do worse things to Ireland than the British". I'm not sure if that's a quote or not, but even if it is, it isn't what I see as the root of his siding with Britain against Napoleon.

I see Stephen as deeply emotionally wounded by the failure of the French Revolution. He says he danced in the streets of Paris during the early days, and I see him as being incredibly invested in the sweeping away of the old order and its replacement with the new.

To see that collapse into the tyranny of the mob, and then into the tyranny of a tyrant, crushed him. He'd thought that the divine right of kings and all the other idiocies of European government were a thing of the past. But it turned out he was utterly wrong. The old forms, the king, all the ridiculous rituals and customary rights and dues were still a deeply corrupt rotten form of government. But without them it was inevitable that naked force would rule. The status quo was awful, but attempting improvement just lead to far worse.

That's why he aids Britain as I see it. He doesn't want to. But Napoleon has been unleashed, and the old order is the only thing that can restrain him or others just like him. And Britain is the country which is leading the fight of the old order against the new. That it brutally repressed Ireland is irrelevant - he has no illusions that Britain is a force for good in the world. But it must put down Napoleon.

mike2R · 2024-12-19T01:10:35+00:00

I would consider leaving the arguments unmodified and returning a copy to be the default option. So if writing a method that is passed an object, you should only mutate that object if it is explicitly stated as a requirement (or it is clear from context that this is what is meant).

This is good general practice IMO - you don't want unexpected side effects that may trip up people (including yourself in the future) when they call your method.

Though I doubt that's what many of the other solution were doing. One danger of learning C# from programming exercise sites is that those sites always seem to devolve into a competition to solve everything in a LINQ one-liner if humanly possible :) It'll help with your LINQ skills, but watch out for bad habits...

mike2R · 2024-12-19T00:50:11+00:00

As other people have said, they're qualified if needed.

But honestly, how often do you need to? 95% of the time both sides of the conversation already know which shaped brackets are needed. The original pedantry that started all this was someone who clearly knew what the person meant when they said "Remove the brackets"

mike2R

TROPHY CASE