The Coldest War: You Play Aurora!

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > The Coldest War: You Play Aurora!

bgreman: Oct 8, 2005; ASK ME ABOUT STICKING WITH A YEARS-LONG LETS PLAY OF THE MOST COMPLICATED SPACE SIMULATION GAME INVENTED, PLAYING BOTH SIDES, AND SPENDING HOURS GOING ABOVE AND BEYOND TO ENSURE INTERNET STRANGERS ENJOY THEMSELVES

berryjon posted:

FROM: the desk Colonel berryjon
58th Armor Command "Rocket and Roll"
TO: UN COMMAND

Please use the York to deliver 1 full shipment of colony supplies to Mars immediately, and send the Xeno Team there to investigate the ruins. We need this, and we need it more than the Federation does.

And we can enforce our claim with our ability to send colonists as soon as they become available.

I should note that teams require no infrastructure to be placed to support them. It is assumed the team carries with it the means to support itself during the time it conducts its activities. Like a scientific outpost. It would actually be sort of cool if you had to track this as well, but I can see how it would be annoying.

# ? Apr 16, 2012 05:44

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? Apr 26, 2024 08:31

Lord Windy: Mar 26, 2010

FROM: The Desk of Lord Windy
TO: UNEC
Re: Mars

I request a full, military response in claiming Mars under the umbrella of Earth. All resources should be put forward to claiming it, and manning some PDC, new age troops and creating weapons to hold it.

I request a UN vote starting immediately for permission to bend the resources of our nations into taking and holding Mars under our direction for the time being until we have a new colony and a credible defence.

I vote Yes

# ? Apr 16, 2012 06:21

Ynkling: Mar 22, 2012; For these reasons I vote for granting UN membership to our moon.

FROM: Ynkling, Dept. of R&D
RE: Mars

They said I was crazy when I said that Atlantis was real and also on Mars, but who's crazy now?!?!

Judging by the amount of pokes I'm getting on SpaceBook, everybody else is as excited as I am. Like Lord Windy said, we need to get to that city and claim the hell out of it.
I don't think that we should claim the entirety of Mars, however, especially since we have no space military assets.

I do believe that we should get a xeno team there on the double, followed by some ground troops to enforce our claim. I put forward the suggestion of the CO of the 57 LTA "Think Tanks" in regards to how to get them there.

Revised Research Order:

Give Dr. Slaan access to all 25 of our labs for his power plant project. Upon completion direct Dr. Slaan to design some military engines based on his previous project with the full 25 labs.

When the power plant and military engines are completed, give Dr. Eumenides 15 labs to look into automated Cargo Handling systems, Dr. Magicboots 10 labs for the Cryogenics project, and Dr. Barrelfox 5 labs for his research into Active Sensors.

Edit: Yes I did

Ynkling fucked around with this message at 07:13 on Apr 16, 2012

# ? Apr 16, 2012 07:08

bgreman: Oct 8, 2005; ASK ME ABOUT STICKING WITH A YEARS-LONG LETS PLAY OF THE MOST COMPLICATED SPACE SIMULATION GAME INVENTED, PLAYING BOTH SIDES, AND SPENDING HOURS GOING ABOVE AND BEYOND TO ENSURE INTERNET STRANGERS ENJOY THEMSELVES

SPERMCUBE.ORG posted:

Can we get an image showing us Mars' current position relative to Earth, please?

We could also wait the 18 days for our Nuclear Thermal Engines to finish researching, design some military engines at 120rp with as many labs as we can spare under Dr. Slaan, and then slap together a fast shuttle. Something small with only 1 military engine on it and nothing else. Not even engineering spaces. Basically a UN version of the red's Krivak. Except this one would travel at 2777 km/s.
Our one big break is that our Military shipyard is not tooled for anything and can be immediately set to produce a new design. I'd guess that construction on such a shuttle could begin in about one month. Construction would take about 2 1/2 months. Travel time to Mars is too short to actually matter.

I don't think we can make this decision without knowing the current distance and position of Mars though. It might be a trip a York could make.

Mars is directly opposite Earth from the Sun right now, the worst case scenario, about 340m km. The USMS York would take about 109 days to make the trip, plus or minus a few hours to pick up the team.

If we wait 18 days, plus an estimate of two weeks to design an engine and create a ship design, then retool Versailles yard (instant and free), then build this minimal shuttle (75 days), we're looking at just about 109 days. Give or take ten to be conservative.

Ynkling posted:

Revised Research Order:

Give Dr. Slaan access to all 20 of our labs for his power plant project. Upon completion direct Dr. Slaan to design some military engines based on his previous project with the full 20 labs.

Did you mean all 25 of our labs?

bgreman fucked around with this message at 07:11 on Apr 16, 2012

# ? Apr 16, 2012 07:09

berryjon: May 30, 2011; I have an invasion to go to.

bgreman posted:

I should note that teams require no infrastructure to be placed to support them. It is assumed the team carries with it the means to support itself during the time it conducts its activities. Like a scientific outpost. It would actually be sort of cool if you had to track this as well, but I can see how it would be annoying.

My intent was to have some infrastructure on the ground for when the Colonists do arrive. I have an aversion to sending empty cargo containers around, when they could be moving material that is useful now or in the future and as such saw using the York just to deliver the Xeno team to be a waste.

# ? Apr 16, 2012 07:16

SPERMCUBE.ORG: Nov 3, 2011; Space commies are th' biggest threat t' red-blooded American Freedom we got in th' future. So me and my boys got to talking over a few hot dogs the other day and this is what we came up with...

In my last post at the bottom of the last page I asked for a screenshot showing us the positions of Earth and Mars so we could decide the best way to get a team there. I suspected that post was in a perfect place to be overlooked so I went and checked it out myself. I think this is what the inner system looks like as of May 7th 2026:

Pretty much the worst possible configuration of the planets for a York-based mission. The freighter couldn't reach Mars for 119 days. It wouldn't be any faster than waiting for TNE engines and designing a new fast shuttle to make the trip.
This was just all kinds of bad timing.

EDIT: Oh, you saw the post. Looks like I didn't need to do this after all. Whoops!

SPERMCUBE.ORG fucked around with this message at 07:20 on Apr 16, 2012

# ? Apr 16, 2012 07:17

Ynkling: Mar 22, 2012; For these reasons I vote for granting UN membership to our moon.

bgreman I edited my post above to account for the extra 5 labs.

The alignment of Mars and Earth combined with the bodunk nature of the York make me vote for designing a new craft with TNE engines, like SPERMCUBE.ORG said. It feels like a waste to limit it to a simple ferrying role, though.

# ? Apr 16, 2012 07:24

Lord Windy: Mar 26, 2010

Ynkling posted:

bgreman I edited my post above to account for the extra 5 labs.

The alignment of Mars and Earth combined with the bodunk nature of the York make me vote for designing a new craft with TNE engines, like SPERMCUBE.ORG said. It feels like a waste to limit it to a simple ferrying role, though.

It's very, very important now that I get access to Active Sensors, Missile engine, missile technology, and laser technology in the meantime. Would you be happy to press extra labs into the service of that once we have a better engine?

I'd be happy with the first 2 at the very least. I need new missiles and a way of firing them.

# ? Apr 16, 2012 09:05

Jimmy4400nav: Apr 1, 2011; Ambassador to Moonlandia

From U.N Industrial Command
C.C: The Mars Question

U.N Industrial Commands votes Yes for the science team being sent, how they are sent is up to the military, commercial shipping and the labs. Our two cents is that whatever get us there the quickest should be pursued, but if both routes will take us approximately the same time, then lets go for the one that does not require our research to shift around. We just rolled out a new York ship, so we might want to use it.

# ? Apr 16, 2012 09:24

Lord Windy: Mar 26, 2010

Jimmy4400nav posted:

From U.N Industrial Command
C.C: The Mars Question

U.N Industrial Commands votes Yes for the science team being sent, how they are sent is up to the military, commercial shipping and the labs. Our two cents is that whatever get us there the quickest should be pursued, but if both routes will take us approximately the same time, then lets go for the one that does not require our research to shift around. We just rolled out a new York ship, so we might want to use it.

Why not do both? Our new ship might even get there before hand

As soon as I have an engine, I'll start a prototype for a new gunship or some sort to use as planet defence until we can get a new PDC up and running

# ? Apr 16, 2012 09:45

Veloxyll: May 3, 2011; Fuck you say?!

From: CMDR Veloxyll
C.C: The Mars Question

Reccomending that the Galicia hulls be re-engineered as follows to conduct Martian operations:

code:

Galicia M class Passenger Cruiser    500 tons     48 Crew     63 BP      TCS 10  TH 25  EM 0
2500 km/s     Armour 1-5     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
Maint Life 33.93 Years     MSP 79    AFR 2%    IFR 0%    1YR 0    5YR 2    Max Repair 12 MSP

Take that Commies (1)    Power 25    Fuel Use 100%    Signature 25    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 50,000 Litres    Range 180.0 billion km   (833 days at full power)

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

code:

Take that Commies engine design

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

If industrial command or military command wants more versatility from it once it's done ferrying our team to Mars, we could consider adding a geological survey pod on. If we do so, I recommend we switch our industries over to build the sensor during the two weeks before we can start laying the keel. This will also allow us to start surveying planetary bodies without having to launch probes from Earth.

# ? Apr 16, 2012 10:10

DagPenge: Jun 4, 2011; Looks like our civilians are fine, thank god for the capitalist spirit!

From: CMDR DagPenge
C.C: The Mars Question

Alien ruins on Mars? This is the discovery of the decade! It might even overshadow our advances in TN materials!
We have to dedicate ourselfs to getting there first, if they find some way of living there in those ruins, then their stupid shuttlecraft will be more than a propaganda victory. We cannot allow this and thus i vote YES to focusing on Mars untill it's secure.

Remember when you need to move infrastructure or other stuff to Mars, I have extensive training in that and will be more than willing to put in extra hours, so we can be sure to beat the reds.

# ? Apr 16, 2012 10:25

Captain Foo: May 11, 2004; we vibin'
we slidin'
we breathin'
we dyin'

Lord Windy posted:

FROM: The Desk of Lord Windy
TO: UNEC
Re: Mars

I request a full, military response in claiming Mars under the umbrella of Earth. All resources should be put forward to claiming it, and manning some PDC, new age troops and creating weapons to hold it.

I request a UN vote starting immediately for permission to bend the resources of our nations into taking and holding Mars under our direction for the time being until we have a new colony and a credible defence.

I vote Yes

As a military commander, I feel obligated to show support for this goal.

# ? Apr 16, 2012 11:52

ArchangeI: Jul 15, 2010

Do keep in mind that in order to recover alien structures, you have to ship over an engineering brigade, which takes five (5) Troop Transport bays and can not be split up. The necessary troop transport will probably be about 10-20k tons in size and will have to be military.

Unless you ship over a Ground Unit facility to Mars and recruit locally...

# ? Apr 16, 2012 12:22

Veloxyll: May 3, 2011; Fuck you say?!

ArchangeI posted:

Do keep in mind that in order to recover alien structures, you have to ship over an engineering brigade, which takes five (5) Troop Transport bays and can not be split up. The necessary troop transport will probably be about 10-20k tons in size and will have to be military.

Unless you ship over a Ground Unit facility to Mars and recruit locally...

It'll be a lot easier for us to ship/wait for if we have a base on Mars already. Instead of having to run a Commie blockade to grab it.

# ? Apr 16, 2012 12:27

throw to first DAMN IT: Apr 10, 2007; This whole thread has been raging at the people who don't want Saracen invasion to their homes

Perhaps you too should be more accepting of their cultures

FROM: Resource Acquisition
TO: UNEC

The discovered mineral resources on Mars are nice but not very exciting, as they are about comperable to Luna while being far harder to get to.

However, the presence of alien ruins changes everything, we must secure them before the Feds can, at all costs.

We have to send research team there as soon as possible and I approve the goal of establishing a military base on Mars. I also encourage our researchers to focus their efforts into developing ways to transport our ground forces there to allow us to secure and how to train them into assisting our local research teams in salvaging the ruins.

I cannot stress how vital it is that it is us who claim those ruins instead of the Feds.

# ? Apr 16, 2012 12:59

Mikl: Nov 8, 2009; Vote shit sandwich or the shit sandwich gets it!

FROM: Commander Tarquin Mikl, UN Lunar Geosurvey Team
TO: All UN personnel

I'm in space!

Well, on the Moon, actually.

Anyway, if I train the geosurvey instruments on Earth (I know I wasn't supposed to do that, but I was on break) I can see my house from here!

...All right, back to work I guess.

FROM: Commander Tarquin Mikl
TO: God / bgreman

In one of your latest post (the one showing my assignement to the Geosurvey team) you posted the same image twice. Just letting you know.

# ? Apr 16, 2012 13:35

Triskelli: Sep 27, 2011; I AM A SKELETON
WITH VERY HIGH
STANDARDS

Lord Windy posted:

FROM: The Desk of Lord Windy
TO: UNEC
Re: Mars

I request a full, military response in claiming Mars under the umbrella of Earth. All resources should be put forward to claiming it, and manning some PDC, new age troops and creating weapons to hold it.

I request a UN vote starting immediately for permission to bend the resources of our nations into taking and holding Mars under our direction for the time being until we have a new colony and a credible defence.

I vote Yes

I also vote Yes

# ? Apr 16, 2012 16:58

Triskelli: Sep 27, 2011; I AM A SKELETON
WITH VERY HIGH
STANDARDS

bgreman posted:

In summary, it may be worthwhile to still build the second York-class in the meantime, but retooling for Galicia should probably wait until updated engine designs come out.

I'll accept your advice. Wait for the updated engine designs and configure the Galicia liner to use them. The existing infrastructure on Mars should be able to support some colonists without importing our own.

# ? Apr 16, 2012 17:00

SPERMCUBE.ORG: Nov 3, 2011; Space commies are th' biggest threat t' red-blooded American Freedom we got in th' future. So me and my boys got to talking over a few hot dogs the other day and this is what we came up with...

Veloxyll posted:

From: CMDR Veloxyll
C.C: The Mars Question

Reccomending that the Galicia hulls be re-engineered as follows to conduct Martian operations:
code:
Galicia M class Passenger Cruiser    500 tons     48 Crew     63 BP      TCS 10  TH 25  EM 0
2500 km/s     Armour 1-5     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
Maint Life 33.93 Years     MSP 79    AFR 2%    IFR 0%    1YR 0    5YR 2    Max Repair 12 MSP

Take that Commies (1)    Power 25    Fuel Use 100%    Signature 25    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 50,000 Litres    Range 180.0 billion km   (833 days at full power)

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
code:
Take that Commies engine design

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
If industrial command or military command wants more versatility from it once it's done ferrying our team to Mars, we could consider adding a geological survey pod on. If we do so, I recommend we switch our industries over to build the sensor during the two weeks before we can start laying the keel. This will also allow us to start surveying planetary bodies without having to launch probes from Earth.

FROM: The Tank of SPERMCUBE.ORG
CO of the 57th LTA "Think Tanks"
TO: CMDR Veloxyll, Spacebook Contacts

The problem with designing a new ship just to get a team on Mars first is that it only saves us about 1 or 2 days over a standard York-based mission. It isn't very worth it.

That's why I had my guys design a scale model of the inner system out of tanks and jeeps and ropes and stuff. Anyhow we came up with something we're calling The Optimal Mars Trajectory Mission. Basically the problem is if you tell CMDR Zyrden to go drop some guys off at Mars he'll just point his slow-rear end ship at Mars and take off. But Mars moves and eventually he'll end up behind it chasing after it like the Coyote. What the OMTM does is it tells Zyrden to go to a place Mars will be when he gets there. Or close enough. Here's what it looks like:

WP 1 is the destination. It's a point in space 339m km away from earth. With this trajectory I figure we can get our freighter to Mars by August 12th. That's about 25 days sooner than just letting Zyrden go screw around behind Mars.

# ? Apr 16, 2012 18:21

Zyrden: Mar 25, 2012; Climbing gear.

SPERMCUBE.ORG posted:

Mars moves

That's not mentioned in the "So you wanna be a freighter captain" handbook. I don't trust this information.

# ? Apr 16, 2012 18:41

bgreman: Oct 8, 2005; ASK ME ABOUT STICKING WITH A YEARS-LONG LETS PLAY OF THE MOST COMPLICATED SPACE SIMULATION GAME INVENTED, PLAYING BOTH SIDES, AND SPENDING HOURS GOING ABOVE AND BEYOND TO ENSURE INTERNET STRANGERS ENJOY THEMSELVES

Zyrden posted:

That's not mentioned in the "So you wanna be a freighter captain" handbook. I don't trust this information.

He's right about it in this case. Just in case people are worried that we're going to be calculating planetary intercepts all day in this thread, this really only matters for ships with speeds on the same order as planetary orbital velocity. Once we have Trans-Newtonian engines, this won't be a problem.

# ? Apr 16, 2012 19:28

SPERMCUBE.ORG: Nov 3, 2011; Space commies are th' biggest threat t' red-blooded American Freedom we got in th' future. So me and my boys got to talking over a few hot dogs the other day and this is what we came up with...

Zyrden posted:

That's not mentioned in the "So you wanna be a freighter captain" handbook. I don't trust this information.

Man, you can't learn to be a freighter captain by reading books. You either got it or you don't. So tell me, do you got it?

# ? Apr 17, 2012 00:47

Captain Foo: May 11, 2004; we vibin'
we slidin'
we breathin'
we dyin'

SPERMCUBE.ORG posted:

Man, you can't learn to be a freighter captain by reading books. You either got it or you don't. So tell me, do you got it?

Hell yeah I got it!

# ? Apr 17, 2012 00:48

Veloxyll: May 3, 2011; Fuck you say?!

SPERMCUBE.ORG posted:

FROM: The Tank of SPERMCUBE.ORG
CO of the 57th LTA "Think Tanks"
TO: CMDR Veloxyll, Spacebook Contacts

The problem with designing a new ship just to get a team on Mars first is that it only saves us about 1 or 2 days over a standard York-based mission. It isn't very worth it.

From: CMDR Veloxyll
To: SPERMCUBE.ORG
C.C.: Mars Question Discussion
Re: York class instead

That's another reason for the Geo sensor variant - a few days of our Construction Yards slaved to building the sensors, and we have a ship that can deliver our teams to whatever location in system we desire, but we can commence preliminary surveys of the asteroid belt and outer system after, without having to repeatedly send probes. A surveying captain can take a Galicia M and just visit the sights of the galaxy, scanning as he (or she) goes.

(It's 1000 tons exactly with 2 geo sensors >.>)

Of course, this decision is ultimately up to our industrial, shipyard, and military planners. But it's something to consider.

Though the York could set out for Mars immediately on that vector with colonial infrastructure regardless. This find certainly justifies a presence on Mars regardless of how we deliver our resources.

# ? Apr 17, 2012 01:01

SPERMCUBE.ORG: Nov 3, 2011; Space commies are th' biggest threat t' red-blooded American Freedom we got in th' future. So me and my boys got to talking over a few hot dogs the other day and this is what we came up with...

FROM: The Tank of SPERMCUBE.ORG
CO of the 57th LTA "Think Tanks"
TO: CMDR Veloxyll, Spacebook Contacts

But if the immediate goal is to just get a science team to Mars as soon as possible then the best way to go is to pack the York freighter with the guys and send it to the waypoint I described earlier. That's the quickest it can be done. We'll still need survey ships too but if we waited for one to finish construction then the Federation will almost definitely finish analyzing the Mars ruins first. So a survey ship and the transport of a team to Mars are kinda two different issues.

I think it's also important to point out that this team will probably take a pretty long time to finish its work. They gotta make sure that they don't step on any alien snowglobes or defile any weird graves and stuff like that. So they work slow. That goes for the commies too. And their team may be less skilled than ours so even if they begin before us we could still beat them. But then what? We don't have any Engineers to send at all. They probably don't either. This ruin is not going to be exploited by either side for a long time. I wouldn't recommend canceling our current research projects in a rush to claim it. The best course of action right now might just be to send our team and keep our current research projects. When those are done Mars can be settled rapidly.

# ? Apr 17, 2012 01:53

bgreman: Oct 8, 2005; ASK ME ABOUT STICKING WITH A YEARS-LONG LETS PLAY OF THE MOST COMPLICATED SPACE SIMULATION GAME INVENTED, PLAYING BOTH SIDES, AND SPENDING HOURS GOING ABOVE AND BEYOND TO ENSURE INTERNET STRANGERS ENJOY THEMSELVES

The orders I went with were picking up a Xeno team and some infrastructure on Earth, using SPERMCUBE.ORG's (whose contributions to this thread make him the 13th most popular result for "spermcube.org" Google Searches) plan to get to Mars, and dumping all labs into engine research.

UN, 7th May 2026

The USMS York, is given classified orders to complete its current delivery cycle and then return to Earth.

UN, 10th May 2026

USMS York arrives in Earth orbit after delivering another load of infrastructure to Tranquility. There it loads up another 2500 tonnes of colony materials. Before breaking orbit, a LEO-based shuttle makes a covert transfer of personnel and equipment. Shortly thereafter, USMS York heads out on a vector carrying it into interplanetary space.

UN, 11th May 2026, 07:50 UTC

From: UNIN Intel Office
To: UNEC
Re: Federation Contacts

Sirs, less than nine hours after USMS York began the execution of Operation Total Recall, the Federation craft designated Krivak 003 (the second Krivak-class vessel) reappeared on the DSTS at 05:56 UTC, making directly for Earth.

Be wary of surmising that the Federation is somehow aware of our plans. Our calculations suggest that the timing of Krivak 003's return to Earth correspond with its last known position at Saturn and the known speed of the vessel. It is likely the ship has been en route to Earth all these months and only just returned.

The craft paused for roughly 20 minutes in Earth orbit before setting off on a direct course from Mars. We can only assume that Krivak 002 was too far away to serve as a shuttle for whatever xenology team the Federation has put together, and the Federation was waiting on this vessel to pick up their team. Estimates put Krivak 003 at Mars in roughly 40 days, less than half the time it will take the York to reach its destination.

We lost contact with the ship moments ago.

UN, 14th May 2026

RADM Stansberry reorganizes his HQ policy, increasing the effectiveness of the entire Fleet Headquarters.

UN, 16th May 2026

The McKiernan Transport Corporation becomes the first company in the world to launch its own TNE-based spacecraft. Purchasing a license to construct York-class freighters, the company hopes to eventually participate in Earth-Tranquility trade.

Elsewhere, CDRE Barielles's recent stint teaching a seminar at the UN Military Academy receives excellent reviews from its students.

UN, 22nd May 2026

The crash research program into TNE-based nuclear thermal engines completes. Calls for bids for the engine contracts went out several weeks before, with the following proposals being accepted.

Military-rated Engine

code:

Pratt & Whitney 25000M-E100 Nuclear Thermal Engine
Power Output: 25     Explosion Chance: 5     Efficiency: 1    Thermal Signature: 25
Engine Size: 5 HS    Engine HTK: 2
Cost: �12 million    Crew: 25
Materials Required: 3x Duranium  0x Neutronium  9x Gallicite

Development Cost for Project: 120RP, �120 million

Commercial-rated Engine

code:

General Electric M62500E10 Nuclear Thermal Engine
Power Output: 62.5     Explosion Chance: 1     Efficiency: 0.1    Thermal Signature: 62.5
Engine Size: 25 HS    Engine HTK: 1
Cost: �16 million    Crew: 25
Materials Required: 4x Duranium  0x Neutronium  12x Gallicite

Development Cost for Project: 160RP, �160 million

Dr. Slaan is immediately reassigned to conduct end-stage prototype testing on the two designs, starting with the P&W engine.

Research Unlocked
Power and Propulsion

Fast Attack Craft Engine (max one per ship) Cost: 4000 RP, �4 billion. Description: Drastic engine modification for small, fast ships. Double normal power but uses 10x fuel and is 3x more likely to explode when hit. A ship using this engine type may mount only one engine. By using a duranium-based special combustion manifold on a standard military-grade engine, its power can be doubled. However, the non-optimal geometry of the manifold increases fuel consumption ten-fold, and the inherently fragile nature of the addition makes the entire assembly more prone to catastrophic failure. The intricate ICEF-based fuel injection fields required to supply fuel to the manifold limits ships to one engine of this type, as more than one device exhibits interference effects when in proximity.
Fighter Engine (max one per ship) Cost: 12000 RP, �12 billion. Description: Drastic engine modification for very small, fast ships. Triple normal power but uses 100x fuel and is 5x more likely to explode when hit. A ship using this engine type may mount only one engine. Fitting an ICEF-based afterburner to a standard military-grade engine can triple its power output, but consumes one hundred times as much fuel, and if the field loses burn containment even instantaneously, the entire assembly is likely to undergo failure. The ICEF fields used to contain the reburnt ReSor are delicate and finely tuned, and only one can be present because of potential interference effects.
Nuclear Thermal Missile Drive: 1.25 per MSP Cost: 1000 RP, �1 billion. Description: The power per MSP provided by this drive. Applying common TNE miniaturization techniques to standard TNE-based nuclear thermal engines allows the powerful drives to be shrunk to missile scale.

UN, 1st June 2026

In one of the most impressive feats of science and engineering of all time, Dr. Slaan and his team are able to utilize every bit of research capacity the UN possesses to complete the entirety of validation and verification testing of the Pratt & Whitney engine in just over eight days. They immediately begin work on the General Electric design.

UN, 10th June 2026

Nine days later, Dr. Slaan's team completes work on the commercial-rated engine.

Industry

Also included in this image is a list of the ship/pdc components you can construct.

Mining

Shipyards

I need shipyard instructions, including any updated designs. Triskelli is in command of the commercial yard, Lord Windy is in command of the military yard.

Research

Based on the back-and-forth in the thread, this is what I assumed a compromise effort would look like, considering that Lord Windy's proposal to attempt to claim Mars militarily received a majority Yes decision. The final decision on this research order lies with Ynkling and I will wait on at least that to continue.

bgreman fucked around with this message at 08:20 on Apr 17, 2012

# ? Apr 17, 2012 07:46

Lord Windy: Mar 26, 2010

FROM: The Desk of Lord Windy, Director of Defence and Procurement
TO: UNEC

Thank you Gentlemen (and possible ladies or ladymen) for you vote of confidence in our attempt to rush to the moon.

I can't waste precious time creating a useless vessel just yet, but when I get back to my Department in our Super Secret(tm) Location in Sydney, Australia I will draw up a ship plan along with missile weaponry.

Now, if you'd be so kind. Can I see the size of the shipyard I have to work with? I want to use all the tonnage I can.

# ? Apr 17, 2012 08:25

SPERMCUBE.ORG: Nov 3, 2011; Space commies are th' biggest threat t' red-blooded American Freedom we got in th' future. So me and my boys got to talking over a few hot dogs the other day and this is what we came up with...

bgreman posted:

SPERMCUBE.ORG's (whose contributions to this thread make him the 13th most popular result for "spermcube.org" Google Searches)

We'll get there, man. But why would you google that?

Do we have a contract with our civilians for infrastructure to the moon city or does whatshisface need to order that first?

# ? Apr 17, 2012 11:51

Triskelli: Sep 27, 2011; I AM A SKELETON
WITH VERY HIGH
STANDARDS

SPERMCUBE.ORG posted:

Do we have a contract with our civilians for infrastructure to the moon city or does whatshisface need to order that first?

That's Mr. Whatshisface. :colbert:

I don't see why I would need to micromanage every aspect of civilian trading (invisible hand of the market and all that), but let's go ahead and create a civilian contract for Earth-Luna infrastructure. Hopefully this will allow us to focus on the race for Mars.

# ? Apr 17, 2012 15:45

bgreman: Oct 8, 2005; ASK ME ABOUT STICKING WITH A YEARS-LONG LETS PLAY OF THE MOST COMPLICATED SPACE SIMULATION GAME INVENTED, PLAYING BOTH SIDES, AND SPENDING HOURS GOING ABOVE AND BEYOND TO ENSURE INTERNET STRANGERS ENJOY THEMSELVES

Triskelli posted:

That's Mr. Whatshisface.

I don't see why I would need to micromanage every aspect of civilian trading (invisible hand of the market and all that), but let's go ahead and create a civilian contract for Earth-Luna infrastructure. Hopefully this will allow us to focus on the race for Mars.

Civilian contracts (which will be covered in an update soon) are more like the government hiring civilian freighters to move specific installations (or infrastructure). Civs also produce their own infrastructure (but not installations) and move those automatically. I'll set the contract for 100 infrastructure for now, to get that civilian York moving, instead of heading out into deep space as it is currently doing.

# ? Apr 17, 2012 16:31

Triskelli: Sep 27, 2011; I AM A SKELETON
WITH VERY HIGH
STANDARDS

bgreman posted:

I'll set the contract for 100 infrastructure for now, to get that civilian York moving, instead of heading out into deep space as it is currently doing.

Wait, why was it heading to deep space again? I thought the York was only suitable for earth-moon runs...

# ? Apr 17, 2012 17:01

throw to first DAMN IT: Apr 10, 2007; This whole thread has been raging at the people who don't want Saracen invasion to their homes

Perhaps you too should be more accepting of their cultures

Lord Windy posted:

Now, if you'd be so kind. Can I see the size of the shipyard I have to work with? I want to use all the tonnage I can.

From eyeballing the expansion rate, I would guess that it's about 2600 tons right now.

Triskelli posted:

Wait, why was it heading to deep space again? I thought the York was only suitable for earth-moon runs...

We are sending York to Mars right now, they can reach the inner planets, they are just very slow at it. I think.

# ? Apr 17, 2012 17:15

SPERMCUBE.ORG: Nov 3, 2011; Space commies are th' biggest threat t' red-blooded American Freedom we got in th' future. So me and my boys got to talking over a few hot dogs the other day and this is what we came up with...

Triskelli posted:

Wait, why was it heading to deep space again? I thought the York was only suitable for earth-moon runs...

Civilians. :downs:

Sometimes they see the big emptiness of space and go mad.

# ? Apr 17, 2012 17:20

bgreman: Oct 8, 2005; ASK ME ABOUT STICKING WITH A YEARS-LONG LETS PLAY OF THE MOST COMPLICATED SPACE SIMULATION GAME INVENTED, PLAYING BOTH SIDES, AND SPENDING HOURS GOING ABOVE AND BEYOND TO ENSURE INTERNET STRANGERS ENJOY THEMSELVES

SPERMCUBE.ORG posted:

We'll get there, man. But why would you google that?

I was trying to see if you had used this name elsewhere on the internet so I could contact you, since you don't appear to have PMs. Instead I got hundreds of blogs talking about that artist's piece. But our thread is on page 2!

Civilian Contracts and Industrial Status

This tab of the Population and Production screen gives details about the civilian shipping industry, as well as the status of various industrial sectors for the population.

This pane allows you to set up civilian transport contracts. Installation Type contains a list of shippable installations. Contract Amount is the amount of the selected installation you want transported or delivered. Supply and Demand set whether this is a supply or demand contract. Outstanding Contracts / Contracts in Progress list the contracts this population has set up, and those that are under way. Add Contract adds a contract for the chosen quantity of the selected installation type to this population. Cancel cancels the selected contract.

Contracts are basically a way of making your civilian shipping move installations you construct for you, instead of using your own freighters. The general gist is you set up a supply contract on a the world that is the source of your chosen installation, and then a demand contract on the population that should receive the installation. Civilian ships, when making their decision about what trade runs to carry out, will consider picking up your installations and delivering them. These contracts are prioritized in their logic. However, civs will only search a maximum of four jumps from their location for trade opportunities. If we set up a supply contract at Earth, and a demand contract five jumps away, civilians will never consider that as an option. You'd have to set up an interim logistics hub (and this can tend to leave your freighters stuck on the 'rim' of your explored systems).

Each delivery costs your empire 5 wealth for a same-system delivery and 10 wealth for an interstellar delivery. This wealth is added to the funds of the shipping line that completes the contract.

Shippable Installations

Automated Mine

Construction Factory

Deep Space Tracking Station

Fighter Factory

Fuel Refinery

Genetic Modification Center

Infrastructure

Maintenance Facility

Mass Driver

Mine

Ordnance Factory

Research Lab

Terraforming Installation

Not-Shippable Installations

Commercial and Naval Shipyard Complexes (but you can tow them with tug-equipped ships)

Commercial Spaceport

Financial Centre

Ground Force Training Facility

Military Academy

These must be built in-situ.

Here you can set whether the current population is a Destination of Colonists, Source of Colonists, or Stable. Civilian passenger ships (those having cryogenic transport of luxury passenger accommodations) will pick up colonists from source worlds and deliver them to destination worlds. By default, colonies with population greater than 25 million are treated as sources.

This pane lets you turn off various industrial sectors at the selected population. You might want to do this if you are experiencing a worker shortage (on a new colony, perhaps). If there are not enough workers to cover all production, the production of every industry on the planet is reduced by an amount proportional to the shortfall. For example, if your colony requires 5 million manufacturing workers, but only 1 million is available, all production is cut to 20% Turning off industrial sectors will cut down on the amount of required workers, allowing the remaining active industries to be more effective. Taking the previous example, if 4 million of the workers were for construction factories, and the other one million were for research, turning off construction would let the research facilities work at 100% efficiency. Turning off research would let the construction factories run at (1 million / 4 million) = 25% efficiency. This functionality will be controlled solely by the colony's Civilian Administrator.

Pressing Shut Down next to any industrial sector will turn off production for that sector. This happens instantly. Reactivation takes six months.

This pane lists all the known civilian ships for your empire. I'm not sure whether it is listing already-constructed ships or civilian ships currently being constructed. I guess I'll know when the next York pops out.

Civilian Trade

This pane is the bottom of the Wealth / Trade tab on the Population and Production screen.

Trading is conducted solely by civilian ships. The trade goods are as follows:

Basic Goods

Consumer Electronics (Pop required: 10 million)

Civilian Transport (5 million)

Textiles (3 million)

Chemicals (5 million)

Machinery (3 million)

Pharmaceuticals (5 million)

Plastics (5 million)

Construction Materials (3 million)

Luxury Goods

Ancient Artifacts (produced only on worlds with alien ruins) (10 million)

Precious Metals (10 million)

Spices (20 million)

Luxury Foods (20 million)

Wines (20 million)

Furs (20 million)

Entertainment Products (20 million)

Illegal Goods

Recreational Drugs (10 million)

Trade goods do not become produced or demanded until the population of a colony reaches the size indicated above for each good. The basic demand for a good (except infrastructure) is equal to the population of the colony in millions. About 3/4 of the goods will be produced at a rate of 0-100% of the basic demand. The rest will be produced between 100-400%. This represents colony specialization. Some populations will be net exporters, and some will be net importers, but with a large enough sample size, the economy should be fairly balanced. These goods cost your empire nothing tangible to produce (no TNEs, no wealth, etc).

As an example, the current UN population is 2555.1 million. That means that each trade good (except infrastructure) has a demand of 2555.1 units. Most trade goods are produced in smaller quantities than this (chemicals, consumer electronics, etc). These goods therefore have a shortfall, and require imports to meet demand. Other goods are produced in quantities greater than the demand (precious metals, infrastructure). These have a surplus, and are available for export.

The maximum supply and demand are capped at one year's production of the good, to avoid huge surpluses of goods no one else wants.

I will discuss civilian-traded infrastructure a little further down.

The size of a unit of trade good is 2500 tonnes, so two units can fit in a cargo hold. When a freighter picks up goods at a colony, that colony's empire receives 0.5 wealth per trade good (taxing the manufacturer of the good). When the freighter delivers the goods to a colony, that freighter's empire receives 0.5 wealth per trade good (taxing the shipping line's profit).

There are thus several tax situations. For these examples, consider trade between the UN and the Federation.

Case 1: Source colony: UN, Destination colony: UN or Federation, Freighter flag: UN. In this case, we get the full 1.0 wealth per trade good (0.5 per on taxing the good manufacturer, 0.5 per good on taxing the shipping line upon delivery).

Case 2: Source colony: UN, Destination colony: UN or Federation, Freighter flag: Federation. In this case, we only get the 0.5 wealth export tax from the good manufacturer. The Federation would collect the other 0.5 wealth upon delivery by taxing its freighter.

Case 3: Source colony: Federation, Destionation colony: UN or Federation, Freighter flag: UN. In this case, we only get the 0.5 wealth from taxing the shipping line upon delivery. The Federation collects the 0.5 export tax on the good manufacturer.

Case 4: Source colony: Federation, Destination colony: UN or Federation, Freighter flag: Federation. In this case, we get nothing, since the Federation would collect the export and shipping tax.

As you can see, the important bits are the source of the good, and the freighter's parent empire. Destination doesn't matter.

The Shipping Line itself receives 2 (net, after the shipping tax is taken) wealth per trade good delivered. It uses this wealth to buy new ships.

The Expand Civilian Economy by 20% tech increases the racial wealth generation in income taxes, and also increases the production and demand of all trade goods by all populations.

Civilian-traded Infrastructure

Infrastructure, in addition to being able to be manufactured by the state (as we have done), can also be produced by the private sector. Every colony produces infrastructure equal to twice its population in millions each year (hence why Earth produces 5110.2 infrastructure). The demand for infrastructure for a population is based on the amount required to support its current population (which is determined by colony cost), plus 25% (to encourage growth). Colonies with 0 colony cost, or those that are uninhabitable, have no demand for infrastructure.

When a colony produces civilian-made infrastructure during the construction cycle, if it has any demand, the produced infrastructure is added directly to the regular infrastructure at that colony. This means populations can increase their own living space, albeit very slowly.

Civilian freighters will pick up and deliver infrastructure just like any other trade good. When it is delivered to a colony with demand, it is immediately converted to regular infrastructure.

Therefore, once we have placed enough infrastructure on Tranquility, and dropped enough colonists off, Tranquility will have a growing demand for infrastructure that will be supplied (in small quantities) by itself, and (in huge quantities) by Earth-based civilian trading.

Shipping Lines

This window (Ctrl+L or the fourth-to-last button on the System Map button bar) displays all civilian shipping lines in your empire, its ships, and recent deliveries. The Empire dropdown is as everywhere else. Add Line adds a new civilian shipping line. I won't be using this, since they will start up on their own as trade opportunities increase. Subsidise gives 1000 of your wealth to the shipping line. Clear Order clears orders for the selected ship (useful in case it gets "stuck", which is pretty often).

The top pane lists each shipping line, as well as information about it.

Shipping Line gives the line's name.

Number of ships is the number of ships owned by the line.

Total Tonnage is the aggregate size of all ships owned by the line.

Last Year Income is the amount of wealth this line earned in the last 360 day span.

Last Dividend Time is the last time the line paid out its divident.

Last Dividend Amount is the amount paid out to line shareholders (abstracted away). This is to keep the growth of lines in check. I don't know how the dividend is calculated.

Current Wealth is the amount of currently available funds a line has.

Current Share Price is the trading value of the line. I don't know how it is calculated.

Record Share Price is the largest the trading value has ever been.

Every construction cycle, the line has a chance to build a ship. If it passes that check, it then decides to build either a freighter (in general, a design with cargo holds and not much else, ~50%) or a colony ship (a design with cryogenic transport and not much else, ~40%) or a passenger ship (a design with a luxury passenger accommodation, and not much else, ~10%). It will only build ships flagged as commercial. The chosen design must not be jump-capable, and must not be marked obsolete. It is picked based on popularity of designs currently in service (i.e., if there are 40 freighters in service, and 10 of them are York-class freighters, the line is 25% likely to build a York if it chooses to build a freighter. If there are no appropriate ships in service, it will build the most expensive eligible design it can afford. If it cannot afford any design, it doesn't build anything.

Civilian shipping lines use their wealth to buy ships. The cost they pay is the build cost of the ship. There is conflicting information about whether civilian lines instantly build their ships, or whether there are invisible civilian shipyards that build them and thus have build queues and build times.

The Recent Deliveries pane lists deliveries made by the line, including Date of delivery, Ship that made the delivery, the Trade Good delivered, and the delivery Location.

The Fleet pane lists all the ships owned by the line, as well as information about each ship including Ship Name, Ship Class, the ship's Tonnage, the Location (star system) of the ship, its Destination, and any Cargo it is carrying.

Edit: With this update, we're nearly finished with the Population and Production window. The only tabs left are Ground Units, Ground Unit Training, and Environment / Genetic Modification Centers. I'll try to do the Ground Unit updates soon. Environment / GMC will wait until they are relevant.

Other than that, we have Ship Design, Task Group Management, Task Forces, Fighter Squadrons, Component Design (for components we haven't covered yet), System Overview, Galactic Map, Available Colonies, Fuel and Repair, View Technology, Mineral Report, Sectors, Tech Data on Ships, Ammo Transfer, Order of Battle, Class Deployments, Foreign Aid, and Race Details. Oh yes, and Turret Design.

And here I thought I was making progress slogging through this game's UI.

After making this update, I went in and manually edited the database to have the shipping line be McKiernan, with a capital K. It was bugging me.

Edit Edit: I added a small table of contents to the third post that links to all the "tutorial"-style updates. I'll continue to update that as time goes forward. I'll also be putting up a ship registry page and lists of currently available research projects and ship components. This may take some time, but I think it will help with decision-making, instead of having to scour the thread for available options.

bgreman fucked around with this message at 23:04 on Apr 17, 2012

# ? Apr 17, 2012 19:11

throw to first DAMN IT: Apr 10, 2007; This whole thread has been raging at the people who don't want Saracen invasion to their homes

Perhaps you too should be more accepting of their cultures

Can we subsidy the company to encourage them to build more ships? It seems that it would both aid us in getting stuff moving and make them rich enough to start buying more ships faster.

# ? Apr 17, 2012 20:42

bgreman: Oct 8, 2005; ASK ME ABOUT STICKING WITH A YEARS-LONG LETS PLAY OF THE MOST COMPLICATED SPACE SIMULATION GAME INVENTED, PLAYING BOTH SIDES, AND SPENDING HOURS GOING ABOVE AND BEYOND TO ENSURE INTERNET STRANGERS ENJOY THEMSELVES

Puistokemisti posted:

Can we subsidy the company to encourage them to build more ships? It seems that it would both aid us in getting stuff moving and make them rich enough to start buying more ships faster.

While ultimately the decision lies with Councilor Triskelli, that might be something the UNEC wants to discuss.

# ? Apr 17, 2012 21:19

Ynkling: Mar 22, 2012; For these reasons I vote for granting UN membership to our moon.

FROM: Ynkling, Dept. R&D

Research Directives

After this recent push for base logistical technology, I am finally authorizing a perfunctory look into military applications of the TNEs. More specifically, we will be looking into meson cannons, missiles, and ground forces.

As labs become available from completed projects, assign them as per the following:

5 labs for Dr. Slaan: 10cm Meson Focal Size

15 labs for Dr. Eumenides: Engineer Brigade

5 labs for Dr. Barrelfox: Fire Control Speed Rating 2000 km/s

If anybody has any suggestions on how to make better use of our R&D assets, do not hesitate to speak up.

Ynkling fucked around with this message at 22:03 on Apr 17, 2012

# ? Apr 17, 2012 21:40

SPERMCUBE.ORG: Nov 3, 2011; Space commies are th' biggest threat t' red-blooded American Freedom we got in th' future. So me and my boys got to talking over a few hot dogs the other day and this is what we came up with...

bgreman posted:

I was trying to see if you had used this name elsewhere on the internet so I could contact you, since you don't appear to have PMs. Instead I got hundreds of blogs talking about that artist's piece. But our thread is on page 2!

Uh-oh, looks like I'm in trouble! I'll see all you guys when I get out of the space clink.

But if you need to contact me for whatever reason you can send me an email. Address is REDACTED. No space prison can hold me.

SPERMCUBE.ORG fucked around with this message at 22:22 on Apr 17, 2012

# ? Apr 17, 2012 21:47

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? Apr 26, 2024 08:31

throw to first DAMN IT: Apr 10, 2007; This whole thread has been raging at the people who don't want Saracen invasion to their homes

Perhaps you too should be more accepting of their cultures

FROM: Resource Acquisition
TO: UNEC

I would suggest that we give Dr. Eumenides five more labs from Dr. Slaan. We want the brigades up as soon as possible to assist our xeno team.

Also, since I suppose information is a resource and nobody else seems to be doing it, can I get listing of our espionage capable agents? I think it's time why try to find out what the Feds are up to.

# ? Apr 17, 2012 22:01

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > The Coldest War: You Play Aurora!

«‹›458 »