bgreman fucked around with this message at 18:24 on Apr 3, 2012

bgreman fucked around with this message at 19:33 on Apr 3, 2012

bgreman fucked around with this message at 20:24 on Apr 3, 2012

bgreman fucked around with this message at 22:26 on Apr 3, 2012

1. A missile drone design capable of reaching the targets.
   
2. A buoy design fitted with reactors and geological sensors.
   
   1. Reactor technology
      
   2. Geological sensor technology
      
3. A launch complex (PDC) capable of launching the missile drone and payload.
   
   1. A missile launcher capable of firing the drone
      
   2. A guidance system (missile fire control) capable of firing the missile.
      
      1. Active Grav Sensor technology
         

bgreman fucked around with this message at 23:59 on Apr 3, 2012

bgreman fucked around with this message at 06:45 on Apr 4, 2012

bgreman fucked around with this message at 18:35 on Apr 4, 2012

Conventional Engine E10
Power Output: 1     Explosion Chance: 5     Efficiency: 1    Thermal Signature: 1
Engine Size: 5 HS    Engine HTK: 2
Cost: 5    Crew: 25
Materials Required: 1.25x Duranium  0x Neutronium  3.75x Gallicite

Development Cost for Project: 50RP

Power Output: 2.5     Explosion Chance: 1     Efficiency: 0.1    Thermal Signature: 2.5
Engine Size: 25 HS    Engine HTK: 1
Cost: 5    Crew: 25
Materials Required: 1.25x Duranium  0x Neutronium  3.75x Gallicite

Development Cost for Project: 50RP

PDC Size 24 Missile Launcher
Maximum Missile Size: 24     Rate of Fire: 360 seconds
Launcher Size: 24 HS    Launcher HTK: 12
Cost Per Launcher: 96    Crew Per Launcher: 240
PDC Only
Materials Required: 24x Duranium  72x Tritanium

Development Cost for Project: 960RP

bgreman fucked around with this message at 07:21 on Nov 2, 2012

Shipyard complexes are one of the cooler features of Aurora, in that you don't just tell the game, "Hey I want 50 Leviathan-class Battleships" and then they show up one at a time at your production facility. Here, you must design your ship class, retool a shipyard to build that class, then assign ships of that class to be built. All ships larger than 500 tons must be built at shipyards. Ships smaller than that can be built at fighter factories.

The top pane is an overview of the shipyards at this population (as with all other tabs on the Population and Production dialog, the contents are specific to the population selected in the left pane).

The middle pane allows control of shipyard activities. The bottom pane controls shipyard tasks. While the language used isn't very clear, the distinction is that activities are things that change the shipyard's capabilities, while tasks are actual shipbuilding efforts. Generally, activities and tasks can take place concurrently (exception listed below).


This pane gives a quick overview of the status of the shipyards located at this population.

• Name is the name of the shipyard.
  
• Ty(pe) details whether the shipyard is for commercial vessels or naval (military) vessels. The differences between the two will be spelled out below. All discussion until then will assume a military shipyard.
  
• Total slipways is the total number of construction "slots" each shipyard has. New slipways can be built (see below).
  
• Capacity per slipway is the largest ship buildable at that yard.
  
• Assigned Class is the class that the shipyard is tooled to build. This is the biggest difference between Aurora and other (simpler?) games when it comes to ship building. In Aurora, a shipyard must be assigned to produce a specific ship class design. Changing the assigned design (called "retooling") takes time and materials, so shipbuilding is a very involved and strategic process.
  
• Current Complex Activity is what the shipyard is currently doing to expand its capabilities (see below).
  
• Progress is the progress of the current complex activity.
  
• Completion Date provides an estimate of the date of completion of the current complex activity.
  
• Mod Rate is the number of Build Points per year that the shipyard uses for shipyard activities. This rate increases as the size of the shipyard complex increases.
  

This pane controls the shipyard activity. Selecting a shipyard in the overview pane makes it active in this one.

• Task Type controls what kind of activity the shipyard will engage in.
  
  • No activity means the shipyard is not actively changing capabilities. It may still be building ships.
    
  • Add extra slipway adds a new slipway to the yard with the yard's "Capacity Per Slipway" value. Cost: 120 BP, 60 Duranium and 60 Neutronium for each 500 tons of capacity to be added. Example: If the yard currently has a 1250 ton capacity per slipway, adding a new one will cost (1250 / 500 = 2.5) * 120 BP, 60 Duranium, 60 Neutronium = 300 BP, 150 Duranium, 150 Neutronium. Note that for commercial yards, capacity is divided by ten to calculate the cost.
    
  • Add X tons per slipway increases the capacity of each slipway at the shipyard. This has an associated cost: each 500 tons of expanded capacity costs 120 BP, 60 Duranium, and 60 Neutronium. Note that for commercial yards, capacity is divided by ten to calculate the cost.
    
  • Retool for Selected Class begins the process of converting the shipyard to be able to construct a different class of ships. A new combobox appears when this option is selected which contains all ship classes capable of being built at this yard (i.e., filtered by military vs commercial and by the tonnage of the ship design; ships too big to be built at this yard will not appear).
    
    • The BP cost to do this is C * (0.5 + 0.25 * n), where n is the number of slipways at the yard and C is either the build cost of the ship design to be tooled or the refit cost to refit from the currently tooled class to the target class, whichever is lower. The minerals required to do this are split between Duranium and Neutronium.
      
    • The first retooling of a shipyard is free and instant.
      
    • A yard that is tooled to build a certain ship class can build other classes if those classes are "similar enough" to the assigned class. "Similar enough" means that the cost to refit from the assigned class to the "extra" class is less than 20% of the cost of the assigned class in BP. For example: Say our Butte-class destroyer costs 200 BP. We tool a shipyard to build this class. We redesign the class after building a few, incorporating a new iteration of sensor and call it the Butte II-class. The refit cost between two designs is based on the level of difference between them. If the cost to refit a Butte-class destroyer to a Butte-II class destroyer is less than 40 BP, the yard assigned to build Butte-class destroyers will also be able to build Butte-II class destroyers without needing to retool. There are some nifty gamist tricks you can use to exploit this feature, but I won't be telling you about them.
      
    • If a yard is assigned to one class, and has active shipbuilding tasks of that class underway, retooling to a new class will not cancel those tasks and they will proceed normally. New shipbuilding tasks cannot be created until retooling is completed.
      
  • Continual capacity expansion uses the same material and build costs as the fixed-size expansions, but adds its new capacity in increments every construction cycle instead of in one lump at the end.
    

Build Cost describes the cost in BP listed above for the various activities. There is also an associated wealth cost equal to the cost in BP. Completion Date provides an estimate of the time it will take to complete the activity. Required materials lists the materials (minerals, generally) required for the activity.

As for the buttons, Set Activity sets the selected activity as active on the shipyard. Delete Activity cancels the current activity for the selected shipyard. Pause sets the activity to paused (to avoid consuming minerals, for example). Rename SY lets you manually rename the yard, and Auto-Rename names the yard after one of many real-life shipbuilding yards on today's Earth.

When deleting activities, some preserve partial completion (capacity expansion), and some don't (retooling or adding slipways). If an expansion activity is canceled, the percentage of completed activity is added as new capacity, rounding down to the nearest hundred tons. If adding 1000 tons of capacity, and canceling at 75% completion, then the shipyard gains 700 tons of capacity (1000 * 75% = 750 tons, rounded down to 700).


This pane controls shipyard tasks (i.e., shipbuilding tasks).

The buttons are somewhat straightforward: Add Task Adds the selected task with the configuration provided. Default Fleet sets the Task Group current selected in the Task Group combobox as the default for this shipyard, that will always be selected when the current shipyard is selected in the overview. Refit Details replaces the overview pane with a view that provides details on refitting ships between classes (and will be covered later). New Name picks a new name for a pending construction order ship from the ship design's associated class theme.

Task Types
Construction (image above)
Builds new ships of the class assigned to the yard.

• New Class selects the class of the ship to be constructed.
  
• Ship Name allows entry of a name for the ship to be constructed.
  
• Build Cost is the cost in BP and wealth to construct the new ship.
  
• Create default names controls whether the Ship Name editbox is filled in when selecting the Construction task type. The default name consists of the ship's class and a three digit number, starting at 001.
  
• Task Group is the task group to which the ship should be assigned once it has been built.
  
• Completion Date is the estimated completion date of the task.
  
• Required Materials are the materials required to construct the new ship.
  

Repair
Repairs any damaged ship as long as its size is within the capacity of the yard.

All is the same as Construction, except New Class doesn't appear, and:

• Repair contains a list of classes of ships currently in orbit of the selected population.
  
• Ship Name contains a list of ships in the class selected in Repair. Selecting a ship from this list will cause it to be the one repaired when Add Task is clicked.
  

Refit
Refits a ship from any class (as long as it is within the size capacity of the yard) to the class assigned to the yard.

All is the same as Construction, except :

• New Class selects the class of the ship to be refit to.
  
• Refit From contains a list of classes of ships currently in orbit of the selected population.
  
• Ship Name contains a list of ships in the class selected in Refit From. Selecting a ship from this list will cause it to be the one refitted when Add Task is clicked.
  

Scrap
Destroys a ship and recovers some of the materials involved in its construction.
All is the same as Repair, except New Class doesn't appear, and:

• Scrap contains a list of classes of ships currently in orbit of the selected population.
  
• Ship Name contains a list of ships in the class selected in Scrap. Selecting a ship from this list will cause it to be the one scrapped when Add Task is clicked.
  

This tab of the Population and Production screen provides an overview of all shipyard tasks (construction, refitting, repair, scrapping, etc) taking place at this population.

At the top of the pane is a brief highlight of your empire's shipbuilding rate (calibrated for a 5000 ton ship) in build points per year, and the number of still available slipways at all yards associated with this population.

The buttons at the bottom allow the user to:

• Delete Task cancels the task. I'm not sure what happens to the minerals involved in ship construction if a construction task is cancelled.
  
• Pause Task pauses the task, allowing you to conserve the minerals and wealth that would be involved in its execution.
  
• Higher and Lower Priority moves the ship up and down the priority queue. Higher priority tasks get first dibs on minerals (if your mining output isn't sufficient to cover all your shipbuilding tasks, for example).
  
• Schedule replaces the overview pane with a delivery schedule for all shipyards in your empire.
  

The overview lists the following things:

• Yard is the shipyard involved in the task.
  
• Task is the task being executed.
  
• Unit Name is the ship being constructed, refitted, repaired, or scrapped.
  
• Progress is the amount of work already done on the task compared to the total required.
  
• Assigned Task Group is the current task group of the ship for refitting, repairing, or scrapping, and the task group to assign a new ship to for construction.
  
• Completion Date is the estimated date the task will be finished.
  
• ABR is the adjusted build rate of the task (see below).
  
• Priority is the priority of the task.
  

bgreman fucked around with this message at 20:57 on Dec 6, 2013

bgreman fucked around with this message at 19:19 on Apr 5, 2012

• High Density Duranium Armour Cost: 2500 RP Description: Armour is used for the hull of all ships. Following on from his development of the first practical Duranium armors, Dr. MagicBoots theorizes that while duranium itself does not exhibit the ICEF effect, applying a strong ICEF field force to cooling tempered duranium may compress the material into a higher density format, allowing better protection for a reduced amount of material.
  

bgreman fucked around with this message at 05:19 on Apr 9, 2012

bgreman fucked around with this message at 15:46 on Apr 9, 2012

The diplomacy/foreign relations screen is accessible from a few different places in Aurora. From the main menu bar, it's in Empires->Diplomacy Intelligence (Ctrl+F5). From the System Map buttonbar, either the grey alien head (Diplomacy) or the compass (Intelligence on Alien Classes) will open this screen (they used to be separate functions, but the foreign intelligence tabs were moved to the diplomacy screen at some point).



The Alien Race combobox contains a list of all alien races that you have ever detected on sensors. Apparently, in Aurora, each race gives off a distinctive signature that allows them to be differentiated from other races. There is no way to spoof this and pretend to be a ship from another race. (For narrative reasons, this might get overlooked).

The Abbrev field contains a three-or-four-letter abbreviation to represent the Empire on various screens in the game (particularly contacts). Class Theme lets you pick one of the in-game themes for this race, such that new classes of ships that you detect get automatically picked from this list. "Krivak" is the first class on the Russian theme, so it is what got picked both when I designed that class as the Fed, and when a new contact was assigned when the UN first detected one. I have since removed the class theme, so it will randomly pull a name from ANY theme.

Delete Race removes the race entirely from the game, if in SM mode. Rename Race renames the race AS SEEN BY YOUR EMPIRE. So we could rename it to "Dirty Reds" if we wanted (though I have to note that of the Federation member nations, only China is technically communist, so you guys throwing around the "drat commies" rhetoric is hella amusing).



These five buttons control the colors of contacts of various affiliations on the System Map screen. Clicking one of the buttons brings up a color picker dialog that allows setting the color for that threat level. We will leave them at default unless you deem they need changed.


The first box contains the species image for the selected empire. In this case, its the same as our picture, since both empires are composed of humans. The second box contains the selected empire's flag image.

Initiate Communication attempts to make meaningful contact with the selected empire if none has yet been established. Think the scene from

when the helicopter flashes its lights at the bad guy spaceships. Different species have different communication forms, although this is not indicated anywhere in-game. First Contact indicates the date the species was first detected on sensors. Full Communication Established is the date when the species were able to fully communicate. Current Diplomatic Rating (DR) for this Race is our view of the selected empire. This rating controls what treaties we can set with respect to them.

I'll say it again because it's important. Each empire has a DR for every empire it knows about, and it is not necessarily the same as that empire's DR for them. I.e., our DR towards the Federation is not the same as the Federation's DR toward us. Similarly, the Treaties set by Alien Race details the things they allow us to do. In this screenshot, this means that they consider us Neutral, do not grant us Trade Access, do not share Research with us, and do not share either survey type with us. If both our DRs were sufficiently high, it is entirely possible that they'd grant us all those things, and we'd still not grant them. Treaties are not bidirectional.



Assign Diplomatic Team contains a dropdown that lists all available diplomatic teams you have put together. When one is selected in the dropdown, Current Assignment displays the empire they are currently engaging in diplomacy with, if any. Pressing assign will assign them to engage in diplomacy with the empire selected at the top of the diplomacy screen.

Known Species and Environmental Tolerances contains a list of species belonging to the selected empire (an empire can contain more than one species, if one is conquered by another, for example). The lower boxes contain the actual tolerances of the selected species. I'm not sure what the right hand box contains, and I think the only way to get these boxes to contain anything is to capture prisoners of the selected empire, which is kind of annoying for a multi-empire Earth start.



These are the available treaties that we set allowing them to do things. Right now we have them set as neutral, are not allowing their traders to trade with us, are not sharing survey data with them, and are not sharing research with them. Most of these options are greyed out because we don't have the requisite DR to activate them. The treaties each contain their own descriptions right on the dialog, unlike basically every other UI element in the game.

This tab of the Diplomacy and Intelligence screen allows a central location to keep track of known alien ship classes.



The Alien Race Ship Classes combo box contains a list of all classes for the selected empire that have ever been detected on any kind of sensors. The Sensor Data block lists information about the class picked up from our sensors.

• Cross Section is the signature of the ship when detected by active sensors. It is related to the Estimated Tonnage of the ship.
  
• Thermal Signature is the amount of energy put out by the ship's drives.
  
• Observed and Estimated Speed are how fast we've seen the ship go, and how fast we think it can go based on other sensor data. Ships operating at less than full speed can fool this reading if only detected on thermal sensors.
  
• Shield Strength and Recharge Rate are determined by EM detection.
  
• Armor is detected by damaging the ship but not penetrating the armor.
  
• ECM is detected by the ship jamming missiles and other targeting electronics.
  
• Est. Jump Dist is how far away from a jump point that a ship will appear.
  

The Weapon and Sensor Data pane lists known weapons and sensors on the class. These are usually determined by being fired upon, painted with a sensor, or finding components in wrecks. Stolen ship class information will also fill this in.



This pane lists all known members of the class as well as:

• Last Contact lists the last known contact of the ship or PDC.
  
• System indicates the location of the last known contact.
  
• Name is the name of the individual contact.
  
• Speed is the last known velocity of the contact.
  
• Shields indicates the shield status of the last known contact.
  
• Thermal indicates the thermal signature of the last known contact.
  

The buttons at the bottom allow control over this information.

• Rename Class renames the entire class without renaming the individual members.
  
• Rename Ship renames an individual member of the class.
  
• Renum Ships renames all members of the class with (Classname) (Number).
  
• Reset clears all observational data for this class.
  
• Delete Class resets your tactical intelligence to a state that has never detected this class.
  

The middle tab Class Design Summary will list the full or partial design summary of the class. Partial summaries come from salvaging wrecks. Full summaries can be stolen by espionage teams.

The last tab All Active Contacts for this Empire lists information about all enemy ships that are currently detected by active sensors.

bgreman fucked around with this message at 02:28 on Apr 10, 2012

Pratt and Whitney 2500C-E10
Power Output: 2.5     Explosion Chance: 1     Efficiency: 0.1    Thermal Signature: 2.5
Engine Size: 25 HS    Engine HTK: 1
Cost: 5    Crew: 25
Materials Required: 1.25x Duranium  0x Neutronium  3.75x Gallicite

Development Cost for Project: 50RP

bgreman fucked around with this message at 06:41 on Apr 10, 2012

York class Freighter    9,350 tons     103 Crew     109.5 BP      TCS 187  TH 8  EM 0
42 km/s     Armour 1-39     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
MSP 7    Max Repair 5 MSP
Cargo 5000    

Pratt and Whitney 2500C-E10 (3)    Power 2.5    Fuel Use 10%    Signature 2.5    Armour 0    Exp 1%
Fuel Capacity 50,000 Litres    Range 94.5 billion km   (26041 days at full power)

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes

Materials Required: €109.5 million, 109.5 BP, 83.25 tonnes of Duranium, 5 tonnes of Corbomite, 10 tonnes of Mercassium, 11.25 tonnes of Gallicite.
Base build time: 133 days.

Galicia class Passenger Cruiser    6,800 tons     198 Crew     192 BP      TCS 136  TH 8  EM 0
58 km/s     Armour 1-31     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
MSP 18    Max Repair 5 MSP
Passengers 250    

Pratt and Whitney 2500C-E10 (3)    Power 2.5    Fuel Use 10%    Signature 2.5    Armour 0    Exp 1%
Fuel Capacity 50,000 Litres    Range 130.5 billion km   (26041 days at full power)

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes

Materials required: €192 million, 192 BP, 90.75 tonnes of Duranium, 5 tonnes of Corbomite, 85 tonnes of Mercassium, 11.25 tonnes of Gallicite.
Base build time: 260 days.

bgreman fucked around with this message at 18:59 on Apr 10, 2012

• Article I states that the exploration and utilization of space is done for the benefit of all mankind, and that all areas of all celestial bodies shall have free (libre not gratis) access to all states.
  
• Article II states that no state may make a claim of sovereignty over any part of any celestial body.
  
• Article III states that outer space activities will be conducted in accordance with international law, including with the Charter of the United Nations.
  
• Article IV prohibits any state from placing into orbit any object carrying nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction. It also states that no state may establish any type of military installation on any part of any celestial body.
  
• Article V gives special protections to astronauts engaged in space exploration activities and compels states to provide assistance to astronauts in danger, and return them to their home state upon rescue.
  
• Article VI compels member states to take responsibility for space activities conducted by citizens of that state, whether those actions are performed by a governmental agency or not. States are required to authorize and supervise all non-governmental space-based activities perpetrated by their citizens.
  
• Article VII makes states liable for any damages incurred on another state by the former state's space activities or objects.
  
• Article VIII states that a state that launches an object into space retains control and jurisdiction over that object.
  
• Article IX stipulates that the principle of co-operation should be paramount where all space-based activities are concerned, including international consultation on space-based activities.
  
• Article X gives states the right to petition to observe the space-based activities of other states, and urges the states performing the activities to consider the request under a condition of equality.
  
• Article XI requires states to inform the UN Secretary-General to the greatest extent feasible of any planned space-based activities.
  
• Article XII gives states the right to visit or inspect the space-based installations of other states if proper notification and procedure is followed.
  
• Article XIII states that the treaty applies regardless of whether the activities are carried out by a single state or an inter-governmental association of states.
  
• Articles XIV - XVII are procedural articles that discuss the signing and ratification of the treaty.
  

bgreman fucked around with this message at 21:26 on Apr 10, 2012

• Nuclear Thermal Engine Technology Cost: 2500 RP, €2.5 billion. Description: Base engine technology for engine component designs. Provides 5 power per HS of engine. By utilizing TNE-salted pressurized water reactors to heat ReSor and vent it through an exhaust, nuclear thermal engines can provide up to five times more thrust than the best conventional rocket engines.
  
• Pebble Bed Reactor Technology Cost: 3000 RP, €3 billion. Description: Base technology used for creation of power plants. Pre-requisite tech for nuclear pulse engines. Using duranium and boronide as part of the structural layers of a TRISO or QUADRISO fuel in a pebble bed reactor allows for greater amounts of fuel to be packed into a smaller space, increasing the energy density of the reactor compared to more conventional designs.
  

Pressurised Water Reactor PB-1
Power Output: 2     Explosion Chance: 5
Reactor Size: 1 HS    Reactor HTK: 1
Cost: 6    Crew: 5
Materials Required: 1.5x Duranium  5x Neutronium  4.5x Boronide

Development Cost for Project: 60RP

Missile design is complicated, with a lot of fiddling with numbers to get what you want.


The Empire dropdown, like most others, selected the empire that is designing this missile. The Missile Type radio button selects whether we are designing a missile, a drone (a slower, more fuel-efficient missile with fixed agility), or a buoy (a "missile" with no engines, but with reactors, that can be dropped or deployed as the second stage of a drone or missile. A buoy's reactors allow it to stay active where it is deployed, compared to missile and drones, which self-destruct when they run out of fuel).


This dropdown allows selecting any previously designed missile that is not marked obsolete. Doing so will fill in all the component values to be the same as those for that missile design. This can be useful when you want to update a missile design because your tech has improved, but you want to maintain the same proportion of components as the prior design.


This gridview contains a condensed listing of all your current technologies concerning missiles. Unlike other player-designed systems, you don't have an option of which tech generation to use when designing a missile. You are forced to always use the latest tech.

• Warhead Strength per MSP gives the amount of damage the warhead is capable of doing for each missile size point (MSP) you invest in the warhead.
  
• Missile Engine Power per MSP gives the amount of power per engine MSP that the missile will have. It is currently at zero because we have not researched any missile engine technologies. Recall that each regular engine technology has an associated missile engine tech that is unlocked when the engine tech and the prior missile engine tech have both been researched.
  
• Drone Engine Power per MSP gives the amount of power per engine MSP that the drone will have. This is separate from the missile engine rating because drones are slower. Each missile engine tech has a corresponding drone engine tech that is unlocked when the missile engine tech and the prior drone engine tech are researched. Conventional empires start with Nuclear Thermal Drone engine technology for whatever reason (probably so we don't have to research four techs to be able to launch survey probes: Pressurized Water Reactor, Nuclear Thermal Engine, Nuclear Thermal Missile Engine, Nuclear Thermal Drone Engine).
  
• Missile Agility per MSP gives the amount of agility the missile has for each MSP invested in agility. Agility is used to calculate the manoeuvre rating of the missile, which determines its chance to hit things.
  
• Fuel efficiency is the same tech as for regular engines and determines how much fuel the missile or drone uses in a given time for a given engine power. Drones are 10x more efficient than regular missiles.
  
• ECM Strength per MSP gives the amount of countermeasures built into the missile per MSP invested in ECM. ECM makes missiles harder to target with point defense.
  
• Active, Thermal, EM, Geo Sensor Strength per MSP gives the strength of the various kinds of sensor for each MSP of that sensor type invested. Missiles, drones, and buoys can have sensors placed on them that can detect other ships, missiles, etc. Geo sensors on missiles, drones, and buoys can be used to remotely survey bodies. These values are determined by the various sensor strength techs, except geological sensors, which is fixed at 0.01 per MSP.
  
• Reactor Duration in Months per MSP dictates how long the reactors in a buoy will last for each MSP invested in reactors.
  
• Laser Warhead Strength and Enhanced Radiation Modifier are values that advanced missiles will use to modify their effects. They will be covered should those techs ever be researched.
  

Note: An MSP is 1/20th of a hull space, or 2.5 tonnes. Aurora missiles are therefore much larger than most real world missiles, as the size 1 missile in Aurora is still 2.5 tonnes. It is possible to make missiles smaller than size 1, but launchers have a minimum size of 1, so the only benefit would be massive amounts of missiles carried. At high tech levels this might be feasible, but at low levels, it would be hard to make any kind of effective missile with less than 1 MSP.


These panes allows setting the various MSP values for each missile component. The MSP value for each component is multiplied by its associated tech ratio, and the result displayed in the value column.

• Warhead Strength determines how much damage the missile does when it hits.
  
• Engine Power primarily determines the speed of the missile. A missile's engine power is 5x that of its ship-based equivalent, and consumes 10,000x as much fuel. A missile's speed is given by its total engine power / its size in hull spaces * 1000 km/s, rounded to the nearest hundred. Ex: a Size 7 missile (7 MSP = 0.35 HS) with engine power 5 has a speed of 5 (engine power) / 0.35 (size in HS) * 1000 km/s = 14,300 km/s. The engine power MSP for a drone is fixed at 5 (which also means that a drone has a minimum size of 5 MSP, though this would be an all-engine drone and would do nothing else). The engine power of a missile also indirectly contributes to its range.
  
• Fuel Capacity determines how much ReSor fuel the missile carries. Each MSP devoted to fuel is 2500 litres of ReSor. Fuel use for missiles is calculated the same way as for ships, except that missiles consume fuel at 10,000x the rate of ship-based engines. Drones only use fuel at 1000x the rate. The fuel capacity of a missile divided by its fuel consumption gives its endurance. It endurance times its speed gives its range.
  
• Agility determines how manoeuverable the missile is. Manoeuver rating (MR) is calculated as 10 + (agility / size in MSP). Drones have a fixed MR of 5. The chance to hit a target is % chance to hit = (missile speed / target speed) x MR. This chance is modified by crew grade when fired by a ship or PDC.
  
• Active Sensor gives the strength of an active sensor built into the missile. Active sensors will be covered in a later update.
  
• Thermal/EM Sensor gives the strength of the EM or Thermal (or both) sensor built into a missile. This strength works exactly like the strength listed in the EM/Thermal sensor design update.
  
• Geo sensor is the geo sensor strength. This is equal to the number of geological survey points the sensor generates per hour. Each system body has a number of points required to complete the geological survey of it.
  
• Ablative armor devotes MSPs to armoring the missile. The chance to destroy a missile when hit is equal to damage done / (armor + damage done). Thus hitting a size 2 missile with 1 MSP of armor with a 1 damage hit has a (1 / (1+1)) = 50% chance of destroying it. An unarmored missile would have a 100% chance of destruction from a single 1 damage hit.
  
• ECM increases the difficulty of hitting the missile with point defense munitions. ECM reduces the effective range of fire controls targeting the missile.
  
• Laser Warhead and Enhanced Radiation are advanced options for missiles that we'll cover if the time ever arises when it is necessary.
  

This pane allows you to set the second stage of the missile, drone, or buoy. You select the missile design that composes the second stage from the Missile Type dropdown. A rookie mistake is to then forget to increase the Number from 0 to any number. This would create a missile without any upper stage. I have done this more times than I can count. Separation Range gives the range from target at which the missile will deploy its second stage munitions. Missile Size and Cost give details about the size and build cost of each second stage munition. Total Size and Cost multiplies those values by the Number of submunitions and give a total value. Materials lists the materials involved in constructing the second stage.

Second stages can be used for many things. You can give a buoy a second stage that consists of small thermally guided missiles to create a mine. You can give a drone a second stage of many small missiles to create a sort of MIRV. Before some clever goon asks, yes, you can chain these, though the final missile size starts going up quick, and the max launcher size is 100.

We'll be using this functionality to create a drone that carries a buoy to a system body, then deploys the buoy, which will begin a geological survey of the body.



The Missile Series pane gives a list of missiles added to the series selected in the dropdown. The buttons at the bottom of the missile design dialog allow manipulation of the series. A missile series is a micromanagement avoidance feature (gasp!) added to try to minimize ordnance juggling. Essentially, when you design a ship that uses missiles, you can specify its ordnance loadout. If the missiles in the loadout belong to a missile series, when the ship is ordered to reload and cannot find any of the missiles from its loadout, it will attempt to reload the most recently designed missile in the series instead.

Clear Design blanks all the MSP allocations on the dialog. Create Series creates a new missile series. Delete Series deletes the series selected in the Missile Series dropdown. Set Series sets the series for the missile design selected in the MSP Allocation of Previous Design dropdown near the top of the dialog.

Replace All is a powerful function. It searches the loadout of all ships for the missile design selected in the Previous Design dropdown, and replaces it with the missile design selected in the Missile Series listbox. This is a quick way to force all your ships to start trying to carry the latest missile design in a series.


This pane displays all the parameters of the missile as currently designed, including the size (in both MSP and HS), warhead strength, armor rating, manoeuvre rating, speed, endurance, range, cost per missile (in BP and wealth), materials required, and RP development cost. It also lists a chance to hit for various target speeds.

Just as with designing components, we're not creating a missile we can go and start mass producing. We're creating a design for one, that needs to be researched before construction can start.

• L PDC or silo launched.
  
• F Space vessel under 1000 tonnes displacement.
  
• S Space vessel over 1000 tonnes displacement.
  

• G Designed to destroy land-based targets.
  
• B Designed as a carrier stage that deploy a submunition.
  
• R Designed to perform reconnaissance, detection, surveillance.
  
• I Designed to intercept targets in a defensive role.
  
• S Designed to destroy space-based targets.
  
• Y Designed to perform sensor surveys.
  

• M Guided missile.
  
• D Drone.
  
• P Probe or buoy without submunitions.
  
• N Mine (probe or buoy with submunitions).
  

LYP-1A Prospector Geological Survey Probe
Buoy Size: 10 MSP  (0.5 HS)     Armour: 0
Reactor Endurance: 5 months
Geo Sensor Strength: 0.075    Maximum points: 270
Cost Per Buoy: 2.375
Materials Required:    1x Boronide   1.5x Uridium

Development Cost for Project: 238RP

bgreman fucked around with this message at 07:45 on Apr 11, 2012

LBN-2A Gold Rush Geosurvey Carrier Drone
Missile Size: 24 MSP  (1.2 HS)     Warhead: 0    Armour: 0     Manoeuvre Rating: 5
Speed: 4200 km/s    Endurance: 2700 minutes   Range: 680.4m km
Cost Per Missile: 3.9167, €3.9167 million
Second Stage: LYP-1A Prospector Geological Survey Probe x1
Second Stage Separation Range: 150,000 km
Overall Endurance: 152 days   Overall Range: 680.4m km
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 21%   3k km/s 5%   5k km/s 4.2%   10k km/s 2.1%
Materials Required:    1x Boronide   1.5x Uridium   1.1667x Gallicite   Fuel x22500

Development Cost: 392 RP, €392 million

bgreman fucked around with this message at 21:46 on Apr 11, 2012

• CI is converted to Construction Factories at a rate of 1 every 3.44 days. (Current TN factories: 69).
  
• CI is converted to Mines at a rate of 1 every 27.56 days. (Current TN mines: 8).
  
• CI is converted to Ordnance Factories at a rate of 1 every 55.13 days. (Current ordnance factories: 4).
  
• CI is converted to Fuel Refineries at a rate of 1 every 55.13 days. (Current refineries: 4).
  
• Infrastructure is being built at a rate of 1 unit every 2.33 days.
  

bgreman fucked around with this message at 20:47 on Apr 12, 2012

• CMDR Galenus is currently UN Fleet Headquarters Logistics Staff Officer.
  
• CMDR Jaramr is currently UN Fleet Headquarters Intelligence Staff Officer.
  
• CMDR DagPenge is currently UN Fleet Headquarters Communications Staff Officer.
  
• The rest command ICBM Missle Complexes
  

bgreman fucked around with this message at 08:23 on Apr 13, 2012

bgreman fucked around with this message at 03:55 on Apr 14, 2012

bgreman fucked around with this message at 07:19 on Apr 14, 2012