Front Office Football Central - View Single Post - The Galaxy Awaits ... Choose Your Path!(Aurora)

Brian Swartz · 08-08-2013, 12:34 PM

June 2029 – Rob Nielsen’s political connections have improved(5%).

August – A scientist had to retire due to medical problems, following up a training accident and another medical issue costing two naval officers earlier in the year. Is this just coincidence, or is somebody or something sabotaging the leadership?

Late October – Sterling Silvers has been promoted to Major General, becoming the first human to ever achieve that rank ...

July 11th, 203 – Wayne Sabagh’s research team has completed work on the geological survey sensor.

With the shipyard less than four years away from completion, it’s time to work on designing a ship capable of using it. Ship design is a big part of any 4X, and in the case of Aurora I like a comment the primary moderator over at their forums made: ask 4 Aurora players to design a 'missile cruiser' and you'll get 8 different designs. I might add that all of them may well have good arguments for their own design depending on the situation. In this case it'll be a bit more simple, but there's still several things that need to be done. Here's the basic ship design screen ...

Already we've started a new class(accepting the default name of Essex, though this can be changed at whim), changed the hull type to Geological Survey Vessel(this is completely cosmetic, you can have a 1000-ton Dreadnought or a 1 million-ton destroyer escort if you wish), and already we have a problem. The summary near the bottom shows a speed of 1k km/s(no primary engines, only maneuvering thrusters) and there aren't any in the components list to add. Yet we do have basic engine technology at game start, and the Geological Survey Sensor is there ...

This is because items with multiple choices require you to design a specific variant. A specific kind of engine has to be designed and prototyped, while the geological sensor is a one-size-fits-all technology. There are number of different kinds of technology that has to be designed specifically this way, ...

Most of them, like the Active Sensors required to mount any kind of effective missile-based weapons system shown here, we lack the technology to build even the most basic version of. Proceeding to engines however ...

There's five fields to select, but we only have choices in two of them. The first is the second from the top, Power/Efficiency modifiers. Basically, high power means low efficiency(a military engine), low power engines are high-efficiency commercial engines, which is what we want for the moment to conserve fuel until we have a better handle on the off-world situation. The bottom field is for Engine Size. A larger engine is more durable in combat(but if their weapons are hitting your engine, you are in trouble anyway), costs a little more, and is more fuel-efficient. We've chosen the biggest we can go(50 HS, 1 HS= 50 tons so this is a 2500-ton engine, any engine 25 HS or more is commercial, the smaller ones are military). 5 HS(250 tons) is the default, though they can be as small as 1 HS. However, that would use almost double the fuel. Essentially here we are accepting a(much) larger engine size, and also an larger ship size, for a ship that is more fuel-efficient which is important for range and resource conservation.

Here is our research screen, where we can see that engine has a very small research cost in comparison to most others(50 RP, TN Technology was a 5k RP cost by comparison). This is where we create research projects and assign a number of labs and a project lead.

Dr. Ignacio Bavaro will only take a few months – until the end of September – to get the new engine prototype ready.

Early Sept – Ken McKay promoted to Commander. He wasn't at the top of the list, but officers get a higher 'promotion bonus' each year they remain at a rank and aren't promoted. His sheer time of service moved him above a couple of more highly qualified officers in this case.

Sept. 21st – Ignacio Bravo’s team completes work on the new engine

Back at our design central, we add one of these new massive 2500-ton engines to the ship ...

We can see that the new engine takes up the majority of the space, this ship is little more than a ship with skin, a few instruments, and a place for the crew to operate. However, there are still some issues.

** Intended Deployment Time: 3 months(from the summary on the bottom). If we exceed this operational time, morale will suffer and this will impact survey time(and maybe accuracy, I'm not certain). For some ships, low morale doesn't have an in-game effect but I still consider it exploity to ignore it and don't abuse it for RP reasons.

** There usually will be a listed range at the bottom. There isn't any at the moment because there's no fuel storage(components list on the right). If we build and launch this ship as is, it won't be able to go anywhere because it has no fuel. That's bad.

** In the lower right(Design Errors) it says 'Freighters' require at least one Engineering Spaces(they store maintenance supplies). Our ship is being referred to as a freighter simply because of it's size. In the summary it lists MSP 0(zero maintenance supplies) and Max Repair 100 MSP on the third line. Now as a commercial vessel we could get away with low maintenance supplies since in game terms they don't suffer maintenance failures, but again for RP reasons I still have enough on board to cover the maximum repair.

So after adding Engineering Spaces, upping our deployment time to 2 years, and adding the smallest fuel storage tank we have(10k liters), our final design is complete:

Our speed is down to 68 km/s(by comparison, the 70s-era Voyager probes reached a top recorded speed of 93 km/s, they were much smaller so this is actually better in terms of performance). Deployment is up as mentioned, we have 103 MSP which is enough for this ship, and the fuel will give us a range of 5.5 billion km, by which time we'd have exceeded the deployment time anyway. The cost of the ship to produce is in the top line(201.2 BP).

A little over three years is left on the clock until the shipyard is set to be ready to begin construction, in January 2034.

Geological surveying is a two-step process. Boots on the ground are required in the form of a five-person team which will sometimes find minerals the orbital scanners missed. We also need a second ship therefore which will transport teams, unless we want to use the survey ship for double-duty which will slow down it's ability to move on to other system bodies.

Using then the same engine, deployment time, etc. just without the sensors we come up with this design for the Lexington-class Shuttle:

Code:

Lexington class Shuttle    3,200 tons     35 Crew     68.4 BP      TCS 64  TH 5  EM 0
78 km/s     Armour 1-19     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
MSP 13    Max Repair 5 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 24 months    Spare Berths 1    

5 EP Commercial Conventional Engine (1)    Power 5    Fuel Use 8.84%    Signature 5    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 10,000 Litres    Range 6.4 billion km   (942 days at full power)

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes

The Lexington class is nearly as large as the Essex class, but requires only a tiny fraction of the maintenance supplies and costs roughly a third as much to build. Most of this is because the geological scanner is so expensive and maintenance-heavy as an advanced, specialized instrument pack. This is also why we didn't add more scanners to increase the speed, as the cost of doing so would have been prohibitive.

08-08-2013, 12:34 PM	#38
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	June 2029 – Rob Nielsen’s political connections have improved(5%). August – A scientist had to retire due to medical problems, following up a training accident and another medical issue costing two naval officers earlier in the year. Is this just coincidence, or is somebody or something sabotaging the leadership? Late October – Sterling Silvers has been promoted to Major General, becoming the first human to ever achieve that rank ... July 11th, 203 – Wayne Sabagh’s research team has completed work on the geological survey sensor. With the shipyard less than four years away from completion, it’s time to work on designing a ship capable of using it. Ship design is a big part of any 4X, and in the case of Aurora I like a comment the primary moderator over at their forums made: ask 4 Aurora players to design a 'missile cruiser' and you'll get 8 different designs. I might add that all of them may well have good arguments for their own design depending on the situation. In this case it'll be a bit more simple, but there's still several things that need to be done. Here's the basic ship design screen ... Already we've started a new class(accepting the default name of Essex, though this can be changed at whim), changed the hull type to Geological Survey Vessel(this is completely cosmetic, you can have a 1000-ton Dreadnought or a 1 million-ton destroyer escort if you wish), and already we have a problem. The summary near the bottom shows a speed of 1k km/s(no primary engines, only maneuvering thrusters) and there aren't any in the components list to add. Yet we do have basic engine technology at game start, and the Geological Survey Sensor is there ... This is because items with multiple choices require you to design a specific variant. A specific kind of engine has to be designed and prototyped, while the geological sensor is a one-size-fits-all technology. There are number of different kinds of technology that has to be designed specifically this way, ... Most of them, like the Active Sensors required to mount any kind of effective missile-based weapons system shown here, we lack the technology to build even the most basic version of. Proceeding to engines however ... There's five fields to select, but we only have choices in two of them. The first is the second from the top, Power/Efficiency modifiers. Basically, high power means low efficiency(a military engine), low power engines are high-efficiency commercial engines, which is what we want for the moment to conserve fuel until we have a better handle on the off-world situation. The bottom field is for Engine Size. A larger engine is more durable in combat(but if their weapons are hitting your engine, you are in trouble anyway), costs a little more, and is more fuel-efficient. We've chosen the biggest we can go(50 HS, 1 HS= 50 tons so this is a 2500-ton engine, any engine 25 HS or more is commercial, the smaller ones are military). 5 HS(250 tons) is the default, though they can be as small as 1 HS. However, that would use almost double the fuel. Essentially here we are accepting a(much) larger engine size, and also an larger ship size, for a ship that is more fuel-efficient which is important for range and resource conservation. Here is our research screen, where we can see that engine has a very small research cost in comparison to most others(50 RP, TN Technology was a 5k RP cost by comparison). This is where we create research projects and assign a number of labs and a project lead. Dr. Ignacio Bavaro will only take a few months – until the end of September – to get the new engine prototype ready. Early Sept – Ken McKay promoted to Commander. He wasn't at the top of the list, but officers get a higher 'promotion bonus' each year they remain at a rank and aren't promoted. His sheer time of service moved him above a couple of more highly qualified officers in this case. Sept. 21st – Ignacio Bravo’s team completes work on the new engine Back at our design central, we add one of these new massive 2500-ton engines to the ship ... We can see that the new engine takes up the majority of the space, this ship is little more than a ship with skin, a few instruments, and a place for the crew to operate. However, there are still some issues. Intended Deployment Time: 3 months(from the summary on the bottom). If we exceed this operational time, morale will suffer and this will impact survey time(and maybe accuracy, I'm not certain). For some ships, low morale doesn't have an in-game effect but I still consider it exploity to ignore it and don't abuse it for RP reasons. There usually will be a listed range at the bottom. There isn't any at the moment because there's no fuel storage(components list on the right). If we build and launch this ship as is, it won't be able to go anywhere because it has no fuel. That's bad. ** In the lower right(Design Errors) it says 'Freighters' require at least one Engineering Spaces(they store maintenance supplies). Our ship is being referred to as a freighter simply because of it's size. In the summary it lists MSP 0(zero maintenance supplies) and Max Repair 100 MSP on the third line. Now as a commercial vessel we could get away with low maintenance supplies since in game terms they don't suffer maintenance failures, but again for RP reasons I still have enough on board to cover the maximum repair. So after adding Engineering Spaces, upping our deployment time to 2 years, and adding the smallest fuel storage tank we have(10k liters), our final design is complete: Our speed is down to 68 km/s(by comparison, the 70s-era Voyager probes reached a top recorded speed of 93 km/s, they were much smaller so this is actually better in terms of performance). Deployment is up as mentioned, we have 103 MSP which is enough for this ship, and the fuel will give us a range of 5.5 billion km, by which time we'd have exceeded the deployment time anyway. The cost of the ship to produce is in the top line(201.2 BP). A little over three years is left on the clock until the shipyard is set to be ready to begin construction, in January 2034. Geological surveying is a two-step process. Boots on the ground are required in the form of a five-person team which will sometimes find minerals the orbital scanners missed. We also need a second ship therefore which will transport teams, unless we want to use the survey ship for double-duty which will slow down it's ability to move on to other system bodies. Using then the same engine, deployment time, etc. just without the sensors we come up with this design for the Lexington-class Shuttle: Code: Lexington class Shuttle 3,200 tons 35 Crew 68.4 BP TCS 64 TH 5 EM 0 78 km/s Armour 1-19 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 1 PPV 0 MSP 13 Max Repair 5 MSP Intended Deployment Time: 24 months Spare Berths 1 5 EP Commercial Conventional Engine (1) Power 5 Fuel Use 8.84% Signature 5 Exp 5% Fuel Capacity 10,000 Litres Range 6.4 billion km (942 days at full power) This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes The Lexington class is nearly as large as the Essex class, but requires only a tiny fraction of the maintenance supplies and costs roughly a third as much to build. Most of this is because the geological scanner is so expensive and maintenance-heavy as an advanced, specialized instrument pack. This is also why we didn't add more scanners to increase the speed, as the cost of doing so would have been prohibitive.