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Another scout gone :( We need to go Prix hunting :mad:

If we can sync fire, it seems like the difference between old model size 4 @ 40s and the possible size 6 @ 45s isn't too big a deal. The question is how big a deal it is to try and fit them in, then, if we don't mind the temporary logistical problems while upgrading.

The simplest way would be to swap three old tubes for two new ones. That would unfourtunately cut our missile numbers for one thing, and for another we don't have multiples of three ASM tubes in our ships IIRC. Damage would end up much the same, except for the extra layer of penetration, at the cost of reload time and PD penetration.

If we could instead find eough tonnage to swap in about three size 6 for four size 4, it could well be worth it, depending on the oponent's PD salvo size. If they're sticking to three missile salvos, we're better off with four fours, but against other numbers the extra damage of three 6 is worth it.

If we are willing to extensively refit the ships rather than just swap tubes, the shift from our original low-tech armor to high-tech Ceramic Composite will allow a straight 1-for-1 swap of size-6 tubes for size-4 tubes, as well as a slight expansion of Magazine space (to hold the larger rounds) and also thicker armor, improved shields, better FCs, higher fleet speed, etc.

Like this:

Attitude III class Light Cruiser 12,000 tons 1194 Crew 2727 BP TCS 240 TH 672 EM 360
5600 km/s JR 3-50 Armour 4-46 Shields 12-300 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 9 PPV 30
Annual Failure Rate: 128% IFR: 1.8% Maint Capacity 1278 MSP Max Repair 576 MSP Est Time: 1.37 Years
Magazine 254

J12000(3-50) Military Jump Drive Max Ship Size 12000 tons Distance 50k km Squadron Size 3
Magneto-plasma Drive E7.7 (16) Power 84 Fuel Use 77% Signature 42 Armour 0 Exp 7%
Fuel Capacity 400,000 Litres Range 77.9 billion km (161 days at full power)
Delta R300/17.5 Shields (5) Total Fuel Cost 88 Litres per day

CIWS-120b (1x4) Range 1000 km TS: 12000 km/s ROF 5 Base 50% To Hit
Size 1 Missile Launcher (6) Missile Size 1 Rate of Fire 10
Size 6 Missile Launcher (4) Missile Size 6 Rate of Fire 45
Missile Fire Control 2039 FC45-R100 (70%) (1) Range 45.4m km Resolution 100
Missile PD Fire Control 2039 FC10-R1 (70%) (2) Range 10.1m km Resolution 1
Size 1d 2039 AMM (62) Speed: 45,800 km/s End: 3.7m Range: 10.3m km WH: 1 Size: 1 TH: 290 / 174 / 87
Size 6-bis 2042 ASM Missile (12) Speed: 34,000 km/s End: 16.9m Range: 34.5m km WH: 9 Size: 6 TH: 192 / 115 / 57
Size 6d 2042 ASM Missile (20) Speed: 34,500 km/s End: 20.7m Range: 42.8m km WH: 6 Size: 6 TH: 230 / 138 / 69

Active Search Sensor 2039 MR42-R100 (70%) (1) GPS 5250 Range 42.0m km Resolution 100
Active Search Sensor 2039 MR10-R1 (70%) (1) GPS 126 Range 10.1m km Resolution 1

Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

And a couple of new missile designs:

Missile Size: 6 MSP (0.3 HS) Warhead: 6 Armour: 0 Manoeuvre Rating: 20
Speed: 34500 km/s Endurance: 21 minutes Range: 42.8m km
Cost Per Missile: 5.2033
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 690% 3k km/s 220% 5k km/s 138% 10k km/s 69%
Materials Required: 1.5x Tritanium 4.6553x Gallicite Fuel x2500

Missile Size: 6 MSP (0.3 HS) Warhead: 9 Armour: 0 Manoeuvre Rating: 17
Speed: 34000 km/s Endurance: 17 minutes Range: 34.5m km
Cost Per Missile: 5.825
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 578% 3k km/s 187% 5k km/s 115.6% 10k km/s 57.8%
Materials Required: 2.25x Tritanium 4.164x Gallicite Fuel x2012.5

What percentage gearing have you given your turrets (or what desired target speed)?

I matched them to the FC's 20k speed... I'm under the impression that the lower of the two values is used (turret traverse OR FC speed), so there's not much point in having one faster than the other.

We represent the oft ignored farmers and bio-product suppliers of the Human Empire, and we humbly propose a minor name change. For years, the Cornucopia Class has ignored the contributions of agriculture to humanity, or at the very least, overlooked its importance. The Cornucopia Class consists of vessels labelled with mere adjectives, when other classes denote places, people, and materials of importance. We find this to be an unacceptable failure of imagination and insight on the part of your underlings, Great Avian Overlord.

To remedy this situation, we propose the following names for your consideration:
Mesopotamia: the cradle of civilization and agriculture, or at least, one of the very first.
Haber-Bosch Process: The next great leap of man controlling nature's production, with artificial fertilizers
Green Revolution I: better seeds and farming practices fed billions, providing the labor force for the last half of the 20th century.
Green Revolution II: by genetic engineering and advanced ecological understandings, this provided the labor force for the 21st century, until population numbers stabilized.

The rest may be named after great productive agricultural areas of the world today: The Ukraine, The Great Plains, the Serengeti, etc.

Respectfully yours,
The NPC farmers and bio-product suppliers of The Human Empire

We will delegate the matter to a study committee.
 
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The improvement from 4000 to 5000 FC tracking speed increases your likelihood to kill at least four 40,000 kps missiles from 95.7% to 99.4%. Six barrels (two tripple turrets) would give you 97.9%, probably worth saving the space if that's all it will decrease it by. 5 barrels would have a significant drop off.

Swapping out the quad for a triple and removing one layer of armor allows us to add a CIWS, drop an engine while keeping the same fleet speed, and slim the design down by 750 tons, knocking 163 BP off the price.

Storm class Gauss PD Frigate 8,250 tons 631 Crew 1807 BP TCS 165 TH 462 EM 450
5600 km/s Armour 4-36 Shields 15-300 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 5 PPV 48
Annual Failure Rate: 108% IFR: 1.5% Maint Capacity 684 MSP Max Repair 360 MSP Est Time: 1.37 Years

Magneto-plasma Drive E7.7 (11) Power 84 Fuel Use 77% Signature 42 Armour 0 Exp 7%
Fuel Capacity 280,000 Litres Range 79.3 billion km (163 days at full power)
Delta R300/17.5 Shields (6) Total Fuel Cost 105 Litres per day

Triple Gauss Cannon R3-100 Turret (2x9) Range 30,000km TS: 20000 km/s Power 0-0 RM 3 ROF 5 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
CIWS-120b (1x4) Range 1000 km TS: 12000 km/s ROF 5 Base 50% To Hit
Fire Control 2042 S16 96-20000 H70 (1) Max Range: 192,000 km TS: 20000 km/s 95 90 84 79 74 69 64 58 53 48

Active Search Sensor 2042 MR6-R1 (1) GPS 84 Range 6.7m km Resolution 1

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
 
Six of those frigates would give you a 95.9% chance of shooting down all of a 19 missile salvo of Prix PD missiles. And that's with conservative estimates of the range you'll be firing at :D

The only I comment I have, is whether it's worth giving a smaller, non-jump escort a CIWS when we're likely to have pretty good long and medium range PD, and the AI has shown it seems to prioritise threats (the Agincourt seems an unlikely choice for focussed attacks if based on pure randomness). I would value speed, armour, fuel, supplies or smaller size more than the CIWS myself.
 
Six of those frigates would give you a 95.9% chance of shooting down all of a 19 missile salvo of Prix PD missiles. And that's with conservative estimates of the range you'll be firing at :D

The only I comment I have, is whether it's worth giving a smaller, non-jump escort a CIWS when we're likely to have pretty good long and medium range PD, and the AI has shown it seems to prioritise threats (the Agincourt seems an unlikely choice for focussed attacks if based on pure randomness). I would value speed, armour, fuel, supplies or smaller size more than the CIWS myself.

Good point. Perhaps I'll remove the CIWS and see if I can drop the displacement a bit. Extra speed won't be much use to a ship whose duty is to stay with the pack and offer PD defense.
 
Actually... one could argue for dropping the res-1 active sensor, since this vessel will always operate with the fleet, and some other ship will always be on hand to paint the missiles for it.
 
Actually... one could argue for dropping the res-1 active sensor, since this vessel will always operate with the fleet, and some other ship will always be on hand to paint the missiles for it.

Unless you also wanted to use it as a picket/patrol vessel/scout, with it's strong PD letting it have some measure of protection away from a fleet. If it were firing at point blank range 1000km to protect itself only it could laugh at a six missile salvo every five seconds. Possibly not worth it though, since at 5600 kms it's not going to get away, and enemy beam ships will still close. You never know what use you may find for it though, you might deliberately send a squadron of them into orbit of a Prix planet to wipe out their PD missile stocks... How big is the sensor?
 
Unless you also wanted to use it as a picket/patrol vessel/scout, with it's strong PD letting it have some measure of protection away from a fleet. If it were firing at point blank range 1000km to protect itself only it could laugh at a six missile salvo every five seconds. Possibly not worth it though, since at 5600 kms it's not going to get away, and enemy beam ships will still close. You never know what use you may find for it though, you might deliberately send a squadron of them into orbit of a Prix planet to wipe out their PD missile stocks... How big is the sensor?

4 HS. By dropping both the sensor and the CIWS, I can also drop an engine, and keep the Armor at 5. This makes the ship quicker to tool and build, as well as cheaper in cash and minerals. I think I'll go with that.

Storm class Gauss PD Frigate 7,500 tons 566 Crew 1643 BP TCS 150 TH 420 EM 450
5600 km/s Armour 5-34 Shields 15-300 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 4 PPV 48
Annual Failure Rate: 112% IFR: 1.6% Maint Capacity 548 MSP Max Repair 360 MSP Est Time: 1.18 Years

Magneto-plasma Drive E7.7 (10) Power 84 Fuel Use 77% Signature 42 Armour 0 Exp 7%
Fuel Capacity 270,000 Litres Range 84.2 billion km (173 days at full power)
Delta R300/17.5 Shields (6) Total Fuel Cost 105 Litres per day

Triple Gauss Cannon R3-100 Turret (2x9) Range 30,000km TS: 20000 km/s Power 0-0 RM 3 ROF 5 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Fire Control 2042 S16 96-20000 H70 (1) Max Range: 192,000 km TS: 20000 km/s 95 90 84 79 74 69 64 58 53 48

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
 
Another way to save 4 HS would be a x4 speed x3 range beam fire control. Thanks to your upgraded tracking speed tech, that would only cost you 1.4% chance to hit all of 4 40000 kps missiles, down to 96.5%. A squadron of 6 frigates would then have a 91.7% chance to stop a salvo of 19 70000 kps PD missiles, down from 95.9%. It would require designing a new FC, though.
 
Yah... I think I'll stick with this design. It's not as if we'll be stuck with it for the rest of the game, after all. As tech improves, our designs will evolve, and I still hope for some good techs from El Dorado. I've increased the number of Engineers there to ten, and building more.
 
It's a good design, I've got no problems with it. Half a dozen of them should screen a fleet completely from anything we've prevviously encountered, without taking too many BP or resources. We're still in a phase of the game where our tech will change rapidly, especially with El Dorado and goodness knows how many other Prix systems to exploit.
 
Found another research lab... and a tech! Shield regeneration rate 3, which will make our shields recharge 20% faster. :D

EDIT: And yet another research lab, five days later! That's the fifth one!

EDIT: And another vault full of Giant Killer Robots. I was wondering where they'd all gotten to... it's been more than a year since the last attack.

EDIT: Robots destroyed. Fortunately, their opening attack only destroyed some infrastructure, of which we've got lots (660 units) instead of smashing that new research lab before I could finish shipping it out.

... so in the first 130 or so ruins, we've found five research labs and a tech (as well as huge amounts of other stuff). If that average were to hold, we'll come away with about 60 labs and a dozen techs by the time we're done.
 
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- Your ships are a little bit low on fuel.

Yah... but at this stage of the game, we don't need to operate far from our borders. We've never fought a battle more than one jump from a fuel source... and I've got five Tankers built.

As the game goes on, our designs will evolve, and I'll be adding more fuel storage.

- Design a new CIWS. The new gauss cannon and FC tech should give you a better one.

I thought I'd done that. I'll check.

EDIT: You are correct.
 
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Oh my, starting to finally realize what a boon that place is for development, I'd be almost happier about those research labs than the new techs, after all, the labs will keep on producing, while techs are one time deal. Still, either sounds good.
 
Oh my, starting to finally realize what a boon that place is for development, I'd be almost happier about those research labs than the new techs, after all, the labs will keep on producing, while techs are one time deal. Still, either sounds good.

When you consider that we've only GOT about fifty labs, getting sixty more for free sounds pretty cool.

EDIT: Only 435 points to go for a research-sharing agreement with Charlie. That should take about seven more months.

The Seals have signed an alliance with us.
 
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Another Giant Killer Robot attack on El Dorado. Fortunately, I had just picked up the last 0.05 of the research lab two days before, so there was nothing for them to trash except infrastructure.
 
We could well be higher tech than the Charlies in many areas by now, if they haven't been as successful at exploiting the Prix. Which judging from Eridani 82, they haven't been :D But regardless, they will have their own areas of expertise, and they'll be more used to us if they're stong. As long as they don't steal our kills.

Probably a good thing you saved that 0.05 of a lab, since there ain't much use for 0.95 of a lab.
 
Jeeze... ANOTHER research lab... and another bunch of Robots, while the previous combat is still on-going. Oooops. We've got lots of dudes on the spot, though. Should be no problem.

EDIT: Aaaaand... a terraforming facility and another tech! It gives us +20% terraforming rate. Plus the usual mines, automated mines, etc. Oh, yeah... those robots are all dead. Or dismantled, or whatever.
 
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Are the shield regeneration tech and this terraforming one applied immediately throughout the empire or is it something that requires new designs?
 
With those research labs, the techs AND the tech sharing with the Charlies, things could be looking pretty good for the foreseeable future!