Ad Astra! ... an Aurora Forum Game, run by blue emu

[blue emu]

Are the shield regeneration tech and this terraforming one applied immediately throughout the empire or is it something that requires new designs?

The terraforming tech is applied immediately, to all of our existing terraforming stations. The shield tech forms the basis of a new shield design... the actual hardware must be researched separately (but hardware research is usually quite cheap and quick, except for jump-drive hardware).

With those research labs, the techs AND the tech sharing with the Charlies, things could be looking pretty good for the foreseeable future!

Yeah, the tech situation will soon be looking pretty good.

[Avernite]

unless, of course, we find so many labs that we run out of money again

[blue emu]

unless, of course, we find so many labs that we run out of money again

There is that possibility, yes. I've been stashing it away pretty well, though. We've got about $150,000 bucks in the bank.

[Vonyx]

A question or two about tech sharing.

The seals doesn't have any ships, at all right?

Would they gain that ability with tech sharing?

[blue emu]

A question or two about tech sharing.

The seals doesn't have any ships, at all right?

Would they gain that ability with tech sharing?

We didn't see any ships the first time we entered their system... but the same was true of the Chix, and they've got lots of ships cruising around now. We may have been premature in thinking that some of these dudes don't have space-flight. Their ships might just have been elsewhere.

[blue emu]

Found ANOTHER lab. I'm finding them so often that I've got FOUR of them in transit to Earth at the moment.

[calestos]

Found ANOTHER lab. I'm finding them so often that I've got FOUR of them in transit to Earth at them moment.

That's good, you don't build any lab and you need more money.

[blue emu]

Good news from Charlie:

[Nebukadnezar]

You're going to get their research (low research?) while you're supposed to give them your research?
It's not a 1-1 trade?
This doesn't sound fair.

[Capt. Kiwi]

You're going to get their research (low research?) while you're supposed to give them your research?
It's not a 1-1 trade?
This doesn't sound fair.

At the moment they're the only ones giving away research. When it becomes reciprocal, at first it will be about evening out our respective strengths and weaknesses. Later, it will mean that we'll both progress faster, since we'll have a pool of researchers and labs between us (though there will of course be some doubling up). Also, if we are stronger it will also make them more useful allies in the event of war.

The main downside if they do end up getting the bigger leg up is that they may end up exploiting resources we want faster.

[TheLoneGunman]

How are our civilian companies doing?

[blue emu]

How are our civilian companies doing?

Very well... Pratt has 24 ships, Savage (the new company) has two. We've built a network of jump gates linking all of our colonies, and also linking in the Charlies, Chix and Seals... so the Civvies are running trade shipments all through known space.

I'm under the impression that tech sharing only applies to new research, not to existing research.

[blue emu]

Our scientific team has completed the next missile warhead tech:

Missile Size: 6 MSP (0.3 HS) Warhead: 9 Armour: 0 Manoeuvre Rating: 20
Speed: 30700 km/s Endurance: 23 minutes Range: 42.9m km
Cost Per Missile: 5.5667
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 614% 3k km/s 200% 5k km/s 122.8% 10k km/s 61.4%
Materials Required: 2.25x Tritanium 4.2567x Gallicite Fuel x2500

Missile Size: 4 MSP (0.2 HS) Warhead: 5 Armour: 0 Manoeuvre Rating: 21
Speed: 38000 km/s Endurance: 11 minutes Range: 25.1m km
Cost Per Missile: 4.0583
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 798% 3k km/s 252% 5k km/s 159.6% 10k km/s 79.8%
Materials Required: 1.25x Tritanium 3.3345x Gallicite Fuel x976.5

Missile Size: 1 MSP (0.05 HS) Warhead: 1 Armour: 0 Manoeuvre Rating: 19
Speed: 48200 km/s Endurance: 4 minutes Range: 10.3m km
Cost Per Missile: 1.2777
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 915.8% 3k km/s 304% 5k km/s 183.2% 10k km/s 91.6%
Materials Required: 0.25x Tritanium 0.7823x Gallicite Fuel x100

[blue emu]

We've dug up another Deep Space Monitoring Network... and spotted another Prix groupie hanging out in the fringe of the Wolf 294 system.



It's not the same one. This is Chakhar 003, the earlier one was (and presumably still is) Chakhar 001.

[Boris ze Spider]

Should try to approach it from behind, maybe

[CptJoker]

Would it be possible to design a reasonably-armed chase craft to hunt down these Prix drifters? Can we even reach 9000+ kps with any size of ship?

[Jos de trol]

maybe bring some carriers nearby then see what the new superfighters can do?

[blue emu]

We just set up another Tracking network... the third... on that planet, and we've spotted our other Prix groupie, Chakhar 001, who ran away from us last time. Both of them are hanging out more than a billion km out in the boon-docks. I'll just leave them to it for now, since they will likely run if I try to approach them.

In other news, it was a big turn for the Archeologists. They dug up four Stellerator Fusion Power Plants, two automated mines, one mine, 4,000,000 litres of rocket fuel, and our third free tech (+20% mining efficiency)... all on the same turn. We've now opened about one-tenth of the vaults.

maybe bring some carriers nearby then see what the new superfighters can do?

If you mean the 13,000 kps babies, we haven't built any. I've been focussing on expanding our resource base rather than our Navy, and intend to continue doing so for at least another couple of years. At the moment, our primary need is minerals, not more ships.

[Lord Strange]

What exactly are The power plants?

Also, go Julius Strange! Do I get an archaeology medal for the discoveries on El Dorado?

[blue emu]

What exactly are The power plants?

Also, go Julius Strange! Do I get an archaeology medal for the discoveries on El Dorado?

Yes, I've fallen behind in awarding medals. Autonomous has one coming, as do each of the Archeology team, Governor Nixon, and the members of the anti-Robot ground forces... about a dozen ground officers.

The power plants are to power Laser weapons... and that tech is also a pre-req to Fusion Drives, so I will be disassembling those power plants in hopes of learning that tech.

EDIT: Julius Strange has two medals coming... one for the Archeology discoveries, and one for combat, since I switched him to a combat command on El Dorado after his Archeology Team was finished.