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

[blue emu]

We expect to have nine warships available within two or three years, fifteen warships within five or six years, and after that the number will expand rapidly as more shipyards and slipways come on-line.

We still have three Naval Auxiliaries available for Forum officers to command... one Colony Transport and two Freighters; as well as five small Naval ships... one Grav-Survey and four Geo-Survey vessels; and six bases... two Missile Bases, two Fighter Bases and two Radar / Point Defense Bases.

 

[billy bob]

We expect to have nine warships available within two or three years, fifteen warships within five or six years, and after that the number will expand rapidly as more shipyards and slipways come on-line.

We still have three Naval Auxiliaries available for Forum officers to command... one Colony Transport and two Freighters; as well as five small Naval ships... one Grav-Survey and four Geo-Survey vessels; and six bases... two Missile Bases, two Fighter Bases and two Radar / Point Defense Bases.

Im cool with captaining something minor until a fleet vessel comes online.

 

[blue emu]

Im cool with captaining something minor until a fleet vessel comes online.

Commander Billy Bob is now in command of the Geologist class Geo-Survey vessel Agassiz... tasked with solving Earth's critical space-fuel shortage.

I have continued setting up the game.

After instructing the shipyards regarding our desired new construction...

... I gave appropriate orders to the Construction Factories, Fighter Factories and Missile Factories.

The Fighter Factories will produce the 22 Spitfire fighters needed by the Fighter Base PDCs, and then start producing spares. The Missile Factories will start producing Missiles in each of the types used by our warships, aircraft and PDC bases. The Construction Factories will start producing Automated Mines and Mass Drivers (Magnetic Catapults) to send out to any mineral-rich sites that Commander Billy Bob discovers, and will also start producing Infrastructure for a future Colony... perhaps on Mars, perhaps in another Solar System.

Our Scientists have started working on various projects...

I have focused most of our research effort on the first three new techs, in order to complete them as soon as possible. Each of the other Scientists has been given a single Research Lab, so that they will at least keep busy on something, even if they make little actual progress towards success. Scientists have a chance of gaining skill with each month that they work... so it pays off to keep them all working all the time, even if most of the research is currently advancing at a snail's pace. We can always allocate more labs to them once some current project completes.

We have also formed five of our spare officers into a Geology team...

All the selected personnel have that skill.. I assigned them the task of checking over Earth one last time to look for any previously undiscovered mineral resources. Each body in a solar system can be searched twice, once by Geo-Survey vessel and once by a team on the ground. Earth starts the game with only the Geo-Survey performed, so we may as well do the second check. It will also serve to train the team a little.

Now that we've got all of our Factories and Shipyards working at full capacity, I took another look at the Resources table, and yet another crisis became apparent:

We'll be entirely out of Neutronium in eight months. Not good. It seems that we didn't have the stockpiles to do all that ship construction and shipyard upgrading. We'll start looking for an emergency supply of high-grade Neutronium... the supply available here on earth is only 20% concentrate... and if we fail to find it, we'll have to start suspending construction projects starting eight months from now.

 

[blue emu]

OK... it looks like we're nearly done setting up. I'll just fill out our TO and OOB charts (Table of Organization and Order of Battle).

... and there it is. That allows me to tell the Armaments factories where to send any new Fighters as they are produced.

Holy Crap, dudes... it looks like we're just about done setting up, and are nearly ready to start the game. I'll just take another quick look around the menus, and see if we missed anything.

 

[blue emu]

Woooo-Hooo... I think we're ready to rock! Well, that didn't take too long to set up... only seven pages.

Let us begin!

January 1st, 2025.

We will start by sending out all of our Geo-Survey ships to search for mineral deposits. The most critical shortage was Solium, but that emergency has been superseded by the even more critical Neutronium emergency. We need to find and start exploiting a rich deposit of Neutronium within the next eight months, or we'll have to start putting some of our construction projects on hold.

Commander Billy Bob leads the four Geo-Survey craft out into space. They will split up, and one will head for the Moon, another for Mars, another for Venus, and the last one for Mercury... might as well check out the inner Solar System first, since any find there can be quickly exploited.

Meanwhile, our three Grav-Survey ships led by Commanders Avernite and Coinneach will start searching for Jump-point exits from the Solar System.

The Galaxy awaits!

Captain Arjyla will lead the Grand Fleet out on manoevers, to train the crews. We haven't yet produced any Missiles for his ships to carry... but he can start training for the Engine Room, Life Support and Maintenance crews now, and pick up some Missiles when his Task Force returns to Earth at the end of the Manoevers.

 

[unmerged(105596)]

I'd like to request a command of my own, too, whenever there's a suitable ship available.

Also, wow. This game is even more massive than I first thought.

 

[blue emu]

I'd like to request a command of my own, too, whenever there's a suitable ship available.

Also, wow. This game is even more massive than I first thought.

There are explorer-type ships available right now... one Jump-point explorer and three Geological explorers. Searching for pathways to other stars sounds more exciting, but our big problem at the moment is that Neutronium mineral shortage.

Do you want one of those ships?

EDIT: Aaaaand... they're off and running! Commander Billy Bob in the lead!

 

[unmerged(105596)]

There are explorer-type ships available right now... one Jump-point explorer and three Geological explorers. Searching for pathways to other stars sounds more exciting, but our big problem at the moment is that Neutronium mineral shortage.

Do you want one of those ships?

Yes, assign me to anything! It's good to start modestly and then work your way up towards the Vader-class solar-system-annihilators.

 

[blue emu]

Yes, assign me to anything! It's good to start modestly and then work your way up towards the Vader-class solar-system-annihilators.

Commander Velko has been assigned to the Geologist class Geo-Survey vessel ESN Hutton. You are one of the most talented Survey Pilots in the fleet... a +25% Survey modifier (the very best we have is +30%).

EDIT: These light ships really zip around... within 24 hours of issuing our orders, we already have Geo-Survey vessels on station in orbit around the Moon, Mars, Venus and Mercury busily scanning the surface of those bodies, while our Grav-Survey vessels have crossed the orbit of Mars and are headed outward towards the suspected locations of potential Jump-points.

 

[Stuckenschmidt]

Lieutenant-Commander Stuckenschmidt has been placed in charge of another Naval Auxiliary, the Mule class Freighter Schnitzel.

That`s exactly what I would have named the vessel. Don`t forget to name the next ships Bratwurst, Eisbein und Sauerkraut.

EDIT:

Or simply make it Schnitzel II, III, IV and so on.

 

[Lord Blekinge]

am enjoying reading this AAR. The game seems good with a slight learning curve, do you have control of naming ship classes and ships?, I think I read it earlier that they give you a random class and ship name? I would like to sign up for a combat command, maybe a frigate if they exist?

 

[blue emu]

am enjoying reading this AAR. The game seems good with a slight learning curve, do you have control of naming ship classes and ships?, I think I read it earlier that they give you a random class and ship name? I would like to sign up for a combat command, maybe a frigate if they exist?

Yes, I can name ships, task forces, ship classes, components (the Blue Emu Hyper-drive!), officers, planets and other bodies... I could even rename the Earth to Planet Paradox. We will have some more combat ships available in two or three years... in the meantime, did you want one of the available Survey ships, Freighters or Scoop-Miners? You could increase your skills by running one of those, and then transfer to a combat command in a few years. Or you could get in line for being the Administrator of an Asteroid Mine... there are a couple of people already waiting for that, though.

Actually, some Fighters will be coming out of the factories within a month or so.

 

[Capt. Kiwi]

Very nice Believe it or not, this UI is much better than that of software I was using earlier today... and it's only a little bit more complicated. It's going to take all my self control not to download it

As tempting as it is to have a Captain Kiwi flying around, I'll go with:

von Haast (geologist)
Rutherford (physicist)
Mazer Rackham (captain)

...as my polite requests.

 

[Lord Blekinge]

Yes, I can name ships, task forces, ship classes, components (the Blue Emu Hyper-drive!), officers, planets and other bodies... I could even rename the Earth to Planet Paradox. We will have some more combat ships available in two or three years... in the meantime, did you want one of the available Survey ships, Freighters or Scoop-Miners? You could increase your skills by running one of those, and then transfer to a combat command in a few years. Or you could get in line for being the Administrator of an Asteroid Mine... there are a couple of people already waiting for that, though.

Actually, some Fighters will be coming out of the factories within a month or so.

I would love to get my fingers wet in a survey ship, they will help the future and get me some experience. So sign on Captain af Blekinge, though when a combat vessel is operational, I would love to command the EMS Thor

 

[blue emu]

This next bit will make interesting reading...

January 4th, 2025 : Geo-Survey ship reports that the Moon is barren. No useful minerals. Rat-boogers!

January 6th, 2025 : Geo-Survey ship reports that Mercury is barren. No useful minerals. Double-rat-boogers!

January 7th, 2025 : Commander Billy Bob's Geo-Survey ship reports massive deposits of Trans-Neutonian minerals on Mars, including both of the scarce elements that he was sent out to find. Preliminary reports indicate 334,084 tons of Neutronium at 70% purity (compared to 34,684 tons at 20% purity here on Earth), 6,853,924 tons (!) of Sorium at 60% purity (compared to 39,875 tons at 70% purity here on Earth), 417,316 tons of Uridium at 50% purity (compared to 15,964 tons at 20% purity here on Earth), and 5,035,536 tons of low-grade Gallicite at 10% purity (compared to 37,608 tons at 40% purity here on Earth.

... and Mars is simply the ideal spot to find these minerals, because it is the only body in the Solar System (aside from the Earth itself) that can support large numbers of Colonists at our current tech level.

Commander Billy Bob has solved both the Neutronium resource crisis and the Sorium resource crisis at a single stroke, only one week after receiving his orders! Commander Billy Bob may have just handed us the keys to the Galaxy!

A quick consultation between the Chief of the Naval Staff and the Planetary Governor results in the following announcement:

Commander Billy Bob, commanding officer of the ESN Agassiz Geo-Survey vessel, has been awarded The Order of Paradox, for conspicuous service to the cause of Humanity. The award includes a 100 point bonus towards his next promotion.

The possibility of awarding a Knighthood has been raised in the Planetary Council meetings. (I do have that ability in-game, by the way)

 

[Capt. Kiwi]

Medals? Now you're in for it. :Starts counting down till someone demands one:

But that really was a huge stroke of luck, everything you needed on an easily accessible platter.

 

[TheLoneGunman]

Onwards to the Red Planet!

 

[Lord Blekinge]

Great luck with Mars, David Bowie did sing a decent song about it, named after the god of war(so I had my hopes) So what next?, what needs to be sent to Mars to take those resources?

 

[Stuckenschmidt]

*salutes Commander Billy Bob*

This also means, that the Schnitzel will probably come in handy soon.

 

[blue emu]

I would love to get my fingers wet in a survey ship, they will help the future and get me some experience. So sign on Captain af Blekinge, though when a combat vessel is operational, I would love to command the EMS Thor

Commander Lord Blekinge now commands the ESN Thor, an Astronomer class Grav-Survey vessel, tasked with finding a Jump-path to neighboring star systems.

Medals? Now you're in for it. :Starts counting down till someone demands one:

But that really was a huge stroke of luck, everything you needed on an easily accessible platter.

Commander Mazer Rackham now commands the ESN von Haast, a Geologist class Geo-Survey vessel. Captains are too high-ranked to command any of the available ships... you'll have to settle for the next lower rank (Commander).

Not only did Billy Bob hand it to us on a platter, but he picked the best possible platter. Mars is the most suitable spot in the Solar System for setting up a Colony... and that would still be true if it was out in the Outer System instead of next door to Earth.