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

[GrimPagan]

I think it's a brilliant idea... the only problem is that it might not actually work. If it does, we're rolling... I'll just build a crap-load of them (having no engines, these "ships" are quite quick and cheap to build) and park a bunch in orbit around each Gas Giant that has a decent concentration of Sorium. Send a Tanker once a year or so, to suck out all the refined fuel, and leave them to it.

... and it gets even better! If this works, why not Terraforming Space Stations? Build several "ships" with no engines, but with as many Terraforming modules as I can cram in... and use Tugs to drag them over to a nearly-habitable planet such as Mars. Park them in orbit and let them go to work. The really clever part is that Planetary Terraforming Installations... the ones that you build on the surface of a planet... require 250,000 colonists to run each installation. But the ship modules don't. That saves me 250,000 labor for each module, and I might be able to cram several modules into each Orbital Station. Those couple-of-million colonists that I save by using Space Stations instead of Planetary Terraforming Installations can be used to run mines or factories instead.

http://aurorawiki.pentarch.org/index.php?title=Terraformers_(Shadow)

Genesis class Terraformer 1,506,050 tons 10250 Crew 27005 BP TCS 30121 TH 0 EM 0
1 km/s Armour 1-1170 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 1 PPV 0
Maint Capacity 11 MSP Max Repair 500 MSP
Habitation Capacity 50,000
Terraformer: 50 module(s) producing 0.175 atm per annum


This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as an Orbital Habitat for construction purposes

That design from the wiki is a bit more advanced then your current tech, but shows that the idea is quite valid.

 

[GaiusC]

Genesis class Terraformer 1,506,050 tons 10250 Crew 27005 BP

That's no moon

 

[TheExecuter]

That's no moon

Can you imagine the 'terraforming' capabilities for weapons of mass destruction?

"Hello, we have decided your planet needs altering. Please enjoy this injection of chlorine gas. We hope our actions don't cause you alarm..."

 

[GaiusC]

0.175 atm a year is completely nuts
Still, that's a great idea and I'm gonna try it in my game. I already had no-jump harvesters to reduce cost and weight. Now, I have to design a civilian tug and some massive behemoth. And probably build a bigger jump engine than civilian 60K tons...

BTW, can you tug wrecks, and are your chances of recovering techs increased if you bring one back on your homeworld's surface - or does this only work on captured undestroyed enemy ships?

 

[BwenGun]

Can you imagine the 'terraforming' capabilities for weapons of mass destruction?

"Hello, we have decided your planet needs altering. Please enjoy this injection of chlorine gas. We hope our actions don't cause you alarm..."

It's a viable, and relatively cheap, means of eliminating enemy populations without damaging their facilities or losing troops in the process.

 

[Lord Martin]

I think it's a brilliant idea... the only problem is that it might not actually work. If it does, we're rolling... I'll just build a crap-load of them (having no engines, these "ships" are quite quick and cheap to build) and park a bunch in orbit around each Gas Giant that has a decent concentration of Sorium. Send a Tanker once a year or so, to suck out all the refined fuel, and leave them to it.

... and it gets even better! If this works, why not Terraforming Space Stations? Build several "ships" with no engines, but with as many Terraforming modules as I can cram in... and use Tugs to drag them over to a nearly-habitable planet such as Mars. Park them in orbit and let them go to work. The really clever part is that Planetary Terraforming Installations... the ones that you build on the surface of a planet... require 250,000 colonists to run each installation. But the ship modules don't. That saves me 250,000 labor for each module, and I might be able to cram several modules into each Orbital Station. Those couple-of-million colonists that I save by using Space Stations instead of Planetary Terraforming Installations can be used to run mines or factories instead.

What about different systems? Can you jump the ordinary way or do you need Jump Gates for them?

 

[GaiusC]

It's a viable, and relatively cheap, means of eliminating enemy populations without damaging their facilities or losing troops in the process.

Actually...
Wouldn't this be a better way to deal with the seals, instead of sending in the Marines? Cheapest, at least in lifes, and maybe fastest?

 

[Iche_Bins]

What about different systems? Can you jump the ordinary way or do you need Jump Gates for them?

You can with jumpcapable ships of bigger size IIRC

 

[A_Dane]

Actually...
Wouldn't this be a better way to deal with the seals, instead of sending in the Marines? Cheapest, at least in lifes, and maybe fastest?

Might be more cost efficient in terms of life, but I doubt we'd lose too many anyway, and we could use the experience, couldnt we?

 

[calestos]

We only have discovered 67% Proxima Centauri. Maybe thera are more transnewtonian materials.

 

[Iche_Bins]

just bomb most of the enemy troops in oblivion, put two brigades of assault troops (the ones with high offense and defence) there to finish of the, probably very ill equipped, rest and then send as many garrion units over as you need to control the planet.

Very fast cheap and not damaging to the infrastructure

 

[TheLoneGunman]

just bomb most of the enemy troops in oblivion, put two brigades of assault troops (the ones with high offense and defence) there to finish of the, probably very ill equipped, rest and then send as many garrion units over as you need to control the planet.

Very fast cheap and not damaging to the infrastructure

You think two brigades can stop:

?!

 

[stamasd]

You think two brigades can stop:

?!

No but maybe they can stop http://www.sciencedirect.com/scienc...2d4c7f7e78e24dbba4915851ef460c58&searchtype=a

 

[von Sachsen]

just bomb most of the enemy troops in oblivion, put two brigades of assault troops (the ones with high offense and defence) there to finish of the, probably very ill equipped, rest and then send as many garrion units over as you need to control the planet.

Very fast cheap and not damaging to the infrastructure

Actually, the bombing will disrupt infrastructure, and more importantly it will throw dust and radiation into the planet, making it ard as heck to colonize for years. Also, ground fighting will also destroy installations (though some losses are probably unavoidable.)

 

[FelisSilvestris]

Actually...
Wouldn't this be a better way to deal with the seals, instead of sending in the Marines? Cheapest, at least in lifes, and maybe fastest?

But even seals will be, given the proper, strong hand to guide them and some time to adjust, happy and loyal tax-payers. Just imagine 400m more people financing our military operations, every day!

 

[Amadeus]

Our next rush research project really must be Improved Command and Control... allowing us to build Sector Commands, and stack our +Wealth% bonus. I should have done that years ago.

Good point !

Also you can assign Civil leaders which are not currently employed to 0 pop. colonies, to allow them to gain experience and increase their skills for later use.
You can roleplay that as they were in some obscure administrative bureau or attending master schools, if that is not too much of an exploit for you.

since I'm not sure that the Sector Governor stacks at 100% value.

The Sector Governor applies one quarter of his bonus to all colonies within his sector.

Sector Command HQ: Construction of a sector command headquarters creates a sector with the colony as the sector capital. Higher levels of sector command headquarters increase the radius of the sector. The Sector Radius is increased by one every time you double the level of the Sector Command HQ. So Level 1 = Radius 1, Level 2 = Radius 2, Level 4 = Radius 3, Level 8 = Radius 4, etc..
TUTORIALS > Part 3: Population and Production window

 

[Iche_Bins]

Actually, the bombing will disrupt infrastructure, and more importantly it will throw dust and radiation into the planet, making it ard as heck to colonize for years. Also, ground fighting will also destroy installations (though some losses are probably unavoidable.)

I'm not sure the damage will be so severe
I conquered a more advanced panet, and destroyed every military unit they had from orbit.
The radiation lowered the population growth by 1.2% and agave a little unhappiness, but not much else. Most of the infrastructure was still intact, or at least there was still lots and lots of infrastructure available after I had the colony...

These ground troops should vanquish much faster, as they are probably less advanced...

 

[blue emu]

OK... Tugs using Tractor Beams seem to be having no problem at all dragging those Orbital Fueling Stations around... six weeks will get them to Uranus, which is the Gas Giant with the highest Sorium concentration in the Sol system. I've started two more building. Since they have no engines, it takes less than a year to build them, as opposed to two years plus for a warship. Money-in-bank still going up. We may have this financial crisis licked, at least for the moment.

Now we must tackle the resource crisis. My Uridium stockpile is down to about 1,200 and the Earth mines will be exhausted in 1.2 years. Mercassium ore is already exhausted on Earth, but we've got lots in stockpile. Sorium ore will be gone in 0.9 years, but we're already taking the appropriate measures with these Orbital Fueling Stations. Corundium ore will be exhausted in 1.6 years. Gallicite ore in 3.3 years, Vendarite ore in 3.4 years. And so on.

Time to expand our resource base. A bit past time, actually.

Scientist Syber has developed a severe medical problem that has forced retirement from active research. I have assigned another NPC scientist as Syber II

 

[Boris ze Spider]

OK... Tugs using Tractor Beams seem to be having no problem at all dragging those Orbital Fueling Stations around... six weeks will get them to Uranus, which is the Gas Giant with the highest Sorium concentration in the Sol system. I've started two more building. Since they have no engines, it takes less than a year to build them, as opposed to two years plus for a warship. Money-in-bank still going up. We may have this financial crisis licked, at least for the moment.

Now we must tackle the resource crisis. My Uridium stockpile is down to about 1,200 and the Earth mines will be exhausted in 1.2 years. Mercassium ore is already exhausted on Earth, but we've got lots in stockpile. Sorium ore will be gone in 0.9 years, but we're already taking the appropriate measures with these Orbital Fueling Stations. Corundium ore will be exhausted in 1.6 years. Gallicite ore in 3.3 years, Vendarite ore in 3.4 years. And so on.

Time to expand our resourse base. A bit past time, actually.

Conquer something!!!!1

 

[blue emu]

Relations with Charlie now over +615. Only +185 to go to reach "Friendly" status and another treaty.

EDIT: Less than six months remain before our research on Sector Commands is finished, and that should balance the budget for the foreseeable future. We can then start expanding and/or retooling our shipyards again, a measure that was suspended during the financial crisis.

EDIT: Brigadier Quift's 32nd Engineer Brigade has recovered 40 points of abandoned Life-Support Infrastructure from the Xeno-Archeological dig site on Sigma Draconis A II. This is enough to support an additional 200,000 colonists.