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blue emu

GroFAZ
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Mar 13, 2004
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Welcome to our latest Aurora 4X forum game. I am your host, Blue Emu.

Aurora is an indie space 4X game system, created and developed by Steve Walmsley. His game development forum is at http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php#c3 and you can download the game for free from that site. It is a spreadsheet game... no pretty graphics, just charts and tables. All the fun takes place inside your head.

We've played this game several times before. The "Ad Astra" link in my signature takes you to our first Aurora game, which had over 100 forum members playing.

This time around, we will be playing a conventional start game, beginning in 1947 (the year of the Roswell Incident) and starting with no spaceflight capability at all. We will have to work our way up.

Game settings:

Conventional start, 1947 with real-world population (2.5 billion people).
No starting techs, no tech points, and a -75% penalty to our starting Labs.
Precursors and The Swarm both active right from the start.
Number of non-player alien races doubled.
nPRs can generate new nPRs (or Precursors or Swarm) each time they explore a new star system.
Our government type will be Insane Dictator (that's me!) with all the penalties that brings.
Sol starts with four undiscovered Jump Points.
Star systems have a minimum of six comets each.
Otherwise, we will use the game's default settings.

Our national anthem:

And our Fearless Leader:
6oAh8nz.jpg


Who wants in? There won't be much action for the first few years, because we can't even build any space-ships until we tech up a bit.
 
Count me in!
 
Does this game require much commitment? Can I bail easily if I don't like it?
The game-master (me) handles nearly everything.

The other players just indicate their intention of joining the game. They choose a career path... Naval Officer, Science Researcher, Politician, Civil Servant, Ground Forces Officer, Field Geologist, Staff Officer, Diplomat, Spy, etc; and I assign them a character in the game. They can follow their character's progress, make suggestions, ask for a transfer to a different branch, and so on.

If the player no longer has time (or interest) to continue taking part, their character continues but reverts to being an nPC (non-player character).

As an example, in our first Aurora Forum Game more than a hundred forum members joined, but only a few dozen were very active. Some of my Naval Officers advanced through the ranks and ended up in command of the interstellar equivalent of space-fighter Carriers, and I allowed them to decide what sort of Fighters we should build and what our tactical doctrine should be. The player whose character was appointed to command Earth's space navy was given the authority to decide on promotions, ship assignments, etc.
 
Count me in!
Your choice of career path?

We have no ships, and won't have any for years. We have only three researchers (and only six Labs). We haven't met any aliens yet, so Spies and Diplomats have nothing to do. My character is governor of Earth, and we don't yet have access to any other planets or moons... although that doesn't stop us from appointing a civil servant to "manage" them. We have ground forces, though.
 
The game-master (me) handles nearly everything.

The other players just indicate their intention of joining the game. They choose a career path... Naval Officer, Science Researcher, Politician, Civil Servant, Ground Forces Officer, Field Geologist, Staff Officer, Diplomat, Spy, etc; and I assign them a character in the game. They can follow their character's progress, make suggestions, ask for a transfer to a different branch, and so on.

If the player no longer has time (or interest) to continue taking part, their character continues but reverts to being an nPC (non-player character).

As an example, in our first Aurora Forum Game more than a hundred forum members joined, but only a few dozen were very active. Some of my Naval Officers advanced through the ranks and ended up in command of the interstellar equivalent of space-fighter Carriers, and I allowed them to decide what sort of Fighters we should build and what our tactical doctrine should be. The player whose character was appointed to command Earth's space navy was given the authority to decide on promotions, ship assignments, etc.

I'll join then. I'll be a Ground Forces Officer.
 
Count me in. I'll be the on-ship magician and poet. Call me the Aleister Crowley of the Milky Way.
 
Your choice of career path?

We have no ships, and won't have any for years. We have only three researchers (and only six Labs). We haven't met any aliens yet, so Spies and Diplomats have nothing to do. My character is governor of Earth, and we don't yet have access to any other planets or moons... although that doesn't stop us from appointing a civil servant to "manage" them. We have ground forces, though.
Naval officer preferably, though of course nothing will happen for years.
 
This time, Gaius will serve as a Geologist. Let's try to find plenty of nice minerals to build up our power base and our invincible fleet!
 
I'll join then. I'll be a Ground Forces Officer.
As the first Ground Forces officer to join, you will be the top-ranking Ground officer... although if you go inactive someone else will take over that spot.

Major-General Jeray2000 is assigned to the 1st Armored Division, in addition to his role as OC (Officer Commanding) Earth Ground Forces. GF Training 200, Diplomacy +10%, Xenology +15%, Ground Combat Bonus +10%, Traits: cautious, conscientious, disciplined, resourceful.
 
Naval officer preferably, though of course nothing will happen for years.
von Sachsen has joined as Commander of the (non-existent) Fleet. When we have our first ship built, you have the option of handing over your desk job (and rank) to someone else and taking the ship instead.

Rear Admiral von Sachsen - Crew Training 150, Initiative 303, FTR Combat +10%, FTR Ops +10%, Xenology +15%, Diplomacy +25%, Communications +10%, aggressive, courageous, astronomy geek.

This time, Gaius will serve as a Geologist. Let's try to find plenty of nice minerals to build up our power base and our invincible fleet!

GaiusC will join as a Geologist, a former Naval Officer with +15% Survey rating. observant, war games enthusiast.

James Hale has joined the game. I'll find you a role that gives you enough free time for poetry and philosophy.
 
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It begins!

From the journal of Blue Emu, Autocrat of Earth:

January 1st, 1947.

H8IA2pH.jpg


Mars ascending. Venus is nearing maximum elongation in its aspect as the Evening Star. Mercury is entering superior conjunction. Ominous. Very ominous. And to make it worse, Halley's Comet is approaching rapidly, with all that implies.

I mentioned this troubling planetary arrangement to the Minister of Science, but he just gaped at me like a fish. Idiot.

On the strength of these unmistakable signs, I have placed the Earth's defense forces on high alert. Whatever dangers the future holds, they won't catch us asleep.
 
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1MftQGt.jpg


We start with six Labs and only three Scientists. Fortunately, one of them is a Construction / Production specialist... fortunately, because the turn-key tech for entering the Trans-Newtonian age is a Construction / Production tech, called Trans-Newtonian Technology. I have given him ALL of our available Labs, and will re-balance our research after we enter the TN age.

Ykh6Bwt.jpg


I'm not building anything, because there is almost nothing worth building until we get that tech finished. Our starting mineral situation is quite good with over 100,000 of every ore, all at acceptable concentrations. We are burning Sorium faster than we mine it (so our Sorium stockpile will drop to zero almost immediately) but this situation will remedy itself as soon as we have that tech finished and build a few hundred TN mines.

eE8a9fF.jpg
 
In. Put me where you need me minus the airlock.
 
In. Put me where you need me minus the airlock.
Will do.

We start with such weak research that it's going to take nearly three years to get that first tech done, even with a matching scientist and all of our available Labs devoted to the project. Once we break into the TN techs, the pace should gradually pick up.
 
Finally, on August 11th 1949, we finish researching that turnkey tech. Thank Christ THAT'S over.

Now we can start converting our 5000 pre-TN industries into TN construction factories, mines, fuel refineries, etc. Normally we would convert a crap-load of construction factories first, since that will speed up the rate of conversion and start a boot-strap process. But we lack enough Sorium to keep our space-fuel refining operation running, so first I'll convert some mines.

Mid-December, 1950. By converting 400 pre-TN industries (one point of mining / construction / fuel refining each) to TN mines (ten points of mining each) we've finally caught up with the Sorium shortage. Now we can start converting pre-TN industries to TN construction factories (ten points of construction each) to speed up the conversion process. While this was going on, we have accumulated about 43 million liters of refined rocket fuel (from Sorium conversion) and 300,000 megabucks, representing a few years worth of taxes.

Our second tech will be finished in a few months... giving us +20% to our construction rate. I intend to focus first on developing our capabilities: mining, construction, research, etc. No hurry to develop FTL travel, since it will be decades before we have all the techs we need for interstellar adventures.
 
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In as whatever.
 
In as whatever.
Cool. No hurry to place you yet, since the pace of the game will be glacially slow until we get some industries converted, some more Labs built, and some techs researched. Let me know if you decide on a profession.
 
Cool. No hurry to place you yet, since the pace of the game will be glacially slow until we get some industries converted, some more Labs built, and some techs researched. Let me know if you decide on a profession.

If there is space in the Army, put me there. If not then Research is my choice.
 
I'm looking forward to this quite a bit. Personally, I'm game to start in the space force once we actually have one.