Aurora - the Dwarf Fortress of 4x Games.

Septentrion · Jan 23, 2018

Terran Imperium said:
I play as the 'Terran Imperium', don't laugh! I play as a fascist empire where the militaries of the world taken over after a terrible cataclysm reduced Earth's population to barely 500 million people, I barely started colonizing nearby planets, I didn't leave my home system yet.

I'm personally going as the Emergency Government of the Terrestrial Commonwealth or EMERGTERR as it styles itself.

Basically when the dust finally settles after the massive global conflicts caused by the climate catastrophe only the United States is left, becoming as a consequence an effective and later on literal world state. This is actually not a bad idea for map, maybe I'll work on it at later date.

Thematically its basically a never-ending Nixonia (or perhaps an FDRia) that's built on the legacy of a thousand victorious Vietnams and on the broken and radioactive mass graves of Moscow and Berlin, but also on the idea of millions of its soldiers dying around the Three Gorges to stop the NazBol onslaught.

This United States which as the decades wore on eventually developed into a federalised NAFTA does not exist anymore as political entity being long since absorbed by its global successor, surviving only in the iconography and mythology of the world state.

--------------------------------------
I'm curious about how in your lore all the militaries of the world united, did a charismatic coterie of officers launch coup?

Also you describe your state as being fascistic to what extent or interpretation would this be? Hitlerite, Italian, authoritarian South Korea?

What would its symbol be?

-----------------------------------
I'm having some trouble with the window sizes, it appears that the bottom-most options are unreachable due to height (or lack thereof) of my computer screen.

Terran Imperium · Jan 23, 2018

Septentrion said:
I'm personally going as the Emergency Government of the Terrestrial Commonwealth or EMERGTERR as it styles itself.

Basically when the dust finally settles after the massive global conflicts caused by the climate catastrophe only the United States is left, becoming as a consequence an effective and later on literal world state. This is actually not a bad idea for map, maybe I'll work on it at later date.

Thematically it's basically a never-ending Nixonia (or perhaps an FDRia) that are built on the legacy of a thousand victorious Vietnams and on the broken and radioactive mass graves of Moscow and Berlin, but also on the idea of millions of its soldiers dying around the Three Gorges to stop the NazBol onslaught.

This United States which as the decades wore on eventually developed into a federalised NAFTA does not exist anymore as the political entity being long since absorbed by its global successor, surviving only in the iconography and mythology of the world state.

--------------------------------------
I'm curious about how in your lore all the militaries of the world united, did a charismatic coterie of officers launch coup?

Also you describe your state as being fascistic to what extent or interpretation would this be? Hitlerite, Italian, authoritarian South Korea?

What would its symbol be?

-----------------------------------
I'm having some trouble with the window sizes, it appears that the bottom-most options are unreachable due to height (or lack thereof) of my computer screen.

What's your resolution? I might be able to help
And you can make personalized maps right of Earth? I never really knew how people did it, probably with some unknown program or something. There is actually a mechanic in the game where your planet can get a Dust and Radioactivity percentage, at the start of the game, of course, everything is at 0, so I always justify it by saying that this Earth was more technologically advanced than our Earth to explain how they can fix Earth so easily, terraforming in the game is quite bullshit after all.
In my lore, there wasn't left much of the nations of Earth, think like the situation from 'The Fist of the North Star'-universe or Kenshiro's world, basicly a warlord strong enough got ahold of one the nearby setlements that's pretty decent with some governmental and military bases left untouched, he wasn't the only one of course but he played the social card and got popular enough with people since he offers them a 'decent' living standard, that's pretty much his only advantage that made him win, he pretty much conquered all of Europe by that point, now comes his heir since he is getting old, she pretty much focused on the environment, economy and new infrastructure while keeping a heavy militaristic view of things, she slowly expanded her influence until she got the entire Earth or what's left of it.
As for the government think of the Federation of Starship Troopers, with military service guaranteeing citizenship and a few alternatives but they don't have a Chancellor but an Emperor or Empress. Their symbol is an eagle but where its head should be there is Earth.
On a side-note what do you think of the prototype prologue that I made? Any criticism or advice?

Daedwartin · Jan 24, 2018

[] Plan Defiant.
[] The Imperium
[x] Write-in (It needs to match the type of government you choose)

[] Plutocracy/Corporate Government
[] Confederation/Federation
[] Republic
[] Fascist
[x] Imperial Monarchy

[] Realistic Commander Promotions
-[x] Allowed
-[] Not Allowed
[] Commander Political Bonuses
-[x] Allowed
-[] Not Allowed
[] Inexperienced Fleets Penalties
-[x] Allowed
-[] Not Allowed

[] Courageous Man
[x] Humble Man

Never Again shall the fools of the past get in the way. The Foolish Americans thought that their democracy was the only way. Want to increase the rights of the workers their companies were treating like slaves? You must surely be a communist and therefor must be a traitor. The Soviets? All are equal, but the party is more equal apparently. Work so the party elites can live like the fat cats of America once did.

We are not Equals. Some are smarter. Some are more beautiful. Some are kinder. Some are Crueler. All people have their place. The Imperium realizes this. And it shall lead it's people to Greatness. The best shall lead. The smartest shall discover. The meek shall work.

The Soviet and the American Experiments have failed. We will not. The Stars shall be ours.

-The final words of the The Stars shall be ours Speech, By Emperor Vladimir, who has sadly died of cancer related to the One Year War's nuclear exchanges in 2014. For the 35 years he lead the world, he has helped humanity to rebuild.
------
And yes, it's Putin.

Septentrion · Jan 24, 2018

Terran Imperium said:
What's your resolution? I might be able to help

1366 x 768

Terran Imperium said:
And you can make personalized maps right of Earth? I never really knew how people did it, probably with some unknown program or something.

I kinda like to make stuff like this: Beedok's Maps Thread
Though I have more complex articles in development.

If you want a how to guide (at least with gimp), I could PM you it. Though this website can also help: resources:maps [alternatehistory.com wiki]

Terran Imperium said:
There is actually a mechanic in the game where your planet can get a Dust and Radioactivity percentage, at the start of the game, of course, everything is at 0, so I always justify it by saying that this Earth was more technologically advanced than our Earth to explain how they can fix Earth so easily, terraforming in the game is quite bullshit after all.

My game is set in the year 2185 with the whole Climate catastrophe lasting from 2016 to 2070 or 2100, that combined with exotic technologies, (cows that spin silk, wheat that grows in salt water etc) resulted in most of the damage being scrubbed off.

Terran Imperium said:
On a side-note what do you think of the prototype prologue that I made? Any criticism or advice?

With regards to your query the first part is a decent justification for the whole blank slate that is the foundation for further lore development. Though I would be careful about the selection of the date of Armageddon as it would define what would come next, as an inhabitant of the 21st century it may feel more comfortable to write about a more recent Apocalypse due to greater familiarity with the tone of this era.

As for the second part a nuclear apocalypse in 1979 would wipe out large swathes of the Northern Hemisphere and China and would probably devastate potential competitors in the global south but I don't see it creating a world state by 2025. By that date I only see South America as being in any way on the path to unity and probably ruled by some very dour groups.

To me the path to a world state or near absolute unipolarity is the work of centuries and requires a slow acceptance of a terrestrial nationalism whether that be through amalgamation or through hyper-power dominance, there are number of factors that could accelerate this such as a common (alien?) enemy or an interdependence forced by climate change. To see a world state by the year 2025 I think it would require something that would be inherently forced and completely outside context, SEELE from Evangelion or something like it.

On the other hand, It is effective in that is simple enough to be easily customisable. I think I will try my hand at writing my own intro.

Vyslanté · Jan 24, 2018

Oh we have an Aurora thread? Neat!

I sank quite an amount of hours in that a few years back; I should try do see what has changed since then.

~~And do a LP of it~~

Terran Imperium · Jan 24, 2018

Daedwartin said:
[] Plan Defiant.
[] The Imperium
[x] Write-in (It needs to match the type of government you choose)

[] Plutocracy/Corporate Government
[] Confederation/Federation
[] Republic
[] Fascist
[x] Imperial Monarchy

[] Realistic Commander Promotions
-[x] Allowed
-[] Not Allowed
[] Commander Political Bonuses
-[x] Allowed
-[] Not Allowed
[] Inexperienced Fleets Penalties
-[x] Allowed
-[] Not Allowed

[] Courageous Man
[x] Humble Man

Never Again shall the fools of the past get in the way. The Foolish Americans thought that their democracy was the only way. Want to increase the rights of the workers their companies were treating like slaves? You must surely be a communist and therefor must be a traitor. The Soviets? All are equal, but the party is more equal apparently. Work so the party elites can live like the fat cats of America once did.

We are not Equals. Some are smarter. Some are more beautiful. Some are kinder. Some are Crueler. All people have their place. The Imperium realizes this. And it shall lead it's people to Greatness. The best shall lead. The smartest shall discover. The meek shall work.

The Soviet and the American Experiments have failed. We will not. The Stars shall be ours.

-The final words of the The Stars shall be ours Speech, By Emperor Vladimir, who has sadly died of cancer related to the One Year War's nuclear exchanges in 2014. For the 35 years he lead the world, he has helped humanity to rebuild.
------
And yes, it's Putin.

I liked that more than I should, really Putin as an Emperor, that's something I would like to write, seriously.

Septentrion said:
1366 x 768

I kinda like to make stuff like this: Beedok's Maps Thread
Though I have more complex articles in development.

If you want a how to guide (at least with gimp), I could PM you it. Though this website can also help: resources:maps [alternatehistory.com wiki]

My game is set in the year 2185 with the whole Climate catastrophe lasting from 2016 to 2070 or 2100, that combined with exotic technologies, (cows that spin silk, wheat that grows in salt water etc) resulted in most of the damage being scrubbed off.

With regards to your query the first part is a decent justification for the whole blank slate that is the foundation for further lore development. Though I would be careful about the selection of the date of Armageddon as it would define what would come next, as an inhabitant of the 21st century it may feel more comfortable to write about a more recent Apocalypse due to greater familiarity with the tone of this era.

As for the second part a nuclear apocalypse in 1979 would wipe out large swathes of the Northern Hemisphere and China and would probably devastate potential competitors in the global south but I don't see it creating a world state by 2025. By that date I only see South America as being in any way on the path to unity and probably ruled by some very dour groups.

To me the path to a world state or near absolute unipolarity is the work of centuries and requires a slow acceptance of a terrestrial nationalism whether that be through amalgamation or through hyper-power dominance, there are number of factors that could accelerate this such as a common (alien?) enemy or an interdependence forced by climate change. To see a world state by the year 2025 I think it would require something that would be inherently forced and completely outside context, SEELE from Evangelion or something like it.

On the other hand, It is effective in that is simple enough to be easily customisable. I think I will try my hand at writing my own intro.

1. The minimum resolution is 1280x1024. You can extend your resolution past your monitor and then "slide" around or you can try the reduced height windows or one of the desktop resizer solutions. If you insist I will post a complete solution to the problem and threadmark it for future reference.
2. Neat, I never really bothered to change the starting date, it's just RP after all but it makes more sense actually.
3. I agree I should change that, perhaps at least a century or more and it explain the technology and the 'renewed' state of Earth in-game.

Vyslanté said:
Oh we have an Aurora thread? Neat!

I sank quite an amount of hours in that a few years back; I should try do see what has changed since then.

~~And do a LP of it~~

Let's hope this one doesn't fall in the Abyss and get forgotten, this is quite an enjoyable game for those who put a little effort into it, there is a new version the 7.1 and Aurora C# is 'near'! I'm quite excited for that. I read the changelog in the official forum and its awesome.

Vyslanté · Jan 24, 2018

Terran Imperium said:
Aurora C# is 'near'!

Oh please, I've been hearing that one for years

3_14159 · Jan 24, 2018

Septentrion said:
1366 x 768

In my experience, activate reduced-height windows (somewhere in the game options) and move the Windows taskbar vertically to the left or right. Worked quite well for me on my old Windows laptop.

Ah... Aurora. I may try playing it again, if I can get it to run in Wine.

Terran Imperium · Jan 24, 2018

Vyslanté said:
Oh please, I've been hearing that one for years

I don't tire of that joke though, its our version of the half life sequel joke.

3_14159 said:
In my experience, activate reduced-height windows (somewhere in the game options) and move the Windows taskbar vertically to the left or right. Worked quite well for me on my old Windows laptop.

Ah... Aurora. I may try playing it again, if I can get it to run in Wine.

If you want to run it in Wine, follow these steps, found this solution in the official forum.

Assuming that you have compiled Wine and installed its dependencies, you should now perform the following steps, IN ORDER.

Create a fresh wineprefix. I prefer to do this by removing the existing prefix in some fashion, such as renaming it, and then entering the commands "wineserver -k" and then "wineboot".

After generating a fresh wineprefix, use winetricks to install the following package: "vb6run"

Now, you must force Wine to acknowledge the existence of several dlls. Specifically, you need to register "ole32. dll" and "oleaut32. dll", which are already present in your wineprefix by default. My preferred method for doing this is to use the following commands: "regsvr32 ole32. dll" and "regsvr32 oleaut32. dll"

Install the program commonly known to Aurora users as the "Simple Shutdown Timer" in this wineprefix.

Using WINECFG, set overrides for the dlls "ole32. dll" and "oleaut32. dll" to "Native, then Builtin"

Install Aurora as per the standard instructions.

Run Aurora by running the file Aurora. exe

Rule the Galaxy!

Septentrion · Jan 24, 2018

Terran Imperium said:
1. The minimum resolution is 1280x1024. You can extend your resolution past your monitor and then "slide" around or you can try the reduced height windows or one of the desktop resizer solutions. If you insist I will post a complete solution to the problem and threadmark it for future reference.

I think you should that would be very helpful.

Is there any way to somehow modify the game windows from within the game or do I have to change the settings for all of my computer?

Edit: also my empires colour refuses to change.

Terran Imperium · Jan 24, 2018

Septentrion said:
I think you should that would be very helpful.

Is there any way to somehow modify the game windows from within the game or do I have to change the settings for all of my computer?

Edit: also my empires colour refuses to change.

Here you have the menu

Go to 'Game Parameters' and activate 'Reduced-Height Windows'
Note: This is necessary for all Players with a low-resolution if it'sn't sufficient to fix the problem, however, you can use the next different solutions:
1. You can use [WINDOWS]+[P] and extend the screen but you need some software that would allow you to navigate between screens on the same screen or if you have spare screens you can use it.
2. Start->Settings->System->Display. then click on "Screen Orientation" and set it to landscape, Aurora requires a screen 1024 pixels tall.

Note: Sorry, this is the few solution that I knew of if I find any or anyone finds additional solutions I will add them here.

Septentrion · Jan 24, 2018

Terran Imperium said:
1. You can use [WINDOWS]+[P] and extend the screen but you need some software

What kind of software?

Terran Imperium said:
2. Start->Settings->System->Display. then click on "Screen Orientation" and set it to landscape, Aurora requires a screen 1024 pixels tall.

Already done.

In all honesty this might prove to be an intractable issue, the forum posts I looked at where rather discouraging but i did find a 'clunky' solution which I might try: Screen Resolution Problem Solved [ENJOY]

There is also a piece of software that has been suggested on reddit, its called Infinite Screen and it permits windows to be moved about, though for me the missing areas just don't seem to exist and disappear when I move the F3 window.

Dreams of Fulda · Jan 24, 2018

Terran Imperium said:
[] Plutocracy/Corporate Government
[] Confederation/Federation
[] Republic
[] Fascist
[] Imperial Monarchy

Are these the only governments you'd be fine with, or would a write in for another one be acceptable?

Septentrion · Jan 24, 2018

I have done it!

This at least works for me, you download and install Infinite Screen Software Download & How To

Access its settings and select the 'Oversize' tab and then pick the window that you want to extend such as the System Map before selecting the height that you want, don't forget to select the 4ever button!

If the window is not showing up just exit it and then reload it before having another attempt.

Proof:

Incidentally, what do you guys think of my wallpaper?

Terran Imperium · Jan 24, 2018

Septentrion said:
What kind of software?

Already done.

In all honesty this might prove to be an intractable issue, the forum posts I looked at where rather discouraging but i did find a 'clunky' solution which I might try: Screen Resolution Problem Solved [ENJOY]

There is also a piece of software that has been suggested on Reddit, its called Infinite Screen and it permits windows to be moved about, though for me the missing areas just don't seem to exist and disappear when I move the F3 window.

I'm sorry, I don't know any software that might help you, I have a 1920x1200 resolution so I never really bothered to make a deep research. If you still find difficulties, however, I will try my best and find you a software ^^

Septentrion said:
I have done it!

This at least works for me, you download and install Infinite Screen Software Download & How To

Access its settings and select the 'Oversize' tab and then pick the window that you want to extend such as the System Map before selecting the height that you want, don't forget to select the 4ever button!

If the window is not showing up just exit it and then reload it before having another attempt.

Proof:

Incidentally, what do you guys think of my wallpaper?

Oh! I'm glad you made it work on your own!

For the wallpaper its beautiful, its Arturia from Fate right? Who is the author?

Das Wolfe said:
Are these the only governments you'd be fine with, or would a write in for another one be acceptable?

A write-in is acceptable but you would have to make a short description of the government and how it will work. This is not a real quest however it's just a prototype to see if people like it or not and if I should start one.

This is the longest post for nown, all images and examples are provided by me, the tutorial you can find it in the internet, its a modified by me though.

========================================

Open the Class Design Window (F5). You should see a window that is mostly a huge blank space. Press New in the bottom left-hand corner. If you can't see any buttons at the bottom then check you are running in a resolution of at least 1280x1024.

This is just the summary view though so switch to the Design View tab. You will now see the list of available components. Bridge, Crew Quarters, Engineering Spaces, etc. There aren't many because in Aurora you not only have to design the ships, you have to design most of the components as well.

In the class window. Across the top, starting from the left, are the name of the Empire, the Class Name, the Type, the Hull, the Build Points (Cost to build) and a set of checkboxes.

The Class Name will have been generated automatically based on whatever theme you selected during game creation. if you want to change it you can either press the Rename button and type a name or press Auto Rename, which will pick another name from the current theme.

The Type is either a Ship or a Planetary Defence Centre (PDC). There is some difference between the two, such as no engines or shields on a PDC, but for the moment we will only be designing ships so leave that dropdown alone.

Hull contains a huge list of hull descriptions. This is purely cosmetic and you can choose whatever you like. So you can have a 1000 ton dreadnought or a 50,000-ton frigate if you wish. The actual size of the ship will depend entirely on what systems you add.
This is because as time advances, ship sizes will generally increase so I saw no point in assigned fixed hull names to particular ranges of hull sizes.
For example, modern destroyers are larger than battleships from the mid-19th century. You can also reclassify a class at any time so you may create an early cruiser which you re-designate as a destroyer as your technology advances. If you want a new hull name, click New Hull and type in a new name. Your design will change to that hull type.
Build Points is the total cost of all the systems on the ship plus the cost of the armor and is the amount of wealth that will be required to pay for the ship.
The raw materials that will be required can be found in a list in the bottom left and should add up to the build points. We'll leave the checkboxes for now and come back to them later.

Now you go to the Design View tab
Note!: The Design View tab will be locked once you start producing ships from this design.

In the Components section on the far right, which lists every component added to the design, some basic systems have already been allocated to the design, including some armor, crew quarters, fuel storage, engineering and a bridge.

Down the left-hand edge in the Primary Information section are details on armor, shields, the total number of Hits to Kill (HTK) and the build time for the ship.

Deployment Time changing it increases the tonnage per crewman requirement. Basically it makes crew quarters less effective to represent the fact that the crew needs better accommodations if they're going to be on-duty longer.

The Exact Class Size is the size of the ship in Hull Spaces. This will also be the size of the ship for the purposes of active sensor detection.

Armour Rating is the thickness of the armor and can be increased or decreased by clicking the small arrows to the right of this box.

Armour Area is the surface area of the ship based on the assumption it is spherical in shape
The Armour Strength Required is equal to (Surface Area / 4) rounded up. Armour sufficient to meet this requirement is automatically added to the design as it gets larger. If you increase the thickness of the armor then each extra 'layer' is added to the previous one. As the total size of the ship and therefore the total surface area increases with each layer of armor, each additional layer will be cover a greater area and therefore require greater strength than the previous one. Each type of armor in Aurora has a different strength rating per hull space (HS) so as tech increases you will need less hull space dedicated to armor to meet the Armour Strength Required. As less armor also means a smaller ship, extra layers of armor will also be smaller.
For example, at the moment you have the technology for Duranium Armour, which has a strength per HS of 5. The armour area is 14.1. Dividing by 4 gives us a Required Armour Strength of 3.525. As Duranium has a strength per HS of 5, we need 3.525/5 HS of armour, which is 0.705, rounded to 0.7. As you can see on the design, 0.7 HS of Duranium Armour has automatically been allocated. If you had High Density Duranium Armour, which has a strength of 6 per HS, you would only need 3.525/6 = 0.6 HS of armour. Obviously this make little difference at the moment but as ships get larger and armour gets stronger, it can make a significant difference. Try increasing the Armour Rating to 2. The ship is now slightly larger and there are two layers of armour so the surface area has increased to 16 and the armour strength to 8. Duranium Armour is armour strength 5 so we need 8/5 = 1.6 HS of armour. Put the Armour Rating back to 1 for now. You don't really need to remember any of the details. Just remember that increasing the armour thickness or increasing the size of the ship will increase the amount of armour required and researching new armour tech will reduce the amount of armour required for future designs.

Armour Columns is the 'width' of the armour. The armour system in Aurora combat is similar to that of an old FASA game called Interceptor. The armour is represented by a block of 'boxes' with the width based on the size of the ship and the depth based on the thickness of the armour. Each weapon type has a damage template which determines which armour 'boxes' are damaged. Missiles tend to crater the armour while lasers cause narrower but deeper damage. Some weapons, such as railguns, have a high rate of fire and cause more overall damage than lasers but because that damage is split among many small hits, they tend to sandpaper armour rather than penetrating as a laser does. Any damage hitting in a location where all the armour has been destroyed will penetrate and cause internal damage. It is possible even for a well armoured ship to get unlucky and receive several hits in the same location, which will result in armour penetration and internal damage. That internal damage could even set off a string of secondary explosions, so a Hood style catastrophe is possible. Equally, if a ship has hits distributed all over the armour and doesn't lose any key system or suffer secondary explosion, it can withstand quite a lot of punishment
We'll come back to Shield Strength and Recharge a little later

Internal HTK (Hits to Kill) is the total HTK rating for all of the ship's internal systems. More on this later

Build Time (yrs) is the estimated build time for the ship in years. This may be decreased if the Planetary Governor of the colony where the ship is built has a bonus to Shipbuilding.
I'll come back to Power Systems later.

Load Time is the estimated time to load a freighter, colony ship or troop transport design.

Designing!

A good first design choice is a geological survey ship. Let's change the hull to Geological Survey Vessel. This is only cosmetic but it tells us the intended role of the ship with a glance at the summary display. We already know how to build Geological Survey Sensors so add one to the design by double-clicking on the appropriate line in the available components section.

The Geological Survey Sensors will appear in the component list on the right and also will change the Brief Summary Display under the Available Components section.
Now then assuming you have already designed an engine for your ship(There is a small part at the end covering this), you will add it to the design which will give you pretty much this.

Defiant class Geological Survey Vessel 3 900 tons 45 Crew 245.25 BP TCS 78 TH 125 EM 0
1602 km/s Armour 1-22 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/1 Damage Control Rating 1 PPV 0
MSP 39 Max Repair 100 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 100 months Spare Berths 0

Domor & Belicus Heavy Industries 125 EP Commercial Nuclear Thermal Engine (1) Power 125 Fuel Use 7.07% Signature 125 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 250 000 Litres Range 163.1 billion km (1178 days at full power)

Geological Survey Sensors (1) 1 Survey Points Per Hour

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes

Now here its one the most basic ships you will find, its a ship with sensors and one engine, a little of fuel and some supplies for the crew (Deployment time)

The first line is the name of the ship plus its hull type, the size in tons, the total crew, the number of build points, the TCS or Target Cross Section, which is the exact class size rounded up to the next whole number and is the value used to detect the ship with active sensors, the Thermal Signature (TH) and the Electromagnetic Signature (EM). I'll get back to the last two later.

The first item on the second line shows the speed in km/s . Next is the armour, shown by thickness and then width. So at the moment the ship is protected by a belt of armour that is represented by a line of 5 boxes. If you increase the armour rating to 2, the armour on the summary display will change to 2-6, which means the armour is now represented by a set of boxes that is two high and 6 wide. Change it back to Armour Rating 1 for now.
These armour boxes can be viewed on the Ship Window, including any that are lost to damage. We'll get to that when we discuss combat. (The only difference in the example provided by me is that the armour is still conventional)

Next is Shields, which are shown as Strength and Recharge Time in Seconds. The four Sensor values are Thermal / EM / Gravitational / Geological.
Every ship has default thermal and EM ratings of 1, which can be increased by the addition of dedicated thermal and EM sensors.
The Geological Sensor Rating of 1 is provided by the newly added Geological Survey Sensors. The Damage Control Rating of 1 is provided by the 1x Engineering Spaces.

Damage Control determines the speed at which repairs can be made and can be increased by adding damage control systems or additional engineering systems.
Finally, the PPV rating is the Planetary Protection Value and is based on the ship's weapons. This is used to determine how much protection the ship provides to nearby colonies.

The 3rd line shows the current Maintenance Capacity, which is based on the size of the ship and the number of Engineering Spaces.
Max Repair is the cost of the ship's most expensive system, in this case the Geological Survey Sensors. It is a very good idea to have maintenance supplies (MSP) greater than the Max Repair.
When a ship suffers a maintenance failure, it will use up MSP equal to the cost of the affected system in order to prevent the failure. If insufficient MSP are available the affected system will be damaged and cease operation. If this is something vital such as a jump engine, the ship could be stuck a long way from home.
Once damaged, a system can be fixed by damage control but the cost in MSP is doubled. Damaged systems can also be repaired by a shipyard.

The 4rd and 5th is the part about the Engine, everything here is explained in the last part.

The 6th line shows the fuel capacity and the range.

The 7th line shows the Geological Survey Sensors and the fact they generate 1 survey point. This is generated every hour.

The 8th line shows this is currently classed as a commercial vessel, which means it doesn't suffer maintenance failures, unlike military ships.

Designing an Engine!

Open up the F2 Economics window and press the Design button (in the middle of the line of buttons along the bottom) or you can find it in the drop-down menu or just Ctrl+F6. This will open the Create Research Project window. This is only a small and relatively simple window but very important.

In the top right is the Research Project Type drop-down menu. At the moment it should be showing Active Sensors / Missile Fire Control. Change it to Engines.

This should change the upper half of the window to show seven dropdown menus. Choosing different options on these menus will result in different engine designs.
The lower half shows the stats for the engine design that will be generated by the selected options. Power Output is the power generated by the engine. The total power output from a ship's engines will determine the speed of the ship based on the following formula:

Speed = (Total Engine Output / Class Size) * 1000

So a ship of size 250 with a total engine power of 800 would move at (800/250)*1000 = 3200 km/s

Explosion Chance is the percentage the engine will blow up if damaged, causing a secondary explosion.

Efficiency is the fuel efficiency of the engine. As you research fuel efficiency tech, you can design engines that will use less fuel for the same power output.

The Thermal Signature is how much heat is generated by the engine. A ship's thermal signature at full speed is the total thermal signature from its engines and this is the value used to detect the ship on thermal sensors.
You can design engines with lower thermal signatures by researching Thermal Reduction technology, although they will cost more to build.

The Engine Size is 5HS, which is fixed for military engines. You can put as many military engines on a design as you want though.
You will need to change the Engine Size so that the Engine is no longer considered a 'military engine' but a 'commercial engine'

The Engine HTK is the Hit to Kill value for the engine. HTK is the amount of damage that would automatically destroy the engine, 2 in this case. If hit by 1 point of damage there is a 50% chance the engine will be destroyed and a 50% chance it will remain intact. Internal armor can be added to engines to reduce the chance of damage.

The Cost and Crew are the Build Point Cost and amount of crew members that will be added to the ship by the addition of one engine.

Materials Required is the type of raw materials required for the engine. In this case 3x Duranium and 9x Gallicite.

The Development Cost is the research cost required for this design before it can be put into production, in this case, 120 Research Points.

The name given to this engine is the Nuclear Thermal Engine E10. You could change this name if you wish before creating the design you then press Create. Press Close to shut the Create Research Project window. If the F2 Economics window is still open, close that as well.

You will then have to go to the Research Tab and research the engine, you will find it in 'Power and Propulsion'.

Septentrion · Jan 24, 2018

Terran Imperium said:
Oh! I'm glad you made it work on your own! For the wallpaper its beautiful, its Arturia from Fate right? Who is the author?

Ha! Close but no cigar, the character in question is the Golden Witch Beatrice from Umineko no Naku Koro ni, a supernatural murder mystery visual novel (you can find it online but actually downloading it can be a pain in the arse so if you want to try the demo of the first chapter I could PM you the details).

Here is where I got it from: beatrice realistic s_g umineko no naku koro ni
Though it appears that it can also be found in Zerochan: https://static.zerochan.net/Beatrice.full.281227.jpg if you dont like download buttons.

Edit: it has just occurred to me, I simply don't know who made it.

-----------------------------------------
To elaborate on my previous solution the program offers multiple methods through which windows can be manipulated, so far I have found that the two button combinations have been more effective than the mouse:

(Ctrl left + Shift left + arrow buttons) for small movements
(Ctrl left + Alt + arrow buttons) to go all the way down and up

The latter option is the more effective as far as I can tell as it permits rapid snap back when using the bottom of the screen is no longer necessary. The first option is rather too time consuming in my opinion as you have to multiple selections.

Terran Imperium · Jan 24, 2018

I'm currently considering starting a Quest/LP about Aurora, I'm still fleshing out the last details, any ideas or suggestions? since I didn't start anything yet.

Steven Kodaly · Jan 25, 2018

HellHound01 said:
Well restarting my game, I was very short in several types of resources on Earth, and in my rush to get automated mines, and a mass driver set up on Venus, I kind of forgot to build a mass driver on Earth to receive the goods, and ended up vaporizing several million people when the three mass drivers on Venus launched there payloads at Earth.

Ah, you're not a true Aurora player until you've done this at least once. Congratulations!

Vehrec · Jan 25, 2018

Steven Kodaly said:
Ah, you're not a true Aurora player until you've done this at least once. Congratulations!

The fact that after god knows how many years, this can *still* happen without throwing up a warning or anything is yet another example of how this game just...isn't changing much. It may be the Dwarf Fortress of 4x games, but when you compare it's Changelog to Dwarf Fortress's...well I mean, they've added Artifacts, pubs, temples and a whole mess of stuff since Aurora last released an update.

Terran Imperium · Jan 25, 2018

Vehrec said:
The fact that after god knows how many years, this can *still* happen without throwing up a warning or anything is yet another example of how this game just...isn't changing much. It may be the Dwarf Fortress of 4x games, but when you compare its Changelog to Dwarf Fortress's...well I mean, they've added Artifacts, pubs, temples and a whole mess of stuff since Aurora last released an update.

You can't really expect much, Aurora isn't some professional or amateur work, it was just done in the spare time of some old man named Steve, who makes money by playing poker. The game is great if you try to enjoy it, but if you see only the bad side you won't enjoy it as much. Hopefully, when the game will be updated to C# it will be much easier for the community to modify the game, even if Steve isn't willing to update it anymore, there will be people willing to continue it.
And the 'game' is more of a simulation of space empire-management, so you can't expect anyone to hold your hand for the entire game, I made the mistake mentioned above in my first games but after that, I will feel really stupid to repeat it really. Unless of course, I didn't play the game for a long time! Its just a excuses

Septentrion · Jan 25, 2018

I'm looking at this guide on the wiki: Quickstart for Beginners - AuroraWiki

And it makes reference to an Open Officers button that I simply don't have. Is the wiki outdated or do I have to select something?

Terran Imperium · Jan 25, 2018

Septentrion said:
I'm looking at this guide on the wiki: Quickstart for Beginners - AuroraWiki

And it makes reference to an Open Officers button that I simply don't have. Is the wiki outdated or do I have to select something?

If you don't find it you just press on F4, or you click on this guy here. And it's an outdated tutorial, still viable yeah but there will be some options missing or those that were deleted in later versions.

Septentrion · Jan 25, 2018

Terran Imperium said:
And it's an outdated tutorial, still viable yeah but there will be some options missing or those that were deleted in later versions.

That's something that is really quite intolerable to me, do you know anybeginners guides that are up to date?

Terran Imperium · Jan 25, 2018

Septentrion said:
That's something that is really quite intolerable to me, do you know anybeginners guides that are up to date?

There is this one, but it's not finished, there aren't any written updated tutorial of Aurora, so I'm picking from several sources to create one here, I will most likely check out any previously posted images to make sure it's actually v7.1.
There is, however, multiple LPs and tutorial about Aurora on Youtube and it's easier to follow than a written one.

Septentrion · Jan 25, 2018

For my commanders it seems that I can give them new personality traits, is this cheating?

Aurora - the Dwarf Fortress of 4x Games.

DRM Mapping Project

[French]

DRM Mapping Project

The self is a prison

[French]

The self is a prison

[French]

DRM Mapping Project

[French]

DRM Mapping Project

DRM Mapping Project

[French]

DRM Mapping Project

[French]

[French]

DRM Mapping Project

[French]

DRM Mapping Project

[French]

DRM Mapping Project