We have been in space for a decade now, and the last year has gone quite well. The AKX buy is finished, for now at least, with 10 units, and we've got over a million people on Gliese 892, with the first terraforming units being shipped out now. We've also finished adding nitrogen to the Lunar atmosphere, with oxygen addition expected to be finished within two years. It's going to take longer to make Luna fully habitable, due to the lack of surface water, but we should see infrastructure demands begin to fall within the next few years, and can also look at redeploying some of the terraforming facilities to Mars.
I'm also going to say that this is the point when we need to actually get our starting fleet fleshed out. We have 16,421 points left to spend on the various designs. These need to be restricted to tech we had at the start, with one exception. Large and Very Large fuel tanks are allowed, as those should be, IMO, unlocked at the start. To that end, I offer the Suffren class replenishment ship:
Suffren class Replenishment Ship 8,021 tons 80 Crew 250.3 BP TCS 160 TH 300 EM 0
1870 km/s Armour 1-35 Shields 0-0 HTK 26 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 1 PPV 0
MSP 4,019 Max Repair 25 MSP
Cargo Shuttle Multiplier 1
Capitaine de corvette Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months
Commercial Nuclear Pulse Engine EP100.0 (3) Power 300 Fuel Use 11.18% Signature 100 Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 2,253,000 Litres Range 452.2 billion km (2798 days at full power)
Refuelling Capability: 50,000 litres per hour Complete Refuel 45 hours
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
Database is here.
Comments
Terraforming Luna?
Does the game require you to put a shell over it or is it just not very scientifically accurate?
Also is it just me or is basically no one even following this?
I don't think it's actually that unrealistic. Atmosphere loss is a pretty slow process, dominated by the high tail of molecular velocity in the upper atmosphere. Over geological time, Luna can't hold an atmosphere, but the average velocity of anything except maybe hydrogen is still below escape velocity, which is plenty when you can create an atmosphere in a decade.
And yes, engagement with this series has not been what I'd like, but it's easy enough to do. At some point, I may pull the plug and use the alternate Friday for short stuff.
I sadly ran out of time to play Aurora right as this series got started. Unless Steve manages to get a version on the android app store, it's a lucky week when I can check the save.
Fortunately(?) the house is surrounded with a foot of snow, so it's one of those weeks!
I'm still reading it, but I couldn't get the game to work properly on Linux so I only have half a clue what's going on. Consequently, I don't have a great deal to say.
bean:
If you're talking about oxygen escaping Earth's atmosphere sure, Earth has a high escape velocity to the point at which approximately no oxygen atoms are above escape velocity, not so for the moon where it'll be around one in a thousand (remember that oxygen in the upper atmosphere is not molecular) which with typical collision frequencies at that height means each atom will last about a day.
ec429:
Combining the need to use Wine with a pain in the ass compression format that is mainly used by warez d00dz didn't exactly make me motivated to try to get it working.
Interesting. I forgot how many collisions you'll have to deal with. But I also don't really care, because the momentumless startships seem like a much bigger problem.
Re compression, .zip is pretty standard in the windows world. I'm amazed that your platform doesn't have tools for it.
bean:
True enough.
bean:
Last I looked the Aurora files was using .rar which can be a pain in the ass off windows (and doesn't even compress as well as 7zip so why does anyone still use it?).
We never got around to talking Aurora at the last meetup, but I've gone back and taken a look.
Regarding building a navy, our missile frigates are good for Sol system defense, but none of our designs have the range to effectively defend our outlying systems or jump points. So good work on the Suffren-class. Looking at the wish list, it looks like a squadron of:
1 x Foch CA 1 x Jeanne D'Ar CLE 2 x Dunquerke DE 1 x Saphir SC 1 x Suffren RS
Would be able to deploy to Gliese 892 and return, or cover any of the jump points in L145-151, Luhman-16, or out to DX Cancri. The Foch provides laser striking power, the rest provide missile defense and other support. Cost for the squadron would be just over 5,000 BP, so we could afford two of those. That would be my vote for a deep space fleet.
Other issues:
We should probably have a stockpile of missiles for the missile frigates, and the escort cruisers if we build those.
I foresee shortages of Corundium and Gallicite in the mid term. Not a problem at current consumption rates, but Gallicite consumption will go up as we start building and supporting warships, and we'll need Corundium for mines (including Corundium mines if we have to rectify a shortfall).
Moving some of our existing mines to Ophiuchus Premiere takes care of Corundium, and it's a pretty good source of other minerals as well. I don't see any really good Galicite sources, unfortunately. In a real crunch, we can dump automines on some of the smaller bodies of the Sol system, but that's a temporary and inefficient fix.
The abandoned alien colony on Eris still looks tempting, so I'd like to see xenoarchaeological survey capability as one of our next research projects.
I'd also like to take a closer look at the Gliese 785 and Pollux systems. Those have some nicely habitable or near-habitable worlds if they aren't already claimed by some alien civilization, and if they are so claimed we should know about it. Maybe start building stabilized jumpgates out that way (and maybe 1-2 more jump stabilization ships to expedite the process)?
I already took care of fleet building, and we ended up with 1x Suffren, 4x Clemenceau, 2x Jeanne d'Arc, 2x Epee and 6x Toulouse in addition to what we already have. I just need to get 1971 up, probably tomorrow. Good point on xenoarcheology, and I'll get that set up. As for missiles, we'll want to at least take advantage of the improved fuel economy we now have to get a bit more range out of any ones we're building.
1971 database is uploaded and available here. At the moment, I think it makes sense to hold off on any big building plans until the new engine technology becomes available in 1974, which will give us 25% more speed for a given design. But we can definitely start drawing up plans and designing other systems for when that becomes available.