This dwarf fortress forum link saved me!
I can finally play…now listening to tutorials.
Glad you finally got it working! Now on to the hard part… :)
Excellent! That’s a very advanced start for a game, but considering its probably been about a billion years since the Great Old Ones discovered TNE, it makes sense.
Man, I’ve never even heard of this game. It looks like the Dwarf Fortress of space 4X games.
By the way, you don’t have a link to the preferred branches in your original post. But put me down as a disorganized, easily confused, talented musician!
-TomOh Lord, don’t say that, Tom!
I made that mistake even in just saying someone else had said it back a couple of years ago. I never started another thread out of embarrassment.
So this game has been around for a while then? I know I’m going to sound like a wet blanket, but I can’t help but think – and keep in mind this is just an uninformed reaction out of ignorance – that if it’s any good, I would have heard of it by now. That’s probably a me problem, though.
By the way, speaking of being a wet blanket, I’m grateful to have a conversation about the game and I’m glad Sepiche let us know he’s doing an AAR over at Octopus Overlords, but I did ask him not to bump this thread just to update his progress. We have enough going on here at Qt3 with our own leagues and AARs that I’d rather we not have a thread keep floating to the top of the page just to direct people elsewhere. So I’d encourage anyone who wants to follow his AAR to sign up for an account at Octopus Overlords. Feel free to stick around here to talk about it, of course, but I don’t want to encourage folks to use Qt3 where, say, a Twitter feed might be more appropriate.
-TomAurora is a program made and developed by one guy, Steve Walmsly, in his spare time. It evolved from a board game called Starfire which is a pretty complicated game in itself where you move spaceships around and engaged in combat. Being a grognardy type game, the damage model was very granular, detailing things like the type of lasers used, what damage was done to each ship subsystem etc. What people enjoyed about Starfire was writing AARs - these would go into hundreds of thousands of words about years long campaigns.
Because there were so many stats to track, Steve started writing his own program which could track all of these more efficiently rather than writing them all down.
Over time, the program got more and more complicated, however working within an IP that belonged to someone else created some tensions, so Steve eventually decided to start again and build a new program from scratch that he could call his own, and tweak how he wanted it
So Aurora isn’t really a game. It’s a program that keeps track of the numbers while you create a story within it. Steve has a number of AARs over on his forum that Sepiche linked in the first post. I would highly recommend going to read the Soviet vs NATO AAR there. It gives a good indication of what the program does.
That was the thread that put it on my radar initially, but I didn’t get around to trying it until it came up again recently.
No, you’re right. :) By any reasonable standards it’s got crippling amounts of micromanagement, throws little errors frequently, and has a steep learning wall. I feel I’m playing more so others can see what it has to offer without actually having to put up with it themselves.
As Tom mentioned, at the behest of management I’m going to start posting here as well… just go easy on my grammar and B movie stories. :)
Edit:
Oh, and the currently available branches are for Naval Officers, Army Officers, or Administrators.
A brief history of R’lyeh
It is the year 2025 earth reckoning, and on the vast ocean world of R’lyeh Kings, Presidents, Prime Ministers, and petty dictators have for thousands of years vied for political and military control of the planet. With the fall of the last of the Northern Lords the Octopus Overlord regime led by the newly crowned Emperor Sepiche the First have finally won a complete victory and even now the agents of the new Overlord Empire have been quick to consolidate imperial control on the levers of power.
R’lyeh is a large terrestrial planet orbiting the alpha star of the Prime binary system. It is covered by a vast liquid water ocean spanning 95% of it’s surface and that ocean and it’s cities are home to the 1 billion souls that make up the Octopus Overlords empire. The average surface tempature is ~93.5 degrees Fahrenheit due to the planets relatively close orbit of .37 AU from the primary. The planet’s gravity is 1.27 earth norm, it has a diameter of 8700 miles, an axial tilt of 24 degrees, it’s slow rotation means a day is 4.2 earth days, and it’s proximity to Prime-A means it’s year is only 99 days. The atmosphere is made up of 71% Nitrogen and 29% Oxygen, and has the same pressure as Earth.
The inner planets around Prime-A
The inner and outer planets of Prime-A
The inner and outer planets of Prime-B
Partial planet list for Prime-A
Partial planet list for Prime-B
R’lyeh: It’s “people” and Infrastructure
After their bloody rise to power the Overlords seized control of what infrastructure remained on R’lyeh, and gained the allegiance of the billion inhabitants that survived the Succession Wars. Among the assets seized intact were:
7 shipyards - 5 Civilian, 2 Military
630 Construction Factories
300 Fuel Refineries
600 Mines
120 Automated Mines
22 Research Labs
7 Ground Force Training Facilities
R’lyeh University - A level 2 Academy
A breakdown of Shipyard capacity
With an eye on expansion toward the stars, the Emperor has ordered the construction of new factories, automated mines, and labs. In addition, to replenish our officer corp after the recent bloodshed on the homeworld, a vast expansion of R’lyeh University has been ordered. Lastly, if our empire is to flourish we cannot neglect the civilian economy and the Emperor has ordered the construction of an intergalactic spaceport as well as the founding of a financial hub on R’lyeh.
(Having only two military shipyards isn’t ideal, but at least the largest one has the capacity for a couple of fairly large ships to be built, and the secondary shipyard will be ordered to expand the capacity of it’s slipways. Building more shipyards is unfortunately a costly and time consuming undertaking, so for now we’ll have to make due with what we have.
Some of this is random, some is based on our starting population and government type, but we got a pretty good set of starting infrastructure. Our academy is only level two and is responsible for training new officers off all kinds, so one thing we will focus part of our resources on early is to increase the size of R’lyeh University. Money will start to be a problem eventually, and the spaceport will help create wealth for civilians as will building some financial centers.)
Initial production settings on R’lyeh
R’lyeh was once endowed with significant mineral reserves, but due to years of over-harvesting to fuel the fires of war, existing, known mineral deposits are only expected to last on the average of 10 - 20 years, or only 5 years in the case of Neutronium. Among the first decrees of the Emperor Sepiche the First was to begin the design and production of Geological Survey vessels to scan the many planets and moons of the Prime system for more mineral wealth, and to establish a team of Geologists to look for more, untapped resources on R’lyeh itself.
(In Aurora your starting homeworld will have a random sample of all the resources, but only enough for a few years. Other planets we survey can have mineral deposits in the many millions of tons however, and that is going to be our main imperative to expand initially: to get access to larger amounts of key resources.)
While Professor Daehawk of R’lyeh University is widely regarded as the Empire’s foremost authority on Geology, the intellectual purges ordered by the thrice cursed Northern Lords before their downfall has left the ranks of our intellectuals far too low to spare him to head up a geology team. Therefore, because it is a matter of Imperial Security, Commander Bismark of the Imperial Navy has been for the moment assigned operational command of a team of university trained naval officers who will begin conducting surveys in an attempt to locate more resources.
(Daehawk has the highest Geology score, but I’m going to need all my scientists directing research projects, so I had to assign others to the geology team. Mr. Bismark had a reasonably good score, so I put him in command of some of the officers with better geology scores from the navy.)
Along with much damage done to the infrastructure of R’lyeh, the ground forces of the Empire have been depleted by years of combat, and much knowledge of both heavy weapon manufacturing and command and control techniques has been lost. Despite this, the forces that have been reconstituted into the modern Imperial Army under the direction of General Archinerd have at their disposal a wide assortment of advanced weapons. Though they may at this stage lack numbers, both the Emperor and General Archinerd feel that existing forces along with a modest number of new battalions of mobile infantry will be sufficient to keep the Empire safe for the near future.
(Basically, we have “lost” (I didn’t take) the technology to build assault infantry, heavy assault infantry, and engineer battalions, but I’ll still be able to expand our forces with mobile infantry, garrison, and HQ battalions. The army will probably only see police duty on our colonies for the foreseeable future, but if we get lucky and locate an ancient ruin we might need to send some engineer battalions to excavate the artifacts there.)
A summary of Imperial Army forces
That’s about the extent of things within the Empire right now. If not tonight then sometime this week I’ll design and build our initial batch of both civilian and military ships (it’s assumed you start the game with some ships, and the game allows you to design and then instantly build up to a certain number depending on your starting factories), and make command assignments.
The planets of Prime-A (Prime-A III is R’lyeh)
The planets of Prime-B (Prime-B orbits Prime-A between Prime-A X and Prime-A XI)
Hey Sepiche - did you keep rolling random systems until you got something you liked, or did you use the SM to build a specific waterworld?
Just kept rolling until I found something interesting… and it did take generating 20 or 30 systems before I found one I liked. Once I had the basics I tweaked the atmosphere a bit on R’lyeh, but that was all the editing I had to do. Just luck mainly that it was a ocean world. :)
In the Halls of Academia
In it’s rise to power the Overlord Empire had been forced to confront and defeat an assortment of governments and nation states. While many such as the Northern Alliance had been anti-science zealots of the worst kind, this was not always the case. While the Overlords had made great strides in scientific advancement in the years leading up to their ultimate victory under the careful direction of the Science Council headed by Professors Granite and Daehawk, they also owed a great deal to the researchers of the Archangel Group.
Backed by a collection of international corporations seeking to stop the Overlords rise to power, they had spent lavishly in an attempt to build a highly advanced army capable of facing the Imperial Army in the field. Under the direction of Chief Scientist tgb, they successfully managed to revolutionize the battlefield with the introduction of powered armor, man portable laser cannons, and brilliant new command and control techniques among many other technologies. Given longer to recruit they might have succeeded in slowing or even stopping the Overlords, but in the end it was their greed that was their undoing.
Disillusioned by the lengths his corporatist masters were willing to go to Chief Scientist tgb defected from the Archangel Group with the aid of General Archinerd’s special forces. With him he brought both military intelligence on his former employers forces and technical data on everything his researchers had been working on. Caught by surprise before they were prepared, the vast wealth and holdings of the mega corps backing the Archangel Group were seized by Imperial forces, and their fledgling army crushed by the very weapons they had intended to use to win their war.
For his aid Chief Scientist tgb was given a seat on the Science Council, and a position of great status within R’lyeh University. With the combined knowledge of the council and Archangel Group’s archives, science and learning progressed at a rapid pace and eventually gave the Overlord Empire the capabilities to truly call itself an interstellar power.
(Basically a fancy story to go along with our starting research picks. :P I focused heavily on engine tech and we’re 1 project away from being able to build advanced magneto-plasma drives. I also sunk some points into missile tech to give us a small leg up. At this point I plan on going mostly missile, but Daehawk’s specialty will make adding some beams to ships an option too. Professor Granite will really be a powerhouse for us though… his 30% skill means he’ll be researching power and propulsion tech (like the magneto-plasma drive) with a 120% bonus.)
The Science Council’s Archives include…
With the succession wars behind them the Science Council began new projects to push the Overlord Empire further into the stars. First on the agenda was development of new energy weapons to decrease the fleet’s reliance on missiles and to provide close in support for the fleets massive missile cruisers. This entailed both the new beam cannon itself, along with a power source that could be mounted on interstellar ships. Professors Daehawk and Granite were perfectly suited to developing these technologies and began crash programs immediately to create production ready prototypes.
While Professor tgb’s specialty was mainly focused on ground combat both the council and the Emperor agreed there was much greater need for research into other fields at the moment. To that end Professor tgb was given administration of over half of the Empire’s research labs and tasked with improving the efficiency of the Empire’s mines.
(We’ll need some beam armed escorts before too long and the prototype research will be very fast thanks to Daehawk and Granite’s specialties. A scientist always gets his basic bonus, but that bonus is multiplied by 4 if they are working on something in their specialty. Sadly we don’t have any Construction/Production specialists, but a lot of those projects will be important to research sooner than later, so tgb was tasked with starting work on improved mining rates. We’ll also probably go for improved research and construction techniques sooner than later.)
The Rise of the Fleet
Though without the Imperial Army victory would hardly have been assured, the real strength that led to the Overlord’s victory on R’lyeh was the orbiting batteries of the Imperial Fleet. While their numbers were few, their ability to sit high above their enemies and launch precision strikes to support the Imperial Army’s advances made them the single most powerful force on the planet.
When not led by the Emperor personally, noted strategist and ranking officer of the Imperial Navy Commodore JonathanStrange ably led the fleet in many actions. Though from humble origins, his gift for command and flair for the dramatic led to a rapid rise within the ranks of the firmly meritocratic fleet and saw to him being given command of the Empire’s first cruiser and it’s only battle group after the Succession Wars.
Imperial Navy Order of Battle 2025
(Perhaps Order of Battle is too strong a phrase at this point… “Order of Slight Disagreement” might fit better. :P)
The first ships of the fleet, and the class that successfully led the way in it’s first victories was the Lancer Class Missile Destroyer. It’s main armament was 9 Size 4 missile tubes fitted with powerful, short ranged anti-ship missiles. Defensively it is armed with 3 close PD batteries, armor, and shields able to give it some protection against a number of different threats. Like all early Overlord ships it lacked jump drives as it was intended for close support of populated worlds. It also lacked heavy long range sensors as it was intended to act as close escort to heavier warships that did carry long range sensor arrays.
Lancer class Missile Destroyer 7,500 tons 730 Crew 915.9 BP TCS 150 TH 300 EM 120
2000 km/s Armour 2-34 Shields 4-300 Sensors 15/15/0/0 Damage Control Rating 7 PPV 36
Maint Life 7.02 Years MSP 534 AFR 64% IFR 0.9% 1YR 19 5YR 285 Max Repair 80 MSP
Magazine 261
Ion Engine E9 (5) Power 60 Fuel Use 90% Signature 60 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 250,000 Litres Range 66.7 billion km (385 days at full power)
Alpha R300/9 Shields (4) Total Fuel Cost 36 Litres per day
CIWS-50 (3x2) Range 1000 km TS: 5000 km/s ROF 5 Base 50% To Hit
Size 4 Missile Launcher (9) Missile Size 4 Rate of Fire 60
LR Missile Control (1) Range 45.5m km Resolution 10
Size 4 Anti-ship Missile (65) Speed: 22,500 km/s End: 3.7m Range: 5m km WH: 6 Size: 4 TH: 97 / 58 / 29
SR Active Sensor (1) GPS 80 Range 4.8m km Resolution 1
Thermal Sensor TH2.5-15 (1) Sensitivity 15 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 15m km
EM Detection Sensor EM2.5-15 (1) Sensitivity 15 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 15m km
Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
First commissioned just before the end of the Succession Wars the 9950 ton Carrack Missile Cruiser was intended to provide heavy missile support against enemy targets with it’s 16 missile tubes. Though it lacked the smaller Lancer’s shielding, it boasted heavier armor, it’s own close in PD systems and better long range sensor capabilities.
Carrack class Missile Cruiser 9,950 tons 1094 Crew 1294.6 BP TCS 199 TH 360 EM 0
1809 km/s Armour 3-41 Shields 0-0 Sensors 15/15/0/0 Damage Control Rating 10 PPV 64
Maint Life 7.45 Years MSP 813 AFR 79% IFR 1.1% 1YR 26 5YR 386 Max Repair 80 MSP
Magazine 439
Ion Engine E9 (6) Power 60 Fuel Use 90% Signature 60 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 250,000 Litres Range 50.3 billion km (321 days at full power)
CIWS-50 (2x2) Range 1000 km TS: 5000 km/s ROF 5 Base 50% To Hit
Size 4 Missile Launcher (16) Missile Size 4 Rate of Fire 60
LR Missile Control (1) Range 45.5m km Resolution 10
Size 4 Anti-ship Missile (110) Speed: 22,500 km/s End: 3.7m Range: 5m km WH: 6 Size: 4 TH: 97 / 58 / 29
LR Active Sensors (1) GPS 4800 Range 37.2m km Resolution 60
SR Active Sensor (1) GPS 80 Range 4.8m km Resolution 1
Thermal Sensor TH2.5-15 (1) Sensitivity 15 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 15m km
EM Detection Sensor EM2.5-15 (1) Sensitivity 15 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 15m km
Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
Naval Logistics
The exploration and colonization of space are difficult efforts and, though eventually the civilian sector would boast it’s own ships, the first freighters and assorted support ships to be launched were owned and operated by the fleet itself.
Designed to be cheap, efficient, and fast the first ships to go far beyond R’lyeh’s orbit were the Geologic and Gravity Survey ships of the fleet. Designed to look for minerals and jump points respectively they are essential if the Empire hopes to exploit the resources of space.
Gamma class Geosurvey Ship 4,000 tons 186 Crew 563.2 BP TCS 80 TH 300 EM 0
3750 km/s Armour 1-22 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/4 Damage Control Rating 2 PPV 0
MSP 176 Max Repair 100 MSP
Ion Engine E0.9 (2) Power 150 Fuel Use 9% Signature 150 Armour 0 Exp 1%
Fuel Capacity 100,000 Litres Range 500.0 billion km (1543 days at full power)
Geological Survey Sensors (4) 4 Survey Points Per Hour
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
========
Delta class Gravsurvey Ship 1,900 tons 176 Crew 528.8 BP TCS 38 TH 120 EM 0
3157 km/s Armour 1-13 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/4/0 Damage Control Rating 1 PPV 0
Maint Life 3.79 Years MSP 174 AFR 28% IFR 0.4% 1YR 19 5YR 285 Max Repair 100 MSP
Ion Engine E9 (2) Power 60 Fuel Use 90% Signature 60 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 100,000 Litres Range 105.2 billion km (385 days at full power)
Gravitational Survey Sensors (4) 4 Survey Points Per Hour
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
Equally important in order to exploit resources once they are found are the freighters and colony ships that will carry both the tools and the citizens needed to take more planets in the name of the Emperor. Though only outfitted with efficient yet cumbersome civilian grade engines, they nevertheless provide nearly the same thrust as the fleet’s combat ships, enabling vital resources to arrive where they are needed on time.
Galleon class Freighter 40,500 tons 401 Crew 713 BP TCS 810 TH 1650 EM 0
2037 km/s Armour 1-105 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 4 PPV 0
MSP 44 Max Repair 38 MSP
Cargo 25000 Cargo Handling Multiplier 20
Ion Engine E0.9 (11) Power 150 Fuel Use 9% Signature 150 Armour 0 Exp 1%
Fuel Capacity 100,000 Litres Range 49.4 billion km (280 days at full power)
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
=============
Sigma class Colony Ship 17,250 tons 221 Crew 734.4 BP TCS 345 TH 750 EM 0
2173 km/s Armour 1-59 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 2 PPV 0
MSP 53 Max Repair 38 MSP
Colonists 40000 Cargo Handling Multiplier 10
Ion Engine E0.9 (5) Power 150 Fuel Use 9% Signature 150 Armour 0 Exp 1%
Fuel Capacity 100,000 Litres Range 115.9 billion km (617 days at full power)
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
Designed with the intent of ferrying combat brigades to new colonies as they are established, the Ardent Class Transport can carry up to 5 battalions of infantry at a time or one brigade of engineers.
Ardent class Troop Transport 20,100 tons 262 Crew 576 BP TCS 402 TH 750 EM 0
1865 km/s Armour 1-65 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 3 PPV 0
MSP 54 Max Repair 40 MSP
Troop Capacity: 5 Battalions Cargo Handling Multiplier 20
Ion Engine E0.9 (5) Power 150 Fuel Use 9% Signature 150 Armour 0 Exp 1%
Fuel Capacity 100,000 Litres Range 99.5 billion km (617 days at full power)
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
Among the newest ships in the fleet, the Y-4 Class Construction ship is a massive vessel. Over 6 times the size of the fleet’s Carrack Class Cruisers it is the largest ship in service today. Although still kept at dock until the day it is needed, it’s forward looking mission is to construct jump gates at located jump points to allow non-jump drive equipped ships to use them.
Y-4 class Construction Ship 61,650 tons 757 Crew 1553.2 BP TCS 1233 TH 1200 EM 0
973 km/s Armour 1-139 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 3 PPV 0
MSP 47 Max Repair 38 MSP
Jump Gate Construction Ship: 180 days
Ion Engine E0.9 (8) Power 150 Fuel Use 9% Signature 150 Armour 0 Exp 1%
Fuel Capacity 100,000 Litres Range 32.4 billion km (385 days at full power)
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
Although none have yet been completed, a number of other support ships have been designed by fleet engineers and as resources become available construction will commence.
Kappa class Fuel Harvester 43,850 tons 805 Crew 1799 BP TCS 877 TH 900 EM 0
1026 km/s Armour 1-110 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 3 PPV 0
MSP 77 Max Repair 60 MSP
Fuel Harvester: 6 modules producing 144000 litres per annum
Ion Engine E0.9 (6) Power 150 Fuel Use 9% Signature 150 Armour 0 Exp 1%
Fuel Capacity 5,000,000 Litres Range 2280.0 billion km (25720 days at full power)
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
===========
Mu class Asteroid Miner 54,600 tons 721 Crew 1081.4 BP TCS 1092 TH 900 EM 0
824 km/s Armour 1-128 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 10 PPV 0
MSP 124 Max Repair 120 MSP
Cargo 25000 Cargo Handling Multiplier 10
Asteroid Miner: 4 module(s) producing 48 tons per mineral per annum
Ion Engine E0.9 (6) Power 150 Fuel Use 9% Signature 150 Armour 0 Exp 1%
Fuel Capacity 100,000 Litres Range 36.6 billion km (514 days at full power)
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
===========
Theta class Terraformer 56,350 tons 529 Crew 1347.8 BP TCS 1127 TH 600 EM 0
532 km/s Armour 1-130 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 1 PPV 0
MSP 15 Max Repair 500 MSP
Terraformer: 2 module(s) producing 0.002 atm per annum
Ion Engine E0.9 (4) Power 150 Fuel Use 9% Signature 150 Armour 0 Exp 1%
Fuel Capacity 50,000 Litres Range 17.7 billion km (385 days at full power)
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
Fleet and Army Expansion
Although there are currently no known military threats facing the Empire today, both branches of the military will take time to expand, and we don’t want to get caught flat footed should we encounter some strange race of upstart monkeys. With the agreement of both the Emperor and his chief advisers both the Imperial Army and Imperial Fleet will be expanded as resources allow.
The Imperial Army will begin construction of new Brigade Headquarters to lead new units and begin the training of as many new mobile infantry battalions as possible as they require far less resources than new ships and will eventually need to be spread thin across the stars to protect Imperial interests.
The Imperial Army as currently organized
Until such time as we have a better grasp on the amount of resources available to exploit in the Prime system the Emperor and his advisers have decided to only begin construction of smaller, essential ships to aid in our exploration and colonization efforts. Our shipyards will immediately begin preparing themselves for construction however as they will need to be prepared to begin immediately should need arise.
Current ships under construction
How our shipyards are currently tooled for future ship production
The Emperor has also ordered factory production goals altered slightly to prepare for the planned colonization of Prime-A V should it prove worthwhile. He has also ordered the stockpiling of the Size 4 Anti-Ship Missiles currently favored by the fleet.
(And if you can believe it with all of that out of the way, we’re finally ready to start the game! :P)
Time (Begins) Marching on
(I’ve struggled with how to present this part. The game has a great event manager to assist my shaky memory, so I think with it’s aid I’ll just go chronologically and embellish as I go. Since there’s not a ton going on early I’ll start off covering a lot, but I’m sure I’ll lose the will to report every little detail soon enough. :)
I should probably also explain how things move forward in Aurora. There’s no “End Turn” button, but instead a series of buttons that can move time forward in increments from 5 seconds to 30 days. If something important that needs your attention happens, then the game will automatically stop time at that point so you can view the event and take action. Unless combat is going on I’ll pretty much be advancing things in multiple days at a time.)
January 1st, 2025
By order of the Emperor HMS Brout, HMS Hound, along with the 1st and 2nd GeoSurvey Groups depart R’lyeh orbit. The 1st GeoSurvey Group has been assigned the honor of scanning Prime-A V for minerals while the 2nd GeoSurvey Group begins scanning the myriad of moons and planets in the inner solar system surrounding Prime-A.
January 6th, 2025
Minerals! Word comes to us from Commander Nelson of the 2nd GeoSuvey group of substantial mineral reserves on Prime-A II. 14m tons of Neutronium, and 48m tons of Sorium (used for fuel) as well. Since R’lyeh’s known reserves are below 20k tons this represents a substantial find. This quiets the fear of the Emperor and his advisers that the Prime system might be barren of useful resources and so construction of 2 new colony ships, a terraformer, and an asteroid miner are ordered.
January 8th, 2025
More good news! The 1st GeoSurvey Group sends it’s summary of minerals on Prime-A V and reports substantial reserves of Neutronium, Boronide, Vendarite among others. This puts our known reserves of Neutronium in the neighborhood of 30m tons! We also get another report from Commander Nelson of minerals on the 4th moon of Prime-A IV.
With this long hoped for news prepared orders are immediately sent to Lt. Cmdr Holman aboard Galleon 001 and Lt. Cmdr Montag aboard Sigma 001 to load cargo and begin setting up infrastructure and sending colonists to Prime-A V.
Janury 9th, 2025
Once again a monentus day for the empire! At 12:00 hours Commander xwraith of the 1st GravSurvey Group sends his report via FTL that data indicates a hidden jump point near the very first survey point that was examined. Word is immediately sent to Cmdr. WYBaugh of the Y-4 001 to make ready to depart R’lyeh and begin construction of a jump gate at the new coordinates. He should arrive on site in a few days and 180 days of construction should be sufficient to complete our first gate.
To save resources we currently don’t have any jump capable ships in the fleet, so we won’t be able to immediately send ships through to explore, but for the time being we seem to have plenty of resources in need of exploitation in our home system, so a little delay won’t set the Empire back.
January 11th, 2025
At first the only report from Cmdr. Nelson after the 2nd GeoSurvey Group achieved orbit of the 5th moon of Prime-A IV was “Standby…”. Hours later the FTL link sprang to life and stunning data began pouring in to Imperial Command. Prime-A IV-5 was according to that data a lifeless, nearly barren ball of dust. No mineral deposits were detected, however word rapidly ran up the chain of command until the Emperor was awakened and the Scientific Council was convened in a rare late night session.
The ruins of what appeared to be a colony had been detected by Cmdr. Nelson a few meters under the surface of a large plain on the planet. At he behest of the Scientific Council a list of Xenology experts from around the Empire was drawn up and a team formed to setup an archaeological dig on the small moon. Though he was currently assigned as C.O. of the 22nd Infantry Brigade his background in Xenolinguistics made General LordMortis an obvious choice to command the team. Not only could he lend scientific advice to the team, he could be trusted to maintain security and keep the Emperor personally up to date on the findings at the dig site.
Within the hour LordMortis and his team were aboard a shuttle bound for the Cruiser Carrack 001 where Commodore Strange had been personally tasked by the Emperor with delivering the science team to the ruins. It would most likely be years before they could unravel the mysteries of the ruins, but the potential payoffs for the Empire could be huge.
LordMortis’ team arrives on January 12th, establishes their base camp, and immediately begin work.
January, 16 2025
Surveys have been completed on Prime-A IV itself and indicate VAST mineral deposits. Nearly every type of mineral is found with some deposits in the hundreds of millions of tons. Plans are drawn up by the Emperor’s staff to begin transferring automated mining equipment to exploit these resources fully.
January 21st, 2025
The Mollusk Mining Corp has for scores of years been a well respected corporate citizen of R’lyeh and more importantly made the wise decision to support the Emperor with resources during the Succession Wars. With a clear eye toward the great rewards to be found off planet, MMC has been preparing for off planet resource extraction for years, and with the discovery of considerable wealth on Prime-A IV-4 they have setup 3 civilian operated mines there. This should help grow the private sector of the Empire and help increase it’s wealth considerably.
January 26th, 2025
Word comes from a bored sounding Professor Granite that a working prototype of a new Fusion reactor that can be mounted on Imperial spacecraft has been completed. When asked by the Emperor during a test run how he could possibly have perfected the reactor in less than a month he explained he had been working on one for his home in his free time for a few years, so it was simply a matter of using the new resources at his disposal to finish the work.
Impressed by his obvious genius the Emperor has now ordered Prof. Granite to begin research on a smaller version of the Ion Engines used by the Imperial Navy. The goal will be to produce an engine that can be used by small, cost effective fast attack craft to help better protect the Empire.
Matters of State - February 1st, 2025
So at this point I thought I would get input from the Imperial Council. We now have our first Imperial colony, as well as an archaeological dig, a civilian mining station, and an Imperial mining station setup in the home system. What I’d like to get input on is new nicknames for the planets we’ve claimed since writing Prime-A V all the time gets annoying. :)
Here’s a brief summary of each planet to spur imaginations a little:
We’'ll also probably be moving into Prime-A IV itself soon, so here’s a summary of it:
Personnel Matters
(I got a good chunk of time in last night, so more updates are incoming today hopefully. Game time is now November 1st, 2026. In the meantime here’s a few updates for everyone’s characters.)
Lt. Commanders Chick, Holman, and WYBaugh were promoted to Commander in January of 2026
Professor Shinjin was instated to the Science Council for his groundbreaking work in the field of Missile/Kinetic weapons
Commodore Strange increased his training bonus
Commander xwraith increased his movement initiative, training bonus, and survey skill
Commander Holman increased his movement initiative
Commander Nelson increased his training bonus
Commander WYBaugh increased his production bonus
Commander Jubarensis increased his training bonus
Professor tgb increased his administration skill
Administrator Hipolito has increased his administration skill
In addition, for the uncommon valor needed in taking unarmed ships into unknown space or leading unarmed teams to strange and foreign worlds the following officers have been awarded the Explorer’s Cross:
Cmdr. Jubarensis
Cmdr. Nelson
Cmdr. MrBismark
Cmdr. xwraith
General LordMortis
For showing initiative and imagination in the naming of their new commands or other units of the Empire, the following officers have been awarded the Asimov Star:
Commodore Strange
Captain Janster
Cmdr. Jubarensis
Cmdr. xwraith
Administrator Tampa_Gamer
Professor Daehawk
Next up: The first year
I’ve started my first ever game now, its been difficult to setup my first ships, but they are somewhat ready now to explore. I gifted myself some tech, ion engines seems to be a good choice over nuclear.
Yeah I think Ion is a pretty balanced way to go starting out. Better engines in general give you lots of benefits to your combat and civilian ships, but starting with Magneto-Plasma drives just eats up a little too much starting research.
Glad to hear you finally got everything working though!