Aurora, a 4x space game with a complexity comparable to DF

[ada221]

so one of the youtubers I follow started playing this lesser known game:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcWln8Ne1RA

I started playing it, and its is amazing in complexity, it really lends itself towards customization and micromanagement. I highly recommend it!

Did I mention its free?

[DaveYanakov]

It reminds me of Stars! a bit. Possibly too much complexity. I'll look into it but I'm still looking forward to the Paradox studio 4x that's in development

[Wafflewaffle]

I have been following Quill's foray into "ugly but complex games" for a while. Stuff like DF, EUIV, HoI3 and now Aurora. I have no interest in learning or playing them, but there is something in the way he describes what he is doing that just makes for good background noise. I do this for Arumba too. Its calming and knowing im not really losing much information by watching the video lets me focus on other stuff.

[Arx]

It reminds me of Stars! a bit. Possibly too much complexity.

I really struggle to get into Aurora. The UI design isn't really the greatest, either. I've heard lots of good things about it, though.

[Ethinolicbob]

I have no interest in learning or playing them, but there is something in the way he describes what he is doing that just makes for good background noise

This.
I don't think I have the time or patience to learn how to play this and games like this, but just listening to him as he goes on about changing some parameter he somehow makes exciting. He lets you understand the reasons he does everything and adds a brilliant story in the mix that makes it very easy to visualise.

[Stormweaver]

I've spent a couple of days giving it a bash - it's pretty damned good. I can see myself losing a lot of time to it over the next few months.

Much easier to learn and get started in than DF.

[ada221]

I agree Stormweaver! the simple fact that there are tool-tips everywhere help so much. In my current game I am finally starting to branch out into new systems after spending like 60 years in Sol

[devak]

I've spent a couple of days giving it a bash - it's pretty damned good. I can see myself losing a lot of time to it over the next few months.

Much easier to learn and get started in than DF.

The biggest challenges are basically:

*how deep does the rabbit hole go? I lost a battlegroup because apparently you have to assign fire controls to weapons, which i didn't know. So my fleet wanted to fire but didn't.
*what numbers are acceptable? I was really proud of my super-awesome laser cruiser with 8000km/s tracking and 160 000km range until i got nuked by a missile salvo from literally a thousand times that range by 20 000 km/s missiles. Which turns out is a pretty standard type missile.

So basically, early on you want to build missile ships, and defend against missiles with missiles.

But yea, tons of fun and it's definitely an interesting game. It could do with a combat simulator however, i'm surprised it's not standard issue with any "design-your-own-stuff" game

[Stormweaver]

*what numbers are acceptable? I was really proud of my super-awesome laser cruiser with 8000km/s tracking and 160 000km range until i got nuked by a missile salvo from literally a thousand times that range by 20 000 km/s missiles. Which turns out is a pretty standard type missile.

So basically, early on you want to build missile ships, and defend against missiles with missiles.

But yea, tons of fun and it's definitely an interesting game. It could do with a combat simulator however, i'm surprised it's not standard issue with any "design-your-own-stuff" game

I actually appreciated that experience - I was quite proud of my little exploration fleet, only to get completely outclassed, and have to fight a desperate retreat while refitting my few military ships back home with what I discovered was a little more up-to-date. Random recurring error message ruined that save though, I'll never know if I could have pulled it back :( On the plus side, it got me reading HFY stories again.

[DaveYanakov]

From what I've been able to gather the weapon systems are sort of rock paper scissors. Missiles are useless against fighters but they get massacred by fast tracking beams while big ship have enough armor to tank beams but are too slow to evade missile bombardment without escorts dedicated to the role.

[devak]

I actually appreciated that experience

Oh i like that experience too, but there's a point where it becomes frustration. I have both a regular and a god-mode save, and i made the latter after i made a number of mistakes and wanted to figure out some plan first

You see, i'm in 2170-ish and in trouble, as i'm running low on resources. Both Mars and Mercury are barren, and only Venus has a lot of resources which are all 0.7 or lower accessibility. Those were base values. I'm trying to expand in my main save, but wasted a LOT of resources on 30 000 ton exploration vessels. I didn't realize ideas like specialization would work so well or that jump ships could easily carry entire fleets. So i don't have a lot of wiggle room left to make adjustments. I have 6 jump points in my Sol system, explored 4 and haven't hit anything remotely worth mining while already encountering enemies that kicked my ass.

So basically i either have to go to war with the hostile faction and pray that it's worth fighting over, or i have to make two more potentially hostile contact attempts.

From what I've been able to gather the weapon systems are sort of rock paper scissors. Missiles are useless against fighters but they get massacred by fast tracking beams while big ship have enough armor to tank beams but are too slow to evade missile bombardment without escorts dedicated to the role.

I've found so far that missiles do pretty much every job well. I even took down a ship with size 1 anti-missile missiles It's definitely worth building a varied fleet of highly specialized ships over building multi-purpose ships. My test save has a single Monitor with the largest sensors it can fit plus a Jump Drive, three anti-missile-missile escorts and two Missile ships. It took down enemy ships pretty fine, though i think i need a munitions ship to keep them in longer fights.

On the list of "stuff that's not obvious"

Anything that you build using Munitions (e.g. missiles) or Fighters needs a separate invoice for those. They won't get queued automatically with your ship