What the biggest ship you ever needed or wanted to make, for a war, transport, anything
I’ve had the same question a while ago and looked through the design section of the old forums.
If I remember correctly there the largest ship I found that actually found some practical use in a game was around 200,000 dtons.
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I’ve made 500,000-ton industrial platforms in some high-tonnage roleplay settings.
I think I remember that in some old VB6 campaigns, people would have orbital habitat stations in excess of a million tons. I’ve also seen people try to reach WH40K scales, although the most successful attempts have been at about 1/10 the scale for practical reasons.
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263,796,416 tons via spacemaster of course. 10 million tons of cargo, 100 million colonists, recreational hub, fuel hub, maintenance modules, repair modules… carried everything needed to move a civilization and replenish the fleet along the way. It was escorted by a small fleet consisting of a couple survey ships, fuel harvesters, orbital miners, a tug towing a 40kt shipyard and a few odds and ends.
The goal of that game was to delete Earth, leave Sol forever, and just go until an NPR killed me, run out of fuel or msp, or discovery of a habitable world to call home. I got about 400 jumps from Sol before I got bored of the endless loop of survey for duranium, gallicite, uridium to mine and make MSP before continuing on.
The whole fleet could only move about 140 km/s so my gate construction ship could stabilize the path forward. NPRs got a couple surveyors I had to replace with my towed shipyard but they never expanded out from their home system fast enough to find my main fleet before I was beyond their reach.
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Seems like the topic cut out for me. Though I hadn’t had the time to do it in C# yet, there were 3 games in VB Aurora where I made massive base ships. I was first inspired by my 3rd ever game where I played as Warhammer Imperium, where at the end of the tech tree I tried to replicate the Ramilies Starfort and actually stumbled onto the very game limits of size VB Aurora had: the armor box limit.
(1)This mothership ship tragically ended right after construction as I hit this maximum computation limit which made my Starfort cause errors on every interval.
At least I had found out from these experiments that 7.75mt was the largest ship that could have 100 armor layers, while 7.75bt was the largest ship possible at all if you’d restrict yourself to 1 armor layer.
Now knowing those limits, I decided to make my next game entirely about repeating the idea in upgraded form, but using the Stargate Apophis’ Mothership as template:
I had an entire post that detailed the thinking, building process and performance, but sadly it is lost to the old forum. That explanation was necessary because due to said above armor limit, a true independent base ship that included self-refuel, ordnance production, even a shipyard for self-repair and the population to run all these, needed to be so big that you had to cheat the definition of ship to make it a tractor compound of sectors.
// Warning for possible spoilers as the designs use VB Aurora endgame technology. If you want to be surprised by how high numbers can get, stop here. //
I collapsed the designs to not plaster the whole post, but it started with these core sections, - some of which were used multiple times:
Sectors
Mothership Labor Sector class Support Vessel
150,000,000 tons 988635 Crew 9996606 BP
TCS 3000000 TH 2754000 EM 0
7650 km/s Armour 13-25148 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 12 PPV 0
MSP 500 Max Repair 250 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 60 months Spare Berths 1
Cargo 11250000 Cargo Handling Multiplier 18000 Tractor Beam
Jump Gate Construction Ship: 20 days
Recreational Facilities
Fuel Harvester: 33 modules producing 4620000 litres per annum
Maintenance Modules: 15000 module(s) capable of supporting ships of 3000000 tons
1000 EP Flow Photonic Drive (22950) Power 1000 Fuel Use 0.09% Signature 120 Exp 2%
Fuel Capacity 1,784,710,000 Litres Range 2379.6 billion km (3600 days at full power)
Gravity Shield (100x16) Range 1000 km TS: 100000 km/s ROF 5 Base 50% To Hit
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
Mothership Habitation Grid class Recreational Ship
150,000,000 tons 237270 Crew 7865781 BP
TCS 3000000 TH 2754000 EM 0
7650 km/s Armour 13-25148 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 50 PPV 0
MSP 1639 Max Repair 390.625 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 60 months Spare Berths 244
Cargo 25000 Habitation Capacity 20,000,000 Tractor Beam
Recreational Facilities
Fuel Harvester: 288 modules producing 40320000 litres per annum
1250 EP Redox Photonic Drive (18360) Power 1250 Fuel Use 0.16% Signature 150 Exp 2%
Fuel Capacity 1,920,860,000 Litres Range 1440.6 billion km (2179 days at full power)
Gravity Shield (100x16) Range 1000 km TS: 100000 km/s ROF 5 Base 50% To Hit
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
Mothership Ecological Sector class Support Vessel
150,000,000 tons 465760 Crew 7457645 BP
TCS 3000000 TH 2754000 EM 0
7650 km/s Armour 13-25148 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/100 Damage Control Rating 59 PPV 0
MSP 1833 Max Repair 500 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 60 months Spare Berths 91
Cargo 38250000 Passengers 31750 Cargo Handling Multiplier 61200 Tractor Beam
Recreational Facilities
Fuel Harvester: 15330 modules producing 2146200000 litres per annum
Terraformer: 450 module(s) producing 3.6 atm per annum
TN: Basically a Spaceballs vacuum 
1000 EP Flow Photonic Drive (22950) Power 1000 Fuel Use 0.09% Signature 120 Exp 2%
Fuel Capacity 1,996,000,000 Litres Range 2661.3 billion km (4026 days at full power)
Gravity Shield (100x16) Range 1000 km TS: 100000 km/s ROF 5 Base 50% To Hit
Phased Geological Sensors (20) 100 Survey Points Per Hour
Mothership Slave Hold Sector class Support Vessel
150,000,000 tons 444828 Crew 7638241 BP
TCS 3000000 TH 2808000 EM 0
7800 km/s Armour 13-25148 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 30 PPV 0
MSP 971 Max Repair 500 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 60 months Spare Berths 2
Cargo 41000000 Cryogenic Berths 30000000 Cargo Handling Multiplier 65600 Tractor Beam
Recreational Facilities
Fuel Harvester: 15330 modules producing 2146200000 litres per annum
Salvager: 12 module(s) capable of salvaging 30000 tons per day
1000 EP Flow Photonic Drive (23400) Power 1000 Fuel Use 0.09% Signature 120 Exp 2%
Fuel Capacity 2,146,200,000 Litres Range 2861.6 billion km (4246 days at full power)
Gravity Shield (100x16) Range 1000 km TS: 100000 km/s ROF 5 Base 50% To Hit
Mothership Engine Core class Fleet Tug
150,000,000 tons 696043 Crew 34070925 BP
TCS 3000000 TH 2700000 EM 0
22500 km/s Armour 13-25148 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 5 PPV 0
MSP 781 Max Repair 731.25 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 60 months Spare Berths 0
Cargo 32000000 Cargo Handling Multiplier 51200 Tractor Beam
Recreational Facilities
1500 EP Ascetic Photonic Reactor (45000) Power 1500 Fuel Use 0.25% Signature 60 Exp 3%
Fuel Capacity 2,145,000,000 Litres Range 1029.6 billion km (529 days at full power)
Gravity Shield (100x16) Range 1000 km TS: 100000 km/s ROF 5 Base 50% To Hit
Mothership Logistic Section class Support Vessel
150,000,000 tons 500618 Crew 7391435 BP
TCS 3000000 TH 2705400 EM 0
7515 km/s Armour 13-25148 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 10 PPV 0
MSP 323 Max Repair 250 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 60 months Spare Berths 655
Cargo 41000000 Cargo Handling Multiplier 65600 Tractor Beam
Recreational Facilities
Fuel Harvester: 15330 modules producing 2146200000 litres per annum
Asteroid Miner: 1908 module(s) producing 133560 tons per mineral per annum
1000 EP Flow Photonic Drive (22545) Power 1000 Fuel Use 0.09% Signature 120 Exp 2%
Fuel Capacity 2,143,750,000 Litres Range 2858.3 billion km (4402 days at full power)
Gravity Shield (100x16) Range 1000 km TS: 100000 km/s ROF 5 Base 50% To Hit
Another limit to make building at that size feasible was the 2.14b integer limit of fuel, so even a hypothetical 7.75bt ship would not be easy to move since less than 0.1% of it could have been fuel.
Anyway, so the target speed of the mothership was 7500 km/s, which means these modules were each meant to attach to a module that would exactly get them there.
- The 3 Logistic Modules, meant for procuring fuel, refueling the fleet in ~1 year and restocking minerals for ordnance and maintenance, had 0.2% speed to spend, which means they attached to one of these two defensive turret options:
Defensive Turrets
Mothership Ancients Pillar class Missile Turret
300,000 tons 8674 Crew 114451.5 BP
TCS 6000 TH 0 EM 0
1 km/s Armour 100-399 Shields 0-0 Sensors 3750/3750/0/0 Damage Control Rating 1218 PPV 72
Maint Life 12.42 Years MSP 290339 AFR 591% IFR 8.2% 1YR 3476 5YR 52146 Max Repair 9000 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 60 months Spare Berths 0
Magazine 50463
Gravity Shield (50x16) Range 1000 km TS: 100000 km/s ROF 5 Base 50% To Hit
Size 12 Seeker Hatch (6) Missile Size 12 Rate of Fire 30
Seeker Tactical rated 65.6m-res8 (1) Range 63.6m km Resolution 8
Ancients Seeker Drone (4200) Speed: 250,000 km/s End: 4.2m Range: 63m km WH: 36 Size: 12 TH: 1416/850/425
Ancients Redundant Sensor Orbs rated 3b-res2 (1) GPS 5760 Range 3,054.7m km Resolution 2
Ancients Sensor Suite rated 30.187b-res20 (1) GPS 180000 Range 30,186.9m km Resolution 20
Ancients Missile Scanner rated 6.75b-res1 (1) GPS 9000 Range 6,750.0m km MCR 735.1m km Resolution 1
Thermal Sensor TH50-3750 (1) Sensitivity 3750 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 3750m km
EM Detection Sensor EM50-3750 (1) Sensitivity 3750 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 3750m km
Compact ECCM-10 (1) ECM 100
Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s
Mothership Ancients Las-Nexus class Missile Defence Turret
300,000 tons 11650 Crew 441441.5 BP
TCS 6000 TH 0 EM 0
1 km/s Armour 100-399 Shields 0-0 Sensors 3750/3750/0/0 Damage Control Rating 1141 PPV 2332.2
Maint Life 11.37 Years MSP 1049552 AFR 630% IFR 8.8% 1YR 14891 5YR 223372 Max Repair 10500 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 60 months Spare Berths 0
Tac Defense Network cal.4x6-5r-720k (60x4) Range 720,000km TS: 100000 km/s Power 24-25 RM 12 ROF 5
6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6
Phalanx Turret cal.4x24-5r-2.88m (30x4) Range 1,400,000km TS: 50000 km/s Power 96-100 RM 12 ROF 5
24 24 24 24 24 24 24 24 24 24
Gravity Shield (50x16) Range 1000 km TS: 100000 km/s ROF 5 Base 50% To Hit
Beam Tactical rated 700k-100kps (1) Max Range: 1,400,000 km TS: 100000 km/s 99 99 98 97 96 96 95 94 94 93
Vacuum Energy Power Plant PB-1 (12) Total Power Output 4800 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Ancients Redundant Sensor Orbs rated 3b-res2 (1) GPS 5760 Range 3,054.7m km Resolution 2
Ancients Sensor Suite rated 30.187b-res20 (1) GPS 180000 Range 30,186.9m km Resolution 20
Ancients Missile Scanner rated 6.75b-res1 (1) GPS 9000 Range 6,750.0m km MCR 735.1m km Resolution 1
Thermal Sensor TH50-3750 (1) Sensitivity 3750 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 3750m km
EM Detection Sensor EM50-3750 (1) Sensitivity 3750 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 3750m km
Compact ECCM-10 (1) ECM 100
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The single Engine Core, which was just a near 100% of 150mt as engines of higher power grade too, had 200% of engine power to spend to get back to 7,500 km/s. It’s only purpose was to tow the massive 300mt shipyard(=150mt capacity) that could underway repair all civilian sections.
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The Ecological Sector was tasked with rapid (practically instant) terraforming and also capable of Logistic Module level fuel supply.
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The Labor Sector was the main maintenance hub that could support a in VB Aurora infinite number of ships up to 3mt, which was fortunate, because…
Both these sectors used their 2% engine overflow to attach to two of the largest fleet size possible size military modules, which were hangar bays for strike craft and various ships:
Mobile Military Dockyards
Mothership Perimeter class Dock
3,000,000 tons 101572 Crew 624017 BP
TCS 60000 TH 0 EM 0
1 km/s Armour 16-1852 Shields 0-0 Sensors 3750/3750/100/0 Damage Control Rating 15260 PPV 1840
Maint Life 8.27 Years MSP 1983525 AFR 4719% IFR 65.5% 1YR 51554 5YR 773305 Max Repair 10500 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 60 months Flight Crew Berths 29709
Hangar Deck Capacity 1000000 tons Magazine 125438
Fuel Capacity 200,000,000 Litres Range N/A
Gravity Shield (50x16) Range 1000 km TS: 100000 km/s ROF 5 Base 50% To Hit
Orb.-Bomb. Platform cal.4x20-15r-1.8m (20x4) Range 1,400,000km TS: 25000 km/s Power 60-20 RM 9 ROF 15
20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 18
Orb.-Bomb. Platform cal.4x16-10r-1.44m (80x4) Range 1,400,000km TS: 25000 km/s Power 48-25 RM 9 ROF 10
16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 14
Beam Tactical rated 700k-100kps (1) Max Range: 1,400,000 km TS: 100000 km/s 99 99 98 97 96 96 95 94 94 93
Vacuum Energy Power Plant PB-1 (6) Total Power Output 2400 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Naquadah Bomb Sluice (5) Missile Size 100 Rate of Fire 250
Bomb Guidance CPU rated 2.25m-res1 (1) Range 2.3m km Resolution 1
Naquadah Bomb (750) Speed: 30,000 km/s End: 11.3m Range: 20.4m km WH: 567 Size: 100 TH: 100/60/30
Plasma Charge (4200) Speed: 250,000 km/s End: 0.1m Range: 1.7m km WH: 171 Size: 12 TH: 1666/1000/500
Thermal Sensor TH50-3750 (1) Sensitivity 3750 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 3750m km
EM Detection Sensor EM50-3750 (1) Sensitivity 3750 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 3750m km
Phased Gravitational Sensors (20) 100 Survey Points Per Hour
Compact ECCM-10 (2) ECM 100
Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s
(They could also bombard planets outright)
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The single Slave Hold which mainly provided 30m cryosleep spaces to operate deployable maintenance and production facilities underway, had 4% engine to spend, which would then tow the 6mt military shipyard(=3mt capacity) that could repair all fleet military attachments. All smaller craft were repaired in hangar, though one fleet weakness was that it could not independently rebuild them. (though in theory con-factories could do everything in time)
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Finally, the Habitation provided living space for 20m live crews in case even the Eco-Module couldn’t make up a comfortable work environment. It used it’s 2% engine overflow to carry with it the ship’s main batteries and command center:
Main Batteries
Mothership Pyramid class Command Ship
3,000,000 tons 100815 Crew 2771569 BP
TCS 60000 TH 0 EM 3600000
1 km/s Armour 24-1852 Shields 120000-300 Sensors 3750/3750/0/0 Damage Control Rating 9247 PPV 14134.2
Maint Life 9.06 Years MSP 5340210 AFR 7785% IFR 108.1% 1YR 117135 5YR 1757022 Max Repair 10500 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 60 months Spare Berths 0
Flag Bridge Cryo Drop Capacity: 215 Battalions Magazine 128000 Cargo Handling Multiplier 8600
Fuel Capacity 360,000,000 Litres Range N/A
Ancients Shields (8000) Total Fuel Cost 120,000 Litres per hour (2,880,000 per day)
Phalanx Turret cal.4x24-5r-2.88m (120x4) Range 1,400,000km TS: 50000 km/s Power 96-100 RM 12 ROF 5
24 24 24 24 24 24 24 24 24 24
Tac Defense Network cal.4x6-5r-720k (60x4) Range 720,000km TS: 100000 km/s Power 24-25 RM 12 ROF 5
6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6
Gold Pyramidion cal.377-80r-45.24m (1) Range 1,400,000km TS: 25000 km/s Power 377-25 RM 12 ROF 75
377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377 377
Staff Cannon cal.50-25r-1200k (200) Range 1,200,000km TS: 25000 km/s Power 125-25 ROF 25
50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50
Staff Cannon cal.9-5r-1200k (200) Range 1,200,000km TS: 25000 km/s Power 22-25 ROF 5
9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9
Ancients Transphase Cannon cal.24-5r-1.44m (20) Range 1,400,000km TS: 25000 km/s Power 24-25 RM 144 ROF 5
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Ion Cannon cal.24-5r-1.44m (5) Range 1,400,000km TS: 25000 km/s Power 24-25 RM 144 ROF 5
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Gravity Shield (50x16) Range 1000 km TS: 100000 km/s ROF 5 Base 50% To Hit
Beam Tactical rated 700k-100kps (6) Max Range: 1,400,000 km TS: 100000 km/s 99 99 98 97 96 96 95 94 94 93
Vacuum Energy Power Plant PB-1 (70) Total Power Output 28000 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Size 32 Ancients Torpedo Launcher (40) Missile Size 32 Rate of Fire 80
Torpedo Tactical rated 5b-res17 (4) Range 5,009.6m km Resolution 17
Ancients Tactical Torpedo (2000) Speed: 140,600 km/s End: 598.7m Range: 5050.9m km WH: 225 Size: 32 TH: 1359/815/407
Ancients Assault Torpedo (2000) Speed: 281,200 km/s End: 60.5m Range: 1020.5m km WH: 225 Size: 32 TH: 1499/899/449
Ancients Missile Scanner rated 6.75b-res1 (1) GPS 9000 Range 6,750.0m km MCR 735.1m km Resolution 1
Ancients Sensor Suite rated 30.187b-res20 (1) GPS 180000 Range 30,186.9m km Resolution 20
Ancients Redundant Sensor Orbs rated 3b-res2 (3) GPS 5760 Range 3,054.7m km Resolution 2
Thermal Sensor TH50-3750 (1) Sensitivity 3750 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 3750m km
EM Detection Sensor EM50-3750 (1) Sensitivity 3750 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 3750m km
Compact ECCM-10 (10) ECM 100
Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s
//side-note/ I can’t seem to present this massive data very sightly in this forum it seems. There are many great upgrades, but not being able to control text size or have these neat organized code windows really works against massive number tables.
21 Armies (=84 divisions 420 battalions) were also contained within the command center.
Due to another limitation of ~1640 cargo holds per ship, cargo capacity had also been spread around all modules. Altogether the ship fielded 9820 cargo holds (nearly 250mt capacity), which comprised the total start inventory of:
5000 autominers
1000 ordnance factories
1000 construction factories
400 fighter factories
100 sensor installations
~1900 set aside for mineral maintenance (23,75mt)
Maintenance was directly a mineral tax back in VB. This ship had cost 74.4mt of Gallicite alone to construct.(bad memories from me stripmining 0.1avail. planets in sheer desperation) The military modules also translated to a 219kt yearly maintenance cost.
To provide around 60 years of buffer, its holds at launch came with:
4mt Duranium
1mt Neutronium
750kt Corbomite
1250kt Tritanium
2.5mt Boronide
750kt Mercassium
1mt Vendarite
250kt Sorium
1250kt Uridium
3750kt Corundium
1.5mt Gallicite
(2)This mothership tragically ended after encountering a black hole just 2-3 systems after voyage start. The tow was lifted, and its parts plummeted to their demise, never seeing combat or deployment.
(was it Carter’s trap?)
I still have the notes from way back then btw:
Zen
So a bit annoyed that I spent all this effort to try and make a true mobile base ship possible for nothing, I thought that maybe I could replicate it more easily by sticking to low tech instead. Size was resource dependent after all, not really research dependent, and I had conditioned myself by that point to wait decades on auto-miners anyway.
Also, this would intrinsically give the voyage a purpose: “Don’t research, but acquire technology by conquest and RP insight.”
A full exciting story and gameplay idea was blooming in my head, and soon I logged not just design documentations but my first full game in old Aurora Forum in the Zen Nomadic Hive fantasy.
I had learned from over-reliance on tractors through harsh experience, and the “pretend these parts are one ship” was an RP cope anyway, so now I was setting out for a fleet of massive ships that didn’t need tractors aside from the shipyards that could simply fly a bit behind.
I will keep this shorter, but we had the main civil fleet again, like with this 1000-holds superfreighter:
Main Fleet
Gagazet class Superfreighter
50,000,000 tons 91743 Crew 464088.4 BP
TCS 1000000 TH 181800 EM 0
181 km/s Armour 10-12089 Shields 0-0 Sensors 5/5/0/1 Damage Control Rating 51 PPV 0
MSP 299 Max Repair 100 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 120 months Spare Berths 0
Cargo 25000000 Cargo Handling Multiplier 5000 Tractor Beam
Recreational Facilities
Fuel Harvester: 4052 modules producing 129664000 litres per annum
37.5 EP Sleeper Nuclear Generator (4848) Power 37.5 Fuel Use 0.3% Signature 37.5 Exp 1%
Fuel Capacity 1,040,000,000 Litres Range 1242.5 billion km (79452 days at full power)
Synchronized Slug Gun Turret (100x4) Range 1000 km TS: 5000 km/s ROF 5 Base 50% To Hit
Thermal Wake Receiver TH1-5 (1) Sensitivity 5 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 5m km
EM Wake Receiver EM1-5 (1) Sensitivity 5 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 5m km
Geological Survey Sensors (1) 1 Survey Points Per Hour
You can imagine the variants. Many 10m Ocean class cryo colony ships, 2atm/pa Terraformer, 100+kt asteroid miner, 5m Refugium class orbital habitats, and “shipyard ships” to be able to repair the fleet and multiply:
Shipyard
Wonderwork Assembly class Shipyard
50,000,000 tons 143947 Crew 548016.4 BP
TCS 1000000 TH 540000 EM 0
540 km/s Armour 10-12089 Shields 0-0 Sensors 5/5/0/1 Damage Control Rating 71 PPV 0
MSP 490 Max Repair 100 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 120 months Spare Berths 0
Tractor Beam
Recreational Facilities
Fuel Harvester: 3976 modules producing 127232000 litres per annum
37.5 EP Sleeper Nuclear Generator (14400) Power 37.5 Fuel Use 0.3% Signature 37.5 Exp 1%
Fuel Capacity 2,145,000,000 Litres Range 2574.0 billion km (55169 days at full power)
Synchronized Slug Gun Turret (200x4) Range 1000 km TS: 5000 km/s ROF 5 Base 50% To Hit
Thermal Wake Receiver TH1-5 (1) Sensitivity 5 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 5m km
EM Wake Receiver EM1-5 (1) Sensitivity 5 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 5m km
Geological Survey Sensors (1) 1 Survey Points Per Hour
Notably no logistic ships this time, as all had sufficient fuel generation distributed amongst each other, and asteroid miners were really only needed twice.
Then the military power came in shape of a compared to Apophis much more imposing 10mt mothership:
Mothership
Zodiark class Mothership
10,000,000 tons 304603 Crew 1288632.2 BP
TCS 200000 TH 37100 EM 0
185 km/s Armour 10-4134 Shields 0-0 Sensors 250/250/5/1 Damage Control Rating 47956 PPV 500
Maint Life 25.83 Years MSP 3862806 AFR 16680% IFR 231.7% 1YR 11147 5YR 167210 Max Repair 500 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 60 months Flight Crew Berths 100007
Flag Bridge Hangar Deck Capacity 2400000 tons Cryo Drop Capacity: 443 Battalions Magazine 360500 Cargo Handling Multiplier 2215 Tractor Beam
100 EP Redox Nuclear Generator (371) Power 100 Fuel Use 3.54% Signature 100 Exp 4%
Fuel Capacity 450,000,000 Litres Range 228.2 billion km (14276 days at full power)
Synchronized Slug Gun Turret (100x4) Range 1000 km TS: 5000 km/s ROF 5 Base 50% To Hit
Planetary Bombardement Hatch (5) Missile Size 100 Rate of Fire 3000
Smart Bomb Guidance System (1) Range 3.1m km Resolution 17
Seismic Nuclear Flare (80000) Speed: 15,000 km/s End: 4.8m Range: 4.4m km WH: 1 Size: 1 TH: 65/39/19
Size 12 Nuclear Cluster Torpedo (15000) Speed: 8,300 km/s End: 267.8m Range: 135.2m km WH: 0 Size: 12 TH: 27/16/8
Anti Planetary Nuclear Drop Bomb (505) Speed: 600 km/s End: 86.6m Range: 3.1m km WH: 291 Size: 100 TH: 2/1/0
LR Gravitic Wave Interferrometer (285m-130res) (1) GPS 65000 Range 285.0m km Resolution 130
Stellar Cartography Lab (559m-500res) (1) GPS 250000 Range 559.0m km Resolution 500
Sand Grain Precision Premonitor (25m-1res) (1) GPS 500 Range 25.0m km MCR 2.7m km Resolution 1
MR Gravitic Navigation Array (93.5m-14res) (1) GPS 7000 Range 93.5m km Resolution 14
Thermal Observatory TH50-250 (1) Sensitivity 250 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 250m km
EM Observatory EM50-250 (1) Sensitivity 250 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 250m km
Gravitational Survey Sensors (5) 5 Survey Points Per Hour
Geological Survey Sensors (1) 1 Survey Points Per Hour
Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s
Notice that this ship pretends to “only” have 25 years lifespan, but in actuality Aurora only allowed to have one module break per 5-day cycle, and the most expensive module here was worth only 500 supplies. If you divide 3,862,806 MSP by 500, you will find that even if the most expensive one breaks all week, it still comes to 150 years of maintenance. (this can easily be exploited up to 5MSP cost for near infinite deployment btw. . One of the key insights in the quest to making massive Aurora ships; take note :P)
The 2.4mt hangar space here also encompassed all the fleet’s military assets. This also included the mothership’s otherwise too MSP expensive “battle mode” (RP retractable turrets), which could leave the hangar and then be tractored at intended 180km/s fleet speed:
Mothership Turrets
Zodiark Weaponry class Battle Mode
300,000 tons 10485 Crew 31186.8 BP
TCS 6000 TH 0 EM 0
1 km/s Armour 10-399 Shields 0-0 Sensors 250/250/0/0 Damage Control Rating 292 PPV 3043.6
Maint Life 4.31 Years MSP 19005 AFR 2461% IFR 34.2% 1YR 1646 5YR 24692 Max Repair 500 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months Spare Berths 2
Magazine 13470
generator fed Plasma-Lance (6d-60k-10r) (1) Range 60,000km TS: 1250 km/s Power 6-3 RM 1 ROF 10
6 3 2 1 1 1 0 0 0 0
Quad Plasma-Lance Turret (4x3d-30k-5r) (60x4) Range 30,000km TS: 13500 km/s Power 12-12 RM 1 ROF 5
3 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Antimatter Arc Collider (3d-100k-15r) (100) Range 80,000km TS: 1250 km/s Power 7-3 ROF 15
3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
Paralax oriented 64-bit Trace CPU (40k-5kps) (5) Max Range: 80,000 km TS: 5000 km/s 88 75 62 50 38 25 12 0 0 0
Gen 3 Nuclear Reactor (52) Total Power Output 1040 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Seismic Flare Dispenser (300) Missile Size 1 Rate of Fire 30
Nuclear Torpedo Launcher (60) Missile Size 12 Rate of Fire 360
Flare Carpet Pattern Solver (1) Range 4.5m km Resolution 14
Torpedo Lock Computer (3) Range 101.0m km Resolution 14
Seismic Nuclear Flare (4800) Speed: 15,000 km/s End: 4.8m Range: 4.4m km WH: 1 Size: 1 TH: 65/39/19
Size 12 Nuclear Cluster Torpedo (720) Speed: 8,300 km/s End: 267.8m Range: 135.2m km WH: 0 Size: 12 TH: 27/16/8
LR Gravitic Wave Interferrometer (285m-130res) (1) GPS 65000 Range 285.0m km Resolution 130
Sand Grain Precision Premonitor (25m-1res) (1) GPS 500 Range 25.0m km MCR 2.7m km Resolution 1
MR Gravitic Navigation Array (93.5m-14res) (1) GPS 7000 Range 93.5m km Resolution 14
Thermal Observatory TH50-250 (1) Sensitivity 250 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 250m km
EM Observatory EM50-250 (1) Sensitivity 250 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 250m km
Though this was considered last resort option, as the fleet would fight like a true hive, with scouts and extended carrier options.
For example it had these Laputa Skybases that it would deploy in perimeter once it set into a system for mining or refuelling:
Those would hold fighters, which were mechs in lore:
'Fighters'
Stratos class Void-Gear
500 tons 12 Crew 60.275 BP
TCS 10 TH 44.25 EM 0
5900 km/s Armour 1-5 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 0 PPV 3
Maint Life 2.02 Years MSP 8 AFR 20% IFR 0.3% 1YR 3 5YR 39 Max Repair 36.875 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 0.5 months Spare Berths 0
59 EP Boiling Tank Active Nuclear Cell (1) Power 59 Fuel Use 1004.44% Signature 44.25 Exp 29%
Fuel Capacity 50,000 Litres Range 1.8 billion km (3 days at full power)
cal.3 Gear Plasma Rifle (3d-30k-15r) (1) Range 10,000km TS: 5900 km/s Power 3-1 RM 1 ROF 15
3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Gear Pilot Reaction Machinery (10k-6.25kps) (1) Max Range: 10,000 km TS: 6250 km/s 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
experimental Nuclear Magazine Cell (1) Total Power Output 1 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Those, and their variants were the main and very numerous fighting force.
They also had all kinds of support modules like 12.5kt sized fuel and ammunition drops, sensor buoys, or “Sarcophagi”, - even smaller carriers that could store some fighter lances in remote places.
(3)This mothership fantasy tragically ended after an unfortunate shift+click operation on my desktop had deleted a whole line including the working folder for the game that held all picture documentation.
…But wait, the old forum is dead, so where do the pictures above then come from? Well, I was desperate even a year+ later and eventually found out that Windows back then held complete backups of desktops (even if gbs of size) stored away somewhere.
So I actually have it. Well, the little ingame screenshots until then are gone, but the rest, including save file is there and good to go.
I also had played it a fair bit further than was documented back then on the forum, and, well, it worked! 
This fleet of giant generation ships was an actually independent mobile civilisation that had left their homeworld behind, could procure all resources, maintain themselves indefinitely, and despite being TL1 successfully defeated an instance of precursor and swarm both. It restocked, refuelled, expanded, everything as intended.
Nothing other than that time has moved on prevents me from playing it further, or at least pushing the rest of documentation I still sit on out there.
–
Anyway, eventually I will do something similar in C#. I already dipped my toe in a homeworld themed game, but I now have so much fun in NPR wars, that I never get that far again.
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Do you happen to know what the biggest station/ship size can be before the game breaks on C#
Here. It’s gradually shrunk over time and i also, sadly, stop playing cos of unexplainable perfomance drop (game must be about 5-10 times faster with such load, if i remember corectly).
No, I have not been able to do a similar large sized game yet in C#. I can only confirm that everything is fine with military ships in one digit megaton range, and two digit civil megaton range.
Next version is when I plan to finally do something like this again, but likely I won’t find anything this year.
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Biggest ever in any context was a ~12 million dton conventional/TL1 STL arkship made for RP reasons in an old VB6 campaign with the premise of a few million humans fleeing a disaster that rendered much of the home system uninhabitable. I SMed explored a few jumps out, made a small colony in a neighboring system, spawned it in orbit, then deleted Sol. Technically mobile but not to a useful degree.
Largest I regularly produce for commercial ships are megafreighters with 8 large cargo holds for installation transport, but I only produce those at about 1:10:10 compared to single large hold or single small hold freighters for general-purpose use and hauling ore from mining colonies.
Largest military ships typically top out at around ~500-800k dtons for high-tech superdreadnoughts or system monitors, but I don’t tend to produce many even when I can for doctrinal reasons; I think that equivalent amounts of BP spent on heavy cruisers in the ~70-100k dton range or battleships in the 100-200k dton range is a more flexible approach to durable combatants.
The 2.9 million ton Gaia class world engine. Purpose was basically a giant colony starter. Held 3 million colonists, enough infrastructure for a colony cost 2 world, 3 deep space tracking stations, troop space for 5 standard STO battalions and 5 sorium harvesting modules plus refueling module.
Initially I built them for a very specific purpose. During a playthrough I found a cluster of 4 systems that were pretty distant from earth. Each had a gas giant in the habitable zone of each star. Each gas giant had dozens of moons that were rich in resources and colony cost 2 planets. The gas giants each had lots of accessible sorium. Only problem was my standard cargo and colonist fleets took a year to get out and back so building up the colonies was going to take a long time. So i made a purpose built ship that moved slower, but could establish an initial colony in a single 1 year journey on each then park the world engines around gas giants and use them as refueling platforms for future exploration missions.
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Whoa, that is cool. I’ve never thought of doing something like that but then again, I’ve never had a problem like you described.
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Yeah, I’ve never had that particular mix of distance, engine tech, mineral deposits, and frankly pure chance (the only reason I could concieve of buillding the things in the first place was that I had a 1 slipway commercial yard that was accidently left on continous expansion from the beginning of the campaign) happen again. "
Part of the joy of Aurora. I’ve built a lot of warships, but one of my most memorable ships is a random HUGE civilian design that was only concievable through a bunch of random factors.
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Forgot to remove response to message when copying.
The largest ship in the game looks something like this.
Ship
“Oh yeah, I heard escorts are supposed to be pretty slow and armored, right?”
214 609 230 armor boxes.
This thing can’t exist without turning off maintenance.
——
My warships usually don’t exceed 50 000 tons, and I also build one 200 000 ton flagship. This is usually enough against any opponent.
At that size, you can game the system since you can only have one maintenance failure per construction increment and each failure can only hit one component. Just forget about engineering spaces and dump a ton of MSP bays on that thing and you’re probably in good shape.
Very interesting. Can you also tell what happens that imposes those limits? Previously it used to be outright error windows on intervals. Is it the same or does the game somehow stop you from going over limits?
Error #2899 “The value was unacceptably small or unacceptably large for int32.”
You can add components to the list of components, but the parameters in the large window will not change.
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In this case, it will be even cheaper than keeping such a monster above the colony, because then it will consume much more MSP. This is a pretty funny idea, since ordinary warships spend at least 50% of their lives at home above the colony - but this one should never be above the colony, and it not cares about Maint clock.
Approaching of this ship is dangerous both for the enemy ships and for the player’s economy. 
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Every “wonder weapon” in human history ever.
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I shy away from big ships because of my fear of having “all my eggs in one basket.” I don’t want to have my entire economy crippled by the cost of building and possibly losing a single giant ship.
My biggest ship in my current game is my 368k ton Orbital Mining Platform, which is actually a space station:
Dar es Salaam class Orbital Mining Platform 368,686 tons 3,610 Crew 10,180.9 BP TCS 7,374 TH 0 EM 0
1 km/s No Armour Shields 0-0 HTK 510 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 1-0 PPV 0
MSP 17 Max Repair 120 MSP
Lieutenant Commander Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months CDE 10%
Orbital Miner: 72 modules producing 1,800 tons per mineral per annum
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Space Station for construction purposes
This design is classed as a Orbital Miner for auto-assignment purposes
\\\
My biggest warship is my missile destroyer:
Aswan class Missile Destroyer 16,787 tons 490 Crew 2,607.7 BP TCS 336 TH 2,000 EM 0
5957 km/s Armour 10-58 Shields 0-0 HTK 126 Sensors 6/6/0/0 DCR 12-7 PPV 80
Maint Life 1.78 Years MSP 2,694 AFR 1127% IFR 15.7% 1YR 1,050 5YR 15,744 Max Repair 200 MSP
Magazine 428 / 0
Captain Control Rating 3 BRG ENG CIC
Intended Deployment Time: 6 months CDE 50% Morale Check Required
Philip Waki-Turner Ion Drive EP400.00 [12.2172] (5) Power 2000 Fuel Use 68.69% Signature 400 Exp 16%
Fuel Capacity 1,250,000 Litres Range 19.5 billion km (37 days at full power)
Yaseen-Hadad Electronics CIWS-80 [10.2162] (1x4) Range 1000 km TS 8,000 km/s ROF 5
Ă“rdenes-Silvestre Magnetic Mirror Fusion Reactor R10-PB10 (1) Total Power Output 10.1 Exp 7%
Tripoli Defence Systems Size 8.00 Missile Launcher (10) Missile Size: 8 ROF 85
Tripoli Defence Systems Missile Fire Control FC51-R100 (2) Range 51.3m km RES 100 ECCM-1
Yaseen-Hadad Electronics Active Search Sensor AS25-R100 [10.2162] (1) GPS 1600 Range 25.7m km RES 100 ECCM-1
Rashid & Rashid EM Sensor EM1.0-6.0 [1.2123] (1) Sensitivity 6 Detect 1000: 19.4m km
Mumcu-Soysal Electronic Systems Thermal Sensor TH1.0-6.0 [11.2120] (1) Sensitivity 6 Detect 1000: 19.4m km
Electronic Warfare Jammers: Fire Control 1
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Warship for auto-assignment purposes
///
I doubt if I will ever build a battleship or even a cruiser.
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It always amazes me how small everyones ships are in Aurora.
Viewing old AAR’s and people ship design ideas, DD’s are like <4000t, CL <8000t
I always think such little firepower and redundancy.
But this is the great thing about aurora, no one is right or wrong when designing there ships.
Its theme, doctrine, fun, capability, economy and role.
From my current 40K game, this is currently my largest “Fielded” warship.
I think this is slow for the tech but is heavy on the armour and firepower triangle.
Anyway, the enemy cant run from me forever
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