The Trial: Lessons Learned

[pappy_reen]

If you’re anything like me, when you play a game, you struggle to avoid the expert beginner trap

Let’s take Starcraft as an example. I play the tutorial and learn the controls, becoming a Novice. I play a few games against the computer and start to learn how to play (Advanced Beginner). Then I browse a few forums, learn some build orders, and deploy those against other players. I get better and better with these tools (Expert Beginner).

I never learn the underlying rules which govern success or failure, and get frustrated when I try to experiment as I always do worse than I would if I followed the expert advice of others.

I started this campaign to try and avoid this trap and try to experiment and learn the underlying rules. I have, and will continue, to make big mistakes in this series, and wanted to collect these mistakes into a Lessons Learned doc.

I don’t want to use the word ‘tutorial’, as I don’t think the steps I outline are optimal, or that this is the best way for anybody to learn. I hope, however, that this fills a niche between ‘what button do I press’ Novice and ‘trust me, you don’t want to do that’ Expert to help people like me.

All readers please assume that, after every post is the disclaimer:

“Do not keep this thread pristine. Critique, comment, argue as much as you want!”

[pappy_reen]

Lesson 1: Missile design

When I designed my first survey missile, I optimised for distance. Here are the stats edited down to the relevant ones:

Missile Size: 5.00 MSP  (12.500 Tons)
Speed: 200 km/s     
Fuel: 4,500     
1st Stage Flight Time: 52,417 hours    
1st Stage Range: 37,740.1m km
Second Stage: Geo Buoy Alpha x1

When I reflect on this, the underlying thought wasn’t totally illogical. The longer the range, the more bodies sit within my range (assuming a static launcher on the surface of Earth). Speed is more-or-less irrelevant, as it takes so long for a conventional scanner to detect everything, so travel time might as well be zero.

This only makes sense, however, if bodies are totally evenly distributed across the system. In Sol, they aren’t! Neptune / Pluto are about 4,000m km away.

Missile Size: 5.00 MSP  (12.500 Tons)
Speed: 320 km/s
1st Stage Flight Time: 4,366 hours    
1st Stage Range: 5,030m km
Second Stage: Geo Buoy Alpha x2

This second design, therefore, is strictly better for the mission I actually have (Survey home system ASAP from static Earth-orbit launchers). It gets there faster, it delivers twice as much survey time, halving the delay in getting information. It’s also cheaper.

What went wrong

I was optimising in theory, rather than understanding the problem properly. If I had begun by clearly expressing my aim, I would have done better

Indeed, on reflection, I could look at the map and see that there really are two or three types of survey:

• Within asteroid belt
• Gas giants
• Beyond

and, respectively, use a missile which was, by weight ratio (survey : delivery)

• 4 : 1
• 3 : 2
• 2 : 3

Conclusion

If you’re learning at home, try making the three types of missile above, and visualising on the map the ranges they reach. Experiment with the distances in your home system, if for no other reason than the get a more intuitive grasp of the ranges between bodies on the map and in the system.

Apply the same critique to the launchers you use - do you need them to have deep magazines if they’re orbiting Earth? Are box launchers a default or a considered choice? How many launchers per spaceship, and why?

[paolot]

In the Solar System, Aurora includes 626 bodies.
Can you redirect the missiles after completing each survey?
I think no.
Therefore, if you have to send one missile to each body, how many tons of minerals do you need to build them?
Can you salvage a missile after the survey if complete?
It seems to me that it isn’t possible (a missile disappears after completing a mission).
So, those tons of minerals are lost.
Simply put: IMO, use a ship, even a small one, to perform the surveys.
You can direct it everywhere when you want, it can perform multiple surveys, and you can scrap/refit at the end of life (if it isn’t destroyed by a hostile race ).
You need some fuel and some MSPs after each mission for the next one. But I feel (haven’t done the calculation) they will be much less than the minerals necessary for hundreds of missiles.

[pappy_reen]

Thanks for this - choosing between these different survey approaches and the logic you outlined is important.

I picked missiles because

• I started without shipyards, which are expensive to make early on
• I like that the launchers provide security alongside the economic benefits of surveys
• I had all the excess fighter / ordinance productivity going to waste in conventional industries
• I don’t like having to retool the shipyard before /after grav sensor research

They were also useful from an educational sense as I

• Practiced putting waypoints and firing missiles
• Designing missiles
• Designing fighters
• Designing hangers / carriers

That isn’t to invalidate any of your points, which are all valid, just a little exploration of my logic.

[S810_Jr]

There is a 3rd option. Both.

Ship for the vast amount of bodies, but missiles for those ones that are waaaaaaay out there. Frees up the ship to carry on surveying much more bodies in another system or getting overhauled instead of wasting time and fuel (and MSP) traveling massive distances to 1 body to get 100% surveyed.

[S810_Jr]

Some times you don’t have to worry about retooling. The [Number] is the year they were designed

[Boscodiogigia]

Very nice way to learn the game. I’m still learning new things about Aurora all the time as well.

From my experience of expert beginner, dedicated geological survey ships work better: they’re more efficient and faster. As someone pointed out earlier, using ships also costs fewer minerals in the long run. For early game and low tech I usually build few easy and small ships, with engine (slow) and some geo - grav component. Then when Sol is survyed, or I explore 2,3 systems, generally I scrap them for proper exploration ships.

What I usually do is use geological survey probes to avoid sending the ship too close to a planet or other body that might have defences. I can simply launch the probe from a safe distance.

My survey ships also carry passive sensor buoys, which I deploy in strategic locations, as well as geological survey probes (not the design you see here). Sometimes I also use scout fighters (pathfinder) to check an area before sending the main survey ship in.

Here’s my Magika class, my main exploration ship, in case it can give you some ideas.