C-Ship Tasks

Orders

Assignment of Ships to Populations

In VB6 Aurora, ships such as terraformers or asteroid miners have to be assigned to populations in order to provide that population with any applicable production. This is because an empire may have multiple populations on the same world and the ships can only provide support to one of them. When a fleet reaches a population, the ships within it are automatically assigned. However, there are still situations (such as transferring between fleets) when this assignment is not always picked up. While the problem can easily be fixed by ordering the fleet to the population, it is not always obvious it needs to be fixed. This can lead to ships sitting idle in orbit.

In C# Aurora, the assignment to the population will be at the fleet level, rather than by ship, and the same auto-assignment will happen when a fleet moves to a population. However, when a population checks orbital space for any assigned fleets during production, it will automatically grab any unassigned fleets in orbit and assign them to itself. This should avoid any situations where ships remain idle. Date 05.10.2016

Joining

A new 'join as sub-fleet' order is available. When one fleet joins another using this order, its ships will automatically form a sub-fleet within the joined fleet, allowing them to subsequently detach as a whole unit. Date 09.10.2016

Load & Unload

Basics

In VB6 Aurora, ships load or unload cargo, colonists, etc. on arrival and then undergo a wait period before their next order (based on how long it takes for the load/unload process).

In C# Aurora, the wait period will take place first and then the cargo will be loaded or unloaded at the end. Because of this change, if the fleet abandons the order before it is complete, no transfer of cargo will have taken place. Date 02.10.2016

Cargo Shuttle Bays

Part of the background in C# Aurora will be that large TN ships function only in space and cannot move any closer to planetary bodies than low orbit. Small craft below a limit of 500 tons, such as fighters and shuttles, are capable of landing on planets. Ship are built in orbit and habitats are assembled in orbit. Only fighters can be built on the ground.

As part of this change, Cargo Handling Systems have been replaced by Cargo Shuttle Bays. They function in a similar way, although they are larger (10 HS) and more expensive.

Because large ships cannot land on planets, a freighter or colony ship cannot load / unload unless it has at least one Cargo Shuttle Bay, or the target population has either a Spaceport or a Cargo Shuttle Station (new installation, 1200 BP). Spaceports and Cargo Shuttle Stations can service any number of ships simultaneously but they do not stack. In effect they count as a single Cargo Shuttle Bay for any ship at the population.

All races start with conventional shuttles available for their cargo shuttle bays and stations. Conventional shuttles do not reduce loading time but do enable cargo deliveries to planets without Spaceports or Cargo Shuttle Stations. Three levels of advancement in shuttle technology are available:

• 1) TN Shuttles (5000 RP): This reduces loading time by 2 per bay (so two bays means speed reduced by 4, three bays means speed reduced by 6).
• 2) Improved Shuttles (15,000 RP): Reduces loading time by 3 per bay.
• 3) Advanced Shuttles (40,000 RP): Reduces loading time by 5 per bay.

All bays and stations use the new shuttles once they are available.

Base cargo load times have been reduced by about 45% for all situations (36s per cargo point to 20s per cargo point and 18s to 10s per colonist), which means a ship with a standard cargo bay and a single Cargo Shuttle Bay with TN Shuttle tech will take slightly longer than the same ship with a cargo handling system in VB6.

This will affect troop transport in a different way and that will be covered in a separate post. Date 10.12.2017

Load/Unload Colonists

Standing Order for Unload Colonists

I've completely rewritten the standing order (VB6 default order) for unloading colonists (used by shipping lines, NPRs and your own ships if desired). The process is as follows:

• 1) Colony fleet looks for a suitable population with less than 25m pop and no other colony fleets inbound, checking its current system first and then using the path finding algorithm to search everywhere else in the empire.
• 2) Same as 1) but without the check for inbound colony ships.
• 3) Searches for any suitable population with a status of Colonist Destination (which you can set for any pop of at least 25m).

When determining if a population is a suitable destination, the fleet checks the following:

• 1) How many colonists it is carrying.
• 2) If the species is the same as the colonists.
• 3) The available capacity of the system body on which the population is situated, taking into account other populations.
• 4) The available capacity of the infrastructure (normal or LG depending on the gravity), taking into account the current population size.
• 5) The lesser of 2) and 3) is used as the base capacity of the population to accept new colonists.
• 6) Any available space in orbital habitats is added to that capacity.
• 7) The total number of colonists on ships already inbound to the colony is deducted from that capacity.
• 8) if the capacity exceeds the number of colonists in the checking fleet and the species match, the colony is suitable.

This should prevent the current problem of many colony ships delivering to a colony without the capacity to support them all. As soon as a fleet determines a colony is suitable, the orders are issued, which means other fleets checking in the same increment will be aware of the extra inbound colonists.

Date 24.02.2018

Load/Unload Installations

There are no longer separate orders for each installation type. Instead, there is a Load Installation order that allows you to select which installation to pick up and also shows you the current number of installations. I have setup the code in C# Aurora to make it a lot easier to add new installation types and this new order is part of that process.

http://www.pentarch.org/steve/Screenshots/Orders06.PNG

Date 09.10.2016

Ordnance Transfer

Basics

Ordnance Transfer Mechanics

In C# Aurora, transferring ordnance is no longer instant and ships without specialised equipment cannot exchange ordnance in space. A ship can only receive ordnance at a Spaceport, an Ordnance Transfer Station, a ship with a Ordnance Transfer System, a base with a Ordnance Transfer Hub or in a military hangar bay.

A new technology line - Ordnance Transfer Systems - provides the basis of the rate of ordnance transfer and allows ships to mount systems to transfer ordnance to or from other ships. The baseline system (Ordnance Transfer System: 40 MSP per Hour) sets the racial ordnance transfer rate at 40 MSP per hour and allows the use of the first ship-mounted Ordnance Transfer System. There are ten further steps in the tech progression with the highest tech system allowing ordnance transfer at 400 MSP per hour.

Spaceports, Ordnance Transfer Stations or Ordnance Transfer Hubs will always use the highest tech ordnance transfer rate and can transfer ordnance to or from an unlimited number of ships simultaneously. However, the ships involved must be stationary. Hangar Bays also use the highest tech ordnance transfer rate (mainly to avoid multiple hangar bay types).

Spaceports have increased in cost to 3600 BP but can now be moved by freighters. They are equal to four research facilities for transport purposes (or 80 factories). They retain their existing bonuses to loading and unloading cargo.

Ordnance Transfer Stations are a new installation with a cost of 1200 BP. They do not require workers and can be moved by freighters. They have a transport size equal to 10 factories. Essentially, they are a cut-down version of a spaceport intended to facilitate ordnance transfer in forward areas, transferring ordnance between the surface of a planet and ships in orbit. They have no bonuses for loading or unloading cargo.

An Ordnance Transfer Hub can be mounted on a ship. It is a commercial system with a research cost of 10,000 RP, build cost of 2400 BP and a size of 100,000 tons. In practical terms, this is likely to form part of a large, deep-space station, due to the size and cost, rather than being deployed on ammunition colliers that will accompany fleets.

A Ordnance Transfer System is 500 tons and has a cost ranging from 20 BP to 200 BP, depending on the tech level. A ship with an Ordnance Transfer System can transfer ordnance to or from a single ship at once, so it will take some time to replenish a whole fleet, although this will improve with higher technology. At the early tech levels, the Ordnance Transfer System can only be used if both ships (collier and target ship) are both stationary. Underway Replenishment allows the transfer to take place while both ships are in the same fleet and underway. Priorities can be set for the ordnance transfer order when multiple ships are involved. The first Underway Replenishment tech allows ordnance transfer at 20% of the normal rate (2500 RP), rising to 100% with the highest tech (40,000 RP).

Ordnance transfer order types will be adjusted to deal with the new requirements (which I will list in a separate post). Ordnance will be transferred during each movement increment as time passes until the target ship has full magazines. Date 17.09.2017

Fighter Pods are ordnance, in exactly the same way as missiles. They are built by ordnance factories, transported in magazines and loaded onto fighters. Date 22.09.2018]

Ordnance Transfer Orders

With the new ordnance transfer rules, I am changing how some of the ordnance transfer orders work.

The first major change is that a collier within a fleet can be set to automatically transfer ordnance to or from other ships in the fleet. You can flag a collier as being at one of seven ordnance transfer statuses; None, Load Fleet, Replace Fleet, Remove Fleet, Load Sub-Fleet, Replace Sub-Fleet, Remove Sub-Fleet.

When this flag is set to Load Fleet or Load Sub-Fleet, each collier will load ordnance into the magazines of non-colliers within its own fleet (or sub-fleet) as that fleet continues with its normal orders (the transfer itself is not an order). Essentially, the collier will keep the fleet's magazines topped up. The rate of ordnance transfer will be based on the ordnance transfer system of the collier multiplied by the parent race's underway replenishment tech (unless the fleet is stationary). The missiles being loaded will be based on what is missing from the ship's magazine when compared to the class loadout, starting with the largest missiles first (although smaller missiles will be loaded if there is insufficient time in the sub-pulse to load a larger one). However, missiles will only be added using this order and missiles that do not match the current class loadout will not be removed.

When this flag is set to Replace Fleet or Replace Sub-Fleet, each collier will remove any missiles that do not match the current class loadout and replace them with those from the class loadout (assuming the collier has a sufficient stockpile) for any non-colliers within its own fleet (or sub-fleet). The collier will remove non-loadout missiles from the target ship while it has magazine space remaining, then add class loadout missiles to create space. Essentially, the collier will alternate loading and unloading as necessary to create the correct loadout.

When this flag is set to Remove Fleet or Remove Sub-Fleet, the collier will unload all missiles from non-colliers within its own fleet (or sub-fleet), as long as it has space to store them.

The current 'Provide Ordnance to Fleet' order has been replaced with several new orders to facilitate the above. These include:

• Join and Add Ordnance to Fleet; Join and Add Ordnance to Sub-Fleet
• Join and Replace Ordnance in Fleet; Join and Replace Ordnance in Sub-Fleet
• Join and Remove Ordnance from Fleet; Join and Remove Ordnance from Sub-Fleet

The fleet containing the collier will become part of the target fleet and switch to an appropriate ordnance transfer status depending on the order. You can also use an 'Absorb' order to collect a collier with an existing status set. I may look at adding ship-level conditional orders (rather than fleet) so that colliers/tankers can detach when empty and return home without player supervision.

A new 'Load from Ordnance Transfer Hub' order has been added. This order requires a second fleet containing at least one ordnance transfer hub as the destination. On arrival, any ships in the fleet with magazines will receive ordnance according to their class loadouts until all magazines are full, or the ordnance transfer hub runs out of ordnance. No ordnance will be removed by the hubs. All ships in the fleet will receive ordnance, including colliers. Once completed, the fleet will move on to its next order. If the fleet containing the ordnance transfer hub has any movement orders, the ordnance transfer will not take place and the ordnance transfer order will be marked as completed. Multiple hubs in the target fleet will not increase the rate of ordnance transfer but they can all contribute ordnance.

A new 'Replace at Ordnance Transfer Hub' order has been added. This order functions in a similar way to above except that any ordnance not in the class loadout will be removed by the hubs. The mechanics of this process are the same as the ordnance transfer within fleets above.

A new 'Unload to Ordnance Transfer Hub' order allows colliers to deliver ordnance to the hubs.

The existing 'Load Ordnance from Colony' order will remain but can only be used at colonies that have either a Spaceport or an Ordnance Transfer Station. On arrival, the fleet will receive ordnance until all its magazines are full, or the colony runs out of appropriate ordnance. All ships in the fleet will be receive ordnance, including colliers. Once completed, the fleet will move on to its next order. Multiple spaceports or ordnance transfer stations at the colony will not increase the rate of ordnance transfer.

The 'Unload Ordnance to Colony' order also remains but can only be used at colonies that have either a Spaceport or an Ordnance Transfer Station.

Any order involving the transfer of ordnance to or from a colony or ordnance transfer hub will use the current racial ordnance transfer tech to determine the rate of transfer.

Note this means that significantly more planning will be required in this version of Aurora to ensure missile-armed ships can be reloaded at the frontier. It will no longer be possible to dump ordnance on the nearest available rock. Colonies will require a spaceport or an ordnance transfer station before they can support missile-armed fleets. Alternatively, colliers can accompany fleets, or a deep space base with an ordnance transfer hub can be established. Date 16.07.2018

Overhaul

Basics

Ships can enter overhaul in the same way as they do now, except they can also do this at a deep space Maintenance Location as well as at a population. Overhauls will proceed at a slower rate (and use fewer MSP) if the total tonnage of the ships being maintained exceeds the Total Maintenance Capacity. However, ships undergoing overhaul will not suffer maintenance failures in this situation. Date 07.12.2018

please also refer to C-Ship-Maintenance

Abandon Overhaul

In VB6, a fleet can issue an Abandon Overhaul order and one month later, any ships in overhaul within that fleet will be returned to a normal maintenance state.

For C#, each individual ship (or a whole fleet) can choose to abandon overhaul at any point.

It immediately returns to a normal maintenance state but suffers severe after-effects as the crew try to return the ship to normal working order. The ship has an 'Overhaul Factor' that starts at 0.01 immediately following the abandon overhaul decision and increases to 1.00 over the course of thirty days. The increase takes place in each movement phase sub-pulse, following movement in that sub-pulse.

The 'Overhaul Factor' is used in a similar way to crew grade and morale and affects the following:

• 1) Weapon Chance to Hit.
• 2) Engine Power
• 3) Maximum Shield Strength
• 4) Maintenance Failure Chance
• 5) Jump Shock Length
• 6) Fleet Training

For example, a ship six days after abandoning overhaul will have an overhaul factor of 0.2. Assuming no crew grade or morale modifier, engine power and maximum shield strength will be 20% of normal, combat to hit chance will be 80% lower than normal. Maintenance Failure will be 80% higher, Jump Shock length will be 80% longer and Fleet Training will be at 20% of normal.

This rule allow ships to leave overhaul immediately if absolutely necessary (such as hostile vessels closing in), but the short-term penalties are considerable. The Abandon Overhaul order has been removed.

Ships undergoing overhaul in C# Aurora are zero speed for purposes of incoming missile or weapon fire, cannot fire weapons or launch missiles and have zero shield strength.

Date 30.11.2018

Refuelling

Basics

In C# Aurora, refuelling is no longer instant and ships without specialised equipment cannot exchange fuel in space. A ship can only refuel at a Spaceport, a Refuelling Station, a ship with a Refuelling System or a base with a Refuelling Hub.

A new technology line - Refuelling Systems - provides the basis of the rate of refuelling and allows ships to mount systems to refuel other ships. The baseline system (Refuelling System: 50,000 LPH) sets the racial refuelling rate at 50,000 litres per hour and allows the use of the first ship-mounted Refuelling System. There are ten further steps in the tech progression with the highest tech system allowing refuelling at 500,000 litres per hour.

Spaceports, Refuelling Stations or Refuelling Hubs will always use the highest tech refuelling rate and can refuel an unlimited number of ships simultaneously. However, the ships being refuelled must be stationary.

Spaceports have doubled in cost to 2400 BP but can now be moved by freighters. They are equal to four research facilities for transport purposes (or 80 factories). They retain their existing bonuses to loading and unloading cargo.

Refuelling Stations are a new installation with a cost of 1200 BP. They do not require workers and can be moved by freighters. They have a transport size equal to 10 factories. Essentially, they are a cut-down version of a spaceport intended to facilitate refuelling in forward areas, transferring fuel from the surface of a planet to the waiting ships. They have no bonuses for loading or unloading cargo.

A Refuelling Hub can be mounted on a ship. It is a commercial system with a research cost of 10,000 RP, build cost of 2400 BP and a size of 100,000 tons. In practical terms, this is likely to form part of a large, deep-space station, due to the size and cost, rather than being deployed on tankers that will accompany fleets

A Refuelling System is 500 tons and has a cost ranging from 10 BP to 100 BP, depending on the tech level. A ship with a Refuelling System can refuel a single ship at once, so will take some time to refuel a whole fleet, although this will improve with higher technology. At the early tech levels, the Refuelling System can only be used if both ships (tanker and target ship) are both stationary. Another new tech line, Underway Replenishment, allow the refuelling to take place while both ships are in the same fleet and underway. Priorities can be set for the refuelling order when multiple ships are involved. The first Underway Replenishment tech allows refuelling at 20% of the normal rate (2500 RP), rising to 100% with the highest tech (40,000 RP).

Refuelling order types will be adjusted to deal with the new requirements. Fuel will be transferred during each movement increment as time passes until the target ship has full tanks. I may add some other options regarding partially filling as well.

I will be adding some rules along the same lines regarding ordnance transfer. Date 20.07.2017

Refuelling Orders

With the new refuelling rules, I am changing how some of the refuelling orders work.

You can flag a tanker as being at one of three refuel statuses; None, Refuel Fleet or Refuel Sub-Fleet. When this flag is set to Refuel Fleet, the tanker will constantly refuel its own fleet as that fleet continues with normal orders (the refuel itself is not an order). Essentially, the tanker will keep the fleet's fuel tanks topped up. The rate of refuel will be based on the refuelling system of the tanker multiplied by the parent race's underway replenishment tech (unless the fleet is stationary). If the flag is set to Refuel Sub-Fleet, the tanker will follow the same rules as above but only for ships within the same sub-fleet (you can use this distinction to control which ships are refuelled within the fleet)

Each tanker class has a minimum fuel setting (in the class window) and will not refuel ships once it falls below that level. Each class & ship has a 'refuel priority', with higher numbers equalling higher priority. The tanker will refuel in descending order of ship priority, then by descending order of class priority. The tanker will automatically move to a second ship (or more) if there is sufficient time and fuel remaining in the sub-pulse.

The current 'Refuel Fleet' order has been replaced with 'Join & Refuel Fleet'. The fleet containing the tanker will become part of the target fleet and switch to a 'Refuel Fleet' status (if not already set).

A new 'Join & Refuel Sub-Fleet' order has been added. The fleet containing the tanker will become part of the target sub-fleet and switch to a 'Refuel Sub-Fleet' status (if not already set). A Join Sub-Fleet order has also been added for more general use.

A new 'Refuel from Refuelling Hub' order has been added. This order requires a second fleet containing at least one refuelling hub as the destination. On arrival, the fleet will be refuelled until all its tanks are fuel, or the refuelling hub runs out of fuel. All ships in the fleet will be refuelled, including tankers. Once completed, the fleet will move on to its next order. If the fleet containing the refuelling hub has any movement orders, the refuelling will not take place and the refuelling order will be marked as completed. Multiple hubs in the target fleet will not increase the rate of refuelling (a ship can only refuel from one hub at once) but they can all contribute fuel.

The existing 'Refuel from Colony' will remain but can only be used at colonies that have either a Spaceport or a Refuelling Station. On arrival, the fleet will be refuelled until all its tanks are fuel, or the colony runs out of fuel. All ships in the fleet will be refuelled, including tankers. Once completed, the fleet will move on to its next order. Multiple spaceports or refuelling stations at the colony will not increase the rate of refuelling.

The 'Unload 90% Fuel to Colony' order now becomes 'Transfer Fuel to Colony'. Any class designated as a tanker can transfer fuel to any colony with either a spaceport or a refuelling station. The transfer is done at the refuelling rate of the tanker. If multiple tankers are in the fleet, they can transfer fuel simultaneously. Note this means that more planning will be needed in this version of Aurora to ensure fleets can be refuelled at the frontier. It will no longer be possible to dump fuel on the nearest available rock. Colonies will require a spaceport or a refuelling station before they can support fleets. Alternatively, tankers can accompany fleets, or a deep space base with a refuelling hub can be established.

A new 'Transfer Fuel to Refuelling Hub' order has been added. Any class designated as a tanker can transfer fuel to any ship with a Refuelling Hub. The transfer is done at the refuelling rate of the tanker. If multiple tankers are in the fleet, they can transfer fuel simultaneously. Date 01.07.2018

Minimum Fuel

Because of the new rules for transferring fuel and supplies, ship classes can be given a minimum maintenance supply level and a minimum fuel level. Ships will not unload or transfer fuel and supplies beyond these levels. These functions replace the VB6 rule where a tanker would only unload 90% of its fuel. Date 02.09.2018

Resupply

In C# Aurora, resupply is no longer instant and ships cannot without cargo shuttles cannot exchange maintenance supplies in space. A ship can only resupply at a spaceport, a cargo shuttle station or from a ship with cargo shuttles.

Maintenance supplies are transferred at the rate of 10 per hour, multiplied by the number of cargo shuttle bays and the racial shuttle technology. Spaceports and cargo shuttle stations can resupply an unlimited number of ships simultaneously. However, the ships being resupplied must be stationary.

Resupply order types will be adjusted to deal with the new requirements. Maintenance supplies can be transferred by supply ships during each movement increment as time passes until the target ship has reached capacity (in the same way as underway replenishment of fuel).

Date 02.09.2018

Because of the new rules for transferring fuel and supplies, ship classes can be given a minimum maintenance supply level and a minimum fuel level. Ships will not unload or transfer fuel and supplies beyond these levels. Date 02.09.2018

Rescue Survivors

please refer to C-Ship Crew and the Overcrowding/Life Support Failure rules

Standard transits

by Fleets with Commercial and Military Ships

In VB6 Aurora, fleets that included at least one ship with military engines could only use military jump drives for standard transits, which meant you had to split out commercial-engined ships into a separate fleet and escort them with a commercial jump drive ship.

In C# Aurora, commercial-engined and military-engined ships are treated separately. So if you have a fleet with mixed engine types that also includes ships with commercial and military jump drives, it will still carry out a standard transit if the respective jump drives are large enough for the ships with the matching respective engine types. However, if any ship with either engine type can't jump, the whole fleet will fail to transit.

Squadron jumps are handled differently so I will cover that in a separate post. Date 06.10.2016

Terraforming

In terms of the general mechanics, terraforming works as it does in VB6 Aurora. Atmosphere measured in atm (atmospheric pressure) is added by terraforming ships or installations. However, there are several significant changes for C# Aurora.

• 1) The base terraforming technologies have their atm rates reduced by 60% at the lower tech levels. The rate of tech increase has improved so the higher tech levels are reduced by around 40%. The starting racial tech rate per module/installation is 0.0004 atm per year.

• 2) Smaller planets are much faster to terraform. The terraforming rate in atm is modified by Earth Surface Area / Planet Surface Area. For example, the rate at which atm is added to Mars is 3.5x faster than on Earth (1.4x faster than in VB6 Aurora), Ganymede is 6x faster and Luna is almost 14x faster (5.4x than VB6)

• 3) System Bodies with gravity of less than 0.1G cannot retain atmosphere and therefore cannot be terraformed

• 4) Carbon Dioxide is now a dangerous gas.

• 5) Water is now a significant factor in terraforming planets. Any planet with less than 20% water has a colony cost factor for water equal to (20 - Hydro Extent) / 10 (see colony cost rules at C-System Bodys).

• 6) Water vapour can be added to the atmosphere just like any other gas.

• 7) Water vapour will condense out of the atmosphere at a rate of 0.1 atm per year and increase the planet's Hydro Extent

• 8) Each 1% of Hydro Extent requires 0.05 atm of water vapour. This means that creating 20% Hydro Extent would require 1 atm of water vapour (this will be much faster on smaller worlds because the speed at which water vapour atm is added is linked to surface area). With this in mind, existing water becomes an important factor in the speed at which terraforming can be accomplished, especially on larger worlds.

• 9) Water will also evaporate into the atmosphere. The evaporation cycle follows condensation and will stabilise water vapour in the atmosphere of a planet with liquid water at a level of: Atmospheric Pressure * (Hydro Extent / 100) * 0.01 atm. The resulting atm * 20 is the % of the planet's surface that loses water. As the water vapour is removed from the atmosphere, it will replenish from the surface water. This is to allow the removal of water from ocean worlds to create more living space.

These new rules should add more variety to terraforming and, in conjunction with the max population rules, should add more interesting decision-making when choosing which worlds to terraform. Date 07.12.2018

Combination Orders

Given the number of new logistics options, I am adding some combination orders to C# Aurora where functions can happen simultaneously. For example, "Refuel and Resupply from Colony" will carry out both activities simultaneously, assuming that the ships / colony are equipped with the necessary logistical facilities. The order will complete when the activity with the greater duration is complete.

Other combination orders so far (I will edit here as more are added):

• Refuel, Resupply, Load Ordnance from Colony
• Join, Refuel and Resupply Target Fleet
• Join, Refuel, Resupply, Add Ordnance to Target Fleet

I will add more combination orders during play testing, depending on which are useful, although I can't go overboard or I risk cluttering the orders list.

Date 02.09.2018

Standing Orders

Basics

http://www.pentarch.org/steve/Screenshots/StandingOrders02.PNG

Standing Orders are the C# equivalent of Default Orders in VB6 and function in exactly the same way.

If your ship has no active movement orders, it will act on the Primary Standing Order. If that is not possible, it will act on the Secondary Standing Order.

Standing orders will only be checked if the increment length is greater than one hour. In addition, acting on the Standing Orders for "Move to Gas Giant with Sorium" and "Move to Asteroid Mineral Source" will unset the standing order (to prevent continuous issuing of the same order). Civilians and NPRs will monitor ships in this situation and reactivate the standing order if required.

Conditional Orders are Standing Orders linked to a Condition. When the condition is met, the associated conditional order will be executed where possible. Secondary conditional orders will not be executed if the fleet is already acting on the primary conditional order.

Each potential order is accompanied by an S or an A. This indicates whether the order will look at potential destinations in the same system (S) or all systems (A). When the order involves moving to a different system, the algorithm calculating the best path will take into account whether the fleet will try to Avoid Danger and try to Avoid Alien Systems. These two values are set by the Check Danger Rating and Exclude Alien-Controlled check boxes respectively, which are located on the Movement Orders tab (see Auto Route rules post for more details).

Date 27.02.2018

New Standing Orders

There will be some new standing orders for C#, which I will list here as I add them:

• 1. Land on Assigned Mothership: Can be used for Standing or Conditional orders and will only be executed if there is a common mothership for the fleet. An example of use would be survey carrier ops, where the parasites would return to the mothership if they were low on fuel or had surveyed all potential destinations.
• 2. Move to System Requiring GeoSurvey: Can be used for Standing Orders. The fleet will move a system where the 'Standing Order Geo Survey Complete' flag is not set . This flag is set when a survey ship with an order of "Survey Nearest Body" or "Survey Next Five System Bodies" cannot find a system body within ten billion kilometres. It doesn't mean the system is completely surveyed, but that it is surveyed in practical terms. If you need to you can send a survey ship to a distant planet or star (more than 10b km) and it will still automatically survey everything within ten billion kilometres of the last surveyed body, but the earlier setting of the flag means that other survey ships will not arrive automatically to survey the very distant bodies.
• 3. Move to System Requiring Gravsurvey: Same as above but for survey locations.
• 4. Refuel at Hub. This is part of several different orders. A Refuelling Hub is a large module intended for space stations (although it can be used on ships) which can simultaneously refuel an unlimited number of ships (while the fuel supply lasts) if it is stationary.
• 5. Move to Closest Rendezvous Point: A new type of waypoint (see changes post following this one) is the Rendezvous Point. This can be assigned as a destination for a Standing Order or a Conditional Order
• 6. Investigate Closest Point of Interest: A new type of waypoint (see changes post following this one) is the Point of Interest, which is a temporary waypoint that remain in place until a fleet arrives at the location or for six months, whichever happens first. The function of this order and the new waypoint is for the player to designate areas in a system which he wishes a fleet to visit automatically. Different fleets operating with the “Investigate Closest Point of Interest” order will take account of each other’s activity to avoid duplication of destination. Points of Interest can be designated as Urgent and these will take priority over other POIs.

Date 27.02.2018

Combat Orders

Ground Combat Support Orders

Fighters equipped with Fighter Pods can provide support to ground unit formations during Ground Combat. Date 06.10.2018

Flak Suppression

In addition to the option to directly support ground forces, fighters can be assigned additional missions over the battlefield. To be eligible, a fleet composed only of fighters is given one of the following orders with a system body as the destination. A friendly population is not required. These orders function in a similar way to a 'Follow' order, with the order remaining in place until removed by the player.

Fleets with these orders that are at their target system body cannot be targeted in normal naval combat or by STO weapons.

Flak Suppression involves sending fighters to a planet with enemy ground forces (with or without friendly forces present) to specifically attack hostile AA units.

Date 09.10.2018

Provide Ground Support

To be eligible, a fleet with fighters is given an order to "Provide Ground Support" with a friendly population as the destination. This order functions in a similar way to a 'Follow' order, with the order remaining in place until removed by the player.

On the Ground Combat Window, eligible fleets appear in their own section for each population. These fleets can be dragged and dropped on to formations in the same way as superior and subordinate formations.

Fleets with this order that are at their target population cannot be targeted in normal naval combat or by STO weapons.

Date 06.10.2018

Provide Orbital Bombardment Support

Ships equipped with energy weapons can provide support to ground unit formations during ground combat.

To be eligible, a fleet with energy weapons is given an order to "Provide Orbital Bombardment Support" with a friendly population as the destination. This order functions in a similar way to a 'Follow' order, with the order remaining in place until removed by the player.

Fleets with this order can still be targeted in normal naval combat or by STO weapons (they do not have the same protection as fighters on ground support missions).

Weapons roll for failure in the same way as in naval combat.

Ships cannot perform orbital bombardment in the ground combat phase if they fired in the preceding naval combat phase of the same increment.

Date 11.10.2018

Search & Destroy

In addition to the option to directly support ground forces, fighters can be assigned additional missions over the battlefield. To be eligible, a fleet composed only of fighters is given one of the following orders with a system body as the destination. A friendly population is not required. These orders function in a similar way to a 'Follow' order, with the order remaining in place until removed by the player.

Fleets with these orders that are at their target system body cannot be targeted in normal naval combat or by STO weapons.

Search and Destroy involves sending fighters to a planet with enemy ground forces (with or without friendly forces present) to attack targets of opportunity.

Date 09.10.2018