Ship

Organization

The Empire's Navy fleets are arranged around Task Force's, 'Fleet Headquarters' is the name of the default starting Task Force set on your homeplanet. Every ship is assigned to a Task Force, and falls under its command hierarchy headed by the Task Force Commander.

The Fleet operates in tandem with ground forces. The military academy is the primary training faculty and commission source for the fleet's officers and crew.

Roles

In aurora you have great flexibility as a designer in addressing your empire's need. Ships roles\size and fleet composition varies depending on the nature of each navy and its primary mission. overall ships can be categorized in many ways, this section cover the most basic methods.

Warships

These ships are armed with offensive weaponry, although the ship and its weapons may be employed in offensive or defensive roles. These military designs are typically faster and more agile than other ships of the same size.

light craft

These are small, fast, short-range craft that cannot operate independently, and must be carried into battle by larger ships or deployed from planetary defence hangars.

• Fighters and Bombers - Fighter defend against enemy light craft and escorts and destroy incoming enemy warheads. Bombers are slower than fighters and vulnerable to fighter attack, but they carry powerful anti-ship missiles to attack enemy warships. They are organized into flight, squadron, wing and finally a full air group. Defined by the game as 500 tons or less, they are produced in fighter factories.

• Assault Shuttles are equipped with drop pods, used to initiate boarding operations boarding operations or as a small combat lander.

Escorts

These are the smallest type of combatants in the fleet. Commonly used for reconnaissance, incursions and escort missions. Although individually weak when compared to capital ships, they are inexpensive to build and can become quite potent in large numbers, and can use their speed to harass the heavier capital ships while protecting their own from enemy escorts attempting to do the same.

• Frigates - Light, quick and manoeuvrable multi-role warships, capable as scouts, skirmishers and anti-fighter escorts. As Scouts, they are designed extra small, extra fast, with more range than usual, cloaking capabilities can be of use. Skirmishers designed to counter enemy fighters and bombers and escorts, they require speed/range advantage to split off from a main force and make their catch.

• Destroyers - carry specialised weaponry to combat specific threats. Destroyers are relatively heavily armed warships for their size, but commensurately ill-defended and with poor independent range, that mostly act as escorts for larger fleets. The actual vessels vary greatly between navies, but are all designed to engage multiple small, fast enemies (typically fighters and missile swarms) and or are loaded with point defence batteries. They will also have some anti-ship capability, but are not designed to go up against capital ships.

• Cruisers - medium-sized vessels, able to operate independently. Cruisers have the firepower and speed to be used for almost any sort of duty, including patrols, blockades, raids, and straight-up firefights. Cruisers are divided into many sub-types depending on their role e.g. combat, fast response, fleet support.

Capital

These are among the largest warships and the true power of any navy. Whether due to their heavy armament and protection, or by carrying spacecraft, capital ships allow you to bring the most firepower and durability to a fight. Capable of force projection, they can operate independently controlling entire systems but usually escorted by a large supporting fleet. Additionally, some assign a security marine detachment to these high value vessels.

• The Battleship is a large heavily armed, armoured and or shielded warship. Battleship are considered the backbone of any military fleet.
• The Dreadnought is a heavy battleships. With colossal amounts of armament, heavy armour and or shields these ships represent the ultimate projection of naval power and considered as the pride of most naval fleets. Dreadnought usually serve as the flagship for the Task Force Commander of the Fleet, though this is not always necessarily the case.

• Carriers - Dedicated ship designed to hold, support and deploy smaller craft. Carriers can carry large squadrons of fighter, bomber, and other craft, and provide the fleet with underway shipyard repair functionality. They usually lack in armaments, and rely on their large numbers of fighters or the rest of their fleet to protect them. Their spacecraft can strike targets from far outside of their gun engagement envelop.

Auxiliary Support

These ships are designed to operate in any number of roles supporting combatant ships and civilian operations. Auxiliaries are not primary combatants, although they may have some limited combat capacity, usually of a self-defence nature.

Exploration and Research

These vessels are employed to provide a better understanding of your operating environment. They typically come with jump engines, large Fuel Tanks for ships of their size, and fitted with various scanning equipment. needed for an expedition, then into the void without the need for regular refuelling through the use of Fuel Scoops.

• Recon Ship - Scout ship, used to explore new systems and seeking out colonizable planets early on, and being used to acquire intelligence on enemy actions and other points of interest throughout the game. Intended for interstellar and long distance flight, they are designed with jump drives and sometimes cloaking.

• Gravsurvey Ship - Deep-space exploration craft, configured to conduct Gravitational Survey to map systems jump points. Designed with Grav sensors.

• Geosurvey Ship - planetary surveyor, configured to conduct orbital Geological Survey of planet's to reveale their mineral composition. Designed with Geo sensors.

Commercial

These vessels or platforms are used in the development of the empires infrastructure. Typically employ commercial designs, they are slow and cumbersome. Used both by the military and the civilian sector.

• Freighter - configured to provide extreme hauling capabilities, used to transport installations and minerals from one planet to another.
• Colony Ship - configured to carry colonist to colonize new worlds, or supplement civilian efforts on existing ones. Designed with Cryogenic Transport.
• Asteroid Miner - Asteroid mining... platform
• Sorium Harvester - Sorium harvesting... platform
• Terraformer - Terraforming... platform

Logistic

These vessels are focused on assisting other ships\platforms transiting though or out of the system.

• Tug - configured to haul orbital platforms into positions.
• Jump Tender - configured to tender ships across jump points. Either as part of military task force, or commercial temporary\safe transits solution out of the system.

Replenishment

These vessels offer large transport capacity, used to conduct underway replenishment or transport supplies to forward locations. This allows the fleet to remain on station, with the replenishment vessels bringing up fuel, ammunition, and supplies from colonies to the fleet wherever it is operating.

• Tanker - configured to carry fuel, to support extended fleet operations. Designed with large Fuel Storage.
• Collier - configured to carry ammunition, usually for missile warships. Designed with large Magazines
• Maintenance ship - configured to carry maintenance supplies, to support underway ship maintenance and repair. Designed with large Maintenance Storage Bays.

• Hospital Ship, configured with extra crew berths, to accommodate combat survivors without effecting combat ships with overcrowding. Designed with Cryogenic Transport.
• Salvager - configured for salvage operations of floating ship debris in space. Designed with Salvage Module, and possibly a cargo component.

Tips

• Try to get multiple designs built out of one shipyard, especially if you don't need many of one of the designs. After all how many jump gate constructors do you need?

See Also

• Forum Bureau of Ship Design - A place for new and veteran players to get advice and get creative in their design strategies.
• Basic Ship Examples