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Abraxis -> RE: Anybody interested in this game... (9/20/2014 1:35:47 AM)
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I gave Aurora a chance maybe three years ago. It seemed really interesting, and extremely detailed.
I started stranded in the Solar System without knowing anything. Eventually I managed to figure out how to travel to other systems, and had some mining operations going (which involved catapulting minerals back to earth). I even started terraforming and moving civilians to a planet I had found some time and effort later.
After a while, in one system, I lost contact with an exploration vessel. I assembled a brand new recon vessel after reading a ton of guides on how to create the sensory equipment needed to investigate what happened. I sent it to the location where my scout disappeared, it recorded a radioactive blast just as I lost contact with it.
After several more hours of trying to build a vessel with offensive capabilities and defensive measures against what I assumed must have been projectiles carrying nuclear warheads, I finally managed to assemble a bit of a force to find out what was going on. I had an updated recon vessel along for the journey too, with some modifications to resolution and a bunch of other junk (I forget how it all worked now) to hopefully provide more information.
This expedition didn't even make it to the system, due to technical difficulties... I forget the specifics.
Another few hours of figuring out why my ships didn't work and I finally built new ones to reach their destination. Into the danger zone and I managed to pick up the missiles being fired at me. My combat ships even managed to destroy two of them with their counter missile missiles I had designed. That was pretty thrilling in that I was shocked something I made actually worked.
The third, fourth, fifth... ect enemy missiles from unknown source still destroyed my fleet however.
This is where I quit. It was a cool experience and all, if you have a mind for engineering, you'll probably love the game, but it just wasn't for me. I'm normally all over these games too, Dwarf Fortress, Distant Worlds, any of the Paradox Grand Strategies, Eve Online, all of them I've shouldered through the learning curve and played to death. Aurora just didn't grab me. It was cool trying to solve the problems of getting off planet, out of the solar system, laying some groundwork for a colonization, and exploring the design of spacecrafts. Problem was, it got way too frustrating way too quickly. Micromanaging such minute details of spacecraft construction just didn't seem to me as though it opened up much in the way of interesting gameplay. Its value, I think, can only be appreciated by someone who wants to intimately obsess over every possible detail of spaceship creation. Admittedly, it has great value there, though. Before Aurora I thought that sort of thing might appeal to me.
Nope.
I have crazy respect for the guy who made the game though, and admire him greatly for all he's accomplished. I'm also glad such an intensely niche experience exists. I'd really love to love it too, it just wasn't for me unfortunately.
Edit: Here is a previous post I just found in which I discussed Aurora, a few years ago, so it was a little fresher in my mind.
(From http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3073924&mpage=1&key=Aurora)
quote:
ORIGINAL: Abraxis
I am currently playing DW, If i wasn't I wouldn't be here, hah.
Before my most recent foray into this awesome game though I was enjoying some Mount and Blade: Warband with Floris' Mod then Sword of Demaclese.
Before that I was on a Crusader Kings 2 kick until I realized how repetitive the game is. It adds character and, a 'reason to care' I guess, that I find lacking from most Paradox grand strategy titles, but after a game or two those characters just become nothing but numbers and the whole things is back to the same stale roots as Victoria or EU (entirely my opinion of course, I wish I liked those games).
Played some X3 for a while too, always fun, put that down until Rebirth comes out though, can't freaking wait [:@]
Every now and again I'll dip into Dwarf Fortress, or a game of League of Legends here and there.
Another game I feel like noting, in case you were looking for other things like DW, but not. Aurora is like a hyper realistic DW. I've tried getting into it a few times, but I swear you need a degree in physics just to design a functioning component of a ship, let alone a ship. The first time I played it I never even got out of the SOL system. The second time I tried it, it took me about two days of heavy play just to colonize another planet. That being said, if you're a smarter and more patient man than me you'll probably get a lot out of it.
You're very much blind when it comes to everything going on, but if you're able to figure out how to properly calibrate signal bandwidth with antenna length in order to achieve the proper range and resolution to even see what may or may not even be there chances are you'll just wonder where that pathetic fleet you spent 5 hours designing and another 5 building went.
The one that experienced failures in multiple systems right out of the gate.
The one you had to mine a long period comet for years to build, before it left system, taking all your mining equipment with it...
but you sent them on their mission anyways.
They weren't destroyed, they weren't captured. All you ever saw from them was some preliminary scans of a few asteroids in this particular solar system, a curious heat signature just barely big enough to register on those medium range high rez infrared scanners you weren't even sure worked (but holy hell was it satisfying after about an hour designing them), then there was a curious nuclear detonation... then... nothing.
That's about where I left it, deciding to play something simple, like Dwarf Fortress.
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