Aurora 4X Review 

Aurora 4x - aurorawiki.pentarch.org/index.php?title=Main_Page THE LIST - docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_K3ziSxT9zcUUGCddS4sF1uNJTWHSbOwB1CQX2Rx4Uo Aurora now has a proper C# version with lots of quality of life features and updates, with default dark blue visuals instead of eye hell. Audio had to get swapped at the end for copyright to avoid muting the entire video.

So basically this is a game where you play as a leader of a galactic civilization that never learned how to delegate tasks

When I first played this, I accidentally terraformed my home planet to have chlorine gas in the atmosphere. It was a short game.

I only really played Aurora once; I sent my ships out on a training run without engines and they just floated in space for a year until the Earth came back around to pick them up.

Big news, everybody: Steve Walmsey has just released C# Aurora. It's a complete engine rewrite with a fuckton of revamped and new features. Performance-wise, it's miles ahead of VB6 Aurora. If you wanted to give it a shot, now's the time!

I genuinely don't think I have the capacity to enjoy these sort of games. There's just a weird tranquility in listening to someone talk about this stuff.

The massive update to Aurora, reprogrammed in C#, recently came out - AND ALL THE WINDOWS ARE IN THE SAME LOVELY DARK-BLUE BACKED COLOR THEME

I never used cocaine, but I'm sure Aurora is just as addicting. Played 6k hours, once built a fully working gigantic carrier that could explore the Galaxy, use gas giant to refine its own fuel, then drop infrastructure on a resource rich planet when everything onboard kept breaking down due to maintenance clock and the complexity of the ship so my carried colonists (crew) could live there, extract resources and the feed the shipyard my carrier could TUG and overhaul the ship itself. It was BSG on crack. By the time I explored 259 star systems and made first contact with 6 nprs (bombed 2 into the stoneage with my bombers) a 30 days turn would take 20+ minutes.

And to think IGN struggle to understand Football Manager...

I know that because Aurora uses Windows for its user interface, you can set the Theme you are using in personalization to have a grey Windows Explorer Background; this will fix the eye strain!

He actually did it the absolute madman.

If you want a detailed spaceship simulator that's a bit more accessible, you should check out Children of a Dead Earth. You design your own spaceship and spaceship components based off of real world physics. Which means that if you successfully design a nuclear reactor to power you ship, you should be handed an honorary degree in nuclear engineering.

11:50 It's like that one time when someone forgot to put enough fund in their bank account to fill an automated payment to their mercenaries in EVE Online and an entire system went to war. It never ceases to amaze me how minute details like paperworks can cause massive disasters.

well, might as well get your PHD before attempting to play this game.

My first battlr was intense. Since it was my first, my missile ships were designed only to match what I imagined a hypothetical enemy would be. The missiles were fast, long-range, and deadly. As good as I had the tech for. The ships carried hundreds. But once the enemy saw me, I realized my ships were too slow. They were deep in the system, and immediately turned around to run back to the jump point. The enemy, for the moment nothing but heat signatures on a scope, pursued. Once they got within missile range my fleet opened fire, unloading their entire arsenal into the void. It only took a few minutes to unleash the missiles, but it would take houts for them to hit their targets. I had no idea how big or armored the enemy was, and so my flert continued their retreat. Hoping that they could reach the JP before they were caught. Hopong their missiles would at least disable the enemy ships. The missiles started impacting. People manning the sensors and scopes watched eagerly, using the data to learn more about this foe. Explosion after explosion in the blackness behind them, and still the enemy came. For every missile that hit four were shot down by CIWS, but we were doing damage. Tearing apart their armor, but it seemed like not much else. Did They have missiles? Had they already launched? I couldn't know. My fleet was close to the JP, watching their weapons puff against the enemy armor, watching the enemy ships not slow, not show any sign of damage. Only a few dozen missiles left,in the space between fleets, and my crew had given up hope that they could win the battle. If only they could escape with their lives. I don't know if the enemy had missiles. What weapons they sported, since the moment my ships reached the JP they were gone. Returning to base foe a refit. To be joined by a growing fleet of carriers and second-generation missile ships. The second battle we didn't even move from the JP. The enemy was close. Fighters launched, with missiles close behind, and laser-wielding battleships for a last stand defence if those failed. But they didn't. Whether the first battle had worn them down or the fighters were just that good, they ripped the enemy to shreds, even before the second missile salvo had time to reach. Aurora is an intense and fun game. For sure.

My first encounter with an alien in this game, I had (what I thought was) a decent warship with lasers. It was coming towards me and I decided to not let it inspect me or anything so I ordered my crew to FIRE! ...Oh my god, why aren't they firing? Turns out I had a completely green crew and just because you tell them to start attacking doesn't mean it's going to happen the next time you tick over time. The ship rammed me over and over and disabled my engines. I had to design a rescue ship to get my crew and my ship. The enemy alien ship was just one of their probe ships and it beat the best Sol had to offer.

Both this game and the effort that went into this review...holy shit

Honestly I spent hours on end just in the ship designer menu. Making geo survey drone carriers was intriguing. Making jedi hyperdrive sleds for fighters was interesting as well. Reading the forums alone was interesting as many people took different approaches to expansion rather then the cookie cutter stereotype of mainstream sci fi. Judging from the comments most people sound like they want to be the guy shooting the lasers from the millennium falcons turrets. This game asks and answers the question of is your turret fast enough on the swivel to hit a target flying at 7k mph at a range of 100km out. You as a person could never eyeball that so you better make sure your scanners are spec'd to even pick up that tie fighter in the first place. Let alone have a targeting computer capable of hitting that tie fighter. Most games are played by gamers who want to fire the rifle not make sure it doesn't blow up in your hands when you pull the trigger by designing it. Wish Steve would let the community chip in to make some visuals for this style of in depth game.

I want that hypothetical dnd simulation of Rome now damn it

Speaking of Dwarf Fortress, you ever going to do a video on that? it'd be real neat

I need a source for that beginning. *GRAB YOUR FEDORA, IT'S TIME FOR AURORA*

You don't need poor Supervision to play this Game while working, if you are the It Guy at work and your Boss doesnt understand shit about It (which isnt that unusual) you can probably make your Boss think that this Game IS YOUR WORK 😂

I actually payed money for this game as a kid, some small games shop just printed out some Artwork for the cover, copied the game on a disk and sold it for 30 Euros.

I have such an appreciation for the amount of depth you're willing to go into for these videos. Seeing and hearing how complex these games can be and how you tackle them is actually quite admirable and interesting. Good luck in the future!

I feel like this game would work well if you could get your friends playing the same faction and allow people to take specific roles, like science, combat, colonization and so on...

I genuinely don't get exited to see new videos pop from channels... except for yours. Excellent as always.

I play dwarf fortress, i enjoy SS13, i torture myself with Mordheim and i micromanage the hell out of 4x games. But this thing? I could not even start a game without getting lost and giving up at a point.

Man, this game can get complicated. In one of my most advanced campaigns I had this whole constellation of terraforming satellites, which amounted to some terraforming modules strapped to a big honking fuel tank and super efficient engine. It was around 200 ships in one fleet, and I'd just park them in orbit of a colony world and within a decade it'd be a second Earth. Once that was done, they'd refuel from the planet or a tanker and hop to the next job. Their one limitation was a lack of jump drives, so there needed to be full gate connections along their path, but it was still really fucking cool.

Noooo this is the last video. I've watched all of them and this is it.. for now. Can't wait for more videos! You're the mitochondria of youtube since you're so powerhouse. Keep up the great work!

I'm 13 minutes in, I can't... I don't... Why am I watching this?? I do admire your will to undestand this game tho.

Pretty sure I'm too much of a brainlet to understand or immerse myself in a game like this. But at least I can listen to Mandalore explain it and trick myself into thinking my unevolved lizard brain can fathom its complexities. It sure sucks being 100% stupid. Good review. I need more. A lot more.

Your house looks like a cross between AVGN and Mr. Plinkett

It would be incredible to play this kind of game in co-op. It's simply to much information for one person, but if for example there were to be 3 players, one taking care of science and exploration, second colonies and economy and third military affairs, I would play this like there is no tomorrow.

ah yes i just love games that punish me for doing paper work wrong

see you in december

please give dimitri the help he needs

So when's that Harry Potter Analsis video coming out?

Who else agree this guy has some of the best content on RU-vid of last few years?

I frequently rewatch your old videos and up until recently I would shake my head at this one and think “How do you even go about starting something like this?” However, having recently gotten passably good at DF (which was another game that looked impossibly complex to me initially) I think I’m gonna give it a try. Pray for me fellow gamers

Dived into the 2nd time after a few years, having a blast so far, peacefully exploring until my survey ship got blown up 3:04 shame the new C# version doesn't come with music 5:24 C# has blue background now 8:24 You can get event color mode to highlight important ones now 9:15 lol 9:30 You can use missile and ship optimizer to help you calculate what engine to use, given ship tonnage, speed and range 10:55 You can use Aurora Electrons to help you sort the survey reports now 12:36 Aurora Electrons now gives out what to add/remove to terraform

One of my absolute favorite things about this game is the number of options and setings purely for roleplaying/fluff/decoration. Because it's spreadsheets and dots with almost literally no form of graphics, sound, voice acting, art assets, etc, it's consequently free to give you an enormous range of detail and specifics you can choose from. And in general, there's just tons of detail, like the ability to re-name the rank structure of your own military so the ranks are whatever you think sounds cool. And on and on. This is really the only 4X game I'd ever contemplate playing without opponents, and purely as a 'build my empire' game. Part of that is because it runs so fucking awful with even one CPU active too, that it's far better to have the game roll some dice and generate a new alien empire for you to find on the spot when you explore, even so. Oh, performance issues. You wouldn't think you'd get /those/ in a title of this, uh, nature. But it's easy to even pick the wrong settings, and end up with turn times taking 5-10 minutes to increment each time you click time ahead. Which is truly agonizing. Also, one personal big issue I have is the limitations of 'space master' mode. You can make yourself the GM of your world, instantly do things, change things, but you can't, for instance, see or edit alien empires on the map. Even as the fucking GM. Even if said aliens are giving you worse FPS death than any volume of cats. You need a super special access code from the developer himself to be able to do things like see aliens. That just seems extremely unnecessary and limiting. Game's cool bro

Yer alive? *relieved sigh*

You: "I lost it somewhere in my recording studio" Me: "it'll turn up when you tidy your--" You: "I'll probably never find it." Me: "Never mind."

Man your videos are wonderfully constructed, fun to watch, and very informative. I have watched this video 3 times and have gone through the rest of your reviews. Keep up the great work!

Always fun to watch new people stumble across Aurora. Cheers, man!

Hey Mandalore, you should know that from 16:08 your audio cuts out and is replaced with royalty free music, you can't hear anything you say for the last 40 seconds of the video.

I've discovered your channel yesterday by accident. Your reviews are very in-depth, your research is amazingly meticulous, just keep it up ma boi.

I really have to commend you. For the amount you have to cover with this game you did really good job explaining how the game and mechanics work. Looking forward to the next one.

ever played chronicles of Riddick escape from butcher bay? it's the only licensed game I know of that's better than the movie

Great review! Had a few games of Aurora got pretty far with my empires but the imagination only carries you so far before it becomes tedious so I only really make it to a handful of systems and fighting aliens before it becomes too monotonous.

As soon as I reached your analogy with the "entering a room, forgetting why you went there, getting a snack", i instantly liked the video. You've got spunk, kid. Ya gonna go far.

"I could deal with Dwarf Fortress, but Aurora may be my limit" **OOF** I think I'll stick to low IQ games. Like Distant Worlds. Or Quantum Physics.

Please oh PLEASE make an Arcanum review! That game was an amazing RPG, an absolute gem for its time.

I love your deep dives into these obscure games. Great work!

It's nice someone made a review on it. A great game if you ask my! Its also cute that space station 13 theme is playing in the background near the end.

Man, Stellardone (aka Edgaras Žakevičius) became almost as big as Carbon Based Lifeforms and Solar Fields. He's huge. Great respect for the guy. That said, I like Stellaris music. Fun fact: for a trained ear, Andreas Waldetoft (of Paradox) borrows heavily from classical compositions. It is really well done, and hard to nail down where exactly it comes from, but it is what it is. It's been done before, namely for Star Wars, so one can generally claim this technique itself to be an "inspiration". Like Mandalore laughed about "copyright" being interpreted as "copied right" in his Space Rangers HD video :) But I have to say, Eve-Online OST is rather excellent (Jón Hallur Haraldsson et al) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-cR-b6VW-mFg.html For any of you interested I have to also highly recommend State Azure (try both yt and soundcloud).

Game: Stellaris *Stellaris*

I really enjoy your editing and video style. Definitely going to keep up!

Nice video and Thanks for Stellatdrone recommendation. Loved the music

This game feels like you can get a degree by playing it, if only a degree _in_ playing it.

"commander theme: Warhammer 40k" Good man.

Your genuinaly the only gaming review channel I watch because of your excellent analysis of games and your awesome voice.

I very much enjoy your reviews, keep up the fantastic work

This game from what i can understand - is basically structured like my job. Im a electromechanical engineer. Say i want to design a Busbar for 2500Amps.. i first need to know from where to where, then define the diameter and wall thickness of it, then draw it in 3D, then define mounting points for it (like tube connectors n such) - then i need to put up all the material numbers and define the material to be used... and that isnt even half of the work required for just one bloody tube...

The C# version just went live :)

Great and insightful video. Personally I am really looking forward to a video on Gothic I&II but I'm still going to watch pretty much all of your content. Keep up the good work!

I lost it at the Lost Galaxy montage at the end while you were describing office workspaces. God damn best juxtaposition ever.

My husband played EVE online for 10 years as a wormholer. I showed him this video and he said,”oh dear god, why?!”

"Going to a room, forgetting why you went there, eating a snack and putting the cereal box in the fridge" - The only downside to smoking pot.

Fantastic review--exactly what I was looking for. I wanted to get a feel for the game even though it didn't take long to conclude this wasn't a game for me. Thanks!

your reviews are f*cking great!!!! i love them, and your voice is to die for.

Thank you for exploring the darkness that us mortals cannot go near.

Dont know why, but the ending credits and music made me nostalgic

You do the best reviews! I rally like your work keep it up

Great video, as always. Out of the list I would personally suggest you to cover Darklands and Dominions 4, both games really bring something unique to the table and defenitely deserve more love.

My head... hurts...

9:10 From The Depths, a much more playable game, lets you customize the engines of your missiles =) Its basically Space Engineers but on the seas, with actual enemy factions to deal with or declare war with and instanced "mount-and-blade" style transitions between overworld and combat scenes.

Awesome work my dude! I can tell you've put a lot of effort into this :)

I recently subbed to your channel after discovering it. The reviews are great and i wish i had discovered your channel at a later date so i could of watch more content than before.

For the first time in one of these videos (which im a huge fan Mandalore) I feel completely and utterly lost. WTF is this....... like it hurts my head thinking about how difficult it is. maybe im too stupid for a game like this but I feel proud I even got through the video :)

I think I'm going to try this game now..

I may or may not have been watching and waiting for you to release a video.

2:24 oooh is that Empire Earth?! Good stuff >:)

Its admirable how much you subject yourself to the most tedious games ever made and manage to explain them for our entertainment

I was so confused at the end, then I realized RU-vid probably replaced the audio… That's a shame. :(

I've been waiting for this!

Amazing project, awesome review! Thank you!

High quality, in-depth, decent voice and overall quality. I look forward to seeing you improve further :) Great job

that potter pasta

Thank you - I don't think I will play Aurora but I loved Starfire in high school and while I loved it couldn't remember its name more than 30 years later until you showed the cover!

You've got a good, informative, professional style. Keep it up, and I am sure you can get proper funding for more projects. And these reviews are more than just a "game review", they are more like an interesting gaming history video-essay. It's very nice. Of all the random "gaming videos" out there there is only one or two other channels I watch with the same level of respect or interest. Seriously: Keep it Up. (I'll try to think of an interesting game or series to suggest some day.)

I have the strange feeling that 200 years from now when all the other games have been forgotten and we all live in electric dreams, there will still be one dedicated man working on this, having taken over from generations who worked on this game single handedly.

Perhaps the excel nerds will be silent now

Keep up the great Reviews man!

I am in awe of this kind of passion project, and I'm genuinely interested in playing with this, but it looks like learning how it works is the equivalent of a college course. Dang. Thank you for the review!

“If you made it this far you probably know what that is” Nobody Me: I’ve gotten this far I’m not giving up

14:08 I hear Spess music. Remember the clown is always guilty.

Really great overview of this game, well done!

i commend you for sitting down and learning this game, the complexity and detail is....frightening, to say the least. and in regards to the game list you pinned, i would love to see a dwarf fortress or AVP extinction video. I used to play AVP:E when i was a kid and i loved it. dwarf fortress is just bizarre and hilarious, so really either one would be great.

Christ fucking Jesus and I thought learning Dwarf Fortress or Hearts of Iron 3 was hard