Aurora 4x Reference Archive

Game rules and starting conditions

Game settings shape starting conditions and the rules that apply during play.

• Game-rule options and effects Defaults, starting conditions, ongoing effects and saved options.
• Player race creation and starting configuration Creation choices become starting knowledge, budgets, installations, stocks and designs.
• Star-system and planetary generation Physical starting systems and homeworld overrides.
• Game time and state refresh Ongoing clock and update-cycle effects.
• NPR race generation and automated design How a non-player race is created, scaled against the players and given its starting assets.
• Special race lifecycles Which special races a game can spawn and the options that gate them.
• Spacemaster interventions Entering Spacemaster and designer mode, and where each window checks them.

Simulation time, durable state and presentation

When changes happen, what survives a reload, and how state is presented.

• Database reference Tables, columns, saved relationships and links to the mechanics behind them.
• Function errors Look up numbered error messages and find the related game mechanics.
• Game time and state refresh Increments, update phases, interruptions and recalculation.
• Object identity and reload ID allocation, reconstructed relationships and lifecycle dates.
• Application colors and theme Presentation reference, not a mechanic. Shared styling, semantic colors, maps and customization.
• Spacemaster interventions What a hand edit changes at once, what waits for a save, and what it never triggers.
• Displayed state and refresh Where displayed values come from, when they refresh and which actions change game state.
• Event types, interrupts and hidden events The 240 event types with their interrupt flags, categories, hidden-event toggles and log retention.
• History records Which events write history entries, what owner loss does to them and what reload restores.

Physical universe and planetary environments

Initial conditions, changing environments and hazards. Read the system lifecycle synthesis.

• System lifecycle synthesis Initial conditions, changing environments and hazards. Read the system lifecycle synthesis.
• Star-system and planetary generation Known and procedural systems, bodies, environments and resources.
• Terraforming Capacity, atmospheric changes, water and habitability.
• System disasters and environmental hazards Stellar disasters, supernovae, contamination, rifts and destructive cleanup.
• Jump-point network and galaxy topology How systems are numbered and connected, and how the network changes.
• Special race lifecycles Rifts, tombs and relic sites as features of the physical universe.
• Spacemaster interventions Editing stars and bodies by hand.
• Planetary terrain The 41-terrain catalogue, dominant-terrain assignment, climate refresh and effects on ground combat and unit design.

Exploration, observation and foreign relations

Physical facts become race knowledge, intelligence and diplomatic decisions. Read the observation and knowledge lifecycle synthesis.

• Observation and knowledge lifecycle synthesis Physical facts become race knowledge, intelligence and diplomatic decisions. Read the observation and knowledge lifecycle synthesis.
• Exploration, surveys and discovery Geological and gravitational work, probes, charting and first transit.
• Ship power, class and detection Signatures, sensors, detection gates and class interpretation.
• Intelligence mechanics Contacts, communication, diplomacy, observations and technology recovery.
• Salvage and archaeology Discovery and interpretation of wrecks, civilizations and ancient constructs.
• Jump-point network and galaxy topology Linking endpoints, jump point predicates and map placement.
• Event types, interrupts and hidden events Contact event selection and the event log that intelligence writes to.

Colonies, population and civilian governance

Founding, support, growth, species adaptation and political control. Read the joined colony output and income cycle.

• Colony output and income cycle Founding, support, growth, species adaptation and political control. Read the joined colony output and income cycle.
• Colony and population lifecycle People, infrastructure, workforce, stability and colony removal.
• Civilian governance and sectors Sector membership, administration, governors and operational bonuses.
• Terraforming Environmental changes as a colony-support mechanism.
• Species engineering Designed tolerances, conversion eligibility and population conversion.
• Political-status catalogue and transition graph Status effects, modifiers and transitions between political relationships.

Economy, production and civilian logistics

Resources and workforce become goods, deliveries, income and expenditure. Read the joined colony output and income cycle.

• Colony output and income cycle Resources and workforce become goods, deliveries, income and expenditure. Read the joined colony output and income cycle.
• Production mechanics Mineral consumption, industry, supplies, shipyards and ground-force construction.
• Wealth, income and treasury Race income, civilian receipts, spending records and unlogged changes.
• Civilian economy and autonomous logistics Company decisions, investment, jobs, migration and mining.
• Movement and logistics Physical cargo capacity, loading work and delivery orders.
• Colony and population lifecycle Workforce and migration connect colony development to the economy.
• Planetary installation catalogue The 37 installations with costs, workers, cargo points, conversions, value columns and their effects in play.
• Mass-driver mineral logistics Export allocation, packets, delivery and destination loss.
• Shipyard development and ship work Capacity and slipway growth, modification rates, task creation paths, build rates, stored components, scheduling, completion and cancellation.
• Standing orders, conditional orders and move actions Catalogues of the 47 standing orders, 13 conditions and 120 move actions with their executors.
• Reusable movement-order templates Reusing fixed routes and the consequences of replacing work.
• Logistics interruption and reservations Cancellation, destination loss, membership changes and reload.

Research, engineering and design to deployment

Knowledge unlocks designs, which feed construction and operational capability. Read the technology-to-deployment synthesis.

• Technology-to-deployment synthesis Knowledge unlocks designs, which feed construction and operational capability. Read the technology-to-deployment synthesis.
• Research and scientific personnel Technology access, laboratories, projects, completion and scientist careers.
• Component design Technology selection and component-family formulas.
• Ship and station design Class assembly, derived statistics, loadouts and refit compatibility.
• Production mechanics Designs enter component, ordnance, small-craft and shipyard queues.
• Species engineering Biological design follows its own research and deployment path.
• NPR race generation and automated design The non-player counterpart of component and class design.
• Medals and achievement conditions Measurement thresholds, repeated awards and service awards.
• Naming themes, automatic naming and hull numbers Theme tables, choosing names and avoiding duplicates for ships, classes, systems, bodies, companies and shipyards, plus hull numbers.
• Shipyard development and ship work Capacity and slipway growth, modification rates, task creation paths, build rates, stored components, scheduling, completion and cancellation.

Personnel, crews and command careers

Shared recruitment, appointments, experience, health, training, casualties and captivity. Read the commander lifecycle synthesis.

• Commander lifecycle synthesis Shared recruitment, appointments, experience, health, training, casualties and captivity. Read the commander lifecycle synthesis.
• Research and scientific personnel Shared academy recruitment and career rules, alongside scientist-specific progression.
• Civilian governance and sectors Administrator eligibility, appointments and experience.
• Naval administration and command effectiveness Naval rank, appointments, promotion and career continuity.
• Ground force organisation Ground command rank and assignment requirements.
• Ship readiness and recovery Crew performance, training, replacements and losses.
• Intelligence mechanics Prisoner groups and their exploitation.
• Naming themes, automatic naming and hull numbers The theme tables and race theme slots that commander name themes share with ship, class and system naming.
• History records Ship, fleet and commander history entries, their writers, the measurement types they share with medals, displays and persistence.
• Medals and achievement conditions Manual and automatic awards, counts, promotion points and saved history.

Fleet operations, command and recovery

Travel, orders, supply, command effectiveness and restoration of mission capability. Read the fleet recovery lifecycle synthesis.

• Fleet recovery lifecycle synthesis Travel, orders, supply, command effectiveness and restoration of mission capability. Read the fleet recovery lifecycle synthesis.
• Movement and logistics Navigation, transit, order execution, transfers and support.
• Naval administration and command effectiveness Headquarters, geography, ranks, appointments and bonus propagation.
• Ship readiness and recovery Live crew, maintenance, damage and capability restoration.
• NPR fleet readiness and recovery AI readiness ratings, recovery destinations, reservations and tanker assignments.
• NPR strategic planning System values, threats, missions, expansion and force/production goals beyond recovery.
• NPR tactical and system-level behaviour Per-system NPR responses below strategic planning.
• NPR race generation and automated design Operational groups and automated ground forces.
• Special race lifecycles Special-race fleet behaviour.
• Jump-point network and galaxy topology Gates, connectivity and route danger.
• Reusable movement-order templates Capture, starting-system eligibility, queue replacement and copied progress.
• Standing orders, conditional orders and move actions What each standing order and condition evaluates, distance limits, priorities and waypoint destinations.
• Waypoints, points of interest and patrol routes Waypoint types, creation paths, expiry, move destinations, fire-control targets and NPR patrol and avoidance routes.
• Move action catalogue and executors The 120 move actions with their flags, availability rules and arrival and while-arrived executor cases.
• Fleet organisation, sub-fleets, squadrons and detachment Sub-fleet hierarchy, carrier squadrons, detaching ships and fleets, naming and persistence.
• Logistics interruption and reservations What survives cancellation, replacement and fleet changes.
• NPR colony and economic AI Installation requests and construction queues, colony seeding and removal, terraforming targets, ordnance, fighters, shipyards and ground force posture.
• System danger ratings and route avoidance Who raises danger and raid ratings, how they decay, and which player, civilian and NPR decisions read them.

Combat, conquest and material recovery

Engagements cause losses, ownership changes, intelligence and recoverable material. Read the ownership, destruction and aftermath synthesis.

• Ownership, destruction and aftermath synthesis Engagements cause losses, ownership changes, intelligence and recoverable material. Read the ownership, destruction and aftermath synthesis.
• Automatic combat configuration Player weapon/control assignment, fleet target allocation and Range x2.
• Space combat resolution Targeting, firing, missiles, defence, damage and destruction.
• Ship power, class and detection Power and recharge constrain combat capability; signatures affect discovery.
• Ground force organisation Blueprints, live hierarchy, headquarters, deployment and supply chains.
• Ground combat and conquest Combat rounds, support, supply, surrender and population control.
• Boarding and ship capture Launch, interception, breaching, shipboard combat, surrender and capture.
• Salvage and archaeology Wreck recovery, intact dismantling, surface recovery and loot.
• NPR tactical and system-level behaviour Sensors, shields, targeting, point defence and ramming.
• Special race lifecycles Defenders, end states and what special races leave behind.
• Commander lifecycle Commander casualties and captivity.
• Point-defence modes, allocation and interception The defence modes, the range tests and engagement counts of each allocator, AMM modes and minimum range, and the paths that ignore the mode.
• Planetary terrain Fortification and to-hit modifiers by terrain and the species capabilities they grant.
• Political-status catalogue and transition graph Compare post-conquest status coefficients and progression.