[Taqwus]

The main advantage of APBs vs DUCs in the 0.99 demo appears to be range at higher tech; by the time APB tech reaches 12 (Energy Stream Weapons), their range is 8, versus 5 for DUCs. But you have to take ESW up to 8 before you get a range of 6, even... 'level cost' for ESW is listed as 5000 (and you start with 0 normally, plus it requires Physics 1, 50000 cost), versus 2500 for Projectile (and you start at 1). DUCs even cost less supply per shot (2 vs 5 for DUC-V vs APB XII), but are more expensive components in terms of minerals at the same range (DUC V vs APB VI) it seems (300 vs 175).

Hrm. All this complexity is a balancer's nightmare, heh.

FWIW, I believe that the AIs seem to prefer APBs, so if you're looking for gaining research through espionage, scrapping stolen ships, or other hostile means, you might want to focus on Projectiles for a while and let the AIs bother with ESW.

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-- The thing that goes bump in the night