[Alneyan]

PPBs are the cheapest weapon around to research (with the exception of the DUC and possibly PDC), and so they are expected to come Online earlier than most other weapons. They are also one of the most expensive weapons to use, so they aren't too great if you need your radioactives to do *something* else. Unless you have a strong economy for radioactives, I have found it impratical to both heavily use PPBs and Stellar Manipulation.

The Meson BLaster and the Telekinetic Projector have the highest damage ratio (damage per kt per turn) at range 6, closely followed by the PPB and then the APB. They both cost more to research however, and the Projector requires a racial technology. Then you have the usual APB, whose main strengths are its cheap cost and its range of 8 (mostly useful if you have a way of actually scoring some hits at this range). And the Ripper Beams rule them all if you can get within range, but it may be dangerous if the PBB user is toying with Maximum Weapon Range.

The standard formula to calculate your chances to hit is 100%-10% per square. So at range 1, you have 90% to hit, and at range 8 only 20%. You then have to take into account the bonuses given by the Stealth and Scattering Armour (+15% to defence each that do stack, meaning +30% as long as they are not destroyed), and so your chances to hit at range 8 are very low when fighting a ship fully equipped with ECM/Stealth/Scattering Armours. Under such conditions, you have indeed a mere 1% odd to hit them, unless you have an advantage in training or characteristics.

It is why point blank is much more accurate than maximum range, unless you have no to-hit bonuses whatsoever (you could very well have 1% chance to hit even in close quarters under such circumstances). A few weapons have bonuses to hit:
- Incinerator Beam: +10%
- Tachyon Cannon: +10%
- Mental Singularity Generator: +20%
- High Energy Magnifier: +30%
- Wave Motion Gun: +30%
- Point Defence Cannon: +70%