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Originally posted by jc173:
I suppose if you wanted to you could even design ships with a primary armament of ripper beams backed up by one or two WMG's which might be kind of interesting. I'm about 85% sure it should work just fine.

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My plans for starbases include most of the weapons space rippers plus just a couple of wmg in case a heavily armored ship engages. I have been using ppb in my previous low tech one medium planet start games. But those ended before the AI had researched phased shields. In my game with a ten good planet start the phased shields are already being researched at turn 45, and I expect peace until turn 100+. So there is no point to using ppb at all. It seems the rippers are the smallest and cheapest per unit damage, while the wmg bypassing armor is their only advantage.

Now I have another question. Do engine, weapon, and shield destroying weapons bypass shields, or do you have to beat the shields down first ? If they do not bypass shields, then the only use I see for them is precision hits when you plan on capturing the ship with boarding parties to get tech. In that case you want to be careful not to destroy the very thing you want to capture. But in my game all the tech will be researched by the time hostilities begin. So if they bypass shields I will put weapon and engine destroying weapons on my bases just in case I want to capture a hulk for retrofit/repair.

That brings up another question. Suppose you capture an enemy ship which is legendary experience. Does it remain legendary for you, or start out from scratch ? I will have enough yards to build more ships than I can afford to maintain, but if I can capture ships with high experience then boarding parties may be worth using. Otherwise not since no tech would be captured.

Edit - The WMG do NOT bypass armor, I don't know where I got the notion they did...

[This message has been edited by LCC (edited 11 June 2001).]