[Phoenix-D]

What bothers me about PPBs is this:

APB research cost to max:
1,677,500
PPB to max:
290,000

That's with the extra level of physics included.

Making it worse is the cost of shields. At max normal shields, you have good effectiveness against the APB, but nothing against the PPB. To get maxed shield protection against the PPB, you have to go through multiple layers of weaker shields, or take armor. So a player that researchs PPB V and Shield V is going to be significantly better off research wise against a player that uses, say, APBs.

Other weapons like Wave Motion Guns, you say? Well, to get WMGIIIs you need 4,212,500 research points! Then, just for the icing, if the PPB player can close to short range..he'll OUTDAMAGE you over time (so will the APB ship, for that matter). Ripper beams do decent damage, but are outranged- Ripper IVs do 50 damage out to range 3, PPBs 60-50 damage out to range 6. So 2 PPBs vs. 3 Rippers.. 120 damage vs 150 damage. That's at point-blank range.

Missiles are easily countered by PD weaponry. Torpedos? Decent, but like the WMGs are outdamaged.

Meson BLasters? 30 damage at max, so for 3 mesons vs 2 PPBs: 90vs120 damage at point blank, 90vs100 damage at max. Mesons will set you back 510,000 research points, as well.

Null-space? Very cheap (187,000), decent damage, skips everything. Decent alternative, but the fire rate is still nothing to write home about, and not at all cheap to build. Plus for every 3 Null-space cannons, you can mount 5 PPB/APBs, which goes a long way to offsetting the null-space's advantages.

Phoenix-D