[Cylapse]

I'm sure everyone here uses or has used the Tractor / Ripper combo, I mean it makes too much sense not to have at least considered it...

1) Shield Regenerators + Emissive Armor: By itself this armor fooken blows. We all miss it from the SEIII days, but ah well. Stack this armor with shield re-generators, or better yet, organic or crystaline armor abilities, and any damage soaked up by the shields (or armor regen) helps to cut the remaining damage down, often enough so that it falls under Emissive's plate strength. This would be good for those with low shields, but faster recharge. Each 'first volley' during combat would have to puncture shields and then deal with the emissive. Not an overly effective strategy really, especially when against multiple attackers, coz it stresses a superiority on 1:1 combat, but can become obsolete in a 2:1 or 3:1 ratio. Emissive armor sucks, but with some careful (and hopefully balanced) modding Ive made it work like a charm. Together, the emissive and crystal ability (with crystal toned down) would rock.

2) Wormhole beams - This is a working theory, trying to make these useful. If a wormhole beam doesnt require a large shipsize (like tractor does) then it becomes a slightly more useful random element, capable of use by all ship sizes, against any ship size. A nice ranged suite of cannons or long range torpedos, followed by a quick burst or two of WP Beams could render them out of range for a turn or two... (nice to have a second WP Beam, in case the first one actually pulls them closer)... Anyone have experience with these things?

3) Ramming - everyone has speculated on the organic ramming, now has anyone put it to use? Without fooken their ship over in the process? *lol*

I cant offer much here but speculation, SEIV is good for strategy, but unfortunately, the way many weapons are, it leaves people with decent math skills looking to find the true powerhouses, and they all often arise at the same conclusion or set of conclusions. Suppose its where the tech tree and "time to research" fits into the game... balancing is no easy task, its easier to assume that its balanced fine, but the general concensus would disagree.