[raynor]

Here are the tests I ran:

LC with 4 large APB VI and 2 Shield 5 costs 5200
LC with 4 large PPB V and 2 Shield 5 costs 7100

I compared seven APB to five PPB ships in the simulator.

The five PPB ships ALWAYS won against the seven APB ships.

I ran another simulator run using Shield 3's. This gave me ship costs of 4700 and 6700. So, I tested six APB ships costing 28,200 total to 4 PPB ships costs 26,800 total. In this test, the six APB ships won 1 out of 10 times.

Take a look at the damage potential of the ships:

The large APB VI's are doing 80..50 (6) damage compared to 120..100 (6) for the large PPB V.

If we say that you can build 18 APB ships to 12 PPB ships, that is a 3 to 2 cost ratio.

APB VI 3 * 80..50 => 240..140
PPB V 2 * 120..100 => 240..200

So, the APB and PPB are doing the same damage at point blank but the PPB has better damage at max range of six. This makes the weapons look fairly well balanced, right? The APB does less damage but is cheaper to build. They seem pretty well balanced, right?

But did I forget something? Oh yeah, the PPB skips shields.

With shield I's or maybe even shield II's, I guess the larger number of APB ships might defeat the smaller number of PPB ships. But by the time you reach shield III's, the PPB ships have an overwhelming advantage.