[Pax]

Originally posted by Spuzzum:
It all boils down to what's fair, in the end -- taking advantage of that oversight is definitely unfair, in my opinion. Shard cannons and shield depleters don't convey an unfair advantage, since you spent all of the work to research them and everything, so you have every right to stick them on the same ship.

What you originally asserted was to the effect of, "since the game does not explicitly allow it, it should be considered implicitly forbidden" ... which is a whole 'nother bag ofmonkeys than the above.

As for earning teh 'right' to use it: well, you have to (a) find a two-moon world, (b) build three colonisers ships of the proper type, (c) spend minerals to build the requisite facilities (to get maximum benefit you must conver the atmosphere, which means not only minerals for the facility, but tons of research too!). Then you likely have to invest significant resources into defending the sector, and the system it is in ... because, if you defend the sector but leave the system open to stellar manipulation, you are begging to have a new nebula or black hole created ...

Putting multiple training facilities in a single location, on the other hand, requires no real in-game resources -- it's a trick masterminded by a player. You didn't earn that ability to build multiple things in the same sector; you discovered it out-of-character, then manipulated it to your whims.

See above for rebuttal of in-game resources issue.

The combination of shield disruptors and shard cannons is also from an "out of character" observation, so that objection isn't one I'll even bother rebutting (no offense meant).

I can't say that I speak for Aaron, but isn't this common sense? The whole ploy is a lot like Microsoft, in a way -- if they find a convenient little loophole that allows them to defeat their competitors, it might be legal, but they're still a tyrant.

The thing is, this isn't a loophole. Maybe it is unintentional behavior. However, maybe it is entirely intentional ... ! After all, short of atmosphere conVersion, moons aren't worth all that much, really.

In any case, being a newbie around here, I doubt anyone will take me very seriously, so I'll withdraw from this argument before I start getting pithy and annoyed. ;-P

No more a newbie than I am. I've been here less than a week, myself!