Null-Space superior to Phased??

[Baron Munchausen]

I think that's the distinction to make: 'General Purpose'. The Null Space Projector is a great thing to have when you need to crack a base ship or a starbase. It starts destroying components immediately and saves you 10 turns or more of breaking down shields. 10 turns against a starbase-sized collection of weapons is an eternity. But it doesn't fire very fast and a bunch of little ships with plain old APB or MB will knock down YOUR shields while you're waiting for it to recharge. The PPB is a normal once-per-turn beam weapon that also penetrates first generation shields. Nice weapon, and I can see why some think that it is unbalancing. I can't think of any reasonable way to restrict it, though, except perhaps to make it harder to research. Make it Physics level three, maybe? Or require that Phased-shields be discovered first? That would make some sense.

[This message has been edited by Baron Munchausen (edited 07 February 2001).]

[Zanthis]

I would at least change the Phased-Energy Weapons research cost. It's, what, 5000 right now? Try making it 50000 and it might be more reasonable. My main problem is I can regularly get PPB's around turn 30 at medium research costs.

For that reason, my weapon research is as follows: DUCII, PPB. That's it. The DUCII and CSMI hold me over until I get PPBs.

[Daynarr]

quote:

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Originally posted by Zanthis:
I would at least change the Phased-Energy Weapons research cost. It's, what, 5000 right now? Try making it 50000 and it might be more reasonable. My main problem is I can regularly get PPB's around turn 30 at medium research costs.

For that reason, my weapon research is as follows: DUCII, PPB. That's it. The DUCII and CSMI hold me over until I get PPBs.

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I that case you don't want to run into Sergetti, they will eat you alive.

[Zanthis]

Quite possibly, but I can often keep out of war with the AI until I get PPBs. Further, although it is technically a weapon tech, I should have mentioned I grab PD after DUCII while I'm still doing Physics.

[HreDaak]

I agree.. PPB's are way too easy to research now. PPB V costs only 150k+137.5k=287.5k .
And it's one of the best beam weapons in the game, even without it's shield skipping ability. Forexample: Anti Proton Beam XII costs 50k+1627.5k=1677.5k=1677500 research points. Meson BLaster VI costs 50k+460k=510k and its clearly inferior to PPB V...

[raynor]

I think the best way to play balance the PPB is to make it fire every two turns.

[Zanthis]

Reload of two? Ouch. That drops the PPB quite a bit. It would only be useful then against normal shields. Keep in mind that the Meson BLaster rates a 1.5 compared to the PPB's 1.67 (2.0 at range one). Doubling the PPB's ROF would give it a 0.84 (1.0 at range one). I would probably not even bother researching it then.

However, I can see dropping five damage off across the board and increasing the size by five. That drops it to a rating of 1.28 at max range. Then, increase the research cost a little and I think things would be fine.

And while we're at it , Energy Streaming Weapons needs fixing. APB's suck. APB XII rates a 1.0 at max range and only a 1.17 at the PPB's max range of six. And to get from Energy Streaming Weapons 11 to 12 with high research 720,000 points!!! Going all the way costs 3.25 million points.

[This message has been edited by Zanthis (edited 08 February 2001).]