Phased Polaron too easy to research?

[UmberGryphon]

quote:

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Originally posted by rdouglass:
Once the AI gets Phased Shields, they (PPB's) drop drastically in their effectiveness.

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Yes and no. Certainly PPBs stop being the best weapon by an order of magnitude, but they're so far in the lead early that they can lose a lot and still be one of the best weapons in the game.

I decide how good a weapon is by damage divided by rate-of-fire divided by size--"Damage per turn per kiloton". Even ignoring its special ability, the score of 1.6 (50/1/30) for a normal-mount PPB 5 is the best score for a non-racial-tech direct-fire weapon, and it even beats most of the racial-tech weapons. (I don't remember the score of a normal-mount enveloping acid globule, and I'm at work--anyone care to tell me?)


[This message has been edited by UmberGryphon (edited 26 January 2001).]