Organic armor or shields?

[Aussie Gamer]

They had better be phased shields, as the Xtal torps skip armour and shields...

[DirectorTsaarx]

Actually, the crystal weapons only skip armor. There's a Temporal weapon that skips both, and the Null-Space weapon skips both. Interestingly, the Temporal and Null-Space weapon will also skip phased shields. The Phased-Polaron Beam will only skip normal shields.

I've also noticed that most of the component-specific weapons (engine damagers, weapon damagers, etc.) will skip shields (both regular and phased) also; but I don't think they skip armor.

[Codo]

Against Temporal races, armor is probably better. Temporal has one weapon that works like a shield depleter (Shield Accelerator). Another weapon that does FOUR times damage if it hits shields (Time Burster.. REAL fun as a fighter weapon!). Another weapon though skips armor and shields (Time Distortion). The Last weapon I think has normal effects (Tachyon Cannon).

Against Organics, I think shields would be good. I don't *think* any of the organic weapons bypass or do extra damage to shields.

Against crystal, shields are better. Shard cannons and crystal torps bypass armor.

Against normal weapons... And this is probably the centerpoint around which you should build your ships... There are plenty of weapons with a variety of effects. Worst of which is Massive Shield Depleter (Has anyone seen AI use ' ancient ruins' weapons?) It's best to build a ship with a mix of shields and armor...ESPECIALLY if you have crystallurgy. Kinda nice to have the damage you take to your armor recharge your shields. Of course, if you know your neighbor has phased weapons, and you haven't researched phased shields yet, you're probably best off on loading up full on armor...since your shields are useless anyways.

Codo

[This message has been edited by Codo (edited 08 March 2001).]