Is there a file w/ Research Tree?

[brianeyci]

Yo thanks Kolis. If only there was a search feature and a sort feature where you could sort the file by descending/ascending order... oh well I guess I'll have to fire up the old java compiler and write a small program on Thursday after my exams lol.

Thanks for the link! Its good to know that I can still divide, I got around the same values for torps and duc's as that program generates.

[freduk]

I always use PPB as early as possible and for a very long time, until my economy can't take it anymore and then I switch to Ripper Beams (A very underestimated weapen- I haven't seen any people use them) They only have range 3 but are very cheap, and also smaller in tonnage so you can fit more of them on a ship or have space left for more armor.
If you make a fleet with half PPB battleships and half shield-depleter+ ripper beams you will have a fleet that is very functional and way cheaper than PPB only.

Apart from that, I have the idea that my ripper beams hit more often than PPB's which is something I am not really sure of, so a question: what is the calculation of possibility to hit at distance??? It seems to me point blank gives more chance to hit than 7 sectors away.
And which weapons have a hitting bonus???

[Alneyan]

PPBs are the cheapest weapon around to research (with the exception of the DUC and possibly PDC), and so they are expected to come Online earlier than most other weapons. They are also one of the most expensive weapons to use, so they aren't too great if you need your radioactives to do *something* else. Unless you have a strong economy for radioactives, I have found it impratical to both heavily use PPBs and Stellar Manipulation.

The Meson BLaster and the Telekinetic Projector have the highest damage ratio (damage per kt per turn) at range 6, closely followed by the PPB and then the APB. They both cost more to research however, and the Projector requires a racial technology. Then you have the usual APB, whose main strengths are its cheap cost and its range of 8 (mostly useful if you have a way of actually scoring some hits at this range). And the Ripper Beams rule them all if you can get within range, but it may be dangerous if the PBB user is toying with Maximum Weapon Range.

The standard formula to calculate your chances to hit is 100%-10% per square. So at range 1, you have 90% to hit, and at range 8 only 20%. You then have to take into account the bonuses given by the Stealth and Scattering Armour (+15% to defence each that do stack, meaning +30% as long as they are not destroyed), and so your chances to hit at range 8 are very low when fighting a ship fully equipped with ECM/Stealth/Scattering Armours. Under such conditions, you have indeed a mere 1% odd to hit them, unless you have an advantage in training or characteristics.

It is why point blank is much more accurate than maximum range, unless you have no to-hit bonuses whatsoever (you could very well have 1% chance to hit even in close quarters under such circumstances). A few weapons have bonuses to hit:
- Incinerator Beam: +10%
- Tachyon Cannon: +10%
- Mental Singularity Generator: +20%
- High Energy Magnifier: +30%
- Wave Motion Gun: +30%
- Point Defence Cannon: +70%