New Patch?

[Master Belisarius]

Originally posted by geoschmo:
But that's the point. With PBB's early and then Ionic weapons later there isn't even any reason to research shields. Now there is.
[/QB]

I must disagree, sorry Geo!
At the time that I can research a decent Phased Shield, most the people had Shield Depleters and use it with PPB from a long time ago, and with very good results (or use the Null Space Projector), ERGO: still the Shields are not a good option.

The only decent defense against short/a-bit-short range weapons (like PPB and Null space projector) "was" the Ionic Disperser.

Originally posted by geoschmo:
Will races that are heavily devoted to ionic weapons have to adapt? Yes, and they should anyway, but they shouldn't scrap the ionic weapons altogether.
[/QB]

95% sure that most the AI races should not use Ionic Dispersers anymore. Maybe the Temporal races (because their bonus against shields), could still use the Ionic Disperser.

And I would be very careful trying to change the PPB's. I disagree they are too powerful. Maybe a little too easy to research, but that could be said about a lot of stuff in SEIV. They are kind of expensive, which helps balance them. And they aren't that much stronger than APB's and Meson BLasters.
Geoschmo[/QB]

Disagree 100% about it.
With the PPB like now, probably still I'll not use shields anyway.
Come on Geo, you can't tell me "maybe a little too easy to research"!!! Compare it to the cost to research some good Crystaline/Organics weapons!
The PPB is VERY easy to research, and 99% of the good players use it in their ships very fast! And a lot more fast when the game is started with medium tech.
About that they're expensive... I never had problems with their cost.

You said "One weapon only is boring", well, still I have not reasons to do not use more weapons than PPB (and sometimes with Shield Depleters if the opponent have heavy Phased Shields).

What bother me, is that in my view the Ionic Disperser was fixed in the worst way (why not a long reload time like the Null-Space Projector? for example), when still does exist several weapons that are screaming be fixed (PDC, PPB, Shield Depleters, for example).

[ May 24, 2002, 00:40: Message edited by: Master Belisarius ]