Master B, I have no doubt you could make short work of anybody using APB and you using PPB. However, I also have no doubt you could make short work of them with you using APB and them using PPB.
You are on a different level than most of us here as far as skill as a player.
I also respect your opinion in a great many issues, but on this one I must respectfully disagree. I had come to the conclusion that PPB was a bit cheap to research, and thus imbalanced, but Rollo's comments got me to reconsider.
I did some experimenting today. I tried to make it as scientifically accurate as possible. I had three races all equal in characteristics. One researched PPB, one APB, and one MB (Meson BLasters, not THE MB
) I had a three planet low tech start. I did no colonizing, just stuck with the three home planets for each.
I researched until each race had Light Cruisers, and Shield generator 2, and as much as they could get of whatever their weapon tech was.
On turn 33 (Remember I didn't expand, so it's a little slower, but I wanted to eliminate that frmo the equation. It should be the same for all three races) All the races had LC and Shields 2. PPB had got to lev 2, APB level 4, and MB level 3.
By turn 48, PBB had got to level 5, APB to level 6, and MB to level 4.
At that point I started building ships. Each race built a LC with 6 engines, 2 shields, and as many large mount weapons as they could fit.
The PPB and APB could fit the same number of weapons on each ship. The MB race could fit more becasue they were smaller. The differance in cost though was telling. The APB race was able to build a ship every 2 turns, while it took 3 turns to build the PPB or MB ships.
I built for 1.2 years and then started fighting. The APB had 18 ships, to 12 of each for the other 2 races.
PPB and APB both consistantly beat the MB race. I guess the extra numebe of weapons couldnt make up for the weakness of them. Logical.
The APB race consistantly beat the PPB race as well. Honestly though it was not as cut and dried as it was against the MB race. A couple of times the PPB race did mange to fight to a draw, but usually they were completely wiped out. Although the shield skipping did allow them to damage the surviving PPB ships more heavily obviously.
This is fairly conclusive evedence that PPB's are balanced just fine, at least as far as in relation to APB. They are much stronger than MB, but that is more an issue of the MB being weaker as it is also weeaker than the APB.
If anything we should be leaving the PPB's alone and talking about making the MB's a little stronger. Although early on the MB's do have an advantage. It's jsut that the PPB catch up fair;y quickly. So perhaps they are jsut more of an early game weapon.
If we increase the level cost, or add two levels, or make the PPB's bigger, any of these suggestions, they will become too weak to be considered a legitimate choice. They are fine the way they are. The mineral cost of the comp makes up for the cheapness in research. This isn't raw numbers, this is a controlled experiment.
It would actually be somewhat worse for the PPB's in the real world, becasue people who do not research PPB's would probably tend not to research shields, or build ships with them. At least if facing an enemy that was using them.
I think the evidence is clear. Duplicate my expirement and see if my results were not accurate.
Geoschmo
Re: PPB Rebalance Poll
Hybrid Mode
