Weapons choice : advanced technology is useless ?

[Baron Munchausen]

Originally posted by trooper:
Hi, here are not-so-dull questions (I think) :

1)fighter / drone : what are the advantages from one or the other ?

2)Ship cannons : good old depleted uranium cannons seems more deadly than meson bLaster and anti-protons guns. any good reason to choose these weapons ?

3)Missiles : plasma bomb and anti-matter torpedoes are quite harmless, opposite to capital missiles,aren't they ?

4) Master computer opposite to crew support : can't see the advantage (first, it takes more space in the ship...).

And Last, on another topic :

5) I wanted to perform research in physics (level 2) and point defense weapons (level 2), but the research windows gives "0.0 years" for completion. Reason why ?

1)
Fighters are very small, cannot warp, and have very limited range. But they can form Groups and attack en masse -- which muliplies their power, and they can be recovered after being launched and re-used.

Drones are huge for units, meaning they are harder to destroy than fighters. Large Drones are larger than an Escort in the standard game. They can travel through warp points and go long distances towards a remote target IF you can see the target with some other ship or unit. They attack by ramming and cannot be recovered once launched. Think of them as 'cruise missiles'.

Each has it's uses. It's good to have both but you will probably find fighters more flexible.

2) The damage per hit from a Depleted Uranium Cannon looks better than the damage per hit from a Meson BLaster or a low-level Anti-Proton beam, but this is not the whole story. Compare the damage per shot to the size of the component. You will find that the damage/size ratio of the Meson BLaster is better and for the higher level APB is it MUCH better. There are many factors to consider in rating a weapon. Damage per hit is only one.

3) This is a continuation of #2. Torpedos do seem to be at a disadvantage to 'once per turn' firing weapons but there are other things to consider. They do not have range attenuation (reduced damage at greater range) while many other weapons do, for example. And while they do less total damage over a combat session, the greater damage per hit is useful against special defenses like Emissive Armor that reduce a certain amount of damage from each hit. So it can be quite useful to have one torpedo on each of your ships.

4) Master Computer I takes more space than the BASIC crew/lifesupport/bridge of a small ship. Up to a light cruiser. larger ships require more crew quarters and life support and the different adds up. It is well worth using the MC on a battleship. Also, later Master Computers get smaller.

And as others have pointe dout there are other advantages.

5) It says "0.0 Years" when there are no research points be spent on the project. Either you haven't built any research facilities or something else is being researched and must be finished before these other projects can be gotten to. You can re-arrange the order of the projects if you think it's important.