Weapon and Defense Choices

[Shadowlord]

So it's damage=attackRoll-defenseRoll?

[Gufnork]

Originally posted by Shadowlord
So it's damage=attackRoll-defenseRoll?

Yes.

[ZargonX]

I tend to go with beam weapons, as in my experiences none of the AI ever seem to go down the beam defense path, leaving them more ripe for the beaming

[Peets]

Originally posted by Hansolo88
I think when the attacker rolls higher than zero but still less than the defense roll, it displays a zero since the defense deflected the shot and no damage was done. But when the attacker rolls a zero himself it is masked regardless and doesn't show up, that is what Cari was refering to.

So you will see zeros when attacking, but not in some circumstances (such as firing at a ship with no defenses).

I have never seen a shot being masked or not showing up.
I always count them!
An attacker can't roll zero!
I have had many battles on small maps were the enemy had no defense and they always had at least 1 hit each ship.

[JeffS]

That would depend on your tech level. At low tech levels then sure, it's worth going 6/1/1. But at higher tech levels you can get a level 4 shield the same size as a level 1 armor, for instance and only nominally higher cost.

Gufnork:

I agree that 6/1/1 will probably take up a good deal more space than 10/0/0 and produce slightly worse defense, but consider a 6/4/0 which would take up about the same space as the 10/0/0, cost about the same, and would give a better defensive balance. If I understand the system correctly the 10/0/0 would give defenses of 0-10, 0-3.3, 0-3.3 while 6/4/0 gives aproximately 0-8, 0-6.4, 0-4.4. The first one would be better if you are sure that your enemies will be attacking with the "right" type of weapon, otherwise the more balanced alternative is probably superior.

It would also make sense to consider a 4/4/4 which will take up about 2 to 5 points more space, but will give a defense of 0-8, 0-8, 0-8 and would seem to me to be an excellent choice.

My point (for what it's worth) echos that of Kekkonen that the system rewards having a "balanced" defense. This is especially true for more advanced defenses where the cost in space is lower so that it is not prohibitive to put at least something into each class of defense.

[Gufnork]

But then you have to research all three defenses up to that tech, which isn't cheap. Getting the smallest value 1 defense doesn't cost much, but getting to the smallest value 4 defense does.

When you calculate defensive values you always round down, so a 6/4/0 would give 8/6/4.

[JeffS]

When you calculate defensive values you always round down, so a 6/4/0 would give 8/6/4

Gufnork:

Thank you for the clarification. I had suspected as much (since designers of TBS games seem to have a fetish for whole numbers, and a love for truncation as opposed to rounding), but I wasn't sure so I left the fractions in. With truncation, the 10/0/0 gives 10/3/3, so the comparative advantage of the 6/4/0 remains about the same

But then you have to research all three defenses up to that tech, which isn't cheap. Getting the smallest value 1 defense doesn't cost much, but getting to the smallest value 4 defense does.

I agree with you that "balanced" defense requires you to research more techs, since you have to research three tech branches instead of just one, but this is offset somewhat by not having to research as many techs in each branch. Also you will be researching cheaper techs in each branch, so the added time and expense of a balanced defense is not as much as it might first appear to be.

For me, it is worth the money, because the AI is quite opportunistic, and will adapt it's weapons to take advantage of a weakness in your defenses. Also, you are likely to end up in wars with more than one race over the course of a game, and they may be using a different class of weapons than the one you are defending against. For me the balanced defense best suits my somewhat careful, "builder" style of play better than taking the risk of specializing in only one type of defense, though I don't doubt that either style will work.

[tetley]

I find myself getting balanced defense research anyway, because I'm trading defense techs with the AI. Up until Medium hulls, I'll take whatever the AI gave me and put in my 1 token point of D, to let the military starbases do their work. It's at Large hulls where the decision-making starts to happen, because now there's room for a couple points of D.

The balanced approach seems to make more sense to me--why pay increasing research costs, to get more defense that is going to get square-rooted?

[Topgun]

No preference. I usually hold off researching weapons techs until my espionage level with the "evil" races reaches Low or better, so I can start finding out what the AI is going for in defense.

That said if I -have- to choose blindly it'll be Guns every time: Nano Rippers. 8 damage (6 damage after 1.1 goes live) is the heaviest hitting weapon in the least amount of time - only 12 techs into the line. You have to research 16+ techs in the other lines to get comparable damage.