No, I really wouldn't, considering that I've played with manual intelligence work more than a little. It's incredibly dependent on whether or not you get a decent intelligence agent, or have enough luck with the missions you assign to a mediocre intelligence agent to turn that agent into a good one, and the late-game techs take a long time to steal even with a decent agent. With a great agent it's not that much trouble, sure, but you don't always have a great agent.You would be amazed at what you could accomplish with some manual intelligence work.
Let's compare the NovaCore III to the HyperFusion reactor chain. The NovaCore III gives 192 output and 375 storage for 2 fuel per thousand energy and 20 space. The HyperFusion I gives 180 output and 350 storage for 2.79 fuel per thousand energy and 16 space. That's about 17% more output per size unit for about 40% more fuel consumption. The HyperFusion II gives 215 output and 440 storage for 16 space and 2.67 fuel per thousand energy, or about 40% more output per size unit for about 34% more fuel consumption. The HyperFusion III gives 260 output and 540 storage for 16 space and 2.52 fuel per thousand energy, or a little over 69% more output per size unit for 26% more fuel consumption. If you use the same armament and defenses on the design with HyperFusion reactors as you do with NovaCore IIIs, you'll end up with either a smaller design or space to put in more fuel cells. Now, maybe you won't be able to put in enough fuel cells to fully make up the difference, but it's still not going to be all that significant of a difference in operating time if you fill the space you save on reactors with fuel cells. If you switch your NovaCores over to HyperFusion reactors just by replacing the reactors rather than by matching the output (which isn't optimal, as you're wasting reactor output in doing so), you gain enough space for two fuel cells for every three reactors you switch over. The difference is there, but it's not necessarily all that big of a difference.Also, the fuel efficiency in Quameno reactors is quite useful even in endgame, as it essentially allows your ships to travel further and fight longer without having to go home to refuel.
Moreover, this still does not affect the standing of the Zenox and Kiadians with respect to the other species in the game. Your argument is kind of like saying that if all the people on the forum took a test, and you and I scored identically except in one category, where you did better than I did, my ranking among all the forum users should be reduced because I didn't do as well as you did in that one category, regardless of how well I did compared to everyone else. The fact that you performed better than I did in no way changes how I performed in comparison to everyone else, yet if we took your argument for scoring the Zenox and Kiadians lower and applied it to this scenario, then I should receive a ranking lower than what my overall score would indicate. Unless, despite all appearances, your argument is really that Kiadians and Zenox aren't good enough to be in Spidey's third grouping rather than that they're not as good as Quameno and so less worthwhile to play?
