Matrix Games Forums

So I'm trying to decide what tactic would be best for me. Should I focus on researching a little bit of all weapons, or should I put my effort into a few weapon systems and then focus on improving those systems? If I do that, what would be a good path to take? I'd like to have different ship variants good with close range, long range, and maybe electronic warfare. What kind of weapon research paths would you recommend for these builds? Thanks! [:)]

I'd recommend focusing on two branches of weapons for the most part. Ion and Tractor weapons are a must for me as well, but you don't *need* them apart from Ion Defense. What I usually do is use torpedoes early game as they're pretty energy efficient as well as capable of standing off against a pirate space port without too much fuss. I don't spend any research on missiles except to grab point defense. After I get Epsilon Torpedoes I grab Maxos Blasters and stick with those weapons until I can get both ranks of Velocity Shards and Shatterforce Lasers. Generally at this point my ships can be built large enough to specialize. I build a torpedo frigate with some shatterforce lasers to discourage ships from closing with them, and then a close-range brawler with a buttload of Shatterforce Lasers, an Ion Cannon and Tractor Beam. It ends up delivering a pretty powerful one-two punch with the brawlers soaking up all the damage from the target while my torpedo ships blast away unfettered. I don't bother with carriers, too much waiting for the fighters to deal with their targets. It's much more efficient to just have a bunch of ships with blasters charge up to their face and melt it off than to play 'death by a hundred thousand cuts". Fighters are great to put on mines/star ports for defense, though.

Having a plan for weapons development is good. What will be your style of attack? There are a certain combination of weapons that will work well together. But you also need to consider what the enemy will use against you. What research path is needed to defend against their weapons? Every alien race has it's own style of attack. Rock - Paper - Scissors!

I don't know if many people do this, but one thing I like to do is create a destroyer with beam weapons and a frigates with missile weapons. When grouped, the destroyers will get in close and draw fire, while the frigates fire missiles in support from further away. It helps keep the frigates alive, which makes them viable for longer. As time goes on, I might scale up to a beam cruiser with missile destroyers.