So, near as I can tell, the general consensus on the forums seems to be that the advent love me beam is far less useful than the other races superweapons. But, it seems that most comparisons are done only as a 'how long does it take me to total a planet' comparison.
I believe that the power of the deliverance engine lies not in its' ability to flip enemy planets, but in its' ability to devestate enemy economy. Furthermore, I think that you would see better results from these cannons if instead of directing the fire of multiple cannons on to a single planet, you spread them throughout a whole system and watched your enemys' economy go rapidly down the toilet. So, the TEC destroying a planet with the novalith cannon is pretty devestating, for sure, but the Advent crippling the economy of an entire star system... Not to mention the awesome intel you get if you have the appropriate research.
So not as tactical as the Kostura, not as blatant as the Novalith, but definitely very, very powerful.
One may make the assertion that becvause developing planets is so expensive, the novalith cannon actually inflicts far more economic damage. However, this is only assuming that novalith fire is being directed intelligently. It is my experience with this cannon that more often then not, you end up beating a dead horse and wasting a fair amount of 'ammunition.' The delivernce engine, on the other hand, requires less specificality when acquiring targets, since its' damage spreads to neighboring planets as well.
I think that all told, the novalith probably still comes out on top. But I don't think that it is by a huge margin, and I think that the deliverence engine is definitely superior to the kostura cannon in terms of long-term economic damage, at least on a large map. The deliverence engine could stand a small buff, but I don't think it needs to be (or should be) a planet flipper in order to stand toe-to-toe with the novalith.
Anyhow... Thoughts?
