I'm not sure whats "unbalanced" really. The three types each have their advantages at different points in the game. Missles are, however better in almost all cases. Not to say its unbalancing, just different, especially if the AI goes for missles. I used to see the AI always goping the missle route and on very high difficulties you can't count on them all using the same.

If you are evil, the special evil beam weapon is quite superior until you get near the end of the weapons trees. The are also a different number of techs to get to the end wich can be good or bad. More to get is bad, but you get more upgrades faster.

Also you may have to look at the corresponding defences. If missles are the best weapon, it may be (and i never checked) that missle defences are also powerful.  Mass drivers may stink, but if armor techs are also hard to get etc. then the weapon type isnt so bad. I like when the AI goes for missles since it gives me the excuss to get Aeron Missle defence which has a trade good associated with it. BTW I like that the trade good has nothing to do with defences but gives a reserach bonus.

Maybe someone will do a study...

Hey wouldn't it be cool when you research to the end of all three weapons tress there would be one weapons that is part of all of them, like a super weapon. It would have to be late in the game before you had all ofthose techs.

I find a nice even combination of all weapons and defences is a good way to repel most enemies. Then later on design a specific vessel to counter your enemies weapons and defences.

That was in DL/DA.

With TA, things were changed around, weapon techs were left out or forgotten, and missiles now rule the roost.  Psionic beam is the only other weapon of note, and that's the sad truth.

I really hope they change the way the whole tech tree works, so that way you must research certain 'basic' techs before being able to get other very advanced techs (even if they are in a completely different category).

Because if you research only weapons the whole game, you will eventually have Black Hole Eruptors, now the thing is, you understand how black holes work so well, you can make a weapon out of them, but you still don't know how to make a farm.

They should add some prerequisite techs along certain paths which would in essence force the AI to research certain things. These certain things would be those that are an essential to good AI gameplay. This way, all AI's would stay somewhat up to speed on weapons and defense, and would never be so weak they just get steamrolled.

This would be how the 'generic tech tree' is... and every civ would have their own unique branches of techs coming available at certain points, after a certain tech is researched, as it is now.

I must say, that would be a mega-mod, and would require a ton of balancing... since all the tech trees are mostly somewhat different in ToA. The way the tree is, I don't think it would show 'lines' going from certain tech's to other tech's, but if it did show what the prerequisite techs are, and what techs it unlocks, it wouldn't be too bad.

The thing that would have to be done first is to determine what tech's for each civ are 'essential' to improve their gameplay. Along with what tech's certain AI's often don't research until it's too late. I remember Terrans not researching weapons, but I know Stardock fixed that issue, because they seem to research weapons fine now.

Your re-writing the game, NOT modding it...

I agree, Modding the tech tree to balance he weapons in your theory would take away from strategic value and take aay from stratage. there are reasons why lasers are cheaper and missiles are more expensive, why mass drivers take a long time to research. Did you notice missile probably cost the most to put on a hull, therefor your ships would be more expensive to build. same with the defence expensive. Mass driver is cheap to add to a hull, making the ship cheaper. laser is easy to research. They are balanced already just in a more "over all" way. If you mod the tech tree you'll also have to mod the defences tree, the weapons files and the defences files.

This isn't just limited to the price tag of the tech you know.

Well, it starts to count once you upgrade a number of large / huge hulls packed with mass drivers. There you could say you're upgrading more ships for the same price, resulting in an overall stronger fleet.

I guess cost depends on whether you want to pump ships out faster or not. it may not seem like much in the short term but think about it.

A ship with mass drivers might take 2 weeks to build,
A ship with missiles might take 3 weeks to build,

In the short term there isn't much difference and it's considered irrelivant. But in the long run under the same conditions 10 weeks in the future, you could produce 5 mass driver ships compared to only 3 missile ships with a 4th 1/3 of the way through construction. that's a hefty difference on the battle field.

I'm just pointing out the cost does make a difference, sometimes. (Sometimes)

well some races have their own weapon tech tree's (the iconian kenetic beam weapons as an example). maybe that can be expanded so all races have their own military path to follow. now that would require alot of strategic planning.

This reluctance or inability to research weapons is a trend among several AI that I've noticed since 2.02 came out.  I've seen it with the Thalans, Altarians, and the Drath.  I don't recall this being a problem on previous versions.  I really like the more expensive cost for weapons techs that is present in 2.02 because it makes the earlier weapons systems relevant (previously most just researched right past them to get to the more advanced techs which was possible because the research time was so short), but I've got to wonder if that increased cost is not what is causing the AI to often not research weapons.

Beam weapons, imo, are the coolest looking. Plus, depending on how many actual weapons are on a ship, it shows that many beams being fired. For mass drivers and for missle weapons, it may do the same thing, but it is not as noticable.

Beam weapon battles of various Terran Fleets:

2 Marshall Class destroyers and a Normandy Class defender bump heads with a Torian Fleet.

A Planetary invasion begins spearheaded by the Patton Class Battle Cruiser.

A lone Patton Class Battle Cruiser getting pounded by a very large fleet of enemy ships.

The Patton Class unleashing a deadly fury of beam power from it's forward undercarriage.