All AI's, all missles?

I usually get a pretty good mix in my games. Does seem like the Yor and Drengin like to use missiles a lot, but they were the only ones in my last game. Everyone else was beams.

I've never seen a consistent pattern. Usually one weapon tech will gain predominance in the galaxy as a result of being traded around, but it's totally random as to what that tech is and the bigger military powers (Drengin, Korath etc) will tend to go their own way regardless.

If an AI gets hold of a decent early weapons tech, they will usually tend to continue developing it further unless they get something better. Knowing this, you can strongly influence what kinds of weapons the AIs will use in the midgame and even into the endgame:

A trick I like to use is selling an early weapon tech that is better than the AIs already have to EVERYONE - then developing the defense to that weapon tech and keeping THAT to myself. The trick is doing this early enough that it is 2-3 steps better than they already have, but not so good that it will be useful to them long term.

For example, early on when nobody has decent weapons, sell/trade lasers II or III to all the AI players, then develop shield tech for yourself. Most of the AI players who continue to develop weapons will start there rather that developing several back techs on another tree. You will have great defense against their main weapons and can get a lot of value in return for one early tech because you are selling it to everybody in the game (and ensuring you have the antidote to everyone's main weapons)- it's a win-win.

Yes, i call it the 'dumby weapon tech' which i spread around as much as possible. No, i do not withhold it even if it is getting powerful - the more powerful it is then the less likely the AI will bother researching another weapon type (which is the most important factor).

So what's the problem with that? I go for missile techs myself. They give the most bang for the space they take up on a ship. For example, the Stinger gives you 2 attack and takes up 18 units of space. For Lasers to give you 2 attack, you would need 2 of them, requiring space units of 10 each. The Rail Gun will take up 24 for 2 attack. It would just seem to make sense to go for that weapon type myself. With the amount of space you save, you can even add some defence down the line. At least earlier than you could with the other two types.

This is not my experience.
In my current game for instance every A.I:s have put mass drivers on their ships except for the Drengings who use Missiles.
I think, however, that A.I tend to learn toward missiles or massdrivers more than toward beams. I have to date not seen an A.I with powerful arsenal of beam-weapons.

It changes from game to game which one they pick, but they mostly follow the same path each game. One game it is all beams. The next it is all mass drivers.

One person stated that it is because they trade the techs amoust themselves. Well, I don't know if that is true or not because the game does not tell you who has traded what to whom. It is just an assumption that they have unless someone knows something I don't know. I am of limited experience.

On my large galaxy games with 8 AI's plus myself it's usually a mix. 2 or 3 AI's will share the same technology. In my last game I had 2 AI's to my "north" that were missles and 2 more to the west had mass drivers. Terrans were far away and used beams. It was pretty spread out. But then some games they all seem to have the same thing. Just depends.

...at much greater cost per component, meaning that you'll have higher build times and increased maintainence. Missile based ships do tend to have higher attack ratings, but they cost a whole lot more to build. Mass drivers, on the other hand, are cheap even into the late techs... only special mass driver techs like the nano ripper and black hole generator buck the trend.

I don't know if the AI is doing this already, but it certainly would seem prudent to be basing their initial line of research, weapons wise, on the tech their opponents are pursuing. I try to research a kind of tech no one else is using, personally... it makes sure that defenses developed from OTHER wars don't kick the crap out of me.

I have to add my vote for "it varies from game to game". In my current game, the Korath have mass drivers and everybody else has missiles, but I've had times where everybody except one or two AIs had mass drivers while those bucking the trend had missiles, or times when half the AIs went with Beams and the other half with mass drivers, or times with virtually identical numbers of AIs focusing on each weapons tech, and so on.

I hadn't considered the cost factor. Still, missile weapons aren't any more expensive than beam, from what I've seen. Gun weapons are cheaper though I'd still take missile over them because of the space factor. I like getting defemces on my ships as early as possible. It might be worthwhile switching over later on though, once a I gain a few levels in Railgun thechnology.

Beams are much cheaper. Missiles go up in cost fairly steeply as you research the better variations, where beams don't increase too drastically between generations.

Also, I believe that it is slightly easier to get point defense than other defense types.

Bottom line, any of the three choices will basically net you a similar result, with a slight bias in your military towards either individual ship power or cost.

When you speak to a civilization, right below the leader's picture is a drop down menu. Change it from view screen to techs to see what they have researched. This will help you to determine which weapons tech to encourage the AI's to develop.

That only tells you what techs they have in common with you, which doesn't really help much. You can pretty much tell that already just by looking at what they have available to trade.

My weapon advice/strategy

Positronic Torpedo II is the most cost effective weapon in the game ie cost/damage apart from that missiles are a poor weapons branch.

Because each individual weapon can destroy a ship it's a good idea to have lots of weapons rather than a few really powerful in general the weapon rolls will average much quicker too. That why thy the mass driver and beam weapon line on the hole is better than missles apart from the anomoly which is the cost effective positronic torpedo II (one from last on missile branch)

However I prefer the beam weapon branch, it is the best to start with imo. It takes 50000 research points to complete where as missiles and mass drivers are 80000 research ish. Once you start invading you'll prob get high level missile/mass tech steal then I think it's best to switch as beam is the poorest choice at the end of a maxed out branch imo.

As I recall, Missiles are 75k, beams 65-70(can't remember) and rails are low 50k in research cost for the full line.
The downside of Missiles is it's forcing your opponent to use PDs. At the end of the PD line you get a certain building with 20% improvement to overall research. Missiles are also only useable on Large and Huge hulls, ineffective on smaller ships.
Beams are effective throughout the game, on all hulls, but best used on Mediums. Thanks to shields being a bit weaker than the other techs, Beams stay effective.
Rails are awesome for tiny and small ships. They are also more effective against them compared to the other types. Very cheap too, probably because with them, you have to win before the game moves into Large and Huge hulls, on which they underperform.

And where are you getting this info? I see no indication that any weapon type are better with certain hull sizes than the others.

One point I hadn't really considered here. If I have two beam or gun weapons attached, to match the attack value of a single missile weapon, my odds of at least making a hit are doubled. If I miss with my single Stinger, I do no damage at all. If I hit with only one Laser and miss with the other, I still inflict some damage at least. In the long run then, it might be better to have dual weapons instead of just the one.

The statement is true for low end missile techs, as the stinger weapons are quite large, and don't use space very efficiently. However, if there's something funny with the sizemods, I don't know of it.

But the Stinger does 2 damage as opposed to only 1 for the other two types. So in fact it uses space more efficiently than the other two, looking at it from a damage/space ratio.

My strategy...

Choose a weapon line (doesn't matter which) and research to the most powerful level.

Then choose a defense that counters the weapon of the most likely civ to go to war with you, and research it to its highest level (or as high as you can go before war is declared.

Go Neutral so you can research faster with the NLC's, before you start researching weapons or defenses. It pays off in the long run.

For the simplest possible proof, I'll just use the end-line weapons techs.
A Doom Ray does 22 damage, has Size 10 and SizeMod 4. A Blackhole Gun does 16 damage, has Size 6 and SizeMod 4. A Blackhole Eruptor does 25 damage, has Size 11 and SizeMod 2.
SizeMod is a value added to the Size, and is a percentage of the hull starting size. Components with large Size and small SizeMod are more effective on hulls with larger Sizes. If you don't believe me, there are a dozen ways for you to try it yourself.

Yes, you've made your point. I haven't managed to get that far in the advanced weapons techs yet.

Wow, I've never noticed this! Anyone know what building?

I've seen the AI actually research two weapons techs at the same time too. Last game the Drengin went missile on their ships, however when talking to them they also had the Mass Driver techs available for trade.

The AI adjusts to what you build too. If you see it go all missile and start sticking PD on your ships, it will switch if you end up at war.

Which means squat when you can only fit one on because it's taking something like 16 space when you only have 30. That space could probably hold three or four lasers of a comparable generation. This only holds true for the low end techs in early game, of course...