which weapons?

from GalCiv2 Forums
What weapons should one devolop? sorry if this is a bit noob. I am in the middle of a long game and my rivals all seem to have lots of armour , what is best to counter this? beam. missiles or guns? can someone tell me what is suited for what? is for example guns good against enemies with shields mainly as their defence? and does it pay to heavily arm ships at the expense of defence? any advise would be helpful.
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Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Shields work against Beams
Armor works against Mass Drivers
Missile defence works against hmmn... Beams?

So basically develop the weapons your opponents don't have defence for. As far as I know shields don't block attacks from mass drivers or missiles. But then again, I'm noob too. So if they have shields, use missiles / mass drivers - if they have armor, make beams or missiles (or if you can tech to nano ripper, it'll go through any shield [8 dmg]- it's friggen' powerful), and if they have missile defence, go with beams or mass drivers.

I prefer the mass drivers, because of nano ripper, which is expensive but also mad powerful.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
All defenses will protection you from all weapons, its just that specialized defenses are the best.

(which, come to think of it, may make sense for shields and armor, but not so much for ECM equipment. Oh well .
Star Control: Origins
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Shields block Beams
Armor blocks Mass drivers
Missile deffense blocks Missiles

Armor type type that isn't meant for certain weapons blocks at the value of their root. That is, if you have 9 armor and someone attacks you with a beam attack, your armor confers you 3 points of deffense.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
which, come to think of it, may make sense for shields and armor, but not so much for ECM equipment. Oh well


Sure it does. ECM makes it more difficult for an enemy to target you with their weapons. Granted, they can still use their eyes, but using your eyes in space combat is not as accurate as using various other electromagnetic stuff.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Beams vs shields

Missiles vs point defense

Mass drivers (guns) vs armor

Doesn't really matter which you choose to pursue however things to take into account are: what are your enemies using? If they have strong armor and weak shields you may want beam weapons. Some weapons take up more room than others....for example beams are typically smaller than missiles (at least it appears that way???). Adding a lot of attack is ok if you think your ship has enough hitpoints to sustain it in a fight but generally it's important to have some type of defense (except in the beginning of the game where you may be forced to for instance build some fighters that just have a weapon).

I've found that the A.I seems to favor beam weapons earlier on (just what I have observed in my games) and they will adapt to you as the game goes on i.e if you start equipping all your ships with missiles and armor you'll notice your enemies equipping their ships with point defense and mass drivers.
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Research weapons to counter the kind of protection their ships have. For example:

If Shields then Mass Drivers or Missiles (missles are the least effective weapon from what I can tell, plus they take up TOO MUCH SPACE.)

If Armor then Beams or Missiles.

If ECM then Mass Drivers or Beams.

It's always good to mix-and-match your weapons systems, however. It all depends on your style and what you're up against.
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
All three can be effective if your enemy doesn't have defenses for them. Missiles take up more space, but deal more damage for that space than the other two classes.
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Research weapons to counter the kind of protection their ships have. For example:

If Shields then Mass Drivers or Missiles (missles are the least effective weapon from what I can tell, plus they take up TOO MUCH SPACE.)

If Armor then Beams or Missiles.

If ECM then Mass Drivers or Beams.

It's always good to mix-and-match your weapons systems, however. It all depends on your style and what you're up against.


You didn't researched all the missiles tech tree because after a research the missiles become the strongest weapon

Here's the damage of each final weapons: Beam : 22 damage (medium weapon)
Mass driver : 16 damage (smallest weapon)
Missile : 25 damage (biggest weapon)

Now the defence : Armor : 10 defense (size same has shield)
Shield : 9 defense
Point defense : 10 defense (biggest by 1 size point)
Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
You can tell what the AIs are researhcing by talkign to them or you can just look at their ships. I'm a magician at tricking AI. I usually see what they are workign on and develop that particular defense on the side. I try to develop different weapon than they are. Usually if a lot of ais are developming beams, a lot of them will also develop shields because they are at odds with eachother. Plus I will get all the beams I need from conquering them :/

Also it doesn't matter what you are using if you can fit lots of guns and have lot of military resources. Being Evil helps by a long shot. I got the evil gun and evil missle my last game and just swaped guns for missles when the AI started putting armor on. With 4 military resource starbases it didn't matter thou, my weapons rating was through the roof. One medium hull ship of mine (Some of them I had for so long they had lvl 36 and over 130 hps a piece) could take out 9 fleets in one turn. I'mt alkign about FLEETS. I installed 2 evil missles but my attack rating was 39! So I killed most ships in one shot. Also I could one hit kill most fortified starbases. Pretty good
Reply #10 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Conversely Align GOod helps if you have a lot of smaller lower HP ships. I can easily build ships that can withstand attacks from i think the record was 14 ships at once. it had a small attack value (6) but its defences were high at (40) so when the fleet hit i just let the battle run and went to get a coffee.
Reply #11 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Actually I have been having better luck using just missles most of the time. I tried making combined class ships, then went to the other types of weapons, after all that, the missles seem to be the most effective in battles.