Changing weapon type focus mid-game

Does it pay off?

from GalCiv2 Forums
If I have specialized in beam weapons and am rather far into this tech branch (let's say to phasor weapons) does it pay off switching to a different weapon type if my opponent starts using shields? I would have to go all the way back to missile/gun theory and work my way up from there, meaning I would have to use the inefficient initial weapons such as miniballs.

If you are rather far into the game is it viable to start over specializing in another tech branch or should I rather carry on with advanced weapons for which the enemy has a counter?
4,556 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Depends.

If you have some good research bonuses, and can afford to funnel money into it while at war, it could be. It might be better to try to trade for it instead.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
yah if you know someone who has alot in lets say missles then buy it from them. I still like to buy all the pre-tech befor there latest weopion but it is not needed. On some games I see the ai focus in weopions alone and just buy techs from other races why they go from theroy to high lvl guns.
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Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
If you have built up your research capabilities and specialize in research, you should be able to research half a weapons brance in a dozen or so turns.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I don't bother researching much in the way of weapons or defenses until about halfway through the game, jsut enough so I can build scads of small and tiny ships to get a perceived military strength so that I get to choose when i go to war.

By the time I need to research weapons, I will be looking at who I want to attack and seeing what their specialties are, then I can build a bunch of transports and base hulls while I race up a particular branch of the weapons tree.

I usually have tons of cash, so I can take those base hulls (i.e. a Medium hull with nothing but as many move points as I can cram into them) that are now in position and upgrade them to heavily armed warships with barely any move points.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
As others have said, you should be able to trade for older techs and research the newer ones very quickly.
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Switching in mid-game can sometimes actually be incredibly useful, say, if your opponent only has beam defenses since that's all you use. By switiching to missiles, you bypass the majority of those defences. You culd possibly turn a war in your favor, or not.

I focus on one area in specific (usually lasers) but have the others upgraded occasionally too. They're useful for trading, and for that extra, defense bypassing oomph.
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I've found a great way to solve this little dilemma- be nice.

No, seriously. One of the few things I've done that's actually worked, was being nice to someone I intended to fight. Specifically I gave them Missile techs and Shield techs. Enough to commit them to that line of development. It made my life easy- I quit Shields and went to Point Defense, while the AI kept pursuing Shields and Missiles. And when I did run across Beam-using races, I still had some defense thanks to the abortive Shield run. So I wasn't stuck with the Theory stuff.
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
In higher levels of difficulty swaping weapons can be essential.

For instance to take out the enemy dreadnaught with 110 shields. My 120 beam dreadnaughst had problems with this but the missile crusiers I developed took them out a treat.

Yup, it is easy to wiz along trough half a weapon tech tree late game. Jus make sure it is the last half and not the crappy end