Mass Drivers

Sometimes your weapons become inneffective during the game. Normally this happens when the AI changes it's defences but also it happens on occasion for no apparant reason.

Has anyone else experienced innefective weapons for no reason?

I had ships with 10 MD attack points attacking ships with no armor, but most of the time they score 0 to 1 points of damage. Then I have another ship with 10 Missile attack point and they attack a ship with point defense of 2 and the missile ship can get constantly 4 or more hits.

Did the ships have any other defenses? Even if they don't have the opposing class, the other two types of defense still count at their square root value. Otherwise, barring some unknown bug, I would chalk it up to simple bad luck--the different types of weapons don't have any intentional differences in the randomness of their rolls.

They work great, especially if you get either Nano Rippers or HD Spike Drivers.

I haven't seen this but if you are building huge ships you should be packing more that 10 AP. Looking through my shipyard I have a Huge hulled ship with 192 ATK and 110 DEF. This is with out any military resource enhancements.

I use mass-drivers almost exclusively. First, I find that in most games I play, the AI develops missiles and beam weapons; it is rare that I encounter another civilization using mass-drivers. This provides them, them, with a level effectiveness courtesy of their exclusiveness.

Second, they are inexpensive and generally significantly lighter than missile-based counterparts, although they have much less firepower. This is important to me because, as I focus primarily on defense for my heavier ships, it allows me to build such ships with moderate offensive capabilities without having them break the bank.

A ship with 100 defense and 50 gun attack is generally going to be similarly as effective as a ship with 100 defense and 75 missile or beam attack, and it will also be much less expensive.

Plus, I like the aesthetic. Generally speaking, if the AI used mass-drivers as often as they uses beams and missiles, I'd probably use beams. I'll use missiles if I have a low industrial capacity (medium maps) but am able to afford the higher maintenance costs. Otherwise, they aren't worth it.

it is rare that I encounter another civilization using mass-drivers. This provides them, them, with a level effectiveness courtesy of their exclusiveness.

They always use mass drivers in my games. Although i have noticed in early stages, they tend to develop missiles and beam weapons first. In my current game, the missile and mass driver technology is half way up the chart, but no one is using beams. I would love to research beams but i cannot, since i have to waste all my time researching amour and point defence to keep up with the AI.

The problem with mass drivers is early mid-game, attack power is so low that other civs can just use shields and defend against any mass driver attack adequately...

Maybe mass drivers should get an offense bonus vs non-optimal armor beyond the square rooting?

Mass Drivers - Not too effective, but cheap... until you get up to the good stuff, like nano rippers. It takes a little longer to get effective ships.

Missile Weapons - Very powerful, very expensive. With almost every generation of missile, even in jumps between missile types like photonic torpedoes to photon torpedoes, the size gets smaller, and the damage often increases along with it... but the costs are always going up. The result? Very powerful ships that cost a lot to field.

Beam - Right in the middle.

I usually go beam, but in my most recent game (in Dark Avatar) I've created a race with first strike ability. As such, in order to get as much damage in from the first volley as possible, I've been using those expensive missiles that I normally avoid...

I've used mass drivers in strategies that focus on large, cheap fleets to great effect.

It's weird, because it's usually a majority or a very few number of civs using them in each game I play. It is interesting how the AI seems to act differently for each player.