kevinsbane

yes, perhaps in SoaSE it is better to build in space, but if you consider a hard SF scenario (as in as real as you can make it), most materials will have to be produced on planets at first, because that is where the most people will be. In a hard-sci setting of the scenario that we're talking about (interplanetary combat), it is likely you'd get some sort of orbital factory and orbital cities too. I would hardly think that a planet wouldn't invest i

Recoilless projectile weapons can be designed. You expel a particle in the opposite vector with the same momentum as the one you fire forwards. Net momentum = zero, no recoil. Hiding a weapon on a planet is fine; until you fire it, that is. Space is much the same issue. Actually, it can be harder to find a space based weapon since there's just so much more room to hide it in. Consider the basics: the surface of a planet of radius R. The amount of space you can hide it in is 4(pi)(r)^2

For all we know, a Covenant energy projector will do squat to ST ships and a photon torpedo will punch out a Covenant battlecruiser in one shot. You can't do a meaningful comparison that way. Covie energy projectors *will* kill a borg cube... and only one borg cube. After that, they adapt. PS: That stuff on point defense applies to ships too. You can't hit a ship that's faster and more maneouvrable than what you're trying to hit it with, except at VERY short ranges. A SMAC pro

Of course accuracy is important. But so long as you can deal SOME damage, then that tactical advantage of superior range and higher speed can be overwhelming. As the Romans found out in the battle of Carrhae, it doesn't matter if you're nearly impervious to arrow fire and only 1 out of 20 arrows deal any damage. The fact that they couldn't close with the Parthian horse archers meant that they suffered death by a thousand pricks. It didn't really matter that their armour was better, or that th

Let us agree on these things. A weapon cannot hit something that is beyond its range. A projectile cannot hit a target that is faster than it. A weapon that is slower, and is less maneouvrable than its target cannot hit its target. These are independent of how powerful the weapon *actually* is. Doesn't matter how powerful your weapon is, if you can't hit your target, then therefore your weapon cannot deal any damage.

Do you have a specific strategy for placing trading ports? I've been finding that placing a trading port at every single planet sometimes gives me less income than if I raze one!

You can just have phaser bypass in lieu of actual phaser damage upgrades then?

Mind you, the Borg aren't super-powerful like killing 20 galaxy class starships offhand; they just adapt so fast it's insane. Conceptually, adaptation and all that turns out something like a very high shield mitigation threshold; like 95%+ max. The more damage you deal, the better they can adapt. But you have to deal the damage before they can adapt; borg do not anticipate. Their hull strength is actually quite mediocre; remember, before they had adapted, the Enterprise mana