[6281] About ship research

[Herode]

I have Mass Driver 4 available and just obtained Laser I. But Laser 1 does not show in the available ship parts in the design screen.
Did I miss something ?

[Geoff the Medio]

I have Mass Driver 4 available and just obtained Laser I. But Laser 1 does not show in the available ship parts in the design screen.
Did I miss something ?

It might be hiding obsolete parts, where obsolete means there is another part that is as good or better in any situation where the obsolete part could be used.

[MatGB]

I have Mass Driver 4 available and just obtained Laser I. But Laser 1 does not show in the available ship parts in the design screen.
Did I miss something ?

Laser 1 does the same damage and costs more than MD3, MD4 is simply better than L1 (but L2+ are better). Some like to research ther efinements all the way to the top as they're cheaper to research than the next stage weapon, I tend to prefer to just go for weapon plus level 2, then go onto the next stage until I'm at death rays.

So no, not missed something, just that currently there's no point in putting L1 on a ship if you can put MD4 for less.

[Dilvish]

Another reminder to myself to try getting around to adding a 'show all' button or somesuch to the design screen (it could toggle between 'show all' and 'show best')...

[BraveSirKevin]

I have Mass Driver 4 available and just obtained Laser I. But Laser 1 does not show in the available ship parts in the design screen.
Did I miss something ?

Laser 1 does the same damage and costs more than MD3, MD4 is simply better than L1 (but L2+ are better). Some like to research ther efinements all the way to the top as they're cheaper to research than the next stage weapon, I tend to prefer to just go for weapon plus level 2, then go onto the next stage until I'm at death rays.

So no, not missed something, just that currently there's no point in putting L1 on a ship if you can put MD4 for less.

I'm inclined to agree with you, though I tend to skip out on the level 2 refinement as well. As it currently stands, it's slightly cheaper to use the lower weapons but mostly I think in the long run you're better off skipping through to death ray as quickly as possible, saving yourself the research points and development time. That will probably change when the game has tactical combat and the different weapons behave differently and it's not just a matter of measuring the damage vs the defence. With shields reducing the damage of each hit, you need to keep moving on to something that deals more damage to keep up.

For a similar reason, there are several hull types that I never bother researching because I know I'm never going to use them. The slots they have available and the stats they have listed just don't make seem nearly as worthwhile as some of the more "expensive" ships especially once you reach a point where you can build the expensive ships on a steady basis with several arriving each turn.

I'd like to have a reason to use lower order weapons and a big mix of ships with a wide array of different weapons in their individual weapons bays, each designed to serve their own different purposes in a tactical sense, but mostly it's an accounting exercise at the moment.