And maybe I just missed it but if nobody has yet answered your question, the combat tactics categories max out at levels 5 and 10 so they don't go too high.

Personally, where Mata goes 50/50 on weapons/shields, I tend to go a little heavier than that on weapons usually, but then I also diversified a bit with some vipers etc.

Why? I could build them faster than the same firepower in MAUs (and I just recently got some of those past mk200). So vipers were right for a time because even if I'd put my resources into MAUs I'd have to do tons of SOS missions etc. to finance it and take a long time building them.

Even with a manufacturing officer, building a mk200(50750 marines) from scratch takes you 12 days and a mk 100 viper takes half the time and has 51500 attack power. Of course I think it's best to do a 'rolling upgrade' but there's still considerable time to invest in high mk tech.

Building the vipers cost me a bit more but it's still cheaper than lasers for the firepower.

 

I suppose you could have a compromise of the two where you can move it within a star system or perhaps just put another long timer  and maybe a way to upgrade/enhance it where it becomes worth it, like uh...renovating it or something. If you got enough benefit even if you had to invest a bit more maybe the bonuses plus the fact you invested in it will make it more worth defending.

Yes, it could just be a high-powered super laser. The "free electron lasers" they're experimenting on, mounted to (nuclear-powered)battleships would definitely qualify as a death ray. They can be 'tuned' to any frequency from infra-red, visible light, microwaves etc.

Also it occurs to me that the AI modules may even serve for data collection or analysis or something like that. Perhaps sharing battle/system data among players in a corp.

IE is horrible for eveything lol- I personally always use Firefox with Adblock, DNT, and Disconnect add-ons to cut ads/trackers and speed up page loading.

Well considering that it's supposed to be somewhat realistic...

Death Rays: Probably directly attacks personnel on planets without having to wait until the 3rd 'wave' attacks 'protected' forces.

Zero Point: Obviously this would create fuel or something, seeing as a "zero-point module" is just another term for any device that produces theoretically infinite amounts of energy from the movement of quantum particles(which move even at absolute zero where no movement/energy should be present in classical physics).

AI Core: I think this may be a programmable mission gathering/completing function where with auto-jump we can have a SOS ship accept only survivors etc. and come back at a pre-determined time or when cargo space hits a pre-programmed level.

Dark Matter: No idea unless maybe it helps you open a black hole or something.

The naming follow the ancient Greek alphabetical order.

That's funny because I was sure I've seen alphas in the middle etc. before. But upon checking they do all seem to be in order.

Well our guys haven't done much out there. I went out looking but I seem to have been a bit late and was presumably finding only what you guys cleared out so I decided to head back as it's not going to be very profitable(vs coms) for me to even bother unless they respawn or you guys miss a spot that I'll find at a later date lol.

That said we have a policy of non-aggression against active players not at war with us. I would consider poaching these to be such so ITO won't be doing that as long as I'm in charge. The rewards would have to be pretty steep for me to invest in it AND provoke you guys...even then it probably wouldn't be a viable strategy

That's not really serious a problem but it is kind of 'irregular' enough to stand out. I still get a bit irritated that the planets are never named in order even though they often have hierarchical names like "Alpha", "Beta" etc. But then I guess that mixing them up makes it intersting

Can uncivilized creatures build modules more technologically advanced than Earth's?  

Well to be technical it says it's a hive (and a level 5 structure- could refer to size) but that doesn't necessarily mean advanced... I mean not far where I am, there was this::


http://www.texasento.net/Social_Spider.htm

This was a 200-yard spider-web. Now I don't know if that qualifies as level 5, but if so, I think it still doesn't qualify as a civilization

 

I'll give you all my alien artifacts if you give me all your QP

 

I could've sworn SirEmi did reference that the license would be separate but not in this thread.

At any rate, the update is fantastic as usual.

Yes, if your name is Sargas, you must fund Super-Nova. These are just the rules.

Wasn't me. I don't think any of my guys could get a 14mil com mission just yet. Jake perhaps?

Nice score Raph 

lol That was fast. Sounds like you were right (again) about those players just wanting freebies and such.