Most useless research?

[Thelma Harper]

Still in my first game and I feel like my research is spread too thin. I have about 3-4 in everything. Are there any categories that you guys consider a waste?

[Dasty-Fox]

Beam Usless Cannon real good )

[Emmote]

Typically you only need Engines, Reactors and Shields or Cloak. Then Beams or Cannons for weapons.

Hull, Armour, Subsystems, Turrets and Crew are all nice / situational, but mostly optional. Everything else is virtually useless.

Only level up non-weapon systems to the requirements of using a module you want. E.g. 8 Engines for Innertial Engine, etc..

Unless you want to get yourself to level 268 and cap everything. Prioritise what you use.

[Dasty-Fox]

Crew need Good work Vs Zombee on ship or shutle and repair ship
And Boms a realy good damage Vs Stations and big ships and large goup ships

[Robodemon]

Drones aren't worth investing in, and you can probably live without mines. Only put enough in turrets to unlock the huge triple mount turret. Subsystems don't do enough to warrant more than a couple points. Hull/Crew/Armor are useful but secondary concerns.

Beyond that, what Emmote said is mostly true. Prioritize your weapon of choice, then Engines, Reactors, Shield/Cloak, and then the rest.

[Tilen]

What if my weapon of choice are drones? :P (which they are)

[Emmote]

You'd go 10 Drones, 10 Cannons/Beams (depending on Bomber/Zapper) and you'd have to sacrifice points elsewhere.

That said, drones are only meant to really be used as support. They really aren't any good by themselves.

Even if you get a Sunspot and fill it with Cannon Boosters for Bombers or Beam Boosters for Zappers, they still suck.

[Tilen]

Hopefully the devs are reading this. :P

[Hand's Hermit Permit]

Whatever weapon you're not using is the most useless research.

If I had to pick a MOST useless research of the weapons I never use, I'd probably have to say it's mines.

I really love mines. Truly I do. In every videogame I love mines. I killed Arkansas in Fallout 3 and became king of Minefield. When I play minecraft it's just so that I can rig up the whole world with pressure plates and TNT and watch pigs or players crater the landscape. I'm pretty sure they put mines in Terraria because I wouldn't shut up about it on the forums.

But in SPAZ you're probably better off using something else. Ships with bomber mounts don't have crap for supplemental weaponry, which means you're stuck piloting a brick with peashooters in a stationary position because the AI does NOT know how to shoot and not redeploy (destroy) their own minefield at the same time. It gets difficult and sometimes ridiculous trying to stay in one spot and give the AI orders just to get the added benefit of your minefield when you could just be using something else. turrets are the stationary defense you can redeploy anywhere and the AI knows how to use. You can spam bombs which are awesome and cause huge problems all the time for the enemy (oftentimes they're more focused on running from the blast than they are shooting at you.)

Early on I did love mines. It seemed like the easy way to kill the stupid AI. They'll rush at you and get caught up on all the crackling mines and get seriously messed up or dead. They still do that, but I switched the turrets because of all the movement restrictions that came with mines. Scanner mines will get rid of your cloaked ship problem though.

Mines are situational. There are lots of things you can do with them like enter a mission cloaked, set up mines, and then lure the enemy into a huge ambush, set up a mine generator just out of reach of an enemy space station so that it's constantly getting attacked and can't regen its shields, or just park your mothership in a big minefield and dare the stupid enemies to attack, anything really that places a minefield of pain between you and the enemy, but every day versatility probably isn't one of those things.

[FDru]

There's people that think hull tech is optional?

Tiny ships can't even have armor, and it's useless against mass drivers. Cloaks can hardly even be considered a "defense" at all. And don't worry, your level 10 fortress shield will still be wiped out instantly by the first ion bomb that hits it. So what does that leave us with? Hull.

No matter what ship you're using, they all have a hull and inreasing hull tech therefore increase the survivability of every ship in your fleet directly.

Hull tech just becomes more important the further you are into the game, and especially once you get into the core worlds.

Who doesn't think hull is important? Silly people, that's who.

[nobrien]

Originally posted by BloodDast:

Beam Usless Cannon real good )

beams rock when you get the leech beam+dmg can drop stations in seconds later on,

By 80 or so you should have enough to get most of what you have thats usefull to 8 engs reactor weapon choice subsystems turrets hull shield/cloak ect, i did a play thru with all the diff weapon types and never finished one without having to farm rez to get beams or cannons. so now i just dont bother with any other wep type.

[Epic The Incandescent]

or you could not be a scrub and max everything, thats what I did. Defense missions? I got drones and mines for that, assault mission? my missiles and beam/cannon combo will rek you m8, bounty hunters? EAT ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ALL THE BEEEEEAAAAAMMMMMSSS AND BOMBS, it is lotso f fun having a tool for every situation.

[.//slayer]

@Epic, I'm afraid to even ask... How much time did it take you to max all the research trees? At the end of my 40h Insane playthrough I had what, 6 tabs maxed, I think. And by that point I was ready to kill myself.

[Othobrithol]

Armor/Hull/Reactor/Engine are all golden. 8+ by endgame.
Shields to 8 and cloak to 6 (stable>unstable)
Cannons > Beams until late game. Love me some fusion beams and leeches on a hammerhead, mamoth or manta ray.
Launchers are always sort of mediocre but the range is very useful. I aways have at least one ship with gravity warheads.
Turrets I think is a great one to max at 8. Most of the best late hulls are turret heavy and more rotation speed is good, triple mounts rock and both the torp and battlestation drops are very useful.
Drones are too weak late game, but are useful earlier (when, sadly, you lack good carriers).
Mines are fun, but so many missions require a lot of movement making them hard to use.
Bombs are powerful but later when its a bullet swarm, they become a liability.
Subsystems you can prolly get by with no points at any time, but it does affect boosters.
Some Crew is pretty much vital lategame if you want your AI ships to not be zombified.

TLDR: Early game it's subsystems but late game just about any of the bottom tier (bombs/mines/drones) are very very sub par.