Best starting weapon?

[[VaPu]Vaapukkasetä]

missiles, lasers or projecticles which one is the best and which one is the worst

[Yang]

don't choose missiles.

i'd say its close, but projectiles are slightly better

[Terijian]

kinetic are the 'best' because they are well rounded, and lead to things like kinetic artillry and flak cannons. They are pretty good vs sheilds and ok-ish vs armor
lasers are ok, great vs armor but ♥♥♥♥ vs sheilds.Though it does lead to plasma and particle lances which are awesome. Thing is though lasers is a super easy tech to get, you cna pick it up from pirate raiders in first few years typically.
Dont use missiles. Really just dont. They are beyond awful. Id also stay away from torpedos in the engineering tree (proton/nuetron torpedos ARE really good, but those are totally different and found in physics tree)

[Helican]

Early game projectiles > laser > missiles.
Mid to lategame is situation based between laser and projectile, missiles still suck.

[corisai]

^_^

Ideal weapon research :
*start with kinetic, aim to get autocannons.
*From pirates event grab t1 laser, research it and wait for plasma cannon - grab it ASAP it's avaiable (you will need laser up to t5 far later in game, so don't prioritise it over other techs now).
*Research autocannons to t2 (may stop here), research railguns up to t5 (thats very important!).
*In physic tech tree grab disruptors t1 but don't level them higher (they will be effective only against enemies without armor at all & Unbidden crisis - but we're already leveling railguns to t5 and will have kinetic artillery - so no reason to waste research on that gun).
*After you get t5 railguns - grab kinetic artillery ASAP, it's ultimate anti-shield gun against large ships.
*After you get t2 autocannons - grab Flaks ASAP, it's ultimated PD system and after you get it and have cruisers - destroyers are complete obsolete and don't needed (keep old ones, but don't build new).
*After you get t1 disruptors - grab Proton Torpedo. They will be base corvete weapon as you will reach cruisers+
*After you will get battleships - you're need X-sized weapon for it (always place X-sized weapon on BB!). There's only one best overall weapon - tachyon lance, that require laser lvl 5.

[[VaPu]Vaapukkasetä]

allright thanks for answers

[FerrusPugnum]

Funny that everyone chooses kinetics and I understand why but as a person who prefers to push research as fast as possible and so delays researching the "unknown" aliens for quite some time, I push missiles as far as they can go and then as lasers or kinetic weapons start to show I research those.

I also tend to use stock unmodified latest versions of ships that get upgraded as needed.

I did realize after a few games that when the cost of researching those aliens drops to 2 or 3 months you need to do them. I just hate to waste so much time in the very early game because some of them will contact you if another race.

High tech missiles have some very good features and I have managed to survive and fend off both fallen and awakened empire with help of allies.

I would not just dimiss missiles out of hand because the are easy to research and with a fleet of mixed ships are very effective. When an enemy fleet attacks some of the offensive attacks will be absorbed attacking those missiles while you close in to use the high engery laser and kinetics and your carrier wings join the fray too.

My two cents in defence of a good missile barrage :)

[corisai]

Originally posted by FerrusPugnum:

High tech missiles have some very good features and I have managed to survive and fend off both fallen and awakened empire with help of allie

And now naked truth.

296 Corvettes with armored torpedoes lvl 5 vs 74 cruisers with all autocannons and full armor (torpedoes are theoretical counter to them). Lost only ~15 cruisers.

Even with energy torpedo (that almost completely negated by armor), I'd lost notable more cruisers.

Missiles = wasted slots, you don't even need PD against them if fleet size at least 100+.

Originally posted by FerrusPugnum:

I just hate to waste so much time in the very early game because some of them will contact you if another race.

So you're wasting sociology team time for 40 influence (all that received from contant tech)? Plus you don't need to research most of aliens "animal".

Only needed :
*amoebae (F xenophile / spiritualist / pacifist) to get +5% energy (for other ehtic it will require kill them - far from doable in early game).
*crystalline (F xenophile / pacifist) for +10% science. For rest you may also research to use their crystal sonar.
*drones (F xenophile / pacifist) for +10% minerals.
*void clouds (spiritualists) for happiness boost
*don't get anyhting viable for space whales - if anybody know, share what you can get from them.

[Astasia]

Missiles and projectiles have the same research cost and tree, there is zero advantage to choosing missiles. PD is very early and can be spammed on destroyers, if you run into an AI using them you are done, it's a hard counter, you can't beat it without researching down another weapon line. Do not choose missiles.

Lasers are fine, they might be a few percent worse than projectiles but not enough to cause you any issues. You just build a few extra ships. I tend to mostly go with lasers just because I like them more.

[[VaPu]Vaapukkasetä]

allright thanks for answers