"Phased polaron beams are pretty much the way to go in early weapons research IMHO, as they can skip shileds and deal a good damage, although you have to get face-to-face to get maximum damage."
PPBs are painful. Second only to APBs IMO, and that only because they don't do quite as much damage against phased shields or armor.
"Point defense is also something that you should develop early. Or good engines since missles still have ranges." Can't always rely on the missle dance, especially if you're using, oh, Ripper Beams. Or the enemy has fighters. Yes, PD Is Your Friend..
"Torpedo is a heavy weapon that even though short ranged, since they can't be targeted by weapons, ships mostly have to grin and bear it." Relatively short ranged. Medium, really, and unlike some other weapons don't loose damage with range. Plus they get a to-hit bonus.
"Armor is good for early ship defense.
Shields just take to long and by the time you develop PS, others already have better weapons that can pierce right through it." Armor is also good for defense (+30 defense total, mmmm). I like shields, but they're so !$% expensive to get to decent levels.
"Engines are a must. Just one PD cannon won't hold up against Planetary defences and missle ships. Unless you plan on building ships solley on Missle defence, you hit, and run, and hit, and run. Good engines will make sure your raider comes out alive." Not always. Remember fighters
Also in strategic (i.e. most games against humans) it doesn't work so well.
"Missles are only effective early on and in numbers. BIG NUMBERS. Don't expect to live by them for long." Unless the other guy doesn't have PD. Even then, APBs can overwhelm them.
"Shiled depleters are useful to boarding ships for independent action or people with creative ideas." Or for taking out highly shielded ships. Kill the generators and all that nice shielding goes out the window.
"Null space weaponry claim to be a good shot but from what I've seen, they are only good in numbers and escorted. Ships can quickly overwhelm a single NS ship with fast firing weapons such as PPB, APB, and Long range weapons such as WMG and CSM." Right. Null-space is best against single, highly shielded/armored targets.
"Combat support should be also researched but don't make it your priority." Heh. ECM and sensors are your best friend. As I've said elsewhere in this thread, I've had a BC that killed many times it's own weight because the opponent didn't have either.
For Specific racial techs,
"Crystaline and Organic armor can't be beat but if someone had to choose, OGA should be the first choice as it heals wounds, while crystaline gives off 20 or so shileds, they are quickly overcome and destroyed." Hmm. Organic regens 30 per turn, and can replace damaged components. Crystal, 15 points of shields per hit. It's a toss-up really. Organic is better on it's own, Crystal is better behind heavy shields and against fast-firing weapons like the APB.
"Temporal weapons are... creative. Tachyon cannons don't seem to be worth the effort." Haven't used.
"Organic weaponry are not much without support." Organic has the fastest firing seeker. Faster firing means you can overwhelm PD more easily..
"Crystaline weapons are nice in early stages, but as shileds develop, they are dead in the water." Then again, if the target is only protected by armor..of course, the armor-skipping weapons tend to be rather weak.
"Psychic weapons are just not worth it. Alligiance subverter is nice but it misses so many times, even with combat scanners and is ineffective against MC's so..." Heh. I had an ally one game. He had 400 some ships, most of that stolen by subverter. The MC issue is simple enough- computer viruses.
"Religious items are worth the effort, besides the size which makes it not worth investing in small ships but for larger ships invaluable." Haven't used.
Phoenix-D