Those silly satellites...

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

Missiles suck in the middle/late game. In the earlygame they can be quite powerful, but once everybody has PD they just become utterly useless. A high-lev PD gun can shoot down any missile with a single shot. PD is your friend and enemy.

Stock PD is simply way too unbalanced. It's too powerful at too low a size and cost, both in build cost and in research. Even Escorts can be effective PD escorts, you can mount three guns on them, and if you keep them in formation you'll be completely missile-proof. PD is simply too overpowered, since it can fire on all units,so they also make fighters, sats and drones useless. A lot of mods have altered PD so that they're more balanced. In Capship I modified PD so that it can only fire at missiles, and created a "new" PD to deal with other threats. Also, I've got one or two missiles which need at least two PD shots to be destroyed, and I'm planning on adding Cluster Missiles which are really small and weak but can be launched in flights of perhaps hundreds of missiles on larger ships.