Aerlen, all 3 Veloxes. Exergonics would provide a much (much much much) greater boost to ship strength, but attack is more important. Currently at 7k attack, 14k defense. I like turtles.

go with thetas, get the attach much higher. your defense is definetely enough.

But I like defense.

same but you gotta make sacrifices

If you like being a turtle then I see no point for this topic if you already know what you would like for your ship. Attack>Defense.

Eventually, you'll get full sets of both. For now, I would go with attack, especially if you plan on doing much NPC. Maybe go one of each until you have everything.

Maybe.
I'm still flying with heavy nulls though.

anti-protons here

go with the defense

If you like defense why not do trans entropy drives?

really? you have YOUR ship with anti-protons?

thats very impressive, i must say O.o

A very sage leader once told me to always make best use of whatever race bonus is available to you.
Wise words from Thunderbolta ...err Thunderbolta

Last time I saw that Anti-Protons, low upkeep build was when Lumberjack was still playing and a Ni playing with an identical build as Lumberjack's.

im slowly phasing out researched guns all together, makes it so I dont have to add more decks, besides as im throwing all points into tac officers anyway I make it up in stride anyway.
Upkeep: 1.5B

Money, time to research. I've been toying with both for a while now.

My thoughts were, that I get as many prisoners as android helmsmen, so I get more TOs than Helmsmen. My current counts reflect this. The thetas are the more expensive (iirc), and provide a smaller boost, but proportionally it's around the same.

I actually kind of upgrade defense unconventionally, so by Exergonics I also mean tier 1 of the next research.

1 im surprised a long time player such as your self even needs to ask
2 id go with thetas

If space is what's keeping you from using both at same time, why not switch around if you can afford the CR? use weapons when you are doing stuff (pvp, NPC, invade whatever) and use def when you are not doing those things.
If research is what's keeping you from using both at the same time, I'd say weapon, for the sole reason of invasion. I kinda feel planets is one of the most important, if not the most important, aspect of the game.
IF CR is what's keeping you from using both at the same time, I'd say defense. Weapon tend to be more expensive to upgrade AND if you are short on CR you probably won't be doing too much stuff that relies on attack as those actions would take lots of repair etc.

yeah, +1

its like your trying to convince people to agree with you adding defence.

I was surprised to see you didn't have exergonics to begin with.

I do!

I have Mk1s. As I say, I research 2=>3=>1. I've neglected pretty much all research for quite some time, with bases and the CT lab to deal with and such, then I unlocked research contract (yeah. Nulls and Contract) and I got happy with that, etc. etc.