I was just curious, what would you say the best ratio of research tiers would be?

Example:
Weaponry one tier above hull, two tiers above defense.

Also, what about planetary research, cloaking, scanners, etc? Is there any sort of ratio you keep between them and other branches of the research tree, or do you generally keep everything just about evened out?

planets first, no matter what anyone says thats your real power base. After that i would say weapons are next highest, as they provide you with the shoes required to kick peoples butt - noone likes a brown toe, or a stink palm - and let you defend your planets. After that its a toss up ( for me anyway ) between armor and defense depends on play style really. From there i would say scanners and then cloak.

** i forgot to put energy in there somewhere - though that greatly depnds on play style

to quantify:
planet - at least 1 above guns
guns - at least 1 above defenses / hull
defense / hull - you decide what goes here, hull probably higher because it requires less research
^^the other^^
energy - if your a slow ranker you may not want it this high / at least 1 above sensors
sensors - at least 2 above cloak
cloak
legion - fit where it needs to for situation.

Of course the ratio system is probably skewed at best considering the pvp implications of a fighter vs. a hacker will probably greatly change this line up.

Yeah, I can understand that. Thanks for the advice though!

I'll probably personally go with hulls over defense, considering it seems like there are lots of NPC dropped and Badge defense modules, although I suppose around Rank 100-125 I'll need a bit of defensive research. I should really work on my planetary research then.

I'm not there yet, but what about when you reach +12s on Planetary and you're on say Null Rays or Thetacrons? Do you do the Planetary first?

yep always do plants first, though getting to +10's will hold you over for a while, at least it will with me. The ratio question is kind of a hard one as it would depend from person to person based on their situation.

What I gave was just a generalized feel from what I observed from past postings on the forums.

For me I typically research whatever the lowest cost thing is, unless otherwise asked to - now for example researching to the end of defense for base upgrade.

Doing research evenly based upon what costs the least amount will give you a balance tech tree, and it more or less works out for whatver type you want to go, at least as far as i can tell.

where do shields fit in?

not much use- but you need the research for planet defence- so infact very important

Yeah, from what I've been advised, you shouldn't really use shields until you've got all your weapons, hulls, and defenses on, although they're still really important for the planetary defenses (like Fabulon said), so they should probably be pretty high up (particularly considering they aren't all that research intensive).

Way I see it:

Weapons
Planetary structures
Energy
Hull
Defense
Shields
Scanners
Cloak

Energy is most important,
Planet structures
shields
scanners
defences
hull
weapons
cloak


* 8 guns are a lot better than 4 big guns

* most ships you kill will be worse put together than yours

* anyone you can't kill can be made dead when they are offline

make your resource base strong and your ship will follow

11th on kills leaderboard, rank 453

edit- i forgot base tech- but where you do that up to you- not really relevant to making a strong ship

Structures - Don't have to pay upkeep, nothing to lose by going for +10s at an early rank.
Weapons=Hull=Defence=Energy - Keep all of those trees strong. 1 big core>3 small cores
Sensors - Research the highest you can afford to use at all times.
Shields - Upgrade when needed. Go for Rifts quickly, then Obviators when you can afford them.
Cloak - Not really needed.

People underestimate the importance of defence in PvP. I'll probably research Trans-temporal Arrays BEFORE Null Rays.
If all you want to do is kill, your ship only needs to be mediocre, you can just pick on the weaklings, or repair mid-kill.

At low ranks (sub-100) defence's importance is nil. The glass cannon is the low-rank build of choice, with high hull. Focus on maxing hull first, then weapons, then defences, but WHEN YOU INSTALL DEFENCES MAKE SURE THEY ARE THE SAME TIER AS YOUR GUNS AND HULLS!

~27 on the killsboard.

Actually, I disagree with yo there, Srm. I'd recommend 3-4 guns, 5 hull and 1 defense from 50-100. Then get another gun, another defense module, then get all 8 guns. Whilst upgrading them all from Heavy to Heavy's, of course.

Eh. That's the method I took too at first, but later I swapped my researched defences for researched weapons. I ran 8 guns, 0 defences (Except Dark Ring Thrusters. Yes, no $%&% BM Convoys.) and it worked alot better.

Ultimately, if your Aerlen, then obviously, that isn't the road to take. If your Konqul though, it works alot better. Mostly you want to maximize your racial abilities.

Fair enough. I was Vygoid, so I tried to keep my stats more balanced.

I neglected defense until 150. BEST DECISION EVER!
I don't care what others say, but it gave me the chance to add all 8 of my weapons quickly, all 5 hulls, and this then allowed me to take more planets, which ultimately = more resources = better ship.

I then realized that those pesky Dark ring thrusters etc weren't good enough, So by sacrificing the unnecessary modules (Stryll Prey Trackers, Zol. Jammers etc..) I was able to add some defenses.

Now, I have always been under the impression that attack = #1 Priority.

I believe your tiers should be:
Weapons (Supreme in PvP, Good for NPC, and Planet Invasions)
Planetary Buildings (More Resources = Better Ship)
Hull (Keeps you alive longer in PvP and NPC)
Energy (Need more to complete missions, PvP, NPC)
Defenses (Try to keep these at the same tier as your Hull)
Shields (Up until Planetary Shields, Then at around 200, Go for Oblivation Barriers)
Scanners (Need them for scanning better/more planets)
Base Tech (Until the CT Lab)
Cloak (Usually up to Anti-Tachyon, Then when you have nothing else, Go for the last tier, for the +800 Cloak Structures)

XxExterminatorxX, Member of the Dysonians, 12th on the Raids Leaderboard.

Thanks for all the advice everyone! Forum account was offline for the past few days because I changed my e-mail.

To be honest, I have been neglecting defense research due to all of the modules that can be obtained without any research (trinity cores, dark ring thrusters, convoy shuttles, etc). Once I finish researching the level of hull I'm on, I think I'll go for some better planetary buildings, up my defense, and then unlock the CT Lab.

I ran 3 guns and 1 defines module. Never had less than 5 hulls. I replaced my defense mod with dark thrusters. I always have 3 reactors and 4 relays

This is my order of the research:

1.Scanners - as a new player who doesnt put money in the game is the only way to find better planets.(I dont know your case, but if you dont have at least mission Dyson, you are in the same league)
* 80K research to the final level of the final tier of scanners
2. Planetary defense - the purpose is obvious
* Obv. barriers
3. Planetary buildings - strong production in the start/mid game will increase your ship strength(especially arti production)
4. Weapons - no need of explanation
* 8x H. nulls
5. Hull - allows you to pay less money and less often (important if you want to do at least some PvP/NPC)
6. Def - you will not be actually able to equip more than 4 def modules in the near future, so going too far in that will cost you too much
7. Energy - very far behind as importance - simple reason... if you want to "catch up" with the big guys(playing for 1.5 years and more) or at least build powerful ships, leveling fast will not help.. you just need better arti planets.
8. Base research - I see you are still ran 65+.. so you wont be able to donate to your base for a LONG time. Getting ct lab opened is cool.. but most probably you wont have the required non-traded items before rank 150, so i dont advise you to waste research.
9. Cloak - Completely useless at the start of the game.. i regret every res point put in it.

P.S. I see its modern: Pwnbus, rank 235, The Knights Who Say Ni , 24th on the kills board last i checked. I also started the game in TSL.. they thought me all about the game, great people.

Yeah, I love it in TSL .

A question about repair costs though, what exactly are they based on? I used to think it was solely rank, but I recently had someone try to counterbadge me who was about a dozen ranks over me (but with less hull) who was surprised when I told him that my hull repairs were in the [redacted]s (it currently costs me about [redacted] credits to repair 1k of hull).

I would have expected him to have had a higher hull repair cost considering his higher rank, but he didn't. What is it based off of exactly?

Your repair cost is 1/6 of your upkeep.(At least what I know and see)

Ah, that does seem about right, thanks!