(October 29th, 2023, 05:19)luddite Wrote: Bumping a very old thread ![smile smile](https://www.realmsbeyond.net/forums/images/smilies/smile2.gif)
I saw Sulla's latest MOO game, where he had some trouble with a runaway Psilon AI. At the very end of the game, they came up with a ship design that was surprisingly effective: large, cloaked, and 3 plasma torpedoes. It completely solved the main problem that plasma torpedoes have, which is that you pretty much to be at point blank range to be effective. And the cloaking device synergizes well with the every-other-turn firing of torpedoes.
I decided to fire up MOO and try a game where I intentionally try to use torpedoes as much as possible. I realize it's a bit suboptimal, for all the reasons that people laid out it this thread. And also luck dependant on getting the right techs. Still, I wanted to give it a chance to see if I could make it work.
OK, I played it out until the endgame. anti-matter torps and hellfire torps were not effective, but plasma torpedoes were a game changer. Once I got plasma torps, the game became quite easy. Here's what the costs looked like: (this is with most techs researched, but none of the bonus miniaturization levels)
The plasma torpedoes cost about 50% more than mauler devices, but that seems well worth it for something that's guaranteed to do over 100 damage. fire it from the next square, and you're doing 135 damage. The mauler device probably only does about 50, which becomes 35 if it's hitting something with a class 15 shield. or *zero* if it's hitting a planet (cut in half) with a class XX shield. The plasma torp is almost like a death ray, with how well it goes through shields.
I could also get 3 tri-focus plasma or 5 zeon missiles for the same cost as 1 plasma torp, but it's the same problem, they just lose too much against shields. Seems like a fair trade.
So overall, I think I just really like the plasma torpedo, but none of the other torpedoes are worth it. Only downside is, there doesn't seem to be a way to move after firing. You can't just throw on a nuclear missile like you can with beam ships, since they fire from the same "missiles" category. maybe adding a cheap special would work, though.