Favorite Weapons

[Mr. President]

Since the weapons in Alpha Centauri are so variant and so cool, I was wondering if anyone had any favorites? If it's not one of the ones here, just write in and say what it is.

[Mr. President]

I have chosen the Graviton Gun, because it has a cool name. Also, I can just picture what it must do to its hapless victims: Maybe its shots carry a miniature gravitational field that literally tears away pieces of the enemy. Maybe it disrupts the forces holding their body together, with equally gruesome (read: entertaining) results...

[Tai Mai Shu]

My favorite for the computer would have to be conventional missiles When the computer uses them they usually use them in force.

Oh, my favorite for myself is the fungal payload. Destroy tons of enemy terraforming and block their movement between bases.

[Blake]

My vote would go with impact weapon, but that aint their

So I voted Planetbuster, aint no better weapon to wipe that smirk off Lal's face.

edit:
Graviton Gun: I imagine that it causes targets to collapse, the really amusing part would be when it is turned off and the target de-collapses, especially if the target was flesh. The upgrade, singularity laser presumably causes the targets to collapse into nothingness, cleaner but not half so amusing.

[Earwicker]

R-Laser has one of the coolest sounds and a different look when fired. It's too bad that the effects of all the weapons (exc missiles) all look the same.

[Vlad Antlerkov]

I chose Plasma Shard. Don't know why, I just seem to like plasma weapons...

[Lefty Scaevola]

The resonace laser is a 6 value that come ealy in the tech sequence and has a bonus against native life.

[Maniac]

Chaos Guns. They are available in the period I do most warfare. The others are hardly used by me.

[Mr. President]

As of this post, Planet Busters are the most popular weapon with three votes. Plasma Shard is close behind with two. I can see you guys just want to be like Saddam Hussein and proliferate those country-killing bombs!

[Avenoct]

PB's. they have such a nice picture, and a great effect. I do like most of the weapon pictures though. I for one think the graphics are fine. Would be nifty to See artillery, have better conventional missile effects, and well, an all-around 'combat screen' option would be just great, even if it played out simplistically.

-Smack

[heretk]

I remember my first time with the Planet Buster.

To make a long story short, I launched a Singularity Planet Buster at the Gaians. The only reason being is that they were the last enemy, and on the other side of Planet. I didn't want to mess with a protacted conventional war.

Being a newbie, I didn't know what to expect with the missle hit dead center in Gaian territory. A blue-white spiral spread out like a tornado and wiped out all of their major cities, infrastructure, secret projects, standing army, etc. My jaw dropped.

The point of this ramble is that hands down, the Planet Buster is the best weapon SMAC has to offer. If you like to blow things up, that is

[Mr. President]

The voice of the people is still almost evenly divided between Plasma Shard (4 votes) and Planet Buster (5 votes). The Singularity Laser is turning out to be rather a non-candidate (invokes memories of Al Gore, doesn't it? ).

My first Planet Buster experience was dropping one on Morgan. It was only the third game I played, and I was the Gaians because I had seen them do incredibly well in the previous two (they eradicated me when I played as the University, and they savaged my coastline and pounded the Hive when I played as Morgan). I was also surprised by the effect - I certainly didn't expect to turn Mount Planet into a lake!

[Black Sunrise]

Planet Buster.
I literally shouted with joy the first time I used one.
Many many games I built up an arsenal of dozens, just to see an enemies entire nation cease to exist in a single year.
BOOOOOOM!

Also, techtonic missile. Against sea-bases, the most underrated way to turn an enemy nation into a big mess.

Indra

[D4everman]

I have to say that I like chaos weapons, because I usually get them first.

But other than that Shard Weapons are cool! I think I like those two because war is on a level field more or less....the AI either has comparable weapons or they ain't too far behind. It makes the wars a little more exciting. But then I like it when I get greater weapons, like the graviton gun, but by then its too late for the AI to stop me.

Don't like PB's. Too powerful. One PB can end the game. I build them for a deterrent (does that work? The AI certainly knows when you have them) but I don't dare launch them unless I have a lot of ODP's. (I've yet to use one when I haven't been PB'd. Sometimes I'll save the game launch one just to see the result and then go back to my saved game)

Planet busters are great though in the way that you know if you use it you can destroy the Hive or the Believers in one fell swoop!

[Solver]

Planet Buster here.
Because of SMAC graphics, those weapons aren't detailed, except for workshop.

[EtheMind]

I'll have to go for Plasma Shard, it has silly graphics, I have no idea how it works. And I get stuck with them for a long time. Usually if I'm in war, I might get factions conquered until my scientist come up with new ways of blowing things up.

[Mr. President]

Wow! Plasma Shard has come roaring back, and is now locked on eight votes with Planet Buster!

By the way, this poll isn't going to expire, so whenever you get bored with it, just ignore it and it'll disappear eventually.

[EtheMind]

Now, let's all give some votes for our Shards! Not only are they freeky looking weapons, but we wouldn't want to vote weapons of mass destruction to the first place. Did we not learn anything from cold war...

[Tenchusatsu]

I kind of like the name "Chaos Gun." Though I wonder how that weapon works. All I know is that it fires 9mm caseless ammo, it somehow disrupts fields (what kind of fields?), and it is buildable with the discovery of Superstring Theory.

However, I personally like to think of the Chaos Gun not as a projectile launcher, but as an energy weapon. It discharges pure energy, but the behavior and trajectory of the energy is chaotic, hence the name. Perhaps the energy could also discharge in a curvy fashion, much like the twisty laser in the old arcade shoot-em-up "Raiden II," or like Cable's Viper Beam in the arcade fighter "Marvel vs. Capcom 2."

Such a weapon could cause pack much more destructive power than even a salvo of missiles, which is why the Chaos Gun (8) ranks higher than Missiles (6). But it would also be woefully inaccurate, which is why it ranks behind the focused energy of a Fusion Laser (10).

By the way, in the SP video for Cloudbase Academy, one of the Drone Needlejets fires a laser at an enemy jet. I assume that's a Fusion Laser, right? Makes sense, considering its level in the tech tree (Organic Superlube) is similar to that of Mind-Machine Interface (the tech required for Cloudbase Academy).

[EtheMind]

You seem to give these things a thought. I wonder do we find out any profound details about these weapons from Michael Ely's series of SMAC literature. Although I hope it's not the Star Trek all over again. There is a healthy limit for technological jargon

[Sine Dubio]

I voted on the Missile Launcher.
Mostly because it means the beginning of a new era in the gamez I play, with Needlejets and general tech-superiority short to come.

Singularity Laser. Only the name gives any physician a thrill of excitement and visions of what it could do.

I now realice I know nothing because I do not know of Planet Buster. Soon I will try it. Soon.

S.D.

[Method]

i voted for the res laser. i like it because it comes in earlier than the missle launcher, and combined with nerve gas it is the ultimate anti-caretaker tactic. (sounds cool too. wee-womp, wee-womp )

the tachyon is probably my least favourite because i get it after the shard making it obsolete before i even use it. i do like how it looks though. the shard is probably the one that will stay with me for the longest. because it's a loooooong time until quantum mechanics, and i usually skip quantum power anyways and just move on to singularity.

[johndmuller]

I voted for the psi attack because being what it is, it will know that I did and so it will work better for me in the game than it will for you.

[spartak]

PB all the way