Absolutely valid. Just doesn't seem to hold up in practice for whatever reason. Maybe because it requires 11 repeats for a platform to have the hull points of a cruiser and it still wouldn't have the cruiser's evasion. Maybe increasing the hull boost from the repeatable from 10% to 20%?
I guess the main problem here is boosting engineering repeatables. If I go back to the list of repeatable technologies, there are three from the physics tree and a whopping nine from engineering. This makes it a lot harder to rush any particular repeatable military engineering technology.
If you keep the civilian technology on par, this adds one additional physics and one engineering repeatable (+5% mineral and energy output respectively).
Unfortunately, we can no longer build pure engineering labs to keep up with demand, though the increasing cost per repeatable tech level helps ever so slightly. That is, until you experience integer overflow of repeatable cost, which I experienced once and it resulted in extreme advancements, because having a tech with a cost of (-2,147,483,648) tech points instantly completes the next day.
As you said, platforms don't have evasion, which translates into higher effective HP for those ships, that have evasion. This would mean more repeatables required to deal with evasive ships.
Does Target Uplink affect defense platforms? It says it increases "Starbase Weapons Range," but the defense platforms are technically separate from the starbase. I always assumed it didn't effect the platforms as a result. Am I wrong?
Great question: By all means it should, given how important your stations are to keep territory and fight wars. Though Seeing as Citadels aren't affected by Fortified Core Layers or Synchronized Firing Patterns, the 50% range bonus may only apply to the Citadel itself. This is a problem, since the entire defence seems to be over as soon as the Citadel's HP (Hull Points) drop to 0.
It needs every bit of range it can get, however. The weapons on a standard Citadel are auto-assigned hot garbage medium slots with limited range. The longest being Marauder Missiles at 100 units followed by Medium Gauss Cannon at 75 range. Citadels have no Point Defence either, so I feel vindicated for placing one or two Point Defence Platforms into the mix. As for my testing, apparently the break even point for HP lies beyond 25 repeatable technologies, while damage requires over 30. After that point a platform is theoretically stronger than a Battleship. I need to test, if it works out in practice.
Range is important, because endgame fleets may well be able to take down a Citadel with only their alpha strike. Since it doesn't grow in HP, Arc Emitters are once again deadly in post-lategame, provided they target the citatel and ignore the beefy Defence Platforms. Ships with Carrier Computers may also be able to stay out of a Citatadel's range without Target Uplink Computer. I'm afraid, that a combination of Juggernaut with Target Acquisition Array, an Admiral with Cautious and X-Slots will outrange this anyway, but fortunately, no Combat Computer stays at the maximum possible range.
However: Ion Cannons are badass. Their alpha strike can counter Battleships and their 10,000 base HP synergise greatly.
I tend to equip my platforms with lots of hangers since they can be effective as PD, against corvettes, and against battleships. I never understood the range at which strike craft launch, though. Do they automatically launch at start of combat or only when the enemy is at a certain range? Would target uplink affect their launch range? Strike craft have been very effective for my battleships lately. Is there a reason they'd be less effective on platforms?
The reason I can imagine, is that once a carrier entity is killed, all its child objects (the actual strike craft) are deleted. Strike craft also spawn continuously. This means the longer a carrier is active, the more strike craft are spawned and the more damage over time they inflict, provided they aren't shot down by Point Defence.
Still, Strike Craft are badass, as they seem to go through the entire system, once the enemy has been engaged.
As for stations, I think their main issue is, that they aren't affected by Fortified Core Layers.
