I have been playing with this update and I was pleasantly surprised.
The first two build speed techs are quite useful. Many times if you are going with a turbo-fighter approach you generally do not have much to research after picking up the first Visibility upgrade. I usually grab a Speed and Armor upgrade, then get around to picking up Orb or some weapon before getting the next two Visibility boosts.
This new tree gives me something more useful and just something more specific to research and use which is nice.
I really expected the Capture Ray to suck badly. I love the idea, but its Tier 3 and takes a Red gun slot and does absolutely nothing most of the time. Thus, it needs to be extremely powerful in its niche situation to be worthwhile.
Looking at it, its 700 range max (meh), VERY pricey and 6 second cooldown.
However, it turns out that it is an excellent weapon when you are relying heavily on fighters/bombers! The best way to help your fighters win is to take out enemy fighters. This has historically been challenging to do. Lasers work but are too weak to 1 shot anything. DeathRay/MegaLaser are tier 4. Plasma Eclipse is the best at it with its big AOE and 40 damage, but takes a lot of research including 2 items you won't use.
But this weapon is on the same tech tree and does the job really well, snagging enemy fighters and turning them...not only helping your fighters deal with the main threat, but also bulking up your force at the same time.
I still think the weapon could use a cost reduction and/or probably another +100 range. The issue is that it tends to compete with many of your other guns. With 800 range max, it could snipe fighters before your other weapons go off. But its a great addition!
Not sure about the Hanger Bomber boost yet. Bombers are pretty bad for the most part, so I just cannot see any situation where one would use bombers and then try to hold out for a long long time until this research is complete, so their bombers will be decent. Maybe using missile bonbers would work out as they are the best option, but they are too pricey to be able to get up and running quickly at Hard/Legend.
Alternatively you would not want to either ignore 25 pilots for most of the game until you were set up... nor would you want to dump upgraded fighters in exchange for bombers.
I'll have to experiment some more with that one.
Anyways, appreciate the update!
