I'll take one cannon, one missile, one PD...

[Emperor's Child]

How does the AI select a weapon from the list of selections you lay out in the vehicle design file? Does it take the first one always if it is there, or does it determine which ones are valid and then randomly select from them? I suspect the former, but am not sure.

Assuming the former and a research strategy that advances a "early game" weapon tech early in the game and then later pursues a "late game" weapon tech, you should set your late game weapons first in the list, and your early game weapons Last.

Using this logic the AI will skip over the weapons that are not there yet and build the weaker weapons, but will use the more advanced weapons once they become available. If you don't do it this way then the AI will tie itself to the crud weapons all through the game regardless of advances elsewhere, right?