just played the demo.. missile question!

[Sniper99]

Hey all, I just downloaded the demo, played the tutorial and continued until my turn limit hit.

I must say I like the looks of the game except for one thing... combat!

It seems combat is completely dominated by missiles and that direct fire weapons are near useless. All you do is fly around, fire a missile, run from the enemy's missile and repeat. Battles seem long, drawn out, and boring. Not to mention the expensive orbital battery (space station) I created is easilly killed by a tiny ship since it simply shoots and runs!

The other problem is if an enemy gets a single missile tech level ahead of you your in SERIOUS trouble even if your direct fire techs are better.

I am used to games like MOO where missiles have limited shots (1 or 2 per combat) - to me this is a lot more fun - it means you open with missiles, but then close for direct battle.

So that brings me to my questions:

1)Does the massive superiority of missiles go away as tech improves? Do stationary and planetary defenses ever become viable?

2)And is there an option or could one mod in limited shots for missiles (I know you can turn off the whole missile tech tree, but Id rather just limit the shots per battle).

Thanks all,
Jim H.