Here is a description of MT parts excluding ships. New players may want this information. I don't recall the source or author. Downloaded in 1998.

Anti Matter Torpedo
Tech: Weap 11, Prop 12, Bio 21 Mass: 8 Abilities: Damage=60, Range=6, Initiative=0, Accuracy=85%
This is a medium strength torpedo that's very light and cheap to build. Good for horde fleets if you have high biotech. No other torpedo has a higher base accuracy, making this a nice weapon to have if your opponent has good jammers. And as it is range 6, and very light, it is possible to build light fast missle ships to counter those fast beamers the enemy keeps sending at you.

Multi Contained Munition
Tech: Ener 21, Weap 21, Elec 16, Bio 12 Mass: 8 Abilities: Damage=140, Range=3, Initiative=6, Cloak=10%, Torp accuracy +10%, Scan=150/75,
Bombs Planets at 2% colonists & 5 installations Lays 40 mines/yr {THE ultimate weapon}
This item can do almost everything. It's first and foremost a beam weapon, which has twice the firepower of Blasters, but is a little shy of Disruptors, the next class up. It is range 3, although if I have Weap 21, I might prefer to just research one more Weap level and go with Mega Disruptors, or use normal range 2 Disruptors for half the mineral cost. As a bomb, it's about as good as an M-80, although it does have the advantage of being not much heavier than any beam weapon, so you can load a BB with these and have a gateable bomber that packs quite a bit more punch than those two slot Mini Bombers. Perhaps it's best use is as a pen-scanner for NAS races, where 75 ly of yellow is very good. One might be able to load a Nubian or some other ship with these, and have a multi-purpose SB killing, planet bombing, mine laying to secure the area capital ship. They say that the only way to
get a capital ship in the limited to tech 10 demo is by getting the MT Lifeboat (which has these on it).

Hush-a-Boom
Tech: Weap 12, Elec 12, Bio 12 Mass: 5 Abilities: Pop-Kill-Rate: 3.0% Facs/Mines/Defences Destruction: 2
This is just a bomb, which is kind of like a Smart Bomb, in that it's very good at pop killing (better than a Cherry, and almost as good as Enriched Neutron) but not so good at installation destroying (only as good as Lady Finger). The special thing about this, is that it's very cheap and light. Light means ships other than Mini Bombers are gateable, and cheap means (especially with a
non-NRSE race where engines aren't expensive) vast
hordes can be churned out without eating up valuable
minerals or resources. You get it pretty early tech-wise too, before bombs of comparable firepower.

Langston Shell
Tech: Ener 12, Prop 9, Elec 9 Mass: 10 Abilities: shield=125, Armor=65, Cloak=10%, Jam=5%, Scan=50/25
This is a good shield component. It's the third best shield in the game, with 15 more dp than the Gorilla Delegator, and you get it 2 Ener levels earlier too. A 25 ly pen-scanner isn't that good, but if you have NAS you'll still be glad to have it.

Mega Poly Shell
Tech: Ener 14, Cons 14, Elec 14, Bio 6 Mass: 20 Abilities: Armor=400, Shield=100, Cloak=20%, Jam=20%, Scan=80/40
This item is incredibly powerful. It's the second strongest Armor in the game. It has the same dp as Valanium, but you get it 2 Cons levels earlier. It weighs half as much too, and we all know how important weight is in getting those Cruisers and Nubians under 300kt. Mega Poly has a shield component, so you can have the advantages of shield stacking without having to waste a slot on an actual shield. It's also has other very useful goodies, such as a decent cloak, and a 40 ly pen scanner which is great to get when you have NAS. However the best thing about it is the built in Jammer 20. This allows you to get very high jamming without having to waste Elec slots (which are better used on computers). Fill one armor stack on your SB's and start with 73% jamming! This is a great thing to hold you over the big gap in Cons tech until you get Superlatanium and Jammer 30's, and even then you lose some of the advantages this gives you.

Multi Function Pod
Tech: Ener 11, Prop 11, Elec 11 Mass: 2 Abilities: Cloak=30%, Jam=10%, +1/4 Movement
Comments: This is another small item that you can build early. It's basically a maneuvering jet, but with a small cloak and jammer. It's useful when trying to make a 2 1/4 speed ship be 2 1/2, say a beamer BB where an overthruster is overkill for that front slot, and where this gives you more than just the ordinary jet. It's also an electrical item, so you can still speed up your ships if you want to use a mech only slot for something else.

Multi Cargo Pod
Tech: Ener 5, Cons 11, Elec 5 Mass: 9 Abilities: Armor=50, Cloak=10%, Cargo=250
Comments: The Multi Cargo Pod adds a lot of storage capacity to whatever ship. Each one of these is 2x 5 Super Cargo Pods or a free Privateer. With a few of these you can easily make a Galleon have more capacity than two Large Freighters (or make a Nubian be more than seven Large Freighters. This may help in shuttling the massive minerals your massive mining fleets generate. However, I usually don't care to use up a valuable ship slot, and I'll just built twice the number of Freighters if I have any heavy duty transportation needs. Note that this is
the only Mechanical or non-Armor or Shield item that adds dp. So if you say wanted to make the toughest Destroyer possible, put one of these in the Mech slot, and you'll not only be tougher, you'll be able to scoop up some of the minerals of the ships you snipe (no, I'm not recommending that as a ship design. Note this is also a Mech item like the Jump Gate, where Mech is the only item category to
have two MT toys for it.

Genesis Device
Tech: Ener 20, Weap 10, Prop 10, Cons 20, Elec 10, Bio 20 Cost: no i,no b,no g, Res=5000 Abilities: Randomly resets hab and mineral concentrations
This is useful in the very late game, and as such
often never plays a role as the game is over long before it becomes efficient to use this or even before you get the requisite tech. The power of this is that it basically gives you a free planet: You can convert that low 20% hab planet with mineral concentrations of 1 in everything, to a 100% planet with tons of minerals. Or at least you can reset a planet so you can remote strip mine it again, making
it so you can never run out of minerals in your empire. As it does destroy all factories and mines, it's more useful for AR races as they don't have to rebuild anything. A CA (especially with TT) will have a much better chance of a high value or even a 100% planet from the start after a planet rebirth. The 5000 resources to set one off once is a bitch, especially for a normal race trying to make a green
out of a red, but in the ."my stack of 3000 Nubians can beat up your stack of 2000 Nubians." stage of the game when tech is maxed and minerals are scarce, it's certainly more productive than Alchemy.

Enigma Pulsar
Tech: Ener 7, Prop 13, Cons 5, Elec 9 Mass: 20
Abilities: Cloak=10%, +1/4 Movement
This engine is great! Only the Trans-Star is better, and even then only arguably: The Trans-Star is cheap and uses half fuel, but it lacks the goodies of the Enigma, and who wants to research Prop 23 early, especially with NRSE? Anyway, the Enigma is like the IS-10, and only requires a little more tech. However it travels at warp 5 free, is cheaper to build, lighter, has a small cloak, and most importantly a built in maneuvering jet. This is great for those heavy BB's where you get four free jets, great to ensure all your Cruisers move 2.5, and is the engine to use for everything, at least with NRSE.

Jump Gate
Tech: Ener 16, Prop 20, Cons 20, Elec 16 Mass: 10
Abilities: Allows ship to jump from space to planetary stargate.
Ships with the Jump Gate can gate cargo. With the Jump Gate, you basically become an IT. Put one of these on a freighter, and you to can quickly send colonists and minerals across your empire. Note it basically takes you two years to "gate" cargo from planet to planet, as you have to move away from a planet into space first before jumping, because while at a planet a ship will always attempt to use a planetary gate. Ignore the "never" sign on the warp dial if one appears, your ship and its cargo will arrive where you send it!

Alien Miner
Tech: Ener 5, Cons 10, Elec 5, Bio 5 Mass: 20
Abilities: Mines 10 kt/yr, Cloak=30%, Jam=30%, +1/8 Movement
This can be a game winner for the simple reason that one 5000kt investment can negate the disadvantages of taking OBRM. Building massive fleets of mini miners with these will actually pay off very quickly, and you can strip mine all those unused worlds in your space and keep the BB's churning out in the mineral short late game as fast as those ARM types. The Alien Miner is very cheap to build, it's very light, and a Mini Miner with these is actually gateable. The built in Jammer 30 cloak, and half jet is at least semi-useful in helping keep your new mining fleet from being seen or destroyed.

[Updated on: Wed, 31 March 2010 21:50] by Moderator

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