ill spell it out for you then using your examples...sling pop = 1, hop pop = 1 thus using the correct unit to attack with will get you more bp/hit ratio. bir pop = 8, ls pop = 10...ao it makes common sense (maybe something you lack) that ls should have a greater advantage somewhere.
surely you aren't this daft
LS attack: 200
LS Pop: 10
LS Attack Per population: 200/10 =
20!
Bireme Defense: 160
Bireme Pop:8
Bireme Defense per population: 160/8=
20!
The fact that you're using raw population value instead of their actual stat relative to their population is mind numbing to me.
But regardless, the place things get interesting are on the opposite end of the spectrum.
Bireme Offense: 24
Bireme Attack/Pop: 3
LS Defense: 60
LS Defense/Pop:
6 (also known as 2*3 since you're obviously losing a step)
Total Stat/Pop LS:26
Total Stat/Pop Bir: 23
LS total Stat after bringing defense in line with Bireme attack:
23
While we're at it, let's grab values for every other naval unit with attacking capability just for comparison's sake.
Hydra Offense/Pop: 26.2
Hydra Defense/Pop: 28
Trireme Offense/Pop:15.625
Trireme Defense/Pop15.625
There's absolutely no justifiable reason that LS would have their intended statistic perfectly in line with Birs while their other statistic so much higher.
Like I said earlier, there's no justifiable reason that the strongest offensive non-mythical ship should have high enough defense where hunting them requires a quarter of a nuke when there's no other pure offensive unit in the game that requires such a large commitment to clearing.
The fact that they can be used defensively on Morale worlds is just a side effect of their defense being abnormally high relative to their utility.
I don't expect you to be able to understand what any of these numbers mean as you're referencing how many population LS and Birs take respectively without referencing any stats because "haha 8 less than 10 LS be stronger"
But as Hydna said, you should be punished for not using alarms or hiding your LS at night. Bring their defensive stats back to the baseline set for pure units in this game and make them purely offensive and easy to hunt when a player is off alarms.