At what point?

[SGC_Sam Fisher]

At what point should I stop focusing on UP and start buying weapons?

[The Xeno]

I'd say once you find yourself waking up with 20mil out in the open it's time to start investing in defesnse.... as I said in another post, you don't need but 600K in attack to farm other 20mill+ accounts.....
So it's not so much UP thats drives your need for defense and weapons, as UU...

However, just because you picking up weapons doesn't mean you should stop working on your UP, you will need at least 3K to stay in the top 50(?)... But if you are losing half your days income, income that could go towards your UP, start picking up the big guns.

Don't forget your Spy level as well.... It is your instrument for revenge, since you lack an attack, and also keeps those expensive def weapons safe.
Just my humble( ) n00bish thoughts on the matter.

I would estimate that:
At 10KUU< you can get by with 2-40mil defense
At 20-30KUU You will need to get up early but can live with 60-100
At 30KUU+ you will need up to 300-500Million to keep the majority of the farmers off
Beyond that

[SGC_Sam Fisher]

When people talk about 40mil defense, do they mean thats how much they have spent on defense?

[Spacey]

When people talk about 40mil defense, do they mean thats how much they have spent on defense?

I'm pretty sure it mean the # you see beside where it says "Defensive Action" on your Command Centre screen. 40M spent on defense of attack doesn't tally to that much: 238 Ion Cannons, or 264 X302s.

edit: I forgot to say stuff:

If you're finding it tough to get online to bank you naq, or to buy weaps, in you alpha site you can change your "Realm Alert Level" to a higher alert(None, Low, Medium, High, Critical).When set at 'critical' it takes 70% of what you take down(make). Have a look at 'Deity's Guide to the Universe' in the Newbie/FAQ for more info.

[The Xeno]

40M spent on defense of attack doesn't tally to that much: 238 Ion Cannons, or 264 X302s.

He's correct. For most races the ratio is for every (about) four million spent on weapons and Super soldiers, you will get (about)1 million in def/offense. For tauri it is of course probably more like 3.5mil for offense, and for Asgard 3.5 for defense.
You buy mercs instead of SS and the cost per million actualy goes up.

[Guest]

Id say defence isnt that importante until you got:
1º - 1000 up, from that point you can slow down abit until you build up defense;
2º - around 20k uu point in wich you start getting a decent income.

And i say that defence isnt that importante at first couse theres plenty of tauri out there with 100 M plus attack so unless you are able to get a 100 plus defence the repairs costs of the attackes will be high and you'll still get robbed. also if you are able to check your char before you get more then 18 mill you probably wont be atacked alot.