by Mike_Evans
As a rare tech, there's only one in the bag, I believe, so the help it gives to players in going to war is negligible. You can accomplish quite a bit early on with -1 shields, plasma cannons, or computers anyway, esp. vs. ancients. Lately I haven't even been getting Improved Hull.Conifold Field is still better than improved hull against ion-type weapons, so it IS good against ancients and non-plasma/antimatter ships early on.
However, I think the main reason the ship part exists is as one of the several "anti-missile" techs... and you really need two of these to get the effect. If you strap two of these onto your ship it will take 4 missile hits to destroy you, rather than 3 (with improved hull).
That being said, I am not too keen on the tech either! I would have preferred Missiles were changed rather than devoting so many of the new rare techs to countering missiles, which seems more like a band-aid to me.